Does the default gender for characters with multiple gender options matter to you?

[TheBaldwin]

It doesnt matter to me because i usually know what im going to make before i start

But the default option does change stats for the acerage player yes. Resident evils a good example. On playstation, the REmake has a higher completion rate for players completing the game with jill and much less for chris because jill is the first option, whereas on re2 its leon who has a higher completion rate.

So yeah i think even in a create a character scenario, the default options will be more likely to be chosen, or whatever the first option is

 

[RadicalDreamer]

It matters very much. Having the default gender selection in a game as male, even if you have the option to change it immediately after starting character creation, is hegemonic and supports gender inequality. Men aren't the only ones to play video games, and it's time to see some more mindfulness and change be presented by development teams and studios. It's lots of little things like this that will add to up to make games more accessible, diverse, and ultimately, fun moving forwards.

EDIT: To clarify, I would like to see the option being presented without prompting or preference. For example, allow the player to select their characters gender from a "neutral" selection option, such as a "back" button, and move the cursor in a direction to select their choice.

 

[Astral Lovelace]

What would be awesome is if there was an RNG element in promotional material/game cases/character select.

What I mean is, let's say you go pick up RE2. Let's say it's a cardboard sleeved case, with the black cover with zombie chin art as the cardboard sleeve art. When you peel off the plastic wrap and pull off the sleeve, there's a 50% chance that the Leon artwork is the cover art (with Claire as reversible) and 50% chance that Claire is the cover art (with Leon as reversible). Both sides of the cover art are the minimalist non-license info all over it versions, so no matter which 50% coin flip you fall on you can flip the cover and have the exact same package as if you'd had the other one, but the *default* is 50/50.

Then when you boot up the game, it's a 50/50 chance on first boot whether Leon is the top option or Claire is the top option, and after that it uses whichever character you picked last as top option. Etc etc. There is no 'true' default, it's just 50/50 which one is default for your particular copy... just like in life.

Also apply this to marketing materials -- for RPGs where you're just creating a character, re-run each trailer/ad/etc with the gender/character flipped and when you click the link, whichever version is fed to you is 50/50 random, and there's a link for the other version on it.

I think this'd be pretty sweet IMO.

Resident evils a good example. On playstation, the REmake has a higher completion rate for players completing the game with jill and much less for chris because jill is the first option, and also because Jill is the easier difficulty in several key ways, whereas on re2 its leon who has a higher completion rate.

So yeah i think even in a create a character scenario, the default options will be more likely to be chosen, or whatever the first option is

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[J-Tier]

For fighting games and games with a story, it does matter to me.

*grumbles* Corrin *grumbles*

 

[Deleted member 3058]

Maybe It's because I've been playing a lot of MMOs recently but I like it when the default is randomized.

 

[RadzPrower]

Or, instead of it being random, just make it so you have to choose a gender before the game ever starts or before you can ever see the protagonist/player character.

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I was a bit unclear...I meant that the default gender selection should be random, not the character itself with no option. Even by giving the player the choice (ala later Pokemon), it still defaults to male (unless that's changed in recent years...not big into Pokemon) which makes the male character the default choice even if you don't see him beforehand.

I say randomly dump you into the character selection/creator with randomized gender, skin tones, and any other options and then work from there. Provide some templates for those that don't want to deal with character customization and you're done.

 

[SliceSabre]

Default doesn't matter to me as long as you let me make the character the gender/appearance that I want.

 

[Lyrick]

Please Clarify. What exactly are you asking?

I was under the assumption that gender is specifically a sociological construct differing from reproductive organs.

I may have missed them but I don't recall gender roles in the Splatoon, Wii Fit, or the Pokemon series as none of the series aspects touch on any gender related issues. All activities, cultural and social issues are the same or rather completely lacking in distinction regardless of what the appearance of your selected character is.

 

[Diema]

It matters very much. Having the default gender selection in a game as male, even if you have the option to change it immediately after starting character creation, is hegemonic and supports gender inequality. Men aren't the only ones to play video games, and it's time to see some more mindfulness and change be presented by development teams and studios. It's lots of little things like this that will add to up to make games more accessible, diverse, and ultimately, fun moving forwards.

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If that is the case, why would making a female character be default not also promote gender inequality and hegemony?

 

[Neoxon]

Please Clarify. What exactly are you asking?

I was under the assumption that gender is specifically a sociological construct differing from reproductive organs.

I may have missed them but I don't recall gender roles in the Splatoon, Wii Fit, or the Pokemon series as none of the series aspects touch on any gender related issues. All activities, cultural and social issues are the same or rather completely lacking in distinction regardless of what the appearance of your selected character is.

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It's more about how the character is seen, their main appearance. To use MvCI as an example, they went with the Female Monster Hunter as the main one, which has implications on how they'll represent Monster Hunter going forward in future crossovers.

 

[Regulus Tera]

Not really, as long as the choice exists.

 

[Neoxon]

If that is the case, why would making a female character be default not also promote gender inequality and hegemony?

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I believe their point is that going with a male character as the default (which would be what's used in most merchandise & crossovers) would promote gender inequality.

 

[Diema]

I believe their point is that going with a male character as the default (which would be what's used in most merchandise & crossovers) would promote gender inequality.

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Yes, that's what I assumed their point was - hence my question. This appears to be admission of subscription to a blatantly sexist opinion and I wanted to give benefit of the doubt and assume otherwise.

 

[RadicalDreamer]

If that is the case, why would making a female character be default not also promote gender inequality and hegemony?

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Totally fair, as I didn't specify my thoughts on what the default option should be. Or rather, that there shouldn't be a "default option" but instead allowing a player to select their choice without any initial prompting or selection.

 

[Richietto]

Absolutely. You take nothing away from making the "diverse" option the default one and it's only a net benefit. Unless it's a garbage design like female Byleth, of course.

Yes, I am still salty about male Robin being default. Pigtails for life.

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I like this line of thinking. Ain't hurting no one by making the default the more diverse option, nothing but good can come from it..

 

[Diema]

Totally fair, as I didn't specify my thoughts on what the default option should be. Or rather, that there shouldn't be a "default option" but instead allowing a player to select their choice without any initial prompting or selection.

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Completely agreeable, I'm sorry for bringing up what I said above.

 

[RadicalDreamer]

Completely agreeable, I'm sorry for bringing up what I said above.

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No worries! It's important to be concise and thorough in these sorts of discussions, and I appreciate the request for clarification.

 

[Alienous]

If it were up to me I would make it something random - I think the Sims does that. But I can understand having to hover over some option, and choosing the one closest to what most people will end up making (or the biggest single demographic) - it doesn't seem illogical.

 

[Jawmuncher]

I definitely think the default look should be considered, even when there are multiple skins to choose.
The default is the design that gets all the marketing and such after all.

 

[Ezra]

Disappointed in the poll results so far.

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To be fair, the pool is weird.

Default characters doesn't really matter to me because I'd always choose the character I want (and I like to be different from default), but I definitely think that devs should make an effort to promote diversity through the default designs.

 

[Sesha]

Depends. When the default is the main or sole focus of marketing despite the alt being more popular, better designed or just generally more interesting, it can bother me. Personally, I choose whichever I like the look and personality of the most, regardless of who the default is. But of the examples in the OT, I prefer the defaults. The exception being Corrin, where I like both more or less equally, but I dislike the disproportionate focus dude Corrin gets over lady Corrin.

 

[Maligna]

I didn't love this answer but it most suited me: No, default genders don't really matter in the long-run.

I literally could not careless. I have other things to worry about.

If Devs want boring guy, great. If Devs want diversity, great. Just don't you dare put a character creator in a single-player first person only game where I never see my person anyways cause thats annoying.

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Excited for Cyberpunk 2077? (I was)
:P

 

[Zafir]

It ends up mattering when it comes to marketing and/or anything that references it. I can't say I was massively enthused that Male Robin is the default from FE:A for example when it comes to other stuff like Smash.

 

[PSqueak]

I think it pisses me off more when there's not supposed to be a "canon" default gender but the promotional material heavily skews towards male.

I'm talking specifically of Mass Effect in which there was not supposed to be a "canon defualt" Shepard and there was a male dafult and female defualt that were supposed to be equal in terms of "canon shepard" but there was ZERO promo material with default female shepard and all covers showing the character face featured default male shepard leaving female shepard for the reversible cover of ME3, which out of the box came with male shepard facing out.

 

[Neoxon]

I think it pisses me off more when there's not supposed to be a "canon" default gender but the promotional material heavily skews towards male.

I talking specifically of Mass Effect in which there was not supposed to be a "canon defualt" Shepard and there was a male dafult and female defualt that were supposed to be equal in terms of "canon shepard" but there was ZERO promo material with default female shepard and all covers showing the character face featured default male shepard leaving female shepard for the reversible cover of ME3, which out of the box came with male shepard facing out.

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At least with FE Fates, Male & Female Corrin each got their own cover between the two versions.

 

[Mupod]

It's more about how the character is seen, their main appearance. To use MvCI as an example, they went with the Female Monster Hunter as the main one, which has implications on how they'll represent Monster Hunter going forward in future crossovers.

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I guess the cynical answer is they wanted to sell Kirin armor DLC, and they totally did that, but yeah it was a nice surprise. I figure Smash is by far the most likely place we'll see a 'generic hunter' representation, I assume it'll be handled like the Inkling and let you switch.

 

[Haruka]

Why would anyone care?

 

[Master Alucard]

Nay

 

[Neoxon]

I guess the cynical answer is they wanted to sell Kirin armor DLC, and they totally did that, but yeah it was a nice surprise. I figure Smash is by far the most likely place we'll see a 'generic hunter' representation, I assume it'll be handled like the Inkling and let you switch.

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True, but I feel like Sakurai would have gone with the male Hunter by default in Smash if Capcom didn't already establish the female Monster Hunter as the main one via MvCI. And even then, the Kirin Armor was bundled with Monster Hunter to try & justify the higher price tag for the individual characters (the Season Pass was $30, as per usual).

 

[Stat]

Excited for Cyberpunk 2077? (I was)
:P

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Its one of my earliest complaints about 2077. Makes no sense to have a character creator that you cant see.

 

[Enduin]

I wish more games would randomize stuff when there are multiple options/customization. Dragon Age Inquisition does this by randomizing which Gender card is presented first when creating a new character. It would have been great if that also applied to race and class, but it's a start. SSB could likely easily do something much like that when you pull up the roster screen.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

If it's a story-driven game where the narrative is written around a character of a specific gender, keep it specific. If it's an RPG with customization, let the player choose.

 

[Bhonar]

certainly does not matter whatsoever

having said that, I have no problem with games that ask you to pick gender first (without seeing anything), or randomize first

as long as there's a full character creator, those two methods seem the best way

 

[Mr. Fantastic]

it matters because then you end up with shit like this

while the superior one is relegated to the inside cover

 

[ASaiyan]

Worth noting, Female Corrin is apparently the canon one. Which makes Smash's choice to default to Male Corrin all the weirder...

 

[Maligna]

Its one of my earliest complaints about 2077. Makes no sense to have a character creator that you cant see.

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Especially for a game that's based on source material that has a motto of, "Style over substance"

 

[Deleted member 2317]

What? No.

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

Defaults absolutely matter and I will generally stick with them. Only losers play as inkling boy, for example.

Not really, although in Smash Robin and Corrin should be default female. They're just better.

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It should be male robin and female Corrin.

At least with FE Fates, Male & Female Corrin each got their own cover between the two versions.

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Female Corrin got priority on the fire emblem warriors boxart afterwards though. No idea why Sakurai had Corrin default to male for smash, that was a mistake.

 

[AndrewDean84]

it matters because then you end up with shit like this

while the superior one is relegated to the inside cover

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What made one superior to other? One has the guy I played with for two previous games and the other one doesn't.

 

[entremet]

Depends on the game.

 

[Monolith]

Why would anyone care?

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The default one is the one that tends to be more heavily promoted.

 

[Swift_Gamer]

No

 

[Swift_Gamer]

it matters because then you end up with shit like this

while the superior one is relegated to the inside cover

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I prefer male default Shepard.

 

[mute]

I just pick the one I like the most, default or not.

 

[Deleted member 8852]

Not at all.

 

[Z-Beat]

Edit: misunderstood the question.

Not to me but it does have importance to other people

 

[Zen Hero]

In terms of which character your cursor defaults to in the game, I don't think that's a big deal.

For marketing though, I think it does matter. It would be great to see a wide variety of characters in merchandise and things.

 

[Mr. Fantastic]

What made one superior to other? One has the guy I played with for two previous games and the other one doesn't.

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I played with an ugly as sin MaleShep (not the default one though) and still regret it to this day. FemShep is too good for this world.

I prefer male default Shepard.

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You sit on a throne of lies.

 

[MrNelson]

It matters to me in the sense that I like to see more diversity in how a game is presented to the general public through things like marketing materials and box arts. The fewer Generic White Dudes I see on the front of games, the better.

As far as in-game, it doesn't matter to me. Regardless of what the default ends up being, I always tend to play as a woman when given the option.

 

[Velezcora]

I don't think representation is the issue with fully customizable characters, just have the character customer randomize by default.

Having said that though, while I don't think it's an issue with most games, it can be.
Example being Mass Effect. That game has a fully customizable character but the plain ass white space marine dude is the face of the series.
One of the reasons I dislike the Mass Effect series. Defualt Shep is just the worst character and you can't even escape him. All the dialogue choices are annoying white dude speak.