I think there are basically two types of people: gamers who see their avatar as an in-game version of themselves, and gamers who see their avatar as a character, like a character in a book.
Ok, how well did the NOLF games sell? Maybe I’m wrong but I never heard it being a sales powerhouse. A niche PC game just can’t compare to today’s mega console blockbusters.
…Like Final Fantasy and Metroid?
I never said mega console blockbusters can’t have female protagonists. I said Kate Archer isn’t a good example to counter Activision’s point.
COD: Black Ops main character is a woman. You heard it here first.
If you skipped the original how would Lady Shepard have confused you?
I was always under the impression that the NOLF games sold decently but obviously not good enough to generate any publisher’s interest in continuing the series. (It’s kind of weird to compare them to console games. How many PC games can even touch console games in terms of sales?) I would think that if NOLF sold a lot, we’d have seen an attempt at keeping the franchise alive.
I wonder if the high-ish profile failures of games like Velvet Assassin informed that decision more directly than the successes of CoD.
Is that the game where you braid Tom’s hair? He’s so dreamy.
But 2007 was a year when the top sellers on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 included Halo 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Assassin’s Creed and Madden NFL – and the conclusion Activision took from that was that there was no room on the market for games starring a female main character.
And that’s why Activision is a shitty game company, because they sit around waiting for other people to be successful and then copy them.
I mention this because management from Vivendi, which later merged with Activision, kept asking for things that were outside both our rating and Tony’s moral code. Peter Wallnutt (or something like that) asked for a micro-game where Tony hired a prostitute (feature chasing GTA), got locked into an interactive NIS, and held a gun to her head to force her to perform certain gratifications, toggle the analogue sticks to win, or Tony shoots her.
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST
I never imagined one of the things I could congratulate the developer for might be restraint.
There’s a long clip at the start of ME2 highlighting some events from ME1. All those clips show Man Shepard. I guess now that I’m 25hrs in it’s not that confusing, but before I didn’t even know who that guy was.
FFX sold pretty well with a female lead character, I thought.
FFX2?
FFX was Tidus.
Referencing a 9yr old game…not good for the ladies.
He was pretty girly.
The marketing campaign was always dead focused on the game’s portrayal of Shepherd as a very specific male individual. I can’t even listen to people talk about the game without getting a clear image of that ugly mug that serves as the “template” for your adventure. Seems like a cop-out, if you ask me.
NOLF rights are really messed up. Parts of the game are own by Activision, Fox, and Warner Brothers. That is the biggest reason why another one won’t get made.
I love this phrase.
This would only be true if the demographics of male to female game players was near parity. In most cases (depending on genre and such) they’re not, so going the female route likely loses more men than it would gain women. Assuming all of this is actually true.
Yes, that is what I said.