Hypothetical question concerning writing in games.

For the last week or so for some reason I have been thinking about Ubisoft's original response to why there weren't any females in Unity co-op. Now, that response was fucking stupid and rightfully called out as such, and my thoughts are tangentially related.

Hypothetical situation:

A developer is creating a game all by themselves, and someone asks why there are no female characters. Would it be acceptable is the developer answered "I don't know how to write a convincing female and would rather not have any representation in my game than a bad representation"?

Granted this isn't a very realistic situation since in real life it isn't an either/or situation. Also, I am not advocating for that response, but I genuinely wonder what the response to it would be.

Do you think it would be acceptable? And why do you feel that way? Also, what do you think the overall response would be?

EDIT: What I meant by "all by themselves" was a single person.

For a smaller studio, yes at least it's honest.

Ubisoft however has 10 teams, a huge budget, etc. So it would sound rather hollow to me.

It depends on how small the small developer is, but at a certain point the obvious rejoinder becomes, "You know women know how to write also, don't you?"

I think the big problem was how they were positioning customization in that game. People don't generally ask that question when other games have male leads. Partially because they'd run out of breath from repeating it so many times, partially because when you're positioning something as a written narrative about the player controlled character the expectation isn't that the character should necessarily reflect the player. Turns out this game isn't as much about customization as they were originally saying, which is potentially its own set of problems, but makes the whole not being able to be a woman a little less gross. Their answer was still really terrible though.

i'm still not sure why any excuse is deemed "acceptable" or not, regardless of studio size. Ubi's response to the question was undoubtedly lame, but i don't really understand what the big deal is. I would have been perfectly happy with them saying "We didn't wanna".

Tom Stoppard says basically this when he's asked about women characters in his plays - although the question is usually why his women characters tend to be "stock" characters. I sort of think that being self-possessed enough to recognise that is a good first step, but I think it becomes more untenable the more established you are as a creator. I can understand being quite close with your first ever project, because putting yourself out there is scary. It also makes sense when you start out to just focus on what you can do well, but then after that it's a bit like what, you couldn't just have a crack at it and ask a few women to look it over and say whether it chimes with them?

For a studio that handles "various religious faiths and beliefs," I would think gender wouldn't be the most difficult nut to crack.

You guys are conflating what I am asking with Ubisoft's response. The response was only what made me think about the situation and that's it. Yes, if Ubisoft were to give that theoretical response it would be utter bullshit and I would hope that they would be called out on it in a respectful manner. My question is what about a smaller developer of maybe one or two people?

I don't understand why people are picking on Ass Creed when there are two games now with female protagonists.

Now I don't know anything for certain, but from what they've been showing it looks like you're taking your version of Arno in to the co-op stuff. That's 4 versions of the same character not 4 different characters.

But even if that's not the case, this shit has been blown out of proportion; probably because gender representation is the topic du jour these days.

I guess I should answer your question though: yeah I think it'd be a good thing for a male game developer to be frank about being uncomfortable writing a game with a female protagonist. In fact, with "representations in gaming" coming under increasing scrutiny the incentive to attempt a female character is even less appealing. Why would I risk having the feminist bloggers breathing down my neck for a sexist interpretation when I could just rehash the same male archetype the sells so well already. Seems like a no-brainer for a huge money/time investment like Assassin's Creed.

Eh, no. Why is "writing for a female" this weird task that in the year 2014 people can't do? Why does there have to be any real separation between the two? There are plenty of examples of writing in movies, books, and even a handful of games that utilize females in a way that makes them strong, independent characters. Hell, I'm sure many of the gender equality pioneers in the industry would likely consult for a small fee or free (not write the game, just consult on the writing) to a small developer if they reached out to them. So, I think at a certain point, when someone uses that explanation to justify not writing a female lead, they are simply not trying to be resourceful to achieve it. That basically boils down to a lack of interest in writing a female character.

I think a much more justifiable response is that they just didn't envision their story that way. There's nothing chauvinistic about that. It's worse to say "we don't know how" in an age of nearly unlimited informational resources and examples to draw from.

@sgtsphynx: Can you please edit your thread title so it isn't so vague? People should be able to figure out what the topic is about in general without clicking on it.

Thanks

@sgtsphynx: I don't know whether it's acceptable but would understandable. If they came out prior to the game's release and used that specific verbiage then I suppose I'd accept it, but if it was after the fact then I'd see it as sandbagging to avoid having admit that their vision is not an inclusive one.

There's nothing wrong with art that focuses on the experiences associated with a particular gender. A lot of stories in film and literature are about masculinity and femininity. What I think is important is that the artist makes the case, either verbally or through the work itself, that they're not making that decision at the expense of being inclusive. The old adage "write what you know" still applies, it's only when artists do know enough about other gender's experience and choose to ignore it that it becomes a problem.

@mb: I would do so happily, but I'm not exactly sure what to put in the title that would clarify. I will try regardless.

On the other hand, Ubisoft's products are handled by many so a team of such size could, and has stifled cohesion in its products.

I think that would be a dumb thing to say. They don't even get men right in video games. Ezio is half a fucking person and is the best character they've ever made.

I think it's a totally understandable thing to say. These days it's safer to not have a character than to attempt a character and do a poor job, and what qualifies as a poor job in the first place is going to vary wildly between different people; someone is undoubtedly going to take issue with something. If I were a developer I'd be more afraid of getting on certain people's shit lists than I would be worried about the actual quality of the game at this point.

That said, I'd say you just write a female character exactly the same as you write a male character and vice versa. We're all humans, we've all got the same emotional bullshit going on, just write whatever feels right. If you try to write someone realistically, i.e. you're not writing them as someone with no purpose but to be loved or loathed, it'll probably come out in a relatively alright spot anyhow.

There wouldn't be a huge reaction if someone making a game by themselves said that, but because that person isn't on the same level as Ubisoft. The one guy could reasonably claim that he can't write/animate women, but Ubisoft has the resources to hire someone who can.

considering how far Ubi seems to go with their games to be inclusive, this whole discussion just seems like people who are upset about that topic are eating their own.

that being said, to OP's original point, if it were like a small team then I would find it acceptable, but Ubi is massive so I don't think it would past muster. An acceptable answer from them in my opinion would be, "we don't really want to focus our resources in this game towards that, simply having a female model would be empty placating in the worst kind of way. We would rather focus on that when we can give legitimate story and gameplay focus on a female in the Assassin's Creed universe. In the mean time, you should really play AC: Liberation, that game was fantastic!"

^^^ This - very much this.

This isn't a brand-new dilemma rising out of the Internet Age. It's an age-old complaint that has been addressed & answered repeatedly in various media - literature, film, music, painting, etc. The best example that springs to mind for me is American film. Societal strictures placed on the content of films have forced all sorts of changes, including both limitations & expansions for the roles of female protagonists and secondary characters. During the so-called 'Golden Age' of Hollywood, there was no shortage of intelligent, strong, witty and self-empowered women, not because studio heads wanted them, but because female actors insisted. The combination of the Depression, the Second World War, the innovations forced by the Hays Code + a series of labour actions made it possible. When the country took swings to the right - e.g. during the 1950's & 1980's - this was also reflected in diminished roles for women in film.

Mae West, Barbara Stanwyck, Katherine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Lauren Bacall - during a time when the studio system was churning out films across multiple genres these women (among others), made names for themselves without being resigned to simply playing stereotyped female roles in every film. One of the (IMHO), greatest films ever made also features one of the greatest female characters - Hildy Johnson in, His Girl Friday. It's not coincidental that it was a remake of an earlier film based on the play, 'The Front Page,' in which Hildy is a man. Rather than wholly re-write the character, Hawks had the wisdom to simply change the gender & some plot elements, while leaving the dialogue the same.

Women aren't mysterious alien creatures that need special decoder rings to be understood and portrayed in the arts; we're human beings.

TL;DR My short answer is: "I don't know how to write female characters," is an acceptable answer for a single person developing a game but it's also creatively uninspired. If a developer can't be bothered to do the bare minimum required to gain a modicum of insight into half of the human population, why would I bother to invest time or money into their game?

I would rather they write awful characters so that they can receive insight on how to not fuck up so bad next time. There's a point in time as a writer where you have to nut up and go for something you've never tried before, even if you fail utterly. It's the only way you're going to learn and get better as an author.

I'd rather hear, "It's our story and it's about a man, if you don't like it don't buy it"

@crembaw: yes yes yes yes yes.

@sgtsphynx: When faced with the question "why are there no female characters?" there is no right or wrong response, regardless of who the developer is. It is entirely the developer's prerogative. If your hypothetical reason is the actual reason, then that's fine. If the reason is as simple as "we don't want to", that's fine as well.

The entire issue seems very manufactured to me in order to create talking points.

It's not like Ubisoft doesn't make good female characters. Child of Light revolves almost entirely around female characters. Elika in POP 2008 is a good example of a nicely written female character and is as important as the Prince. Jade Raymond was director of the first AC and responsible for the bold choice and for making it such a commercial success.

It doesn't make sense to force the developer to represent you in every single game and this inspite of knowing that AC has always featured one central character. There has never been any choice in the matter. They tell the story of one person and that's it. Imagine Kenway in Black Flag being a woman. That entire backstory with this wife would have to be scrapped, rewritten or converted into a generic one-size-fits-all kind of story.

Having a big team doesn't mean you can accommodate every conceivable choice into your game. Resource management is an extremely important part of any business. If you want to see what happens when you try to put every half-assed idea into a game, look at Gran Turismo 5 and 6. Yamauchi doesn't know how to manage the resources at his disposal at all.

Do you want AC to be like that?

http://www.memecreator.org/static/images/memes/3163549.jpg

The thing that always bothered me is that Ubi Soft is making a game about assassins in the French Revolution, and they are tone deaf to the fact that the most famous assassin during that era was a female.

@drdarkstryfe: And how do you know for a fact this assassin aint in the game?

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised that the reason there aren't any female characters is because of marketing. I think it was Sleeping Dogs where they originally wanted a female protagonist but they had "research" that said the majority of gamers felt more comfortable or something playing as a male character, or that female protagonists don't "sell."

To answer the TC's question, I would appreciate the honesty if given that response, and I'd give that one indie creator more slack for it. But I'd also rather just hear that one person say, "It's the story I want to tell." Hearing a game dev say that he can't write a good female character doesn't really give me much confidence in his ability to come up with a good story.

I wouldn't be okay with that response, because it makes me question their ability to write well at all. However if they said they had no strong idea for a female character, then I think that would be okay. However that specific excuse is weaker the bigger their cast gets. It works 100% of the time if you're just talking about the main character though.

From what I understand, the reason of "I would do a crappy job, so better do no job at all" is considered a cop out. You do research, ask for help, and figure out a way to include the other half of the population. So the response, much like Ubisoft's reason, would probably be a resounding "BullSHIT!"