FIFA 16, Women's Soccer, and Internet Outrage

FIFA 16 is to feature women's soccer for the first time. Depressingly, a backlash quickly followed the announcement.

[mafiahajeri]

Can't wait to see the hair... and ... Other physics in action!

[Gedes]

Well, wait a second... The women's teams can't play against the men's teams? It would seem like that would be harder to code than to allow any team to play each other. This seems like a silly limitation.

[AHall88]

Then people would cry that the women are rated to low if they were allowed to play against the men's teams.

[rainslacker]

I dunno if it's harder to code. Characters/teams are just model changes on a singular object base with stats attached to them to determine their abilities within the game, and maybe some player specific stuff like animations thrown in, although that isn't likely true for the vast majority of players.

I dunno why it matters if womens and mens teams can play each other. They don't do this outside the game. It would be cool if it was offered. I don't know if women have a distinct disadvantage physically over men in Soccer, but female soccer players can be just as good as male ones. But there are people who may complain that a woman could be overpowered by a physically aggressive male player. That's not sexist, just a fact of that men, for the most part, are simply physically stronger than women, particularly those in peak physical condition outside of extreme cases.

[Tankbusta40]

This article is written by a SJW...putting women in the game is fine but 98% of people who play fifa will not play as a woman's team unless it's for a joke...I highly doubt it will create more sales, if that was the case nba2k would put wnba teams in and mlb the show would college softball . the fact of the matter is, women's sports simply don't have enough following to warrant being in a video game.

[Yi-Long]

'Soccer' has a pretty big following among young girls in the USA, plus it's still gaining in popularity elsewhere.

I don't really understand the 'outrage', nor do I agree with it. I believe this is a positive development, both for the game itself, as well as sending the message to gamers and aports fans worldwide that women also have their place in sports, and thus also should have representation in games depicting those sports.

[iistuii]

Yep, my daughter is good at football & plays FIFA & she is looking forward to it. They are skillful, don't dive around cheating all the time & if you don't want to play with the 12 teams, then don't. I agree, it's an added extra/option, don't know what the fuss is about.

[klarax]

You know what. I never though about that demographic before.

This will help sales :)

[rainslacker]

I think it's a positive as well. Options are never bad. I always wonder why people complain about more content, particularly if they can just ignore it.

@Tank

In some sports this couldn't be done due to the fact that there is actually separate licensing involved. Like for NBA2K you would need both the NBA and WNBA titles.

I know women's sports are becoming more popular, and more women are getting into sports more traditionally dominated by men, and that's great. I think adding in women for young girls, or adult women, to choose to play is just fine. It doesn't change the game, and just gives more options to more people.

The people wanting to complain about the inclusion have so far not made a single reasonable argument on why it's a bad thing that I've seen. Those that think it doesn't go far enough, well back off. Rome wasn't built in a day, and EA pushes these games out once a year. It'll get better....at least as better as it can get under EA's direction. It's like some people don't know that there is a huge list of problems that people have with EA sport franchises, and this is probably the very bottom of the list for most of them.

[submarinna]

Fifa 16 nude mods for PC incoming >:)

[scark92]

Its inevitable isn't it!

[kraenk12]

The internet is an even more ugly place than reality.

[Ickythump31]

the problem is not with adding female soccer teams, the problem is that that's all they have announced so far and they have not said anything about fixing any of the problems with the game (most likely because they are not going to) It's ea and this game sells well, they won't have to upgrade the graphics or the gameplay to make sales.

[rainslacker]

Guess I'll ask then, why is the inclusion of women in the game relevant to all the other problems in the game? Does adding women change the other problems? Does it make them worse or better?

I understand people are upset that EA is doing this instead of fixing other problems, and to them I actually don't have an issue with, but I have also seen a lot of stupid comments on why it's not needed or not wanted, mostly to be hateful or incitement. From the opposite end I've also seen people saying that EA hasn't gone far enough to be representative of women, and to them I get annoyed because all of a sudden they feel that their representation is more important to all the people who have been complaining about EA sports games for years.

[pompombrum]

The problem isn't that people don't want women in fifa, the problem is that there are so many things in fifa that many would consider a more justified use of resources. If this is just a small additional to a new feature packed fifa, then most won't mind it's that chances are, there won't be much more new stuff to actually get excited for outside of FUT.

[Chivas11]

Guess will have to wait till next year for EA to fix the gameplay, especially the fouling system

[dcj0524]

Wait. All their doing is changing the models and stats. What's the big deal about adding females? It's literally the same game.

[scark92]

If there is a setting where you can replace the ball with Sepp Blatter's head, I may purchase it!

[showtimefolks]

So instead of improving the game and fixing many issues the resources were spent on this? Marketing scheme written all over it

Women sports where majority of fans attending are men

Men sports where a huge fan base is made up of females

Doesn't make any sense. Why don't the ladies support their leagues?

Sepp blatter's head should be offered as a dlc to use instead of a soccer ball. Now that's genius marketing scheme

[rainslacker]

"Doesn't make any sense. Why don't the ladies support their leagues?"

Because in the end, sex sells. For all the moral uprightedness in politically charged statements, most people are still driven by their hormones, and they'd rather look at prime sexually desirable members of the opposite sex than people of the same sex they have to compete with.

[Lord Nukem]

Don't see what the problem is, women's football is more entertaining than men's Scottish football :D

[Thefreeman012]

Haha I wouldnt go THAT far but yes I agree there shouldnt be a problem. this is a subject thats needed to be addressed for a long time... hopefully they will address career mode... I miss virtual player and being able to get different sponsors

[ShaunCameron]

As long as your expectations are low, then yeah! :D

[urwifeminder]

They need a corruption sim within Fifa games lol .