Page 2 • Choosing a gender for your game's protagonist • Gaming • General Gaming • Eurogamer.net

Deleted user 18 September 2017 18:49:08

BigOrkWaaagh wrote:

Stuz359 wrote:
What genre is the game though? I mean for example, in Portal it wasn't explicit whether you were male or female and the FP viewpoint didn't give anything away either. Hell the Half-Life games didn't really make a difference if you were Gordon Freeman or Georgina Freeman.
In Portal you are very clearly a woman unless I'm really misremembering?

Yes, definitely a woman.

Edited by DrStrangelove at 18:49:39 18-09-2017

JoelStinty 18 Sep 2017 18:50:09 9,530 posts
Seen 57 minutes ago
Registered 8 years ago

I think the problem you have , from the sounds of it, you don't really understand what it is that even makes someone gender neutral. From your OP, it sounds as though you are using the opportunity to use it just to be different, rather than understanding what it is to be genderless, and how to portray that in game , and what relationships it will have with your audience, some of whom will identify with being gender neutral, or transsexual.

So any attempt by your studio right now to even portray a gender neutral character would fail (unless there is someone who is gender fluid, trans, or neutral and can bring some substance to your character and story), and most likely be picked apart, mainly from people who identify as that label.

The closest thing we have to a genderless character is Link - but the approach to link is that it is just an avatar that is most of the time androgynous , which gives people a chance to paint their view on the world on him. At the end of the day he is a male.

edit: Basically what Nickthegun said in one sentence which i took three paragraphs and 15 minutes to write ....

Edited by JoelStinty at 18:52:29 18-09-2017

Deleted user 18 September 2017 18:50:59

Stuz359 wrote:
I mean for example, in Portal it wasn't explicit whether you were male or female and the FP viewpoint didn't give anything away either.

Well, Valve sort of made a point of Chell being female before the game's release but yeah, if you weren't aware the game didn't tell you (which always made me wonder why they made a point of it to begin with; I assumed it was their way of creating some internet controversy) Portal 2 did though.

Anyway, I'm with the other people on here: if the gender doesn't make any difference to the story, why does it even matter?

I honestly wish people stopped harping on about gender, it's becoming really, really tiresome. Sure it's nice that we get to see strong female leads in media and it's good that the LGBT crowd gets a place in the spotlight but the pendulum has swung the other way entirely IMO.
It's almost gotten to the point where NOT having a female lead or LGBT characters or the token black guys or what else is met with suspicion of prejudice.
We're nearing the levels of ridiculousness of that whole gamergate farce: if you're not openly, vocally and continually supporting one side of the argument then you must clearly be part of the other side and deserving of mockery/judgement/..., right?

elstoof 18 Sep 2017 18:51:37 28,125 posts
Seen 51 minutes ago
Registered 16 years ago

Call the character Eunuch Powell

Decks 18 Sep 2017 18:55:00 31,013 posts
Seen 7 hours ago
Registered 6 years ago

Maybe he can just tuck his penis between his legs like Buffalo Bill. It's a bit a challenge for the animators though admittedly.

Deleted user 18 September 2017 18:56:56

nickthegun wrote:
If you have to ask these questions, are doing it for a marketing exercise and are trotting out phrases like 'PC culture', your implementation of it will be terrible and you will end up pleasing no one.

If you don't believe in it, which you clearly don't, just make it a white guy and call it a day.

This.

Basing such a fundamental decision on what might theoretically appeal to a wide audience will make it feel empty and forced. You should ask yourselves what you think would be cool, what fits best into your game.

I understand the concerns of marketing, but the way you're thinking about your protagonist seems like a recipe for disaster to me.

Blurp 18 Sep 2017 19:01:06 1,447 posts
Seen 10 months ago
Registered 5 years ago

Decks wrote:
Maybe he can just tuck his penis between his legs like Buffalo Bill. It's a bit a challenge for the animators though admittedly.

Do this but make it ambiguous until the big reveal at the end.

Deleted user 18 September 2017 19:04:30

JoeBlade wrote:

Stuz359 wrote:
I mean for example, in Portal it wasn't explicit whether you were male or female and the FP viewpoint didn't give anything away either.
Well, Valve sort of made a point of Chell being female before the game's release but yeah, if you weren't aware the game didn't tell you

JamboWayOh 18 Sep 2017 19:07:58 25,236 posts
Seen 37 minutes ago
Registered 8 years ago

Blurp wrote:

Decks wrote:
Maybe he can just tuck his penis between his legs like Buffalo Bill. It's a bit a challenge for the animators though admittedly.
Do this but make it ambiguous until the big reveal at the end.

Oooh. behave! Saucy.

Dirtbox 18 Sep 2017 19:12:46 92,595 posts
Seen 22 hours ago
Registered 19 years ago

You can see yourself at almost any time in Portal.

dominalien 18 Sep 2017 19:27:53 10,703 posts
Seen 2 hours ago
Registered 15 years ago

Make it a featureless androgynous dummy (marilyn manson is your friend here) then make it develop physical features depending on various player actions.

TurkeyNeck 18 Sep 2017 19:48:41 162 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 5 years ago

I'm with Joeblade on this one

Blurp 18 Sep 2017 19:49:30 1,447 posts
Seen 10 months ago
Registered 5 years ago

dominalien wrote:
Make it a featureless androgynous dummy (marilyn manson is your friend here) then make it develop physical features depending on various player actions.

You've cooked a simple meal. +1 breast.

Blurp 18 Sep 2017 19:49:39 1,447 posts
Seen 10 months ago
Registered 5 years ago

sorry

challenge_hanukkah 18 Sep 2017 19:49:51 14,394 posts
Seen 6 hours ago
Registered 8 years ago

dominalien wrote:
Make it a featureless androgynous dummy (marilyn manson is your friend here) then make it develop physical features depending on various player actions.

Press X to penis.

Deleted user 18 September 2017 20:29:22

TilenM wrote:
It's a stealth 2.5D platformer

finally, a stealth 2.5D platformer!

Load_2.0 18 Sep 2017 22:16:59 33,582 posts
Seen 6 hours ago
Registered 18 years ago

I never play as bitches.

Plus I like my character to have large package.

Fucking hate it when they Ken Doll that shit.

DangerousDave_87 18 Sep 2017 22:37:47 7,074 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 5 years ago

Do you mean Ken Doll or Ken Dodd?

TilenM 19 Sep 2017 11:06:24 24 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 4 years ago

@JoelStinty Yea, I've posted this on 3 different forums and this is the most frequent answer I get, so I think you guys are right. But more than fearing we'd get it wrong, I'm more afraid that it would come out as a joke, which would most definitely be devastating.

Thanks for the response!

TilenM 19 Sep 2017 11:07:30 24 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 4 years ago

@JoeBlade Definitely! Thanks for the response!

TilenM 19 Sep 2017 11:09:14 24 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 4 years ago

@DrStrangelove Yea, that's basically what I was thinking. As I said, the team was devided in half and I was strongly on the opposing side, and luckily, we managed to get our way across.

TilenM 19 Sep 2017 11:11:03 24 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 4 years ago

@dankcushions Are you really excited or are you just being sarcastic?

Deleted user 19 September 2017 11:32:39

If 2.5D means it's based on the Doom engine, I'm in

Salaman 19 Sep 2017 11:44:27 24,162 posts
Seen 6 days ago
Registered 17 years ago

I don't quite get the problem. If you're doing a 2.5D stealth game (whatever 2.5D may be) and your question is whether making the player model androgynous rather than clearly male or clearly female, without it affecting the story or gameplay in any way, I'd go back and worry about other things that matter.

Is the core gameplay fun, did we fix the worst bugs, are there no sudden difficulty spikes where people will just give up and abandon the game, are cutscenes skippable... ?

BigOrkWaaagh 19 Sep 2017 12:07:50 10,554 posts
Seen 1 hour ago
Registered 14 years ago

As a platformer 2.5D would be 3D models on a 2D plane, a la New Super Mario Bros.

Daryoon 19 Sep 2017 15:04:38 5,912 posts
Seen 4 hours ago
Registered 20 years ago

As someone who identifies as gender-neutral in real life....

I don't think you should do it unless it's important to the plot/gameplay. If it's just cosmetic and you want a character that both genders can identify with, go for something androgynous, like Link. And get a breadth of female opinion. It's easy to fall into the trap of "guys devise character they believe will appeal to women" without ever asking women what appeals to them.

Deleted user 19 September 2017 18:26:43

It also depends on camera choice. If it's third person, make it a hot chick wearing a bikini.

JamboWayOh 19 Sep 2017 18:48:56 25,236 posts
Seen 37 minutes ago
Registered 8 years ago

DrStrangelove wrote:
It also depends on camera choice. If it's third person, make it a hot chick wearing a bikini.

I actually remember a 360 game with two bikini wearing samurai. Can't remember the name but the gameplay was as miniscule as the bikinis on display.

quadfather 19 Sep 2017 19:42:06 39,069 posts
Seen 3 days ago
Registered 11 years ago

I just like looking at women's bottoms.

Choosing a gender for your game's protagonist • Page 2