Frictional Games Forum (read-only)

I think I've got a legitimate opinion here

So here we have a female (at least I assume it's a female), in a very out spoken and aggressive fashion, complaining that frictional has not released a female protagonist in the 4 games they released. After reading her post, I started thinking to myself: "I wonder how people are gonna reply to this." But alas the very first reply comment I see goes something like this: "You're an idiot."

Really? So this is what it's gonna be? Boys being all defensive for no good reason? Fortunately a few others after that were much more sensitive and reasonable, but there were still some comments that was just silly: "By the way, there was an incredible AAA survival horror game with a female lead that came out about 10 years ago." What? That's supposed to make things better? Dude! That was 10 years ago!! That's a terrible example!

I also noticed some comments stating that the guys at Frictional and TCR are mostly male which is why they can't do a female protagonist. this is also a silly reason. If you're a competent writer you MUST be able to write convincing female leads.

In short, Tombcool probably was asking for trouble posting a comment on such a sensitive matter...but lets face it: He/She has a very good point. I mean, imaging if 90% of all games were catered for girls. I'm not gonna lie, that would kinda suck

This has already been said before: It doesn't matter who we play as (male or female). I'm not gonna be less immersed if i'm playing as a female (eg: Portal, Portal 2, Amnesia:Justine, etc...) But to say that aMfP can't work if it has a female lead is just plain dumb. It could be a mother instead, and her husband is responsible for all the bad stuff that happened and she has to rise to the challenge to save her boys. I don't know about you guys but that actually still sounds engaging and perhaps even more intense. With a little imagination it can be done. Don't say it can't because that's just short sighted.

So that's what I have to say about the issue...Please don't hurt me.

The fact that OP demands a female character, and when there is one in Justine just dismisses it as "not counting because it wasn't long enough", that kind of makes himself sexist and clearly making a difference whether the protagonist is a male or female.

Tomb Raider with her big balloons is sexist, a horror game is sexist just because the protagonists are male? No. You only even see his hands.

(09-11-2013, 11:42 AM)lllDash Wrote: [ -> ]So here we have a female

I'm not sure OP is a female. Hasn't been made clear. (Not that it matters though, right?)

(09-11-2013, 11:55 AM)Babomancer Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-11-2013, 11:42 AM)lllDash Wrote: [ -> ]So here we have a female

I'm not sure OP is a female. Hasn't been made clear. (Not that it matters though, right?)

You could very well be right

(09-11-2013, 09:16 AM)Streetboat Wrote: [ -> ]There's a difference in fiction between basing it in reality, and creating your own reality. I believe the stronger fictional story would be one that is grounded in reality, but has fantasy/fictional elements in it. They aren't actually real, but they feasibly could be.

This is a principle often used by sci-fi and classic horror authors by the way. Have the world real and then infect it with something unreal. The rest is writing down what might happen through this infection. This is also why they are able to really frighten us. (Lovely example that is not Lovecraft for once: Stanislaw Lems "Man from Mars".)

I'm a male who prefers female protagonist especially if the game is in third person. They fit well to RPG and games with a lot of action (Action Girl trope.)

However you gotta understand that this game is based on to a real history with some fictional elements in it. At that era the game is based on, you didn't see many businesswomen around those parts of the world.

I'll just leave this here:

''Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex.[1] Sexist attitudes may stem from traditional stereotypes of gender roles,[2][full citation needed] and may include the belief that a person of one sex is intrinsically superior to a person of the other.[3] A job applicant may face discriminatory hiring practices, or (if hired) receive unequal compensation or treatment compared to that of their opposite-sex peers.[4] ''

Source

I love this thread... Just to throw this out there, my full conversion of which I have not released any information on whatsoever will be featuring a FEMALE as the lead character. I hope this floats everyone's boats.

How subtle.

No one is putting up barricades to prevent the creation of female protagonists in video games, directly or indirectly, which is obvious when you look at how many games do feature a female protagonist. Even if it were the case that women are deliberately being kept out of the boys' club, there are more important, less "first world" problems we could be focusing on with regards to sexism in this industry. The salaries of female video game developers often being less than those of their male counterparts is a good example. What's been posted here isn't.

To be honest, I've seen far fewer black people in games - developing them or starring in them - than I have women. When was the last time you saw a black person at PAX or E3 talking about his/her latest game? Would anyone here have the gall to say that this is because the gaming industry is racist?