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I know I've been arguing on the other side so far in this thread, but here's were I'm going to have to disagree. Daggerfall's story, when it comes to having women not only being there in significant numbers but also being interesting characters and playing significant, independent roles, was pretty much the best I've seen in a mainstream video game. Often it's fairly subtle (the Emperor's courier being a woman, for instance, and a surprisingly interesting character for getting one line and being talked about twice otherwise; certainly, nobody in the game seems to be surprised in any way that a woman could be a particularly powerful Knight of the Dragon), requires some thought (Medora is far from the usual "damsel in distress", and can almost be more of a protagonist of the second part of the story than the player!), or only shows up if you take certain actions (Medora or Nulfaga personally killing the game's main villain if you give them a certain item - especially nice if you give it to Medora due to the above), but it's there. Of course, there's still some uncertain things elsewhere in the game - though I still feel that the game gives an air of the setting having a reasonable feel of gender equality - but purely going by the story? There's a lot of things that I look for that can go wrong, and yet I have absolutely no complaints at all about it from a gender perspective - in all actuality, they started out almost doing the best job possible.

Morrowind's nice, and helped cement my opinion that Bethesda can be trusted with gender, but it's not quite up to that standard, the female characters tend to be a bit more passive. Still, more good than bad, especially when compared with the usual fare in games. The setting gives the feeling that women are allowed to do whatever they feel like, too, and aside from a couple quests that are more vaguely possibly problematic than properly sixist.

Oblivion... not so good. Obviously sixist quests (I already mentioned the Sirens - the old story of women luring men with their wiles is not one with a particularly good history), a lack of significant female characters in the main plot (Tar-Meena does almost nothing and the Countess of Bruma is just there to be shouted down), and just a bit of a feel that women aren't expected to be as active as men. That last part's a bit subtle sometimes, but it's there.

And that - the distribution of stats - really isn't bothering me, as I recognize men and women are biologically different. Nor, as I said in the post that started this, am I accusing Bethesda of anything. I wasn't certain about the issue of female emperors and I put that in the original post.

But . . . on the issue of female roles in the game . . . why couldn't:

1. One of the Fighters Guild quest giver's been a woman (it's pretty hard not to notice that female head of the guild pretty much does nothing)?
2. One of the Imperial City Guard Captains or Hieronymus Lex been a woman?
3. One of the Blades Grandmasters in either Morrowind or Oblivion been a woman?
4. There have been a woman with a major role in the main quest Oblivion?
5. Traven have been a woman (and whether people like him or not isn't the issue; the issue is one of authority and accomplishment)?
6. Why couldn't Martin have been a woman?

The issue is not that all of these have to be women, but that none of them are.

~ Dani ~

I can't tell if you're joking. Did you really not notice?

That depends on the guy.

Yes, they will have different stats

Oh come on, do you really think the writers are being purposefully sixist?

Did you even read the original post? I've never said Bethesda was sixist. So . . . no.

~ Dani ~

Yeah, and women should totally take bleeding damage for 5 days every month.

My opinion would be women should be faster and more agile than men; but men should be physically stronger and capable of carrying more - but only at the start of the game. So basically the way Bethesda has always handled it is fine and believable for me.

~ Dani ~

Did you even read the original post? I've never said Bethesda was sixist. So . . . no.

~ Dani ~

Sleign, are you feeling okay?

It may be important to mention that after being consumed with lust for those pixels, they tried to take MY clothes off and take advantage of me! That being said, it doesn't invalidate your point. The next step seems to be to integrate female characters in meaningful roles. I can think of a couple of reasons why this might not have been fully achieved yet. It is possible that there just aren't very many women in Beth, and even less that write quests. If this is the case, I could see men not being comfortable writing major parts for female characters simply because they just aren't comfortable getting into that psyche. Not knowing what it would be like to be a woman, they would rather just avoid trying to write female parts badly and instead just stick to what they know well. It's hard to know exactly, but that is my best guess.

The next step seems to be to integrate female characters in meaningful roles. I can think of a couple of reasons why this might not have been fully achieved yet. It is possible that there just aren't very many women in Beth, and even less that write quests. If this is the case, I could see men not being comfortable writing major parts for female characters simply because they just aren't comfortable getting into that psyche. Not knowing what it would be like to be a woman, they would rather just avoid trying to write female parts badly and instead just stick to what they know well. It's hard to know exactly, but that is my best guess.

Basically, my answer to all the questions you posted is: the devs just made the characters that come into their imagination. I don't want them to come up with an awesome male character then awkwardly switch it to a female because they hadn't met their quota for significant females. Vice versa with an awesome male character.
I don't think there's any need to read into things like this that mean nothing, right?

Btw you play practically the same role as Vilena Donton when you become leader, male or female.

Yeah, and women should totally take bleeding damage for 5 days every month.

I would agree with that. But fact remains none of those were women. I'm not talking about quota. Give me one. And if you lack the imagination to imagine even one, do you really have enough imagination to right well?

BTW, many, many great male and female authors, filmmakers, artists, have absolutely no problem creating memorable female characters. Kill Bill comes to mind.

~ Dani ~

Imemorable characters outside their gender. Kill Bill comes to mind.

Well hopefully there will be some great female characters in Skyrim, but I'm not talking about the writers ability to imagine a character, I'm just saying that the creative process is not as simple as 'Ok time to add an amazing female to the story' and then scribbling down some random personality traits. This is especially the case if the majority of writers are (as i suspect) males, since so much creative work is drawn from life experiences. Haha now I'm getting drawn into this myself!

You are both a gentleman and a scholar.

Why thank you good sir, I love that phrase almost as much as the piece of fine literature I am presently engrossed in, a delightful novella entitled, "The Lusty Argonian Maid" . I recommend it to any gentleman with a taste for anatomical metaphor.

'Tis is an exquisite composition without a doubt, very stimulating.

I don't know, but I've always thought the different races should have different stats. Orcs should be the only race to have 100 strength, bosmers and kajiits would be able to have a max strength of only 80 but they'd be the only ones to have 100 agility ect.