I find it a bit unsound to be attacking specific developers for this sort of thing unless their games happen to be misogynist all around and in general. Like Jim said, the developers should have every right to choose what goes in their game.Zachary Amaranth said:You're not really making a persuasive argument against, though. Saying there's no impact on the gameplay should still spark in the critical mind the question that if it's so unimportant, why are so many of them dudes?VanQ said:Because the gender of the protagonist may have no impact on the narrative or gameplay of the game in question. To use the example of Puppeteer, I'd wager the game would be no different in either its narrative or gameplay had the protagonist been female, though I haven't played the game, I'm working under the assumption that the protagonist's gender is of no importance outside of aesthetics.Jimothy Sterling said:Why shouldn't it?ZiggyE said:Why should a game be criticised or scrutinised simply because it doesn't have a female protagonist?
We should not be encouraging people to criticize or scrutinize a work of art "just because." If there is in fact, good reason that a female protagonist would have made a significant positive impact upon the game in question, then fair game.
Not every game needs to be a progressive political statement. Let's not forget that.
And yes, people should have the right to question it, but,
I feel as though it's more like raging against the symptom rather than the disease. Puppeteer having a male protagonist, by my estimation, is due to male generally being the 'default'. Again, it's just a symptom. Unlike some games, it's really not disrespecting females in any way. Making a fuss over puppeteer saving money by including only one protagonist, and choosing a male one for a myriad of potential unknown reasons (perhaps artistic, perhaps marketing, perhaps because most of the developers were male) isn't going to make any huge waves in the push to make video games more female-inclusive. It's inconsequential, wasted effort if you ask me.
I dunno. It just seems silly, for a narrative-centric title like Puppeteer. I'm just musing.