Your point about novelty makes so much sense! I, a cis woman, noticed some time ago that the majority of game characters I create (given the option) and nearly 100% of characters I create for first playthoughs are female, with male characters only made later on. Second plays of Bioware-like games, for instance, or for multi-player RPGs to play with character design options after I'm already familiar with a class and its mechanics. The novelty angle perfectly explains why, out of all the characters I've ever made for ANY game, my male City of Heroes character (written in RP as an immortal wizard born in 1919, with  PTSD from World War 2) remains far and away the one to whom I'm most attached fifteen years after his creation.

Excellete video 👌
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I gotta admit, the first 20 minutes of this video felt like rehashing some points I'd heard for ages and I was close to closing the video, but after that, the video got a lot better. I was curious enough, though the first half didn't really do it for me. I do like the second half.
Also my gods, I think I recognize AndyPants' voice at 34:22 and he never grew out of the anti-woke phase in his life, it feels like that's his entire identity.

Demographics as a marketing tool really narrowed the scope of the characters that could be told about in stories.

9:21
The average quote unquote guy isn't playing nier sooo...

"If you chose you'd take after Ada more - you're probably a woman"

Me Being a Guy: "What? Ada's got skills and personality down pat."

I guess to me, I already know how to be a man, and comfortably so. However, I feel that often in social commentary, horror, and even just RPG Stories in general, the Female Perspective lends the most critical substance. Which tracks for me because a lot of my most favourite Characters are Outcasts / Social Pariahs in some way.

My main OC, regardless of setting, is usually a gritty underworld hero, usually an 80s-style grunge hero, long flowing hair, aviators (For settings that can fit that, of course), and lots of black, silver, and whites.

However, I know a transfem person who actually explored their gender vicariously through fiction and female avatars, and I often get joked about as an egg yet to hatch, lmao.

weirdly enough I pick female avatars because the fashion is usually more versatile for females

If we give characters like 2B or Eve a dress. it will just look traditional on them because dresses are historically made for females, but if you give them baggy hip-hop jeans and hoodies you'd see Snoop Dogg or Eminem wear, does it make them masculine in a comical way? not exactly, all of a sudden they're just women in street wear, it looks boyish but the clothes are now considered unisex. You see this effect in a lot of From Soft characters like Loretta in Elden Ring and Lady Maria from Bloodborne.

Now if we do it in reverse, have characters like Kratos, Leon, and Dante wear dresses... It doesn't have the same effect. I have never met or seen another person (man or woman) purposefully give a male character female outfits without it being a joke or some sort of fetish. Unless you're a transvestite and this kind of fashion is your jam, not unheard of, but it's definitely a niche. Unlike the other way around.

I mean women wearing their male partner's clothes and even underwear is considered "cute", but men wearing their female partner's clothes is "funny" (and in some cases "creepy")

I think this topic deserves an entire discussion on its own.

What do you think of the Supergirl movie now?

Incredible video tho. Not enough people are sitting on the fence and trying to analyse what others on both sides are trying to do and are actually doing.

what song did you use around 3:40 my man?

The only female lead character that i ever respected was Maya from Septerra Core. She has a cool style without the oversexualisation and a badass personality without any toxicity.

I feel like you're almost there...like almost to the point but just barely missing it. I dont exactly know what you're missing but its just a feeling Im getting...

Who is the artist in the thumbnail? Just curious if anyone knows? 👀

People like looking at attractive characters. Its that simple. Even with the men you listed as "not attractive" they are still above average and at  least cool looking.

Your very first statement is factually incorrect. Video-games were seen as gender-neutral family entertainment until the 1982 crash. Pac-Man was designed specifically to appeal to women.

2B and Yoko Taro’s female characters in general are almost always depicted as very sexy, but actually playing the games, they always just feel natural. They don’t feel like they’re trying to draw my eyes anywhere beyond a recognizable silhouette. I initially didn’t intend on playing NieR Automata because I assumed it was a gooner game, but I was lured in by the OST. As you say with Bayonetta, I feel the same applies to Yoko Taro’s characters. Even though the androids wear uniforms, they feel like they wouldn’t choose to dress differently and they absolutely got that shit on fr fr. The way 2B and even A2 look and move convey the agency and confidence that tells me they wear what they do because they can. On the contrary, I could not get into Stellar Blade. People said it was like NieR or that it was really deep with really engaging combat.. I found the latter clunky, the middle lacking and the former straight up false beyond surface details. Eve was a boring character, the character design didn’t really satisfy anything for me (not in that way either, her face is far too plastic-y).

As for playing as this or that gender, when given the option of creating a character I usually make a woman with the exceptions being the Dark Souls games (not Bloodborne or Elden Ring, the Dark Souls games for some reason make me reluctant to do so. Maybe it’s the voice options). At the same time, if it’s a game where you select premade characters to play, I usually choose male ones. Take Overwatch or Vermintide, my mains are Reinhardt and Markus Kruber respectively. It also at times depends on first or third person. Cyberpunk, I chose to play male V, but if it was third person I might’ve chosen female. This is likely because I like looking at good looking characters and am straight, but something about saying it’s that doesn’t feel accurate. In specific cases like Monster Hunter Wilds where any player model can wear any armour unlike the previous titles in the series, I much prefer to play a female characters because you can look badass as a woman in heavy Arkveld armour, but you look kinda silly as a man in a croptop and minishorts. I just want the ability to use all the gear without it looking like I’m trying to mimick stereotypes

At this point I’m just yapping. I like well written and strong women with agency, agency is hot, I goon to agency

so funny because I am a female and I chose Kratos hahaha

"More different perspectives into the final product"

That's called generative AI. You take the average of what everyone + no one thinks, and you make something "new" out of it. Without any creative imput. Yeah, creativity dies. That's why AI is also a powerful tool to quickly get rid of our dependency on those big companies.

19:26 jokes on you, I'm neither

Despite 2b being sexualized I say mostly because of the fandom and Gooners she's an actually well written character but I'm not gonna ignore the Gooner bait behind her but she's still a great character I just wish the fandom and most gamers didn't only see her as Gooner bait like A2 I don't see many sexualizing A2 as much compared like 2b and they are both from the same game and are well written characters but great video bro

No the poblem is that there’s no nude mode