Why is it that when you point out the dirth of good female characters, some people point to the very few that exist as if this invalidates the point?



Yes. Ripley and Sheppard exist.(Thought Shepard is questionable, and it's clear in canon that Shepard is a boy anyway so this even counting is dubious.) But how many good MALE space heroes can you name without having to think about it very hard? For every Leia there is a Luke, a Han, a Lando, a Chewwie, and then a Darth Vader and a Palpatine to boot for the guys who like pretending to be evil, not to mention the cool side characters like Wedge Antilles and Boba Fett. Just because you do occasionally see good female characters does not mean we see a lot of them, and certaily nowhere near the frequency of good male characters. And this is far from restricted to space-faring settings.

Oh and by the way, when a girl mentions how she's annoyed with being passed over in a manner that she sees as sexist, maybe making immature sexual puns over her particular choice of words isn't the most friendly course of action Just saying.

outnumber us all with so many numbers.



Btw, did you read the strong female characters comics i presented to you?

UrsaClaire wrote:
Oh and by the way, when a girl mentions how she's annoyed with being passed over in a manner that she sees as sexist, maybe making immature sexual puns over her particular choice of words isn't the most friendly course of action Just saying.

*Sigh* Lets not making this unpleasant. A little immaturity doesn't hurt every now and again.

Also, you may have inferred incorrectly from my comments. I'm not refuting the claims made in this thread, just merely pointing out some good female characters. TBH even though your cause is just, I'm rather impartial towards equality of sex/gender/religion/etc in media. I tire of the endless pursuit for perfect distribution and exposition. Not only that, but my list of female characters point out the existence of non-stereotypical "strong female characters". That's a point towards your cause. I suggest not being so jumpy, direct accusations of misogyny "isn't the most friendly course of action" either. Just saying.

I accused no one of anything, I was just pointing out that it's sort of not very thoughtful. If I was mad I would've used a mad face and not Sorry if you misinterpretted, that wasn't my intent.



And I'm sort of boggled. Endless pursuit for perfectly equal distribution? When has media EVER strived to be perfect even? I want good female characters to not be super rare and weak sexualized ones not to be super common. Which is simply how it is, honestly. We would have to be way, way closer to actual equal distribution for what you say to make sense to me. Male characters, especially deep ones, outnumber females at least 10 to 1 in fiction. Video games are a realm where this is even more true.



You're right, we coudl definitely go way too far with trying to be PC and equal. Most works don't even try to make girls real characters, though.

repbunny wrote:
outnumber us all with so many numbers.



Btw, did you read the strong female characters comics i presented to you?

Yes, that was quite funny. Spot on the point, too.

Also, and please don't take this the wrong way, it's just a general question, I mean no insult. (If this is comment goes too far (again, sorry, I'm not so regarded as socially intelligent) please delete it with my apologies)

Why do you feel you need perfect distribution? Why is quantity so important? Is it not acceptable to rejoice in a smaller but significant contribution to your cause with such characters previously presented? Often the point is lost on me.

As I just explained I DON'T think we need perfect distribution. The current system isn't striving to be perfect, it's hugely, almost astronomically stilted to one side. I'm not demanding for every male hero there be one female one. I just don't want what we have now where 95% of female characters are weak, sexualized, shallow, or some combination thereof.



I think you think I'm much more fervent and zealous about this than I actually am.

UrsaClaire wrote:
Oh and by the way, when a girl mentions how she's annoyed with being passed over in a manner that she sees as sexist, maybe making immature sexual puns over her particular choice of words isn't the most friendly course of action Just saying.

You are the one that made the pun, I really had hoped it was intentional.

UrsaClaire wrote:
As I just explained I DON'T think we need perfect distribution. The current system isn't striving to be perfect, it's hugely, almost astronomically stilted to one side. I'm not demanding for every male hero there be one female one. I just don't want what we have now where 95% of female characters are weak, sexualized, shallow, or some combination thereof.



I think you think I'm much more fervent and zealous about this than I actually am.

I would prefer male characters simply be made more sexualized.

repbunny wrote:
The Horatio are feminine looking. I don't remember if they specify if the billionaire was a female or not.

I think the whole point of the Horatio is that they are asexual, with all the cloning business going on and such.

Kashim wrote:
I agree! Never see any strong female characters in....well anything really :/

At least in western media.

Katniss bro

UrsaClaire wrote:
A couple of these are good. Ripley, Sarah Conner. But uh, not alot of girls view Indiana Boobs as an ideal role model. Nor Black Widow, who apparently has the power of being a manipulative female. However, we're off base. I'm more pointing out that games of this type often omit girls entirely. Amplitude did not. This is FANTASTIC.

Kashim said "Never see any strong female characters in....well anything really." so I was just pointing out strong female characters in media - not necessarily strong female role models. I agree with you totally and laughed out loud when I read "Indiana Boobs". I think Amplitude's inclusion of female characters is fantastic indeed!

craigbic wrote:
Kashim said "Never see any strong female characters in....well anything really." so I was just pointing out strong female characters in media - not necessarily strong female role models. I agree with you totally and laughed out loud when I read "Indiana Boobs". I think Amplitude's inclusion of female characters is fantastic indeed!

I don't think they meant literally NOTHING, figure of speech. Yeah, I was going to call her something slightly more vulgar but didn't want to get moderated. It's not just that they put in girls, they put in varied girls! Ones who are scientists yes, but also ones who are warriors. Plenty of, for example, high fantasy settings have girls, but they're always magic users or thieves. I love that Amplitude is including us AND not pigeon-holing us into the traditional sexist girl roles.



So much win, dev team!

UrsaClaire wrote:
I think you think I'm much more fervent and zealous about this than I actually am.

My apologies on this. I should note that I'm not trying to refute feminism and the like. I've often held my princesses with high regards in MTW2 (I know, not the best example) and women in my Lord of the Rings fanfic.

TBH I don't particularly mind more inclusion of female heroes, varied or not. In the end, I still see them as equally exploitable stat boosters and regardless of background, I always make up my own story anyway.

I just prefer the inclusion of varied female characters (and race etc. as a matter of fact) as a natural process and acceptance of the equally important roles in society, and overall position in life itself. I see the problem of lack of character depth in female characters more often due to the forced inclusion of said sex to tick the 'abiding by convention' box. Taking example from the up-coming Hobbit films, they've created a brand new female character which I can't judge seeing as it's not out yet, just to fill the romance gap lacking in the books. Same overall idea was used to include Arwen in the trilogy in scenes where she should not have been a part of by the original story to further her role. These types of female characters are pushed into the story rather than being a part of the overall concept from the beginning. These characters just don't feel real to me if you will, no matter what variety of attributes.

I could go on to summarise that I see nothing wrong with a 'weak' woman whether real or fictional. It could be said that that very same concept of needing a 'weak' woman to need me is a weakness of myself as well. This personal attribute of mine extends into the games I play, where I assume the role of the male protagonist. I need a 'weak' woman to care for and give me reason.



Anyway, without further ramble, I understand what you mean. I mean it goes both ways no? Were I a woman with the same ideals, reverse the sexes of the counterpart and its all the same. I just wanted to include my 2 cents. Good luck in your noble cause!

I guess I'm a bit disconnected from this matter.



I mean, for me, when I saw a female as a commander/pilot class mix, you better bet she was my star admiral and if there was a male and female side by side with the same class, I'd look at the stats and choose the best one. Given a situation where it's of the same stats too, I'd look at their background and see which one I felt was more compelling. And given that too was the same I'd just hire the last one I clicked and hire the other at another time (Two Pilot/Commander admirals makes for an awesome naval force).



I always just looked at their substance and ignored the gender, because while gender may give some inherent affinities (like the fact that women are generally more dextrous and men typically have a better disposition for muscle), it doesn't matter if there is a compelling story or benefit to them.

ShadowWolf wrote:
I guess I'm a bit disconnected from this matter.



I mean, for me, when I saw female as a commander/pilot class mix and you better bet she was my star admiral and if there was a male and female side by side with the same class, I'd look at the stats and choose the best one. Given a situation where it's of the same stats too, I'd look at their background and see which one I felt was more compelling. And given that too was the same I'd just hire the last one I clicked and hire the other at another time (Two Pilot/Commander admirals makes for an awesome naval force).



I always just looked at their substance and ignored the gender, because while gender may give some inherent affinities (like the fact that women are generally more dextrous and men typically have a better disposition for muscle), it doesn't matter if there is a compelling story or benefit to them.

I would have to completely agree with this. I would also add that part of the criteria for me to choose would be whether and where they would fit within my grand scheme of things. I like to create a story of my own, regardless of what race I'm playing... Racial attributes and aesthetics are merely a fine tune within the game mechanics and restrictions. I'm going to love the race editor

UrsaClaire wrote:
A small personal thank you to the devs for heroes like Unji Stormbringer, and the current heroes on vote Aurora Ex Machina and Galdos Al. I'm a girl gamer and frankly, we get shafted alot. In Diablo-types (before D3 and T2) we were always stuck being the rogue or the wizard. Many 4X games seem to forget girls exist entirely. I am glad to see a diverse range of female heroes, from badass warriors to mad scientists. PLease keep this up, you have no idea how happy it makes a girl gamer to have her gender recognized.



Though as a further personal request, a canon girl faction leader would be nice, and I BEG of you to include at least one female human picture for the custom factions. I think A LOT of players would appreciate even this small touch. Though don't think I didn't notice that the Sophon High Council (as I call them) has a female member on the left! Thanks for that too! Empress or Shoguness or something would be cool too is all I'm saying.



Thanks for your time, and all the heart you put into this game and community. It shows, and we love you for it <3

Insert funny random girl in kitchen joke.

mokaiba wrote:
Insert funny random girl in kitchen joke.

There's always one.



Also, UrsaClaire, I owe you an apology. I must have completely misread/overlooked/forgotten your original post. Silly me. I also apologise for the potential frustration I may have caused. Shame on me. You should be noted for your humbleness and acceptance of the situation within the scope of this game. However, my points stand. Although certain aspects could very well be neglected or re-directed towards the greater female audience than specifically you.

Talking about strong female character, I'm a bit surprised nobody mentioned Alyx from HL2. Played HL2 through for the first time a while ago. Still an excellent game despite being eight years old game!

Alyx became my favourite female character almost immedietly. Extremely well made and believable character. Oh, and the DOG is adorable.



Speaking about men/female issue. As long as they have good backstory and useful stats, I honestly don't care about their gender. I usually try to have good balance of both female and male characters in RPGs and other games with multiple characters.