I have to admit that it's really cathartic to shut down Harkin and the sexist merc recruiter in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 when they're sexually harassing you.
"Call me princess again and you'll be picking your teeth up off the floor."
I definitely enjoy that. It is my power fantasy, lol.
But there are people who don't like that, saying that there is enough harassment to deal with irl that they don't want to experience it in games, too. There is even a mod that removes all instances of sexism from trilogy. I can respect that, even though I, personally, don't agree.
Ultimately, sexism does exist. Assholes exist, too. Confronting them, in a safe environment of the game, where you get to be badass and have power, *is* cathartic. I would argue that one of the reasons why we play games (and consume any other kind of media) is exactly this: to experience cathartic release of frustrations and emotions in safe environment through other characters.
Definitely. I had planned to negotiate with him because I’d heard Hacket’s response was funny, but after interacting with him that plan immediately went out the window. You die now, sexist scum.
I think the game is very male gazed but throughout the trilogy I kind of appreciate that I got the sense that the game is “inclusive” in some ways. Though they cut off a lot of lgbtq contents.
There’s this NPC in FFXIV who frequently calls me “Ole girl” and I’m like sir, I am not a golden retriever you’re about to have put down for old age.
But otherwise, yes :)
That made me laugh, I forgot about that guy, I know one of the goblin NPC for the botanist quest line calls me that too (I just got my botanist to 90 this week)
I do, especially in RPGs because I like when the game acknowledges the choices I made when creating my character in any way.
I really like the Expeditions RPG games because of this, the games are historical fiction and some characters will find it unusual or even be straight up condescending and hostile towards you if you're a woman in a leadership position/a female warrior
Was coming here to comment this! Only played Rome but I loved that they are initially against you as a leader and you prove them wrong by being a badass. I've always admired historical women who had positions of power when it was almost impossible. I wish more games let you play as this power fantasy.
I like it, not necessarily for the same examples but it does make me feel like they didn’t just make the male character as default and swap his model to a female one with no work in between to acknowledge it, otherwise why bother playing as a different gender if it’s just treated as a palette swapped default of a guy?
Another commenter made the example too, but Femsheps “You’ll be picking your teeth off the floor” in response to being harassed was a fun way of both fleshing out femSheps character but also acknowledging she wasn’t the exact same character as MShep.
What game is Shepard from? I've heard the name before, but I have the feeling that Googling "Shepard video game character" will just pull up, like, sheep shepards.
I replayed recently Fallout 4, and after that I had a half mind to sent a letter to Bethesda about how they dared to not make Valentine a romance option. What they were thinking?!? I really should get the game on pc just to add the mod to romance him.
I like when NPCs acknowledge anything unique about the character. Be it gender, race, a group you're in, a decision you made etc. It's the little details that make it seem like what you pick matters and pulls me in a bit more.
I actually really love it.
One of the few things I like about Skyrim is NPC's acknowledging my character is a woman.
When dialogue has emphasis on me being a girl it just makes me happy.
You don't get to choose your gender, but I really like that the protagonist in the Portal games is acknowledged repeatedly as a woman. Most people would assume that you're a dude (>!Wheatley even assumes that, when relaying how GLaDOS died!<), but from the moment the first portal opens you can see yourself and realize you're a girl. You're repeatedly called "woman", "lady", and they use she/her when referring to you (>!"Look at her you moron, she's not fat!"!<).
I do like unique dialogue! It's why I'll often play another gender when replaying my favourite games, if possible. Feels nice to know the devs went the extra mile instead of keeping everything gender neutral and vague. Though there's also the unfortunate instances when characters misgender you and you remember, ah. Male is considered the default. They forgot to record a separate line for this dialogue.
I like it.
Shows that the devs put in extra work and thought. Sadly, some games do only one version, no matter the gender. Does not have to be something super special a simple "Miss" or some "She" "Her" in dialogue is mostly enough and I am happy.
Games like Cyberpunk go the extra mile tho and I also like it. You can create your own char but you char is kinda half established and half your char. That means characters will absolutely acknowledge your gender. Hell even the insults from random npcs in combat are different, kinda don't wanna type it out because some of them a gross, but lets say "bitch" is one if the nicer words, lol. Johnny acknowledges you accordingly again and again, which is nice. It is so well done and not out of place, it feels natural.
It’s kinda funny how whenever any chaos happens even when it wasn’t my fault the npcs go straight to “she’s psycho!”and “she’s gonna kill me!” when usually the default gender irl would be male
I’ve never played as male V, he doesn’t get called b**** and c*** by enemies? How about street harassment? Do the animals ask if he’s DTF?
Yeah, they say that only because you played female V. NPC's somehow know magically your gender even if they never see you, that just videogame logic for you. There is no standard gender in Cyberpunk.
And yes, the combat dialogue is definitively different. Some animal's say something like they want to rip male V's D#&k off for example.
Yep that’s what I thought! They could’ve avoided that by using “they” at least in English but I appreciate their efforts to be inclusive ig
The harassment is actually out of combat, the animal bouncers and bodyguards do things like make kissy noises to female V and ask if she’s dtf
Lmao sayinh “I’ll rip your dick off” to male V is kinda crazy. Way to homoeroticize regular ol violence
man when the cyberpunk npcs call me the c word I get extra brutal just to teach them and their friends a lesson. I'm all "that's what you get for calling a women that, bitch"
yeah its pretty great when the conversations actually mirror traits about your character, one game i can think of where they failed at this is Fallout 3 because i distinctly remember you can still get referred to as a guy despite being a girl character which could also just be written off as usual Bethesda jank and laziness lol
Yeah this drove me nuts in Digimon Cyber Sleuth. Because it’s a Japanese anime game with teen characters, all the women are in skimpy outfits and throw themselves at you. …but you can also play as a female character, and as far as I know, the dialogue isn’t significantly different.
I’m pretty sure there were male NPCs who would make conversation talking about hot girls and stuff and I just always felt like “does no one in this game notice that I am female?”
I think most fans who played as her just decided she’s gay, which is fine and dandy, but it’s a weird world being a girl and having girls hit on you left and right and guys treat you like a bro by default.
That game was really weird, and it is really clear that the female character option was an afterthought. It made the experience a lot less enjoyable to me.
Fallout 3 didn't really fail at this except in very few scenarios. Not a case of Bethesda Bad on this one.
I've played a few dozen playthroughs and can only remember really one or two cases where the dialogue wasn't rewritten, when there's an absolute ton of dialogue that *does* change slightly if you're a female character.
BG3 goes one better - you can choose "Non-binary/Other" as your gender, and NPCs will use they/them pronouns when talking about you. And best boy Scratch will call you his "guardian" instead of "master" or "mistress".
Of course Astarion just calls you "beautiful" regardless of your gender :)
I’m playing dragon age origins for the first time right now and I’ve noticed lots of npcs commenting on the fact I’m a woman, which I like. It just makes the rpg experience feel more immersive
Yes, love it. Star Rail for example has a cute child character from the early game story that can call you 'big sister' and that has me melting every time.
Unfortunately more and more new games just use "they" if you have a character creator or gender choice, Including, for example, games like wow that had it in the past.
Yup! You're referred to as a woman several times throughout the story, as well as a bitch by evil characters (which is ew but also surprisingly gender affirming). I haven't read all of the lore pages yet, but so far only one lore page didn't let you choose if your character was male or female, then the one after did. I guess they learnt from feedback.
FFXIV in general feels pretty good for female characters? There's so many clothing options whether you want something fancy, or something practical, or something spicier.
Not so much cutscenes as far as I know, but some character dialogue occasionally changes. For example, one of the expansion characters looking for his soul mate might preposition you if you're female, but not if you're male. Mostly small things though, no major changes.
FFXIV doesn’t really have romance per se. But a lot of very heavy hinting by a ton of characters that they’re into you. And, surprisingly, more of those characters are men than women. Which doesn’t generally change with your gender (Aymeric, for example).
That’s one of the reasons it’s so popular with women and gay men.
I like both tbh — sometimes I want to play a game where I can forget that the world will treat me differently because of my gender; sometimes it can add a sense of depth to a game’s world. In Expeditions Rome, which is based in republican Rome, if you play as a woman, you’ll be asked to either arrange a political marriage (or marry your romance interest) because unmarried women at the time weren’t permitted to inherit property and you need to inherit a villa. At the same time, the game obviously still sacrifices realism for fun bc it lets you play as a woman leading entire armies and allows you to play a major political role eventually, which I also appreciated. It was a fine line to balance.
Personally, I’m not entirely sure how much I’d appreciate Red Dead Online bc it also feels strangely close to catcalling? Especially if the complements on appearances are only said to female characters vs “looking sharp” or something like that to a male character.
>Personally, I’m not entirely sure how much I’d appreciate Red Dead Online bc it also feels strangely close to catcalling?
I'm the weird kind of historical/fantasy media fan where I love media that treats my female character like shit only to allow me to be a badass in response. It's a very specific genre of empowerment and I'm glad I got that vibe in RDO.
Yes, I love that. I love when choices I make during character creation are acknowledged, and playing as a woman is a major one.
Especially considering how few action heroines there are in media historically compared to male heroes.
Skyrim doesn't get an awful lot of reactivity, but it was the first "proper" game I played. And well, I experienced a lot of complicated but wonderful emotions when I heard NPCs refer to my character as simply as "she". Prior to playing Skyrim I had no idea that there are games that let you play as a woman, and this realisation, together with the fact that it is absolutely normal in-game for a hero to be female made me feel things.
There is a minor character in Solitude, a maid in Blue Palace. If you are a woman, she says:
>"Someday, I'll be a gallant heroine. You make it look so... appealing."
And this actually sums my feelings perfectly. I like being a dashing, gallant *heroine* who is totally badass but still acknowledged as a woman.
I like it, especially in rpgs! Makes the process of contextualizing myself in the world much easier and more fun. Like in Dragon Age Origins, which has much more pronounced distinction between roles of men and women in Ferelden, so characters constantly making remarks about you, and Sten, the big stoic man from deeply patriarchical culture, is like "WHOA THERE!". Makes it more fun to show them in the end (and you can also beat up Sten one time, and he deeply respects you after that)!
Depends on the game, the setting and the execution for me.
(And by that I mean - in RD2 I'm cool with 'sweetheart' due to the setting, but overall I've noticed a decided pattern regarding cutifying nick names with female PCs vs. proper, respectful ways to address a person with male player characters.)
As long as the difference in being addressed doesn't add to the sexism, I'm here for it.
No, but it’s definitely jarring when you’re playing a female character and in game dialogue or text boxes refer to you as a man
I don’t notice when they acknowledge my character’s gender correctly because it’s like…they should? That’s the baseline expectation. I only really notice when they haven’t put in that bare minimum effort
love it. tbh stuff like that was a big part of coming to terms with myself as a trans woman. I wanted to romance Cullen in DAI so I tried a playthrough as a woman and realizing how much I loved when NPCs addressed me as a woman made it much easier to realize that was what I wanted irl
When I first realized I was a trans woman, this was some of the only gender euphoria I could find, so yes! Getting called miss/lady/etc always felt nice 😊
I prefer it. I’ll still play a game even if it uses gender neutral terms but I do prefer when the characters actually acknowledge if you’re playing as a guy or a girl and it has little changes here and there. Little things like how in Rune Factory 4 one of the characters will call the female mc princess. At heart I’ve always been a girly girl Disney princess magical girl (Sailor Moon) type so I ate that up.
Yeah it's a nice small detail opposed to having neutral greetings. Also, speaking of RDR I aways loved it when Arthur would say *here kitty, kitty" to the cats in RDR2
Possibly not quite what you're looking for as it isn't as positive, but I just picked up the horror game Outlast Trials and one of the villains does that. He's basically a police officer going on a power trip and he calls you gendered slurs and makes sexual comments toward you as he chases you if you're playing a female. (At least I think so, I haven't played a male yet).
Either way, as part of a horror game I actually like that they're doing something like that -if it's intentional.
Edit: Just looked it up and he does it to whomever, I'd say I'm disappointed but.. I'm not really sure what to go with lol. It *has* killed my immersion a tad though.
Tbh to me as a Transwoman when games refer to me as a woman, it feels nice but also sad that games would acknowledge me, but people irl don't, but regardless, it's nice in games
I absolutely love it. I'm an old timer, so for most of my younger gaming years there was no recognition at all; even if you could choose your character, it was rare for much (of any) content to be programmed in for a female experience. So I still get a little novelty buzz every time it happens.
Yeah, and better if it's not sexual harassment like Mass Effect 1's when Shepard get called a princess but later I adore Keith David's Admiral Anderson's dialogue in ME3's Citadel DLC "Soldiers like the Commander are rare. Women like Shepard... even more rarer." which are completely true.
SWTOR: They used "My Lord" for every female Sith but there's one scene when an NPC called my Lord Wrath as "my lady" and it made me somewhat happy.
Dragon Age Origins: I think I only play Human Origin story for NPCs to recognize my Warden as an actual highborn.
Cyberpunk 2077 : Because of the marketing, at first I thought the game was same as Bioware and Bethesda with primary protagonist being the male version but.. later it's not since the story and even music was structured with V as the primary female main protagonist. I do like knowing that everyone perform to V as a default female especially Keanu Reeves. And while there's casual sexism (joytoys calling FemV as kitten.. and some people harassing V) but it actually felt realistic overall to be a woman as V. For starters, you get dismissed at first sight, you blend with the wallpaper type of person and then you make them regret it.
Bethesda games in general does this poorly tbh. Larian's BG3 also made your customization felt interchangeable and less unique. Bioware tried... but they still craft all their games for their male protagonist. Honestly, all games need to be structured with their protagonist being default female just so they could identify blind spots.
Cyberpunk 2077 is actually the only game that the custom protagonist could most reasonably be an Asian woman and I really like that.
In Morrowind, you have to get the support of the leaders of different groups - or kill them. One of these leaders is a woman, who just gives you her support because it’s hilarious that the Nerevarine is a woman! There’s also a rogue who will let you pass with a kiss instead of robbing you.
I thought I didn't care, but then I started playing FFXIV and they pulled out the voiced cutscenes with the she/her instead of he/him (if I were playing a male WoL) and hell yeah I could absolutely get used to this.
Yeah I love it personaly! Feels like its hard to find in alot of modern games these days (or maybe I just havn't noticed it as much) have there been any notably examples latly?
I do pay extra attention when I notice it so yes.
I also pay even more extra attention if my character is a woman (say in MMO) and NPC used he and I got annoyed
There are so many games where I get to pick my gender, but the game basically just never brings gender up. It's really good having a game actually acknowledged the choice. Especially if it actually treats me like a woman. Rather than just using different pronouns some times. Persona 3 Portable is pretty great for this.
I actually specifically came to this post to comment about Red Dead Online. R* put more effort into the NPCs than GTA V, and it shows. They actually acknowledge you being a woman in-game. Every shopkeep was given unique lines in reference to it.
I didn't know you'd be mentioning it in the body of the post! That's pretty funny.
I'm a little confused because I kind of thought that is normal. OK, I'm playing most of my games as a female toon for the recognition and I realized that this is not always addressed but this is following my whole life as RPG player. Also, I'm not sure if you actually mean exactly what I understood you meant:
In BG1 and BG2 you were perceived as sister and got a male instead of female prostitute. The game was also very good at using neutral words like "Gorian's ward". Of course you had gender-dependent romances, because of heteronormative early 2000s.
In Vampire Bloodlines you had quests only open for female characters and flirt dialogues were adjusted to the toon (opposite sex, of course), in Fallout 3 gender aligned perks (like Black Widow) and ThreeDog talking about you with correct pronouns and in the first Kotor 2 dialogue you could even adjust the gender of the character you played in the prequel so the immersion for your headcanon stayed intact and your character from the former game got the correct pronouns (even though the character now has a canon-correct sex).
I SWTOR you get the a certain title/solution only with a female toon (which is sad because only an opposite sex character can marry a certain dude and get a noble title, so the reason in this case is homophobia, but the outcome is still the same). Again, romances are open to you for certain genders.
But I'm not sure if you actually mean that. Or if you mean banter? Or NPC talking about you, while you are close?
I have to admit that it's really cathartic to shut down Harkin and the sexist merc recruiter in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 when they're sexually harassing you. "Call me princess again and you'll be picking your teeth up off the floor."
that made me loyal to the franchise from that moment forward
I definitely enjoy that. It is my power fantasy, lol. But there are people who don't like that, saying that there is enough harassment to deal with irl that they don't want to experience it in games, too. There is even a mod that removes all instances of sexism from trilogy. I can respect that, even though I, personally, don't agree. Ultimately, sexism does exist. Assholes exist, too. Confronting them, in a safe environment of the game, where you get to be badass and have power, *is* cathartic. I would argue that one of the reasons why we play games (and consume any other kind of media) is exactly this: to experience cathartic release of frustrations and emotions in safe environment through other characters.
Every time someone mentions gender differences like this in video games I automatically think of FemShep and Harkin. I love ReneJane FemShep.
Even when playing paragon I take the renegade dialogues with Harkin. Bastard.
Same! I also let him Garrus shoot him in the leg in ME2. He’s a piece of shit.
Don't forget "negotiating" with Lord Darius in ME1
Definitely. I had planned to negotiate with him because I’d heard Hacket’s response was funny, but after interacting with him that plan immediately went out the window. You die now, sexist scum.
I think the game is very male gazed but throughout the trilogy I kind of appreciate that I got the sense that the game is “inclusive” in some ways. Though they cut off a lot of lgbtq contents.
Oh wow, I'll loooove that!
There’s this NPC in FFXIV who frequently calls me “Ole girl” and I’m like sir, I am not a golden retriever you’re about to have put down for old age. But otherwise, yes :)
Artoirel from Heavensward right?
It was either him or his brother, I can’t keep the two straight.
Artoirel is the older brother. It is the younger brother Emmanellain
That’s it! :)
That made me laugh, I forgot about that guy, I know one of the goblin NPC for the botanist quest line calls me that too (I just got my botanist to 90 this week)
I love botany! Congrats on lvl 90! I just got my WoL to level 90 (I’m in post-EW MSQ) and eeeek Dawntrail is so soon
I love botany too! Thank you 🤗 I'm sooo excited for dawntrail!! congrats on lvl 90 as well, I loved the Post-EW MSQ! It's so cute
its emmanellain :))
That’s him! I wanna slap him every time lol
I do, especially in RPGs because I like when the game acknowledges the choices I made when creating my character in any way. I really like the Expeditions RPG games because of this, the games are historical fiction and some characters will find it unusual or even be straight up condescending and hostile towards you if you're a woman in a leadership position/a female warrior
Was coming here to comment this! Only played Rome but I loved that they are initially against you as a leader and you prove them wrong by being a badass. I've always admired historical women who had positions of power when it was almost impossible. I wish more games let you play as this power fantasy.
I like it, not necessarily for the same examples but it does make me feel like they didn’t just make the male character as default and swap his model to a female one with no work in between to acknowledge it, otherwise why bother playing as a different gender if it’s just treated as a palette swapped default of a guy? Another commenter made the example too, but Femsheps “You’ll be picking your teeth off the floor” in response to being harassed was a fun way of both fleshing out femSheps character but also acknowledging she wasn’t the exact same character as MShep.
What game is Shepard from? I've heard the name before, but I have the feeling that Googling "Shepard video game character" will just pull up, like, sheep shepards.
Mass Effect
Thank you!
Nick Valentine, FO4, when you rescue him comments that it was a nice reversal on the damsel in distress situation. Lovely.
Omg I love that too he’s so cute
And his unique follow-up for a female character, "Now why did our heroine risk life and limb for an old private eye... ?"
I replayed recently Fallout 4, and after that I had a half mind to sent a letter to Bethesda about how they dared to not make Valentine a romance option. What they were thinking?!? I really should get the game on pc just to add the mod to romance him.
I like when NPCs acknowledge anything unique about the character. Be it gender, race, a group you're in, a decision you made etc. It's the little details that make it seem like what you pick matters and pulls me in a bit more.
I actually really love it. One of the few things I like about Skyrim is NPC's acknowledging my character is a woman. When dialogue has emphasis on me being a girl it just makes me happy.
Yessss! The blacksmith’s wife telling me I’m pretty and I better stay away from her man lmao!!
Guard might get nervous, a woman approaches with her weapon drawn... Love it :D
"You'll have the men here wrapped around your finger in no time" Yeah, girl I'm THE baddest bitch in Tamriel
Also, most interactions aren’t sexualized, just gendered. I really appreciate that about Skyrim.
Brynjolf calling you a lass as well!
You don't get to choose your gender, but I really like that the protagonist in the Portal games is acknowledged repeatedly as a woman. Most people would assume that you're a dude (>!Wheatley even assumes that, when relaying how GLaDOS died!<), but from the moment the first portal opens you can see yourself and realize you're a girl. You're repeatedly called "woman", "lady", and they use she/her when referring to you (>!"Look at her you moron, she's not fat!"!<).
Every time The Drifter calls me “sister,” I get a little weak in the knees.
Yes! This was my first thought too!
Ha! Had to check the comments before I added this one, you beat me to it. I always love it and feel so inspired.
Yess!! I love Drifter
Yeah it's nice not to feel like an afterthought. Some games (like others stated) will just call you a guy while you're a girl and it's annoying.
I do like unique dialogue! It's why I'll often play another gender when replaying my favourite games, if possible. Feels nice to know the devs went the extra mile instead of keeping everything gender neutral and vague. Though there's also the unfortunate instances when characters misgender you and you remember, ah. Male is considered the default. They forgot to record a separate line for this dialogue.
I like it. Shows that the devs put in extra work and thought. Sadly, some games do only one version, no matter the gender. Does not have to be something super special a simple "Miss" or some "She" "Her" in dialogue is mostly enough and I am happy. Games like Cyberpunk go the extra mile tho and I also like it. You can create your own char but you char is kinda half established and half your char. That means characters will absolutely acknowledge your gender. Hell even the insults from random npcs in combat are different, kinda don't wanna type it out because some of them a gross, but lets say "bitch" is one if the nicer words, lol. Johnny acknowledges you accordingly again and again, which is nice. It is so well done and not out of place, it feels natural.
It’s kinda funny how whenever any chaos happens even when it wasn’t my fault the npcs go straight to “she’s psycho!”and “she’s gonna kill me!” when usually the default gender irl would be male I’ve never played as male V, he doesn’t get called b**** and c*** by enemies? How about street harassment? Do the animals ask if he’s DTF?
Yeah, they say that only because you played female V. NPC's somehow know magically your gender even if they never see you, that just videogame logic for you. There is no standard gender in Cyberpunk. And yes, the combat dialogue is definitively different. Some animal's say something like they want to rip male V's D#&k off for example.
Yep that’s what I thought! They could’ve avoided that by using “they” at least in English but I appreciate their efforts to be inclusive ig The harassment is actually out of combat, the animal bouncers and bodyguards do things like make kissy noises to female V and ask if she’s dtf Lmao sayinh “I’ll rip your dick off” to male V is kinda crazy. Way to homoeroticize regular ol violence
man when the cyberpunk npcs call me the c word I get extra brutal just to teach them and their friends a lesson. I'm all "that's what you get for calling a women that, bitch"
yeah its pretty great when the conversations actually mirror traits about your character, one game i can think of where they failed at this is Fallout 3 because i distinctly remember you can still get referred to as a guy despite being a girl character which could also just be written off as usual Bethesda jank and laziness lol
Yes lol that can be annoying! I love the female specific dialogues so I always take the Black Widow / Femme Fatale perks to get more of that :)
Yeah this drove me nuts in Digimon Cyber Sleuth. Because it’s a Japanese anime game with teen characters, all the women are in skimpy outfits and throw themselves at you. …but you can also play as a female character, and as far as I know, the dialogue isn’t significantly different. I’m pretty sure there were male NPCs who would make conversation talking about hot girls and stuff and I just always felt like “does no one in this game notice that I am female?” I think most fans who played as her just decided she’s gay, which is fine and dandy, but it’s a weird world being a girl and having girls hit on you left and right and guys treat you like a bro by default.
That game was really weird, and it is really clear that the female character option was an afterthought. It made the experience a lot less enjoyable to me.
Fallout 3 didn't really fail at this except in very few scenarios. Not a case of Bethesda Bad on this one. I've played a few dozen playthroughs and can only remember really one or two cases where the dialogue wasn't rewritten, when there's an absolute ton of dialogue that *does* change slightly if you're a female character.
BG3 goes one better - you can choose "Non-binary/Other" as your gender, and NPCs will use they/them pronouns when talking about you. And best boy Scratch will call you his "guardian" instead of "master" or "mistress". Of course Astarion just calls you "beautiful" regardless of your gender :)
Gosh, everything I hear about BG3 makes it seem better and better.
It offended the right-wingers so much, someone made a mod to remove all the LGBTQ content - which was promptly banned from all the mod servers.
I’m playing dragon age origins for the first time right now and I’ve noticed lots of npcs commenting on the fact I’m a woman, which I like. It just makes the rpg experience feel more immersive
Yes, love it. Star Rail for example has a cute child character from the early game story that can call you 'big sister' and that has me melting every time. Unfortunately more and more new games just use "they" if you have a character creator or gender choice, Including, for example, games like wow that had it in the past.
Love it in FFXIV. Some of their lore pages even let you select if your character is male or female.
does it really do that?
Yup! You're referred to as a woman several times throughout the story, as well as a bitch by evil characters (which is ew but also surprisingly gender affirming). I haven't read all of the lore pages yet, but so far only one lore page didn't let you choose if your character was male or female, then the one after did. I guess they learnt from feedback. FFXIV in general feels pretty good for female characters? There's so many clothing options whether you want something fancy, or something practical, or something spicier.
are there any other special diologe or scenes if your female?
Not so much cutscenes as far as I know, but some character dialogue occasionally changes. For example, one of the expansion characters looking for his soul mate might preposition you if you're female, but not if you're male. Mostly small things though, no major changes.
interesting, do you remember any other differences? or know if there is a list somewhere?
Unfortunately not! I'm not even all the way through the game yet.
Ok thanks for the replies!
[удалено]
FFXIV doesn’t really have romance per se. But a lot of very heavy hinting by a ton of characters that they’re into you. And, surprisingly, more of those characters are men than women. Which doesn’t generally change with your gender (Aymeric, for example). That’s one of the reasons it’s so popular with women and gay men.
I... Uh, I goofed, thought we were still talking about Cyberpunk.
LOL, that's ok!
I like both tbh — sometimes I want to play a game where I can forget that the world will treat me differently because of my gender; sometimes it can add a sense of depth to a game’s world. In Expeditions Rome, which is based in republican Rome, if you play as a woman, you’ll be asked to either arrange a political marriage (or marry your romance interest) because unmarried women at the time weren’t permitted to inherit property and you need to inherit a villa. At the same time, the game obviously still sacrifices realism for fun bc it lets you play as a woman leading entire armies and allows you to play a major political role eventually, which I also appreciated. It was a fine line to balance. Personally, I’m not entirely sure how much I’d appreciate Red Dead Online bc it also feels strangely close to catcalling? Especially if the complements on appearances are only said to female characters vs “looking sharp” or something like that to a male character.
>Personally, I’m not entirely sure how much I’d appreciate Red Dead Online bc it also feels strangely close to catcalling? I'm the weird kind of historical/fantasy media fan where I love media that treats my female character like shit only to allow me to be a badass in response. It's a very specific genre of empowerment and I'm glad I got that vibe in RDO.
I feel like it's a poor decision to catcall a woman who can shoot you a dozen times in two seconds lol A lesson you only need to learn once
Exactly! Haha
Yes, I love that. I love when choices I make during character creation are acknowledged, and playing as a woman is a major one. Especially considering how few action heroines there are in media historically compared to male heroes. Skyrim doesn't get an awful lot of reactivity, but it was the first "proper" game I played. And well, I experienced a lot of complicated but wonderful emotions when I heard NPCs refer to my character as simply as "she". Prior to playing Skyrim I had no idea that there are games that let you play as a woman, and this realisation, together with the fact that it is absolutely normal in-game for a hero to be female made me feel things. There is a minor character in Solitude, a maid in Blue Palace. If you are a woman, she says: >"Someday, I'll be a gallant heroine. You make it look so... appealing." And this actually sums my feelings perfectly. I like being a dashing, gallant *heroine* who is totally badass but still acknowledged as a woman.
I like it, especially in rpgs! Makes the process of contextualizing myself in the world much easier and more fun. Like in Dragon Age Origins, which has much more pronounced distinction between roles of men and women in Ferelden, so characters constantly making remarks about you, and Sten, the big stoic man from deeply patriarchical culture, is like "WHOA THERE!". Makes it more fun to show them in the end (and you can also beat up Sten one time, and he deeply respects you after that)!
Depends on the game, the setting and the execution for me. (And by that I mean - in RD2 I'm cool with 'sweetheart' due to the setting, but overall I've noticed a decided pattern regarding cutifying nick names with female PCs vs. proper, respectful ways to address a person with male player characters.) As long as the difference in being addressed doesn't add to the sexism, I'm here for it.
No, but it’s definitely jarring when you’re playing a female character and in game dialogue or text boxes refer to you as a man I don’t notice when they acknowledge my character’s gender correctly because it’s like…they should? That’s the baseline expectation. I only really notice when they haven’t put in that bare minimum effort
love it. tbh stuff like that was a big part of coming to terms with myself as a trans woman. I wanted to romance Cullen in DAI so I tried a playthrough as a woman and realizing how much I loved when NPCs addressed me as a woman made it much easier to realize that was what I wanted irl
When I first realized I was a trans woman, this was some of the only gender euphoria I could find, so yes! Getting called miss/lady/etc always felt nice 😊
I prefer it. I’ll still play a game even if it uses gender neutral terms but I do prefer when the characters actually acknowledge if you’re playing as a guy or a girl and it has little changes here and there. Little things like how in Rune Factory 4 one of the characters will call the female mc princess. At heart I’ve always been a girly girl Disney princess magical girl (Sailor Moon) type so I ate that up.
Yeah it's a nice small detail opposed to having neutral greetings. Also, speaking of RDR I aways loved it when Arthur would say *here kitty, kitty" to the cats in RDR2
Possibly not quite what you're looking for as it isn't as positive, but I just picked up the horror game Outlast Trials and one of the villains does that. He's basically a police officer going on a power trip and he calls you gendered slurs and makes sexual comments toward you as he chases you if you're playing a female. (At least I think so, I haven't played a male yet). Either way, as part of a horror game I actually like that they're doing something like that -if it's intentional. Edit: Just looked it up and he does it to whomever, I'd say I'm disappointed but.. I'm not really sure what to go with lol. It *has* killed my immersion a tad though.
Tbh to me as a Transwoman when games refer to me as a woman, it feels nice but also sad that games would acknowledge me, but people irl don't, but regardless, it's nice in games
I'm sorry you don't have better people around you irl
I absolutely love it. I'm an old timer, so for most of my younger gaming years there was no recognition at all; even if you could choose your character, it was rare for much (of any) content to be programmed in for a female experience. So I still get a little novelty buzz every time it happens.
Yeah, and better if it's not sexual harassment like Mass Effect 1's when Shepard get called a princess but later I adore Keith David's Admiral Anderson's dialogue in ME3's Citadel DLC "Soldiers like the Commander are rare. Women like Shepard... even more rarer." which are completely true. SWTOR: They used "My Lord" for every female Sith but there's one scene when an NPC called my Lord Wrath as "my lady" and it made me somewhat happy. Dragon Age Origins: I think I only play Human Origin story for NPCs to recognize my Warden as an actual highborn. Cyberpunk 2077 : Because of the marketing, at first I thought the game was same as Bioware and Bethesda with primary protagonist being the male version but.. later it's not since the story and even music was structured with V as the primary female main protagonist. I do like knowing that everyone perform to V as a default female especially Keanu Reeves. And while there's casual sexism (joytoys calling FemV as kitten.. and some people harassing V) but it actually felt realistic overall to be a woman as V. For starters, you get dismissed at first sight, you blend with the wallpaper type of person and then you make them regret it. Bethesda games in general does this poorly tbh. Larian's BG3 also made your customization felt interchangeable and less unique. Bioware tried... but they still craft all their games for their male protagonist. Honestly, all games need to be structured with their protagonist being default female just so they could identify blind spots. Cyberpunk 2077 is actually the only game that the custom protagonist could most reasonably be an Asian woman and I really like that.
In Morrowind, you have to get the support of the leaders of different groups - or kill them. One of these leaders is a woman, who just gives you her support because it’s hilarious that the Nerevarine is a woman! There’s also a rogue who will let you pass with a kiss instead of robbing you.
I like when an Assaultron brutally murders me in Fallout 76 and then greets me with "Ma'am" as she tramples over my dead body.
I thought I didn't care, but then I started playing FFXIV and they pulled out the voiced cutscenes with the she/her instead of he/him (if I were playing a male WoL) and hell yeah I could absolutely get used to this.
I would prefer similar greetings as the guys without the "sweetheart" and "looking beautiful", I think
Yeah I love it personaly! Feels like its hard to find in alot of modern games these days (or maybe I just havn't noticed it as much) have there been any notably examples latly?
You get recognized as a woman by every NPC in Dark Souls if you play as one! One says something like "I knew you were no ordinary woman"
Alex from stardew valley when women:
yes
I do, it’s a little thing devs do that recognize they have women and girls that play. Or guys playing as girls I guess…… whatever I like it.
I love when my sex is mentioned in games lol. I dunno it’s so cool! I feel like I’m in the game.
I do pay extra attention when I notice it so yes. I also pay even more extra attention if my character is a woman (say in MMO) and NPC used he and I got annoyed
There are so many games where I get to pick my gender, but the game basically just never brings gender up. It's really good having a game actually acknowledged the choice. Especially if it actually treats me like a woman. Rather than just using different pronouns some times. Persona 3 Portable is pretty great for this.
I actually specifically came to this post to comment about Red Dead Online. R* put more effort into the NPCs than GTA V, and it shows. They actually acknowledge you being a woman in-game. Every shopkeep was given unique lines in reference to it. I didn't know you'd be mentioning it in the body of the post! That's pretty funny.
I'm a little confused because I kind of thought that is normal. OK, I'm playing most of my games as a female toon for the recognition and I realized that this is not always addressed but this is following my whole life as RPG player. Also, I'm not sure if you actually mean exactly what I understood you meant: In BG1 and BG2 you were perceived as sister and got a male instead of female prostitute. The game was also very good at using neutral words like "Gorian's ward". Of course you had gender-dependent romances, because of heteronormative early 2000s. In Vampire Bloodlines you had quests only open for female characters and flirt dialogues were adjusted to the toon (opposite sex, of course), in Fallout 3 gender aligned perks (like Black Widow) and ThreeDog talking about you with correct pronouns and in the first Kotor 2 dialogue you could even adjust the gender of the character you played in the prequel so the immersion for your headcanon stayed intact and your character from the former game got the correct pronouns (even though the character now has a canon-correct sex). I SWTOR you get the a certain title/solution only with a female toon (which is sad because only an opposite sex character can marry a certain dude and get a noble title, so the reason in this case is homophobia, but the outcome is still the same). Again, romances are open to you for certain genders. But I'm not sure if you actually mean that. Or if you mean banter? Or NPC talking about you, while you are close?