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Analyzing the percentage of female fighters in the rosters of the current batch of fighting games [NEW: SF6, MVS, & T8 Updated]
- Thread starter Neoxon
- Start date
If you count Skullgirls as current, its roster is 85.8% female.
2 Male Characters to 12 Female Characters.
2 Male Characters to 12 Female Characters.
The Persona fighters had a good male to female character ratio. The first game actually had more female fighters then male fighters.
Cross Tag Battle being a crossover will likely have a good amount of women fighting as well.
Cross Tag Battle being a crossover will likely have a good amount of women fighting as well.
5 women (out of 16) was the highest ratio of female characters to male ones in the series' history for a base roster, and it appears they have deliberately been trying to maintain that ratio with later seasons.
Games with male-dominated legacies will have a rougher time getting their female % up, which is why MvC:I was such an abomination on that front, as MvC2/3 both had a ton of female options that were utterly ignored when picking a base roster. (There's a very good chance parity issues may have been partially to blame here.)
Smash is a bit unfair. Charizard, Jigglypuff, Greninja, Pikachu can all be male or female so shouldn't be used to skew the results towards male. Not counting Villager, Corrin, Wendy, Mii Gunner Mii Brawler, Mii Swordfighter is also a little biased I feel. Smash has great female representation.
Especially with the Mii characters. You've counted all three as male when the players can literally choose what they look like? Mii Gunner is female by default and you didn't even count her.
Especially with the Mii characters. You've counted all three as male when the players can literally choose what they look like? Mii Gunner is female by default and you didn't even count her.
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OP
OP
Like I said, MvCI's lack of female fighters was likely due to a combination of a likely female parity rule put in place by Marvel & Marvel enforcing the Fox ban, thus limiting Capcom's options for Marvel female fighters (as a good chunk of the ladies who are veterans were part of the X-Men, like Storm, Phoenix, & X-23).
The major problem with older franchises rounding out those numbers, is for DLC quite often people want to see their favourite characters that weren't included in the current roster, and for new characters, they probably move towards even numbers, but the base number is always going to be skewed.
The latest game in the UNIEL series is sitting at 10 out of 20 characters.
Linne
Orie
Vatista
Yuzuriha
Hilda
Eltnum
Nanase
Mika
Wagner
Phonon
Since it's recently got an update, it might be worth mentioning.
Since I play a lot of anime fighting games, I'm not surprised at the results overall. They tend to be closer to equal representation numbers wise, but will also find themselves with some sillier designs.
Linne
Orie
Vatista
Yuzuriha
Hilda
Eltnum
Nanase
Mika
Wagner
Phonon
Since it's recently got an update, it might be worth mentioning.
Since I play a lot of anime fighting games, I'm not surprised at the results overall. They tend to be closer to equal representation numbers wise, but will also find themselves with some sillier designs.
The results aren't shocking.
Netherrealm I've always felt needed to step their roster selection up. They seem to just choose lousy characters a lot of the time in general and leave out obvious choices (Scorpion in MK3 anyone?).
Injustice 2 was a good step forward from the first game, but there are still quite a few odd choices included and some prominent female characters missing.
At least they include Supergirl, my personal fav, this time.
Mera, Huntress, Killer Frost, Miss Martian, Star Girl, Batwoman, Zatanna, Raven...
But at least we got Sub-Zero and Raiden because they were totally necessary and are a huge part of the DCU.
Netherrealm I've always felt needed to step their roster selection up. They seem to just choose lousy characters a lot of the time in general and leave out obvious choices (Scorpion in MK3 anyone?).
Injustice 2 was a good step forward from the first game, but there are still quite a few odd choices included and some prominent female characters missing.
At least they include Supergirl, my personal fav, this time.
Mera, Huntress, Killer Frost, Miss Martian, Star Girl, Batwoman, Zatanna, Raven...
But at least we got Sub-Zero and Raiden because they were totally necessary and are a huge part of the DCU.
OP
OP
To be fair, we know for a fact that Smash Pikachu is male on account of his tail.
Yes, but they still had great options for Marvel women like Spider-Gwen, Squirrel Girl, She Hulk (was even in MvC3...), Kamala, Wasp and maybe even Scarlet Witch. Gamora and Widow are such boring choices too... Can't defend whatever they did with the Capcom part of the roster.
That's called Disney pressure, only main MCU characters and maybe a few outside of that.
Also Melty Blood Actress Again has 30 females and 7 males.
The latest revision of Arcana Heart 3 is coming to Steam this month, so yeah, there goes your 100% female roster. Also Ougon Musou Kyoku CROSS was released on Steam yesterday and I'm pretty sure women are a mayority there too.
Smash and other games have used male pronouns for Kirby in the past:
That said, I believe Nintendo always uses gender-neutral pronouns for Kirby in Japan.
Kirby aside, most non-human characters are identified as male or female. The ooze character from ARMS, Helix, is actually called DNA Man in Japan.
OP
OP
- The problem with the female parity rule is that Capcom wouldn't be allowed to surpass Marvel in ladies. So if Marvel doesn't add more female fighters, neither can Capcom (hence me saying that Capcom could have easily passed up Marvel in ladies with just veterans). Even with the S2 rumors, we'd only get Ms. Marvel & Lady in S2.
- Scarlet Witch, despite being one of my favorite women in Marvel, fell under the Fox ban.
- Gamora & Black Widow are two of the most prominent women in the MCU right now before Captain Marvel & Wasp join the party (with Jessica Jones, Quake, and now Hela & Valkyrie not being far behind).
- Now that you mention it, Spider-Gwen being in the pipeline would explain why Marvel called dibs on Laura Bailey (who voices Gwen in the current Spider-Man cartoon), seeing as Marvel has no problem with one VA voicing multiple characters on the same side.
If we reach around 50% I think that is fair.
Some franchises clearly have problems actually finding female fighters like DBZ I believe. Simply because there aren't that many female characters to begin with.
You missed some of the smaller fighting games that only have a cast of female fighters. =P
Some franchises clearly have problems actually finding female fighters like DBZ I believe. Simply because there aren't that many female characters to begin with.
You missed some of the smaller fighting games that only have a cast of female fighters. =P
In addition to this, I'm pretty sure the list is also missing Celica
OP
OP
I KNEW I fucked up somewhere with BlazBlue. Thanks for pointing the errors out, guys.
I've just made the necessary edits. BlazBlue is now at 50% female fighters compared to the entirety of its roster.
Wrong, no senior representation. Confirmed ageist. PI wins again!
Gen Fu is 67.
Not gonna change much but just in case you forgot and for the sake of accuracy. Remember that Jubei was also added so that is one more male character
A Big Band style moveset for her would be fantastic after her Odyssey appearance.
If you don't see an issue then why do you care in the first place? Like, if more women popped up you shouldn't be bothered either way, right?
I could see if OP were arguing and the percentages were roughly 40-45 or more, but 18? 8?! Wack.
Marvel could fit a ton of lady heroes in if Capcom cared. :P
OP
OP
I didn't forget about Jubei, but I'll double-check in a few minutes.
The question I have is how many of the female characters listed have less than the baseline amount of HP. A tricky question to answer, since games usually don't surface that information and the standard is different between series (for Smash I guess it would be having less weight than Mario).
They tend to have less than the baseline because the developers often give the female characters quick/offensive or space control/zoning movesets to go along with their smaller stature in game. The issue with the "all the women have lower HP" has been a lack of female characters getting the more traditional archetypes, and that's definitely something we've seen them try to correct for more in recent years.
Hmm is 33% not a good number for representation? Whether we are talking about in terms of the percentage of of female gamers who play fighting games versus male gamers or the percentage of female fighters vs the percentage of male fighters the number I'm sure is less than 33%
I mean something like doa5 isnt 60+% female because of representation, its because they like to promote with attractive girls which seems negative to me. Is having 33% strong female characters not a better way to do it?
I mean something like doa5 isnt 60+% female because of representation, its because they like to promote with attractive girls which seems negative to me. Is having 33% strong female characters not a better way to do it?
Warning: Driveby posting
You know what? There are ZERO female fighters in the Men's UFC division.
Those percentages seem good
I don't think developers need to worry about making sure women and men characters are exactly 50/50
1/3 of the roster is pretty diverse
Maybe more body types will go a long way instead of adding raw numbers to the roster
I don't think developers need to worry about making sure women and men characters are exactly 50/50
1/3 of the roster is pretty diverse
Maybe more body types will go a long way instead of adding raw numbers to the roster
Here is a fun fact : Pocket Fighter was the first major (as in arcade and not random dojin fighter) to have more women than men and it was released in 1997, more than FIVE years after SF2 rebooted the fighting genre as we know it.
And with 5 men and 7 women it was nowhere near a reverse version of SF2's sausage fest
And with 5 men and 7 women it was nowhere near a reverse version of SF2's sausage fest
Yeah, the question at heart is how often are female characters able to break out of being pidgeonholed as the fast-but-weak fighter or the projectile-specialist roles.
Also to add, female Pokemon are not "women" because they are not humans. They are... uh... animals? Thus, "female" is the correct terminology here.
Skull girls
Which also had amazing female character designs as well
OP
OP
Remember, it's Marvel who chooses their side. Plus if the female fighter parity rule is an actual thing, that could explain a few things.
≥30% sounds pretty fair to me, especially in franchises with a legacy of mostly male fighters being fan-favorites.
Body types is probably the next step for diversification, especially for Capcom fighters.
I changed it to female fighters a while ago, so hopefully that resolves the issue.
Just to add, when I say more body types I don't mean get rid of the ones people don't like. I wouldn't buy a street fighter without Cammy in a leotard or Chun having huge thighs
But if men can have a Rufus or birdie, no reason women can't too
Would I use the character, no , but I know some would and I'm all for adding more options
Unless you mean female and male characters in the game
Angel Eyes had its arcade release in 96 with an all female cast
Nicely done.
I'd like to think that with 2/3rds of the games talked about had a percentage of about 33% woman cast is a good sign of how both genders are being represented in a fighting game. Of course, it can always be better.
The question though kind of falls in regards to how you would also use the ladies of your roster too though... Do you use them to show how strong they are? or do you do it for the fan service? That can also be slightly tricky to figure out too (but one I won't try to answer since I feel like an answer I can give could be taken the wrong way)
I'd like to think that with 2/3rds of the games talked about had a percentage of about 33% woman cast is a good sign of how both genders are being represented in a fighting game. Of course, it can always be better.
The question though kind of falls in regards to how you would also use the ladies of your roster too though... Do you use them to show how strong they are? or do you do it for the fan service? That can also be slightly tricky to figure out too (but one I won't try to answer since I feel like an answer I can give could be taken the wrong way)
where's koihime enbu?
this is bullshit
until doa5, the game has always had more males vs females
the reason the switch happened is because team ninja realized making dlc was a cashcow
this is bullshit
until doa5, the game has always had more males vs females
the reason the switch happened is because team ninja realized making dlc was a cashcow