Witcher... here we go again.

[Domi]

I finally decided to check out the inof on Witcher that sounded kind of cool. And what do I see? The same old, the same old. Pre-defined character, and a male. Gah. End of story for me, that's for sure. How difficult is to plug a char-gen and alter a story for a female lead? But, no, no, no. Forget it. Only real manly men play computer games. Argh!!!!

[Salk]

For the little I know, it's because the whole game is inspired by a series of novels that have a male protagonist.

 

The hero of The Witcher is his counterpart in pixels.

[Domi]

And how that justifies having the male lead only? The game I pray is not an exact replay of a novel. You can get that by reading the novel. It's like their job to ajust the story that it could become the player's story in a CRPG setting. I wish Bio didn't endorse yet another spit into female gamers' face.

 

Sorry, guys, but this issue always angers me.

[CoM_Solaufein]

That doesn't sound good. I prefer playing with female protagonists.

[Domi]

It's another PS:T only worse. Apparently even the character's personality and looks are predefined. I guess, it was in the novels too, so Gods forbid the player has a say.... But, yay, it has nudity. Now, that's a feature that they didn't spare the resources for!!!

[Domi]

Oh, and look at this piece of undiluted old-fashioned sexism:

 

After following through on this quest, we went back to the village, where we spoke to another peasant woman, who bemoaned the general lack of attention being paid to her. We gave her some flowers to cheer her up, and she responded very positively. In fact, the implied result was a physical relationship, although this was represented only with the awarding of a collectible card--there are a number of these to find through the game, though not all relate to the seduction of peasant women.

 

I can't believe BioWARE endorses the product and advertises it on its site.

[CoM_Solaufein]

He sounds like a ladies man, a regular James Bond.

[Echon]

What a monstrous injustice! To heal the wounds this must have inflicted upon you, I suggest you try Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball which allows you to assume to roles of real women with well-defined personalities.

 

-Echon

[Salk]

Domi, please do not get angry.

 

I understand your point but I must ask you: is the gender so important?

 

Also, if a game has solid roots into a novel from which it is obviously inspired then it's not a scandal to have the main protagonist of the game being the same of the novel.

 

If I play a game about Superman, I don't find it strange to play Superman himself.

 

If it was Wonder Woman, I'd have found perfectly normal it was a female protagonist in the game.

 

I hope my point won't anger you further.

 

Sexism, in my opinion, has not much to do with the choice of a male or female protagonist but might come off bad dialogues like you pointed out in your next post.

[Caedwyr]

Another game that spits in the face of male gamers everywhere is the loathable Drakan: Order of the Flame where players are forced to play as a female protagonist.

 

More seriously, I personally don't have an issue if the game is told from the perspective of a male/female/other gender protagonist as long as there is a good story there and it is told well (good character development is also good). The fact that Bioware is advertising for an indie game company's adaptation of a popular fantasy series doesn't seem to me to be some sort of betrayal of female gamers everywhere. I'm not saying that being able to play as a female is a bad thing, but more that the gender of the protagonist has to fit the story. In this case they are working with an established series of novels and it would be a very risky move to try fiddling with the gender of the protagonist.

 

 

(Incidently, I had a lot of fun with Drakan when it came out. The female protagonist who wasn't just a piece of eye-candy *cough*laracroft*cough* and the gender role reversal was fairly refreshing at the time, and the gameplay was a lot of fun as well.)

[Domi]

Also, if a game has solid roots into a novel from which it is obviously inspired then it's not a scandal to have the main protagonist of the game being the same of the novel.

 

It's ridiculous. Why on earth do you need a game that retraces a movie or a book, complete with the protagonist? For gods sake, the games gave us the interactivity. And what do they use it for? To retell the story instead of making a new one? That's not sexism, that's plain stupid, uncreative, moronic, annoying and so much money and efforts wasted on a second-hand item.

 

Did you guys even bother to read the quote? That the male protagonist gets collectible card for every female he nails? That's what I called sexism. I mean, unless you all find it cool and normal in a game.

[Salk]

Domi,

 

I specified that what you quoted had all the reasons to be considered sexist. You quoted only the first part of my post though and that's not very fair.

 

Also, I don't think it's so ridicolous that a player might want to live new adventures through the same character that is protagonist of the novel inspiring the game.

 

Why would you think that playing with the same protagonist of a novel automatically implies lack of interaction or depth?

 

The gender has nothing to do with it. Just like it would not matter the colour of the hair, eyes or the weight.

 

I believe that getting so frustrated for what is, in my opinion, a detail, is to look at things with a perspective I can't understand.

[Caedwyr]

Yep, I read the quote about the collectible card game for number of females shagged. And yes, that is definately sexist. And yes, I agree that you are completely within reason (and I agree with your perspective here) to be outraged or at least not interested in the game for that reason.

 

What I don't agree with is the position that any game in the RPG genre needs to be playable with both a male and female protagonist. From what I've seen there are several different styles of RPG storytelling. In some cases, things are left more open ended and the protagonist is less defined (typical Bioware games for example). In other cases, the game is more cinematic in its storytelling, and the player is just along for the ride, using the protagonist as their storytelling guide. One could argue that the more cinematic style story telling games are less Role-Playing, but I haven't seen a good alternative method of categorizing such games so far.

[Domi]

Because for me, playing a computer game implies first and foremost co-creating, as opposite to a book, which you just read and get the story about so and so. And I don't feel that I co-own, co-create the game, unless the protagonist is someone of my creation. That includes name, appearence, gender and personality. I actually won't feel violated if I have to play a specific class.

[Caedwyr]

Like I mentioned above, there appear to be at least two different style of RPGs out there. The ones where as you say, you play the role of a co-creator, and the other where you act as an observer along for the ride. Both can be fun and enjoyable, and both have their advantages.

 

One of the things I believe you've mentioned before, is how CHARNAME in BG1/2 is the most boring character in the games. Part of this is the writing for CHARNAME, and part of it is due to the less-defined characterization the writers chose to use to allow more freedom to the players to role-play CHARNAME as they see fit. Games since then, such as Jade Empire or KotOR have given less options to the player for roleplaying the protagonists, which allows the writers more opportunities in developing charname's personality. Still, I'd argue that CHARNAME's personality in even these games is the most boring of any of the characters introduced in them.

 

 

Take for example, a game like Xenosaga (or another storytelling, along for the ride style RPG). You don't role-play any of the characters at all. Instead you get to see the story unfold through the eyes of the characters in the game world. This style of RPG isn't for everyone, but it still can produce a satisfying game experience for some.