Bioware Receives Cupcakes as a Thank You for Female Inquisitor

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
13,769
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Oh God, now the feminazis are trying to influence the industry with their wily ways by blatantly bribing game developers!

Where does it end!?
 

Infernai

New member
Apr 14, 2009
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I'm just surprised Bioware didn't get PTSD from the LAST time they got sent a bulk of cupcakes. Then again, even if they weren't, i imagine some of them might just be sick of cupcakes by now xD
 

aTigerslunch

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Jul 12, 2014
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Hello, Thanks for getting this out there! I appreciate The Escapist bringing this to light. Still unconcerned about being acknowledged myself but wanted to thank the site first and foremost.

Now, to see about the interesting replies I read in here. I am with DragonRacer on everything she wrote. I had to comment, not everyone that was pleased by Bioware's responses to show the female at E3 was actually female.

I find it interesting that I don't even live in the same country as that company does and still being called their employee. I work in a factory, far from gaming industry. Also, its hard to say feminists caused this to happen when in fact I am not a woman, not even close to being one as well.

Taking a look back at advertisements for Bioware, only one female protag was shown, ME3, Bioware owns many more than just one game. Implied can play female?

Not really advertised on some other companies games, I had to dig for information on couple other titles just to see if they was available. I wont list them, to protect them, though I don't care for them so much. Many ladies in my area had no idea till I showed them or told them they could. Family and some friends are aware due to my words. Showing at E3 signifies what was needed. Over 40% of the gaming community is in fact females.

So, thanks Bioware for showing women do matter.

It's ignorant to ignore the possible income a company can make if they see how many women would buy their games by including them. Males have no reason to stress if their is some more focus to females, going from 100% to 50% catering isn't going to kill us.

Thanks,
aTigerslunch
 

Revolutionary

Pub Club Am Broken
May 30, 2009
1,833
0
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Yep thanks for doing the same thing you've always done BioWare. Now can you actually make said characters interesting this time. ME3 was so unfocused it forgot it was a character-centric game. Actualy can we just not ME3 in general? That'd be great, there's absolutely nothing progressive about token characters.
To all the people who are mocking the people who say that feminists are never happy; they weren't saying ALL feminists are never happy, just some of them. ironically you're proving that you're never content either.
 

BathorysGraveland2

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Feb 9, 2013
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Well, it's a neat story I suppose, but I'm of the opinion that games with custom character creation shouldn't have a default promoted. Can't they promote something else that is important to the game, that would make more sense? I didn't like the default for Skyrim or Mass Effect, and I think this is equally as silly. With a character creation, there is no need to promote a default character.

If they wanted to promote a female, why not an important female ally or party character? Or even a female antagonist?
 

lady nuggins

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Jul 12, 2014
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BathorysGraveland2 said:
Well, it's a neat story I suppose, but I'm of the opinion that games with custom character creation shouldn't have a default promoted. Can't they promote something else that is important to the game, that would make more sense? I didn't like the default for Skyrim or Mass Effect, and I think this is equally as silly. With a character creation, there is no need to promote a default character.

If they wanted to promote a female, why not an important female ally or party character? Or even a female antagonist?
Because men get stories about being the hero, while women get stories about being the romantic lead. As much as I appreciate the female party members, it's still not the same as knowing you get to actually play the hero as a woman.

I know what you're saying. Showing any default character seems pointless in a game where you can customize the protagonist. But if a default protagonist must be shown, why does it always have to be a guy?
 

CpT_x_Killsteal

Elite Member
Jun 21, 2012
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Why have people suddenly lost their shit? This is supposed to be good news in the way of gender of equality, something that is VERY RARE for this site. The devs got a thankyou from some people who wanted to see a female character brought to the front and everyone loses their shit. What the effing hell guys...

[small]Edit: and I'm usually the voice of overreaction, and posts that aren't well thought out. I'm scared.[/small]
 

CpT_x_Killsteal

Elite Member
Jun 21, 2012
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ultreos2 said:
lady nuggins said:
BathorysGraveland2 said:
Well, it's a neat story I suppose, but I'm of the opinion that games with custom character creation shouldn't have a default promoted. Can't they promote something else that is important to the game, that would make more sense? I didn't like the default for Skyrim or Mass Effect, and I think this is equally as silly. With a character creation, there is no need to promote a default character.

If they wanted to promote a female, why not an important female ally or party character? Or even a female antagonist?
Because men get stories about being the hero, while women get stories about being the romantic lead. As much as I appreciate the female party members, it's still not the same as knowing you get to actually play the hero as a woman.

I know what you're saying. Showing any default character seems pointless in a game where you can customize the protagonist. But if a default protagonist must be shown, why does it always have to be a guy?
Let's assume for just a moment that every single person claiming women in games sell more games is true, and that the reason women don't buy triple A games is in fact because
1. Not enough representation.
2. Not enough female characters in advertizing campaigns.

Now never mind that society today rarely learns anything about any game from commercials that's not opinion. That's fact. People have adblocks for the internet, and devices that all but eliminate commercials from television viewing. Consumers avoids advertizements as often as possible. Whenever possible. So saying, you need to advertize females for me to buy a game is both petty and straight up lying. Because you will avoid 90% of any of their ad campaign simply based off how consumers have progressed away from ads.

And if you are correct, that gamers are such petty people by nature that they need representation to buy a game, then female representation in games devoid of male representation, eliminates the male half of the market. IE this assessment about needing representation is either wrong, or just completely misguided. Or perhaps the female gamer consumer is again, just to petty for this market.

Of course what do I know. I'm just an average white male. I mean all I did was grow up on an overweight italian plumber, two miniature dragons that had bubbles for attacks, an elf, and a woman in a cybernetically enhanced robotic suit, and bricks that dropped into place to be eliminated. I totally cared about self representation as opposed to whether the games were fun or not am I right?

Of course all of this can be counted as anecdotal really. Then again so can any evidence of female protagonists making a game sell better. Remember that new IP Remember Me? The one that the producers fought for a main female lead? The one that got advertizing here on the escapist? The one that scored 7s and 8s, and still managed to sell worse then Duke Nukem Forever and people to this day blame the creators because they didn't make the game good enough/advertizing campaign wasn't good enough, even though Tomb Raider did really well when it first launched and was really just an average game at best, and the sexualization of the character was not innate to the game, but rather Lara was simply sexualized by her fan base?

Here's my guess. This new Dragon Age will sell either
A. About the same number of copies it's been selling on it's new releases.
B. Less then the number of copies from it's last installment.

Why do I think this? Because female representation does not a game sell. A good game sells a good game, not the male to female representation.

Though you don't have to take my word for it. We will let the future tell it's story for itself when it comes.
Holy Moly, what does any of the giant wall of text have to do with what she said? She never mentioned a female character selling more, she just asked why cover characters always have to be men.
 

StormShaun

The Basement has been unleashed!
Feb 1, 2009
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Well, that's nice of them.
I mean it must be nice to get cupcakes for a good reason, rather than for the writing a large majority disliked.

I'm not going to question intentions, opinions, or other controversial stuff, it just leads to too much stuff I would rather not talk about. Though, I will agree that it was nice seeing the female Qunari on a large chunk of media for the game. She seemed to play differently ...
Although I'm only going to see that through, hopefully, some of the Youtube playthroughs I watch. For I will play my own preference.

Noble Human Warrior that I will use as an avatar of myself.
Not surprising really. Though I may be forced to play a rogue since the dual-wield warrior may not be back.
 

ExileNZ

New member
Dec 15, 2007
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Given all the recent moaning about calling the female Shepherd FemShep without a similar prefix for the male Shepherd, calling the female inquisitor FemQuisitor is just asking for trouble - especially since she's the DEFAULT.

Just call her bloody Inquisitor and get it over with. If anything, they should call the male one ManQuisitor or something.
 

Genocidicles

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Sep 13, 2012
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So... they've pissed off so many of their original fans that they're having to pander to the tumblr crowd now?
 

CpT_x_Killsteal

Elite Member
Jun 21, 2012
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ultreos2 said:
CpT_x_Killsteal said:
ultreos2 said:
lady nuggins said:
BathorysGraveland2 said:
Well, it's a neat story I suppose, but I'm of the opinion that games with custom character creation shouldn't have a default promoted. Can't they promote something else that is important to the game, that would make more sense? I didn't like the default for Skyrim or Mass Effect, and I think this is equally as silly. With a character creation, there is no need to promote a default character.

If they wanted to promote a female, why not an important female ally or party character? Or even a female antagonist?
Because men get stories about being the hero, while women get stories about being the romantic lead. As much as I appreciate the female party members, it's still not the same as knowing you get to actually play the hero as a woman.

I know what you're saying. Showing any default character seems pointless in a game where you can customize the protagonist. But if a default protagonist must be shown, why does it always have to be a guy?
Let's assume for just a moment that every single person claiming women in games sell more games is true, and that the reason women don't buy triple A games is in fact because
1. Not enough representation.
2. Not enough female characters in advertizing campaigns.

Now never mind that society today rarely learns anything about any game from commercials that's not opinion. That's fact. People have adblocks for the internet, and devices that all but eliminate commercials from television viewing. Consumers avoids advertizements as often as possible. Whenever possible. So saying, you need to advertize females for me to buy a game is both petty and straight up lying. Because you will avoid 90% of any of their ad campaign simply based off how consumers have progressed away from ads.

And if you are correct, that gamers are such petty people by nature that they need representation to buy a game, then female representation in games devoid of male representation, eliminates the male half of the market. IE this assessment about needing representation is either wrong, or just completely misguided. Or perhaps the female gamer consumer is again, just to petty for this market.

Of course what do I know. I'm just an average white male. I mean all I did was grow up on an overweight italian plumber, two miniature dragons that had bubbles for attacks, an elf, and a woman in a cybernetically enhanced robotic suit, and bricks that dropped into place to be eliminated. I totally cared about self representation as opposed to whether the games were fun or not am I right?

Of course all of this can be counted as anecdotal really. Then again so can any evidence of female protagonists making a game sell better. Remember that new IP Remember Me? The one that the producers fought for a main female lead? The one that got advertizing here on the escapist? The one that scored 7s and 8s, and still managed to sell worse then Duke Nukem Forever and people to this day blame the creators because they didn't make the game good enough/advertizing campaign wasn't good enough, even though Tomb Raider did really well when it first launched and was really just an average game at best, and the sexualization of the character was not innate to the game, but rather Lara was simply sexualized by her fan base?

Here's my guess. This new Dragon Age will sell either
A. About the same number of copies it's been selling on it's new releases.
B. Less then the number of copies from it's last installment.

Why do I think this? Because female representation does not a game sell. A good game sells a good game, not the male to female representation.

Though you don't have to take my word for it. We will let the future tell it's story for itself when it comes.
Holy Moly, what does any of the giant wall of text have to do with what she said? She never mentioned a female character selling more, she just asked why cover characters always have to be men.
Because asking why it is always a man being advertized is a criticism laced with the perceived need for female representation to get the female market involved.

The question, "why is it always men being advertized" is never the true intent of the question and criticism. The intent is to decry male characters being advertized and that to cater to a female audience a percieved need for female character representation is necessity.

Though you can believe the question is just "why always men" is just that if you really want. I've seen enough of this specific criticism in longer worded posts to know what it's really getting at.
Be that as it may, it's probably not a good idea to immediately assume someone always has an ulterior motive when they ask a question or give criticism. It really depends on who's saying it, which is not always easy to guess/interpret, especially if it's a stranger. It probably would've been more prudent to get an exact answer and understanding of what the person meant if you're not gonna go off the face text.

Personally I'd just like a little more variety over an army of white men (this coming from a white man).
 

Ishigami

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Sep 1, 2011
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I?m certain that I saw that trailer with a male protagonist?
Well it doesn?t matter.

I think it was a good move showing of the female qunari as a mage none the less.
It is basically the most ?bizarre? combination possible in that universe.
After all the qunari sew their mages mouth shut or even cut their tongues at the same time it is unlikely for a female to be chosen to be a fighter.

However I think the presentation was bit lacking in terms how your choice of gender/race would affect your game. Like I pointed out basically everyone should be amazed or baffled by seeing a female qunari mage? yet no one seems to care.
I know it is probably too expensive or time consuming to incorporate into everything and I don?t expect that but it would have been nice to showcase one particular instance where it actually made a ?slight? difference.
In DA:O if you played female elf and you get to Ostagar you would talk to the quartermaster and he would mistake you for his slave. That scene was showcased to demonstrate the small but none the less immersive differences your race and gender would make.

Not sure yet which race I will play but it will certainly be a female mage. I hope to encounter again references to the Amell line that?s why depending on the setup I tend to prefer humans.
The Warden I enjoyed the most was a human female mage as was a female mage Hawk it made the conflicts all the more engaging.
I kind of expect Inquisition to dive into that even more.
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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weirdee said:
Adam Jensen said:
I may be getting too cynical and jaded because my first thought is that they did this as some kind of PR maneuver. We're talking about it. And other gaming websites will too. It's free advertisement. Well, minus the cost to make the cupcakes. So yeah, I don't believe that fans were behind this.
you could claim the same thing with fan dissent, except replace the conspiracy starter with a rival company
And clearly the foil industry is pushing both sides so that people make double thickness tin foil hats. Those fiends!

Just imagine how many cupcakes Ubisoft would get if they ever discover what female characters are. They'd probably die from a frosting overdose.
 

Megalodon

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May 14, 2010
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CpT_x_Killsteal said:
Why have people suddenly lost their shit? This is supposed to be good news in the way of gender of equality, something that is VERY RARE for this site. The devs got a thankyou from some people who wanted to see a female character brought to the front and everyone loses their shit. What the effing hell guys...

[small]Edit: and I'm usually the voice of overreaction, and posts that aren't well thought out. I'm scared.[/small]
The thing that somewhat bothers me about this, is it's praising Bioware for making a trailer, not a good game. Bioware haven't released an emphatically 'good', generally well received game since DA:O/ME2 (can't remember which one came out first). This fawning over them for a trailer suggests that they still have too many fans blinded by hope/the studio they used to be. It's an ego boost to a studio who should really still be on the humble pie until they've tucked away at least one solid, Bioware-quality release. But it looks like they won't need to, as their mistakes have already been forgiven.