173 réponses à ce sujet

[Ace Attorney]

So just another Lady Shepard fan overreacting on a Dev statement...nothing to see here, move along.
/sarcasm

Seriously, how can you find this quote hurtful for Lady Shepard fans?

Modifié par T3hAnubis, 01 août 2011 - 09:23 .

[Unpleasant Implications]

musicalfrog7 wrote...

I don't think so. I've read the link posted about how the statistics were gathered and I don't think they're all that accurate. To be able to send the data, you'd have to have x-box live. In my opinion, x-box live is mostly used by the male dominated market of fpses while women are casual gamers and tend to play other genres. I can't offer up where I've heard it from but 1/15 sounds way too low for actual females, even 1/5th does. I've heard 30-40% before. (for the entirety of the gaming)

Well if you're so curious why not make a poll of your own? Get your own measurement that way?

[oracle343gspark]

musicalfrog7 wrote...

100k wrote...

Ah. So, the actual number of female fans is probably drastically lower. Maybe even one in fifteen?

I don't think so. I've read the link posted about how the statistics were gathered and I don't think they're all that accurate. To be able to send the data, you'd have to have x-box live. In my opinion, x-box live is mostly used by the male dominated market of fpses while women are casual gamers and tend to play other genres. I can't offer up where I've heard it from but 1/15 sounds way too low for actual females, even 1/5th does. I've heard 30-40% before. (for the entirety of the gaming)

LOL. Really? 30-40%?

[shepskisaac]

pacer90 wrote...

I wonder if this number will go up with a defined "femShep" avatar. Many people hate the character creation screen.

Most likely it will. Many people don't even know you can customize the look of your character, they think Sheploo is the only option available.

ThePwener wrote...

Actually, it is done through the Cerberus Network. That's why it is said in the Options menu if you want to feed them data or not.

Otherwise, the wouldn't know that 2 PC players played the same playthrough for over 66 hours.

What I though so why Brenon said it ain't based on in-game statistics? Unless I'm confused somewhere xD

[musicalfrog7]

SmokePants wrote...

The OP completely missed Casey Hudson's point and took it 180 degrees the other way. He was saying that it would be easy to justify dumping the female character option from a return-on-investment standpoint, but they don't because they care about that 20%. Instead of being thankful and praising their dedication, she somehow managed to turn it into a negative. Baffling.

I love it when video game companies make video games that invite girls
and women to play them by being approachable to our gender and/or adding
a heroine that we can identify with. If the quote is about feeling
under appreciated for your (Bioware's work) on the female heroines, I
most certainly do love it and appreciate it. It's part of the reason why
I love Bioware games so much!

I am thankful. I just didn't know what the context nor the meaning of the quote was.

[jojon2se]

Glass half full, or half empty. Depends on your expectations of the world, I suppose.

Out of context, it is quite easy to read the thing in a negative light, maybe even imagining Casey sneering the words. Something along the likes of: "Shut up you ungrateful brats - we've wasted tons of resources on you worthless lot and it's still not too late!"

The original poster asked politely and has responded well to feedback explaining the context.

[Errol Dnamyx]

oracle343gspark wrote...


LOL. Really? 30-40%?

Yes, but most women play casual games like Farmville and other stuff.

[musicalfrog7]

oracle343gspark wrote...


LOL. Really? 30-40%?

For the massive, how many billions of dollars gaming industry that doesn't limit itself to Bioware and EA only games, there are the type who enjoy a good round of Mario, Little Big Planet, and Just Dance. Because people who only play once in a while with casual and family oriented games are still considered gamers.

and this too:

Yes, but most women play casual games like Farmville and other stuff.

Modifié par musicalfrog7, 01 août 2011 - 09:32 .

[ThePwener]

Errol Dnamyx wrote...

Yes, but most women play casual games like Farmville and other stuff.

That's a dirty dirty stereotype. Also, Farmville is an abomination, not a "game".

[Icinix]

ThePwener wrote...

Errol Dnamyx wrote...

Yes, but most women play casual games like Farmville and other stuff.

That's a dirty dirty stereotype. Also, Farmville is an abomination, not a "game".

..but you know what the funny thing about stereotypes is though?.... 

...

[Errol Dnamyx]

ThePwener wrote...

Errol Dnamyx wrote...

Yes, but most women play casual games like Farmville and other stuff.

That's a dirty dirty stereotype.

I wish it was.

[shepskisaac]

Icinix wrote...

..but you know what the funny thing about stereotypes is though?.... 

...

That people simply adore to clutch to them and think the fact these stereotypes exist justifies using them whenever someone wants?

[ThePwener]

[quote]Icinix wrote...

That's a dirty dirty stereotype. Also, Farmville is an abomination, not a "game".[/quote]

..but you know what the funny thing about stereotypes is though?.... 

...

[/quote]

It's not a 100% thing. I knew a highly socialite, beautiful girl in my previous year at college who at first seemed very mature and snobby. Then she told me she enjoyed playing Dead Rising.

I was like "WHAAAAAAAAAAAA--".

[Bryy_Miller]

musicalfrog7 wrote...
I just didn't know what the context nor the meaning of the quote was.

I find that hard to believe.

Homey C-Dawg wrote...

If you sell 2,000,000 copies of the game and 1/5th of the customers play femshep, that's like 400,000 people. That's more than many non-blockbuster games entire customer base.

It's well worth it for Bioware. Sheploo is poster child by nessesity, but Femshep rocks.

(I wonder where people like me who play both genders fit into Biowares "stats".)

Exactly. Pleasing fans is great, but if it's not financially worth the risk, they won't take it.

su66otnik wrote...

dafatcat wrote...

How do you feel hurt by this? A disregard for female fandom? He's saying that they could probably make more net profit if they disregarded female fans, but they don't. If anything, this should be a good thing.

Dafatcat is right. You have nothing to be hurt about - actually, you should be happy that they ended up taking the opinions of a minority into consideration

Women are not a minority.

[ThePwener]

Errol Dnamyx wrote...

I wish it was.

It is. I've met a few in my life, but I myself am a contradiction of the term. You'll all just laugh if I tell you.

Modifié par ThePwener, 01 août 2011 - 09:42 .

[Wynne]

100k wrote...

Honestly, Casey was probably being generous when he said one fifth of the players are women. In reality, probably less than one eighth are female gamers.

Maybe, but if that is the case, then there's a whole pool of female buyers that Bioware isn't drawing in yet. 40% of gamers are female, and it's been theorized that roughly 20%  of pure shooter players are female--and ME isn't even a pure shooter. I'd wager the amount of women gamers who play RPGs like Skyrim, World of Warcraft, Everquest, Thief, System Shock, Bioshock, etc. is higher than the amount who play Call of Duty or, say, RTS games.

Hybrid genres can be very attractive, especially when it comes to RPGs. I never would've started playing FPS games if not for the Thief and System Shock games, which showed me that there could be more to a shooter than--well, shooting. That a game could make me want to shoot things because the plot had drawn me in, just like the adventure games and pure RPGs I was used to. 

If considerably less than 20% of the ME audience is female, then there's clear room for improvement. I think somebody realized that and said, "If we're spending money on developing the female Shepard, then why not promote the female Shepard?" I agree wholeheartedly with that decision.

100k wrote...

You see, its great that Mass Effect is both a male and female friendly experience, but the games and their premises were never marketed like that. On the cover, in the trailers, and for the demos, Mass Effect (1,2) displayed nothing beyond the ordinary to the untrained eye. Just "a space marine fighting aliens and saving the world" is what most people tend to see.
,,,
As such, when your average man and woman walk into Target looking for a title to pick up, they will likely only the face value on the cover. The man will be (likely) more excited to see a new space oriented shooter, because that's what he's used to playing/watching. The woman will likely ignore it, because she doesn't know about the CC, femShepard, or other female characters in the game. It'll just be another "macho" game to her.
...
If a woman sees a trailer for Mass Effect, but the trailer doesn't show that you can tailor your character to your preferences, she will be more likely to ignore that title than her male counterpart who will already be (subconsciously) used to this kind of title.

This is exactly what I've been saying since the first game! Really glad they finally seem to be committed to changing that. I think a lot of female gamers don't buy games unless they let you play a female character or at least appeal to more than adolescent male interests. (I don't mean to be disaparaging--I'm just thinking of grown males I know who got excited about the Transformers movies; sometimes, the little boy or girl in us just comes out, and there's nothing wrong with that, but generally the opposite sex is not going to understand it.)

I've been tired of the macho, shaved-headed military man in space since before he became a cliche. If I didn't know Shepard as a character, I wouldn't know he could be more than that. Without my long history with Bioware as a company, I never would've guessed you could play ME as a woman. Marketing this stuff is so important.

[Errol Dnamyx]

Bryy_Miller wrote...

Women are not a minority.

Good observation.

However, this thread is about female Shepards. They are a minority.

[Oilking72]

http://www.destructo...ng-188362.phtml

I don't know what all this talk of this not coming from in game stats is coming from. This was stated quite a while ago as the above link shows. Now obviously people who aren't connected to the web wouldn't be able to have stats sent in but there you have it. Also this has no reflection on how many female players are playing as a lot of males play as femsheps.

[Clara Shepard]

musicalfrog7 wrote...

A friend of mine linked a video from game trailers today about him talking about ME3 at comic con. I haven't been keeping up with Bioware actively since the original Dragon Age came out but every now and then slivers of information come my way.

In the video I found there to be a questionable sounding quote:

"We find that about one fifth of the players play female characters. You know, we've put a lot of effort over the course of this series to do a really good job of both the male and female experience as Commander Shepherd. And it's something we could've cut a long time ago because it's actually very expensive for us to develop."


As an avid female gamer, I am surprisingly hurt by this. The video does not show what the context is but when it is haphazardly thrown into a video like that, what am I to think? It sounds like such a strong disregard to the female fandom. I've thought for a long while, that Bioware cared more about the female fanbase than any other developer out there. Is that not true? Is it not true anymore?

One fifth? That cannot be. I was never polled nor asked what shepherd I play. Where does this poll data come from? The website? Video game registration? An educated guess? I feel like that statistic is unfairly wrong and inaccurate to judge on whether or not it's worthwhile to have a female playable character.

I love it when video game companies make video games that invite girls and women to play them by being approachable to our gender and/or adding a heroine that we can identify with. If the quote is about feeling under appreciated for your (Bioware's work) on the female heroines, I most certainly do love it and appreciate it. It's part of the reason why I love Bioware games so much!



The link in question can be found here:

I agree wih you, bioware always cared about us before :'( why not now? We love them for having the choice to be a man or woman, that's just what makes them more awesome than other companies  but if they got rid o tht choice between genders... I might reconsider purchasing future games...

[ThePwener]

Errol Dnamyx wrote...

Bryy_Miller wrote...

Women are not a minority.

Good observation.

However, this thread is about female Shepards. They are a minority.

Most women are put off by the idea of becoming gamers due to the highly sexualized image that games give them.

It's a shame really.

[Errol Dnamyx]

Clara Shepard wrote...

musicalfrog7 wrote...

A friend of mine linked a video from game trailers today about him talking about ME3 at comic con. I haven't been keeping up with Bioware actively since the original Dragon Age came out but every now and then slivers of information come my way.

In the video I found there to be a questionable sounding quote:

"We find that about one fifth of the players play female characters. You know, we've put a lot of effort over the course of this series to do a really good job of both the male and female experience as Commander Shepherd. And it's something we could've cut a long time ago because it's actually very expensive for us to develop."


As an avid female gamer, I am surprisingly hurt by this. The video does not show what the context is but when it is haphazardly thrown into a video like that, what am I to think? It sounds like such a strong disregard to the female fandom. I've thought for a long while, that Bioware cared more about the female fanbase than any other developer out there. Is that not true? Is it not true anymore?

One fifth? That cannot be. I was never polled nor asked what shepherd I play. Where does this poll data come from? The website? Video game registration? An educated guess? I feel like that statistic is unfairly wrong and inaccurate to judge on whether or not it's worthwhile to have a female playable character.

I love it when video game companies make video games that invite girls and women to play them by being approachable to our gender and/or adding a heroine that we can identify with. If the quote is about feeling under appreciated for your (Bioware's work) on the female heroines, I most certainly do love it and appreciate it. It's part of the reason why I love Bioware games so much!



The link in question can be found here:

I agree wih you, bioware always cared about us before :'( why not now? We love them for having the choice to be a man or woman, that's just what makes them more awesome than other companies  but if they got rid o tht choice between genders... I might reconsider purchasing future games...

http://t2.gstatic.co...Po29DKr-7BA3Ylw

[ThePwener]

Oilking72 wrote...

a lot of males play as femsheps.

I don't see the appeal in that. I once read someone saying that if they are going to have to watch the Lone Wanderer's ass for 100+ hours, it may as well be a female's ass. Some people....

[Wynne]

Clara Shepard wrote...

I agree wih you, bioware always cared about us before :'( why not now? We love them for having the choice to be a man or woman, that's just what makes them more awesome than other companies  but if they got rid o tht choice between genders... I might reconsider purchasing future games...

Calm down--they're NOT removing anything and they certainly haven't stopped caring. Quite the opposite, as the FemShep posters, Facebook polls, and trailer prove.

[oracle343gspark]

musicalfrog7 wrote...

oracle343gspark wrote...


LOL. Really? 30-40%?

For the massive, how many billions of dollars gaming industry that doesn't limit itself to Bioware and EA only games, there are the type who enjoy a good round of Mario, Little Big Planet, and Just Dance. Because people who only play once in a while with casual and family oriented games are still considered gamers.

and this too:

Yes, but most women play casual games like Farmville and other stuff.

That's like calling people who drink occasionally alcoholics.