Does the default gender for characters with multiple gender options matter to you?

[Neoxon]

I've already made my stance clear with regards to if defaults really matter in the female fighter ratio thread a good long while back. But given some of the responses I got for my stance on mainly focusing on the default genders for characters with options to change their gender, I was curious about how you guys felt on the topic. Do defaults matter to you? And if so, should developers make more of an effort to promote diversity through the default design or is at least allowing the option enough for you? I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the subject.

 

[OnionPowder]

I've never thought about it, but default usually seems to be where I head since i'm a boring fuck.

Seems like a smart way to drive players into picking options they wouldn't normally. I'm for it.

 

[Gold Arsene]

For stuff like Smash I consider it important as that's the one that tends to get the lions share of the focus.

 

[AndrewDean84]

Not really. But I'm not sensitive to this type of thing.

 

[brentech]

Solve this problem by mixing the art of gender 1 as the top half of the body with gender 2 as the bottom. All the way to gender X. Appease everyone.

 

[Stat]

I didn't love this answer but it most suited me: No, default genders don't really matter in the long-run.

I literally could not careless. I have other things to worry about.

If Devs want boring guy, great. If Devs want diversity, great. Just don't you dare put a character creator in a single-player first person only game where I never see my person anyways cause thats annoying.

 

[Neoxon]

I've never thought about it, but default usually seems to be where I head since i'm a boring fuck.

Seems like a smart way to drive players into picking options they wouldn't normally. I'm for it.

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It's actually one of the reasons why I'm glad that Splatoon 2 gave the main Inkling Girl & the main Octoling Girl darker skin by default as well as making both of them the main Inklings & Octolings of Splatoon 2.

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[Adamska]

Personally I don't think it matters. I do think, however, that if the player was made to choose a gender instead of there being a default then maybe more people would choose differently than they would by following the default.

 

[Diema]

Generally, no. When playing a game in which creating my own character is an option, it is usually irrelevant anyway.

 

[Deleted member 8593]

Absolutely. You take nothing away from making the "diverse" option the default one and it's only a net benefit. Unless it's a garbage design like female Byleth, of course.

Yes, I am still salty about male Robin being default. Pigtails for life.

 

[thetrin]

I'm happy to play any gender character as a protagonist, but for RPGs, I like the ability to make a character that looks like me.

 

[Deleted member 1413]

Corrin's default should've been Female Corrin.
Other than that, don't really care too much. Pick the best one like the female inkling

 

[Neoxon]

Absolutely. You take nothing away from making the "diverse" option the default one and it's only a net benefit. Unless it's a garbage design like female Byleth, of course.

Yes, I am still salty about male Robin being default. Pigtails for life.

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To be fair, Male Robin seems to be the more popular one of the two (albeit by a closer margin than the Corrin debate), so I can forgive that decision.

Corrin's default should've been Female Corrin.
Other than that, don't really care too much. Pick the best one like the female inkling

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Yeah, Female Corrin should be the default across the board (*glares at Sakurai*).

 

[The Adder]

Default matters because it's who the character is for the vast majority of people, given that most of them won't be playing the game.

 

[Deleted member 679]

Not really. I assume the vast majority has male as the default option, but that's just a safe guess, I'd be lying if I said I actually remember.

Always play as a woman when given the choice, no matter what the default is.

 

[Neoxon]

For stuff like Smash I consider it important as that's the one that tends to get the lions share of the focus.

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As an example of this, we didn't even get Female Musashi as a spirit in Smash Ultimate, only Male Musashi.

 

[Deleted member 50761]

I honestly don't care if the main character is male or female but if it's an RPG where I can create my own character I will always pick male as I like to make my character into a cooler version of myself.

 

[astro]

Disappointed in the poll results so far.

 

[2Blackcats]

It should default it to whatever is picked most i guess. I'm presuming that's male.

I usually play female but altering the default selection is hardly an issue.

 

[Doorman]

In general if the option is there, I don't particularly care personally which one is considered the "default," though I do understand your point about how it could be considered significant.

The bigger issue for me is usually making sure that the gendered designs are appropriately equivalent in intent. Stuff like FE Awakening Robin and Sushi Striker's Musashi are good examples of this. There's been talk in the Astral Chain reveal thread about why the female MC has the random thigh window, and stuff like that and the difference in armor designs between male and female characters in Monster Hunter is usually something that pings my radar more, though that's also delving partially into a different topic.

I suppose tying them together, you could say that I don't care about defaults unless they evoke completely distinct reactions.

 

[PadWarrior]

I don't really care but having the option to choose is nice.

 

[Fliesen]

Defaults definitely matter, so i appreciate it if the game either randomizes gender (if not ethnicity) of the main character for every player - or forces you to pick a gender, without one being pre-selected.

But i don't think that's a standard all devs need to follow.

It's fine to have pre-determined characters (though it should be encouraged to make them not the stereotypical angry white male) - especially if it's beneficial to the storytelling / narrative, which can be harder if the player character is completely based upon player-choice.
It's nice to have player choice, with regards to gender, sexual orientation and or skin color.
It's would be even nicer to have even more choice (pronouns) and randomized defaults.

To me, anything beyond ... protagonists like "Aiden Pearce" ... is already a win.

 

[Zacmortar]

Usually I prefer a female default and go with that(save for games featuring gay romance routes)

 

[Deleted member 8593]

To be fair, Male Robin seems to be the more popular one of the two (albeit by a closer margin than the Corrin debate), so I can forgive that decision.

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Spoiler

I feel like we've had this discussion before lmao

 

[Anteo]

I doenst bother me that much but I would definitely prefer some more defautls both in fighting games and other games to be female.

 

[Richietto]

Not really, although in Smash Robin and Corrin should be default female. They're just better.

 

[Neoxon]

It should default it to whatever is picked most i guess. I'm presuming that's male.

I usually play female but altering the default selection is hardly an issue.

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Default should just be the more popular design but it doesnt really matter to me.

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That only really works when you have games like Smash that pull from said characters for their roster. And even if you go with popular opinion after the fact, you may have a Corrin situation where Sakurai sticks to his guns with Male Corrin as the default, despite popular opinion being on the side of Female Corrin. This is why I wish that Intelligent Systems went with Female Corrin as the main version from the get-go.

Not really, although in Smash Robin and Corrin should be default female. They're just better.

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As I said, I agree on Female Corrin, but Male Robin is fine as the default (tying back to the fan-favorite design thing, which just so happened to work out in Robin's case).

 

[Clickypen Champion]

I appreciate when there is options to change; I usually pick whatever isn't the default. Female Barbarian in For Honor. I would play a male Peacekeeper if I could. Cassandra in AC Odyssey. Male Wii Fit Trainer for those sweet breath combos. Female Pokémon Trainer....

... I just realized your question In a different context could categorize male/female as the default genders, and non conforming genders as the options. In which case I don't care as long as the time to add those additional gender options doesn't impact the content amount or quality overall. The amount of hours to add those options would need to not interfere with the hours to make a game good.

 

[Pancracio17]

Default should just be the more popular design but it doesnt really matter to me.

 

[Mr. Fantastic]

I'm very surprised by the way this poll is going.

 

[Deleted member 3208]

I'm tired that most characters with multiple genders, the default one is male.

 

[Deleted member 1190]

It only matters to me when there is a canon choice, since that is what I generally prefer to play as. Diablo 3 is a good example of this.

Otherwise nah, don't care.

 

[DrArchon]

I never use the default characters if the character creator is anything close to decent, so I suppose it doesn't matter for me.

I don't particularly care about the marketing either. I played through FE Awakening something like 3 times and my Robin was never actually named Robin nor did they look like either Robin.

 

[Ravelle]

Either gender is fine as long the story is about that character and if the gender plays a role.

But I mainly pick gender based on voice acting/ acting chops which usually results in picking the ladies, they also have better customization options for the most part in RPG's. Dude's are usually buzz cut military looking dudes with not much expression.

 

[wiill64]

Doesn't matter to me, I'll pick the design I like better.

 

[ket]

i usually pick the female choice because the VA & character design is usually better

 

[AustinFordGames]

This is super interesting and is something I haven't ever put thought into. I usually just make a character that I want to play because I'm a head canon nerd, and most games are accommodating. To use an example, Destiny's character creator randomly selects what gender your character is based on RNG and default race, which is also RNG. I feel like it's been pretty fair either way, male or female every time I've gone to make a character. The Destiny 2 Beta was even more interesting, where the character creator wasn't included, you could only pick your class (Hunter, Titan, Warlock) and upon logging in for the first time into the Beta, the game would assign what gender each class would have for you at random.

I wouldn't have thought about it, but yeah, some people have to go out of their way to choose because games tend to default to male. I think if more game devs can get on board with it being chosen at random for the player before they realize it's happened, and then give the play immediate range to change it, that would be best.

 

[Deleted member 1190]

Disappointed in the poll results so far.

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Care to elaborate why

 

[astro]

Care to elaborate why

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Because representation matters, and more devs should consider this with the defaults.

 

[RadzPrower]

No, but in a number of instances, there really shouldn't be a default. It should be completely random which gender the character starts as.

 

[2Blackcats]

That only really works when you have games like Smash that pull from said characters for their roster. And even if you go with popular opinion after the fact, you may have a Corrin situation where Sakurai sticks to his guns with Male Corrin as the default, despite popular opinion being on the side of Female Corrin. This is why I wish that Intelligent Systems went with Female Corrin as the main version from the get-go.


As I said, I agree on Female Corrin, but Male Robin is fine as the default (tying back to the fan-favorite design thing, which just so happened to work out in Robin's case).

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I see what you're saying.

I was thinking more like when you're making a character in dark souls or skyrim or whatever. Not characters that are there own thing which i agree does complicate things (i don't play smash)

 

[Adamska]

No, but in a number of instances, there really shouldn't be a default. It should be completely random which gender the character starts as.

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Or, instead of it being random, just make it so you have to choose a gender before the game ever starts or before you can ever see the protagonist/player character.

 

[Deleted member 7450]

More interested in the overrall writing.
If it is different, or at least different enough to accommodate different perspectives, then I'll be inclined to care.

Generally speaking though, not really.

 

[Kinsei]

It certainly matters when the default is the one that appears the majority of time in marketing and generally get preferrential treatment in crossovers like Smash. It generally feels like there's always a gender you're 'meant' to choose like Male Shep.

 

[808s & Villainy]

Doesn't really matter to me. As long as I can choose the gender/color I want it's whatever. For instance, I always go with the Black Villager in Smash Ultimate. That the white one is the default barely even registers with me

Or, instead of it being random, just make it so you have to choose a gender before the game ever starts or before you can ever see the protagonist/player character.

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LOL. And how will this work in Smash? Before every match you go through and choose the genders of the 6 characters with multiple ones??

Also, I should add, this mostly applies to fighting games. I think actually for titles where one of them is what is mostly featured in the marketing, the default gender shown DOES matter. I love how Splatoon's have both been the female inkling

 

[data]

I don't mind it.

It's just to make the coding of the character creator simpler.

If it was really an issue, maybe a random default gender is selected everytime you start a new game / make a new eharacter.

 

[TheRaidenPT]

Not really. But I'm not sensitive to this type of thing.

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[Epinephrine]

Yes I think it matters, but it doesn't matter to me. As in, I don't give a shit what option is the default option that I'm presented with (on a personal level), but that doesn't mean other people shouldn't care or that we shouldn't expect better representation by default.

The easiest way to handle it would be to provide no default. Make the gender the first choice people have to make and go from there.

 

[astro]

Yes I think it matters, but it doesn't matter to me. As in, I don't give a shit what option is the default option that I'm presented with (on a personal level), but that doesn't mean other people shouldn't care or that we shouldn't expect better representation by default.

The easiest way to handle it would be to provide no default. Make the gender the first choice people have to make and go from there.

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Good reply, thank you for caring about representation even though it doesn't affect you personally. <3

 

[Wraith]

I definitely like having the option to choose and/or design the character I want. And I think having the option is important, even if it's not something every game can support. As to how the default is handled (one gender is the default, or you're forced to choose, or it's random), that matters less to me. But if one gender is chosen by default, always make clear that the option is there. Don't let bad UI trip up a player into thinking there's no option available.

In something like PSO (an old example, but I'm sure there are modern analogs), where you have a specific array of race/class options with specific genders, I think some kind of randomization would be beneficial, so you don't see 50% of players running around with the default HUmar w/ no customization. I guess this applies to online games with persistent characters, in general.