Dude doesn't wanna look like a lady

[Gunstar Green]

At the very least, it doesn't help. My mind is a very Caucasian space much of the time, and sometimes that bothers me.

It shouldn't really. You shouldn't feel any guilt over your personal preferences. Everyone has their own version of what they find appealing.

Now if you hated a game for a shallow reason like having a fixed protagonist who is a minority, that might be something to worry about.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I always find that games that make you choose a character/race/gender tend to have a much more shallow storytelling experience. I understand why, since it would cost money and take more time to do, but I don't see why they don't do it.

@Marurun I would never think that it is a bad thing to, when given a choice, to make a character more akin to yourself and your preferences. It is when you don't have a choice and you get upset over that, is where problems would arise.

I feel games are trying too hard to give choice now to players at the expense of an experience. I would love a game where you aren't given a choice on your character and that character's situation is complex and deals with a lot of social issues.

Imagine playing a fantasy game where racism is rampant, and you are a character that is victim of such racism, yet no matter what you still play the hero and regardless, get persecuted, not because of your deeds, but because of your race. Offer the player the choices to do the right thing and still be a hero, or become a villain and a twisted bi-product of said racism. That is the type of choice I would like to see in games - not this shallow morality system that serves no purpose but to offer a different ending cut scene.

We can make a game like Star Wars - The Old Republic, where there is a campaign for every class, but we can't make a game where you play one class, with 2 distinctive campaigns based on morality. Or campaigns based on gender and ethnicity.

[Fragems]

Now that I think about it one of the most diverse casts I have seen in a game recently would have to be Binary Domain. Discrimination(Human vs. Robot) was a big part of the game though so I guess that makes sense. Got reps from the U.S., China, Britain, and a Robot who I believe was from Norway . Also some Japanese team mates pop up temporarily in a few missions. You were stuck in the role of a white male for the whole game but aside from a few missions you could choose who your two squad mates would be.

[lisalover1]

I always play as a female avatar if I can, unless it severely hampers my play strategy for that game, or if I'm in a social setting. It just feels weird to not be given the option when it is appropriate, especially in games where self-expression is key. In fact, when I was much younger, I remember riding my bike about 20 miles just to buy a copy of Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life as well as Gals' Fighter. XP

[arion]

I think it's way more possible that Remember Me was just a average game to begin with. If games with female leads don't sell then why are there so many games sporting a female lead on the cover ?

[Fragems]

I think it's way more possible that Remember Me was just a average game to begin with. If games with female leads don't sell then why are there so many games sporting a female lead on the cover ?

Remember me was pretty mediocre only reason I got it was it was free through Playstation Plus a few months back. The whole build a combo system was a big flop in my book all you really got to change was the effect of each button press so there were only 5-6 combo chains through out the whole game. After a while there were only 2 or 3 that I ended up using over and over again . Always just had three combos setup one for damage, heal, and speed and those covered pretty much every situation and fights just became time consuming drags.

The story and visuals were about the only thing that really drew me into the game. That and the memory hacking which while really freaking awesome wasn't used often enough in my opinion.

[darsparx]

Same here frag. But it seemed about 3-4 chapters in I realized it was super linear. But they did say the problem they had with getting it out was having a female lead. Personally the story wouldn't of worked out the other way. If it wasn't for the super linearity it would've been a great game. For anyone that says story based games are super linear they obviously don't know what they are talking about and haven't played remember me still a decent game but only a 3/5 type game

[Key-Glyph]

I really enjoyed reading the article, the comment feed there, and everyone's opinions here. Nice thread, J T!

If there is a female protagonist option and I have no other information to go on, I will almost always be biased toward that choice. It still feels somewhat novel and rare to have that freedom of decision in a game (in comparison to my childhood gaming experiences, I mean) -- and also slightly rebellious. I enjoy feeling like my character and I are striking out on an usual path, possibly investigating some lesser-utilized aspects of a game. It feels adventurous! I find that hard to pass up.

I also dig the "invisible backstory" element that comes with a female character. For example, the recorded dialog between the two Shepards in Mass Effect is 97% identical, but it still becomes a different story if you're playing FemShep. There's a lot of extra, unspoken cultural history exclusively implied by her being a woman that is not present in the default (white) male Shepard. Like PoPo said, it just feels blander to be the guy sometimes. This sort of thinking is also why my customizable human avatars are culturally diverse and/or have varied sexual orientations -- and why having the alien/robot/monster avatar option trumps all. Speaking of:

Many MANY guys would play female characters as long as they were pretty/cute (night elf, blood elf, human, gnome) but I think I barely saw any female Tauren, Orcs or Trolls while I played the game, and 90% of those I saw were actual girls playing them.

No joke, my first character was a Tauren woman. I thought they were so awesome!

[Pulsar_t]

[Gunstar Green]

I was always too busy spotting the cameos in that Snatcher scene to care about the girl.