Denise on 23/8/2001 at 22:26
Quote:
Originally posted by sphyraenidae:
<STRONG>I think having differences between the male and female characters is just stereotyping. The Augs and Skills we develop, not to mention the modded weapons, are more than enough for us to create a unique character.
I think the gender choice would be there for purely cosmetic reasons. Probably to make up for the horrendous selection of mingers we had to choose as JC Denton in Deus Ex 1.</STRONG>
On the one hand, yes, making the different characters a different class is probably stereotyping and I wouldn't want to see it done. Capabilities between the two genders tend to be different on average, but not so much as to make things worth spending the time to code in differences and there are always exceptions --plus we're dealing with augmented individuals here, anyway.
On the other hand, it's going to have to be a little more than just cosmetic to be believable. NPCs shouldn't react to the female character quite like they will to the male character... often for precisely those very prevalent stereotypes. Macho street punks are not going to respond well to a threat from a woman. "You've got five seconds to beat it before I add you to the list of NSF casualties" is probably going to go a lot smoother for JC than his female counterpart, for example --not because she's any less capable, but rather the punk perceives her to be less threatening.
It'll be a pain for them to do it right, but having it done wrong would be painful to play, too.
