lol so like Real Life then? xP just kidding, it sounds unique though hehe
Indie Dev
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How does gender affect character entirely?
- Thread starter Boy Who Codes
- Start date
Gender, IMO, is a device often used improperly. For me, it works best in a story where emotion is a key element whether it's something in a spectrum of passion or explores the psychology of gender roles beyond the socially superficial statements. I think as an option s with equal player stats its a great idea because players can identify as they choose without handicap, but as stated before it also has several interesting mechanics opportunities when it comes to mythology.
Status Gear Entertainment
Praised Adventurer
- Xy$
- -0.30
There are a lot of technical factors that could honestly play out differently depending on your gender. Let's make a note that from right now, everything I say is not of or in any shape or form is an attempt to be sexist.
Mentally things can play out differently with how your character handles situations (and this needs to be taken into account if you're going that in depth with your game). For example, a study shows that females can change their moods more frequently than males. So if the after effects of a character's death is a factor, you would have to assume the males would take a mental breakdown much more slowly. Think of a relationship that just went through a break up. You would see, based on the time frame, that possibly males handle the break up more effectively at first. They would be alright and later the next day or so start to take a tole on them. With females it's more possible that they will take the break up instantly and later recover the next day or so. This does not mean that it can't happen the other way around and everyone is different but this is simply a matter of perspective through known studies.
Physically things can play out based on the gender. Again, studies show that males just play out to be much stronger than females (possibly due to long term nature vs. nurture reasons with males being raised to do all the physical work and be bulky while females try to be fragile, nice and so forth due to society's way of looking at things) you would "assume" that the male would be able to fight off much better or move objects better.
Background of the game can be effected by the genders. An easy example would be the above mentioned game that features females ruling one side and males ruling the other in a segregation.
Again, this is all technical things based on how in depth you really want to get into. Let me know if this way any way helpful.
Mentally things can play out differently with how your character handles situations (and this needs to be taken into account if you're going that in depth with your game). For example, a study shows that females can change their moods more frequently than males. So if the after effects of a character's death is a factor, you would have to assume the males would take a mental breakdown much more slowly. Think of a relationship that just went through a break up. You would see, based on the time frame, that possibly males handle the break up more effectively at first. They would be alright and later the next day or so start to take a tole on them. With females it's more possible that they will take the break up instantly and later recover the next day or so. This does not mean that it can't happen the other way around and everyone is different but this is simply a matter of perspective through known studies.
Physically things can play out based on the gender. Again, studies show that males just play out to be much stronger than females (possibly due to long term nature vs. nurture reasons with males being raised to do all the physical work and be bulky while females try to be fragile, nice and so forth due to society's way of looking at things) you would "assume" that the male would be able to fight off much better or move objects better.
Background of the game can be effected by the genders. An easy example would be the above mentioned game that features females ruling one side and males ruling the other in a segregation.
Again, this is all technical things based on how in depth you really want to get into. Let me know if this way any way helpful.
The following text is from a page on our (me and my lead dev) website on ideals that I'm not going to link for advertising purposes but you might find useful. It's essentially a viewpoint on females in video games as a whole and how we'd like to portray them, just putting this here so the language makes sense:
Portrayals of Female Characters
Many games do this rather poorly, others do an alight job of this and a rare few portray women in just the wrong light. This is something that is brought up in the games industry all the time, with over sexualised characters in fighting games and outright sexism in others. The crux of the problem seems to be the idea that women are used more as a story ploy, a reason to do something or simply as background to stop angry tweets going to the developers. This is not the way we’d like to do things, the females in our games should integrate perfectly into the experience whether you’re playing them or talking to them women are people in their own right and should have interesting and in-depth personalities that reflect their experiences.
The general idea is that we write people into our games and not token characters for no reason and so although there will certainly be a lot females in our game each one has a set purpose and integration with the story. There is no point in adding characters of any gender without a purpose and well fleshed out background, this should be the case with everyone portrayed.
Portrayals of Female Characters
Many games do this rather poorly, others do an alight job of this and a rare few portray women in just the wrong light. This is something that is brought up in the games industry all the time, with over sexualised characters in fighting games and outright sexism in others. The crux of the problem seems to be the idea that women are used more as a story ploy, a reason to do something or simply as background to stop angry tweets going to the developers. This is not the way we’d like to do things, the females in our games should integrate perfectly into the experience whether you’re playing them or talking to them women are people in their own right and should have interesting and in-depth personalities that reflect their experiences.
The general idea is that we write people into our games and not token characters for no reason and so although there will certainly be a lot females in our game each one has a set purpose and integration with the story. There is no point in adding characters of any gender without a purpose and well fleshed out background, this should be the case with everyone portrayed.
noxyoursox
Villager
- Xy$
- 0.00
Given that I am transgender I don't believe that there should be any impact on the characters abilities based on their gender (since a person can be a woman, but have the physical traits normally associated with a man, for example). For my current game I didn't have a player choose gender but instead had them choose (or enter manually if they wish) what pronouns they want the character to be addressed by. If I had more than one appearance option for the character I would just show them all to the player and let them pick the one they liked, rather than labeling them "male" and "female" (especially since I'm neither male nor female myself, and wouldn't feel comfortable having to pick between those options).
Obviously there are story situations where the character's gender might be relevant, do whatever works best for your game and the story you want to tell. :)
Obviously there are story situations where the character's gender might be relevant, do whatever works best for your game and the story you want to tell. :)
Companion Wulf
Lone Wolf
- Xy$
- -0.20
Been reading through this on and off. It's proving to be quite useful because I've implemented a small gender routine in both Otherworld and Gaia's Dream. It doesn't really do anything yet but this has given me some ideas.