Ask JJB - Why can't players choose the main character's gender? | Deus Ex: Human Revolution

[CenturysSamurai]

if she was refering to mass effect I hope she knows it's the future... where gender doesn't matter and most aliens dislike humans... mostly the reapers xP

[MJin03]

This isn't misogynistic, it's just a story they told and the main character happened to be a man. People saying this is sexist reminds me of when people said Resident Evil was racist cause the zombies were black. It's just looking for an arguement when there isn't one.

I should also add that DEx 2 was horrible and DEx 3 was quite good. IMO Adam Jensen was a well designed character.

[Sinvey]

@MJin03 A predetermined gender isn't necessarily misogynistic - but the claim that a female character couldn't be a "strong personality" definitively is. Other games have shown how it works. They should've just explained it with a tight voiceover budget and it would come along much more reasonable.

I still think it's an awesome game, though. I just got it last week and absolutely love it. It's just that some customization would've been icing on the cake, imo. :P

[steampunkerella]

misogyny in video games? first i've heard of this

[TheGoombys]

You see women are frail, delicate flowers and men are rough, diamond hard badasses. Thanks for explaining that, Mary.

[wildanS]

JJB looks totally like janson...

[FallenAc3]

I would rather a strong character base than two spread thin personalities. Seriously a chick with Adam Jensons attitude would be wierd, like a female renegade shephard.

[CenturysSamurai]

@FallenAc3 yeah but in Mass effect female renegade shepard works perfectly! but in Deus ex.... uuuh not at all! lol

[Zeus17x]

I want to see the fan art of the female Jensen!

[DragonBleu01]

@Zeus17x You can find them on DeviantArt. :D

[PumpkinPumpkinVivi]

I LOVE Adam's character concept so far. Make me like it even more~! Get me interested in this particular characters storyline. I like being sucked into a characters story. Rather than place choice dialog that can go either way, male or female. And feel so predictable, empty about my characters development. Do not want bot character with a good voice actor. Unisex dialog just taints his whole story. Might as well be all about average politics for a game setting.

[stbays]

Some how Mass Effect pulled off having gender choice and believable dialog for both genders. While it doesn't bother me that Deus Ex won't have that choice, I'm not sure I believe their reasons.

[DragonBleu01]

Excuse-me, i don't understand this interview. Can someone translate me a little, please?

I'm french girl-gamer, i was interesting by Deus Ex Human Revolution.

(Sorry for my bad english)

[l3awl3ag]

@DragonBleu01 They're basically saying that the reasons for us not being able to pick between playing as a male or female character are

1) They wanted to focus on making Adam (the character you play in the game) seem like a real person. They wanted to give him a strong, believable personality. If there was an option to choose the character's gender then they would essentially have to create two different characters, as a female character would obviously need to be quite different.

[l3awl3ag]

@DragonBleu01 2) Allowing choice of gender would mean that they'd have to spend time rewriting a lot of the in-game dialogue in order for it to make sense when playing as a female character. People respond differently in conversation to women than they do to men. If the dialogue was the same for both characters, it would just sound odd.

[l3awl3ag]

@DragonBleu01 What they're really saying is that it just comes down to time constraints. They didn't have enough time to create two separate, believable, characters. So instead of creating two relatively shallow characters, they have decided to put all of their time into developing one more in-depth character who has a believable personality and backstory.

Anyway that's pretty much it, hopefully that makes sense.

[DragonBleu01]

@l3awl3ag Thanks you very much for the translation, i appreciated it a lot.

I always wanted to play as female character for the girl gamers like me but JJB is always right. ^^

[l3awl3ag]

@DragonBleu01 Yeah I understand. I'm kinda like that with role playing games where I need to create my own character like in Mass Effect e.t.c. If I have the choice I always pick male, but I don't mind playing as a female character. Some of the best games I've ever played have had female lead characters. Mirror's Edge and Velvet Assassin spring to mind, they both had strong female lead characters. They were certainly far more interesting than any of the male characters I've played in games.

[DragonBleu01]

@l3awl3ag Agree with you, i love too much the games with somethings like RPG and customization characters (Oblivion, Mass Effect trilogy, ect...)

[HIT3kNology]

Kevin Behrendt now why did you have to go and dislike this video?

[HIT3kNology]

It's funny how it's always a guy asking these types of questions. If you're looking for a game to wank off too then I recommend you go play World of Warcraft. Shame on you Kevin Behrendt.

[commandershepard13]

"Most games forget to differentiate between genders and instead treat the characters the same" is pretty much what she said. Hmm, I can by that but some games go back and do voice acting for both genders, not just the main characters but every chracter you can run into in the game. Mass Effect is a good example of this.

[Saerain]

I don't buy these justifications. I would've been more satisfied if they'd just said that it would've been prohibitively expensive to voice another Jensen (and alternate lines for any interested romantic potentials) within the budget allotted by Square Enix.

I mean, I'd sure like to hear what Mary's pet peeve stems from, i.e. in what way characters do not ‘talk to you like you're a woman’ or how Jensen's gender makes a lick of difference to his story apart from any sexual motivations....

[Jammed9000]

@Saerain

She probably meant Mass Effect.

[Delosian]

@R3dakted Hopefully we will get to see some goats with lasers attached to their backs that can cloak!!!

[Test00000]

Really Valley, females are more suited for fantasy RPGs? Don't kid yourself.

It ia a step backwards in a way but only in one perspective. By going a more standard route as JC their able to bring about a less mechanical character focus and voice acting vs Mass Effect or Fallout New Vegas.

[Tyger20]

That guy is hot, I love tattooed and bearded nerds.

[MrDammed1]

@Tyger20 you are a girl, right!?

[Clarensee]

@MrDammed1 He has a lot of male and female fans.

[Clarensee]

Where can I see the pic they talk about?

[KenTWOu]

@Clarensee I think they talk about this

i113(dot)photobucket(dot)com/a­lbums/n202/Starsiege_/Eve(dot)­jpg

[Clarensee]

@KenTWOu OK, thanks.

[bek0hmsford]

Translation: Too much work for too little reward, we'd rather work on / worry about other stuff. Not THAT big of a deal though.

[Clarensee]

@bek0hmsford Of course.

[TheRindill]

Females can't have strong personality? I understand that making only one character (gender) would make the experience tighter and more meaningful.

[TruelyHypnotic]

I don't see what the problem is they should of just said they visioned a male character.

[HomeRunChips]

Im just wondering, can you shoot and walk at the same time ?

[soldier4670]

If Adam was based on JJB... then Eva would be based on that woman...right?

This is sexist, women deserve a character! Can't we wear bikinis to increase persuasion? I'd love to see Adam in a bikini. I mean, we already get to see his ass when we climb ladders, so why not!?

Let's hope the gameplay matches the interesting story/character development.

[ThePhilosophersAbyss]

The Mass Effect series let's you choose gender and the dialogue for both was fine. So what she said is a stupid argument for why they didn't give a choice of gender.

[valleyshrew]

@ThePhilosophersAbyss It's not a stupid argument. It's feasible if you spend a lot of time and money on it. They don't want to waste their time on that when 82% of mass effect players choose the male character (even though the female voice actor is much better). Instead, they spend that time and money better developing the male character. It's a waste of time really and makes the game inconsistent. I played ME1 male and ME2 female and I felt it ruined the integrity of the writing.

[ThePhilosophersAbyss]

@valleyshrew

1rst. Where did you get 82%? 2nd. A lot of people will play the other gender 2nd time through. 3rd. They've been working on this game since at least 2004. They've had plenty of time to work on a game that probably has less content than other games, like ME, that took much less time to make.

Plus most game companies are cashing in on women gamers. So again. Her argument and your is stupid. I think these guys are just inexperienced. Simple as that.

[valleyshrew]

@ThePhilosophersAbyss 1. From Bioware, can you not use google? Try "82% mass effect". 2. Playing multiple times corrupts the narrative. 3. ME2 has very little content for an RPG, particularly lacking in level design & interactive variety. Doesn't matter if they've had plenty of time, it's better spent on other things than redundantly pandering to females. Why can't you be a female in uncharted, god of war, gears of war, halo, etc.? Are they all inexperienced developers? No, you're being stupid.

[ThePhilosophersAbyss]

@valleyshrew

All games you listed aren't RPG's. that's why it's not important to be a female in those games. These guys are advertising this as an action RPG. In RPG's it's important to allow as many RPG oppertunaties as possible. That includes gender rolls. They're watering down this game to make a quick buck on a classic game. Wait and see. this game will get bad reviews. And yes I can use google. Maybe I don't have a hard-on for this game like you dickhead.

[valleyshrew]

@ThePhilosophersAbyss Deus Ex didn't let you be female. I have been extremely critical of DEHR on forums about the regenerating health, art style, cover and other things but regardless of major flaws it's still going to stand out as one of the most ambitious games of the year. You yourself said they've been working 7 years, how is that a "quick buck"? It isn't defined by an arbitrary genre. Females are more suited to fantasy rpgs. Learn polite discourse please, you're making a fool of yourself.

[ThePhilosophersAbyss]

@valleyshrew

And asking me a sarcastic question like "Do you know how to use google?," is polite discourse? Anyway. You're right. I shouldn't have called you out of your name. However, you could be a female in DEIW. Which was mentioned in this vid.

When they take that choice away, I do see it as a step backwards. And I think they've been taking so long to make this game because of inexperience. And they're trying to make a quick buck on their first project. And the AI already sucks.

[Overlai]

@ThePhilosophersAbyss I disagree. In Mass Effect people don't react to your gender much at all, in my experience. The point being driven here is that if they did two genders they would have also put a lot of work into getting the game to react to your gender, which games like ME just don't do.

[ThePhilosophersAbyss]

@Overlai

Your right in the sense that the dialogue for each gender wasn't really different from each other in ME. But I think they did a good job of designing the dialogue in such a way that it worked well with each gender. that's the point I was trying to make.:)

[Gamer1990100]

I remember the old Deus Ex where you can choose your race White, Black or Latino.

[curepaz]

@Gamer1990100 Don't forget the best choice - "sinister albino"

[Gamer1990100]

@curepaz Huh don't remember that one, unless it was a mod. BTW the "Nameless Mod" is the best mod out there.

[DoctorWeeTodd]

@curepaz I preferred "guy with horrific facial scar."