334 réponses à ce sujet

[theflyingzamboni]

I know that posting this is a bad idea, and this topic will get locked sooner or later like most other similar ones when it inevitably goes off-topic, but here it is anyway.

I am really hoping that BioWare will choose to go this route. They took a promising step in this direction with giving Femshep her own trailer and box art, but I would like to see them go all the way with Inquisition.

Making a female the default for purposes of character creation and promotion may only be a small cosmetic shift as far implementation, but it would make a powerful statement symbolically. BioWare may not be the biggest developer around, but they are still a prominent and successful one, and this choice coming from such a big-name publisher could help show the industry that games with female protagonists are marketable. We've all seen people argue that it's not done because it's not profitable, but let's be honest, there isn't a big enough sample size to make this assertion because almost no one will take the chance in the first place.

I think BioWare is in a good position to push a female protagonist as the default. BioWare has historically been a lot better at creating more progressive gender representation than most games I've seen. That's not to say they are perfect (*looks askance at Miranda's prominently featured posterior*), but better. This seems to stem from their strange idea of treating women in their games as characters who happen to be female, instead of just buxom plot devices. The women I know who play games say they keep replaying Dragon Age and Mass Effect
because they're nearly the only choice for games with a strong female protagonist in the lead role.

From reading comments made by David Gaider, it seems clear to me that he (and, I would guess, many others at BioWare) cares deeply about treating all genders/sexualities with respect in their games. I've gotten the impression from things he's said that Mr. Gaider, at least, would be supportive of featuring the female Inquisitor prominently (see kotaku.com/and-then-the-video-game-industry-woke-up-464888949 and dgaider.tumblr.com/ for some of his opinions on women in games; also for amusement as his tumblr is pretty great).

So that's what I'm hoping. Not just that the Femquisitor (I'm going to go ahead and coin this portmanteau along with Manquisitor) will be a choice, or that she will get a nod or two in marketing, but that Bioware will take the step of making her the face of the game, like they did with male Hawke and Sheploo. A chance to move the industry a step in the right direction in representing "minorities" (heavy quotation marks). Even better would be a non-white female default (I really am getting tired of seeing hard-jawed white men almost everywhere I look in the game industry), but one step at a time I suppose.

I'm not really sure what discussion I'm hoping to provoke out of this topic. Mainly I'm hoping that Mr. Gaider will stumble across this in his forum prowling and offer comment.

So if you do see this Mr. Gaider, what do you think the chances are of Femquisitor being default in DA:I? Is this something that you personally would like to or are willing to push for at the studio?

Modifié par Led Guardian, 11 septembre 2013 - 05:08 .

[Zanallen]

Why not just not have a default Inquisitor? Have the Inquisitor wear a special Inquisition mask or something and wear robes that hide body shape. Also, just don't have a default option in the character creator. Force the player to actually create their character.

[draken-heart]

I am a guy, but love a badass female protagonist. Can't play a male in Bioware games because of it.

[Star fury]

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

[Bionuts]

draken-heart wrote...

I am a guy, but love a badass female protagonist. Can't play a male in Bioware games because of it.

Sorta where I'm at.

To be honest, I don't like male heroes. I like playing males in games like Witcher, Red Dead Redemption, Deus Ex ---, GTA, etc.

But if I'm playing a hero, I want it to be a female.

[draken-heart]

Star fury wrote...

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

love it. And can we get the elf to be voiced by Ms. Reagon (Traynor's VA from ME 3)?

[theflyingzamboni]

@Zanallen: 2 things: 1) A lot of people like to use a default and not worry about a character creator, which is totally fine. No need to take away options from people. They could just give you options for default male and default female without actually displaying either before the choice, but that leads me to 2) I'm not only bringing this up as a functional alternative to the usual default male, but as a means to make a statement about female protagonists in games. Which it would, one much more meaningful than a simple statement in support of it.

@draken-heart: I play both genders alternately, but as another guy, I totally agree with your first statement.

@Star fury: Nonono, get with my program here. It's just Femquisitor. What good's a portmanteau if it still has all the syllables? (Kidding, kidding!)

Modifié par Led Guardian, 11 septembre 2013 - 05:19 .

[I SOLD MY SOUL TO BIOWARE]

Star fury wrote...

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

[AresKeith]

Star fury wrote...

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

No

[Ryzaki]

AresKeith wrote...

Star fury wrote...

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

No

This.

I wanna have a chance to actually like FemInq's voice Tyvm.

[Zazzerka]

Star fury wrote...

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

What's your intention, Varric?

[FenrirBlackDragon]

Zanallen wrote...

Why not just not have a default Inquisitor? Have the Inquisitor wear a special Inquisition mask or something and wear robes that hide body shape. Also, just don't have a default option in the character creator. Force the player to actually create their character.

I think this would be a great idea, but I understand the sentiment. I know a lot of people in the gaming community both prominent and not who would support a female default if there even needs to be a default. 

[OLDIRTYBARON]

This would happen if marketing data proved that women were buying and playing more video games than men or, at the very least, more women were buying and playing BioWare games than men. Neither of those statements are true, so the odds of a major marketing push centered around an optional female protagonist are slim-to-a snowball's chance.

I really don't understand how the OP expects BioWare (or more realistically, EA) to put major marketing dollars behind a concept that won't increase sales and, shock of shocks, may actually see a decrease in interest for their title. You have to remember that for all of the brouhaha over the female Shepard trailers and reversible covers, female Shepards only accounted for 18% of all Commander Shepards created. 18%. While definitely a sizable minority of players, it is not a large enough pool of players to consider launching an $10-$20 million dollar ad campaign behind.

[Steppenwolf]

I'm not of the mind that BioWare should take unnecessary financial risks to make symbolic gestures like this. Marketing masculine men is more effective/profitable then marketing strong women. I think they should just go the ME3 route and make the cover reversible & make a female version of the launch trailer.

[ShadyKat]

Most gamers are white males, ranging from 15-35 years old. That is why most games have the same protagonist as this. So expect most promotional artwork and in game vids to be of a human white male. Hell, the vids from pax have already shown this to be true.










Also not saying this is a bad thing or good thing, it's just the way it is.

[Renmiri1]

Zazzerka wrote...

Star fury wrote...

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

What's your intention, Varric?

Sassy FemHawke voice was perfection! I love her and Varric's banter

Manners Varric aren't you going to introduce me to your insane friend ?

This is Hawke...  But 'If it's eternal life you are after, then I have to tell you she's no virgin."

Please, please Bioware do make a female protagonist canon, ONCE for a change! I can't read any of the Revan novels, it irks me that that impostor is a man, unlike my Revan, and that goes the same for every single book from game franchises. Can we females at least have one for us ? 

[Vapaa]

Star fury wrote...

Only if FemInquisitor will be voiced by Jennifer Hale.

I love Jen, but I'd rather have Laura Bailey, I bet she would be stellar with the sarcastic lines

[Han Shot First]

DA:I will be a game where a player can choose the race and gender of the protagonist. As such I don't really think it matters who gets slapped on the box art nor does it send a message that 'games with female protagonists are marketable.' DA:I isn't Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Remember Me, or Mirror's Edge.

Besides, haven't some of the above games already debunked any notion that games with female protagonists aren't marketable? .

[OLDIRTYBARON]

BasilKarlo wrote...

I'm not of the mind that BioWare should take unnecessary financial risks to make symbolic gestures like this. Marketing masculine men is more effective/profitable then marketing strong women. I think they should just go the ME3 route and make the cover reversible & make a female version of the launch trailer.

That's something they can and probably will support and continue to support. Your post sounded like some kind of rallying cry to make a grand statement about how important female protagonists are, though, which may have coloured your original intention with the post.

I look at it this way: if BioShock Infinite, a game that was more anticipated for the philosophical questions it would pose and the narrative weight it would carry got the same "manly white guy with a gun" cover that most shooters get, it should be pretty clear that this stuff in marketing isn't dictated by developers or sexism or patriarchy. It's money. Most of the people who buy and play games are white, straight, and male. Until more minorities enter the space and make themselves known via their wallets, you can't expect things to really change all that much.

Look, I'm an Indian (feather, not dot), I'm a Canadian Indian. I know pretty well how white and male a lot of game covers are, but I don't think it's fair to get upset or to make demands (not saying you did, of course) when all BioWare or any company is doing is catering to their dominant market. I'm fine with it in BioWare's case because they will probably always offer a robust character creator that lets you define what your protagonist looks like and what kind of history they've had. Probably. 

Also, just by making Shepard Canadian BioWare kind of earned a free pass with me.

TL;DR - I hopefully said something of merit in a weird tangent at 2 AM.

[Jackel159357]

Id prefer they did something similar to Dragon Age Origins, I very much hope there isn't a default model like default Shepard/Hawke and instead they market the world/companions rather than the main character.

[bandcandy]

OLDIRTYBARON wrote...

This would happen if marketing data proved that women were buying and playing more video games than men or, at the very least, more women were buying and playing BioWare games than men. Neither of those statements are true, so the odds of a major marketing push centered around an optional female protagonist are slim-to-a snowball's chance.

I really don't understand how the OP expects BioWare (or more realistically, EA) to put major marketing dollars behind a concept that won't increase sales and, shock of shocks, may actually see a decrease in interest for their title. You have to remember that for all of the brouhaha over the female Shepard trailers and reversible covers, female Shepards only accounted for 18% of all Commander Shepards created. 18%. While definitely a sizable minority of players, it is not a large enough pool of players to consider launching an $10-$20 million dollar ad campaign behind.

That is a ridiculous and circular argument, although trust me I get that this is pretty much the prevailing theory. And it pretty much works out to this:

The majority of players are men and we should advertise to men!!! -> Men get all the marketing targeted at them -> Female fan base doesn't get  courted/room for expansion  -> The majority of players are men and we should advertise to men!!

Also I'm not here for the notion that men aren't willing to play female protagonists. See: Tomb Raider, Metroid, Aveline from Assasin's creed (Female AND BLACK) being 1000% more well recieved than Connor from AC3, etc.

[OLDIRTYBARON]

bandcandy wrote...

Also I'm not here for the notion that men aren't willing to play female protagonists. See: Tomb Raider, Metroid, Aveline from Assasin's creed (Female AND BLACK) being 1000% more well recieved than Connor from AC3, etc.

AC Liberation didn't exactly light the world on fire, and both Tomb Raider and Metroid are long and storied franchises with decades of credibility. If you restrict it to new IP entirely, you're looking at titles like Remember Me which bombed harder than Fat Boy. It may be a "circular argument" (more like a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I'm pedantic), but it doesn't negate the fact that this is the state of things. 

[Steppenwolf]

Filament wrote...

OLDIRTYBARON wrote...

you're looking at titles like Remember Me which bombed harder than Fat Boy.

Hmm that's disappointing, I heard some good things.

That game is exceptionally mediocre. It's a rent at best.

[d-boy15]

Marketing is never been about equality...