Who Won E3 2014?

[Sload Soap]

I don't remember where I read it, but there was an article about how many publishers tend to unintentionally sabotage games with female protagonists. Specifically, they think such a game won't do well, and so they either slash the marketing budget (so they won't lose much if it doesn't go well) or toss it on an experimental entry (handheld entry in a console series), which inevitably leads to lower sales and the prophecy is self fulfilled.

There is this Polygon atricle about how Remember Me had a tough time finding a publisher because the lead is a lady with lady parts.

[flex wood]

Know what you are talking about.

The criticism was about the co-op character stuff, which was all male. I am pretty sure you can choose skin color on those characters. Sexual Orientation doesn't factor into the game or character creation.

There was no one "talking about" those things because they were a non-issue.

Well shit I was under the impression that the characters were all premade, well then.

I will say it is an extremely stupid move on ubi's part. I mean how easy is it to just add some boobs, long hair and have a female skin use the same mocap as the guys? Shit I see what they are doing, they are going to sell the female assassin as DLC. Genius! When it doesn't sell at all they can then say how poorly it sold and never have to go through this again.

I think it does have to do with the fact that Liberation sold poorly in their eyes due to having a female character and if they would just come out and say that I would honestly be cool with that. I would much rather have some honesty instead of PR damage control.

[Gunstar Green]

I think it does have to do with the fact that Liberation sold poorly in their eyes due to having a female character and if they would just come out and say that I would honestly be cool with that. I would much rather have some honesty instead of PR damage control.

I wouldn't be alright with that excuse even if it is a more honest one.

I mean we're talking about custom characters in this case. It's one thing to not take a financial risk with another female lead if you're dealing with a predefined character that can't be altered. I would like to see more female leads in games, and more effort put into marketing those games, but I can understand that the big publishers care more about a safe profit than advancing cultural norms.

But when you're giving the player the option to customize their character you suddenly lose that excuse. It's sort of an industry standard (and has been for a long freaking time) in games that include character customization. That's why this step back is rubbing so many people the wrong way.

[isiolia]

^
Assassin's Creed Liberation is a good example of that. Put the ethnic female charater on the Vita. Why not a multi console release for that?

It was later released digitally on PS3, 360, and PC as Liberation HD.


The co-op thing from E3 was, far as I know, literally how other people would see you in co-op. To you, you're the established male main character. Always.
As someone who nearly always plays a female character if available, I think that's a fairly reasonable cut for time/budget. The thing worth complaining about, I would say, was effectively the same comment from the Far Cry 4 team, since that would have been a choice for the main character as you see them.

[aaron]

Why am I not surprised that a bunch of straight white guys can't figure out why representation and diversity matter to some people?

Are you suggesting that you're a gay black man? If so, I'm not surprised in the least. You sure are flaming mad...maybe some Prep H?

i seriously hope this results in a warning or something, because that is the most offensive bile i've seen spewed on this forum in my 7 years here. you and anyone else with that mindsent can fuck right the fuck off with that bullshit and take it to IGN or whatever.

[MrEco]

In a semi-objective sense I would say Nintendo won. They showed a lot of games, they were quick to go from one point to the next, they never got bogged down in "business man mode" by talking about sales figures and crap, and they threw in some comedic moments to make the show more exciting (Like the kung-fu fight at the start, or the reference to the Luigi death stare meme).

However, personally, I'd say I liked the games showed off at Sony's stage more. Nintendo certainly had quantity with a large amount of good looking games announced and showed off, and I'm quite convinced that I'll be picking up a Wii U eventually. But in my opinion Sony had better quality games. Bloodborne alone sounds like it's going to be worthy reason to buy a PS4. Also MGS5 looks amazing, and I was super excited to see that Tomb Raider is getting a sequel, though I'll likely be buying that one on PC.

[mjmjr25]

Temp lock again while the pile is sorted through.