Unusual character gender ratio

[Refa]

While plenty of male gamers will claim this and mean it, it's simply the case that most male gamers gravitate towards male-lead games (or movies, books, etc.). The opposite is true for women, too, but women are more likely to go for a male lead than men are to go for a female lead, and most entertainment is made by men and for men as it is.

Personally, I'd rather have a female lead because of how atypical it is.

[Florete]

Having equal or more female characters in a game shouldnt be seen as unusual. The more diversity in cast, the better it is for everyone.

Ideally, it wouldn't be unusual, but in our world, it is.

[Magical Glace]

You mean a mostly naked mage? We've already seen a map sprite that looks like a Tharja ripoff, see here:

http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/nohr5.jpg

Bottom left-ish

I mean creepy stalker child abusers but that too.

Also people keep saying it would be new and exciting to have a >50% female FE, even though FE13 was mostly females...

[Ryo]

Waifus, waifus everywhere!

Well, it is rather interesting that the number of female characters is increasing over time, but I guess that's kind of... natural?

FE13 also needed a more balanced gender ratio for its mass marriage mechanic to work (hell, I can even say that the females pretty much dominated the whole game with Galeforce and the fact the children are tied to them). I guess the same would apply to FE14 as well, even if marriage does not come back, characters may still get paired endings or in-game S supports.

[Rapier]

Having equal or more female characters in a game shouldnt be seen as unusual. The more diversity in cast, the better it is for everyone.

It shouldn't even be an issue. I for one don't see how relevant it is for there to be a game with predominant male/female characters, or a balance between the sexes.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Ideally, it wouldn't be unusual, but in our world, it is.

Yeah. Alas, earwax. I like that FE seems to be trying in that respect. My niece really likes Lucina in Smash and is very curious about her game. (Awakening is a bit too mature for my niece since shes only ten. But in a year or two, ill let her play it.) So having female representation is really important i think. Like, i like that Micaiah was a lead in RD and made me mad that she got pushed aside. Its also why i love Eirika so much. She got to keep her spotlight. I want this game to have very well rounded female characters. Im hoping for the Hoshidan ruler to be more Elincia and less Emmeryn. Pragmatic but kind female rulers for the win!

It shouldn't even be an issue. I for one don't see how relevant it is for there to be a game with predominant male/female characters, or a balance between the sexes.

Sigh....

[goodperson707]

^ my little sister is turning 10 soon and i just managed to get her to acutally play awakening not just me playing a file with her name and me letting her watch( got to chapter 10ish and and stopped wathcing i think) and i dont think its too mature for her. then again i got her reading the disc-world series so to each his own.

[Raguna]

As long as females don't revolve around males all the time and pass the Bechdel Test then I'm good as gold.

Also yeah, keeping the genders even would be a wise choice. God knows I'm not a fan of too much of either gender with only a token character around.

[Rawkstar]

Let's wait for some more information on the game before we jump to any silly conclusions.

[Crysta]

Silly conclusions are the best conclusions.

But yeah, I think the gender ratio being equalized is a given. You've been given the option to be a female tactician for awhile now, but now your avatar is a lead character and can support with other characters... and it might be kind of odd if you were the only chick. Sure, you'd have a harem, but the dudes may feel a little left out.

That might also explain why there's units like Tharja/Camilla.

[Rapier]

To be honest, for Awakening I'd rather the male cast was much higher than the female cast, so there would be more husband options. Many times I find myself in doubt with who to pair with because it feels like I'm playing a sudoku game of ships ("if I pair x and y, then it'd be good... but wait, then I won't be able to pair x with z, and I definitely want this. Oh, I'm confused!").

Sigh....

I don't see how you dislike my point, since as I understood you don't think it should be an issue, but fine...

[Dan]

It's very rare to have a game where the number of male and female are equal (with Awakening being one of those few).

You gotta have equal males and females if you're going to breed an army of children characters.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Clearly this game having such an even m/f ratio means children are coming back :B

[Ryo]

Clearly this game having such an even m/f ratio means children are coming back :B

Don't jinx it plz :P

[Dan]

I've never understood why a male-dominated cast is the standard; does the gender of characters really matter in a good story? I know most games are usually marketed towards young men, but I can't recall ever thinking "damn, I'm playing as a woman, this detracts from my experience!". Playing as Samus, or going up against Kreia, the best character of any video game, is epic, and their genders have absolutely nothing to do with that.

I think the main reason it's the standard in games is because it's the standard in real life. Historically, only men were soldiers in the majority of cultures and even in those that had women soldiers, the armies were still overwhelmingly male. Even right now, the percentage of the army that's female (in the U.S.) is only 14%. Especially when you consider that the Fire Emblem games take place in a medieval-European-themed world (a time/place during which there were no women soldiers) it's not surprising to see how few there are in the earlier games. Of course it's a fantasy game, and I think they're starting to realize that they can just make their own world/culture where men and women are equal in regards to fighting/whatever.

I really liked Awakening's even ratio myself (before Spotpass recruits, it's actually majority female, which is extremely rare), and I'm happy If seems to be doing the same. I'm especially happy that it looks like I'll be able to have two leading ladies (Kamui and Aqua).

While plenty of male gamers will claim this and mean it, it's simply the case that most male gamers gravitate towards male-lead games (or movies, books, etc.). The opposite is true for women, too, but women are more likely to go for a male lead than men are to go for a female lead, and most entertainment is made by men and for men as it is.

I probably went further there than you meant, but basically, having a male lead (and sometimes, a majority male cast) does matter, even if only subconsciously, to many male gamers.

This is definitely true. While I like many female characters, I usually sympathize more with male ones and always play as a male when playing a game where I make my own character. It's just the way I am. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against female leads and I often enjoy playing/reading/etc. from their perspectives, but I still prefer male ones.

Personally, I'd rather have a female lead because of how atypical it is.

I really liked Lyn as the lead for her portion of FE7. I could definitely get behind a game like that. Actually, it'd be nice if someone did an FE7 hack that just expanded Lyn's story to the size of a full game. I would absolutely play that.

Let's wait for some more information on the game before we jump to any silly conclusions.

But that's what we do here.

[Crysta]

i liked my kids even if they clearly had problems

[Rapier]

You gotta have equal males and females if you're going to breed an army of children characters.

Silly westerns, you don't need to limit yourselves to just one wife.

Wait...

[Tsunami922]

Clearly this game having such an even m/f ratio means children are coming back :B

Please no.

I really liked Lyn as the lead for her portion of FE7. I could definitely get behind a game like that. Actually, it'd be nice if someone did an FE7 hack that just expanded Lyn's story to the size of a full game. I would absolutely play that.

Why hasn't this happened yet?

[Loki Laufeyson]

^ my little sister is turning 10 soon and i just managed to get her to acutally play awakening not just me playing a file with her name and me letting her watch( got to chapter 10ish and and stopped wathcing i think) and i dont think its too mature for her. then again i got her reading the disc-world series so to each his own.

Im not raising my niece and her parents are really anal about things shes exposed to. Its too soon for FE to fly well with them.

.I don't see how you dislike my point, since as I understood you don't think it should be an issue, but fine...

Thats not what you said.

I for one don't see how relevant it is for there to be a game with predominant male/female characters, or a balance between the sexes.

This implies very strongly, that you dont see representation of gender in the game(s) and/or balance between such as relevant. Therefore, saying "Status quo is fine and challenging it is irrelevant."

[goodperson707]

^ yeah okay i understand that, my sister is quite a bit younger than me, so theres not much a teen game can expose her to,that she hasn't been already, what is in their anyway a bit of violence, a few swears, mild allusions to sex, did i miss anything.

And on your other discussion, my two cents, i do like it when their is a 50 50 or close too it distribution, but it wont terribly affect my opinion on a piece of media if they happen to have a uneven distribution yet still has well done female characters.

[MoonlitSonata]

I'm all for close to equal gender ratios! After all, diversify the cast a bit, and you're sure to hopefully have a character whose personality resonates with the player in some aspect.

I know my playthroughs haven't been genderbiased that often though. Just as long as my unit can hit the other guy harder is what matters!

Pls no kids that's Awakening's and Genealogy's mechanic! Marriage is OK though, I like having a bonus support level for my characters I choose to permanently partner.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'm definitely very happy with the gender ratio equalising in Awakening, and, from what we can tell, this game. Hopefully this will extend to the important characters too, since so far it seems like the males are still more important (Ryouma, Marx, Garon vs. Aqua). It's still too early to say.

I find the higher female count to be interesting too, because typically, Japanese like male dominance. >.>

It's funny you say this, because I actually associate Western games being way worse about including female characters and passing the Bechdel test, etc. Maybe I'm just playing the wrong ones!

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

I'm definitely very happy with the gender ratio equalising in Awakening, and, from what we can tell, this game. Hopefully this will extend to the important characters too, since so far it seems like the males are still more important (Ryouma, Marx, Garon vs. Aqua). It's still too early to say.

It's funny you say this, because I actually associate Western games being way worse about including female characters and passing the Bechdel test, etc. Maybe I'm just playing the wrong ones!

nah nah your right, west games honestly have the worst inclusion of female characters compared to the east.

[Yana]

I think the main reason it's the standard in games is because it's the standard in real life. Historically, only men were soldiers in the majority of cultures and even in those that had women soldiers, the armies were still overwhelmingly male. Even right now, the percentage of the army that's female (in the U.S.) is only 14%. Especially when you consider that the Fire Emblem games take place in a medieval-European-themed world (a time/place during which there were no women soldiers) it's not surprising to see how few there are in the earlier games. Of course it's a fantasy game, and I think they're starting to realize that they can just make their own world/culture where men and women are equal in regards to fighting/whatever.

[snip for relevance]

I can't really contribute to this as much as I'd like, as the only FE game I've played so far is Awakening (though I'm looking forward to if!) but I'd just like to leave this link to a great article about women in history and just how accurate our perceptions are of that time. Our misconception that there were no female soldiers during any given time period is wrong, because we've been led to believe that by the people who wrote the accounts. To quote, '...this does not in any way mean that the female contribution to society was in fact less interesting or important, or complicated, simply that history—the process of writing down and preserving of the facts, not the facts/events themselves—was looking the other way.' (Emphasis theirs).

Here's the link: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/historically-authentic-sexism-in-fantasy-lets-unpack-that

Now I'm not saying things were always completely equal - they weren't - but women had a much larger role to play in all aspects of life, even war, than we ever thought. Were historical armies 50/50? No. But a good number of their soldiers were women.

To get this back on topic, while I'm disappointed it's taken this long, I appreciate how Fire Emblem is making an effort to be more equal, and ironically closer to real life than most depictions of actual history, in a fantasy series.

I'm not targeting this specifically at you Dan, just saw it as a good jumping-off point, hope you don't mind! :)

EDIT: Also, if I'm not allowed to link outside the site or something, let me know and I'll take it down.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Yana

[Vitezen]

I don't see any reason to identify with how many male or female characters are in the game. Much more important factors, such as quality of writing, should be given more weight. It's not really progress to change something to have more diverse characters or more women, especially media. It's just different.