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[lagdog]

How do you feel about a female protagonist from a masculine and business stand point?
I'm kinda stuck with my games protagonist : >
I have a female character in mind and a male char.
But while i do have a bit better of visualization of a fem char in mind for my game I am hesitant to go with it.
a couple of reasons, pros and cons i can think off.

from a purely business standpoint googling around it seems like female protagonists sell less
http://www.themarysue.com/why-games-with-female-protagonists-dont-sell-and-what-it-says-about-the-industry/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-19-why-publishers-refuse-games-such-as-remember-me-because-of-their-female-protagonists
http://www.shoutoutuk.org/2014/08/18/games-female-leads-dont-sell/
"Only 24 out of a sample of 669 games released over the past seven years have had a female-only lead character."
"The developer of upcoming sci-fi adventure Remember Me has revealed that a number of publishers passed on the game due to its female protagonist"
From my experience also that seems like the truth, but with exceptions portal, tomb raider etc.
It also may? put publishers off as they feel that they cannot sell a game with a fem hero as well as a male
that matters to me because i would quite like a publisher eventually.

From a player standpoint I have to ask would a male player want to play as a female in an action game
I personally feel its easier to follow the example here, the hero with a thousand faces is mostly male
and maybe there's a biological or cultural reason for that. I'm unsure but it certainly seems like a reason to consider
if i want my game to do well.


The pros i like about doing a fem char, is its different, and  i don't think a large studio would be able to
have a female lead as easily as an indie, simply because there marketing team may dislike it.
I also quite like the look and feel of the char i have in mind, though i think i could eventually find a male char i like equally as well.

I've been flip flopping over this decision for about a week and i haven't been able to satisfy myself that a female lead would be best for my game doing well.

I was wondering if anyone else has come across this choice and gotten stuck, or has some thoughts on the matter.
I have to think of this ruthlessly i suppose

i certainly feel a little like this at the moment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis

[Cobralad]

How do you feel about a female protagonist from a masculine and business stand point?

From a business standpoint the most viable option today is not to make a video game and get employed into the place with stable salary and lesser load.
From a masculine standpoint i like guns and fast cars.

[lagdog]

From a business standpoint the most viable option today is not to make a video game and get employed into the place with stable salary and lesser load.
From a masculine standpoint i like guns and fast cars.

yeah well, that's not a problem.
and when i say masculine i just mean would you rather play a female or male char in a game like witcher.
i guess my bigger worry is sales

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

business point view = white male protagonist.

[lagdog]

business point view = white male protagonist.

I think this might be inevitable

[starsrift]

Sorry, you're asking a forum of indies whether or not you should do what the corporates are telling devs to do?

[lagdog]

Sorry, you're asking a forum of indies whether or not you should do what the corporates are telling devs to do?

most indies want to do well financially
and its not what corporates are saying to do its just what people will buy

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

What stops you into making both?  Seeing all the work you're puttin into making your titans.

[lagdog]

What stops you into making both?  Seeing all the work you're puttin into making your titans.

... that might be the right path

[Cobralad]

you should follow your heart
those article say absolutely nothing about sales and there is no viable data to prove that

[lagdog]

you should follow your heart
those article say absolutely nothing about sales and there is no viable data to prove that

I'm trapped between following my heart and my mind ^^

[gimymblert]

Here it is, study show that game with female lead have less marketing money spend on them, and good game sells regardless of the lead gender.

There is plenty game that sells crap ton with female lead: in the resident evil series, the final fantasy series, tomb raider, portal, assassin's creed liberation sold so well on moribund vita they made a remake on all platforms AND have the character as premium DLC in the follow up game ... the pattern here is good game with unique twist and innovative feature. If your game is crap or average it will sell accordingly.

[Mittens]

all those articles claiming female leads don't sell games are probably bs or well outdated compared to the current market.

if you've paid any attention to releases on Steam lately you might have noticed it's currently trendy to be overtly "look how feminist we are" in your marketing as more an more developers try to prove they don't fit the sexist stereotype.

Eventually bigger studios will catch on to people buying stuff that advertises itself as being social justice and there will likely be a period where we only see female protagonists until everyone decides they want to put males back on the covers for the sake of variation

[oahda]

Also that's pretty much exactly why more devs should put in more female characters anyway to help to remove the stigma.

From a player standpoint I have to ask would a male player want to play as a female in an action game

why is this question so seldom asked the other way around

TBH I've never been in a discussion with any male I know about how they don't like to play as female characters, and in fact many of them often pick female ones in games that offer options. I don't think people care that much in general and whatever statistics are probably fishy, as the posters before me have pointed out.

Either way, you could offer both, or do what I'm trying to do in one of my games (have the characters hidden so that you never know anything like that about them anyway), do what I'm doing in another one (have it be about a non-human where gender is more or less impossible to determine anyway) or whatever.

[gimymblert]

all those articles claiming female leads don't sell games are probably bs or well outdated compared to the current market.

if you've paid any attention to releases on Steam lately you might have noticed it's currently trendy to be overtly "look how feminist we are" in your marketing as more an more developers try to prove they don't fit the sexist stereotype.

Eventually bigger studios will catch on to people buying stuff that advertises itself as being social justice and there will likely be a period where we only see female protagonists until everyone decides they want to put males back on the covers for the sake of variation

They were likely to be bias or agenda driven anyway, we have recorded facts of twisting focus group to get this desired result, aslo twisted survey like the recent assassin's creed who have every game BUT the one with the female lead as a pick ...

[s0]

TBH I've never been in a discussion with any male I know about how they don't like to play as female characters, and in fact many of them often pick female ones in games that offer options. I don't think people care that much in general and whatever statistics are probably fishy, as the posters before me have pointed out.

fwiw, as a kid i never played female chars in games because i was afraid others would think i'm "gay". ive definitely witnessed other boys being shamed for picking women chars in fighting games.

ive grown up since then ofc, but it took an embarrasingly long time to get rid of the subconscious bias against women protagonists in games these experiences created in me.

[Superb Joe]

i think you should do what you want to or what feels best for your story

[Capntastic]

Include a female protagonist no matter what

[Superb Joe]

do you think when ancient greeks contributed to the eventual manifestation of the monomyth they did so hampered by the thoughts of whether there were enough whinnying male feminists to sell their gay sex stories to? if you want to sell something, it's not hard to think of a way to market it if it's unusual in some way. that's whatever. but if you want to make something, for the elegant joy of creation, just freakin make it. chains bind lesser men, my friend.

[gimymblert]

With all the great men saying that constraints = creativity superb joe have a nice paradox to think about, it's backed by science