Famale Charchters in Videogames: The Opposite of "attractive" would it work?

[Wooderson]

Nuff said

[MyRedNeptune]

Dark Side, I think the key to creating a good character in your case would be to approach her characterization from a neutral point of view. Characterize her as an individual, not a "female". Give her a believable personality. Problems arise when creators use their characters to portray their opinion on what a woman "should be" (the concept of which is sexist in itself). Good luck!

[the dark side]

hey guys i am sorry i am so late.

anyway, before i go into big details, and answer your posts, first, i need to explain why i am worried. The big issue every game project faces is, "the publishers" who, naturally, want the best sales
possible, seeing as my project is liscence lease from me, I own the copywrite
100% which means any publisher who has the cajones to take it on has to obey my
rules and decisions or they will loose the copyright and get fined, that means
they have to put up with what is already, a pretty restricted sales number,
owing to my decision to not only give them game some rather old fashioned
gameplay mechanics as that is what my target audience prefers, but also make it
PC exclusive, so that means I’ve got to be careful to not damage sales any
further, sure, i will only need 1.5 millon sales to get a sequel rather then 30
million, but, ive got to ensure i get those 1.5 million without "selling
out".

@hirnwirbel, I should be ok on the audience front, as the
game is aimed at older Gamers who remember titles such as No One Lives Forever
(and its sequal!), the earlier James Bond FPS titles such as Goldeneye 64, Agent
Under Fire, Nightfire, etc, Perfect Dark 64, the first 2 Soldier Of Fortune Titles,. Medal of Honour Allied Assault and Frontline, etc. so yeah, its target audience is older, possibly parents themselves, so they should find the character,
as she is very vulnerable and sweet, rather adorable, for the same reasons the
main player character also finds her so.

As for the Main Player character himself. well, he is a tall muscular guy in his late 20’s
with dark hair, as per quite a few of those images. Who all seem to look like
they fell out of a GQ magazine. But, he also wears glasses and has a crooked
nose, along with a few other natural details, as he’s meant to look like what
he is. A hard, emotionally reserved, tough and professional British Government
Operative, based a little on Clive Owen, and not some pretty boy All American
Hero.

redneptune, thanks, I will need it! Don’t worry. The lady in question is based on
a real person, two people actually, both of who I know or knew and have adored.
She is designed to be as believable as possible, as I actually created her to
raise autism awareness,. So she needs to be believable or its not going to
work, hence I have based her on 2 people I have cherished, (who also happened
to be on the autism spectrum) to ensure she is a realistic character, and not
just based her one some adolescent fantasy wish list, and indeed, I have
created her as an individual,, non conformist, bizarre, clumsy and totally
unique.

@Tommyboypsp

Thanks. Don’t worry, you don’t have to look after her every 10 seconds, I HATE “babysitting” missions as much as any gamer, as they are just a cheap and nasty way to artificially up the games difficulty, as well as
increase its lifespan. Seeing as mine lacks any form of mid level checkpoints,
because I believe they make games way to easy, and thus boring, the last thing
the player is going to want is some damnable escort mission. She appears only in cutscenes were the player character
visits his office, or playable “RPG” style sections in the same location, owing
to her career as the player characters secretary.

Define “extremely fat” though please? To some people, that could be anything over six 6, were as to others as
heavy as 18 stone could be seen as “just cuddly”, if I know peoples definition
of “too large” I can work out were her 4 foot 8 , 14 stone frame fits

I cant tell you much about the character, but I can tell you
what attributes she takes from the pair of real people she is based on, but, that’s
another post later tonite as this one is getting too big and people may not
bother to read it all.

Speaking of that....

@chronofox,. Yes, I am aware of that, but, I have not got
the faintest idea how to explain everything I feel needs to be explained in a
smaller post. That’s a good question you asked. So yeah, ill leave this thread
open for a bit, see how people answer it.

Then ill tell you all about my character so you can tell me if she would work
[size=medium][font=Arial]So, for now people, while I crack into word and start
creating a forum friendly description of the character to post later, please
answer. “can videogames that feature unnatractive female characters sell?”

Thanks all. Sorry to keep you all on tentahooks,


TDS

[the dark side]

no takers?

ok, as promised.

The Chrachter herself is based on 2 girls in my life, Suzanne and Sarah, both aspergirls, both people i have adored or do adore in Sarah's case.

physically she borrows primarily from Suzanne as i remember her. The Charachter is 4 foot 8 high , and weighs 14 stone, she has long blonde hair that she has held up in 2 large bunches at the side, her eyes are green, she has long, delicate eyelashes. she has a high forehead. she has large cheeks, a flat jawline, a broad nose, upturned at the nostrils slightly, her 2 front teeth are naturally prognatheous ("rabbit teeth" to use a very painfull description) and large ears.she has a band of freckles stretching from cheek to cheek across her nose, she is short sighted and needs glasses to see.

in a trait borrowed from both, she is incredibly clumsy, she moves her arms in huge sweeping gestures that can knock things over, and she has an usual walk that looks more like a waddle as she often rubs the sides of her knees together when walking, she is also prone to falling over her own two feet, she often accidently walks into things. she has incredibly poor balance, she cannot ride a bike or stand on one leg, she also needs to hold onto stair rails with both hands, she is forever dropping things, her hand eye co-ordination is very poor, she has trouble doing buttons, cant hold a pen correctly, and try as hard as she might, she still cannot tie her own shoelaces up (so she leaves them dragging when they come undone, wich sometimes trips her up) although the main charachter helps her there (in the same way i used to have to help suzanne, and still have to help sarah, with the same problem) .

in terms of personality, she is based on both girls. she is very sweet natured, she is kind, loving, and very freindly when you get to know her, but she is also painfully shy, and she refuses to talk to strangers, she has great difficulty with trust, when encountering a stranger or an unknown situation she will become incredibly frightened, she will curl up into a ball and shake in fear. she speaks with a lisp, and she talks very quietly (somthing taken from sarah) as loud voices, even her own, hurt her ears, she is incredibly sensative to pain, she doesnt like loud noises, hates being hot, and a slight bump would be agony for her. she is quite childish, laughing at childlike jokes, and she loves to play around,. she loves to fidget, and has a large number of rubber "tangles" on her desk to fidget with, she never sits still. she loves 1980s synth pop music. she absolutly adores animals, and has posters of them around the walls of her office, her favoruite being the Orca wale.

she is very emotionally confused, she is easilly upset by things, such as changes to her routine, wich can send her into a meltdown (a complete loss of all emotional controll) and is incredibly sensative to what people say to her, she has difficulty with empathy for other people, and finds it impossible to tell what other people are thinking by looking at them as she cannot "read" body lanquage, she can often show the wrong emotions to certain stimuli, for example, she might laugh at something everyone else feels sad about. she responds best when someone talks to her in a bright, happy voice, and explains things in detail to her.

she strongly dislikes any sort of change in her routine, she is ok with change if it is explained to her step by step and taken very slowly.

she is obsessed with being clean, if any dirt gets on her she will become upset and try to claw it off, and she will start to shake and sob.

like suzanne, she loves to be cuddled, but she hates anyone or anything touching her shoulders, it makes her skin CRAWL, she also cannot stand to have her feet touched, so she refuses to wear socks, and just puts her shoes onto bare feet.

like many people with aspergers, she is easilly confused unless instructions are given to her precisely. but she is a very hard worker when she understands as she puts her entire concetration on what she is to do, and will not stop until it is finished to an incredibly high standard, her reports are clear, highly detailed, free from spelling or typographical errors (taken from sarah), she is obsessed with correct wording and punctuation, she can rewrite a sentance 90 times until its right.

she is an incredibly moral person, A Methodist Christian (shown via a small cross on a gold necklace) she doesnt drink, smoke, nor take drugs, she is still virginal, and beleives that marriage must come first. her morals are unshakable, and she gets angry and upset when she sees people who do not follow them as she cannot understand how they can live without her morals.

she is an extremely intelligent individual, obsessed with high level mathematical puzzles, her encryptions on files are based on a mathematical system of her own design combining logical binary, algebra, and metacalculus. it has been described by several computer experts as ubreakable, as she then encrypts it further, using her immense knowledge of outer space and astro-physical constellations, into the form of a star chart, with both the chart and file needing to be decrypted simultaneously. she also has a photographic memory, she is an Avid Reader, and has an encyclopeadiac knowledge of maths, animals, and outer space, however, these are also the only things she likes to talk about,. and will do so in incredible detail, and is oblivious to the other person being bored.

in a trait taken from sarah, she adores fantasy, and loves to read books from fantasy authors, and she loves playing table top RPG games such as dungeons and dragons, with a few close freinds.

like a number of aspergirls, and like the 2 she is based on, she is incredibly dependant on other people, she is scared of situations she doesnt know, cannot drive, needs help getting dressed, can often forget about her hygine and needs to be reminded as she will have other things, like maths puzzles, on her mind, she is very delicate and sensative, and has a very "girlish" personality, loving things like flowers and animals, and being incredibly sensative, liable to burst into tears at the slightest upset. she is unable to cope without someone to look after her, and she is frightened by this ideal of tough, indipendant women put across by femenist groups, as she cannot cope with being independant, and she is too sensative to be tough, she hates the idea of upsetting anyone, she wants to be nice to everyone, in the way a child does.

her favourite colour is pink (sarahs fave colour)

like suzanne, she is an incredibly fussy eater, as she hates certain food textures, especially things that feel slimey, such as baked beans, thick gravy, eggs, and other similar foodstuffs.

well, thats pretty much her. what worries me is, although she is 100% authentic aspergirl, wich suits her pupose of raising autism awareness in the games media via an adorable charachter, i am worried if people may be put of the game due to her presence in some cutscenes, either by her appearance, or if they find her charachter traits, wich i find adorable, in the same way i find her inspirations adorable in real life, to be embarassing, i am also worried about an incredibly negative backlash from pro femenist media who wont understand that she is a virtual incarnation of 2 real life girls with learning difficulties from my life (both of whom have given me permission to write all this, its why it took so long for me to do, as i had to get permission), and will flame me from here to utopia and back for creating a charachter who is sensative, girly, and very dependant on others, and if i may be portrayed as some "male chauvanist pig who doesnt understand that women are strong and dont need men anymore" and that i have created a "disgusting charachter, a throwback to the days of weak damsels in distress and an offense to womanhood", wich could lead to the game getting boycotted, DESPITE 2 much stronger female charachters, one being the Player Charachters Boss, also being in the game.

well, thanks, take a look, will she work? or will she damage the sales? but please, remember one thing, she is based on people i love, and i would sooner ABANDON the entire project than change one asset about her. so, err, some advice on getting the publishers to accept her as she is, and her purpose, autism awareness, so she can be put into the game unchanged would be most appreciated..
TDS

[Rapture]

Men like to look at good attractive females, what else can be said?

Spoiler below!

Blame Hollywood for sterotypes.

[Bridge]

Men like to look at good attractive females, what else can be said?

Women do too.

[Tiger]

Nuff said

Nuff said

[Acies]

Memorable character (for me):


First hits on google shows this though:




hahaha. Why?

Probably...

[Macgyverthehero]

Maybe game/film developers should look at the female protagonist Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourny Weaver) from the Alien franchise for inspiration.

She is a good example of a character that has more brains than breasts.

[Adny]

TDS, for someone who supposedly has a degree in business and marketing, the concept of a target demographic seemed to go right over your head.