Horizons Gender Distribution, an Elite: Dangerous Question

[Mike Syron]

My greatest pleasure in playing Elite (and Privateer, and other space games before it) comes from living the fantasy of a spacefarer. I love trading, exploring and the occasional pew pew. I love the openness and un-scripted nature of the background environment.

Aye. Well, I've become more a of missions guy lately and I would like to see a bit more content to run into. But aye.

Do you roleplay/write your own story in your head while you play? And is there a difference between women and men in this area?

Depends, if I'm busy while playing then not so much but there are still moments that catch me. On the other hand I'm wasting a lot of time by just flying around and driving on planets and little rocks too and this is really the time when it's all about imagination and the little, fascinating feeling "to be out there". I don't RP so far (as in active roleplaying with others) but I'm writing a funny little story about my "alter-ego" in ED for the sake of it, you can find it on INARA. But beware: Mike isn't a Neil Armstrong type of guy who's about to go where nobody else went before, he's actually the opposite, just some guy who tries to get along while having a lot of trouble doing so.

 

[Chrystoph]

It is RP in so far as that I am inside a character's head, but not RP with anyone.

You can read it in the URL in my sig...

 

[Marra Morgan]

When it comes to taboo topics however, like slavery and kidnapping
that sense kicks back in.
We all know what is likely to happen to the different genders.

Are you suggesting that women are more or less likely to roleplay and write about taboos?

Personally, I love approaching taboos - it's where the real challenge of writing and RP'ing is!
Trying to make them convincing enough to repulse or intrigue the reader, but not going overboard into the realms of gratuitous and needlessly graphic detail is a tricky balancing act!

My own character Marra is an outlaw and I write her logs from her perspective, which means I have to get into the head of a sadistic, amoral drug-abuser with a penchant for asphyxiaphilia! It's very difficult at times, but it's much more of a satisfying challenge than "Went into a RES, shot some pirates, cashed in, logged off"

Again, I don't think it's a gender thing, more of a matter of individual taste.

 

[Julio Montega]

Are you suggesting that women are more or less likely to roleplay and write about taboos?

Personally, I love approaching taboos - it's where the real challenge of writing and RP'ing is!
Trying to make them convincing enough to repulse or intrigue the reader, but not going overboard into the realms of gratuitous and needlessly graphic detail is a tricky balancing act!

My own character Marra is an outlaw and I write her logs from her perspective, which means I have to get into the head of a sadistic, amoral drug-abuser with a penchant for asphyxiaphilia! It's very difficult at times, but it's much more of a satisfying challenge than "Went into a RES, shot some pirates, cashed in, logged off"

Again, I don't think it's a gender thing, more of a matter of individual taste.

Wasn't suggesting anything there.
It just is an observation, that i as male,
drift towards amorality when gaming, unless
taboos are involved.
That might simply be based on education and the moral values
that are branded into us since birth.

To give you an example,
i hardly care for the gender of my ingame victim,
nor do i care for the gender of hostiles in role playing situations
or pen and paper games, however, as soon as taboos are involved,
that amorality vanishes to polar morality.

The most polar slavery stereotype would be the male getting forced into labour
and female into the pleasure trade. That is where the certainty of moral branding
kicks in and urges one to act, even in video games.

I read a lot of fantasy stuff in my earlier years,
and my observation is actually the other way around to your comment.
Female authors seem more likely to approach the difficult topics of taboos,
while a lot of male authors skip that.

I wonder why, though.
I can and will agree on your last sentence,
personality and preference is more important,
than stereotypical gender based education.

To describe my ingame character you might look to these attributes i gave him:
- free thinker
- individualist
- independant
- pirate / explorer / adventurer
- oppositionist to traditional values and governments
- opportunist

 

[Jypson]

I identify as: a robot, beep-boop.

 

[Mike Syron]

Are you suggesting that women are more or less likely to roleplay and write about taboos?

Speaking of my own experiences I made so far I have to say that women actually tend to actively roleplay more than men, really. But a lot were socializers who created an alter-ego of themselves in the game which caused one or another RP related problem unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, please. It's just something I noted in other games, there were only a few really tough and special characters played by women while men always tended to have more "extrovert" and "aggressive" characters.

I got to know two, three really, really interesting characters that were played by women, pretty individual, pretty intense. They really had impressed me, playing with them forced me to stay focussed all the time, they were pretty subtile and smart. One of them played a male character in fact - why not? Male players were playing female characters too. MMORPGs are "Sodom and Gomorrah" in this regard.

 

[Ren Garris]

Are you suggesting that women are more or less likely to roleplay and write about taboos?

Personally, I love approaching taboos - it's where the real challenge of writing and RP'ing is!
Trying to make them convincing enough to repulse or intrigue the reader, but not going overboard into the realms of gratuitous and needlessly graphic detail is a tricky balancing act!

My own character Marra is an outlaw and I write her logs from her perspective, which means I have to get into the head of a sadistic, amoral drug-abuser with a penchant for asphyxiaphilia! It's very difficult at times, but it's much more of a satisfying challenge than "Went into a RES, shot some pirates, cashed in, logged off"

Again, I don't think it's a gender thing, more of a matter of individual taste.

You had me at asphyxiaphilia.

 

[Howard o Pato]

In my view, based on my experience with girls in games. No different in relation to the game play. Very players build a personality and this personality reflects your actions in the game. And a player man as much as a player woman, the moral act is in accordance with the convictions of his character he / she will kill murder, trafficking, trading slaves from all moral actions that fall within its competence.
Really I do not see any distinction, with the exception of a few jokes gender and sung sporadic. lol
A clear example are the stories told by Marra, which if compared to mine, for sure you would end up considering it much more man than me. It is concise and determined when she wants something go there and handle the acts outside the law and passes over who gets in his way. Rarely some character could influence their actions or change your mind as a strong woman who his character is. In dispute my character is weak and indecisive, you know what is right, but not meteria problems if not forced, it is highly influenced by a woman and ends up discovering and becoming a sentimental guy, he never piloted a ship in life, and so is the role play.


For the record. always play according to what I think my character fits, and often just randomly wandering the only space for thinking that this is what I would if you were sitting there in the cockpit, rarely the money itself.

 

[Susanna]

My! Women really are under represented! Guess FDEV don't consider it worth orientating the game in a direction that would appeal to women as well. A pity! That's a lot of potential customers lost!

 

[frostypaw]

My! Women really are under represented! Guess FDEV don't consider it worth orientating the game in a direction that would appeal to women as well. A pity! That's a lot of potential customers lost!

Such a lovely way with words.

Are you sure they've not tried? I mean your suggestion thread was, if I remember, that women needed an easy mode because you weren't like the testosterone crazed PvP men?

Quite aside from that, which goes beyond making pink biros, I'm not sure what more you wanted so it's suitable for women as that thread never really got to that - what would you want changed so the game was better for women?

 

[Marra Morgan]

My! Women really are under represented! Guess FDEV don't consider it worth orientating the game in a direction that would appeal to women as well. A pity! That's a lot of potential customers lost!

How would you suggest they do that?

 

[Asp Explorer]

I voted Male - but personally I identify as a trans-based microprocessorkin and anyone who argues otherwise is a hating emitter-follower who can only give negative feedback

 

[SG Cersed 1]

I'm a 38 year old male.

I've always been interested in sim games. Be it Mechwarrior, WW2 dog fights, WOT, hell I've even had a Gundam sim on Dreamcast. I've always been fascinated with scifi too. Not just Star Wars but all of the fun space movies of the 80's. The more I can get into a game the better. And this is one of the most immersive games I can get on Xbox. Not to mention I'm a big Star Trek/Star Wars fan.

This game makes me think of what's going on in the background of Star Wars a little.

 

[Teryd]

You selected 4 options. You're only allowed to select 1 from the poll. Please press back to return to the poll.

This thread is oppressing me

 

[Chrystoph]

My! Women really are under represented! Guess FDEV don't consider it worth orientating the game in a direction that would appeal to women as well. A pity! That's a lot of potential customers lost!

A therefore Daiquiri!

Women may or may not be under represented, an informal poll with voluntary participation of the forum populace, which is in itself a voluntary participation of the game populace, being inconclusive, but basing the statement that FDev doesn't care about its female players on this survey is a total non sequitur.

In a game where your primary "character" is a ship, the player's gender is not as germaine to the discussion unless you want to imply that we need space related activities that are "feminine".

 

[Becks]

A therefore Daiquiri!

Women may or may not be under represented, an informal poll with voluntary participation of the forum populace, which is in itself a voluntary participation of the game populace, being inconclusive, but basing the statement that FDev doesn't care about its female players on this survey is a total non sequitur.

In a game where your primary "character" is a ship, the player's gender is not as germaine to the discussion unless you want to imply that we need space related activities that are "feminine".

My ship's a she and I want YOU to respect that.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

unless you want to imply that we need space related activities that are "feminine".

We would finaly have reason to implement windscreen cleaning.


I will now run away as fast and far away as I can, good day everybody....

 

[EdzUp]

What drew you to THIS game in particular.

I've usually played strategy games, with the occasional dip into FPS, but I've always wanted to explore the galaxy in an open ended way.

Ive played Elite since 1984 when it came out, also played LOADS of different versions over the years and my favourite one was the Amiga version with the PC Elite+ a close second. Frontier and FFE didnt capture my imagination as much as Elite mainly because it was trying to be MUCH more than it was or should have been yeah there was a massive galaxy but ALL the extra races that make Elite quirky were gone. ED was supposed to be a new Elite game but currently it feels like Elite 0.25 loads removed and most still to come.

 

[Anson22]

My ship's a she and I want YOU to respect that.

All my ships are 'She' - even when they have male names.. It's a tradition ;-) IRL my old Cherokee was also a She and she definitely always got my respect! My wife will confirm that there were 2 Ladies in my life back then

 

[Kyokushin]

Girls, we are waiting for Your avatars at end of the season 2