There's a very clear gender bias in PSO2 and it's bothering me.

[Noblewine]

Cool story bro? This happened on PSU and its gonna happen again on PSO2.
Don't forget about the gender based weapons. =/

[Nitro Vordex]

What, you think I've been joking about high heels and bikinis?

[Sinue_v2]

Based on the data SEGA released for the two anniversaries, their decision to skew scratches toward female characters, as well as their general aversion to releasing CAST parts, makes sense from a financial level. If the trend continues, by the third anniversary, I might expect female characters to be pushing 75%. May not be fair to people who don't want their male character in yet another longcoat, but it makes sense to follow data trends.

I have to wonder how much of that is Sega just reacting to their own feed-back loop. The more they neglect male costumes, the less incentive there is to play as a male - and the more attractive the game becomes to waifu-ists and loli creeps. They then have a larger represented demographic, which justifies designs even more tilted towards female characters - and the cycle repeats.

I suspect that this would probably be more pervasive elsewhere in the industry, except that in most MMO/ORPGs, the armor and the clothing are one in the same item. Favoring female characters with armor/stat choices over men would create a balance issue. PSO (even though you couldn't change clothes in the original) separated the two into cosmetic clothes and stat-boosting invisible "photon" shields or line shields or whatever.

I'm not a very prolific MMO/MORPG player (most are shit, and I have better things to do with my time), but I wonder if you see a similar effect in other games which segregate cosmetic appearance from stats?

Feminists often talk about the subjects of women being degraded as objects in video games, I'd imagine some of they would shit themselves in bitter joy over the clear dominance that females have over males in PSO2.

A game played by a predominantly male audience, creating subservient waifu characters that are designed to fulfill their every fantasy and under their total control (power fantasy!), being pandered to and incentivised to continue this behavior by a company run by mostly males?

Holy fuck, you don't have much experience with feminists do you? Well, at least the breed of special snowflake professional victims that has become increasingly popular recently. I'm fairly convinced that they are just a small subset of a far more reasonable and even-tempered majority, but goddamn are they and the rads (redsocks, terfs, etc) loud and toxic. You'll never be able to please those bastards.

Remember that game Anita proposed as the model feminist game? That exact scenario is in Bravely Default.

The party gets captured. Princess Edea is locked in her chambers by the King, and threatened with violence if she leaves. She breaks out anyhow, sneaks past the guards, infiltrates the dungeon, and frees her two hapless male companions (and the vestal).

That I've seen, it hasn't been lauded.. hell, even mentioned, by the prominent voices of feminism in the industry. (If I'm wrong, provide links, because I'd like to hear what they have to say) And a few of the crazier bloggers I've seen have called the game misogynistic and promoting the subjugation of women as objects of male domination because of Ringabell's lame "paramour" personality - never the fact that it's done mostly in jest, is a well established character flaw that he gets berated over constantly, and is also not even his true personality - just a cover his amnesiac mind invented to hide the trauma of seeing a loved one get killed before his eyes and being powerless to stop it.

PSU is often in the view of negativity here but at least back then male characters were given the same, fair treatment in variety of clothes and what have you alongside females.

The distribution was much better, but I also seem to recall that the clothing options were much better for women. I mean, they were both shit, but at least the women's selection didn't suck quite as badly. Casts (male and female both) got the short end of the stick in that game (so, racist instead of sexist?)


Also, I fully support Gardios cry for gender homogeny by allowing males to wear female clothing, provided they are all kind of stretched out and not obviously tailored for guys. That would be fucking hilarious.

[Nitro Vordex]

I second the males being able to wear the female clothing. I'd laugh for years.

[Noblewine]

I second the males being able to wear the female clothing. I'd laugh for years.

Or I prefer a male version of the "good" female outfits like that outfit Laia wore during Shred the Darkness... =-=
A male version of the Voyal Set would be good. I'll just wear the Rappy Suit since that was a funny outfit to wear and troll with.

I forgot to add one more thing, remember how the female outfit in psu the size of the breast varied based on what shirt they wore. What's next the bulge in guys pants vary depending on the pants?

[Anduril]

I have to wonder how much of that is Sega just reacting to their own feed-back loop. The more they neglect male costumes, the less incentive there is to play as a male - and the more attractive the game becomes to waifu-ists and loli creeps. They then have a larger represented demographic, which justifies designs even more tilted towards female characters - and the cycle repeats.

This is more than likely true, and for the big-wigs who are in charge of approving and pushing "what sells," it is most likely what they want. If they narrow the pool, then they can eventually start shelling out more of the same, knowing that it will still sell.

I suspect that this would probably be more pervasive elsewhere in the industry, except that in most MMO/ORPGs, the armor and the clothing are one in the same item. Favoring female characters with armor/stat choices over men would create a balance issue. PSO (even though you couldn't change clothes in the original) separated the two into cosmetic clothes and stat-boosting invisible "photon" shields or line shields or whatever.

I'm not a very prolific MMO/MORPG player (most are shit, and I have better things to do with my time), but I wonder if you see a similar effect in other games which segregate cosmetic appearance from stats?

I think that more and more MMOs are using "skins" for cosmetic alteration regardless of gear, so I would suspect that you might see similar trends.

[Edson Drake]

...the obvious solution is to give male characters the female costumes like a certain other game!

Spoiler!

But seriously, the selection for guys is really awful, I still want actual beards... I understand the reason behind it, but still.



Oh god yes, this annoys me so much. I'd really like to have more costumes that show more skin for my male character and the other way around.



That's the reward for playing the master race.

Oh yeah, true equality right there. I would be all about wearing male armour costumes on my female characters. And we would get to see some funny male crossdressers all around the blocks. I don't get why it isn't the case already becaus ethat would cause Sega to make even more money.

[Gardios]

I forgot to add one more thing, remember how the female outfit in psu the size of the breast varied based on what shirt they wore. What's next the bulge in guys pants vary depending on the pants?

That's already the case. lol

[Noblewine]

That's already the case. lol

I know but I wanted to point that out.

[Akaimizu]

The scenario of topic has been the case almost all around for years. The promotion of female avatars in their games does provide an interesting setup. Given that in the Phantasy Star Lore, the first Legendary hero is female, and thus you'd expect that Phantasy Star has a slight bias towards female heros ready to be their defenders. One might think that the higher amount of Hunter applicants will be of the female persuation.

I still think the male clothing selection is completely awful even compared to the actual ratio of Male to Female. It's like, if the female population is 60%, let's balance the clothing choices as if the female population is 95%.

It certainly feeds into a loop, where people are given more incentive to play females for all the different unique looks they can apply, and then SEGA sees more people play them catering even more to that with updates. They create their own inbalance here.

Some online games got better with this, and they actually have proof that if you put in more male options, and more male looks, then more people will play males. Proof of the pudding? Final Fantasy XIV Realm Reborn. Remember in a number of previous games when so many people played females given the males were all the typical boxy look. So much for catering to a look for the huge male population who don't look boxy in RL.

However, go to FFXIV where they even expanded stuff like various races, and even more slender characters, that don't even have to be all female anymore. Then you see a lot more male characters playing in the game, with all kinds of different looks and races.