Romances in the latest Bioware titles.

[Rob]

I agree that female characters in videogames are not fleshed out enough. Most of the time they have the same animations as the male characters, and their speech is also extremely masculine. It doesn't feel like I'm playing a female character, rather a macho man who had extensive surgery done.

Interesting take... sounds like the touch of a female dev is what's needed! Fortunately SG has one! Let's hope that touch propagates into an overall equally-balanced game.

 

[The Hedge Knight]

I would prefer they limit female fighters in the game. I think there should be a female main character as a choice and she should be able to have the same stats as the male one, but we are going for a realistic medieval society and I am sick of people going "it's the middle ages!" and then shoot it full of action girls as if it is steroids in an NBA player.

 

[Rob]

I would prefer they limit female fighters in the game. I think there should be a female main character as a choice and she should be able to have the same stats as the male one, but we are going for a realistic medieval society and I am sick of people going "it's the middle ages!" and then shoot it full of action girls as if it is steroids in an NBA player.

Oooooooo... controversial!!!! Prepare to be slated!!!!

 

[the0thMonkey]

I would prefer they limit female fighters in the game. I think there should be a female main character as a choice and she should be able to have the same stats as the male one, but we are going for a realistic medieval society and I am sick of people going "it's the middle ages!" and then shoot it full of action girls as if it is steroids in an NBA player.

I think M&B did a good job of representing women.

 

[The Hedge Knight]

Like I said, I think women are just as capable as men and should not have any negative effects, I just don't think that if we are doing a realistic medieval society we should just pretend women were considered equal then. It would also be much cooler playing a female and for people to go "you are a woman you shouldn't be fighting!" and then them being amazed and all when you do what an armored knight couldn't.

 

[the0thMonkey]

Like I said, I think women are just as capable as men and should not have any negative effects, I just don't think that if we are doing a realistic medieval society we should just pretend women were considered equal then. It would also be much cooler playing a female and for people to go "you are a woman you shouldn't be fighting!" and then them being amazed and all when you do what an armored knight couldn't.

I can see how George R R Martin has influenced you!

 

[The Hedge Knight]

I can see how George R R Martin has influence you!

KILL THEM ALL.

 

[TheScythian]

I just don't think that if we are doing a realistic medieval society we should just pretend women were considered equal then. It would also be much cooler playing a female and for people to go "you are a woman you shouldn't be fighting!" and then them being amazed and all when you do what an armored knight couldn't.

I agree it would be interesting for people to react somewhat differently to female characters but I don't think it should be a major deal, otherwise it could get really old, really fast. And after all I don't think Sui Generis has a historical setting, its aesthetics are just inspired by medieval civilisation. Gender equality, or as close to it as you can get without being naive, is more realistic than thaumaturgy (at least I hope so ).

 

[Oona]

Like I said, I think women are just as capable as men and should not have any negative effects, I just don't think that if we are doing a realistic medieval society we should just pretend women were considered equal then. It would also be much cooler playing a female and for people to go "you are a woman you shouldn't be fighting!" and then them being amazed and all when you do what an armored knight couldn't.

Since George Martin was mentioned.... I see where you are going. Like in the beginning of Game of Thrones, Khaleesi is treated like shit. At first she seems like this passive plaything, her brother sells her to a barbarian like a cheap whore and she doesn't show any resistance. But then she gains the respect of those around her, and becomes dragon queen... It's true that there probably won't be more than a handful of strong women in Sui Generis, because of the universe it's set in, but fingers crossed they won't be just macho men with female form.

I agree it would be interesting for people to react somewhat differently to female characters but I don't think it should be a major deal, otherwise it could get really old, really fast. And after all I don't think Sui Generis has a historical setting, its aesthetics are just inspired by medieval civilisation. Gender equality, or as close to it as you can get without being naive, is more realistic than thaumaturgy (at least I hope so ).

Thing is, the game is based on the worlds from books by Gene Wolf, and if you've ever read any of that you'll see women are subject to rape, public execution, and are generally not given much regard.

 

[Tony]

I think saying that the game is based upon the worlds created in Gene Wolf's books might be a bit misleading. Rather, the devs were influenced by his books. I think the world of Sui Generis will be their own creation, not a reproduction of someone else's work.

 

[Rob]

Just to throw it into the mix... female warriors seemed much more accepted in Skyrim. Perhaps less represented than men, but accepted nevertheless.

And what about Red Sonja?!!!!

I think it would be naive to treat men and women the same. Both social and natural tendencies cause differences between the two. However, that is no reason to imply any advantages/disadvantages to either sex, given that individual personalities can override any stereotypes. Implementing this in the context of a game will of course be difficult, given that it is a difficult topic to address...

 

[nox]

I agree it would be interesting for people to react somewhat differently to female characters but I don't think it should be a major deal, otherwise it could get really old, really fast.

I agree with this, though I'll probably play a male character, I can see how this would be so annoying. Everywhere you go people dislike you and think you are weird.

Since George Martin was mentioned.... I see where you are going. Like in the beginning of Game of Thrones, Khaleesi is treated like shit. At first she seems like this passive plaything, her brother sells her to a barbarian like a cheap whore and she doesn't show any resistance. But then she gains the respect of those around her, and becomes dragon queen...

The comment about GRR Martin made me think mostly of Brienne of Tarth having a really hard time fitting in the medieval society.

Therefore ONLY male characters should be playable!
Wimmin should stay in the kitchen makin me Sammiches!



But seriously I agree with TheScythian.

And after all I don't think Sui Generis has a historical setting, its aesthetics are just inspired by medieval civilisation. Gender equality, or as close to it as you can get without being naive, is more realistic than thaumaturgy (at least I hope so ).

 

[Algea]

I agree with all of you, but you've forgotten about Thaumaturgy. Our girl won't be your usual girl, she'll have one of Thaumaturgic (hehe) abilities right from the beginning if I remember correctly. And whatever Thaumaturges do they are powerful in the folk's eyes. So I expect reactions to be quite different: from hateful to obsequious.

Maybe there'll be matriarchy society for all we know. And you guys will have to deal with being considered a weaker gender. Though I don't think it'll be the case, most of gamers are male so for BME it'd be like shooting themselves in the foot. A bit refreshing but not worth it. Or am I wrong, guys and gals? Do you want to play a game with matriarchy for a change?

I honestly don't care either way. I just want to play the game whether there will be a special reaction regarding different genders or not.

 

[Psychomorph]

I agree with all of you, but you've forgotten about Thaumaturgy. Our girl won't be your usual girl, she'll have one of Thaumaturgic (hehe) abilities right from the beginning if I remember correctly. And whatever Thaumaturges do they are powerful in the folk's eyes. So I expect reactions to be quite different: from hateful to obsequious.

Interesting. Shouldn't female Thaumaturges be despised as witches, but male Thaumaturges merely feared? It would be realistic to portray how females are treaten differently than males for the same properties.

 

[Psychomorph]

I had some game related thoughts on the topic and thought an individual thread would be the better way:
http://www.baremettle.com/sg/forums/index.php?threads/yin-and-yang.235/

 

[Oona]

Interesting. Shouldn't female Thaumaturges be despised as witches, but male Thaumaturges merely feared? It would be realistic to portray how females are treaten differently than males for the same properties.

True. In the Christian myths, I imagine if Jesus was a woman she would be stoned to death not after turning water to wine, but for being outspoken.

But it really depends on how much SG is influenced by these gender ideologies.

 

[MowLiao]

I really wouldn't want BME to support sexism in their game, and I'd like to think they wouldn't want to potentially offend their audience by displaying stereotypical behaviour depending on gender.

I'd really like for gender differences to be a no-go.

 

[Algea]

I really wouldn't want BME to support sexism in their game, and I'd like to think they wouldn't want to potentially offend their audience by displaying stereotypical behaviour depending on gender.

I'd really like for gender differences to be a no-go.

It was appropriate in Mass Effect series. Will it be appropriate in a somewhat medieval setting? Should BME break the atmosphere by implementing gender equality just to not offend those of us who support it?

Just to be clear: I'm not trying to say that there should be a difference between genders.

 

[Tony]

It was appropriate in Mass Effect series. Will it be appropriate in a somewhat medieval setting? Should BME break the atmosphere by implementing gender equality just to not offend those of us who support it?

I don't think it'd break the atmosphere of Sui Generis if they didn't implement a global reaction to what gender a person was. What I'd much prefer to see is individual reactions based upon each NPC's natural disposition and preferences/beliefs. One NPC might ridicule you for being male/female and doing a certain action while another might encourage you.

 

[MowLiao]

I'd like to think this is on par with the "no children" idea. While lots of us would love to have children in the game for realism's sake, it won't be right because of the potential to abuse them, or they'll just be tacked onto the game and break immersion because of how little they'll add to game play.

You know, I don't want to play a game and be abused because of my gender - to be cat-called, constantly hit on or to be told "You're a woman. What the hell are you doing fighting things?!". That's the kind of behaviour you'd want to be implemented because of gender differences. As mentioned before, it will get old fairly fast and be offensive. If this were a true medieval setting, women would not be a playable character - we would not be able to go out, fight things and conduct Thaumaturgy without the world wanting to hunt us down.

I can't comment about Mass Effect, because I've never played it... but I just think that they shouldn't change anything to affect one gender more negatively than the other. If they can think of something that'll be more "Oh, that's interesting" and dependant on, let's say, biology than tradition, rather than complying to stereotypical gender roles, I'd be more willing to support that. Traditional sexism is something we're trying to get rid of in the modern world - it isn't something we want to continue to endorse in the form of entertainment by trying to make it an accurate historical representation.

EDIT: Sorry, I was typing this before Tony posted his comment directly before mine. This post is referring to a general attitude of sexism in the universe, which is what people seemed to be exploring.