Dude doesn't wanna look like a lady

[J T]

Sload Soap posted this article in the temporarily locked E3 thread, so I'm starting a new thread to discuss it:
http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/18/412069 ... -character


It's basically about how Remember Me had a hard time finding a publisher because of a female protagonist, and possibly part of the explanation as to why the game didn't sell better.

Is it really the case that female protagonists don't sell because boys want to be boys, or are games with female protagonists just coincidentally worse games and marketers have come to believe that the female heroines are the problem because they have fallen victim to the dreaded illusory correlation phenomenon?

It seems weird to me that (heterosexual) guys would rather spend ~40 hours of gameplay staring at a bulging muscle man rather than a lithe warrior princess. Is it that they want to identify with their characters and they just feel scared of putting on the slippers of their feminine side? Personally, I always pick the female character when given the option, but I guess I'm not like everybody else. And do women not come out of the marketing shadows for these games? Or are they still too male-oriented in nature despite the female leads? This seems an interesting topic for gender in videogames, so discuss.

[Flake]

I usually choose the female option, too. I think that it's a perspective issue. I never associate with my avatar that much - for me, gaming is guiding my avatar through a story or adventure. Since female protagonists are less common than male, I find it more compelling to create a story for myself with a ruthless Lady Shep in Mass Effect or to have Terra and Celes become the powerhouses of my Final Fantasy 6 team while Edgar and Locke look on.

Others, I think, actually associate with their avatar. Their avatar is an extension of themselves. Maybe for those guys, the need to be represented as an idealised version of their gender is as important to them as having the option to use a form that represents themselves more is to gamers who are less recognized by the industry like female gamers or minorities.

[oxymoron]

the temporarily locked E3 thread

Well, that was an interesting read to say the least.

[darsparx]

But didn't tomb raider sale? Last I recall that's a female protagonist and it was relatively successful especially since it somehow spawned several sequels and remakes...

[flex wood]

But didn't tomb raider sell well? Last I recall that's a female protagonist and it was relatively successful especially since it somehow spawned several sequels and remakes...

Yes it did but after not meeting SE extremely lofty original sales expectations it wasn't until price dropped and was featured in quite a number of sales that it was finally considered a success. Damn good game too never saw the ending though because I alt tabbed after what I assume was the final battle and forgot the game likes to crash when I do that. Just didn't want to sit through the five cut scenes from the last checkpoint.

I can see a publisher not wanting to take a perceived risk on a game with a female protagonist, since hey they're businesses that need to make money and we live in a world of focus groups, but I can't imagine that causing a game to not sell well. If I remember correctly Remember Me received luke warm reviews that even suggested people wait until a price drop.

[MrPopo]

There's also the fact that many games with a female protagonist don't get as much advertising time as other games; as much as we might not want to admit it, advertising dollars are extremely important for final sales to the average customer.

I usually choose the female option, too. I think that it's a perspective issue. I never associate with my avatar that much - for me, gaming is guiding my avatar through a story or adventure. Since female protagonists are less common than male, I find it more compelling to create a story for myself with a ruthless Lady Shep in Mass Effect or to have Terra and Celes become the powerhouses of my Final Fantasy 6 team while Edgar and Locke look on.

This is basically how I play. Playing as a guy seems boring to me, even if in practice the only difference between the characters is the VO (Diablo III comes to mind).

[J T]

the temporarily locked E3 thread

Well, that was an interesting read to say the least.

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't read everything until you mentioned it here.

I should have highlighted something about transgender issues in choosing a character's gender since we have a couple of trans members here on racketboy. I'm interested in their take on this topic.

[AppleQueso]

the temporarily locked E3 thread

Well, that was an interesting read to say the least.

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't read everything until you mentioned it here.

I should have highlighted something about transgender issues in choosing a character's gender since we have a couple of trans members here on racketboy. I'm interested in their take on this topic.

I can only think of a handful of trans characters represented in mainstream gaming, and none of them are what I would consider really good representation. We're usually just the punchline for jokes.

Yeah, I play as female characters a lot in games though when the option is there. When I didn't, it was specifically out of a worry that someone might notice I was doing that. Clearly, it's not uncommon among even cis people to do that sort of thing, and I kinda appreciated that since it allowed it to be something I could openly indulge in without it necessarily being a red flag for people.

[oxymoron]

the temporarily locked E3 thread

Well, that was an interesting read to say the least.

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't read everything until you mentioned it here.

I absolutely adore the condescending attitude. After your mention of the thread I read it myself and the reply was my comment on it.

[isiolia]

It's basically about how Remember Me had a hard time finding a publisher because of a female protagonist, and possibly part of the explanation as to why the game didn't sell better.

Is it really the case that female protagonists don't sell because boys want to be boys, or are games with female protagonists just coincidentally worse games and marketers have come to believe that the female heroines are the problem because they have fallen victim to the dreaded illusory correlation phenomenon?

As seems common in this thread so far, I usually pick female characters when given the choice. Heck, I'm technically using a female username (it's from the Neverwinter Nights name generator), and frequently have since using it for my FFXI character.

Having a good female lead is a selling point to me, and I think a lot of people don't care if the game itself is good (Portal, Tomb Raider, Metroid, etc). Plenty of excitement over Alien Isolation, for example, or Mirror's Edge 2.

That being said, and having beaten Remember Me, my suspicion is that the quotes there were probably selected from a lot of publisher feedback because they'd elicit this kind of reaction. It's an average game that's occasionally propped up by nice art and design, or the handful of times it actually does anything with its concept of remixing memories.

The memory angle was added later, not sure if it was before or after Sony dropped the project (called Adrift at that point). If all they were showing when shopping the game to publishers was the corridor brawling that makes up most of the game, I can easily see why most would balk at it.