While your conclusion is right (to allow the player the choice), if I recall the studies’ results correctly, men are prepared to play female avatars to a far greater percentage than women are prepared to play male avatars. So if you can only afford one central character, perhaps for production reasons such as time and cost, and you are aiming for broadest possible appeal (clearly not a goal of the aforementioned titles) you should go for a female lead.
broadest possible appeal
they aren’t.
When can you share it?
Maybe after Black Op.
Someone remember to necro this thread then.
I wonder if Bioware has any statistics on whether male or female Shepard is more popular? When given a choice, what do gamers pick?
That whole Tombraider series was a complete dud.
Bayonetta did rather well for herself.
When I have the option to choose my character, I always make my character a female. My lady from Saints Row 2 was so hot, I loved watching her cause the mayhem. Fallout3…who wants to watch a dude’s arse for a hundred hours across the wastes? Not me.
The only exception has been Shepard from Mass Effect2, but that’s only because it woulda confused me too much from the original, which I skipped.
Thanks for the more progressive “I like to look a woman’s ass” perspective.
It’s too bad they didn’t feel the same way about the totally bitchin’ transexual prostitute groin-kicking mission.
Shockingly enough, ATVI’s PR department says that the allegations are not true.
“The company does not have a policy of telling its studios what game content they can develop, nor has the company told any of its studios that they cannot develop games with female lead characters. With respect to True Crime: Hong Kong, Activision did not mandate the gender of the lead character.”
Activision also denied the accusations of skewed focus-grouping. “Like all other game and media companies, Activision uses market research in order to better understand [what] gamers are looking for.”
Who wants to play Fallout 3 in third-person? Not me.
Er, I do
Kate just proves their cold and calculated point.
I could never bring myself to play a female character (when given the choice), until Warhammer Online. My first character after launch was a Witch Elf, which had to be female. When I made a Sorcerer I went with the female version because of the lore; I never bought the idea of male sorcerers in that milieu. It was weird at first but I got over it pretty quickly. It helped that the male models for Dark Elves are horrid.
I never played Scarface, but kicking a transexual prostitute feels like something Tony Montana would do.
Where was it ever said that the NOLF games didn’t sell?
Say goodbye to your little friend!