They Didn't Wear Pink In 'Nam: Why FPS Doesn't Need Female Characters

For the longest time, FPS has been dominated by the males. I can’t tell you how many comments I get from women who say, “I don’t play FPS because it’s so violent and angry.” Hence, these companies don’t feel the need to cater to a female audience. However, with the surfacing of more and more ladies like myself, who favor shooters, I feel like it can only be a matter of time before one (or all) of these companies start adding options to play as a woman.

[josephps3]

I'll confess, I just clicked on it because of the ass. I have nothing else to say. :)

[Janitor]

Don't feel bad, without ass the internet would just be cat pics.

[knowyourstuff]

lol I know right.
At least this girl, or at least I think the author is a girl, has some sense. Having the option to play as a female is fine if it's appropriate, but do we need the option to play as females during the vietnam or second world war when it would detract from historical accuracy? Do we need to play as a female race car driver, as if that really makes a difference with the helmet and jump suit? Like the author says, females should be included where it's appropriate, like in RPG's, not shooters.

If you're dying to play as a female in a first person shooter just to see slightly skinnier arms, you've been playing for wayyyyy too long now, and need to play something else. That's just complete and utter boredom, and you're so jaded you don't even realize it.

[X-Factor]

Then My Job Here Is Done! The Ass Pic Worked!!! :-)

Although it totally applies. They ARE wearing PINK, and they are GAMING!

Nothin wrong with clickin' for the ass. It's a beautiful thing!

LOL!!!

[ATi_Elite]

Totally clicked for the picture!

what's this stupid article about again (didn't bother to read it cause i just wanted to see the pic)

[doogiebear]

Everybody dislike his site. What a douch bag.

[PoSTedUP]

i can see one company experimenting with it. but then you have to realize that to add that option changes the whole game (depends on how far they want to take it). and also the time and money it would take to create such a game: pay someone to voice act as a female, pay the people developing for longer hours creating female character/all the female animations, now the dialogue and other characters in the game have to react to a female character which now you have to go and change other characters dialogue etc.

it would be cool, but who's going to take that risk? will it increase sales because it will appeal to more female gamers or will it not even matter because there aren't as many girl gamers a there are men and the girls who play FPS are going to buy MWF3 if that. it's a great option, but companys just want to make money, they wont care about something like that if it might not/won't benefit them.

[ARBitrator]

Completely see your point but what I think should be a bigger question for the developers are "do you they want to sell their products to female gamers?" If they answer that with yes, then why shouldn't they want to add female characters. We know they didn't wear pink in Nam, they also didn't have fat ass little boys sitting on couches pressing red green and yellow buttons to get guns to fire either.

It's a game, let's not mix the two. Being that it's a game, I think it would be cool having female characters in it. I play games with females all the time and although it's not a deal breaker with them, they often comment on how there are never any female characters.

Here's a question, what would most dudes say if they were playing games when there were 10 female characters to choose from and 1 or 2 male characters, from my experience, they would whine like babies.

[PoSTedUP]

agreed with your first paragraph.

n i mean there are more male characters than female, but there are games with female characters, HS, heavy rain, wet, mirrors edge, tomb raider etc.

and to your third, that's really the point tho, yes the dudes will bitch and moan, but they are the main audience when it comes to those games/ games in general. girl gamers are still the minority for the simply fact that most girls dont like/ play videogames like that hence the few choices of female characters. but at the same time developers dont make it a male character to appeal to the male audience ; they creat what they envision/what suites their vision and well, most game developers are male.

[ARBitrator]

Good post I agree with it 100%. Still, it won't hurt to add female characters to the game. Even if they were added as downloadable content whereas women gamers could pay a buck or two to have a female character in a game where it would typically be male characters. It would be interesting to see how many would pay for the DLC character, they would definitely provide feedback into whether it matters to them or not.

Imagine if Heavenly Sword gave your an option to use a mail or female character. Nariko and Kai are both unisex names which would have allowed to verbage of the game to stay in tact.

Just saying.

[hazelamy]

so you don't care?

many of us do care.
gaming is no longer the boys club it used to be.

while it's true, it would be silly to feature female soldier in a vietnam game, because they weren't any, at least not on one side, because there were Vietnamese women fighting.

but with all these modern day or near future fps games out or on the way there's no reason why women shouldn't be playing an active combat role in these games.

there are armies that allow their women to take frontline combat roles.
Australia recently announced they would be allowing their women to take any role in their army, including combat.
the Australian army fought beside the US in Vietnam by the way.

they go for realism in these games then postulate a future where women are still being kept out of many branches of the military when in fact women are, slowly, finding more of their army open to them.

sadly though some backwards regimes still limit the careers or their female soldiers.
like the US and UK.
still at least Obama ended that anti gay rule the US army had.
the british army got rid of their no gays rule over ten years ago, though i understand that was forced on them by an eu court of human rights ruling, i guess not all the laws handed down from europe are bad.

now though they've realised a gay soldier can contribute just as much as a straight one.
they just have to realise women can do so too.

anyway, back on topic, what really annoys me is when they promote a game with extensive customisation options, then only include men.
i mean, in the stereotype it's the girls that like to play dress up right?
not the guys.

the "it's too much work" excuse doesn't wash with me either.
if they don't think that's worth the time and effort it would take to create, then i have to wonder what else they thought was too hard and so didn't bother with, and will tend to avoid those games anyway.

the one that's really got me pissed off though is the Gearbox Colonial Marines game.
there are no playable women in that.
which frankly if you know anything about the Alien series is just not on

it's based on Aliens more than any of the other, and there were several female marines in that film.
without even mentioning the fact every film in the series has has a women in the lead, half the time she's the only survivor.

making an alien game and making it men only is disrespecting the franchise and the cultural impact it's had.

[DrNikki]

I can agree with everything you just said. IF they can make the characters accurate, and respectful. MY problem with female characters in some games is the unrealistic image. It feels like some games have the option there purely for sex appeal. For MEN. And, I don't want game developers to feel like they have to appeal or cater to us, just because we're surfacing more and more in the gaming industry. I want developers to include it as an option, if it's fitting, respectful, tasteful, and accurate to the actual game. I also agree with your comments on Alien. The main character is a CHICK! COME ON!!! However, when it comes to FPS like Halo and Duty, there would be no reason to include a female character. You wouldn't even be able to see her, and it would be a pointless addition, solely to appease gaming chicks. I don't need them to do that to have games appeal to me, they already do that. But I appreciate your opinion, and you stated it rather well, with a lot of great points. I'm just glad to see some more ladies with a healthy interest in games!