A huge detriment to this movement is the number of female PC gamers.
You want action? Better get where it's at. PC game development, and it's community is at the forefront of game design (also been around the longest). A console player will not be taken really that seriously imo.

BTW, here's a http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1187148-female-character-dlc-a-girls-eye-view/page__st__140 with a positive spin on the situation.

Just sayin, Gears 3 does an excellent job at portraying a female protagonist. Anya isn't dressed for male attention by any means, shes dressed to kick some serious ass.

OldmanCarlsbad Posted Today, 01:52 PM
As proposed numerous times before in this forum, the only way to correct this inequity would be to offer female archetypes in future DLC. But instead of just playing mere catch up, why not use this opportunity to be innovative and advance the game with a strategic twist that could potentially make female characters the most popular/envied?

Rather than focusing on a Heavy build as the third female body type, why not go the opposite route: an Extra-Light body that would have the smallest hit-box, the greatest agility, and the fastest sprint speed in the game? Of course, Extra-Lights would have the least amount of health, but a skilled parkour enthusiast could easily work around this weakness and exploit the advantages.

Kalabalana Posted Today, 02:00 PM
No. Instituting special abilities/features/stats for female players is more of the problem, there should be absolutely no difference between which gender you are.

It's nigh-impossible for me to be a gamer without being labeled immediately a "girl gamer," rather than just a "gamer," and to be frank it can be pretty frustrating.
(...)
(I'm quite the Bethesda fangirl)

(...)
Thank you.
*steps off of soapbox*

Still, the label of "girl gamer" follows me. I find myself relegated to a sort of "second-chair" status among peers.

To be honest, I also think we wont be seeing them added through DLC anytime soon, my reasons: Alot of work, almost like doing the male-stuff all over again but harder, and memory (Animations, Textures, Soundfiles, Customization options)

*sets up soapbox*
Ahem. I know this is an issue which has been addressed before, but it is one that struck close to home for me and I feel I would regret not adding my two cents: female player characters.
As a woman, it is easy to feel forgotten or even alienated in the gaming industry. At all times I am surrounded by the very male demographic and games and advertisemants that pander to the testosterone-bearing, and to be fair, gaming has been for a very long time a masculine pursuit. It's nigh-impossible for me to be a gamer without being labeled immediately a "girl gamer," rather than just a "gamer," and to be frank it can be pretty frustrating.

I work for a technology retailer, and Brink is the first game which has completely unified my coworkers and I in our excitement for a game. I can't adequately express how amped I am to play this thing, so let me just get that out there on the table. Still, the label of "girl gamer" follows me. I find myself relegated to a sort of "second-chair" status among peers. Customers to my store will actually ask if there is "a man he can talk to who knows more about shooters."

Consequently, I have very mixed feelings on the prospect of female avatars. Not having that distinction really come into play is a very positive thing as far as I am concerned, but it's not necessarily the best solution - not finding representation for the kind of characters we envision in a game lauded for its creative mutability can be a major frustration ingame for a lot of women, and when we do it's often in the form of a very intensely sixualized and male-centric character design.

What I'd like to propose is a sort of compromise to please everyone, and I hope Splash Damage and Bethesda take this to heart (I'm quite the Bethesda fangirl): consider including female characters as a DLC option down the line, but please don't make them just for men. I don't want to create a character who has to run around the gameworld with a steel thong (I'm looking at you, Guild Wars). Maybe some people do (and I hope I never meet one), but honestly when bullets start flying I don't reach for my beach wear, I reach for some damn armor. The male characters in this game have a great art direction, but really they're not exactly the most handsome bullet-fodder in the world, so why should the female characters be an exception? Leave the big-briasted shoehorned-in female protagonists to Gears of War and give me a girl who actually looks like she came from The Ark. Give me a girl who looks like she could actually haul that rocket-filled backpack around. Give me someone I can identify with without putting me into that stereotype of "girl gamer," and I know a lot of ladies out there who will flock to Brink as a result.

Thank you.
*steps off of soapbox*

(Edited for accuracy, thanks The Zero :3)

Well, I'm not sure it's about equality. I think it's just realism: Women aren't suited for war. If you want to know why I believe that (and I should think it fairly obvious) Wikipedia has a fairly comprehensive article on it. Plus, if they added female characters, they'd have massive boobs and all the guys would play as them, like in WoW or something.

Then again.. it's a video game. It's not meant to be the pinnacle of realism. If women want to play as women for the sake of immersion, I don't have a problem with that. My only slight query is that it's not very realistic to have women jumping about, firing off rifles, meleeing enemies, driving tanks etc. because it's just not realistic. I'm on the fence about it. On one hand, it'd be great for women, on the other hand it's bad for realism.

I think you've missed the point Tone

Wander is saying that rather than being impeccably clean, long blonde hair, slinky body, voluptuous briasts and high heels....the epitome of what is the "media" style of attractive, that the character may have bruises, tangled hair, etc. In other words, a character that fits into the environment, rather than the stereo typical type casts we are fed by the mainstream.

Aaah.. A woman can drive a vehicle and shoot with weapons, no?

Anyways.. With the hyper-realism and the all in all attitude of them with females.. I'm not too sure if the boobs would be that over-sized, I mean.. Some details on the guys faces for example looks pretty normal, but then again, that's just me

Also judging from this screenshot http://i52.tinypic.com/2zhldo0.jpg they don't have that massive knockers, but this aint a 3D model, but you get the idea..

I think the point is more or less that it only takes minor appearance differences to go from male to female as far as video games go (it's not like anybody is checking the anatomy down to the last detail). You don't need them to have large chests or to look great in a bikini as long as you give them some chest cover and don't give them the option of the bikini.

A couple of faces, some hair options, and something to cover up the bare chests that the male characters have and suddenly you've got a woman on the Ark.

Has anyone actually read what the females of the serving members of the Allied forces did in World War 2?

Woman were very active operatives in the battle against Hitler - on both sides. The French resistance was a very strong group of woman, who arguably caused considerable damage to the German forces getting not only Intel, but also allied airman who had been shot down in and out of France. Don't even get me started on the fact they actually were the core components in why the armed forces back then actually had ammunition.

IYou mean the lipstick casing bullets?

Just to give you some proof here: Female gamers do sort of work towards that status by transforming typical male terms - fanb-oy (which is censored on these boards :rolleyes:) for example - to their respective gender instead of simply using the term fan - like I would do.

Or using that very female kind of roleplay by serving the small girl sterotype with that soapbox.

(And I use "female gamers"/"male gamers" and "female avatars"/"male avatars" for a reason in every thread of this kind.)

I am under the impression that quite the opposite is the case.
Most male gamers put female gamers into a rather special position. Which doesn't really help either group.

To use a movie-quote (I like movie-quotes) for this: You know what your problem is? You're putting the [censored] on a pedestal." (Censoring, yeah! Anyway, I think if you know the movie, you know what I mean.)

Consoles definately suffer from technical limitations which don't allow a lot more customisation than BRINK already has.

And another movie-quote (which I have used in another thread of these as well, I think): "Good God, you're a woman! I honestly, I couldn't have called that. I mean, I would apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."
This should be a valid reaction to female avatars implemented in the right way.

Did you even take a moment to consider what I meant by being "innovative"? This proposal not only adds a "strategic twist" to the game, but also addresses the concerns of Heavy females being a visually aesthetic question mark. After all, the Xena warrior look can easily be achieved with the medium build.

As far as giving females special abilities, there would be nothing to prevent a male gamer from choosing to play as an Extra-Light female, just as there would be nothing to stop a female gamer from opting to play as a Heavy male. The idea is to offer gender/body type choices which would force the player to take inherent weakness AND strengths into account.

Of course the best choice would be to base your body type on your play style. If that happens to clash with the player's gender, then that's a tough choice that will have to be made. But making difficult choices is part of what makes any game interesting/fun. For example, I spent hours trying to figure out how I am going to spend my 20 skill tree points and yet, I loved the fact that I had to make sacrifices in one class to bolster my abilities in another.

as someone else has already said, why would they fight when their a few enough humans left. in the long run it screws everyone over

This is bait Sire, which I shall not take