why is most of the rpg games have no male's?

[soniiiety]

I been searching and found out that alot for the cool games have females and no males at all? why is this

???

I don't understand

people should make it so you could be a male in their game not just female, not everyone is female or like to be that in a game?

let me know what the reason is for this?

 

[Jonforum]

probably for psychology reasons of behavior.
The man is initially designed to empathize and protect females.
And the gaming market is mostly male.
So putting females makes sense to provoke interest and empathy in male players.
But my opinion are well thought out but unproven.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Might be a coincidence in what you've looked up? There are certainly a lot more female leads these days, but for the longest time RPGs had quite a lot of male leads. Ultimately, it's never affected my decision to play a game, but I personally like seeing different character lineups game-to-game. Making your own avatar is, of course, a lot of fun, too.

 

[Zebestian]

Can you uhh... give some examples of games that do that? "A lot of the cool games" isn't really specific. I really can't believe that that many games out there don't feature prominent male characters. Even if you're just talking about protagonists, I find that hard to believe.
But anyway, let's assume that games do have a large number of female protagonists. There's surely a lot of reasons why game makers decide to go with a female lead instead of a male one. Maybe it's a story thing, maybe the game dev themselves are female, maybe the devs just like to have female leads (or like... umm... "looking" at their... umm... "assets"). This is something that would require some input from a large number of devs. You can't really ultimately tell by looking at a game why the developer decided to go with a female lead.

 

[Amysaurus]

I've only seen the all-female cast thing being super noticeable in a few select genres, so maybe you need to branch out a bit?

Finding male protagonists in games is like finding a black square on a checkerboard (not difficult).

 

[AdamSakuru]

Edit: I realized I kinda went off on a tangent and failed to address the OP's original message. I'd say the same as everyone else has here: the majority of games have male leads. So I'm also not sure why OP thinks the opposite is the case.

Sort of on the subject: There's a lot of complaining that there aren't enough female characters in video games. Often times, the people complaining about this won't even go out and buy the games they pressure companies into doing so for them.

The other issue is that when companies do this, you can't have very genuine female characters. They have to be perfect and flawless. So you end up with female characters who are simultaneously the beautiful vixen but can also beat anyone in physical combat. So, for example, a female lead character wouldn't have worked for people in a game like Monkey Island, because the main character in that game was abused (verbally and physically), shunned and generally made to feel unwelcome. If a game like that was made with a female lead today we'd have people complaining that it's bad representation of women in video games. If you make the lead female character attractive, they'll complain it's sexist or misogynistic because men enjoy it.

Frankly, I'm a big proponent of doing YOUR creative vision. If your story has nothing but male Asian martial artists for characters then don't just throw in a woman for the sake of diversity. I hate diversity for diversity's sake.

 

[Llareian]

As previously mentioned, you talk about games having no males at all, and I can only think of one example of this even here in the forums, and no examples of this in the AAA or larger indie scene. So I'll proceed under the assumption that you meant the protagonist is female.

It always makes me laugh when this subject comes up. I've been "forced" to play a male character in games FAR more often than I've been "forced" to play a female. As a female, it's never bothered me to play a male, except in multiplayer-centric games that have no character development (like most FPSes). To me, the more interesting question is: why does this bother you so much?

 

[Zebestian]

Frankly, I'm a big proponent of doing YOUR creative vision. If your story has nothing but male Asian martial artists for characters then don't just throw in a woman for the sake of diversity. I hate diversity for diversity's sake.

I think this is a good attitude to have. It doesn't make much sense to throw in some undercooked diversity characters just to have diversity. Everything you put in your game has to make sense within the world of that game, otherwise you'll just end up with a bunch of confused an irritated players.

 

[Nolonar]

I wonder what it is you found that makes you think that most RPGs have no males.
Even if you were only referring to playable characters, the only RPG I know of where you can't play as a male is the Hyperdimension Neptunia series (and it has male NPCs too)

And here's a list of non-RPG games (that I know of) without a male playable character:

Tomb Raider (all games)
Metroid (all games except Federation Force)
Recore
A Hat in Time
Dishonored 2
Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation
Deception 4 (not sure about the other games, since I haven't played them)
Gravity Rush (1 & 2)
Severed
Horizon Zero Dawn
inFamous: First Light
Remember Me
Kameo
Mirror's Edge (both games)


Quite the opposite is true, however. While making the above list, I could've made a list at least 5 times as long of games where you can only play as a male character.

 

[TWings]

If I think about my favourites RPG, none of them have only female characters nor a female only lead character.
So I really wonder what games you're talking about.
Which titles do you have in mind ?

In my current project, I let the player choose which he wants to play. That's one way of dealing with it.

 

[richter_h]

It is surprising that you've found this case, which makes me wonder either it's just your collection or you don't have much time to take a gander at more RPG out there.
Even some peculiar title as Rance and Hyperdimension Neptunia has some male casts. You might dismissed those guys and just care about the girl casts?

Seriously, you need to branch out your game selections...

 

[soniiiety]

ok have read all of your comments carefully and i have decided what to say inreturn, OK well i mean the main person you play as, and i mean this about ouroboros that is about sci-fi space ship and also thompson's game called rise of nexus, there in his game is 3 girls and no male characters i had a search and look at the rpg games in completed section and most of the games involved females only and magic witches and most of them were not sci-fi, nolonar, they should of add or make a mod to those games for a male character, i know that in metroid 3d version there is male version but isnt playable and in the old game there was a male who meant to save the girl or get rescued for her.

there are games i wish that would have male instead of only female, why can't people add both genders? or add something else like male monster?

they should make a male rpg thread and then a female rpg thread, so people can post the games that are in one of those gender to be able to find games you want etc,

if you know what i mean

 

[hiddenone]

Games have no male leads here? I think you're just not looking in the right places, since a lot of the games I've looked at have either a male lead or male party members (like the one you mentioned, Rise of Nexus, has a male party member). Someone limiting themselves to only games where you can play as a guy is a shame since there are so many great games around here that just so happen to have female leads.

Sure, some games work fine if the player can choose the gender of the main character, but it just doesn't work for every game. If the dev wants a certain type of person to be the lead, then that's their choice.

 

[ashikai]

I'm confused about the argument at hand, mostly because I can't really understand the way you phrased the original questions or the follow-ups.

But let me say this:
The gender of the playable lead should have virtually no impact on whether or not you are interested in playing the game, nor should it break your immersion. If it does, they're doing it wrong.

If a game has an all-female cast or a only female playables (or vice versa), then there's likely a world-based reason for it. The only time this isn't the case is if the only playable character is a silent/outsider protagonist and EVEN THEN there are a lot of instances where it just wouldn't feel right to make the gender swappable.

Consider LoZ; Silent protagonist, single playable, gender technically has no impact on the story, and you can choose whatever name you want (except in BoW). You could have, in theory, made Link's gender nonexistant or swappable and literally had no impact on the gameplay or story (even characters like Malon fawning over him as a her would still be totally fine). Somehow I think I'd have really mixed feelings about a female Link (though mostly because I'd be demanding that we be given the opportunity to play as Zelda but I digress).

In a non-game example, take a look at Steven Universe (though I guess this counts because of Attack the Light). There are TONS of complaints from people (mostly males) asking why there aren't any male gems. And... that's kind of the point of the whole series??? It's a plot point, so playing/following the story as Steven is important, and Steven wouldn't be able to deliver the same story if he was a Sue or a Sally, ya know? And it's funny because while he's the main character, in Attack the Light only the gems (female) get to fight; he's just backup/support (which is also a plot point).

I'm not saying there aren't instances where players should be given the option to swap/choose. There are tons of games where putting a female as the lead is a deliberate ploy for attention and the character is basically, to quote the term, a "fighting **** toy" - meant mostly to be "badass" but only in a sexy/moe/male-gaze kinda way. Those are the people who are doing it wrong, IMO.

Also it could just be that there are a ton of female indie game devs out there making the games they always wanted to play growing up cuz that's totally a thing. Or you could just gravitate towards the type of game/gameplay that tends to statistically have female leads, who knows.

 

[Kes]

i had a search and look at the rpg games in completed section and most of the games involved females only and magic witches

This did not correspond with my experience when I looked through the first page of completed games.

 

[Wavelength]

RPGs in general usually have male characters as the "main character". Female main characters are rare. It's true in AAA development, it's true (though slightly less so) in indie communities like ours, and I can't even think of any subgenre of RPGs that usually features female leads.

So it's hard to say "why" most games feature females leads because it's simply not true that they do!!

As far as why most games don't give you the option - while having this option would be nice in very open, nonlinear RPGs with a "blank slate" sort of main character, it doesn't work as well in tightly-crafted narratives, where the main character has a well-defined personality. Gender roles and peoples' perception of them can be broken and played with, but they shouldn't be ignored entirely. Most characters wouldn't feel quite the same (and might not even make sense) if their genders were flipped without significant rework of their mannerisms and actions.

Try reading Twilight and then read Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, and see if the characters feel exactly the same (as their distaff counterparts) to you.

 

[Andreyla]

Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy 10, Final Fantasy 15, Fable, The Witcher and most of the RPG's on this forum that I've seen all have male leads. That's just what comes to the top of my head. The only RPG Maker games that I've seen with female leads tend to be the "adult" games. What category are you looking in?

 

[starlight dream]

A lot of rpgmaker games have female protagonists, but I think every creator chooses her/his characters' gender for different reasons.

It can be interesting to discuss which gender creators prefer using and why.
Having female leads can be due to aesthetic reasons (if for example the creator finds their look more attractive), it could also be to balance out all the male protagonists we've had through the years. Or it depends purely on the plot and the character's personality.

I think each game has its own reasons. It's fun when a game allows you to choose your main character, so you can pick either a guy or a girl, but those are rare, because there is more work for the developer to do, and it's maybe not worth the time.

 

[soniiiety]

ok well when i was* in completed games that what i saw from on that page, and most of the games i didn't like because of the name, is there fliter to change or get to some of the categories? i looked and read all above

and i do think that sorting out what is which gender to go into the right category or something else could fix it, idk what I need to think i will be back i might not know the answer i ima think

 

[Frogboy]

I think there's a pretty even mix within this community. My two games have one with a cast of 2 male and 2 female and another with a female lead. The female lead was chosen completely based on the story I wanted to tell.