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Interesting read about finding a pulisher for Remember Me


xRyux
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So, was looking up more stuff on this game and came across this article about how a bunch of publishers denied this game simply because of it's female protagonist. I for one could careless if the main is a female or not, as long as the game is good. But I'm kinda curious to see what you guys think?

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-19-why-publishers-refuse-games-such-as-remember-me-because-of-their-female-protagonists

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Who knows but it will sell good because of the girl though.

 

Most people believe the opposite is true, which is why we don't see many female protagonists.

 

I think it's also worth mentioning that the main protagonist in this game is mixed race as well. That's a huge deal. In this industry, white males are the norm. The fact that we have a character like this makes me think that the industry is changing for the better, but I am also very scared for this game. If it fails, publishers will immediately point their fingers at the mixed race female character as the culprit and the cycle of white dudebros will continue.

Edited by Inebriated Jedi
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Interesting, & a little sad.

 

I'll pre order a copy just to show my support for mixed race women. :p

 

 

"We wanted to be able to tease on Nilin's private life, and that means for instance, at one point, we wanted a scene where she was kissing a guy. We had people tell us, 'You can't make a dude like the player kiss another dude in the game, that's going to feel awkward.'"

 

With regards to this, you've surely got to be pretty insecure to feel awkward seeing two people kissing. :confused: I can't say i've ever found it an issue when i'm playing games like Dragon Age.

 

Games with female-only leads - where you couldn't choose any other option - did sell significantly less, EEDAR's COO Geoffrey Zatkin revealed.

 

This information is almost completely meaningless as there are many variables in why a game sells well.

 

If they want to see how well female leads work relative to a male one they should look at the player data for games with a choice of gender like Dragon Age (again) & Mass Effect.

 

If, given the choice a high percentage play a female lead then gender shouldn't be having a detrimental effect on a games sales. Therefore the games they've mentioned probably didn't sell as well because they were either rubbish or in a niche genre with a smaller peak player base than trash like COD.

Edited by H2O
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Well if it featured a dude on the cover, I'd be passing for sure.

I can only imagine the annoyance of female gamers playing as a dude in so many games over the years.

 

Race shouldnt be an issue - how many games we have playing as an afro or asian?

 

I hope it sells billions just to poke the eyes of the publishers who rejected it.

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I honestly hope this game sells incredibly well because I am so sick of seeing shooters and sequels. I need a new IP in my life! I haven't pre ordered it yet, but I really want to play this.

 

As for the fact that she is a female, I for one don't care about whether I play a man or a women although when I get a choice to make a character I like to make a black male. If I don't have an option for a black character I usually choose a female.

 

It's pathetic that publishers didn't want this game because of the main character being a woman or mixed race. It actually makes me sick. Reminds me of how SCEA wanted Naughty Dog to remove Ellie from the cover of The Last Of Us. Pathetic.

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Yeah, it's true that female leads don't sell games.

 

I mean just look at the miserable failures that are the Tomb Raider, Metroid and Portal franchises.

 

Clearly, these dickless games would've had wider audiences if only they'd had a dude as the lead character.

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Yeah, it's true that female leads don't sell games.

 

I mean just look at the miserable failures that are the Tomb Raider, Metroid and Portal franchises.

 

Clearly, these dickless games would've had wider audiences if only they'd had a dude as the lead character.

 

 

tomb raider didn't meet sales expection, Metroid is nintendo's lowest selling ip and portal is not the normal game to begin with

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tomb raider didn't meet sales expection, Metroid is nintendo's lowest selling ip and portal is not the normal game to begin with

 

The current Tomb Raider did not meet expectations (because they were set entirely too high, by the way). And, believe it or don't, but that was not the first game in this long-running, multiple-console-spanning series despite it being Lara's "origin".

 

Sure, Nintendo screwed the pooch with Metroid: Other M, but the other games sold remarkably well, on multiple systems. It's a generally beloved franchise and I'm certain Nintendo have worse-selling ones than it.

 

And I just don't understand what you're saying about Portal. "not the normal game to begin with"? What does that even mean?

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As a guy, I actively seek out games with female protagonist, like Mirror's Edge, Portal 2, Velvet Assassin, Remember Me, Tomb Raider, Alice Madness Returns, Bayonetta, Borderlands series, BioWare games.

I feel games with female protagonist is more interesting than if a male is in it. And since you spend a lot of time looking at the character, I prefer one that is easy on the eyes.

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As a guy, I actively seek out games with female protagonist, like Mirror's Edge, Portal 2, Velvet Assassin, Remember Me, Tomb Raider, Alice Madness Returns, Bayonetta, Borderlands series, BioWare games.

I feel games with female protagonist is more interesting than if a male is in it. And since you spend a lot of time looking at the character, I prefer one that is easy on the eyes.

 

well said.

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The current Tomb Raider did not meet expectations (because they were set entirely too high, by the way). And, believe it or don't, but that was not the first game in this long-running, multiple-console-spanning series despite it being Lara's "origin".

 

Sure, Nintendo screwed the pooch with Metroid: Other M, but the other games sold remarkably well, on multiple systems. It's a generally beloved franchise and I'm certain Nintendo have worse-selling ones than it.

 

And I just don't understand what you're saying about Portal. "not the normal game to begin with"? What does that even mean?

 

 

 

Yea sorry I was really tired when I wrote that, I meant portal was not a shooter nor a adventure title so it falls out of the norm even this I would say is a 3rd person action/adventure title.

 

Also Metroid is a decent seller but it is out of nintendo's big franchises there lowest seller, Forget what article I saw about that but they were showing generic sales figures, besides that I won't even blame it on samus as most people don't even know its a girl.

 

So yea you have lara croft that is about it for a franchise starring a women.

 

The sad truth about it is the vast majorty of people playing games are white males so to make it more hey, your playing as you they make the characters like that even bioware gave figures showing almost all people playing as shepard or a male nobody played as a female expect a few

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The instant I saw this @ last year's E3, I knew it was on my most wanted list.

 

Pre-ordered it the same time as Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch & love both games.

 

This one has the feel of being in an Action Movie (A Good One) & the other felt like you were playing a Japanese Anime.

 

The Publishers that passed on this, all I can say is "Your Loss." & "You made a big mistake passing on this one."

 

I can say it will be high on a lot of gamers favorites of the year.

 

It's on mine. :bow:

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Yea sorry I was really tired when I wrote that, I meant portal was not a shooter nor a adventure title so it falls out of the norm even this I would say is a 3rd person action/adventure title.

 

And how, exactly, does it not being a shooter put it "out of the norm"? And it is a shooter, you just shoot portals and not bullets, not to mention that it is indeed an adventure game. And I'm not sure how you ever got the idea that Portal is 3rd person... :/

 

Also Metroid is a decent seller but it is out of nintendo's big franchises there lowest seller, Forget what article I saw about that but they were showing generic sales figures, besides that I won't even blame it on samus as most people don't even know its a girl.

 

Really? I would think something like the Pikmin or Kirby franchises to be beneath Metroid in terms of overall sales.

 

And at this point, I think it's pretty common knowledge that Samus is female.

 

So yea you have lara croft that is about it for a franchise starring a women.

 

Well, at least you've recognized that one of your assumptions was false. :D

 

The sad truth about it is the vast majorty of people playing games are white males so to make it more hey, your playing as you they make the characters like that even bioware gave figures showing almost all people playing as shepard or a male nobody played as a female expect a few

 

That's some interesting conjecture, but since the report does not have data on the race or sex of the player, you cannot make the assumption that "white males" all chose DudeShep. Also, since you can carry your character over, this skews this statistic even more since, if you started with DudeShep, you likely aren't going to switch to FemShep for the sequels.

 

Not to mention that Mass Effect is not a forced female lead; it's a choice. So it isn't really the same thing as the franchises I brought up.

 

I love Samus Aran, Lara Croft and Faith. Those best female gaming characters. :)

 

What? No love for Chell? ;)

Edited by Jack Frost
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As far as saying games with female leads don't do as well overall, it is pretty simple. Majority of gamers are male, and the majority of those gamers like to see themselves as the lead character when they play, which is why a lot of these games do lose half the market when the lead is female. You have hundreds of thousands of closed minded douchebags that say "aww, I'm not playing it if I gotta be a chick, that's gay".

 

So it isn't very hard to see why the majority of games where the player can't choose their character is focused on a male character. Not saying it is right or wrong, it is just how things are.

 

But the biggest reason this game probably won't hit sales marks is because it is a mediocre action/adventure game, with little to no replay value, with a short campaign that had a very small marketing budget (that last part, maybe having something to do with the female lead). It is along the lines of Barbie... The major market for Barbie is girls, so why would that company focus on male Barbie dolls? They wouldn't because that would be stupid. Same goes for video games. You tailor your product to your biggest market. It is simple business, has nothing to do with publishers being sexist, perhaps a reflection of the opinions of the consumer more than that of the industry. I guarantee if female fronted games started picking up, we would see a lot more of them.

Edited by Midnight Malice
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