LogFAQs > #979626484

blackrider76 posted...

Bored and mentally checked out at work, so Ill bite this.

Unnecessarily is so vague that I cant fathom someone doing this legitimately except as a parody, like the South Park tying difficulty to skin color joke.

How is it vague? It's basically asking developers to think about how genders and gender traits are depicted in their game. And if it's necessary to depict them in that way.

Im sure some games exist where picking female = easy mode or some shit, but it usually isnt even a feminist issue at that point. Like how Yoshi (and Nabbit?) fans have to contend with being stuck in easy mode for Mario Wonder.

These aren't at all what they mean though. It's not about easy modes. It's more along the lines of creating female characters that people want to play just as much as male characters.

This is largely irrelevant if youre not going for realism anyway. And it brings us back to the issue of stuff like Mortal Kombats women cant dress skimpy anymore, men can still be half-naked though, and you can still snap anyones spine and theyll walk it off if it wasnt a fatality.

Women can still dress skimpy. They're just saying to make sure that it makes sense for the character. If you're making a battle hardened knight that protects people from monsters and bandits, then it doesn't make sense having the woman wear a metal bikini while her male counterparts wear full suits of armor.

Fire Emblem Engage is a good example of this. There are characters that dress skimpy, but the female knights, who are supposed to have good defense, still have full armor. Because it makes sense for those characters.

DOOM 2016 already showed how you can still achieve emotion from a silent, faceless MC.

And that's fine for a fast paced fps, but for more narrative focused games, strong, silent and stoic isn't always the type of male lead that you'll want as the center of the story.

And again, all of these things are suggestions to developers to help them avoid falling into these trappings. It's not forbidding any developers from doing it.

The page on Microsoft's site is called "Help Customers Feel Seen" and it has other points it covers besides what you guys are getting upset over. Such as:

Questions to Consider

• Are you telling new stories or sharing new perspectives within the product experience?
• Do all of your characters/player depictions look the same?
• What steps have you taken to ensure characters are represented respectfully and authentically?
• How have you validated assumptions you have made about your audience to check for blind spots or unintended stereotypes?
• Would you feel proud to show a member of a community how their culture/character is depicted within your experience?
• How are the wide range of customers depicted within your products, content portfolio and communications?
• What process have you used to validate how different groups of people or cultures are represented in your experience?