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Battlefield 1: No playable female soldiers in multiplayer. Campaign only.

Galang

Banned
The fuck?... Doesn't it make more sense reversed at the least?.... The SP should be the faithful route and have playable females in MP
 
I mean, let's be honest. They just don't want to make two of every uniform model.
Its not like they have to. All they really need to do is change the head and voice. Look at Star Wars Battlefront, the male and female stormtroopers are identical but for head and voice.

This is the easiest answer, but consider that "realism" is not at the top of DICE's priority list when it comes to Battlefield games. I wouldn't describe ANY Battlefield game as realistic, including Battlefield 1.

Maybe "authentic" is a better word?
"Let's have players use weapons that were introduced at the very end or even after the conflict in every battle, but having women soldiers in multiplayer? That's just a step too far."

Fuck them. Really sours me on the game right now.
 
I find that quite strange; in that case they can't really use the "historical accuracy" excuse.

Again, it's just the Bedouin warrior. They don't have female soldiers models for the English, French, Germans et al.

Frankly, people should be glad that they found a reasonable way to include female participation in the conflict at all.
 
While it would be nice for there to be a female solider or two in MP, to be quite honest WWI had pitifully few women actually fighting in it and I see it as a non-issue in this game's case.

If this were a 'modern' shooter I could see the argument and would agree with it.
 
I love how when people complained about female soldiers not in BF4(while having 3 big ones in the campaign)
They said they would work to incorporate that in future Battlefield games.

Yet Battlefield Hardline doesn't include females in a game about regular police and criminals.

And the next main game Battlefield 1 gets to cry "historical accuracy!"
 

Coffinhal

Member
I find that quite strange; in that case they can't really use the "historical accuracy" excuse.

It can be accurate that they use a particular female figure. The campaign is going to be the story of 6 people from different nations. But these are particular figures, not the random soldiers you play in the MP and 90% or more of these soldiers who go on the battlefield were men.

It totally makes sense but people who didn't understand how the SP works will continue to complain while not reading. Gaf is gaf.
 

Keasar

Member
I find that quite strange; in that case they can't really use the "historical accuracy" excuse.

Can't they? I do believe there were female fighters but that was probably in small guerilla actions and not the full blown battles between nations that the multiplayer portrays.

My guess is that the female character that they talked about is the Beduin woman that they showed in the reveal trailer.
a-female-beduin-warrior-is-playable-in-the-forthcoming-battlefield1-video-game.jpg

She looks awesome.

But I wouldn't expect female companies in the western front though. Maybe some in the Eastern one. My main worry anyway is that for all their talk about being "authentic" and "respectful" to the setting of WW1, there is no fucking way they are gonna dare (or have the skill) to pull off a Spec Ops: The Line with horrifying shit like the Battle of Passchendaele. Shit that shaped basically the entire viewpoint on the war and is what we Europeans remember it as, a war that was fucking awful.
 
Weird distinction to make, given their answer to the diversity/authenticity question. Also slightly disappointing after the character roster for shooters like Battlefront and Black Ops 3.

Not really. While playing as a woman in a single player game is a fucking awesome thing the trash communities in FPS games would end up with "haha I raped you" holding a lot more weight than it does today.

People are trash.
 
Its not like they have to. All they really need to do is change the head and voice. Look at Star Wars Battlefront, the male and female stormtroopers are identical but for head and voice.


"Let's have players use weapons that were introduced at the very end or even after the conflict in every battle, but having women soldiers in multiplayer? That's just a step too far."

Fuck them. Really sours me on the game right now.
It really doesn't matter. The amount of female soldiers in WW1 was negligible in the grand scale of things anyway.
 
Not really. While playing as a woman in a single player game is a fucking awesome thing the trash communities in FPS games would end up with "haha I raped you" holding a lot more weight than it does today.

People are trash.

Is that a legit issue in Black Ops 3/Battlefront? Those games prominently feature playable female characters.

I haven't noticed anything of the sort while playing those.
 
"Let's have players use weapons that were introduced at the very end or even after the conflict in every battle, but having women soldiers in multiplayer? That's just a step too far."

Fuck them. Really sours me on the game right now.

Don't get me wrong--I think it's pretty stupid not to include them. This isn't the uber-realistic and authentic Verdun.

I just think "realistic" is the wrong word and a poor excuse for it. "Authentic" may be more accurate to what they're TRYING to do...but it's kinda foolish, any way you look at it.
 
It can be accurate that they use a particular female figure. The campaign is going to be the story of 6 people from different nations. But these are particular figures, not the random soldiers you play in the MP and 90% or more of these soldiers who go on the battlefield were men.

It totally makes sense but people who didn't understand how the SP works will continue to complain while not reading. Gaf is gaf.

Yeah exactly, from the first trailer it's clear that it's a Bedouin woman who will be the female PC. The fact of the matter is for the major combatants, there just weren't women fighting en masse. And yes, the gameplay itself is not particularly 'realistic', but they're going for verisimilitude of the time period, and I can definitely see how creating masses of female soldiers for England and Germany would break that.
 

Portugeezer

Gold Member
I guess even if they exaggerated history and sprinkled out female character models here and there on the battlefield it could work.

But I respect their decision if they didn't think that was a good idea.

Yep, probably the real reason.
Two models is hard work!

I know you are joking, but it probably is easier to have less variety in character models for MP for performance reasons, not because it's "hard" work creating them.
 
If they are in campaign, why not? Seems to clash with the diversity push EA has got going on and the authenticity in the game (and most war games) is pretty surface level. The guns and equipment look like WWI but they won't be used the same way and their impact will overestimated. The most notable example being zeppelins. Almost non-existent on the battlefield. If you can make zeppelins a big part of WWI then you can have female soldiers.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Surprised. I figured after their statements o diversity and representation in the campaign that would carry over to MP.
 
I don't understand the "so few women" crowd. Why does that matter? As I understand this game has weapons that were barely in the war and surely maps that aren't modeled exactly after real battles among other non historical accurate things so why not let this " slide" as well.
 

thiense

Neo Member
Hm... I was thinking that was a weird decision.

Then I realized that this game would presentate women being killed viciouslly.

In Battlefront the violence is tonned down because of the setting (lasers, lack of blood, etc), so there is no much problem.

But show women being dealt with metal maces to the head? This kinda of shit would certainlly trigger some people.

I can understand the decision now. It's a shame nonetheless.
 

SerTapTap

Member
MP is the most sensible place to break historical accuracy for gameplay/etc reasons so...this seems pretty damn stupid frankly. You don't need to be accurate to racism/sexism unless it's part of your message, and MP in a battlefield game doesn't have a message.

Hm... I was thinking that was a weird decision.

Then I realized that this game would presentate women being killed viciouslly.

In Battlefront the violence is tonned down because of the setting (lasers, lack of blood, etc), so there is no much problem.

But show women being dealt with metal maces to the head? This kinda of shit would certainlly trigger some people.

I can understand the decision now. It's a shame nonetheless.

More a violence problem than a woman problem. I'd welcome a "no core" option that alters animations client-side if you don't want to see that shit. I'm not really a fan even if it's against dudes.
 

ChawlieTheFair

pip pip cheerio you slags!
If they are in campaign, why not? Seems to clash with the diversity push EA has got going on and the authenticity in the game (and most war games) is pretty surface level. The guns and equipment look like WWI but they won't be used the same way and their impact will overestimated. The most notable example being zeppelins. Almost non-existent on the battlefield. If you can make zeppelins a big part of WWI then you can have female soldiers.

Yeah, seems silly. The game is already taking so many liberties with the war, why not take this one as well? Hell if it bothers them that much only make a fraction of either team women.
 

Coffinhal

Member
Yeah exactly, from the first trailer it's clear that it's a Bedouin woman who will be the female PC. The fact of the matter is for the major combatants, there just weren't women fighting en masse. And yes, the gameplay itself is not particularly 'realistic', but they're going for verisimilitude of the time period, and I can definitely see how creating masses of female soldiers for England and Germany would break that.

It's kind of like Assassin's Creed, they use history as a setting full of details as much as possible, but when it doesn't fit their ressources or plans they find other ways. Anyway the gameplay of a FPS like that has to be spectacular so they'll shift a bit the actual history to get the best weapons or vehicles even if they were rare on the actual battlefields. Even the speed of the battles is not accurate at all, but that was true for the other games too. It's not a simulation, and even a simulation wouldn't be 100% accurate because it's always a compromise with multiple factors.

And here they probably didn't think it was "worth" it, it's just one of the hundreds of decisions they made throughout development, just like Assassin's Creed Unity.
 

Kazuhira

Member
Oh what a bummer..i don't care if it's historically accurate or not,especially on MP(if that's the reason behind the decision)
Well, it could be added later if they change their mind i guess.
 

Portugeezer

Gold Member
Hm... I was thinking that was a weird decision.

Then I realized that this game would presentate women being killed viciouslly.

In Battlefront the violence is tonned down because of the setting (lasers, lack of blood, etc), so there is no much problem.

But show women being dealt with metal maces to the head? This kinda of shit would certainlly trigger some people.

I can understand the decision now. It's a shame nonetheless.

I thought this line of thinking was BS, but then look at the X-Men poster outcry... maybe you have a point.
 
It really doesn't matter. The amount of female soldiers in WW1 was negligible in the grand scale of things anyway.
If it doesn't matter than they should at least represent the majority of people who play games in their multiplayer.

It's not like soldiers in WW1 were running around capturing flags. It's a multiplayer game, there has to be concessions to "authenticity".


I've got a feeling that if it wasn't for Disney there wouldn't be women stormtroopers in Battlefront.
 
Hm... I was thinking that was a weird decision.

Then I realized that this game would presentate women being killed viciouslly.

In Battlefront the violence is tonned down because of the setting (lasers, lack of blood, etc), so there is no much problem.

But show women being dealt with metal maces to the head? This kinda of shit would certainlly trigger some people.

I can understand the decision now. It's a shame nonetheless.

Didn't stop Call of Duty from adding females characters almost 4 games ago.
BO3 has you straight up killing hundreds of female soldiers in the opening mission.
 
I don't understand the "so few women" crowd. Why does that matter? As I understand this game has weapons that were barely in the war and surely maps that aren't modeled exactly after real battles among other non historical accurate things so why not let this " slide" as well.

That's what I am saying. Zeppelins were a useless boogeyman, planes were for reconnaissance, any sort of automatic weapon besides the mounted machine gun was experimental, and most of the killing was done by artillery from a mile away. You have to expect some level of inauthenticity and I think female soldiers falls within expected levels.
 
Not really. While playing as a woman in a single player game is a fucking awesome thing the trash communities in FPS games would end up with "haha I raped you" holding a lot more weight than it does today.

People are trash.
I played as a female character a lot in CoD games and not once did some asshole made fun of me for it. Nobody cares that I play as a female avatar in Destiny.
 
I think this is going to have to be something they add, either by launch or with a free patch after launch. If not, I feel it's going to overshadow everything else about the game. I know they must have thought the female and black characters in the single-player would earn them a pass, but I don't think it works like that!
 

thiense

Neo Member
MP is the most sensible place to break historical accuracy for gameplay/etc reasons so...this seems pretty damn stupid frankly. You don't need to be accurate to racism/sexism unless it's part of your message, and MP in a battlefield game doesn't have a message.



More a violence problem than a woman problem. I'd welcome a "no core" option that alters animations client-side if you don't want to see that shit. I'm not really a fan even if it's against dudes.

While I understand your point, I was trying to figure it out why the decision was taken. I don't mind the violence, but these kinda of games should come with a "light" version of the animations, indeed.
 
Didn't stop Call of Duty from adding females characters almost 4 games ago.
I'm Black Ops 3 women get eaten alive and dismembered by nanites, blown to pieces by explosives, burned alive, etc. It's no fucking big deal. If anything an aversion to doing that to women only just demonstrates an internalized belief that women need protected and sheltered.
 
Hm... I was thinking that was a weird decision.

Then I realized that this game would presentate women being killed viciouslly.

In Battlefront the violence is tonned down because of the setting (lasers, lack of blood, etc), so there is no much problem.

But show women being dealt with metal maces to the head? This kinda of shit would certainlly trigger some people.

I can understand the decision now. It's a shame nonetheless.
I thought this line of thinking was BS, but then look at the X-Men poster outcry... maybe you have a point.

But the outcry is because of the movie's PR stills.

There's no outcry about that scene being in the movie.

Here's another excerpt from the interview re: their depiction of violence

There have been questions about how suitable WW1 is for a game, with the perception is of it being a very nasty war. Are you sensitive about that?

To be brutally honest, 1942, the first demo we did we had some nasty surprises, as blue-eyed Swedes going out into the world and showing a game. From that we've always tried to create it in a respectful way - yes, it's a game about war, but it's a sandbox and the things you do in it that matter. So we've tried to keep it respectful. Yes, we have gas in there - for me as a designer, it's an area of denial, it changes conditions just like the fog does. From that perspective we want to portray it - in the end, Battlefield, it's such a strong game concept that we don't want to go into gore land.

Given the number of female characters in vastly more gory games like Mortal Kombat and Black Ops 3, I don't think this is part of the issue at all.

I'm Black Ops 3 women get eaten alive and dismembered by nanites, blown to pieces by explosives, burned alive, etc. It's no fucking big deal. If anything an aversion to doing that to women only just demonstrates an internalized belief that women need protected and sheltered.
Yes, well said.
 
It's kind of like Assassin's Creed, they use history as a setting full of details as much as possible, but when it doesn't fit their ressources or plans they find other ways. Anyway the gameplay of a FPS like that has to be spectacular so they'll shift a bit the actual history to get the best weapons or vehicles even if they were rare on the actual battlefields. Even the speed of the battles is not accurate at all, but that was true for the other games too. It's not a simulation, and even a simulation wouldn't be 100% accurate because it's always a compromise with multiple factors.

And here they probably didn't think it was "worth" it, it's just one of the hundreds of decisions they made throughout development, just like Assassin's Creed Unity.

I just really think this is one of those cases where they can genuinely go "it would break immersion if we started creating like WWI-era English female soldiers serving with the BEF". I'm for more inclusion of women in gaming, but a situation like this I don't see a problem with them treating the combatants like they were in reality.

Obviously it doesn't make sense for BF: Hardline not to have women, I'd definitely say that an omission there.
 
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