• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

I don’t like female protagonists.

PeteBull

Member
If you can relate with a white bar playing pong... you can relate with whatever you wanna relate.


Can you releate with a a women in a role lead in a movie? If you can't then you have a problem not the one making games/movies with female protagonists.
There are times, and im talking here especially about modern day western games, u really dont wanna relate to female protag, like at all:
maxresdefault.jpg

On the other hand, as a man u are exposed to this in western game:
 
Last edited:

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
If given the option, or if I have the ability to create a character I might lean more towards a sexy woman. But it also depends on who has the cooler armor sets, or what class I’m playing.

I don’t get this fear of women that the younger generations have. Where did this come from? A lack of social skills? Being turned down by girls in the real world?
There’s definitely something to it and it’s pretty fucking weird.
 

EN250

Member
1-Narrative has hardly mattered in games. Other media has always been better overall.
I'll never understand this logic, like if something is better out there, you're not allowed to enjoy something else "not at the same level" as that, with that mindset, only a few items on every category would exist, books (tolkien reigns supreme, fuck everyone trying to write a book influenced by him), movies (no more action movies after 80s glory days) , video-games (MGS is king, fuck everyone else lmao), fucking telenovelas (I'm an expert -___-") and even sport games (rugby>american eggball)
 

PeteBull

Member
Anything link / source that backs this up?
Check the genre spreadsheet :p
Stuff gets crazy in some genres, like sports is 2%women, 98%men for example
Even western rpg is 26%female/74% male on avg(with DA:I being close to 50%, which only means other games in the genre are even more skewed towards males ;P)
Open World 14% female/86% male, with rare exception being AC:Syndicate with women at 27%(which again means other open world games skew even more towards males ;)
Supposedly innocent platformers are at 25/75 split so 3x more males vs females are playing it :D
While male audiences prefer fast-paced, explosive action and combat,[83] women tend to prefer in-game communication[84] and interpersonal relationships (character development and plot dynamics).
Thats why every1 sane knew concord gonna bomb once we saw its character roster, barely any females play that genre so obviously devs making characters unappealing to teenage boys/young men sealed the deal :D
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Check the genre spreadsheet :p
Stuff gets crazy in some genres, like sports is 2%women, 98%men for example
Even western rpg is 26%female/74% male on avg(with DA:I being close to 50%, which only means other games in the genre are even more skewed towards males ;P)
Open World 14% female/86% male, with rare exception being AC:Syndicate with women at 27%(which again means other open world games skew even more towards males ;)
Supposedly innocent platformers are at 25/75 split so 3x more males vs females are playing it :D

Thats why every1 sane knew concord gonna bomb once we saw its character roster, barely any females play that genre so obviously devs making characters unappealing to teenage boys/young men sealed the deal :D


Yeah someone already posted that once before, most of the citations on that link are a decade + old from 2012 to 2016.

-

This is from last year and doesn't break down genres but does say that nearly half the console owners are women. 🤷‍♂️


According to the April 2023 report, 47% of console gamers in the US are women. About 52% of Nintendo Switches are female-owned, making it the most popular console for the demographic. 45% of Xbox Series X|S consoles are owned by women, while that figure drops to 41% for PS5.

Women also make up 50% of PC video game players and 54 percent of mobile game players.
 
Last edited:

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
There are times, and im talking here especially about modern day western games, u really dont wanna relate to female protag, like at all:
maxresdefault.jpg

On the other hand, as a man u are exposed to this in western game:

Why would you post that, when you could post that.
Let's respect each other. It's christmass season!

Stellar-Blade-20241228144317.png

Stellar-Blade-20241228145933.png

Stellar-Blade-20241228150414.png
 

Fbh

Member
I don't really care about the gender of the character that much. I don't really think I need to be able to relate to them to enjoy playing as them.
Even with male characters you can have someone like Kazuma Kiryu with whom I have nothing in common aside from our gender, but I still like him as a character and can get invested in his story.

What I do generally want though, and I don't care if it's a bit superficial or immature, is to play as characters that I think look cool, or fun, or badass, or hot or any combination of those.
Bayonetta is sexy and cool and has a fun playful personality, Jill and Clair from RE are badass and good looking, Samus doesn't even talk much but she has a cool iconic looking armor with fun abilities, Kassandra in AC Odyssey was cute and badass and funny (depending on your dialogue choices), Tifa is hot and cool, Ana from Overwatch has a cool design, etc
And it's the same for male characters too btw. The fact Kiryu is a ripped cool looking dude is part of the appeal of the character.

These butch, intentionally unattractive women with the stereotypical girlboss attitude just aren't appealing to me. I just don't see them and go "yeah that looks like a character that I want to play as for 20+ hours"
 
Last edited:

clarky

Gold Member
Just woke up with a massive hangover and the first thing the Mrs says to me is "what the fuck was all that about, did your gay friend sort his issues out?" :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

PeteBull

Member
Yeah someone already posted that once before, most of the citations on that link are a decade + old from 2012 to 2016.

-

This is from last year and doesn't break down genres but does say that nearly half the console owners are women. 🤷‍♂️

Totally agree, games like Animal Crossing are made/marketted for female audience. And now quick follow up to that- when woman plays that game for those infinite amount of hours they will likely not try to hunt for new AAA products :p
DA:V was made by and heavily marketed to women, and we know it bombed hard, devs thought women will carry game's sales and they dont need straight men anymore, and we all know how it ended up going:
 

Fess

Member
fps with a female protagonist can be wierd..........

NOsgihGjduZ0XhOtSpcswOcdJtYrge18JUk-O_ThpbxgqGNvl6-_ysDqHUvOV1jT-yBkt9HHQJ_vu3Airb4MW679rrVp5y37bEePOQAKWj5w7dq67g
Lol yeah I can’t do roleplaying like that, tried in Cyberpunk but immersion was lost the second I heard her voice or saw the hands. Maybe I lack imagination, idk, it’s just not for me. 99.999999% of the times if there is a character creation gender choice I’ll pick the male option.

Third person though, like Horizon. Then I don’t care, there is no immersion then, I’m not supposed to pretend to be that character, then it’s more like I’m the camera man just following a character’s story.
But at that point I prefer eye candy, otherwise just go with a cool man. It’s the devs job to make the game interesting and if they have an ugly flat ass pants lady as main protagonist they better have some historically awesome gameplay or something else to make it interesting.
 

PeteBull

Member
Just woke up with a massive hangover and the first thing the Mrs says to me is "what the fuck was all that about, did your gay friend sort his issues out?" :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Are women who prefer to play as females seen as lesbians? Or every1 accepts it and moves on, devs aknowledge that and introduce more female protagonists even ;)
TLDR: Even woke press aknowledges, that playing as ur own sex is more fun for most ppl, including women ;)
What they dont wanna aknowledge is, when movie/game/any entertainment is targeted more towards women, it will inevitably get less attention/positive reception/sales from men :p
Did boysband like nsync or backstreetboys got majority male of female audience? Romantic comedies movie genre? Answer is pretty obvious.
Make games that target women customers and u will get less sales from male gamers, no way to avoid it, its a gamble many devs taking, and not many winning :)
 
Last edited:

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I don't really care about the gender of the character that much. I don't really think I need to be able to relate to them to enjoy playing as them.
Even with male characters you can have someone like Kazuma Kiryu with whom I have nothing in common aside from our gender, but I still like him as a character can get invested in his story.

What I do generally want though, and I don't care if it's a bit superficial or immature, is to play as characters that I think look cool, or fun, or badass, or hot or any combination of those.
Bayonetta is sexy and cool and has a fun playful personality, Jill and Clair from RE are badass and good looking, Samus doesn't even talk much but she has a cool iconic looking armor with fun abilities, Kassandra in AC Odyssey was cute and badass and funny (depending on your dialogue choices), Tifa is hot and cool, Ana from Overwatch has a cool design, etc
And it's the same for male characters too btw. The fact Kiryu is a ripped cool looking dude is part of the appeal of the character.

These butch, intentionally unattractive women with the stereotypical girlboss attitude just aren't appealing to me. I just don't see them and go "yeah that looks like a character that I want to play as for 20+ hours"
That's what is interesting about how the two extremes have basically the same ideology, it's just what they think the outcome of that is that differs.
Woke - People want to play as characters they identify with
Anti-woke - People want to play as characters they identify with

Us normies in the middle just want to play good games with cool or hot or interesting characters (or all three). Concords biggest failure was that it
A) had god awful characters
And
B) in trying to have characters for people to identify with they effectively tried to force them to use just one character - your a fat guy? then you play as the fat guy, fat woman? then you play as the fat woman etc
 

thief183

Member
Totally agree with OP, and looking at the responses I didn't notice any explanation for why woman can't relate to male protagonist but men should be able to relate with a woman protagonist...
 

sainraja

Member
We've had games with female leads and that wasn't (or I don't recall) a problem before... we also had games with male leads at that time, perhaps it was more heavily skewed towards male but still, point is, we had female characters who were leads. As long as the story of the game is interesting and believable it should not matter if it is male or female.

And I thought the main issue is, that game devs are adding female characters to their games but they are writing them like a male character so why not just create a male character? lol
 
Last edited:

PeteBull

Member
Starting to notice this a lot lately it’s a lot of complaining coming from the same people geographically
Funny thing sony censored famous abby sex scene in japan, that is how nasty it fellt for japanese audience, so add asians to that too, and while u are at it, add middle east/african countries to that, suddenly u notice most of the world prefers sanity, and wokeist clowns are just sitting in their tiny bubble unaware on how the world works for most of human population :)
 
I don't like when they're a male character with a female skin or when they gender swap off a male to a female lead in a successful franchise. Kait and Abby are a couple of the most obnoxious examples that feature both.
 

Tams

Member
No, "empathy" is the correct word. It is quite literally what art is. Art is a technology for exploring empathy, i.e. for putting yourself in the minds of others; to see what they see. Flex that emotional imagination of yours.

Ah, you're one of those snobby art people.

I'll just leave you to wallow in your ivory tower.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
no legit dude is typically role-playing as a female.
Because they are not roleplaying anything. You don't roleplay a character on a screen. You just control it. 🤷‍♂️

Or you think when you are remote controlling a plane toy or RC car toy you are role playing them too?
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I don't care as long as they're well written or badass if not well written. Samus Aran and Jill Valentine are some of my favorite characters for example. Also characters like Tifa, Terra, Celes from the FF series among many others.
 
Last edited:

RedC

Member
Funny thing sony censored famous abby sex scene in japan, that is how nasty it fellt for japanese audience, so add asians to that too, and while u are at it, add middle east/african countries to that, suddenly u notice most of the world prefers sanity, and wokeist clowns are just sitting in their tiny bubble unaware on how the world works for most of human population :)
I never played Last of Us 2, therefore I have no opinion on this "famous abby sex scene", however using not only censorship as a metric of sanity but also the number of people, regions, countries, and continents that agreed with said censorship is a poor argument given the history of censorship and ad populum fallacy.
 

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
Totally agree, games like Animal Crossing are made/marketted for female audience. And now quick follow up to that- when woman plays that game for those infinite amount of hours they will likely not try to hunt for new AAA products :p
DA:V was made by and heavily marketed to women, and we know it bombed hard, devs thought women will carry game's sales and they dont need straight men anymore, and we all know how it ended up going:
Dragon Age has indeed become a franchise towards women for a while now not just with veilguard. No idea how and when that happened, but on social media at least ever since da2 i remember women gamers being excited about it. I suppose thats why Veilguard hair tech is the best ive ever seen and the visials are so bloomy.
 

chakadave

Member
Animated GIF


I have no issue playing a female character, in many cases I'd rather look at that than a dude's ass. It's all good as long as she looks like a woman and not some trans shit.
I just don’t think the issue is looks. It is more of how a character is in the world the developers have created.

Also this argument of “looking at a guys ass”. Seems very homophobic and objectifying no matter the sex of the character.
 
Last edited:

Fess

Member
Because they are not roleplaying anything. You don't roleplay a character on a screen. You just control it. 🤷‍♂️

Or you think when you are remote controlling a plane toy or RC car toy you are role playing them too?
I always roleplay when I play a first person rpg.
If I control a helicopter in cockpit view I see myself as the pilot, and the driver in a car game. That’s the whole point of the perspective imo. VR even more so, that’s the ultimate immersive role playing experience.

Third person rpg is more about following another character as you say, like The Witcher 3 or Final Fantasy. Then I don’t mind controlling Ciri or Tifa. But if it’s a woman I definitely prefer someone hot like OP highlights than someone ugly. Goes for third person games in general. I’m not hard to please, just don’t do the political uglifying nonsense like many western devs. Like a western dev would 100% change the protagonist in Stellar Blade to a flat lady with manly face in pants and a jacket with a manly walk. Just don’t do that.
 

hemo memo

You can't die before your death
No-one talked about penises, only you who replied in bad faith to OP's argument regarding wokeism.
Anyways, you seem to have obsession with penises, I hope you get over it, especially if you are a male.
I agree with you, but on a side note, why does your username look like a code redeem?
 

DenimDevil

Neo Member
I like any protagonist that is likable, male or female. Blaze Fielding, Tyris Flare, Kelly O'Lenmey... hmm, all SEGA characters 🤔
 
No-one talked about penises, only you who replied in bad faith to OP's argument regarding wokeism.
Anyways, you seem to have obsession with penises, I hope you get over it, especially if you are a male.

I posed a joke, that some reason got you bent out of shape, get over it. I’m not the one who focused on the word penis.

The whole narrative of this discussion is in bad faith. This is a video game forum, not a collective for woke or anti-wokism.
 

Melfice7

Member
A good char is a good char and a shit char is a shit char, what that means to everyone is entirely subjective, and for me the gender is not an issue but it is a shame that most modern chars fall on the shit spectrum
 

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
A good char is a good char and a shit char is a shit char, what that means to everyone is entirely subjective, and for me the gender is not an issue but it is a shame that most modern chars fall on the shit spectrum
Too true. Not only from a looks perspective but also from a shitty written one. Most female characters are utterly infantile.
 

MikeM

Member
Meh I know plenty of women in the gym that are tougher and stronger than 90% of real world males out there.

Lets be real- i’d rather look at 2B/EVE over dudes throughout my gameplay.
 

RoboCain

Member
I don't have a preference honestly, but by now I do kind of hate the ex-marine/clean cut/masculine/hero type of guy they put in every fucking game.

I like antiheroes, dark characters, psychos, vulnerable characters, women, elder characters, any character that would look cool with a katana and covered in zombie blood.

As per woman in particular, they usually are presented as more of grounded characters and they often have cool designs, so I'd normally choose them. However, I don't care too much about either the cringy "anime girl in a thong" or the dull ass "my aunt bought a cool jacket" type of characters that's being around lately.
 
Last edited:

iQuasarLV

Member
Yeah someone already posted that once before, most of the citations on that link are a decade + old from 2012 to 2016.

-

This is from last year and doesn't break down genres but does say that nearly half the console owners are women. 🤷‍♂️

Adams' while I typically enjoy comments you make I am surprised that you point to this scratch-and-sniff article. IIRC that report was very mundane pulling data from households that bought consoles for under age children and set them up, so the numbers are going to be sewed because of how they retrieved their data. Was it in every case, NO, but it still skewed numbers because the paper never stated who was using the console while the games are loaded up.

Just like the Nielson ratings system. It is broken. No one can downright say who is watching ads or if they are EVEN watching them during shows. Because they are not a fly in the room observing the entire scene, yet they go to corporations and spout their shit like its holy water.

I hate statistics for this very reason. Its a pseudo-math-science that interprets numbers to achieve a wanted outcome.
 
Top Bottom