darkSpyro

I know the common wisdom is "female characters don't sell as well" but it sems like with Swap Force, all 16 will almost certainly be male (or "genderless" (but really male)) because who wants to swap a male bottom half with a female top half right? Guess us female players will have to make do with whatever women they give us, like Roller Brawl. Why is it so difficult for them to create female characters that aren't just human (or elf)? Aside from 2 dragons and 2 air characters, all the female characters are just people. so disappointing.
(cue defense of sexism in video games in 3... 2... 1...)

0! Nope, nothing.

Quote: joerox123

0! Nope, nothing.

eh... my timing is off. That's the problem with living in Sweden now. Wait 7 hours until the people in New York are waking up

i dont see the point to this...next youll be saying 'there isnt enough asian skylanders they all seem to be american or english.
there are obvious female characters in the game, there are obvious male characters in the game, but most of them are genderless characters.

and on a side note - roller brawl looks awesome, probably going to be my first purchase...if shes in wave 1 >.<

yeah there are female characters. Of the 48 unique characters, there are 9 (not even 1 out of 5))
Sonic Boom
Whirlwind
Flashwing
Stealth Elf
Hex
Cynder
Chill
Sprocket
and 1 giant (out of 8) Ninjini

Of those 8, 4 are just human or elf and a fifth (Ninjini) is primarily human-ish, which leave only 4 female "creatures"

the other 39 are clearly male. And with the voices in Giants, there is no ambiguity.

Nice straw man bringing up race which simply doesn't apply (what race is Hot Head anyway?) but there are clearly females in Skylands... just not all that many.

Roller Brawl is the new female Swap Force Skylander. We haven't seen all of them yet.

Quote: Aura24

Roller Brawl is the new female Swap Force Skylander. We haven't seen all of them yet.

and I dig the look of Rollerbrawl, nice colos, good detail - she looks like a Skylander to me... but she's still just a human.

Just like Sprocket?

roller brawl must be a normal skylander, as the swapables have an icon on the base indicating what special power that base has for a swapable

a female voice doesnt mean theyre female, just as a male voice doesnt mean theyre male, yes men have obviously voiced a lot of the genderless characters, but i dont think there are 2 genders when it comes to characters like
hot head...drill sergeant...bouncer etc, so they're just a ... 'thing'

Oh come on, we all know the video game industry is dominated by males. This means one of two things -

• Games with minimal female characters or
  
• Games where the females are overly hyped sexually
  

Skylanders is a kid-friendly family oriented game. Its primary marketing audience therefore is going to be younger boys. Yes, girls play the game. That's a wonderful thing for the industry. Its not a issue regarding sexism. Its the wrong market for this type of game. I'd rather have a few female characters that are well crafted and serve a unique purpose in the game than have them tossed into a kids game just to cover a even gender quota or be turned into just a walking pair of hips and boobs.

Good to see Japanese Games are full of great female characters.

How is Drill Sergeant male?

Well one hopes that helps make up for the over abundance of barely teenage bishōnen boy characters that clutter up the market too. Though I admit my mindset might be to western based to grasp the appeal beyond a certain point. As I've gotten older the concept of the 13yr old "beautiful youth (boy)" protagonist in dozens of various role playing games saving the kingdom/world/universe kinda makes me shake my head now.

Quote: landbasered

How is Drill Sergeant male?

Robots and other "items" are generally given a masculine gender in writing by default unless otherwise defined as female. The official biography of Drill Sergeant is given the male connotation.

Quote: landbasered

How is Drill Sergeant male?

from DS's official bio:
"Like many Arkeyan artifacts, Drill Sergeant was buried for centuries – a long forgotten remnant of an ancient powerful civilization. It was only a chance collision with a burrowing Terrafin that led to his systems firing up again. By Arkeyan custom, Drill Sergeant was then obligated to become Terrafin’s servant. This didn’t sit well with the dirt shark, so his first order as master was for Drill Sergeant to not serve him at all… a command he continues to follow zealously to this day."

If Drill were genderless, the proper pronouns to use would be "it" and "its"

as I said originally, there are male characters and then there are "genderless (but really male)" characters, of which Drill Sergeant is one. Others would include Bouncer, Shroomboom, Stump Smash, Zook and Wrecking Ball, all of whom could be considered "genderless" and yet are all referred to as "he" in their official bios and are voiced by male voice actors.

Quote: GothamLord

Well one hopes that helps make up for the over abundance of barely teenage bishōnen boy characters that clutter up the market too. Though I admit my mindset might be to western based to grasp the appeal beyond a certain point. As I've gotten older the concept of the 13yr old "beautiful youth (boy)" protagonist in dozens of various role playing games saving the kingdom/world/universe kinda makes me shake my head now.

I have no problems with a 13yr old shounen boy character, I like it, but I also like Japanese games more as western games.

I'd like to see more characters like Sonic Boom. A female, but one that might appeal to boys or girls, because she's a creature and not especially "male" or "female" looking in a human sense.

The girls get Stealth Elf. 'Nuff said.

Quote: Graz73

I'd like to see more characters like Sonic Boom. A female, but one that might appeal to boys or girls, because she's a creature and not especially "male" or "female" looking in a human sense.

^this
this is what I am saying. why couldn't Sunburn or Wrecking Ball or Zap or Swarm have been female?

Would you really want a Skylander that has male and female pieces?

Quote: LegoLander

Would you really want a Skylander that has male and female pieces?

Just make the character a slug. Then having both pieces would be natural .

Quote: LegoLander

Would you really want a Skylander that has male and female pieces?

really wouldn't bother me. It's not like I'm imagining my Skylanders going to the bathroom or who they might be sharing a bed with.

Sluglanders Swap Force.
October 2014.

Quote: DragonsDream

Quote: LegoLander

Would you really want a Skylander that has male and female pieces?

really wouldn't bother me. It's not like I'm imagining my Skylanders going to the bathroom or who they might be sharing a bed with.

And here I was hoping for a more mature expansion in a year or two. Skylanders: Late-Night Liaisons.

The rife amount of fast conclusions and inaccuracies in this thread are appalling!

Quote: GamingMaster_76

The rife amount of fast conclusions and inaccuracies in this thread are appalling!

Reveal Spoiler

Sprocket is a GOLDLING, not a human! >:{

yeah, yeah... and the difference between a "goldling" and a human is...

the toy looks like a girl with a wrench. could they have made her any more boring? why isn't the toy of her in a turret or a tank?

Quote: DragonsDream

Quote: GamingMaster_76

The rife amount of fast conclusions and inaccuracies in this thread are appalling!

Reveal Spoiler

Sprocket is a GOLDLING, not a human! >:{

yeah, yeah... and the difference between a "goldling" and a human is...

the toy looks like a girl with a wrench. could they have made her any more boring? why isn't the toy of her in a turret or a tank?

What did you

Did you just

Hahah. I'm kidding. Rage mode never existed.

ON-TOPIC, Sprocket is actually my favorite, Chill is my second, I'm quite fond of Flashwing and I enjoy Hex and Whirlwind from time to time but the rest are underwhelming. Females get some good and notable characters, but it really is sad that most are doomed to a generic look. But TC, I'm just saying, IF I recall correctly, cause it was a long time ago, I think I posted a topic about this after Giants was revealed. That was doomed. I'm actually surprised flamers haven't flooded this one already but I guess they just want to scream over how TFB are resting at the moment instead.

I thought Whirlwind was a dude when I first bought her. Imagine my surprise when I played the game!

I think it'd be interesting if they do have female gendered Swaplanders, especially considering what you said- it could potentially be "weird" for kids or parents to combine a male and female halves together.

There's still quite a few of them we haven't seen, so I wouldn't rule anything out quite yet.

I think it's a little early in the SSF cycle to judge that female characters are getting left out. Not until the entire roster is known would we know how many will be SSF.

^this

Also "it'' is more used to define a inanimate object than genderless people

honestly I thought Sunburn was female up until scanning him into Giants for the first time
Had a double take there.

Come to think of it, I don't know what part of his design I saw as particularly "female" when I first got the adventure pack.
I think its male defining characteristic is just on the head, the crest and the blue around the eyes. I dunno.

As for the others, I don't think any of the skylanders are "human" so far. The closest I think would be Chill, but she lived in an ice Kingdom and served under a Snow Queen... so... ?

Quote: landbasered

honestly I thought Sunburn was female up until scanning him into Giants for the first time
Had a double take there.

Come to think of it, I don't know what part of his design I saw as particularly "female" when I first got the adventure pack.
I think its male defining characteristic is just on the head, the crest and the blue around the eyes. I dunno.

As for the others, I don't think any of the skylanders are "human" so far. The closest I think would be Chill, but she lived in an ice Kingdom and served under a Snow Queen... so... ?

this, i also thought :sb: was male. >.>;

that akward question when swap girl and a boy swap force figure....
kid:"dad/mom is my SSF character a boy or a girl now?
dad/mom: "ummmmmmmmm" lol unless they make 8 males and 8 females which will make more sense.

Quote: GamingMaster_76

The rife amount of fast conclusions and inaccuracies in this thread are appalling!

Reveal Spoiler

Sprocket is a GOLDLING, not a human! >:{

Goldings are humanoid Nibe.

I'm a girl and i dont care one bit, I personally dont like the people characters. I'm more of an animal person. And it doesnt effect my game play at all to not be using a girl. They have to have some for young girls and familes. But i appreciate cool looking characters more then what gender we get.

Maybe Freeze-Blade is female? I dunno I'm just guessing.

Well the target audience is boys but the issue is bigger than Skylands.

Our toys are marketed in a disgustingly clear-cut way in America of what is male and what is female. I like TRU but many of the stories are atrocious with having the girl toys be in pink sections and the boy toys in blue. Even McDonalds have implemented a pretty permanent Boy Toy/Girl Toy system.

So really the issue is not squarely the fault of Skylands but of ALL children's products.

I don't mean to step on anyone's toes here, but if it bothers you so much that there isn't any female characters in the game, then why even play it. I admit that the game is ardently male, that's a fact that no one can change, but honestly if you think that there should be more females, I challenge you to make a successful game to curb your opinions. If you look at it, if Acti was somehow to change a ton of their characters to girls, which to some reasoning can be said to not appeal to boys like 5-12, they would probably lose a ton of profit which is a really bad thing especially when Disney realeased they similar game. I guess to sum it up, unless you want to go make a successful million dollar franchise that's based on meeting the gender quota, I suggest that you either send a suggestion to Acti or email, and just hope for the best, I mean they haven'y release all the genders/characters yet.

Why does it matter? Because you're a girl you feel lesser playing with a male character? I really don't get it. They could be 100% female and I'd still play. I can understand wanting more female but you seem to make a much bigger deal about it than needed. Then you complain that too many of the females are humanish? Really? And to start things off you complain about a problem with the swappers that, while probably true, isn't even confirmed yet??

Take a deep breath. Sit down. Untangle a few things and move on with life.

i think that if they made a cali skylander everyone would be happy

Quote: thehunt

i think that if they made a cali skylander everyone would be happy

That would be weird .

But on the subject, I would like to see more females at least to a 3:1 or 2:1 ratio. And even if this doesn't happen, The girls are cool as they are.

Quote: GothamLord

...I'd rather have a few female characters that are well crafted and serve a unique purpose in the game than have them tossed into a kids game just to cover a even gender quota...

I completely agree with this statement. While I am against sexism in games, there really isn't any reason to force the developers to make an even amount of characters of each gender.

One of the highest regarded characters of the first game was Stealth Elf, after all.

Quote: Hot Dog 542

Maybe Freeze-Blade is female? I dunno I'm just guessing.

I dunno, Freeze Blade doesn't have much depth to their chest. (that's as kid-friendly as I can make that point)

My younger sister is elementary school. (Not to give our her personal information)

She doesn't mind playing with male characters, sure she has a majority of females but she will split playtime between Zook and hex for example. I'm a dude and I love sprocket but my sister can't stand her. So I don't think Activision has to make more females because as said many times before the target audience are 5-12 boys.

For complaining about the lack of females in SWAP, we only know 8/32, so there are lots of possibilities of female skylanders to be in the game.

I have a feeling a good bit of the core 'landers will be female to compensate for the 16 male swap designs. I'd like to see a femme character along the lines of Slambam, Bash, or Tree Rex. We have yet to get a solid, smash-y female bruiser.

Forgot to mention Roller Brawl is female.

That's a 8:1 ratio which isn't bad for a game that targets younger boys. We still have 3/4 or characters yet to reveal so...

how many SSF and newlanders were shown? you might be surprised when the whole roster characters be unveiled....... we hope.

8/32 are revealed. Only 25% have been revealed.

Quote: orcface777

I have a feeling a good bit of the core 'landers will be female to compensate for the 16 male swap designs. I'd like to see a femme character along the lines of Slambam, Bash, or Tree Rex. We have yet to get a solid, smash-y female bruiser.

Maybe someone along the lines of the new female protagonist in Rayman Legends, Barbara?

Id love a female brute!