Brink's lack of females. DISCUSS.

[dtthelegend]

ripped from gamecritics.com

Enter Brink.

A team-based shooter developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda, it was recently revealed that Brink has no options for female avatars despite one of its main features being incredibly deep avatar customization. Everything from race to body type to clothing, from the videos I've seen and the interviews I've read, it seems as though there are an absurd number of options for players... except being a female.

Interestingly, Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgewood has given speeches where he's publicly stated that one of the most important things is to be "AAA" in whatever you do. That's certainly a philosophy I can get behind, although I must admit that I'm having a little bit of trouble reconciling the concept that female characters aren't a part of AAA-level presentation.

So what's behind all this? Did Splash Damage think that no female players were going to be interested in their game, so why bother including them? Was it unthinkable to the devs that male players might want to choose a female avatar? Are they somehow biased against females, or perhaps even incapable of properly rendering female 3D models?

Doing a quick search of the Splash Damage message boards, a few of the threads feature "official" responses which basically state that the developers (allegedly) had a choice between having in-depth customization options for male characters, or having less options for both male and female. In the circumstance described, female avatars got the ax.

Now I can certainly understand the realities of operating under a budget and the drive to turn out the best product possible, but I have to admit that there's something very disturbing to me about having a choice between fifty different pieces of upper torso clothing or including an entire gender, and then deciding to go with the clothing. What does such a decision say about the attitude of Brink's developers, and the studio itself? What message will be taken away by female players who check out the game only to discover that they haven't been given any representation? Not including female avatar options might have seemed like nothing more than a practical choice to Splash Damage, but taking a look at the bigger societal picture and the changing face of today's gaming constituency, it's pretty clear to me that more that should've been taken into account.

Inclusion and respect, or outfits and haircuts? I'll take the former, thanks.

[http://www.gamecritics.com/brad-gallaway/brink-no-girls-allowed]

I wanted to know what the escapist thought about this.

 

[Randomeaninglessword]

While I don't understand why they didn't include females, I don't really see why this is such a big deal. Most games don't allow you to customize your character at all.

 

[Canid117]

They dont let you customize everything? Boo hoo? They didn't have the time or resources simple as that no there is no conspiracy against women at Splash Damage. This should not be as big a deal as people are desperately trying to make it.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

while that may be a disappointment to some people, it's not that large a deal.

I like avatar customization as much as the next guy, but when it comes down to it it's the gameplay that matters. aesthetics only enhance gameplay (or detract from it)

also, maybe they couldn't portray females in a proper way easily (strange, but it can happen), and decided not to try.

Having no females at all can be better than having highly sexualized females

 

[Thaluikhain]

I can understand not having as much resources as they'd want, but it seems a sort of half-arsed not to include both genders.

Actually, is not having the resources a justification that works with gamers, on the whole?

"Yes, the gameplay/weapon selection/graphics/whatever wasn't very good, we didn't have the resources"...I imagine people would be interested in the end results over anything else.

 

[Super Toast]

We've only had twenty threads about this today...

I think, if a game makes such a big deal about it's level of customization, it shouldn't forget half of the human race. But maybe that's just me.

 

[MerlinCross]

Male or Female, I'm probably gonna be on the ground or seeing my limbs go flying. I mean does it really matter if I'm a guy or girl when someone is aiming a shotgun at me?

 

[TheComedown]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.281854-Brink-No-Girls-Allowed

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.283145-Will-people-really-not-buy-Brink-because-there-are-no-females

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/8866-Stolen-Pixels-258-Where-the-Boys-Are

Those are just the first few i found with a VERY quick search. Consider it discussed.

 

[Cenequus]

I find as time passes game reviewers getting worse and worse. Since this is a brink topic I'll bring this as an example. The game is just beyond everything and maybe only Battlefield comes as close when it comes to team fighting. Only thing I can think of why the game got so negative score is that it seems a PC only game and the 360 an horible port. So to contrcdict myself and think reviewers are great people doing at best their job I can only imagine they only played it on 360.

Btw I see no lag at all on PC with 95% of the servers with less than 50 latency.

And all the discussions about lack of female customization reminds me about Portal 2 discussions about hats. I know it might sound bad but really discuss the game are we really that up our asses to forget that playing games is about having fun? I can understand gender customization in an RPG but a shooter? really?

 

[Allan1221]

I understand that some people might be a little dissapointed by the fact that there are no female avatars, but for the developer that would mean doubleing the amount of models they use, that is a lot of work and a lot of money they probably didn't have.

Plus, is it really that bad of a thing? It has no effect over the gameplay, only the custimization. While some people might feel a bit left out about that the gameplay will win them over, and if not, oh well. They can just move on.

On another note, a lot of games dont have women in them when violence is a key feature, because that is not a present day norm. I personaly feel some "femonist" groups are actually pushing womens rights backwards, such in this situation, do you really want to be shooting girls? It make a good arrgument. Yes they want to be equal, but do they really want to be shot just like men?

Not to confuse where Im coming from, I am a strong believer that men and women should have equal rights I think a lot of people are pushing that away, in the video game situation, we tend not to add females in the shooting, which can be good or bad. Its just something we need to sort out.

Food for thought. . .

 

[Saelune]

"We were gonna have a daughter too, but we felt it was better for our son's future to have her aborted"
Just a humour intended paraphrasing of their supposed reason.
My reason is they were just lazy. As said in the near begining of the OP, its a game that touted its character customization. THATS why it had to have females. CoD never touts character customisation, so thats why its ok for them. Halo did not even have customization aside from MP color till 3, but it was half assed then, and it atleast had female grunts. Reach, which was more about customization had females though and I had no complaints about it.

 

[Saelune]

I understand that some people might be a little dissapointed by the fact that there are no female avatars, but for the developer that would mean doubleing the amount of models they use, that is a lot of work and a lot of money they probably didn't have.

Plus, is it really that bad of a thing? It has no effect over the gameplay, only the custimization. While some people might feel a bit left out about that the gameplay will win them over, and if not, oh well. They can just move on.

On another note, a lot of games dont have women in them when violence is a key feature, because that is not a present day norm. I personaly feel some "femonist" groups are actually pushing womens rights backwards, such in this situation, do you really want to be shooting girls? It make a good arrgument. Yes they want to be equal, but do they really want to be shot just like men?

Not to confuse where Im coming from, I am a strong believer that men and women should have equal rights I think a lot of people are pushing that away, in the video game situation, we tend not to add females in the shooting, which can be good or bad. Its just something we need to sort out.

Food for thought. . .

What if Baskin Robbins (the Ice Cream place) only had 31 different flavors...of chocolate. Sure they are each distinct and good, but its all chocolate.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Brink has alot of females, they just look manly due to all that gritty super mutant space marine training, also the reason why everyone looks like a monkey cross breed.

 

[Slimshad]

"What message will be taken away by female players who check out the game only to discover that they haven't been given any representation?"

I'm a skinny white nerd with pimples all over my face, and all the avatars in there are perfect skin-toned body builders. I FEEL UNDER REPRESENTED!

 

[walrusaurus]

Complaints like this are why modern feminism gets dismissed by everyone as radical and ridiculous. Equality is not contingent upon universal parity. Complaining that a video game doesn't allow you to play as a female is like complaining that Marvel studios didn't release an alternate version of Hulk starring She-Hulk, and therefore it must be a chauvinist manifesto. If you want to discuss gender parity across entertainment as a whole, thats an entirely different topic. Bemoaning it on a case by case basis is absurd.

Your casual dismissal of the developers stated justification is simply ignorant. If adding a female character option was as simple as slapping breasts on a wire frame and designing a few new hairstyles maybe you'd have a point, but its far more complex than that. Literally every single equip-able item would have to be remodeled. Computer graphics aren't like actual clothes you can't just put a mans shirt on a woman, because the 'clothes' are in reality essentially a localized reskin of the character model. Textures can (in most cases) be carried over, but allowing for both genders easily increases your workload by --at a minimum-- at least 50%.

That doesn't even touch the fact that, female PC's would then require, new dialogue and therefore voice acting, and (if they're really going for a triple A feel) new animations.

Next time, think before you post.

EDIT: Full disclosure: I am a man, and i believe that women should be equal to men in every way. Including (but not limited too) being drafted, paying more for car and health insurance, being discriminated against in divorce and custody cases, not having any scholarships for your gender, and having a lower life expectancy.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Meh whatev's i don't get what the fuss is all about, it's not like every other shooter has female soliders right? Plus ethics and all that

Also the amount of resources needed to make the new character models, voice actors, hitboxes etc would be at least double their customisation budget.

 

[Allan1221]

]What if Baskin Robbins (the Ice Cream place) only had 31 different flavors...of chocolate. Sure they are each distinct and good, but its all chocolate.

Im sorry but I dont see what that had to do with my post, could you please explane?

 

[Saelune]

]What if Baskin Robbins (the Ice Cream place) only had 31 different flavors...of chocolate. Sure they are each distinct and good, but its all chocolate.

Im sorry but I dont see what that had to do with my post, could you please explane?

Its a metaphor that is supposed to show why the argument that a game focusing alot on customization is allowed to limit the sexes due to "vastly imrpoving" the remaining one.

 

[Allan1221]

Yes but that doesnt have a lot to do with my post, I was saying that there desision was justified and that the issue of the lack of females was a not a fualt, but something that needed to be thought about.

 

[DanDeFool]

I have only this to add to the discussion.

The Battlefield games, the Call of Duty games, and the Medal of Honor games do not allow you to play as women either.

You might argue that those games are intended to be realistic, and in the real world, most countries do not permit women to serve as front-line fighters.

Well, yes. My point is, if this is the case in the real world, is it such a stretch to say that the same is true in the fictional universe of Brink? And if we're cool with not being able to play as women in Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2, why is it such a problem in Brink?