Where? In freakin' Utah? Seriously, what kind of backward, slack jawed folksey crap is this?

Also, for people saying that white males are the biggest demographic for games, even if this is still the case, it is a very slim majority. Most of this misconception is due to backwards market thinking that is so resistant to change it is usually a decade behind the actual demographic shifts.

I wonder what becomes of those 48% if we restrict the stats for computer/console RPGs only. A lot of Candy Crush Saga and my-talking-cat Android players call themselves gamers.

I think you would be surprised about the player base for Skyrim.

lol nope

define "gamers"

It probably wouldn't kill 'em to show a few female 111 Dweller Character walking around Boston and shooting up baddies. If anything else, it'll boost sales for two groups. Those who aren't white dudes and those who like character customization. If I never played a single Fallout game, I would never have known that you had character customization from the trailer alone

In evolution and biology. Please don't bring feminism and so-called equality into this.

That's a bit sixist don't you think? Girl gamers are on the rise, and our representation in games is becoming equal to that of males. We need to move past these generalizations because it's dated and potentially dangerous.

Girls in games, in the gaming industry, or as playable characters should be treated the same as males.

It's a little thing some of us like to do called "roleplayimg."

Community poll 2014/2015

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1343331-community-poll-2014-2015/

It's not Skyrim specific, but still, it's registered users on the Bethesda forums, so I guess they're here for at least one of the Bethesda published games.

I understand. I had some weird experiences with dudes playing as women so that's why I shy away.

Fair enough, cromofo.

I like to play two files, one a woman and one a man for gender equality.

I don't really care what gender the PC is in the trailers, so long as we do get gender choice in our own games.

I'd like to see some gameplay videos showing a female PC, just to see what she looks like, but as far as promotional material goes it's not a big deal to me.

I can't tell if your serious.

If you are, I am caught between pity for you and anger at whatever messed environment produced this type of thinking.

I play as women in these games because I'll be damned if narrative gender perceptions are going to dictate my play style and RP. The Lone Wanderer always made more narrative sense to me as James' daughter rather than his son, what with the way he was hyper protective of them after losing the most important woman in his life.

Skyrim had Dragonborn serving as an inverse of Alduin (and later Miraak), and so having the character be a woman added yet another layer to that theme.

It also makes the transformation from Nobody to Conquerer of all Creation a much more pronounced metamorphosis, due to the perceptions of women's roles in narrative.

That said, I do play as male characters quite often. I have more male characters in Skyrim, but the character I spent the most time playing was a woman. Fallout 3 I almost exclusively played as a woman, while the opposite is true with New Vegas.

I don't think it matters really. I've never had problems with playing a male character but by no means should females in games be available purely for the 'male gaze', nor should the assumption be made that women just want to be caregivers. That's not what myself or many of my female 'gamer' friends want, and by gamer I mean RPG,FPS, MMO etc...not candy crush.

So to think that women are biologically and evolutionarily more on the caregiving side is messed up?

What? Why you mad tho?

I don't get some publishers attitude from a business point of view, publishers listen to the tiny minority of boys who are terrified of playing anything other than a burly white dude but make no effort whatsoever when it comes to attracting female players, women make up half of the worlds population, ignoring them is idiotic.

It's not sixist at all. How many famous female archeologists have you seen that look like Lara Croft? I'm not saying girls/women can't play video games the more the merrier.

Personally, as a female, it has made me feel uncomfortable and annoyed when my only other choice as a girl character before was a damsel in distress or hyper-sixualized woman. So I've felt no other choice but to play as a male. It's why I like RPG games like Skyrim and Fallout because it doesn't matter! Play as who YOU want to be.

I'm also happy that games like CoD have included the option to play as a female with no difference in clothing, weaponry or gameplay.

I'm more concerned about this part of your statement to be honest:

"It's generally because nobody likes to see a woman in that role."

Emphasis mine.

What role exactly are you talking about? The role of the protagonist? The role of a character with agency, power, or control of their situation? A hero? A villain? A petter of dogs?

Also, how do you qualify your use of generally or nobody? The nobody thing is clearly wrong, but what data do you have to suggest that people in general do not like to see a woman in that role you have yet to define?

Though to be fair to you, that comment isn't really sixist. It just assumes that the majority of people are. Still showcases a sadly negative opinion of people though.

The old Lara Croft was designed by a teenage boy. So that would explain it. The new one has been re-designed well to appeal to both genders as not to alienate half the population who do enjoy gaming.

To be honest a lot of those sixualised female characters are designed with male players in mind, pre reboot Lara Croft is a good example, with each game her chest and rear end got larger and larger until in the end she looked more like a duck than a human being. Things are starting to change though and to Bethesda's credit they've been way ahead of the curve.

Huh, I never thought of the narrative aspect. Usually I just do the 'badass female protagonist' thing which can be somewhat empty to some. If the female protagonist is just 'durr-hurr, I badass and stuff!' then how is she a strong female character? Ditto male characters.

Interesting. Meditate on this, I will.

Pretty sure he's angry about the feminism and equality comment. If so, let them be. There's no way any kind of arguement about feminism would go down well, especially not on the internet. Trust me.

This whole loss of sales argument is BS. It was fantastic that Dragon Age Inquisition marketing varied the protagonist greatly and it was one of the most popular games of 2014.

The new highly popular Mad Max film which shares a genre with Fallout was incredibly successful with a majority of the "good guys" being women and only a handful of "mens rights activists" complained (and more people probably saw the film as a result).

People want to see diversity in casting and marketing people in general are far behind the 8 ball.