Male or Female PC? How come?

[Signette]

 

Both Train Simulator and Doom are basically "just pushing buttons" but i dont think there are many people who have both games on their favourite games list. Female brain is usually differently "wired" than the male one, asides the social stereotype stuff. I personally find pushing around military forces on a map uninteresting, and being a military leader unappealing. They are also a bit slow-paced for me, and require a lot of "logical" and "mathemathical" thinking (like chess etc.), and however females are not dumber than males of course, we enjoy this kind of raw problem solving a lot less. And you have to admit most strategy games are placing military-like forces and resources around in some war-like scenario.

 

And neither of the ME games were much brilliant with the ending, but yeah, ME2 had the best story and the best DLCs. Although not many games have a well written ending, just look at bethesda games, morrowind was ok but the others, meh... (fnv is obsidian doesn't count).

Okay, but than again - you are roleplaying basically military leader in all MEs and DAs, even compared to roles you may have available in cRPGs, but of course without much ephasis on chess-like resource distribution and etc. And to be honest, especially 4x strategies are SO impressively flexible, so it's had to agree with your statement. They are just different, in some there's more focus on military, in others you can completely ignore that factor and roleplay explorer/scientist/pacifist or whatever. And as a sidenote, I'm not fan of SIMS, but I obviously have played some of it, and gotta say, managing families was basically same stuff as managing resourses, structures or making political decisions, only on smaller scale, or rather in more familiar(?) fashion. I really don't see much difference here considering the fact that SIMS certainly isn't fast-paced/action-packed. And to be clear, I'm not talking specifiaclly about you, because you said you don't like SIMS, but tendency is still there.

 

On ME3, if devs could just let us have a choice between Cerberus and Alliance, that game could be so much better... Ah, dreams and lazy Bioware...

 

 

Those "sexy" mods are always over-represented. 80% of guys will download those along the regular mods (mostly just to look at them for 10 minutes and then don't play it), while females don't have anything so specifically made for their insincts, so they just download the regular stuff.

I don't mind them though, just ignore them, unless they are clearly underage sex-child-girls, that pisses me off. ("Oooh but she is a 1000 year old wizard who makes hersef look young with a spell". Bad news, you are a pedo.)

What i don't understand is the popularity of those shiny doll-faced plastic anime racemenu presets. All you need is ks haidos f.e., a decent race or skin and face model replacer, maybe some other popular texture tweaks, and racemenu to create them. You don't even need any knowledge of modeling, scripting, or the CK. I can do something like that with the racemenu plugin in 20 minutes, probably anyone can. (I'm not talking about new races face meshes textures or armors, those need much work, just those presets that simply use other mods and the racemenu plugin).

Exactly, add here the fact that some regular guys also not interested and not downloading "skimpy/sexy" stuff, and here you have a numbers of overwhelming majority on regular gaming site and male/female (also age) ration.

 

On TES note, I personally don't even use RaceMenu mod, cause vanilla is more than sufficient for me, but I know what you are talking about. There's much fuss about it, how modder puts alot of time and effort in his mod, but main page is full of 20 minute preset-sexy-looking-companion and his mod sinks in a jiffy. Sad...

[hagyjalbeken]

 

Okay, but than again - you are roleplaying basically military leader in all MEs and DAs, even compared to roles you may have available in cRPGs, but of course without much ephasis on chess-like resource distribution and etc. And to be honest, especially 4x strategies are SO impressively flexible, so it's had to agree with your statement. They are just different, in some there's more focus on military, in others you can completely ignore that factor and roleplay explorer/scientist/pacifist or whatever. And as a sidenote, I'm not fan of SIMS, but I obviously have played some of it, and gotta say, managing families was basically same stuff as managing resourses, structures or making political decisions, only on smaller scale, or rather in more familiar(?) fashion. I really don't see much difference here considering the fact that SIMS certainly isn't fast-paced/action-packed. And to be clear, I'm not talking specifiaclly about you, because you said you don't like SIMS, but tendency is still there.

 

On ME3, if devs could just let us have a choice between Cerberus and Alliance, that game could be so much better... Ah, dreams and lazy Bioware...

 

 

As i said, the genre the labeled "strategy' itself means for most people and in general "slow paced military leader resource maqnagment", so when a game is labelled "strategy", females will avoid it. An even it is not about military leading the gameplay itself requires a patient raw mathemathical thinking. Females usually don't prefer that (they dont "suck" at it, they are just not usually entertained by this type of thining). At least that is my guess. I see that it is not very popular by females, and it isnt my fav genre either, and i've told you why i don't like them. And as i agree that on the basic level sims requres the same logic as other strategy games, the fact that it can be turned into an emotional soap opera might attract a lot of women.

 

About me3... i really expected that keep on supporting cerberus would be a choice. Me2 was clearly heading that way. I mean both alliance and cerberus had its good and bad side in me2. Would have been great if in me3 you had the option to choose sides, and then depending on your renegade or paragon attitude, you could shape both storylines on your way, resulting in four awesome endings. But nooo, make cerberus "black" and alliance "white"...

 

 

 

Exactly, add here the fact that some regular guys also not interested and not downloading "skimpy/sexy" stuff, and here you have a numbers of overwhelming majority on regular gaming site and male/female (also age) ration.

 

On TES note, I personally don't even use RaceMenu mod, cause vanilla is more than sufficient for me, but I know what you are talking about. There's much fuss about it, how modder puts a lot of time and effort in his mod, but main page is full of 20 minute preset-sexy-looking-companion and his mod sinks in a jiffy. Sad...

 

i can totally understand the "fuss". Especially when considering skyrim "hot page". Not that i have a lot to contribute, i only have some armor and clothing fnv retex-mashups that require no scripting knowledge, but i see the incredible work and effort behind some mods that deserve a lot more appretiation, but are neglected because some boring booby-anime-sexdoll came out the same day the cool mod did, and because of that, it couldn't reach the "hot page". Actually, "hot page" is not very efficient in determining what quality mods came out lately. Sad thing, because of the "me see boobs me dowload" homo neanderthalensises, some real quality descends into oblivion. (the fact that i was too lazy to cut through bikini armors with a machete led me into actually creating armors is a good thing though)

[Signette]

 

As i said, the genre the labeled "strategy' itself means for most people and in general "slow paced military leader resource maqnagment", so when a game is labelled "strategy", females will avoid it. An even it is not about military leading the gameplay itself requires a patient raw mathemathical thinking. Females usually don't prefer that (they dont "suck" at it, they are just not usually entertained by this type of thining). At least that is my guess. I see that it is not very popular by females, and it isnt my fav genre either, and i've told you why i don't like them. And as i agree that on the basic level sims requres the same logic as other strategy games, the fact that it can be turned into an emotional soap opera might attract a lot of women.

 

About me3... i really expected that keep on supporting cerberus would be a choice. Me2 was clearly heading that way. I mean both alliance and cerberus had its good and bad side in me2. Would have been great if in me3 you had the option to choose sides, and then depending on your renegade or paragon attitude, you could shape both storylines on your way, resulting in four awesome endings. But nooo, make cerberus "black" and alliance "white"...

Gotta say, some of your posts really gives me good laughs. And tbh, I think when in endless galaxy you accidently stumble across tiny, cute race of cat people, who are enemies with everyone around them, then you desperately trying to save them and in the end you both getting mercilessly butchered is more of an emotional opera than SIMS ever could be. There seriously something should be done to draw in more females in those kinds of games, I'm sure they aren't even aware of what are they missing.

 

On ME3 - completely agree, and I would even live with same endings, but making one of most charismatic characters in game history like Illusive man turn into some mindless maniac doesn't make any sense to me... Wish I had boss like him, but then again, you probably have to be someone Shepard caliber to have it...

 

 

 

i can totally understand the "fuss". Especially when considering skyrim "hot page". Not that i have a lot to contribute, i only have some armor and clothing fnv retex-mashups that require no scripting knowledge, but i see the incredible work and effort behind some mods that deserve a lot more appretiation, but are neglected because some boring booby-anime-sexdoll came out the same day the cool mod did, and because of that, it couldn't reach the "hot page". Actually, "hot page" is not very efficient in determining what quality mods came out lately. Sad thing, because of the "me see boobs me dowload" homo neanderthalensises, some real quality descends into oblivion. (the fact that i was too lazy to cut through bikini armors with a machete led me into actually creating armors is a good thing though)

Yeah, hot page is one of the best ways to get your mod seen and spread. But on the other hand, all those who aren't in anime-bikini, know how to look for good stuff, so one way or another, good mod will find it's audience, even if it's small, because I'm not sure hotfiles regulars would pay much attention to anything without huge boobs anyway. :happy:

[hagyjalbeken]

 

Gotta say, some of your posts really gives me good laughs. And tbh, I think when in endless galaxy you accidently stumble across tiny, cute race of cat people, who are enemies with everyone around them, then you desperately trying to save them and in the end you both getting mercilessly butchered is more of an emotional opera than SIMS ever could be. There seriously something should be done to draw in more females in those kinds of games, I'm sure they aren't even aware of what are they missing.

 

On ME3 - completely agree, and I would even live with same endings, but making one of most charismatic characters in game history like Illusive man turn into some mindless maniac doesn't make any sense to me... Wish I had boss like him, but then again, you probably have to be someone Shepard caliber to have it...

 

 

All i am trying to say is that it is probably the gameplay and not the story that alienates women from strategy games, and the stereotipical military leader label (wrongly) attached to the genre doesn't help. At least for me it is the gameplay and not the story or setting the reason i enjoy strategy less. And although sims gameplay is simlar, it is an exeption, because the whole dress up and play ridiculous simulated family drama with dollies in your nicely designed house feminizes it pretty much. It is ovious that i am not an expert at this topic, since i've never studied sociology, psichology or any gender related subjects, and i am not really arguing or anything, just trying to guess the reason. I didn't mean it to be ridiculous or laughable.

 

 

 

Yeah, hot page is one of the best ways to get your mod seen and spread. But on the other hand, all those who aren't in anime-bikini, know how to look for good stuff, so one way or another, good mod will find it's audience, even if it's small, because I'm not sure hotfiles regulars would pay much attention to anything without huge boobs anyway. :happy:

Sure, and i even enjoy looking for good mods in the forests of teh eternal bewbs, it is a bit like going shopping.

But although modders make mods mainly because it is fun, the only compensation they get is positive feedback via endorsements, comments, and getting to the hot page. It is a kind of positive attention a good modder deserves imho. But i don't know, maybe they don't care about getting to hot page afterall :D

To be clear, i am only talking about skyrim modding section now, also fo4 is a bit like that, older games seem to have a much more varied and balanced modding scene, i havent seen a female nipple in fnv for ages, and even if there is one skipy mod, at least it is quality and unique and not some cheap ripoff of some other mod.

 

 

To be at least a bit on-topic:

I wonder how many females are there who prefer to play as males, like me? Not much i bet. (I am talking about offline games, where how you appear in front of other players doesn't affect the gameplay)

i guess i am a "special snowflake" :)

[weshouldjustbecousins]

Woman here, and I tend to pick a female character. Can never finish Mass Effect with a Male Shepard (though that might just be because I find him boring). I do have a male Skyrim character that I play every so often when I want a change, but otherwise I exclusively play female characters.

 

 

Honestly, I love the vicarious feeling of gutting my enemies with my blade or burning them to a crisp, or shooting them right in the heart, and it's just not there for me when I play as a male character :P Plus, the very first post in this thread made a good point. There are so many games out there where you have no choice but to play as a male character that whenever I get to play a female character I jump at it. You get tired of seeing people like you relegated to the roles of damsel in distress, or shrill harpy, or seductress. It's nice to kick some ass.

 

All of that said, I also understand why males might not choose to play as female characters. If they can't immerse themselves in-game well enough, for whatever reason (and there are more reasons in this thread than I realised) then that's fair enough. Gaming is about immersion! But I don't understand people who refuse to play as the opposite gender when they've never tried it.

 

I'll also add that I find women more aesthetically pleasing and varied than men, and, to rephrase and expand on jim_uk's comment, if I'm going to play my character for five hundred plus hours I'd prefer it to be a female one. I spend a lot of time redesigning my character every so often when I get bored of her appearance. I'm sure there's some lore-friendly sources of hair dye and coloured contacts, and makeup would be fairly easy to acquire, I'm sure!

[Signette]

 

All i am trying to say is that it is probably the gameplay and not the story that alienates women from strategy games, and the stereotipical military leader label (wrongly) attached to the genre doesn't help. At least for me it is the gameplay and not the story or setting the reason i enjoy strategy less. And although sims gameplay is simlar, it is an exeption, because the whole dress up and play ridiculous simulated family drama with dollies in your nicely designed house feminizes it pretty much. It is ovious that i am not an expert at this topic, since i've never studied sociology, psichology or any gender related subjects, and i am not really arguing or anything, just trying to guess the reason. I didn't mean it to be ridiculous or laughable.

I can understand genre preferences for any individual, but when certain gender completely alienates itself from it without much of a research on subject is awkward IMHO. Like, yes, I get your point about self identifying, but you never know what may be your cup of tea without trying.

I didn't say your post is ridiculous, but it certainly sounds like regular females enjoy more picking up social roles than actual gameplay and feeling of achievement, competition and etc which gameplay is all about. But nvm, it's probably just me...

 

 

Sure, and i even enjoy looking for good mods in the forests of teh eternal bewbs, it is a bit like going shopping.

But although modders make mods mainly because it is fun, the only compensation they get is positive feedback via endorsements, comments, and getting to the hot page. It is a kind of positive attention a good modder deserves imho. But i don't know, maybe they don't care about getting to hot page afterall :D

To be clear, i am only talking about skyrim modding section now, also fo4 is a bit like that, older games seem to have a much more varied and balanced modding scene, i havent seen a female nipple in fnv for ages, and even if there is one skipy mod, at least it is quality and unique and not some cheap ripoff of some other mod.

Well, I didn't mod for TES or FO, but pretty much yeah, you do stuff for fun, than you think it's good enough to share. First you don't think about endorsements and etc, but it's nice to have good feedback, some guys even offered little money for mods too, lol, but it feels wrong, content like that must be free. And you're right though, for newer games feels like guys mostly go for mods for fame or something like that, too much similar stuff and quick jobs to draw bigger attention of certain public... I don't get it.

 

On topic, wondering the same thing, but sadly ppl aren't too active here...

[ironbender800]

I can play either altho i pick male more often than not.

 

Seems extremely common for a lot of guys to play as female characters and i think thats because theres an obsession in skyrim modding with creating the "perfect girl".

 

I play as a male mostly because it just feels right. Men are stronger and i cant see a female being "dragonborn" basically the ultimate warrior who can slay anything.

 

The female characters are just nicer to look at. But i barely use 3rd person.

[hagyjalbeken]

 

I can understand genre preferences for any individual, but when certain gender completely alienates itself from it without much of a research on subject is awkward IMHO. Like, yes, I get your point about self identifying, but you never know what may be your cup of tea without trying.

I didn't say your post is ridiculous, but it certainly sounds like regular females enjoy more picking up social roles than actual gameplay and feeling of achievement, competition and etc which gameplay is all about. But nvm, it's probably just me...

 

What i was trying to say that females actually do care about gameplay, and a slow-paced raw logical strategy gameplay is less appealing to them, and that sims is such a bad example because it doesn't actually have real strategy elements. The creators originally might intended to add a strategy based gameplay, but it is nowhere to be found, it gets unnoticeable behind those dress-me-up furnish-my-home and lets-make-south-american-soap-opera-family aspects. Sims is not strategy. You might see sims gameplay as "i'll need to do this and that in order to get rich and successful", but you have to admit that it is an aspect of the gamplay that is only supposed to be there, but actually it is only used for doll-playing by most people. (I am also starting to think that skyrim is heading that way too according to mods :D ) It is true though that females are generally a lot less interested in competition and are not nearly as achievement-oriented as males. But gameplay is not only about highscores and achievements, that is just one aspect.

 

 

 

Well, I didn't mod for TES or FO, but pretty much yeah, you do stuff for fun, than you think it's good enough to share. First you don't think about endorsements and etc, but it's nice to have good feedback, some guys even offered little money for mods too, lol, but it feels wrong, content like that must be free. And you're right though, for newer games feels like guys mostly go for mods for fame or something like that, too much similar stuff and quick jobs to draw bigger attention of certain public... I don't get it.

 

On topic, wondering the same thing, but sadly ppl aren't too active here...

 

 

I dont get it either, but as the commenter above me says, there is a large and still growing audience that is only playing and modding skyrim to create more and more "perfect" shiny fairytale (and boring) characters, and those downloads and endorsements don't actually show the gameplay value of the mod, but rate the "prettiness" of the given character and/or asset. It got to a point where there are people who actually steal these presets, and SELL them as their own on some other website. They don't even bother to create their own, they take someone elses racemenu preset and sell it for money. They don't steal and sell Falskaar or some quality texture and mesh replacer f.e., they steal and sell a f*ckin racemenu preset.

[Signette]

 

What i was trying to say that females actually do care about gameplay, and a slow-paced raw logical strategy gameplay is less appealing to them, and that sims is such a bad example because it doesn't actually have real strategy elements. The creators originally might intended to add a strategy based gameplay, but it is nowhere to be found, it gets unnoticeable behind those dress-me-up furnish-my-home and lets-make-south-american-soap-opera-family aspects. Sims is not strategy. You might see sims gameplay as "i'll need to do this and that in order to get rich and successful", but you have to admit that it is an aspect of the gamplay that is only supposed to be there, but actually it is only used for doll-playing by most people. (I am also starting to think that skyrim is heading that way too according to mods :D ) It is true though that females are generally a lot less interested in competition and are not nearly as achievement-oriented as males. But gameplay is not only about highscores and achievements, that is just one aspect.

Well, maybe SIMS is really bad example, I didn't really dug deep there and point of this game eluded me, probs because I'm not too interested in "playing dolls" as you put it... But I gotta clarify: I don't mean *the* achievements like steam or uplay ones, I don't care for them one bit, but the other ones. Like, for example, when you start playing as small, poor nation, than grow and conquer half of the world achievement type, see? And regarding strategies, saying those are hard, and all of them need mathematic way of thinking is an exaggeration. In fact only hardcore ones may need it, other strategies are pretty simple, and hardest thing would be getting used to UI, the rest is a glorious cakewalk.

 

And that's somewhat odd, as females complaining about most action games featuring sexist males with guns, and how they don't like violence. Same with racing sim/cades or fightings, which are pinnacles of non-slow paced games, but on the other hand we got user friendly and easy strats like Anno series, which has tons of cosmetic options, almost non-existent combat and very pretty looking. Ignored...

 

 

I dont get it either, but as the commenter above me says, there is a large and still growing audience that is only playing and modding skyrim to create more and more "perfect" shiny fairytale (and boring) characters, and those downloads and endorsements don't actually show the gameplay value of the mod, but rate the "prettiness" of the given character and/or asset. It got to a point where there are people who actually steal these presets, and SELL them as their own on some other website. They don't even bother to create their own, they take someone elses racemenu preset and sell it for money. They don't steal and sell Falskaar or some quality texture and mesh replacer f.e., they steal and sell a f*ckin racemenu preset.

What?! Seriously? First time I hear about this, and can't really understand it like... who would buy freaking preset? Is that even true?...

And I can't really comment on turning FO or TES into doll house, since most guys I know enjoy quests, levelling, loot and the rest of RPG stuff. Customization comes as minor bonus, nothing to build their games around.

[hagyjalbeken]

 

Well, maybe SIMS is really bad example, I didn't really dug deep there and point of this game eluded me, probs because I'm not too interested in "playing dolls" as you put it... But I gotta clarify: I don't mean *the* achievements like steam or uplay ones, I don't care for them one bit, but the other ones. Like, for example, when you start playing as small, poor nation, than grow and conquer half of the world achievement type, see? And regarding strategies, saying those are hard, and all of them need mathematic way of thinking is an exaggeration. In fact only hardcore ones may need it, other strategies are pretty simple, and hardest thing would be getting used to UI, the rest is a glorious cakewalk.

 

And that's somewhat odd, as females complaining about most action games featuring sexist males with guns, and how they don't like violence. Same with racing sim/cades or fightings, which are pinnacles of non-slow paced games, but on the other hand we got user friendly and easy strats like Anno series, which has tons of cosmetic options, almost non-existent combat and very pretty looking. Ignored...

 

 

I didn't say females are less interested in a strategical gameplay because that type of thiking was harder, or that females don't like to think. They like puzzle games f. e, independent of difficulity. I meant that this kind of thinking results in a more slow-paced, less active gameplay, you have to plan forward, calculate stuff (not always literally), manage things etc. (even if it is easy), and i simply don't enjoy doing that so much. You have to do that in a better rpg of course too, but it just a part of it and adds to it, and blends into ther otherwise full of action and very fast and active gameplay. But again, that is just why i like strategies less (i don't avoid them, just not my favourite genre), and i assume (maybe incorrectly) that other females might have that opinion too.

Also about the achievement example you said: "conquering half of the world" might be a less tempting achievement for a female.

About violence, females only dislike it when a game is centered around it and has nothing else to show. "Sexist males with guns", i just hate the sexist part. i personally have nothing against a well done and interesting male protagonist who likes to shoot stuff, and so are most females i know. The problem is when these protegonists are brainless hulks who drool at boobs, and many game devs are under the impression that this is what the target audience needs in action oriented games. Or, actually, just boobs, nowadays. I am sure there is gonna be a game in the near future, with super HD graphics, that is going to have some anime faced slutty giant boobed doll, and the only gamplay action will be dressing her up into various bikini armors and a big red button that makes her boobies bounce when you push it.

 

 

 

What?! Seriously? First time I hear about this, and can't really understand it like... who would buy freaking preset? Is that even true?...

And I can't really comment on turning FO or TES into doll house, since most guys I know enjoy quests, levelling, loot and the rest of RPG stuff. Customization comes as minor bonus, nothing to build their games around.

 

Yup, and one of the moderators tried to take it down, because stealing and/or selling bethesda mods is very much illegal, but the guy was so stubborn about it, he kept on moving from one site to another when they made his stolen files removed form a server. He even trash talked the moderator in email, and spammed her address with junkmail. All this for a racemenu preset. With all that effort he could have made a dlc sized boob mod. All the facepalm memes on the internet wouldn't be enough to express the patheticness of that guy. And i bet he isn't the only one.

Also i bet those shiny preset characters are all still level 1 and only left the starter dungeon to find a nice place for screenshotting, i feel sorry for them :)

Me, i really enjoy customization, but as the exciting start of a new character, not as the actual gameplay. i love to spend a lot of time on chargen, trying hairs and tweaking the face, but also adding different armors and clothes later on. It is actually one of my favourite activities in games that allow it. But it is just a nice bonus and worths nothing if the actual game is boring (i am pointing at you, fo4). I am also more into maikng my character badass and unique while still fitting into the game world, which is a challenge, but i've never been interested in making my males sexually appealing or to look the way it makes me horny.