I think this is directed at me.

As I said, I'm not a feminist. If I was a feminist, I'd be in rage every time someone posted "sixy bosmer" posts. When I posted my original post, I hadn't seen a single woman player character in two videos and 30+ screenshots. I was frustrated and, to be fair, I was rude. I apologized.

And for the record, I never once said woman wouldn't be represented in Skyrim. I simply asked for pictures of woman. That's it.

~ Dani ~

Nah, you can make that preorder. I don't see them implementing such a massive reduction of choice, breaking with the habit of the series, without warning. Remember the spellcreation havoc ? Right.

Plus, it would simply make no sort of sense.

ya started it didnt ya . peple were fine till you posted.

This. There are a lot of sixist children in this thread... It's fine if you like to play as a male character but you have to take what other people want into consideration also. That's a no-brainer. Besides, TES is about choice.

Come on girls, you're looking at-

• Personal assurance from a character artist at BGS that female characters are being given due attention, with variable yet realistic proportions and appearances
  
• All ten races can be of either gender; this was confirmed quite some time ago
  
• Mention of a female bandit NPC in one of the new demo articles around the web
  
• Lots of sixy male heroes to ogle if you so desire
  
• ???

Win!

It would annoy me in Bethesda's case, as TES games were always about customizing your own characters as much as you can.

In other games though... it depends on the reason. If they do this for story reasons, like your character also comes with a name and a background, so the main plot can be more personal, I wouldn't mind. If it is just because they're lazy and want to get sixy, it would be incredibly dumb and... lazy.

It was a perfectly legitimate, if initially harshly worded, post. There is nothing irrelevant about being concerned about female representation for the player-character.
Derogatorily calling people feminists who are ruining the forums isn't exactly helping anything.

Maybe that orc is a female. ewwwww!

Vsions said females can be made ugly as well, so....voila!



j/k

I'd like to suggest something...a little experiment, if you will. Imagine this: You're a gamer, love games, love playing them, want to play more of them. In your universe/other dimension/alternate reality, the world of gaming consists mostly of women making the games. They love gaming too but they think men don't really play much, for whatever reason. So the games they make mostly have women heroines. So you post on their forum to remind them you're out there. It's good that you did that...they need to know how much you care.

Did that do anything for you? Did you really lean back and close your eyes and try to imagine how you'd FEEL? Seriously, give it a little tryout. All that being said, I'm absolutely grateful that Bethesda does so much for female gamers. They are progressive, not recessive and it means a lot. Thank you.

:tes: ...and waiting for a glimpse of that lady Dovahkiin armor.

This! <3

Might I add that one of those wolves was female, not to mention the spider.

Not that all this needed any kind of proof. It's like discussing whether or not there'll be claymores.

But I get the point, to a point : it's really good we're starting to see more varied characters. I want to see leaner, less generic guys, mers, women, old people and kids. But hey, they gotta drip the screenshots till november, I get that.


If you're talking about Butch Testosteronesson, that guy wasn't created for female to oggle, but more of a "look male gamer ! you're going to go uuuurgh and punch through dragon brains!". We're talking serious uncanny muscles here. :lmao:

Hahaha, nice one
You've earned yourself one (1) internet coupon.

The world is sixist, thats gender stratification 101.

When you market a game about killing and fighting monsters, you want to slap a man on the cover.

Women, mothers, nurture and give life, so the male driven zeitgeist doesn't like seeing women protraited as fighters, warriors, killers. This is why to this day, women fighting in war turns heads.

Now men: men kill, men fight...

This is the way society is, I don't like either...

I am sure that Bethesda have not disregarded women in anyway. In fact I believe, if I am not mistaken, that it was mentioned by a character artist developer that women will be more than satisfying pleasing pleasing-on the eye. Also, The Elder Scrolls is known for its, comparably, limitless game-play options and open-world-ness. I am confident that they would not reduce the possible playable characters by half in restricting gender choices.

I just hope that Lycanthropy is in. I would expect Vampirism.

Rpgs to me mean playing someone else, totally different to everyday life.
I am male, so I always play women, I am caucasian, and vaguely human, so I usually play as an Oriental or an Elf, and I can use a sword, and a bow, and walk quietly IRL, so a mage, psychic or biotic is where the fun is at.
These choices are important to me, not for any political reason, but because these characters are so far removed from myself, that the feeling of being in another world or time is greatly enhanced.
In short, I don't want to be me in a game, and being given that choice makes the game better.

There have always been handsome men in the Bethesda open world games. Oh, Toutius sixtius...sigh. Too bad he was so arrogant. The big and beefy Dovahkiin we've been seeing may be good-looking too...can't quite tell with the helm on. It's all going to be fine, I'm sure, or I wouldn't be here.

:tes:

Yeah, I hear ya on that. He looks like he's spent a bit too much time in the gym and not enough time running and climbing and fighting. But I think it's what people -- and I use the term specifically; men and women I'm sure -- expect to see in this kind of setting. We're apparently able to customise body mass to some degree, so...



You 'this'd' my post! :wub:



Yeah, and I think that extends beyond character art as well. The male Dunmer in Morrowind were pretty, err... charismatic.

You are correct about this sad state of civilisation, but don't put the blame as "only men have any position of power in product design and marketing and all men have this same skewed mindset" or "men in power find strong women distasteful". That's also sixist. The times are changing, albeit slower in some sectors.
edit: I'm sure the male martial arts master of my local club is shocked and mortified that 95% of the kickboxing class he runs is female...

Really? Link, please?

To stay on topic, I almost exclusively play as males even though I'm female but I haven't doubted that we'd be able to choose either way.

The majority of those who develop the game are men... and the majority of those who play the game are men.

And the majority of the screenshots that have been released detail men...

This is somehow surprising to people? it is not only ideal to market to your likely gamer (males)... but since most of the devs are men... what chars do you think they'll be playing as

I find the kind of male leads, who are the usual stereotype, that have so many muscles that it's amazing they have room for the brain, or can even walk let alone stand without falling to the side - "Me have muscles!" *falls to the side* "Me need help standing, too many muscles"

Like Gears Of War for example, those characters have the most over the top design, they're so bland and more muscle than person. I have never seen any man like that where I live, most men where I live have big beer bellies, that isn't something you see with male leads in games. The almighty beer belly, with wobble action.
And then there's the steel cutter chins, chins so sharp, so rugged that they likely cut through into alternate dimensions with a slight movement and can cut through steel with barely any effort.

And yet people want realism, or rather they're idea of realism, and it generally always has to be the usual unrealistic male lead, while going with the excuse that only men can do anything while the women sit back at home and knit. If a woman is threatened, then more likely than not she's going to fight back, well I know I would.
Just because outdated, backwards gender stereotypes say that only men can do things while woman can't doesn't mean that those stereotypes are true, given encouragment and support a woman will do her best to do a job that a man, in a gender stereotypical role, can do. Even if she may not have the kind of upper body strength than a man might have, she'll still do her best with her own abilities.

Encouragement and support can go a long way.

In Game Informer's magazine coverage, a screenshot caption states, "... facial and body features are entirely customizable." I can't link you, as the captions weren't carried over to the online version of the same article. I'm sure body customisation has been mentioned elsewhere, as well, but I can't remember where. I might be putting too much faith in GI.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Mazoga_the_Orc_(person)

I'm a male gamer but I've always perferd to play as a female character. Even back in the day of Street fighter and such (chun li anyone?).

Just depends on the game personally. If I'm going to be looking at the ass-end of a character for 200+ hours I may as well enjoy what im looking at I suppose (body mods aside, of which I'm a big fan of in oblivion).

The moulded space armor from mass effect is a perfect example. So I have not been worried wheather or not gender choice would be in this game. I just assumed the choice would be there since oblivion gave you the option.