It's like a female character. If the only females you have in your game are all second fiddles, damsels in distress, or very weak characters, then you don't have any breath. It's like, in Dragon Age 2, we have Isabella, who is a very sexualized character. But, she exists in the context of a game that also has Aveline or Meredith. So, if you have some breath in the portrayal, then there is some context.
On topic, I'll just say that this is my favorite part.
One of my favorite things about Bioware games has been the ability to play a women and for that character to be recognized as a woman. In other RPGs I've played, gender is usually a non issue in terms of interacting with the world. It's almost entirely aesthetic (Skyrim), or NPCs seem to assume the character is male either way (Dragon's Dogma).
In ME and DA, people occasionally react to gender in a way that comes off as realistic to me. As a female character, sometimes you encounter misogyny, sometimes you have different dialogue options, and sometimes they actually go out of their way to write responses to those dialogue options. You also encounter female characters whose personalities and capabilities range across just as wide a gamut as the male characters.
No other gaming company has ever made me feel like I'm as valued as a female consumer, even if they didn't necessarily have a lot of outside incentive to do so.
On the other hand, it's also made it interesting to play a male character now and then, because they have different options, nuances, advantages, and pitfalls in both dialogue and sometimes in action. I think they're subtle, and their laced through the entirety of the character interaction thoroughly and well. That's the reason I'm grateful and loyal to this company, first and always.
That reason, plus some of my favorite characters in video game history.
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![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
