I would think more highly of the "it's in the lore, this species only has one sex" excuse if there were more (any?) notable >2-sex species in popular fantasy/science fiction.
Are you okay with one-gender races in video games?
- Thread starter BillFromAccounting
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+1
Though, even if the race is monosexual, if the single sex that is present "happens" to look like a titninja then I'll be giving it some serious side-eye, as species that don't reproduce sexually have no need for sex appeal, and certainly no need to appeal to humans (since those are a different species), so at that point it's just obvious pandering with excuse plot ret-conned in after the design.
Why, yes, I am salty that I can't be a female hrothgar, thanks for asking.
It's hardly even a great leap, we have enough multisexed species on Earth to draw inspiration from.
I'm fine with it and I also think players shouldn't have an option if you pick said one gendered race. If you set up rules in your story you stick to it and don't make exceptions.
I've played some Korean MMOs that locked races or classes to male/female/etc. But those games had a ton of unique animations and equipment that only fit on specific models. That makes sense to me personally and I'm fine with it. But I've never been too big on roleplaying in MMOs, outside of early WoW I guess.
That said in FF14 I was a female Roegadyn and I'm glad they were in the game (unlike the race's predecessor Galka). So if they can do it, great. But the game's getting on in the years and I'm sure they want to just prioritize what the fans want with the resources they have.
That said in FF14 I was a female Roegadyn and I'm glad they were in the game (unlike the race's predecessor Galka). So if they can do it, great. But the game's getting on in the years and I'm sure they want to just prioritize what the fans want with the resources they have.
True, though they do have a purely matriarchal society so...you know.
Breasts could make sense, considering that they're a pretty effective way to feed young milk, but there's literally no reason for there to be two of them and have them on its chest (or even for it to have a chest).
On principle, no issue at all if it's well done. But the few examples I know of (FF bunny women, ME hot blue women) seem to be a veiled attempt at "hot women only race, *wink wink* lesbian sex implied" to titillate young men, I'm against it in practice. The fact the new men only race on FF was created to try to mitigate the problem is also a huge face palm...
I mean, playing to your audience is a thing.
However, if you're going to lean into your "C R E A T I V E V I S I O N", you better be ready to accept the criticisms that come with it.
I think I would be ok with it if the race is non-gendered, but when it’s obviously male- or female-presenting, it feels like just an excuse to have a sexy lady race, and then a generic muscle man race to counterbalance it.
On my list of features I like to have in a game, being able to chose a gender doesn't even exist.
The FF14 thing is particularly bad because messaging is "Women need to be hot, Men need to be strong, we have no problems furthering harmful stereotypes".
If it's really a matter of staffing and budget like FF14 stans would have me think, why do both of them at once? Why not do one now, one later. There's no rush and the logistics burden is one they're putting on themselves.
I wouldn’t say that anything should be necessarily off limits besides like, inciting actual people to violence and stuff, and a single gendered fantasy race in a game is pretty damn far from any of those extremes.
But it’s nuanced, and people need to remember that “should be allowed to do it” does not at all mean “should be exempt from criticism”. You can criticise a game for locking gender to race the same way you can criticise literally anything else about it, and unless those criticisms are somehow based on incorrect information, they're no less legitimate.
But it’s nuanced, and people need to remember that “should be allowed to do it” does not at all mean “should be exempt from criticism”. You can criticise a game for locking gender to race the same way you can criticise literally anything else about it, and unless those criticisms are somehow based on incorrect information, they're no less legitimate.
Have no problems. I play WoW and there is a race that we have yet to see a female. The Ogre race has no females. We know next to nothing about them. It wouldn't bother me if Blizzard said they bud like Orcs in Warhammer. If it makes sense in the story or Lore sure why not.
Didn't get to see a female Dwarf in the Witcher franchise until Thronebreaker, was about time. But usually it's not something I think about, so I voted I'm fine with it. I'm way more bothered if there's no cohesion between the genders of a race, some Japanese games come to mind where male is all around beast-like and female is just "sexy" human lady with maybe animal ears and a tail. That's fucking stupid.
Also if we would expand the discussion to classes and not just races, I think it works rather well in For Honor. It has both female and male exclusive classes. Though atleast at some point, there was one male only character more than female only. Not sure how it's right now, hopefully the gap hasn't widened atleast.
Also if we would expand the discussion to classes and not just races, I think it works rather well in For Honor. It has both female and male exclusive classes. Though atleast at some point, there was one male only character more than female only. Not sure how it's right now, hopefully the gap hasn't widened atleast.
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So, like, Gorons are technically genderless, but use male pronouns due to their appearance...
Do they count?
Do they count?
If there is a proper explanation as to why there is only one gender then I am perfectly fine with it. In the end I do not really care that much.
Because art helps perpetuate and advertise bad ideas in society.
Because it makes your favorite game poorer because they are tropes (in the "lazy storytelling" sense) the devs are forced to use
Because it makes real people feel bad and excluded.
Yep, pretty sure it's harder to create a single gender of 2 different races instead of 2 genders of a single race. If anything they just created more work AND controversy. Double facepalm.
As an advocate for diversity, I am absolutely fine with the first option for alien races as long as long there is a justified backstory and is not visibly and obviously made to exist solely for the sole sexual titillation of a specific demographic.
In the TV show, The Orville, both non-gender and mono-gender alien races are explored to great effect as current societal circumstances commentaries.
Yes, I don't care.
As long as there are enough interesting choices/variety it doesn't matter to me. FFXIV has plenty of races to choose from already, so if they needed to cut corners in order to fit both female Viera and male Ronso only then that's cool with me.
As long as there are enough interesting choices/variety it doesn't matter to me. FFXIV has plenty of races to choose from already, so if they needed to cut corners in order to fit both female Viera and male Ronso only then that's cool with me.
Completely agree with you here. When your only choices are between (1) a race with two genders or (2) a race with one gender (picked from male/female), those are some pretty crappy choices.
I honestly don't care. What I do care about is sexist stereotype garbage being the reason behind it in 99% of cases.
It all depends on how they utilize them. More often than not, though, it's just the usual pandering ol' "men are brutal badasses, wimmin are teh sexies" crap.
Fine with it, but I would like to choose my gender. But if there's a reason why they want only one type of gender for a race or something like that (IE: FFXIV), then I'm fine with it too.
I'm fine with stuff like Namekian's since they're basically plant people or Gems from Steven Universe since they're rock people. It makes sense and is fairly commited to the concept. Viera is lame since that's just a regular human with big ears and a tail. It feels birthed from somebody's fetish.
I dont mind on principle but in actuality the female only race always looks like "hot babe in swimsuit" while the male race can look like literally whatever ... so thats pretty tiring
This is what I came to ask, how do people feel about one gendered Pokemon? It’s a strange case since even Machamp can be female but certain Pokemon are gender locked.
It can be fine as long as you dont handle it as badly as XIV.
The problem with XIV handling is:
1) the reasoning to have only 1 gender is nonsensical, considering another race has a similar lore behind it yet it offers both genders.
2) the designs further reinforces stereotypical sexist portrayals aka women races being hot and thin and supermodels in skimpy outfits and male races being strong and bulky and more beast looking.
The problem with XIV handling is:
1) the reasoning to have only 1 gender is nonsensical, considering another race has a similar lore behind it yet it offers both genders.
2) the designs further reinforces stereotypical sexist portrayals aka women races being hot and thin and supermodels in skimpy outfits and male races being strong and bulky and more beast looking.
The excuse offered for female-only viera (lore) is incredibly flimsy given that the writers and designers have a blank slate in front of them introducing a new race. With the little blurb that viera and hrothgar can't even display all headgear in-game due to clipping issues it seems like simple laziness.
That last option...
"both genders" should probably be changed to "both traditional genders" or "sexes" or I dunno what would be the correct way of wording it (someone more educated on the subject should answer this for me lol). Assuming the question is about inclusion and representation. Since there are more than 2 genders.
This is not a troll in the slightest btw.
As far as my own personal tastes go, I've never been super turned on by girl-on-girl action (which let's be serious: is the real reason for female only races in fantasy games created by a bunch of dude gamers considering they're always sexy women. Sorry for the generalization but I'm convinced that's the case). I'm fine with single sex races as long as we can all call a spade a spade and admit what's going on here.
Aren't the Gerudo almost a female exclusive race that only occasionally has a male born to them? At least in one of the Zelda games.
"both genders" should probably be changed to "both traditional genders" or "sexes" or I dunno what would be the correct way of wording it (someone more educated on the subject should answer this for me lol). Assuming the question is about inclusion and representation. Since there are more than 2 genders.
This is not a troll in the slightest btw.
As far as my own personal tastes go, I've never been super turned on by girl-on-girl action (which let's be serious: is the real reason for female only races in fantasy games created by a bunch of dude gamers considering they're always sexy women. Sorry for the generalization but I'm convinced that's the case). I'm fine with single sex races as long as we can all call a spade a spade and admit what's going on here.
Aren't the Gerudo almost a female exclusive race that only occasionally has a male born to them? At least in one of the Zelda games.