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Analyzing the percentage of female fighters in the rosters of the current batch of fighting games [NEW: SF6, MVS, & T8 Updated]
- Thread starter Neoxon
- Start date
I was going to write up something similar, to be honest, I do think that the 39-40% is representative of the reality of the game. The number that ignores characters that can be both male or female, moves away from the actual problem to strengthen a narrative IMO. If I am a 10 year old girl who is playing a female Villager or a female mii, or a female Corrin, I am going to feel like I can relate to the character as a female. We could be talking about something entirely different, but if we are talking about representing a gender in a game, then these characters should apply, simply because I can choose their gender, and honestly, this might be the characters that are best representing trans-gender people as well, which I feel is also important in our culture too.
I'm less sensitive to these issues, as I'm a white cis male, but I try to understand other people and their perspectives, so I might get this all wrong, however, I do think Smash's dual gender characters should count as Female, you could count them as Male too and come up with a much bigger number for males than females, but again, I think this misses the point of the problem, if I want to play a female character, out of the 58 characters available, how many let me be female? ~40% is a pretty good number, especially when we are counting Duck Hunt Duo and R.O.B. as males, that is fairly ambiguous on the selection screen IMO.
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The thing with the likes of Female Villager, Robin, & Corrin is that, while the options do exist, they aren't the default (hence why I counted Wii Fit Trainer, since she's a woman by default). At least with the Mii Gunner, the default representation for that Mii is a woman with both the render & the Amiibo, so I'm willing to throw Nintendo/Bamco/Sakurai a bone there. Likewise, whenever we get the Inklings in Smash (be it Smash 4 Deluxe or Smash 5), I'll count the Inklings in the percentage if the default version is the Inkling Girl.
All the same, I included a percentage counting the non-default female variants for some of Smash 4's characters.
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Sorry about the bump, but I've added Dr. Coyle to the ARMS section, & adjusted the percentage accordingly. ARMS is now tied with Guilty Gear Xrd: REV 2 at 40% female fighters relative to the entirety of their respective rosters.
I feel like, in games with a significant number of mechanical or otherwise non-sexed/gendered characters the percentages are misleading. Folks see 40% female for ARMS, for example, and think it means 60% male. When really it's 40% Female | 40% Male | 20% N/A. Making ARMS' female to male ratio 1:1.
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I guess that's something I can look into going forward. But at the same time, comparing the female fighters to the entirety of the roster still brings the percentage to 40%, which was the original intention of this thread.
Pretty decent numbers of representation IMO, especially when "fighting" sports in real life predominantly interest men and have bigger pools of participants based on pretty foundational concepts tied into testosterone and etc. Though it would also be interesting if one could break down the women who are in these games and what level of sexualization is used in their designs.
Oh I absolutely get where you're coming from. And for most games it won't really make a difference. It's just that, since the topic is about representation, I figure that games that actually do have their retinue of fighting women match their men should be pointed out.
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Assuming you mean default designs, I feel like some characters may be contested in terms of how sexualized they are if I were to do a tally of each individual female fighter in regards to how they look by default.
I'll put a notation for that in the OP.
I wonder if a sane person would try to enumerate all MUGEN characters (maybe limit it to what has appeared on saltybet), and what that ratio would look like.
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SFV actually has a pretty solid percentage of women compared to the entirety of the roster. As for MvCI, the blame for that is likely on Marvel for (supposedly) forcing parity for the female characters on both sides (I.E. Capcom can't have more ladies than Marvel, & vice versa).
SFV has the highest proportion of female fighters in the series' history.
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Interesting, I'll have to look into that.
Yeah, & it probably isn't the weirdest rule that Marvel (supposedly) enacted. It was heavily implied that Marvel chose the game's art style (as well as restricting the roster leave out the Fox characters in the base roster as well as S1's DLC characters).
I'll look into it, though it may take a while considering how big MOBA rosters can be if I do choose to tackle the job. I originally did this out of my passion for fighting games as well as my curiosity about the representation of women in relation to their respective rosters. That's not to say that I won't do this for MOBAs, but I'm just providing context as to why I started this.
Oooh thats interesting to see,
I guess its not surprising to see dragonball at rock bottom. That Arms represetation is nice to see though, guess new IPs have it easy to have a closer split.
I guess its not surprising to see dragonball at rock bottom. That Arms represetation is nice to see though, guess new IPs have it easy to have a closer split.
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That's why I wouldn't be surprised to see the likes of Kefla & Ribrianne as DLC for DBFZ later down the road.
I really hope that one of the Season 2 DLC leaks for MvCI becomes a reality. I've been rooting for Kamala's inclusion since the game was first announced last year and she's been one of my favorite Marvel characters since I first heard about and saw her. This is still one of my favorite pics of her so far. =3
That makes me kinda sad. SF has given so many iconic women characters to the medium (and pop culture in general), but Capcom still hesitates to let those characters be a larger part of their rosters. With SFV they seem to be intentionally keeping the roster only a third female. We even get exactly two characters who are women for every four characters who are men with each season.
ChunLiMorriganFan85 absolutely. I thought her and Daredevil were obvious picks. But here we are..
Hopefully the rumour is true and she's in season 2.
As for Daredevil... I'll keep rocking this avatar until he's in the game.
you gotta believe!
Hopefully the rumour is true and she's in season 2.
As for Daredevil... I'll keep rocking this avatar until he's in the game.
you gotta believe!
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I mean, ~30% isn't a bad percentage at all (especially compared to other fighting games).
It ain't bad, SF just could be better. Especially since they seem intent on keeping it exactly a third. Like they're scared to go above that ratio.
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I guess you also have to consider the number of guys who are fan favorites.
Because there are so many male returnees. It's the DBZ problem.
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In the case of Dragon Ball, there aren't that many recurring female fighters to begin with beyond 18. Obviously Super's now rectifying that with the Tournament of Power, but that came too late for DBFZ's base roster.
Dragon Ball is a shame, for sure, but hopefully the advances in female fighter representation brought by the Tournament of Power arc are taken advantage of. Kale, Caulifla and Kefla would all be perfect. Videl would be an interesting addition as her lack of ki attacks could let them make a pure physical rushdown character that the game doesn't really have yet - she could even have Chi-Chi as an assist. Bulma in a sweet mech would be awesome. Pan, if they wanted GT characters, would be fun. Beyond that, it's true there's not much else unless you start going for deep cuts like Zangya or Oceanus Shenron.
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You also forgot Ribrianne. And judging by ASW's justification for 21's creation, it seems like they didn't consider Bulma, Videl, or Chi-Chi as viable options (correct me if I'm mistaken). That said, we already have Hit if we're talking about characters who lack ki attacks.
Yes, true, Ribrianne would be great, although I did get the impression she was less popular than the Saiyans (some things never change). On your point about Hit, I actually thought Videl/Chi-Chi would be a great opposite number to him. They share the lack of ki attacks, but whilst Hit is heavily about reading the opponent and pulling off various counters, Videl would be hyper rushdown with zero long-range moves, running fast, dodging ki attacks and getting close for brutal combos. Bulma would be even more straightforward - no ki attacks technically, but a mech's guns and lasers would be no different really.
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From the characters we've seen so far, ASW seems to stick very closely to the source material for the characters' poses & animations. This faithfulness is to a fault in the case of characters like Bulma where you'd have to get creative.
But that begs the question of what the point of the thread is and calls into question the basis of its conclusion. If it's simply academic observation that's fine. But if, as seems to be the takeaway, the goal is to point out issues in female representation it comes across as at least partially dishonest.
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It's mainly for collecting data. I leave it to you guys to interpret what the data means. I may have my own views (≥ 30% is acceptable), but I don't let that get in the way of the OP. The quote you referenced is mainly referring to the data I was looking for across all these fighting games, not necessarily as a means for commentary about the status of female fighters in fighting games. I would have put a poll if I wanted a more decisive opinion on if it's acceptable or not.
True, though if they can make and original character in 21 then they should be able to have Bulma do all these from her mech's cockpit.
Pistol Attack!
WAR CRIES!
Angry Bulma could give them licence to go a little more cartoony than usual. For her win pose, have her jump out and join Whis at the table he's been sitting at just off-screen the whole time.
I'm curious what the total percentage of women fighters in the ufc is now. Would anyone care to calculate that number? Then we can can compare the real world numbers vs the digital.
Still so disappointed about this. :/
Hell, the number of women who have a physique that actually resembles something a female fighter actually has is in the single digits...
It's just plain stupid that Videl isn't in DBFZ. Yes, Super ruined her character but she was a badass in Z, put her in! Hoping she's a DLC character.
Don't see how that matters. If we are talking about representation in numbers
I think sfv has good female representation. But I know a lot would try and argue all the designs are sexualized so it doesn't count, I think that seems silly
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Going by this quote from Game Informer...
...I don't think they have any intention of making Videl playable, especially now that we have the U6 female Saiyans & Ribrianne.Game Informer said:
I like Videl, but she stopped being a badass long before Super.
For FighterZ it'd be better to start hoping for the Saiyan girls. They fit in much better in this style of game then Videl would.
Considering the franchises involved I'm curious what the final ratio for Blazblue:Cross Tag Battle will be.