Would it be weird to have more prominent female characters? (spoilers sort of)

[user8972]

I know my brother-in-law has difficulties getting attached to games featuring a main female character, but obviously WoW is completely different considering the amount of characters there are, combined with you being able to choose your gender, etc.

He needs to have more sex then.

[Fenixhart]

I'd ask why this is even a question but I forget where I am.

[pfbe]

Well, after reading OP's post, I have two points to make:
- there are a ton of male characters who don't get any special treatment. Vol'jin was warchief during the whole of WoD and that got him... a spot on the Garrison Level 3 cinematic and showing up at the start of the shipyard quest. Wow.
- Sylvannas has shown up a lot in the game. She was in the icecrown citadel 5-mans (for the Horde players, anyway), the whole Silverpine questing experience revolves around her, she's the new warbitch of the horde, etc.

to be honest, I quite enjoy the low-key characters, whereas the characters who get way too much screen time tend to grate on me - because when this game focuses too much on one storyline and a handful of characters, it stops being the open-world mmorpg where I'm just an adventurer discovering the world, and it becomes something else altogether less enjoyable.

[Sierra85]

Yrel should have been more important than what she ended up being, and she should have returned to our original timeline.

[Aleksej89]

Your question is the same as asking about the skin color of the prominent characters.
If "pixel" skin color matters to you then you will notice it and have issues with/against it.
If you do not care about skin color then you will be utterly oblivious to such things as "how many important NPCs were black skinned".

Many people do not care what sex or skin color a character is in a video game.
It does not even occur to us to count how many women or blacks or w/e is there in a game.
Games/books/paintings/music are all ART, and the artists should not be forced to falsely fabricate their visions just to keep some arbitrary statistics happy.

[minteK917]

The most powerful rogue on Azeroth and soon the most powerful Demon Hunter on Azeroth are Night elves women. I made them.

[Birgwow]

The reason why we're having male main characters is because there are mostly males playing this game. So for every female who complains that they're not represented or can't identify with the males, there are far more males who will do the same. Personally I'm not bothered either way, as long as they're diverse in their characteristics.

As for the OT, that's Alodi in the black cube. They even mentioned her by name in the film.

[Heffladin]

Isn't the "it's the demographic" argument kind of BS, considering that if we actually had more characters from another demographic, they would be more intrested in actually playing? It'd be nice if video games in general featured female characters, as that would draw in a more even crowd of people, so straight people too could find someone with their intrest.

[GrinningMan]

You know what? Sure.

Make some awesome female characters. But there's a caveat.

Don't replace a male character in doing so. Make them work together, like they do in the real world, jackass.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

But we already do! Jaina, Sylvanas (the Windrunners at large, actually), Aegwynn, Tyrande, Lilian Voss, Vanessa Vancleef, Y'rel, Alexstraza & Ysera, Sinestra, Onyxia, Chromie, Moira Thaurissan, Lady Liadrin, Azshara, Maiev, Therazane, Freya, Elune, Anveena (if you've read the manga, in-game she's quite hidden), Taretha, Lady Vashj, Draka, Garona, Aysa Cloudsinger, Li Li, Blood Queen Lana'thel, Magatha Grimtotem and probably a few I can't think/find.

World of Warcraft is very strong with its diversity of characters.

[Teaon]

female characters are less intimidating as villians, and less interesting as heroes, one can argue why, but i dont feel a deep connection with a female hero/villian.

now imagine darth vader as female, or arthas, or sauron, i am not saying they wont fit, but history tells that all the awesome characters and the well known being males


its just a game anyway, we shouldn't really be bothering ourself with sex/religion/gay stuff in a game

[Adoxe]

Queen Azshara's time will come. But no I don't really care about the gender of lore characters as long as they serve their purpose well.

[Heffladin]

female characters are less intimidating as villians, and less interesting as heroes, one can argue why, but i dont feel a deep connection with a female hero/villian.

now imagine darth vader as female, or arthas, or sauron, i am not saying they wont fit, but history tells that all the awesome characters and the well known being males


its just a game anyway, we shouldn't really be bothering ourself with sex/religion/gay stuff in a game

So, it's them being male that made them awesome characters? Sex can make a difference but in an entierly fictional world that might not matter at all. History is no real indicator either due to most creators who could get spotlight in the past have been predominantly males, and certainly not necessarily for their superior ability.

[Xires]

Out of curiosity, would it bother any of you? Obviously not blatantly thrown into our faces as the "Look it's a lady character!" character, but something that blends with the story well.

Every expansion so far has featured only male main villains (Illidan, Kil'Jaeden Arthas, Deathwing, Garrosh, Gul'dan, more Gul'dan) and mostly main roles (Thrall, Varian, Garrosh, more Thrall, Anduin more Garrrosh, Khadgar???) that could have been given to characters who have high presence in many arcs (aka Jaina, Vereesa, Sylvannas, Tyrande) are given to male characters.

Even Kadghar, who absolutely no one cared about since the original Warcraft game, who wasn't present in WoW other than being an NPC in Shattrath city during TBC, is featured in pretty much every cinematic now, harbringer series comic thingy, and was given an equivalent more prominent role than Jaina, taking her place as the peaceful neutral saving the world dude (Before the writers butchered her and made her cray cray obviously).

Disclaimer: Obviously I don't mean that female characters are absent, but they're usually just put here and there to please the fans, and then featured in little to no cinematics other than popping up in the the ones that show x male character doing his shenanigans.

I'm aware that there are many female characters in high positions (Sylvannas being warchief, Jaina being the leader of the KT, Tyrande being the leader of the night elves, etc.), but this is mostly to discuss their positions in the cinematics, opening cinematics, last boss, interactive long quest chains (such as the start of WoD in tanaan) etc. as the main character, not the side buddy or the "occasional appearance".

I know my brother-in-law has difficulties getting attached to games featuring a main female character, but obviously WoW is completely different considering the amount of characters there are, combined with you being able to choose your gender, etc.

Thoughts?

RANDOM off topic question: Who was that lady in the cube during the WC movie? Is that supposed to be Aegwynn or Alodi? *scratches head*

I think you people put a little too much emphasis into gender rather then good characters/story.
Their are plenty of strong females characters in WoW as is. Wanna add a female char/villain? Fine as long as it is in good taste and part of great story telling but doing it for the sake of doing it is....wrong.

Also for every female that actually plays WoW their are likely about 1,000 males and males tend to identify better with male hero's/villains.

[Birgwow]

Isn't the "it's the demographic" argument kind of BS, considering that if we actually had more characters from another demographic, they would be more intrested in actually playing? It'd be nice if video games in general featured female characters, as that would draw in a more even crowd of people, so straight people too could find someone with their intrest.

Not really. Since we know from the start that males play more video games with violence in them, that's the demographic to begin with. I doubt they would get more money by pandering more to a female audience, else they would've already done it. Sure, they could alter the game to be more "female friendly", but then they'd lose their male subscribers.

[Grythletubs]

I've noticed many sort of skipped the point, absolutely there are many strong female characters in WoW and that's awesome.

What I'm referring to is their presence as a leading character of an expansion, such as Khadgar was for WoD (even though no one spoke of him til then), or Thrall was for Cata. The Legion opening cinematic for example opened with Varian blabbering about his son, fighting the war, etc., then having Sylvannas pop up.
It would have been cool for a change to have Sylvannas be the one to open the expansion.
That being said, would it be too hard for Blizzard to have a female character as main the face of an expansion event, raid, cinematic or story (i.e harbringer series-like)?

All of these strong female characters have never showed up as the main influential character throughout an expansion (Such as Thrall, Garrosh, Khadghar, the warlords, Varian, who pretty much took the spotlight as MAIN characters during entire expansions in every cinematic/main event)

- - - Updated - - -

You know what? Sure.

Make some awesome female characters. But there's a caveat.

Don't replace a male character in doing so. Make them work together, like they do in the real world, jackass.

Absolutely, so far it's only been "AH LOOK AT THIS DUDE and his side chick".

I'm not asking for ONLY female focus, no need to call me names by the way.

- - - Updated - - -

female characters are less intimidating as villians, and less interesting as heroes, one can argue why, but i dont feel a deep connection with a female hero/villian.

now imagine darth vader as female, or arthas, or sauron, i am not saying they wont fit, but history tells that all the awesome characters and the well known being males


its just a game anyway, we shouldn't really be bothering ourself with sex/religion/gay stuff in a game

How are female villains/characters less intimidating?

If Darth Vader was written as female, I would be ok with it.
My point is that there are already many well-written female characters in WoW, who never get screen time as the MAIN character of the event/expansion/cinematic.

[Deleted]

I rather have a good Charakter with a strong Background, and a fitting Lore than a token Woman Charakter. I don't care about the identity stuff at all. I grew up playing Video Games with mainly Men as the Protagonist, and still I could relate to the Character and put myself into his shoes.

Not saying I would hate the Idea of more female Characters... it just has to fit the story, should fit the Vision of the Writing Staff, and be believable. Not just a Man with Boobs, like most Video female Characters end up. Nothing is more boring.... Women and Men are different, that should be embraced rather than denied. And it gives a compelling story device.

Just don't put token Characters (May it be Sex, Race, Sexuality etc) into the Universe, that just sucks. Just look at Marvel.

[Grythletubs]

I rather have a good Charakter with a strong Background, and a fitting Lore than a token Woman Charakter. I don't care about the identity stuff at all. I grew up playing Video Games with mainly Men as the Protagonist, and still I could relate to the Character and put myself into his shoes.

Not saying I would hate the Idea of more female Characters... it just has to fit the story, should fit the Vision of the Writing Staff, and be believable. Not just a Man with Boobs, like most Video female Characters end up. Nothing is more boring.... Women and Men are different, that should be embraced rather than denied. And it gives a compelling story device.

Just don't put token Characters (May it be Sex, Race, Sexuality etc) into the Universe, that just sucks. Just look at Marvel.

100% agreed, but the thing is there are many female characters that Blizzard could use as prominent main faces who fit the story perfectly, but choose not to, as I've mentioned.

[Deleted]

100% agreed, but the thing is there are many female characters that Blizzard could use as prominent main faces who fit the story perfectly, but choose not to, as I've mentioned.

What about Yrel? I fkin loved how we got to watch that character grow from an enslaved priest to a powerful vindicator paladin. She also has a big part in the Alliance in-game cutscenes. A shame she'll most likely be on ice in Draenor forever.

I think Blizzard are pretty good with female characters in general (despite a few misses).

[Keny]

Seriously think that we have good gender equality in the game, lore , and everything around it.