Now you know how women might feel because the majority of games feature a male hero ... Gothic, for example, The Witcher, too ...
Venetica - Review @ GameSpot
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KapitanUnterhosen
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"Venetica - It will make you feel like a woman." Tagline for the game right there.
I am aware and do appreciate that mainstream RPGs are made primarily with men in mind(straight, gay or otherwise nowadays).
As soon as they try to go sims medieval I'll give up gaming altogether.
I am aware and do appreciate that mainstream RPGs are made primarily with men in mind(straight, gay or otherwise nowadays).
As soon as they try to go sims medieval I'll give up gaming altogether.
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Funny, I feel the opposite: I had no problem playing this action hero girl in Venetica, however I tend to avoid female characters in Bio games, where male NPCs constantly tease the player. Now that's something I cannot tolerate.
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Nerevarine
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"Worst of all?" Wow. How "open-minded" of you...I actually find it much more strange that people like you want to break the immersion of a game by playing as a sex object when they play as a female in RPGs - almost no clothing, absurdly busty, etc - rather than step into a a believable female character. Considering how women are often portrayed in games, it's no wonder this hobby alienates women. I applaud the developers of Venetica for creating a believable female character who is not just a sex object, even though I very rarely play as a female character in games unless it's the only choice like in Venetica. It was refreshing to see a female character portrayed as a believable person rather than a lonely nerd's sex fantasy.
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KapitanUnterhosen
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Well I obviously don't play as a female in BIO rpgs either, find it easy enough to assume bioware just lazily plays swap-a-part with the PC's genitalia same as they do with its sexuality and that given the context you're no more sexualized as a female than you are as a male.
Whoa there, batty boy, what part of "I don't enjoy pretending to be a woman" don't you understand?
Women as sex objects? How in-congruent, huge immersion breaker. Now how is it worse than playing as a total male stud again?
Yeah… I didn't like Cooking Mama either.
I shed a sincere tear for the sims-playing female whordes.
What RPG has only sexually objectified females? What RPG has you play just a sexual object? Why does Venetian Lara Croft deserve praise?
So you don't like pretending to be a woman but you cheer them on when they make games where you have to? Do you also applaud Bethesda for "streamlining" their games so the halo crowd is no longer "alienated" by this hobby?
Stop hating your penis.
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KapitanUnterhosen
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I am afraid of this female protagonist crap catching on, yes, I am afraid that design leads, marketers and investors will look at the sims, the wii casual games, the facebook games and put two and two together and sincerely try to appeal to that huge untapped female player market with rpgs(and let's face it, women will click with roleplaying), the same way they successfully manage to appeal to console players with rpgs.
It's bad enough when an rpg doesn't give you a choice of gender, but then instead of a blank slate it also gives you a full background with a given sexuality and love interest and a story around that? Even in the dragon age elf origin you could tell your partner to be to piss off from the start.
It's bad enough when an rpg doesn't give you a choice of gender, but then instead of a blank slate it also gives you a full background with a given sexuality and love interest and a story around that? Even in the dragon age elf origin you could tell your partner to be to piss off from the start.
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Grow up. There has always been a proportion of RPGs that have locked you into a single protagonist. Some are among the favorite games of a lot of people here (Witcher, Gothic), but yes, one could say thatbthese are designed mainly with male players in mind. With 50% of the population being female it is high time we see a departure from male stereotypes in this genre as well. Judging from my experience with literature and film, that could only be a good thing. Maybe a first step to explore content beyond escapist power fantasies - high time for that, too. If Capt'n underpants can't stand these yet to be made gamed he could alway just not buy them, eh?
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D
DArtagnan
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While I strongly prefer a male protagonist, it's obviously for the best to have both options.
I don't mind developers making female-only protagonists - but that's because I don't feel they have to target me when they make games.
In this case, with Venetica, I don't mind at all - because I found the game itself incredibly boring.
I don't mind developers making female-only protagonists - but that's because I don't feel they have to target me when they make games.
In this case, with Venetica, I don't mind at all - because I found the game itself incredibly boring.
Insecure much? Stop larping, no character you lead in any videogame is you. Or are you a: space marine; italian plumber; professional thief; assassin from a secret society etc.?
Sure that this person is actually male ?
With which reasoning do you expect a gamer answering to your posting to be automatically male ?
And the Witcher ... laying down women ... don't you believe it would be alienating female gamers to see members of their sex to be portraited as "sex symbols", so to say ?
Immature male gamers cry out lout when they see their manhood being damaged ...
As an assassin from a secret society myself, I never play RPGs where I can´t play one.
.
As for Venetica, regardless of main protagonist´s gender, imo the game falls in the similar category as 2W2 - mediocre at best and ultimately forgettable, even though it has some good points (premise, some quite unique mechanics, city design).
One could say that in The Witcher it´s actually the protagonist who is "sex symbol"/objectified - among other things he´s sterile and that makes him a good target for women who want to have a good time without consequences
.As for Venetica, regardless of main protagonist´s gender, imo the game falls in the similar category as 2W2 - mediocre at best and ultimately forgettable, even though it has some good points (premise, some quite unique mechanics, city design).
One could say that in The Witcher it´s actually the protagonist who is "sex symbol"/objectified - among other things he´s sterile and that makes him a good target for women who want to have a good time without consequences
Yes, maybe, but have you ever tried to reverse-deduce it ? I mean what I call an "Umkehrschluß".
Or, let me put it like this : What does it tell about the maker's perceiving of women if they create a setting like this ?
On the other hand, I must admit that there are things like that in real world ... The so-called "groupies" [this might be a German-language term for it] ...
That would depend on weather it would be a good crpg
. I doubt a good crpg could be made with such a protagonist but you never know. Maybe a malevolent wizard has cast a spell in the beginning of the game, transforming my character into a toyball. The gameplay would consist of either trying desperately to roll away from playful dogs and evil toddlers, using stealth to hide or using bounce attacks if you are more of an akshun loving player. Fuck, sounds more like a platformer than an rpg. Guess it's my limited imagination.
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KapitanUnterhosen
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Let's take a look at that proportion over the past 10 years' hits:
Arcanum: You can play as a woman
Baldur's Gate 2: You can play as a woman
Gothic: You can't play as a woman, no forced sexuality
Divine Divinity: You can play as a woman
Dungeon Siege(cough): You can play as a woman
Morrowind: You can play as a woman
Gothic II: You can't play as a woman, no forced sexuality
Neverwinter Nights: You can play as a woman
KOTOR: You can play as a woman
Sacred: You can play as a woman
Dungeon Siege II(double cough): You can play as a woman
Vampire Bloodlienes: You can play as a woman
Oblivion: You can play as a woman
Gothic 3: You can't play as a woman, no forced sexuality
Neverwinter Nights 2: You can play as a woman
Jade Empire: You can play as a woman
The Witcher: You play as a bitcher, NO forced sexuality
Drakensang: You can play as a woman
Fallout 3: You can play as a woman
Dragon Age: You can play as a woman
Risen: You can't play as a woman, no forced sexuality
Alpha Protocol: You can't play as a woman, no forced sexuality
Divinity 2: You can play as a woman
Mass Effect 2: You can play as a woman
KOTOR2; You can play as a woman
You know what that says? Bullshit.
More than three quarters of these games allow you to play as a woman and if there are romance options for males there are options for females too.
Almost all the successful non-euro ones allow you to play as a woman. None of the games where you're forced to play as a man force you into any kind of romance or sexuality, they also try to make your character a blank slate(Risen, AP) or otherwise amnesiac(witcher).
Women are given the same options as men in the majority of rpgs despite being a minority. Claiming they're underrepresented is ridiculous. If anything genders and sexualities that are minorities compared to the target audience are over-represented in rpgs.
Yet here you are defending a rubbish game that not only forces you into the role of a woman, but also makes it a woman in love with her husband-to-be who valiantly sacrifices himself to save his loved one, and in whose sake she's about to undertake an enormous quest to bring him back from the dead, all within the first 5 minutes of the game.
I don't see how the fact that there are as many women as men has any relevance to this discussion.
Such as? The genre mostly puts you in the role of a glorified male or female vermin exterminator. I can't remember the last time I heroically saved a damsel in distress in an rpg.
My experience with film and literature is that there are genres both genders like equally and then there are genres that please one more than the other. In both media the genre that more closely resembles our rpgs(fantasy epics, scifi, action movies) please men more than they do women. And when studios like Bioware try to appeal to women they do so by drawing from the genres that stereotypically please women more than men: romance for romance's sake.
And if Capt'n underpants can't stand these yet to be quest compassed games he could always just not buy them, eh? And if Capt'n underpants can't stand these yet to be completely level-scaled games he could always just not buy them, eh? And if Capt'n underpants can't stand these yet to be completely extreme-in-your-face games he could always just not buy them, eh?
I've grown old already, you try growing beyond half-baked notions of political correctness.
Because Nerevarine showed a preference for playing as a man unless playing as a woman is the only choice?
With which reasoning do you think Nerevarine would have to be a man just because of a penis? Could legally be a woman, you bigot.
Hogwash, it was all humorous side-content and if you took it seriously it'd be just as demeaning to men.
Don't worry, in order not to offend sensibilities du jour there is no more sex in the Witcher 2, just love, and artistic vision takes second place to prudish interests.
I AM MAN, HEAR ME ROAR!
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