Their latest attempt to restore happy feelings in female players is a claim that Far Cry 4 will have loads of women in it. You just cannot play the game as one. Still they feel it is a good thing that two of the four bad guys you face are going to be female. My guess is that they just do not get that this is not a good thing to try and throw around. Even the quote from Alex Hutchinson made to Outside Xbox shows they just don’t get it: “It's packed to the gills with women. They're everywhere, just like life”
Sure, having ladies everywhere in the game does make a much more diverse environment, but it does not take away the fact that you cannot play the game as one. This is a feeling that has been echoed by many women that are actually into gaming. Of course, Ubisoft is not the only company to do this, they are just the ones in the spotlight right now.
In talking with a few game developers, the time it takes to create a female player is not any longer than a male one. Even the claims that finding good voice actors does not hold up when you really look at it. So why is there a lack of playable female characters in gaming? We really do not have the answer for you, but suspect it has something to do with the mindset that video games are still a “guy thing”. This is a mindset that probably should change, and quickly, as there are lot of female gamers out there and that market is growing fairly rapidly.
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