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[Hasney]

Reading the quotes and playing Watch Dogs just shows that Ubi has a list of things to do and just piles through them until they run out of time and whatever was missed is left out. Looks like female characters were lower on the list than constantly rioting peasants.

 

[EmiPrime]

So, if you only play female characters and don't like making male avatars, how are you any different than what you claim to be opposed too.

Not sure if serious.

 

[Cruceh]

Almost half of gamers are women.

If you really believe half of the AC and dudebro crowd is women. :lol
I'm surprised anyone even cares about stuff like this. Pushing social agendas into killing simulators. Has GTA ever had a female protagonist? This seems blown out of proportion.

 

[Of All Trades]

I do it out of necessity but given the choice I will almost always pick the female character and I don't like making male avatars.

You can play as Peach and Rosalina in 3D World. It's pretty great.

Why is it necessary for you to buy games that don't let you play as a woman? There are plenty of games out there that feature genderless or custom protagonists.

 

[HariKari]

You're essentially cutting your potential sales in half.

Nonsense. People will play what looks interesting. Having a character that is the same gender is a draw, but not the end of everything.

Asking developers to write and record a female lead just for the sake of having a playable female is a huge overreach. A simple multiplayer character? Totally understandable. Really no reason not to. An entire game's worth of dialogue and work? That's up to the artists and designers.

I feel like the article is asking for gamers to harpoon down any game that doesn't have a playable female when that's not really the point of asking for more consideration of female gamers. It'd just lead to more token characters and implementations.

 

[GQman2121]

I'm no English major, but this author is not a very good writer. I had to read all of that very slowly.

Anyway, I agree with the sentiment that it doesn't make much sense that there are no female characters to create if the entire game is based around user creation.

In fact, I didn't pick that up by just watching the trailer at all. I assumed the story was built around a clan of assassins who all happened to be dudes.

 

[Zaptruder]

If you try harder I'm sure you will be able to somehow also thrown Hitler into this analogy ;D

Seriously though, given how much resources this game has access to; not having female characters isn't a lack of resources issue. We've seen many more games do more with less. It's simply a misprioritization of resources.

But also, it's not sufficient to 'recognize' what's right would be something that's 'nice'... you gotta goddamn fucking make it happen.

If you don't; it's evident that you just clearly don't give a shit about what's right.

 

[Gekidami]

Comparing a static piece of art with an interactive video game where in many cases your avatar is supposed to represent you is incredibly off-base. I can't imagine games like Mass Effect not having the ability to change things like race and gender (and even sexuality through in-game choices). In an extreme example, imagine something like World of Warcraft with no female characters. Literally millions of dudes and not a single female character.

Edit: Note that I don't think the main characters in AC games are necessarily supposed to be representations of the player. My response is directed at the comparison between games and paintings.

I'd say that it really depends on the game, in WoW you name that character, you customise their appearance, you interact with others as that character. That character is you, it pretty much has no personality beyond your own.

In AC, the devs are telling the story of a character who has his own personality,who has to do a series of set actions within the games set plot, who says thinks based off of a predefined script with a predefined ending. You control the character, you might be able to relate to that character, but that character isnt you.

Really, a game like AC is meant to tell you a story, make you feel and have certain emotional responses, very much like a painting. You start to tell the artist what he can & cant do and you ruin the message he or she is trying to convey.

As for Mass Effect, they've gone for a sort of hybrid of both styles, thats great. But that isnt how Ubi decided to make AC, thats their choice. And anyway, if we werent used to character customisation in ME, would we really notice it if it wasnt in there? I doubt it.

 

[Messofanego]

It *may* be more complex than that, but at this point that information hasn't been released (to my knowledge).

Considering this franchise, I hope they go for different timeline Arnos

 

[Warablo]

I always thought the 4 males on the poster were the same assassin dressed differently according to how you dress/equip "your player". At least that is what I assumed when I read about Unity. So each assassin is just the same guy custom to how you made him.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

That's not how it works.

Art and monetary gain are not mutually exclusive. You can paint something to express yourself and sell it for money. Hell, every successful artist does this.

This is where the analogy breaks down, I guess. For all we know, 100 of Assassin's Creed staff doesn't really agree with some direction the series take. Whose freedom of expression are we defending here?

But I digress. The point I am making is: if someone wants their work to sell, then potential consumers uttering their dissatisfaction is conductive to that goal. "Voting with wallet" makes no sense if we don't articulate what's wrong.