darkSpyro

That doesn't matter in my book. Just because all the girls are strong (which is great, don't get me wrong there) doesn't negate that we've been introduced to over twenty new male characters and only two new females. That's not okay.

Well Transexuality would be difficult to explain to little kids

Read some of the other posts here. The point's been brought up many times that the Swaplanders don't have gendered bottom parts so there's absolutely no reason the top halves couldn't have been female.

Bi/Unisexualitys weird to kids... They will also ask is this a boy or a girl and their parrents won't have an answer. If they do then you get the explaining boy and girl swapping again so the problem is not avoided, just another way of getting to it.

As has been stated many, many times by now, there are responses made to all of these arguments, multiple ones, elsewhere in the thread. I highly recommend reading them.

Quote: jet-vac6000

Yeah but Razz, I think your forgetting that the females are some of the most OP Skylanders
Ninjini, Hex, Stealth Elf, the list goes on

Not for much longer it doesn't, because you've almost listed them all.

Quote: jet-vac6000

Well Transexuality would be difficult to explain to little kids

How would it even come up?

Quote: ninja9351

Bi/Unisexualitys weird to kids...

As more people are comfortable with expressing themselves, perhaps it's something they should get comfortable with?

Now that I think about it, the problem of parents flipping doo doos at the beings of Activision would only be if the bodies were displayed stereotypically. If they were robot legs or other strange legs that wouldn't show sign of a gender, there'd probably be no problem. Just don't put anything too girlish and the parents will probably sit back and enjoy the ride.

I can understand the lack of female swappies. I totally agree with some of your points, Razz, but some people just don't want to do anything that can be taken as controversial. Better safe than sorry, as the old saying goes.

I do believe that there should be more female skylanders, though. If only for more variation and girl power.

Mabey there is a next Swap Force game with female swapers???

Quote: Takadox360

Mabey there is a next Swap Force game with female swapers???

Swap forces will be exactly like giants. They'll be a one time gimmick and than never be reposed and soon be left to become omega rare figures.

Guys, chillax, if they want to keep the majority of their girl fans they will end up evening out the amount of boy and girl skylanders. I agree on the fact that they need to add more girl skylanders, but, parents don't want their little 4-year-old kids asking about the whole cross-gender thing. So, the safest bet was to just not make any female swappers, because a lot of parents wouldn't buy the game for their children, thus dropping their sales of the game, thus dropping their profits, thus dropping their pay checks. They are doing this to save their rich butts. If I had it my way, I would do the whole only boy/boy and girl/girl thing, but, they didn't want to risk it.

^ Agree
But why arnent they making more female core landers?? If they cant make female Swapers,then they should make more female corelanders.There are just 2 of them revealed and that isnt much.Thats 6.2% if they are the only one.

Honestly, taking the "safe" route is what kills a franchise. Skylanders itself was a huge risk and it paid off. Swap Force is trying to play it safe and it seems like a big number of players are now not interested (not just because of the lack in female characters). I hope they don't keep this up in the future and learn something from this. It's kind of ridiculous to cater to a small minority (the parents who would complain about female Swappers) when, as this thread has demonstrated, most parents and kids really don't care and wouldn't have cared in the long run. As it stands, ActiVision is now losing potentially a much larger audience by actively excluding mothers, daughters, and female players with their male biased/skewed character selection.

Quote: Razz

As has been stated many, many times by now, there are responses made to all of these arguments, multiple ones, elsewhere in the thread. I highly recommend reading them.

Stop saying that as a response. I read them, I'm restating it.
But seriously, I wouldn't want to explain that, it would be Kaos...
I mean they would ask, kids ask questions, a lot. Even if they looked gender less they would ask for sure. And what about when they do the voices.
Also with bi/unisexuallity being a political issue in the stats it could result in very bad publicity for Activision.

I'll stop saying that when you actually do prove that you've read more of this thread, because you're a bit late to the party (again) and other people have responded to you. :D

Everything I could say or wanted to say here has been said, either by me or (many) other posters. Still keeping this thread open, though, because we've been having good discussion when we aren't being asked to repeat ourselves by folks who only read the first post (and kind of missed the point of it). :)

no matter how much you complain about it, it's not going to make a difference. Activition and Toys for Bob and anybody else involved in swap force are probably not going to change it. it's not going to help venting on here. sorry, thank you for playing, have a nice day

It won't make a difference for Swap Force, of course not. That game is finished and only a couple months from release. But this may make a difference in future games. Nobody can know if something is a problem if it isn't brought up. A lot of people have been willing to make excuses for Vicarious Visions dropping the ball on this issue or just swept it under the rug, but a lot of people aren't willing to accept those reasons for the least female friendly game in Skylanders to date. Someone needed to bring it up, so I did.

I mean, really. It's 2013. Having a gigantic horde of new guys in a game marketed towards all genders and only two female characters is ridiculous, especially in light of wide spread and very public instances of sexual harassment and female exclusion coming out of the gaming community and industry in droves. This is a problem, a big one, and it needs to be called out and fixed in future titles.

Quote: Razz

So far, I'm just seeing a lot of excuses from all sides here. If the Swaplanders were actually neutral, they wouldn't be male either. So far, no one's really addressing the exclusion of half the human population with this decision. And I did present a very easy fix for the problem in my first post. Just because there are a few female characters in the game (and far too few of those as is, but that's a different subject) doesn't negate that VV made a choice to be lazy and exclude all the little girls who might have wanted a Swaplander they can relate to.

As for the transgender issue... I've held back on commenting on some of the nasty things I see being spread around on these forums about that. They're toys and cartoons. It's only an issue if someone is going to be gross about it.

Most Skylanders are male because the toy industry is about fifty years behind the culture (see: no toys of female characters from Avatar, way more male characters in Skylanders than female, almost all protagonists in popular fiction being male...). Skylanders, while it does have some good female characters, is doing the bare minimum of inclusivity on this issue. It bugs me and I'm pretty sure it bugs a lot of other people who just haven't said anything yet.

Now I'm extra disappointed that everyone would rather make excuses for a pretty problematic decision than think more about what's going on here.

Also, don't care if it's been brought up in other topics; who's got time to sift through everything and find that? This is a big enough issue that it deserves its own topic.

Ok so only an issue if people being it up... Um we are back to the start here... I think we all knew that...

I never heard anything about the characters being transgendral, because if they were we run it to the same problem again...

Quote: Razz

Quote: Ninpire

I don't really understand how this could make someone not so happy, I mean like all they did was not want males and females to swap halves so they made them one gender. And since the swap force was like a little military group, do you really think that all of them would girls? Also, I don't think a whole lot of girls would want to go save the world and taking injuries along the way. :/ I would be happy with the fact that none of the female characters really suck

Whoa, way to spit on every woman in the military who's seen active combat, dude. And every female firefighter and police officer who chose their dangerous, violent careers.

Wild has done a great job getting at one of the things I'm aiming at. Go up there and read that post.

If I played Smash Bros., I might care at the lack of female characters in it, yes. I do, in fact, take issue with Nintendo's refusal to acknowledge the strong role of women in society in general, but that's another topic.

I'm female. I like to play characters I can relate to, which are extremely few even today. Marketing so heavily to male players when females make up about half of the playing audience isn't okay anymore. Women and girls play games and they deserve representation just as much as men do, but they aren't getting it. That's not acceptable in the 21st century.

As for the transgender issue... Kids are going to ask that anyway. They're going to want to know why there are no girls and when Dad or Mom tells them, then they're going to ask more questions. Trans* people exist, these are questions society needs to be asking (and will ask) anyway, and the media will manufacture whatever controversy about games they want regardless. All I'm still seeing is justification and excuses being made for the exclusion of female players in the new type of Skylander.

But, on the bright side, I'll be spending a lot less on Swap Force than I have on any other Skylanders game, and I'm not going to be the only one.

I agree with you saying that he trashed all femals there but still about the Moms and Dads telling them they'll probably just say I don't know, not actually tell them about the transgender thing.

Quote: Razz

That's very true. I'd say gender equality is near the top of the list of importance, though. Half the world's population is female; we can't progress as a species if we are continuing to exclude or limit an entire half of our human resources. And gender equality starts with teaching kids that boys are not better than girls or vice versa. We've got a very long way to go with that (as the existence of this post indicates).

Yes men and women are equal and no we can't progress I agree with you there but this is not a problem that's going to limit us progressing as a species...

Quote: Razz

Seiki: It'd be way fun to RP with you if I have a chance. Feel free to PM me about that.

To you and HIR both: I do understand on the surface why Vicarious Visions made their choice, but I don't agree with it at all and I think there could have been a better solution to this whole thing if anyone on the team had considered it all more carefully. As for the conservativeness of the US...I'm hoping that continues to change, because it holds us back in a lot of ways. But that's just me.

Skitskat: I'm surprised you, as a female, aren't more concerned about women's issues. Just because it hasn't affected you personally that you are aware of (and it has affected you) doesn't mean it's not a concern for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Yes, this is a video game for kids, but games teach kids a lot about what they will be doing and be like as adults in society.

My point still stands, though: It's ridiculous that female gamers are excluded here, as in so much else. At the very least, all the Swappers could have been women warriors. That would have been aaaaaawesome.

The reason Skitskats not Madison because she doesn't take it personally...

No femal gamers aren't excluded here, they are just included else where...

Quote: Razz

So far, I've only seen two new female Skylanders this round, which isn't any more than usual. I think the first game had a much better number of female characters by this point in its announcement.

From what I recall, Skylanders is marketed towards kids, not boys in particular. And since it appeals hugely to adults (parents and collectors), that 45% female demographic of gamers is still very important to ActiVision. I see just as many little girls gathered around the Skylanders displays at stores as I do boys.

Yeah, they're playing it safe, but since when has that ever done anyone much good in the entertainment industry? My faith in Vicarious Visions as a producer of Skylanders games has gone way down. I'm now just going to wait and see what Toys for Bob does with the fourth game.

Yes the honestly should have included more normal femal characters but who knows, Pop Thorn's probably female and we still have a bunch to go. Zoo Lou looks like it could be female.

Well yes marketed towards kids. I'll bet that while the adult % is 55/45 for kids it's more like 65/35. Just an assumption.

There playing it safe because of politics...

Toys For Bob probably would have done the same...

Quote: Razz

Hooray, I'm not the only one who imagines certain canonically male characters as female! Hot Dog, at least, is always a girl to me. Eye Brawl, too.

I think the "males are physically stronger" thing is less of a big deal than it's made out to be these days. There are female marines and armed services members who have now passed all the requirements for male members. Same with many female firefighters.

As far as everyone making male protagonists because it's easier/expected, there is very strong evidence to suggest that this has happened not because of consumer interest but because it's what marketers and publishers think will sell better. Even if this is the easy or expected route, it's something that is being challenged and needs to keep being challenged in gaming and other forms of media. When half of your consumer base is female, you do yourself a disservice by only marketing to the much smaller percentage which is teenage males.

I know about 3 girls that are probably stronger than 75% of the boys in our class. So no the strength factors not the reason for this.

Yes while the protagonists and the interest thing is valid, think of it this way,
Boys play girl characters and think nothing of it so can't girls play boy characters and be fine?


There how's that for reading the topic? That's the first page right there...

Sorry for double post character limit thing...

Hooray! :)

The only problem with girls playing boy characters is that girls are almost always playing boy characters at all times, while boys almost never play girl characters because there simply aren't any in over 90% of games (and, no, that is not a made up statistic or a guess). That's nowhere near equality and that's something that needs to be addressed more in gaming than it has been.

That was the only thing that really stood out to me in your post since other things did get addressed on page 2 of the thread.

I actually don’t think that there should be an arbitrary 50/50 gender split in the characters. I don’t want to put any limits on the designers at all.
I just think they should make cool imaginative characters – and by limiting the Swappers to male characters, they’ve limited the scope of what they could be creating.

And I also disagree with Razz when it comes to girls playing with male characters and the idea that Swapforce will alienate female players. As she herself pointed out, female gamers are already used to playing male characters. I mean, it sucks there are less female options, but I don’t expect that it will put many female gamers off.
Even with the current roster my older niece (aged 7) has two favourite characters and they are both male (Thumpback and Eyebrawl). Clearly if the characters are engaging, gender doesn’t matter. My younger niece (4) does prefer females, but she will be using her favorate baby bird (Sonic Boom) no matter which game her older sister is playing.

I think the biggest shame about the male/female ratio in Swapforce is less a gender issue and more that it just makes the new figures look fairly… same-y. There is also a lack of ‘creatures’ this round, most are male humanoids, which mean we have a pretty monotonous parade of beast-men with little of the choice that we enjoyed in SSA/SG. A few more females in there would have helped add a little variety.
I mean, I understand when it comes to Swappers they needed to keep a somewhat humanoid shape, but Riptide, Grim Creeper, Fryno, Bumble Blast, Scorp and Zoo Lou are all beast-men too. None of those are Swappers, and any of them could have been female, adding some much needed variety to the lineup.

Lastly, I think that’s it’s important to acknowledge that while the ratio accross the series is overwhelmingly male and Swapforce specifically is disappointingly monotone when it comes to gender, Skylanders as a franchise is still more inclusive than most other games.
Rather than saying, “You suck, I’m never playing you again”, we should be saying, “Hey, it was a nice start… you’ve stumbled a bit here, but we believe you can do better and we want to encourage you to do so”. Sort of. Okay, maybe you really need to say, “TFB did great, and you should encourage Vv to suck less”, but the point I'm trying to make is that tone and context make a difference.
It seems counterproductive to slam a series that is making a token effort (and I’ll admit that in SF the effort is token). Instead, encourage the one’s making a small effort to do better and slam the ones that aren’t even trying.

Quote: Razz

Hooray!

The only problem with girls playing boy characters is that girls are almost always playing boy characters at all times, while boys almost never play girl characters because there simply aren't any in over 90% of games (and, no, that is not a made up statistic or a guess). That's nowhere near equality and that's something that needs to be addressed more in gaming than it has been.

That was the only thing that really stood out to me in your post since other things did get addressed on page 2 of the thread.

I couldn't agree more about that, but the thing that's nice about Skylanders is that girls can buy what they want, and in Skylanders, they don't have much of an indipendent role so there's not of a difference. Unless you care about the way they talk, there's not to terribly much of a difference. I suppose that was Activisions thought... I suppose the look but I mean with these characters being cartoons it's not as obvious.

Quote: Tel Prydain

I actually don’t think that there should be an arbitrary 50/50 gender split in the characters. I don’t want to put any limits on the designers at all.
I just think they should make cool imaginative characters – and by limiting the Swappers to male characters, they’ve limited the scope of what they could be creating.

And I also disagree with Razz when it comes to girls playing with male characters and the idea that Swapforce will alienate female players. As she herself pointed out, female gamers are already used to playing male characters. I mean, it sucks there are less female options, but I don’t expect that it will put many female gamers off.
Even with the current roster my older niece (aged 7) has two favourite characters and they are both male (Thumpback and Eyebrawl). Clearly if the characters are engaging, gender doesn’t matter. My younger niece (4) does prefer females, but she will be using her favorate baby bird (Sonic Boom) no matter which game her older sister is playing.

I think the biggest shame about the male/female ratio in Swapforce is less a gender issue and more that it just makes the new figures look fairly… same-y. There is also a lack of ‘creatures’ this round, most are male humanoids, which mean we have a pretty monotonous parade of beast-men with little of the choice that we enjoyed in SSA/SG. A few more females in there would have helped add a little variety.
I mean, I understand when it comes to Swappers they needed to keep a somewhat humanoid shape, but Riptide, Grim Creeper, Fryno, Bumble Blast, Scorp and Zoo Lou are all beast-men too. None of those are Swappers, and any of them could have been female, adding some much needed variety to the lineup.

Lastly, I think that’s it’s important to acknowledge that while the ratio accross the series is overwhelmingly male and Swapforce specifically is disappointingly monotone when it comes to gender, Skylanders as a franchise is still more inclusive than most other games.
Rather than saying, “You suck, I’m never playing you again”, we should be saying, “Hey, it was a nice start… you’ve stumbled a bit here, but we believe you can do better and we want to encourage you to do so”. Sort of. Okay, maybe you really need to say, “TFB did great, and you should encourage Vv to suck less”, but the point I'm trying to make is that tone and context make a difference.
It seems counterproductive to slam a series that is making a token effort (and I’ll admit that in SF the effort is token). Instead, encourage the one’s making a small effort to do better and slam the ones that aren’t even trying.

I agree. except for the second sentence of the 1st paragraph.

I more or less am on the same page with Tel and Ninja here. I've been a bit unclear; I don't necessarily want a 50/50 ratio of male to female Skylanders (though that would be awesome and probably mean that I'd fallen into another universe :D), just something better than two females and over twenty males (so far) in Swap Force. And I definitely am not and have not said that I will never play another Skylanders game because of this, this is just one of the bigger reasons why I will not purchase Swap Force (I do have other reasons).

For the record, part of what I loved most about SSA and SG was seeing that girls like Stealth Elf were not only included but given high visibility and great, strong canon back stories when those games came out. That's part of why seeing what's coming out with Swap Force so far is such a tremendous let down, at least for me.

I wouldn't say that Swapforce is a let-down for me, but there is something about it that's just a little 'off'. And that is likely just Vv being the headliner this time rather than TFB.
I mean I love some of the designs and hate others - but that was true of SSA as well (Whamshell, Zook, Boomer and Shroomboom are just awful, awful designs). And some of the SSF figures look great (both the girls look pretty exceptional). But even if SSF is great, I’m still glad that TFB will be back for Sky 4.

I’m not sure how many people have played a lot of Call for Duty, but Treyarch and Infinity Ward have been sharing that series for ages now, much like TFB and Vv are now sharing Skylanders. Both developers build off each other’s work while maintaining their own quite distinctive flavour.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we seem the same with Skylanders – I have no doubt that some will like TFB games, some will like Vv games and some will take as much as they can get.
Having said that, you should totally get the starter pack and then blast through it with your SSA/SG Spice Girl crew.

Haha, Spice Girl crew. :D The SF starter pack just isn't worth the investment for me (especially given that I don't even have Giants yet). I'm mostly in it for the toys and I haven't seen any from SF that I really like besides Star Strike (Roller Brawl is fun if only because I can't shake the notion that she's the magical love child of Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen :D). There's just something about this series of figures that looks off to me in general, like they're being made of a cheaper material (it is in all likelihood just that the ones we've seen have been made of a harder plastic).

As for character designs in general... There weren't any in SSA or SG that I hated, just some I was indifferent towards. But with SSF I can honestly say I really dislike the designs of almost all of them so far. :/ Even the reposes of some of my old favorites aren't sitting well with me (still not sure about Ninja Stealth Elf, and she's my favorite Skylander forever).

Quote: Tel Prydain

I wouldn't say that Swapforce is a let-down for me, but there is something about it that's just a little 'off'. And that is likely just Vv being the headliner this time rather than TFB.
I mean I love some of the designs and hate others - but that was true of SSA as well (Whamshell, Zook, Boomer and Shroomboom are just awful, awful designs). And some of the SSF figures look great (both the girls look pretty exceptional). But even if SSF is great, I’m still glad that TFB will be back for Sky 4.

I’m not sure how many people have played a lot of Call for Duty, but Treyarch and Infinity Ward have been sharing that series for ages now, much like TFB and Vv are now sharing Skylanders. Both developers build off each other’s work while maintaining their own quite distinctive flavour.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we seem the same with Skylanders – I have no doubt that some will like TFB games, some will like Vv games and some will take as much as they can get.
Having said that, you should totally get the starter pack and then blast through it with your SSA/SG Spice Girl crew.

OMG, I now have the desire to get 5 girl skylanders and nickname them so I have a "Scary Spice" (Hex), "Sporty Spice" (Rollerbrawl), "Baby Spice" (Sonic Boom), "Ginger Spice" (Sprocket), and "Posh Spice" (Flashwing or Star Strike).

Quote: Razz

The SF starter pack just isn't worth the investment for me (especially given that I don't even have Giants yet). I'm mostly in it for the toys and I haven't seen any from SF that I really like besides Star Strike

Haven't got giants yet?
Haven't got giants yet?!
Of its 16 new characters, 4 were female (Chill, Ninjini, Sprocket, Flashwing). That's 1/4 the new roster! More if you count Jade, Polar and Scarlet!

Counter point to this whole thread, with a unprecedented percentage of new female characters, feminist gamers apparently STILL didn’t buy Giants… so why would they include female characters in SSF? (That’s hyperbole obviously )

Seriously though, Activision only win if you buy all the new characters. Buying the starter pack and only the starter pack just lets you get more use out of the toys you already own. Best Buy is selling the Starter Packs for $34.99 with free shipping this week: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/se...s&st=skylanders
You know what you need to do!

Quote: Razz

As for character designs in general... There weren't any in SSA or SG that I hated, just some I was indifferent towards. But with SSF I can honestly say I really dislike the designs of almost all of them so far. :/ Even the reposes of some of my old favorites aren't sitting well with me (still not sure about Ninja Stealth Elf, and she's my favorite Skylander forever).

Yeah, ninja stealth elf is wack.

I know what you mean... they just seem a little off. I'm thinking it's the change in art styles that SSF is bringing us, and I just hope I feel better about it once I see the figures in person.

Quote: SPARXisAWESOME

Quote: Seiki

OMG, I now have the desire to get 5 girl skylanders and nickname them so I have a "Scary Spice" (Hex), "Sporty Spice" (Rollerbrawl), "Baby Spice" (Sonic Boom), "Ginger Spice" (Sprocket), and "Posh Spice" (Flashwing or Star Strike).

Wouldn't Posh Spice be Whirlwind? ._.

I think I'd make Flashwing Posh and Whirlwind baby.

It wasn't that I didn't want Giants, Tel. :) I'm still really looking forward to getting it. But I had no console to play it on until...less than a week ago thanks to a friend. I currently still have no funds to buy it with. I've still bought every single Giants character I wanted, usually one at a time or received as a gift. :) When you need food, shelter, and a new computer, games take a backseat on the priorities list.

I'll consider SF in a year or two when it's cheaper and if I'm still into Skylanders at that time. Right now, all my funds are literally going toward basic necessities. I probably won't even get Giants before 2014 at my current rate. Part of why I'm a feminist is because these issues impact the poor the most and I'm almost as poor as it gets in this country. XD

Razz, you'd be saying the same as us if all of the swappers were female

Quote: ninja9351

Bi/Unisexualitys weird to kids... They will also ask is this a boy or a girl and their parrents won't have an answer. If they do then you get the explaining boy and girl swapping again so the problem is not avoided, just another way of getting to it.

I highly doubt most kids will need it explained to them because those which are too young to get it won't think of the concept of a boy crossed with a girl like that, but instead will either find it funny or simply not give it a second thought. As for those which are old enough to get it they may find it even funnier, or if it upsets them or their parents I will repeat myself form earlier: The opinions of bigoted idiots shouldn't count for anything, so why even care what they think?

When I was a kid we had a dress up box - basically an old suitcase full of old clothing and costumes. Not only were there dresses in that box (that was only used by two boys), but I had a favourite one - a loose fitting yellow number in a basic 60s design.
Sometimes, in my imaginary role as an ace detective and elite spy, I would wear that dress – with no self-consciousness at all. Unbelievably, I did not instantly turn gay.
Kids play – and at that early age that’s all it is… PLAY. There is nothing sexual or gendered about it (unless parents are projecting it there themselves).

And actually, even though instantly turning gay might have upset my religiously conservative parents (my father is a Pastor), there isn’t actually anything wrong with that either. (In their defence the 70s and 80s were a much different time – my father might still be unnerved with it these days, but I imagine my mother would be fine.

Quote: Tel Prydain

Quote: SPARXisAWESOME

Quote: Seiki

OMG, I now have the desire to get 5 girl skylanders and nickname them so I have a "Scary Spice" (Hex), "Sporty Spice" (Rollerbrawl), "Baby Spice" (Sonic Boom), "Ginger Spice" (Sprocket), and "Posh Spice" (Flashwing or Star Strike).

Wouldn't Posh Spice be Whirlwind? ._.

I think I'd make Flashwing Posh and Whirlwind baby.

Whirlwind? No, Flashwing clearly out does Whirlwind in that catagory. After seeing Star Strike's gameplay, Star Strike is even a better choice than Whirlwind, thoguh Flashwing is best choice.

Sonic Boom should be Baby Spice as a cruel joke against her attack where she can spawn her babies and have them aid her in battle.

This is stupid

Not to be offensive, but it sorta is.
Just play. I don't care about the gender or whatever of the characters I play as. People get easily offended, I respect that (if I didn't, they'd get offended :P). Don't complain, just go with it, focus on gameplay.

Found out all swap force parts are gender neutral.
They don't have a gender it is up to your imagination.
I say rattle shake and fire kraken are females

They said they were taking a "gender neutral approach", they didn't say all the Swap Force Skylanders all have neutral genders.

Rattle Shake is male, there's almost doubt to that. The most feminine of the swaps are Freeze Blade and Magna Charge, and they're more male.

All current Swap Force Skylanders we know are male. Most of their voices are heard in the other E3 2013 trailer.

Quote: jet-vac6000

Razz, you'd be saying the same as us if all of the swappers were female

You bet I would! :D In fact, I mentioned just that elsewhere in this topic, along with the fact that, if that were the case, it would probably mean I'd fallen into a different, cooler universe than this one. :D

Also, I'm just going to add here for the sake of certain posters in this thread: just because something doesn't bother you doesn't mean it isn't a problem or upsetting for someone else.

Well it could have easily upset some guys too Razz...

I got a kick out of this and you will too:
http://andimthedad.com/post/54...oes-when-i-grow

I think Activision could have easily split the 16 Swap-Force Characters up. 8 males and 8 females. There are 8 different movement abilities and 8 different elements so what would the problem be exactly? Did Actiision just not want to have a little kid asking his Mom or Dad why his girl Skylanders wont work with the boy ones? "But Daddy, what makes girls and boys different so that I can't interchange them"? Being a male, I personally think it is stupid that there aren't any female Swap-landers and a poor choice by Activision to do this.

Well how do you explain hermaphrodites to kids? Like Finding Nemo? Clownfish are all born male, then they turn female. and when the female dies, the dad turns into a female and reproduces with it's own babies, so to keep the genetics going. So basically, the dad was finding Nemo to have babies with him .-. your childhood has just been ruined.

My thought was that the 8 female Swappers would only be able to swap with each other and same for the 8 males. I think it would have been cooler to limit the figures in that way, include female characters instead of having 2 of the same movement abilities to chose from for all 16 Swappers.

want to know what i think?

Quote: Landerfan2012

want to know what i think?

Reveal Spoiler

i think this topic is become useless and annoying

I am sure all of us were eagerly awaiting the moment when you decided to tell us what you really thought.

Don't feed the troll, y'all. Just hit that nice little "report" button and carry on. :)

Quote: jet-vac6000

Well it could have easily upset some guys too Razz...

But would they really have been? I don't think so. It's undeniable that males almost have a monopoly on representation in games (and they are hugely marketed to and over-represented in tv, movies, comics, books, magazines...basically everywhere). Even if all sixteen swappers were female, they would still be outnumbered by male characters in Skylanders.

And, honestly, so what if some guys have one game to complain about? They still have almost the entire library of every other game that was ever made to comfort them. But the truth is, there are no guys upset over Skylanders and, at this rate, there never will be, because the female roster of characters appears to be diminishing as of this point. Even if it wasn't, though, guys like the Skyladies, too, and I don't think they'd complain much if there were more of them. It's pretty short-sighted and silly of VV and ActiVision to cut out so many potential female characters because they're extremely popular with both boys and girls.