Ringoringa
There are some points when you're playing a game in which you're allowed to fully customize your character, from their species to their gender, and it's just SO obvious that the programmers were thinking from the point of view of the male characters only. It's not a matter of blatant sex discrimination as it is them apparently forgetting that they gave you an option to be a girl. Sometimes this appears a minor little hiccup; in games where dialogue is recorded differently for the males and females, you may, once in a great while, find that the programmers forgot to add the female alternative, leaving you to be referred to as a "he." Other times, it's a little more blatant, with things such as all plot-relevant affection from other characters being from females. (It's not such a big deal if you're a lesbian, like moi, but statistically speaking, most women are straight.) Some (potentially spoiler-ridden) examples include Moira the hagraven in
Skyrim, even if it was played for laughs. The Maid of Windemere in
Kingdoms of Amalur will always refer to the character as her love, even if you're a woman. That one shopkeeper in Monster Hunter Tri pretty obviously has the hots for you regardless of gender, and will jokingly ask for a lock of your hair in exchange for items.
It doesn't usually seem so much intentional as it is just a matter of not thinking about things from the perspective of a female gamer, and I'm not angry, or anything (heck, like I said, as a lesbian, I'm quite content to have the girls after me
wink ), but it's still rather interesting just how many games still cater to men as the default even when you're supposed to have the option to be either gender. Any other examples you can think of? Anything you guys want to add? I think it's worth discussing, anyway.
Actually, Skyrim has some even more hilarious,
behind the scenes examples of male defaulting. "Female" is actually a binary flag - either something is female, or it counts as male (due to being not-female.)
The only things that are female are:
-Female people (of the playable races)
-Female children (child versions of the humans)
-Female vampires (which are separate instances of the playable races)
-Female Draugr
-Deer
So the aforementioned Hagraven, along with Spriggan "Matriarch," Wisp"mother," the lithe Flame Atronach, and even supposedly genderless Dwarf Mechs,
are all male.
In a probably unintentional case of girls being absolutely stronger than boys (leaving aside Braith's continual mugging of Lars Battleborn,) you can obtain a buff called the
Agent of Dibella that gives you a 1.1x multiplier on your damage... against the opposite sex. So your little Breton girl or
neko-chan will more damage against almost everything, except girl-type people.
(As a counter-balance, there is no female model for Dwarf Armour... but a female wearing male model Dwarf Armour actually looks awesome, since there's no obvious
breast plate like the Steel Plate.)
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