Topic: Nintendo balancing the gender bias

As well, Nintendo has been criticized in the past for being sexist with some of their games and characters, so this is probably partly a response to that.

I just want to eventually see the return of the Super Mario comic version of Peach. Rather than than silly imposter we've been seeing for the past several years.

Well it makes sense Ubisoft were the only developers who didn't show a game where you could play as a female character at some point. |

EA started off with Dragon Age which has gender select ability and the game's most popular character is a woman.

Sony showed off Bloodborne where you can choose gender.

Microsoft showed off games where you can probably choose gender as well and the two most interesting charcters in the Fable Demo were female.

Also of course Nintendo chad the most and whatnot.

Yeah, the babe-ifying of Peach is something that happened while I was on a console game hiatus. I came back after about 6 years away and

it was weird.

You cannot in Just Dance ?

If they make Link as shown in that trailer a female character? I'm fine with that. Because that Link would still be more or less the same character.

While I like that art, Aonuma has confirmed that it's just Link and that the rumour that it was a girl just grew out of it.
Source: http://mmgn.com/wiiu/news--that-was-link-in-zelda-wii-u-trail...

Welcome to the world of women in gaming... Almost always the minority of playable characters, if included at all. Anyways, you go Nintendo! Equality for the win<3

I second basically everything you've written here:)

@Jmaster Apparently the site that came from was bogus. Here's another interview that's a little more reputable: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/06/11/is-link...

Seems like they're waiting to see what people say. Internet? Don't ruin this.

I'm curious as to what you define ruining than as?
Frankly, I'd be against having a gender option too. I state some reasons for wanting Link as a make earlier, but I have some more. I Skyward sword, I quite liked all the bits that required him to be male, espcially the Link-Zelda dynamic. Plus the other characters at the academy treated him like a guy, it would have been different if he was female. I'd like to see all that return, espcially the Link and Zelda thing. Having a female option would make that more complicated.

@Jaz007 I dunno... like, being the wretched hive of sexism and bigotry that it always is. I assume that, if they did that, Nintendo would take the safe route, since they seem more concerned with taking the safe route than the progressive route.

Link being a female (or just there being an option) would only bring good things to both the series, and the games industry as a whole. If you're against it... that's really, really dumb of you.

@Mickey How is that dumb of me? I stated some good reasons, you might say they could change things for a female character, but do you really think Nintendo will make the game that different that depending on if you played male or female? No, they are putting in some light dialogue choice which is great, and making the story and characters better (like the Link-Zelda dynamic in Skyword Sword), but there is no way they are going to go all out to make it really different depending if you play it make or female, they would just take the gender dependent aspects out. This will make the game suffer, and not be as good of game. The likely aspect of them giving the choice is just a poorer game. There is no progress to be had here, only regression. Espcially since it would be shoehorning it in the game, which does nothing for equality.

@Jaz007 Because it's holding back the games industry. Because it's against something that would be monumental for many. Because it's assuming that Nintendo is as heteronormative as you are (which... isn't as impossible as I'd like to believe).

I'm gonna try to keep this short. Female Link? It's already HUGE, and it hasn't even been confirmed yet. Imagine how big this would be, symbolically, for women? Or folks questioning their identities?

I'll imagine for you: It'd be earth-shaking.

As for whether or not it's progress... You ever have those moments where there're literally so many things you could say, that you can't just pick one? Well, I'm going through that right now. Forgive me if this is too disconnected for you:

1) For a change, video games would be AHEAD of films, comics, TV, etc.

2) It would be one of the biggest things to happen to character design since Miyamoto said "how about a mustache?"

And 3) OVERNIGHT, a video-game franchise would become the new poster child for "Why not?" when it came to gender in fiction. And a company as big as Nintendo doing something as big as that? You guessed it, it'd be pretty darn big for the rest of the industry.

So yeah. Link being a girl would be huge for a lot of people, progressive of Nintendo, and just plain awesome.

Not trying to pick a fight here, and you know I love you, man, but being against something as beneficial to everyone involved as this is just dumb.

_{EDIT: And I think that's enough commenting in this thread...}

Females being the main characters for video game is nowhere near as rare as you're making it out to be @Mickey. Yes, equal representation is a problem in the industry, but Nintendo changing the gender of one of its biggest mascots would not be earth-shaking, at least not in the way you're describing - if only because Link is a faceless character to begin with, more so because its been done before.

@Mickey

I agree. If Mass Effect pulled it off, why can't Zelda?

I don't really appreciate changing the gender of an established character. It seems forced.
If there would be a female main character, it should be for a new franchise.

I would really want a female link cause the next metroid is far away and i need to kick some hyrulein teeth

@Mickey Can I chime in? I know you're gone from this thread, but I'd like to make a response to what you said. Now, let me just say that I'm all for female protagonists in gaming, but I just dislike the idea of Link being a girl. Kinda in the same way that I'd dislike any female character becoming male. Link is already an established character. He's effeminate, sure, but he's not female. He had a sort of relationship with Zelda in Skyward Sword, further establishing his gender. Which is why I don't want Link to become female. Have a female main character, sure, but don't just gender swap Link.

That being said, I'd wouldn't refuse to buy the game simply because Link became a girl.

Those aren't reasons though, so much as they are superlatives reinforcing your own opinion. If you really want to have a dialogue about this, listening to other people without calling them dumb is just going to be part of the road.

Gender equality in the most literal sense would erase what makes us distinct as male and female of the species. People are talking out of both sides of their mouths, if the only meaningful difference is the gender "under your clothes" what cause will be advanced by depicting Link after the female form? We should be talking about ways to approach the character of Link and conflict of the Zelda series, before erasing the masculine identity in the name of change.

Potential solutions should offer resolution to both sides, the ideal compromise would offer a choice to players about which gender path they want to approach at the outset of their story. Link's role and attributes of personal character can transcend gender already, to really develop the concept of a strong female character we shouldn't feel beholden to one (perhaps overused) archetype.