All I want to add is please include the option to have a male character.
While it would be somewhat more work as men and women do and cannot not always use the same techniques, saying that men cannot charm and seduce their way through life if blessed with the necessary talents (which I assume is sort of a given for a field agent assigned to infiltrate) is just plain wrong.
While women may be more likely to be underestimated by a certain portion of society a man could just as easily infiltrate the US, for example handsome features, Caucasian ancestry (i.e. white, an unfortunately not inconsiderable advantage in the US of the fifties and sixties) and six pack abs combined with a flawless “American” accent and a modicum of acting skills can easily be used to project an image of the quintessential all American boy.
To clear the air here, this choice isn’t because I think men can’t seduce or anything like that. Men are just as capable as being subtle agents of seduction and trickery as a woman. We’re all human beings, not strictly male or female. The reason I chose to make this female-only is simply that many stories choose to focus on the male perspective, which is fine, but I want to focus on the female. That’s it, honestly. It’s nothing more complicated than that. 
Part of the danger of including a male would also be retreading the whole James Bond thing.
I do like the picture you paint of a male main character playing off of the American dream and the American ideal of masculinity in order to manipulate the public’s sentiments. I could see this sort of character becoming an athlete or movie star.
I’ll seriously consider adding a male option, but only because I see that the game could be enriched by the option.
The focus will always be subtle espionage and trickery, however, male option or no. So no real action hero stuff or blowing shit up (mostly).
Thanks! I’m rather excited to work on all my projects.
Don’t bother with a male character, I dont like how it’s okay for a game to have an only male choice and no women complain but when it’s only female at least one guy says he wants a male character. I dont mind playing as a female at all, it’d be fun to see things from the other side.
I take it you never looked at the old vendetta topic or the legion of rome topic? They both had female forum members complain about it originally being male only.
Personally I don’t mind whether the main character is male or female only as long as it suits the story.
It’s difficult. I understand where people are coming from. Nobody likes to be excluded. At the same time it’s very difficult to create mono-gender games without backlash, and any game that attempts to define the MC’s gender inevitably becomes a discussion of that rather than the game. People assume you’re trying to make some sort of statement about gender when you make your game mono-gender, which really isn’t the case. Sometimes, for whatever nebulous reason, mono-gender may just fit your focus. In the case of Vendetta in order to fully give a main female character the attention she deserves as a woman going into a masculine environment without pulling a Broadsides (I loved CoB, and thought their decision worked for that particular game) you’d have to tailor the game to her, which is a lot of energy. It’s not that a worthy or amazing story can’t be created with a gun mole. It’s just that the developer may want to throw the focus elsewhere. For the record, I actually have not played Vendetta because I can’t play a female character. HOWEVER, I don’t hold the decision against the developer, and just go “huh, this game probably isn’t my cup of tea because I like to play women” rather than mention it in the thread.
Also, I tend to think the games I make have a certain “feminine” air (although how the hell you’re supposed to define feminine I don’t know since it’s, again, a nebulous concept). That’s just my impression of my own writing, and so although I can create male protagonists, I also like to play to my strengths.
However, I do like @idonotlikeusernames’ idea for the role a male character could have, which is why I’m not throwing out the suggestion for a male option immediately.
@Farside good points and well made.
Personally I don’t mind if I have a choice or not but I am not really keen on the gender-swap used in CoB (although I liked CoB) as I’d prefer for that choice to have a difference on the story, not to make one gender ‘better’ than another but to give me enough of a reason to playthrough as both genders (CotV has differences if you choose to be male/female for example being a female German when you take Samantha on the tour she comments about how she has heard of you)
In “Unnatural” I am trying to make it so the game will offer two distinct playthrough depending on your gender (ie one character refuses to let you into a party unless your female as he doesn’t want any competition,) I am even planning to find a female writer to help refine the female path to make it more unique.
I just got into CoG recently, dragging through old forums isn’t my thing cx I probably should take this as a hint to not say things when I dont know much about them though. 8->
Gender is a difficult subject to tackle, but it’s also something I’m interested in. Just because it’s difficult I don’t think it should be ignored, although it should be approached with sensitivity and care. One needs to be open-minded, actually study the subject and try to come to an understanding of how people operate within society’s gender norms. I’m very passionate about the subject myself. I get the backlash, though. Nobody likes to be told they can’t do something just because of their sex or gender, and some interpret excluding one sex from the game as an implicit statement about that sex.
I was actually a little put-off at first when you said in the Unnatural thread that the game would be distinct depending on the MC’s sex. However, since then I’ve thought about it and have come to understand what you mean. A certain flavor would permeate a female MC’s story from the touches that are added. The SRT reminds me of a police force in a sense, and sex is a very complicated issue when in a police-type or military-type environment.
I like the idea of getting a female writer to add her own flair to the female MC’s side of the story.
Don’t worry about it. I understood your point. In general in media male perspectives tend to outnumber female or other (because I don’t believe sex is strictly male/female, although societal gender norms tend to be) perspectives. Male perspectives tend to be seen as the “normal” perspective, and female perspectives become the “other.”
@Farside, but…blowing shit is the fun the part. :-((
Ohhhhh, there’ll be some well-placed bombs in the story.
Okay :3
I just don’t want to make people upset with me. It makes me sad when people are upset with me :c
No offense was meant, I was just pointing out that people complaining at male-only game happened.
I understand what you mean, my intention is not to make it so someone is punished for wanted to play as a female MC but to reward people for replaying as the opposite gender to see how the story alters.
I’m male and tend to play through as a male MC, but I also like playing as a female MC to see how it changes and to try different things. (I tend to be a lot more flirty when I’m a female MC because I’m usually shy so that is how I play when my character is based on myself.
None was taken c:
I don’t see how I could have been taking offense. I was the one saying the offensive things cx
Exactly. You shouldn’t punish the player for picking one sex over the other, but you can enhance their playthrough by making it a choice that matters in their environment (but not necessarily a choice that affect their capabilities).
you weren’t being offensive just uninformed lol
@Farside, the part where I said: “it’s just plain wrong” actually referred not so much to the game in general as it was simply meant as a response to @Drazen’s post since his comment simply struck me as a surprisingly ignorant statement for someone who usually tends to err on the pedantic side.
As a player, the fact that I generally have much more difficulty forming any sort of attachment or emotional investment with a female player character doesn’t mean I’ll never ever play one, even if only to chase after a particularly cute male character (Alistair, *cough* *cough*) or out of general curiosity and perhaps a bit of boredom to, like @Nocturnal_Stillness said, see the differences a female character can cause in a game world where I previously enjoyed playing a male character.
@Faside glad you liked my little example.
Of course, stating that gender distinctions exist is sexist, do forgive me my idiocy.
Contemptuous sarcasm aside, it is a matter of fact that men are systemically better at things women are not, and, let us be clear: vice versa. This is a statement on trends, rather than on absolute restrictions (for example, female body builders are stronger than most men, but it is still true that men are better inclined towards muscle power). Now, I would say that men and women are inclined naturally to be better suited to certain tasks due to the evolutionary advantage of specialisation: women, for example, are biologically nurturers, and consequently are, in general, in possession of a heightened faculty for emotive awareness, which would render them far superior in an environment of seduction and persuasion. This is, again, a statement on averages not absolutes.
That the character, I think, should be female is connected to this. Because, since women and men are not identical, society has grown to treat them differently, then all gender choices become consequential in interactions. This means that not only would acts of charismatic deception be better suited to a womanly role, but other characters interactions would be tailored uniquely as such in partial reaction to the gender. Therefore, playing as a woman here would likely give a richer and more realistic gameplay.
@Drazen your disscuss was used for the spanish dictator franco to forbide the woman study laws and medicine. Women are good in differents things than the man, the emotions and charm is good to care the children and ills, and she is the house’s queen. But this emotion doesnt make suitable for logical and scientifics profesions so to protect the women we dont allow women to study these careers. Thanks god now my country is a democracy, and i could finish my law studies . Please there are women discriminated to post that stuff please
I think @Drazen is just saying that women as a whole have a certain inclination, not that every single individual female should bow to that generality. He said it’s a statement of “averages and not absolutes.” That’s a big difference between what Drazen is saying and what Franco did by applying that generality to individuals.
Whether men and women are different, and how and why societal gender norms developed is a huge can of worms, however.
@MaraJade I agree, there should be no gender-preference whatsoever in legislation. This is a cultural matter pertaining to social interaction, rather than state discrimination. That a dictator agreed with me on a few points is rather irrelevant.