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Fallout seems like the kind of game where you should only be male

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TheVampire

Banned
Usually if I have a choice I play female in most games.

However with Fallout 3 / New Vegas I feel compelled to go as male.

Because since its a post apocalyptic world doesn't it seem like men would have a better chance of surviving?

You have probably seen in post apocalyptic movies where the women get treated like shit. Abused, used for sex and living in conditions less great then men.

Men just seem to be the dominant sex in this kind of hellish environment.
 
F

FloweryMarston

Member
There are some pretty badass women in the fallout series though. I also disagree with this notion of fiction, i mean, why put rules on a game where you are fighting mutants, gigantic scorpions, and other shit?
 
L

Lime

Member
Tina Turner

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F

FlyingSaucer

Banned
TheVampire said:
You have probably seen in post apocalyptic movies where the women get treated like shit. Abused, used for sex and living in conditions less great then men.
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It's not because fiction accustomed to something that we should keep on repeating it.

I don't see why post-apo and a strong female protagonist should be mutually exclusive.
 
K

Kinyou

Member
If it was ultra realistic you'd probably have some really vile shit going on, ala "The Road" but I think fallout is more interested in dark humor, so why go there?
 
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Lime

Member
Sarah Connor and Ripley did fine against robots from the future and flesh-eating aliens.

So I dont see why a woman in a fiction with giant mutants and crabs should somehow be the exception for strong personalities. Being strong-willed and able to survive is not exclusive to men, in case you didn't know.
 
I

Impeccable

Member
Just because something isn't a common place in fiction doesn't mean video game players shouldn't have the choice to play against the grain of conventions.
 
F

Foshy

Member
I'm not sure where you want this thread to go, OP. Your premise is sexist as fuck.

In a post-apocalyptic world, living standards are less than ideal for both men and women. The people that managed to survive are probably very toughened up, no matter what their gender is.

And if according to you women aren't strong enough to handle these situations, why would you play as them in other video games then?

A-V-B said:
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Zabant

Zabant

Member
In the fallout universe there's still guns everywhere, so the natural advantages that men have like higher muscle density (ergo strength) and height are mitigated.

Considering we have never experienced post apocalypse on earth I would say you should hold off on making very risqué claims like this, especially when your proof is "it happens in movies"

For all we know in a post apocalyptic world women could become the dominant sex, having the strongest and smartest men fighting amongst each other for the rights to breed.
 
M

Masquerader

Member
Hm. Ladies in the Fallout universe STILL wear extremely heavy power armour, use power fists, and are crack shots because they HAVE to be in a post apocalyptic wasteland. With exception to the vaults, that type of shit does not happen.

Also, Caesar's Legion is the only organisation of note that treats women like shit. But absolutely everyone in the Legion is a slave, bar Caesar, and experiences a horrible death. Also, you generally end up killing them to pieces unless you intentionally side with them.
 
iNvid02

iNvid02

Member
sure, but it doesnt mean games shouldnt try to portray strong women in those conditions, e.g. ellie, marlene, tess
 
R

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
So because some movies portrayed women as being weak, all post-apocaliptic games should do the same? I disagree.

Besides, Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 is as badass as one can be. And she's a woman, as far as I know.
 
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LeBart

Member
The question of whether all the advances in gender equality would completely shatter if society collapses is an interesting one, and one that is hard to answer.
Fallout is a game though, don't forbid players to role any character they want just because "it wouldn't make sense", especially not in a game that has talking robots and little green men.
 
P

patapuf

Member
TheVampire said:
Usually if I have a choice I play female in most games.

However with Fallout 3 / New Vegas I feel compelled to go as male.

Because since its a post apocalyptic world doesn't it seem like men would have a better chance of surviving?

You have probably seen in post apocalyptic movies where the women get treated like shit. Abused, used for sex and living in conditions less great then men.

Men just seem to be the dominant sex in this kind of hellish environment.
Click to expand...

even if what you say was true (or what the games wer going for, fallout's world does have societal structures and rules). Why play as the dominant sex with a better chance of suriving?

It's not exactly rare for a protagonist to be from an oppressed class and going against whatever is oppressing them.
 
M

Mushroomer25

Member
I don't think Fallout is the best example (there's very little about the player characters that would insist they need to be male, or even physically tough. There are various non-physical areas to excel in, so there's no reason to exclude any particular gender.

That said, i think it'd be interesting to see an open-world game try a more restrictive form of character creation. Have plenty of open variables, but keep one or two things absolutely constant (gender/sexuality/race/etc). Then, leverage that constant element as a story tool throughout the game. Many games seem to do this unintentionally (assuming the character is straight, or of a certain age) - I want one to limit a few of my choices with real purpose for doing so.
Often, I've fantasized about a Bethesda-style RPG set in a prison. Imagine a playable Shawshank Redemption, Oz, or Orange is the New Black - with different factions, characters, and events taking place over your residency. But such a thing could really only work if the character's gender was held constant.
 
V

V_Ben

Banned
...you're a bit of a simpleton, aren't you. Just because men are seen as the dominant sex by a vast majority of post-apocalyptic fiction, doesn't mean that status quo should stay that way.
 
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lazygecko

Member
You could actually sleep your way through certain situations in the first two games if you played a female character. Like getting Vic back from the slaver leader in Fallout 2 instead of paying him off (or, well, killing all of them). I think Bethesda had to tone down some of the more grim sexual elements thanks to being in the mainstream AAA sphere.

Honestly though, the un-PC thing that I miss the most is the unique dialog for characters with 3 or less intelligence.
 
D

duckroll

Member
As someone who has played Fallout since the first entry of the series, I completely disagree. Fallout is a roleplaying game at its heart, not some kinda of extreme "survival" game. Being able to choose a gender is an important option for the player to have the most freedom to define the role they want to play.

Is a post-apocalyptic setting a shitty place for women? It's a shitty place for everyone. There are specific shitty things which apply more exclusively to women. But that's part of the setting. It doesn't mean that a woman cannot survive and rise above the shittiness, just like a man could. In fact, in every Fallout game, there are always examples of women who have survived, and some are even on positions of authority and power. Some do it by their own ability or by forming strong alliances, some do it by taking advantage of how women can influence men.

It makes no sense to say that it is a game where you should only be male. It's fun to play the games as either gender, and there are unique options in the game that makes the experience unique no matter what you choose.
 
T

Trent Strong

Banned
RionaaM said:
So because some movies portrayed women as being weak, all post-apocaliptic games should do the same? I disagree.

Besides, Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 is as badass as one can be. And she's a woman, as far as I know.
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I think Terminator 2 was set in the 90s...
 
S

sunnz

Member
I would love it if the next fallout or even ES had a lot more difference between male and females other than some dialogs and perks.
 
D

duckroll

Member
lazygecko said:
Honestly though, the un-PC thing that I miss the most is the unique dialog for characters with 3 or less intelligence.
Click to expand...

It's not gone completely, and I don't think it was really un-PC either. The fake dialog itself could be seen as a bit offensive, sure, but the point of it was to show that sometimes less intelligent people have their own way of communicating and can understand or relate to each other better than someone who is smarter and more educated, who might not take the time to care what a "moron" has to say.

New Vegas has some low intelligence options iirc, but not a lot. What ultimately killed it was voice acting because requiring all spoken lines to be voiced meant that more options = more money spent. Obsidian has stated that they're not going to be restricted by this in Pillars of Eternity, so hopefully there'll be interesting stuff there. :)
 
Wiktor

Wiktor

Member
I never play as woman in such games, but I don't see why it would be a problem. It's not like those titles are realistic and make women weaker, it's just an avatar to play with and it's even less of a problem in setting that relies this much on firearms

Heck, strenght-wise supermutants are propably more superior to men than men are too women anyway and yet there's no problem playing a man there.
 
B

Blue Ninja

Member
TheVampire said:
Usually if I have a choice I play female in most games.

However with Fallout 3 / New Vegas I feel compelled to go as male.

Because since its a post apocalyptic world doesn't it seem like men would have a better chance of surviving?

You have probably seen in post apocalyptic movies where the women get treated like shit. Abused, used for sex and living in conditions less great then men.

Men just seem to be the dominant sex in this kind of hellish environment.
Click to expand...

rbGCuaom.jpg


I usually play as a male in these games, too, but if people want to play as an ass-kicking female gunslinger bringing justice (or mayhem) to the Wasteland, I don't see the problem with that.
 
G

Gentle Rodriguez

Member
I actually prefer playing as a strong female character rather than a male one in these types of games(ME, Fallout, etc.), it makes the experience more unique somehow, I can't really explain it.
 
D

Dachande

Member
If anything, playing as a woman would feel even better because of the reasons you mentioned. Who wouldn't want to be the infamous badass wasteland roaming chick who everyone is too scared to fuck with?

At the same time, Fallout's world isn't like that anyway. It has plenty of women around, even in the Raiders, who you'd expect to be most patriarchal out of any of the factions if you had to choose.
 
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