Age of Conan Editorial: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun... As Well

Funcom announced last week that female characters in 'Age of Conan' will be as strong and able as male characters in their game.

"The strong, fierce and independent female is perfectly in line with the lore of Howard, however, we have expanded it to include ALL the female players."

But what of what makes men and women so distinct from each other? Can "realism" lend itself easily into the MMO? This fortnight, it's making what's real as real as it can be in 'Age of Conan'.

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I strongly defend equal chances between genders and so, just a cosmetic choice between females and male characters. Yet, i suppose race choice wont be "neutral", meaning that those classes that are shared by two or more races will have different attributes. These will give a potential edge on performing some roles. To some extent, there will be at least a slighty better, slighty buffed race-class-role combo.
And i dont think that to be bad at all. If i want to become the "best" thief, i shall become a Stygian but i shall never be the "best" street fighter, because Cymerians are the ones to hard melee. But i am not expecting to feel nerfed when i play it the other way. I expect Funcom to make those differences noticeable but not crucial, player skill being the most important factor.

If we go to extremes, when people are given some customization choices regarding attributes or skills, there will always be a "top-gun" combination. For variety and fun sake i do hope there wont be super combos and crap combos. But, if you get into one of those crazy guilds, LookingFor raider/no life/must be able to attend 7 hours a day/6 days a week, well...you must be up to some sacrifices. You shall have to re-roll as a Stygian ranger because they already got the 3 Cymerian barbarians they need to beat Lord Idropthesuperswords.

So, if females were decided to have a slightly, and i stress slightly, different attribute/skill bonus than males, why not? The big daily differences shall depend on player skill, i hope, and not on that plus dextrity or minus resource gathering race/gender specific attributes.

I just want to say that I don't see a problem with giving opposite sexes different levels of attribute and skill bonuses

Male Warrior:
Strength+ Typically More Muscle Mass Generally Creating More Strength
Block+ Higher Chance to Withstand a Stronger Blow to the Shield

Female Warrior:
Vitality+ Women Typically Live Longer Than Men
Dodge+ Smaller Mass Means Less Likely To Be Struck(less of a target whether wide or tall)

Both of those could make for very useful and specific Tanks in groups and raids

I think if someone really wants to find a way to make a more unique game and unique character creation for specific uses and bonuses, they will find a way, without the drama.

"we're in the twenty-first century now, and obviously things have changed."

-----How does the passage of afew years in the real world effect an immaginary realm?
-----In fact how does the passage of afew years in the real world effect the biology of the real world?
-----Answer; It don't.

"Funcom has stressed the point that their goal in 'Age of Conan' was to make female playable characters in Hyboria just as strong and able as any man, because, let's face it, it wouldn't be fun to play a female character that is completely Conan lore-accurate. In a game like that, a female character would be endlessly "lfg" ("looking for group"), be "perma-feared" (a constant state of fear, i.e. "status effect"), and constantly telling the male members of their group, "You go first!" "

------Have you ever played an MMO?
------ROFLMFA in what MMO are women constantly LFG? Last I checked people make women specificaly because they are LESS LFG than men.

------Have you even read the Conan books?
------Lots of people were like that. To have heroes/villans you must have the masses that need saving or slaying.
------Not all of the women were like that.
------There were plenty of women of strength. Thier strengths were simply different.

"Let's look at the Rogue archetype, for example. Traditionally, rogues are known for their agility, dexterity, and ability to get out of a tight situation without relying [too much] on brute force; they would rather rely on their skill, nimbleness, and cunning to overcome an opponent, overcome an obstacle, or make a getaway if necessary. Using the "rules" set in the previous paragraph, you would find more players playing as female rogues simply because the gender is better suited to the role, but that's not to say male rogues would be useless, no, but not as effective, and what gamer today would settle for something that's only second best or under the benchmark? We, of course, want to experience things are their fullest potential, and so the "cookie-cutter" or "FOTM" ("flavour of the month") build concepts comes into play and what we're left with, eventually, is something predictable, recycled, and unimaginative."

------If the game is constructed well there would be at least a viable dex and a strength build for the rouge.
------Hence a male and a female choice for those who go just for the numbers. An outward expression of that choice would be a plus (immersion).
------If there are no different builds then you already have the cookie cutter you claim is not desired.

"To speak hypothetically again for a moment, let's assume that because of their superior strength and natural ability to pick a fight anywhere at any time, that male characters are suited better to the Soldier archetype. The poor lad or lass that has rolled a female soldier you can imagine would struggle being picked up by a team because the mindset of the gamers in general would be that male Soldiers are better, and would perhaps leave the player thinking, "Why did I roll a female Soldier and not a male one? What a mistake!" And take competitive gameplay: in a world where min-maxing is gospel, to play anything that is non-optimal and not suited to a given role would be like shooting yourself in the foot, or, in gamer terms, "nerfing" yourself. A player should never feel like they've made an error in judgement in creating their character simply because they did not choose to play the "right" gender."

------Ummm did I say ROFLMFAO? Females LFG more than males in an MMO?
------Same applies to the dex soldier vs the strength soldier as rogue or perhaps a con soldier.
------If you dont have different builds you will have cookie cutters regardless of its source be it gender or race.

"In terms of gender selection, using a "world-realistic" model in a game like 'Age of Conan' would be substantially difficult for developers to balance and would only encourage a culture of exclusivity in the game's setting, or any other game for that matter."

------How would this be any different from what is acomplished with racial differences?

"For the sake of gameplay and the player's own personal enjoyment, males and females should be equal in ability as Funcom have made it their aim"

------I agree. If the game is built well STR and DEX will be of equivilant value as well as WIS and INT. Hence no reason to deny the differance in gender or the races of Hyborea.

"it shouldn't matter whether you pick a male or a female for a particular archetype or class."

------Yes it should, as race should. It would be an outward expression of your probable charicter build alowing for greater charicter immersion.

"no one should feel limited by the game's mechanic and design, and this is the heart of the argument."

------If that is the heart of your argument all gender/race/class choices should render no differance. We should all have the same abilities and the only real choice you have is the graphics attatched to your toon. .................Booooring!

"A player should be given the freedom to play either gender, and be confident in the fact that they are going to be just as able, strong, and effective in their role(s) as they would be playing the opposite."

------What you assert acomplishes exactly the opposit. You remove the purpose of choice when you remove its signifacance. Less significant choice = less freedom.

"Funcom in allowing female characters in 'Age of Conan' to be just as able and strong as their male counterparts, have mirrored that just like in real life, there is no job a man can do that a woman can't do or do just as well."

------Are you truely delusional. The Olympics any one! any one!

------I am a beach life guard and in my job that kind of dillusion gets people dead, men, women, and children alike.

"The more you think about it, "reality" actually screams the fact that men and women are just as well suited to roles in society that are traditionally mantled by their counterparts, but this is mainly thanks to the fact that we have transcended the world that Robert E. Howard himself lived in and the one he creates in his Conan stories."

------I thought the reason for playing a game was to escape to its reality.
Robert E Howard created a world of harsh and unforgiving realitys were victory meant you live to see the next day if your lucky.
Not a PC world were we ignore the obvious in atempt to make people feal better about themselves.

------Now we get to my points.
1) Men and women have glaring differences we are quite equal but very different because our creator was not a moron. These differences are not something to be ashamed of or be denied but should be embraced and celebrated.
2) Having gender different stats is no dfferent game mechanics wise than racial different stats and as with race if well ballanced will only add to the flavor and choice of the game and subtract nothing.
3) Changing Robert E. Howard's world be it race gender class ect makes it LESS Conan period.

ozzz, I don't think you've read my editorial properly. Many of your "arguments" are flawed and and are infact sometimes supporting what I have said in this article. It's quite apparent that you have not put a lot of thought into your statement, and responding with taunts and namecalling certainly doesn't help your credibility.

On Hyboria: This is true, but as clearly stated in the article, Howard's Hyboria (concerning women anyway) absolutely will not translate well into a computer game. Thus Funcom has made it adaptable to an MMORPG setting. There will still be your helpless damsels, slaves, and so forth, but even female avatars should feel empowered in a Hyborian setting. It's not making Hyboria "politcally correct", no, it's making the game playable for those wanting to create a female character, namely, female gamers who in majority create female avatars. Why should a gamer seemingly be "punished" for selecting a sex of preference?

On Reality: Again, this is a computer game; art imitating, but not replicating, life. But on that note, women are just as capable of doing any job that a man can do. Whether they can do it better or not is a different story, but theoretically, there are no "male" or "female" jobs out there. You try telling a woman that she can't do a job because of what God made her in the first place. This argument is completely beyond the context of Age of Conan.

On Game Effect: The differences in build will come with the choices the individual player makes with the type of weapon they choose to wield, the type of armour they decide to wear (limited by their class type and so forth), their feats and skill choices (where they allocate points, etc.), and of course their own gameplay styles. Base statistical differences are superfluous when all of these other factors are concerned, so it is here where the differences will be "celebrated".

I don't mean to sound arrogant, Ozz, but saying Funcom will lose out or be hindered commercially based on one game mechanic decision is quite pathetic. I encourage you to look outside the box and see what else the game has to offer.

If you're that passionate about the glaringly "obvious" differences between men and women in the world, the join a roleplaying server and have all female avatars become what Howard envisioned them to be, only leaving a select few (literally a handful) to rise from the ranks and become "worthy" even in the eyes of men.