Supposing the man in the trailer is not the only playable character, would you like the next trailers (or gameplay demos) to feature a woman protagonist? Skyrim has a man in the trailer although you can play a woman character and I think it would be cool to show women as main characters as well, especially in games that let you choose who you are. I think there is a preconceived opinion that a man on the cover sells more copies, but in the Skyrim forums a lot of people play female characters as well, I don't know if this applies to Fallout too.

Does Beth ever do female protags in their trailers? I'm not trying to be salty, it's a genuine question.

Well I think we'll never know if that's true, I mean Tomb Raider has Lara Croft on the cover and sells tons. The only way to find out is have alternative covers (male vs female Shepard) and see who sells more.

Yes please, being a female gamer myself, I have always wondered why these gaming companies only show male protagonist in their trailer if you are able to choose male or female? I mean there are tons of female gamers out there, it is a known fact that girls play video games. If they would show male and female protagonist in their trailers, I think it would save time of them always answering the question "Can I play a female character?" when the developers are being interviewed.

Personally I wouldn't care what gender the protagonist in the game trailer is. I'd be more focused on the quality of gameplay. It's definitely possible for Bethesda to flip the script and indeed showcase a female protagonist but I highly doubt it.

Unfortunately, It's not only a preconceived notion that a man on the cover sells more copies. It's a proven statistical fact. According to sales history and marketing research.

Ken Levine spoke on this topic when fans questioned his decision to feature another 'white dude with a gun' on the cover art for Bioshock Infinite. Even though Ken held a contest allowing fans to choose the reversible cover art, Ken said that after all the hard work that went into creating the game, he was not going to risk potential sales to new fans by using cover art that didn't specifically target the focused demographic which is male gamers.

Even though there are many devoted female gamers who are far from casual players, marketing research always determines what target group to appeal to when you want to make as many sales as possible. Bethesda is a business above anything else. They are simply doing what any business that wants to make max profit would do. Appeal to the more common consumer demographic. Which is video games are male gamers.

Many take a political or ethical stance on it, but at the end of the day, it's strictly business. You're more likely to see a female protagonist being featured in a trailer from a game where you chose your gender, if that game was a new IP.

In the case of Lara Croft, Male Gaze has a lot to do with it.

I think Bethesda would be wise to have diverse protagonists in their trailers. Not only for the sake of increased representation, which might help motivate customers to by their games, but because it helps show off their character creation.

"Don't want to look like this dude?" the ads would wordlessly ask. "Then how about this woman? No? How about this woman? Or this man? Or this person? This one? Still not happy? Well the good news is that you can make whatever character you want!"

I don't remember any, but TES: Arena has one helluva badass woman on the box

I think BGS likes to have one canon protagonist across all media, the Nord male dragonborn of Skyrim is everywhere, not only in the trailer: on the boxart, the wallpaper on this forum, the figurines in the store. etc.

Even if we can make a female character, I guess Bethesda has become very conservative when it comes to their games from development to presentation, they like to play it safe (marketing, engine, drm, media exposure...) they want to control everything, they want it all and they want it now. So I don't think they want to risk an "unlikely" marketing protagonist even assuming the risk would be minimal.

On the other hand we have ESO with a truly badass female Altmer in the trailers who (imo) was "responsible" for a lot of AD early adopters

Didn't Fallout 3, Skyrim and NV all show male protagonists in their trailers?

I can see why Bethesda does this since most males seem to play as male characters when given the choice, personally I generally prefer female main characters but I think I'm in a minority.

It's generally because nobody likes to see a woman in that role. Generally, men are seen as the combatant where women are seen as care givers. Apart from Tomb Raider which is just video game porm.

Interesting! I think you are right, it's more like wishful thinking on my part, anyway I'm not worked up or something, just think it would be a nice touch because they can. they are so big and successful that they can ignore clichees and set trends.

Gaming demographic is mostly male so nah. Doesn't fit the setting either.

Idk why guys play as women anyways?

Yes, and those games had all gender choice in character creation, maybe this time we're given a fixed male protagonist and then this idea becomes useless anyway.

Cuz guy heroes are passe as balls.

Come on now, you're being too harsh. Tomb Raider is a great action/adventure series and has a lot to show besides eye candy. Level design, platforming, puzzles. Besides the last game (2013 reboot) went out of its way to present a desixualized Lara.

I see no reason why they would abandon the well established practice of allowing us gender choices in character creation, except to save time and money for the voiced main character......which I don't think is very likely.

Especially in the case of voiced main characters I have generally gone with the female choice, for instance I always felt Female Shepard in Mass Effect was just the better voice acted, and sarcastic female Hawke in Dragon Age 2 was again superior to the male voice option......generally I play multiple playthrough and alternate between male and female characters.

With character models http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/6/69/Moira_Brown.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20101229221905 I'm kinda glad they don't do woman centric trailers. http://overmental.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Fallout-4-Pip-Boy.jpg is disturbing enough, thank you.

I personally don't care how the PC is portrayed in trailers for RPGs, however, I wouldn't mind having a female PC portrayed in a future trailer just to confirm we're not stuck with a set protagonist. Unless it turns out the only thing you can customize about the protagonist is just the gender.

Most likely they will stick t the same character for trailers, to keep a red thread thoughout them, I would assume tho that if it′s not mentioned or shown at the demo this Sunday it will be in the online and paperback interviews that will start poping up in the coming weeks.

Yeah i am pretty sure you can play as female right from the start, my assumption is based on this video, where people have discovered both action boy and action girl perks :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWMRGsy_1lc

And scare away the Dudebro's?

Watch "The Creepy Cull of Female Protagonists" by Jim Sterling, it's quite an eye opener. (Contains strong language and sixual references)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wnTunPrQJo

Didn't we have this thread already? Don't really see a reason to dredge the topic back up again.

A preconcieved notion that male on the cover sells more games? I think you got that backwards. People would be much more inclined to get a game if there was a woman on the front, simply because it's different.

As to having a female trailer, why not? As long as "a trailer featuring a woman" is not the highlight of the trailer and it actually shows gameplay.

What a lot of foolishness in this thread.

The likelihood of male and female protagonists in the game are >95% - that choice has been available in all other ES and Fallout games I've played.

[EDIT: With 'Action Girl' perk, looks like 100%]

With 48%+ of gamers being female, let's not get too fixated about who the main demographic for the game is.

It's likely to be more male but that may not be by a staggering margin.

Protagonist gender in the trailer is not particularly relevant.

Oh, and given a choice, as a male gamer I'll play a female protagonist almost every time because it's simply more interesting.

Same here. Call it roleplaying.