2701

Because 95% of the population is straight or bi? Come on, I suck dicks like it’s my job and I have less trouble with heterosexuals than you seem to.

2702

Well, I’m pointing out the fact that in actual games, the character creation process actually is NOT as you described. For instance, when I created my titan in Destiny, I believe it actually started off as a black female by default? But, like I said, I believe it’s randomized.

I don’t remember the exact sequence of keys you press when you start a game of ME3, but I do know the box looks like this

Mass Effect 3 is probably a bad example for you to use here. Mass Effect was actually specifically designed to support a primary female character, Jane Sheppard, equally well as the male version, John Sheppard.

Hell, in the launch trailer for ME3, they actually used the female version rather than the male version.

And actually, regarding the box art, ME3 actually ALSO has box art with the female version. The cover was reversible, and could be flipped to show identical box art, but with the female version.

2703

I think his point was that MaleShep was the default. Having a reversible cover with FemShep on the reverse sort of backs his argument.

2704

As I remember it was shipped 50/50, at least in the UK.

2705

Yes, I believe that the side that was facing outward when it originally shipped was sometimes female, sometimes male. Although I do not know how they ended up actually spreading out shipments. That is, I don’t know if a retailer ordered a shipment, if they would have gotten a mix, or all female ones, or all male ones.

And, as I said, the launch trailer for the game actually used the female sheppard, not the male one.

2706

Of course, it is worth noting that that only really happened because of people talking about how weird it was for Bioware to have BroShep as the front man for the game everywhere despite the fact that there was a significant portion of the population that greatly preferred FemShep. It’s not like it was something that just happened (as evidenced by the fact that it took 3 games to get to that point).

2707

If the cover was flipped 50% of the time, then I stand corrected. I wasn’t aware of that. I’m pretty sure all I ever saw in stores was the male side. I definitely don’t see the FemShep cover in any online retail images.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FYEZMQ/ref=s9_simh_bw_p63_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=15J262TDYZY214RY9H9T&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1915668602&pf_rd_i=14220161

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=mass+effect+3&_dyncharset=UTF-8&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keys

http://www.gamestop.com/browse?nav=16k-3-mass+effect+3,28zu0

2708

I never said there weren’t problems. The thing is I want solutions, not just feelgood StopKonys. The only way you get solutions is to stamp out things that cause minorities (in gaming) to leave, and encourage things that make them want to stay.

This is why I’m glad the social justice crowd is out, it’s a voice that can expand the pie. I just don’t like it when certain big-named individuals act like bullies, especially towards trans individuals as that’s a sore spot with me due to having some friends in the industry who have eaten a lot of shit due to that.
That said, the same individual has a massive grudge against Brad, so maybe she’s just a piece of crap all around, who knows.

2709

Ya, I think all the online retailer pictures online generally show the male art, because they’re not really gonna show multiple pictures for the same game.

My point though is that ME3 is a specifically bad example of what Virgil was trying to suggest, because it’s actually an example of a game going well beyond the norm to support the non-white-male lead character. It’s not really the game you want to be complaining about, if you’re arguing in favor of that stuff, since it represented a step in the right direction.

2710

Sure, I get that. My point is that the retailers are going to use whatever marketing images the publisher sends them to promo their game. Either they never got a FemShep picture in the packet, or they all separately chose to not use one. It’s odd to think that none of the retailers chose to go with the FemShep cover if one was included in the PR packet, right?

2711

Ya, I would expect that they just sent the male one as the image to display. It’s possible it was just the first one too, I guess.

2712

Although I do agree with you that calling out BioWare is a bad choice for complaining about diversity and gender/sexual equality in gaming as far as their game content is concerned.

2713

To be clear, physical boxes in shops, in the UK - specifically game, gamestop and…some other chain…maybe Zavii? The major specialist retailers, anyway.

I agree online images were all the male one, I suspect it was the “default” image sent for that use. Hmm…now I’m going to go look at Amazon’s entry…

edit: So I looked at the alternate images for ME3 on Amazon, and no, one of them wasn’t the female cover. Looks like they didn’t send that…interesting.

2714

Speaking of demographic data that may not align with the popular misconception…

Regarding gaming video stats on YouTube:

Viewership among women has doubled year over year, and women over the age of 25 are the fastest-growing demographic for gaming content.

YouTube data tells us that both men and women are spending more time per video with gaming than in any other content area. Women, however, are spending slightly more time watching each gaming video than men are. And to further shatter social stereotypes, millennial females actively comment on, like, and share more gaming content than they do cooking/recipe content.

2715

There was a study that showed female art= less sales. That might influence the AAA studios, and unsure if it was causation or correlation.

2716

Holy shit you’re still trying to #actually me this is incredible.

2717

It sure didn’t, by the way. Actually. For fuck’s sake.

2718

But again, civil and reasoned. So let’s pretend you’re being sincere that you have questions, let’s assume you actually give a shit about systematic discrimination and power imbalance, etc.

Did I answer your question about privilege? Or do you disagree that male/white/straight is the entertainment industry default?

Now, again, I know how fragile and easily offended you are. So I’m not accusing anyone of anything. This is strictly observational. Yes or no?

There was a great quote plucked from some Redditor about this, whining that how they were afraid some day they’ll be forced to play as a transgender Shep by SJWs. That guy was SO CLOSE to getting it. So close.

2719

I apologize for my error. They apparently made multiple launch trailers. This is the one using the female version of Sheppard.
Mass Effect 3 - “Female Shepard” Launch Trailer (…: http://youtu.be/qYDmq1TeDFs

Edit:
It’s funny, now that I look at it, there are a ton of trailers that EA cranked out for this game. A bunch of them used the female Sheppard. The one here is actually an early one from 2012, and then they made another one with the female Sheppard which is essentially the same one as they one Virgil just posted, then there are various other ones.

The marketing budget for that game must have been astronomical

2720

This guy is also really close. Yeah, you’re right. Well, not that I was calling them out, I wasn’t. But Bioware is absolutely laudable for their commitment to diversity. They are, in fact, the most gay-friendly video game company, right?

What’s the most straight-friendly video game company, would you say?