Why no Female Avatars in HomeFront

[Suigetsu]

I did a search and hadn't seen this question asked as yet (and it will be every shooter game has a thread asking if there are female avatars).So... female avatars - yes or no? If the answer is "maybe" I would strongly suggest that there are a lot of females that play shooter games and statistically females prefer to play as their own gender when given a choice. Statistically many men don't mind using female avatars (about 30% of men will choose a female avatar when given a choice), so it's really a win-win situation. I'm getting a bit tired of playing as a guy. And the first man that responds to this thread with the ubiquitous "but women don't serve on the front lines in real war" response should educate himself before he looks like an idiot. Canada and many countries allow women in ALL aspects of their military, including the front lines and the second guy that jumps in with "but female avatars have smaller hitboxes" should play some UT3, MGO, or R6: Vegas - all of which have female avatars and that third guy that's going to jump in with "go make me a sandwich" sure, what kind do you want. I'm a woman. I can multitask. I can beat you in a shooter game while making you a sandwich at the same time!

[RockOn]

While there is a female character support role that fights along side of the main character there unfortunately aren't any females to play as from what I would expect from the Single player campaign. What happens is the story is very direct and focused on an already deeply set path, and any changes even if merely cosmetic would just taint the story. As far as adding it to multiplayer - it can possibly be too much of a touchy topic to consider? Too many politicians and activists have their eyes trained on video games and ready to take advantage of any misunderstandings that can be presented in current releases. Some might seem adding women avatars as disheartening when considering the violence that can be associated with the Multiplayer game play while others deem it quite fine.

[Adonis]

I can understand the single player campaign following a specific character's story and maintaining a single gender to ensure continuity in interactions with NPC's etc but for multiplayer there is absolutely NO reason not to have female avatars available. The concept or story of the game should not exclude female soldiers (it's an invasion of the US are all the American women moving to Canada? If so, maybe we Canadians can send down some of our female troops... like the ones currently serving on the front lines in Afghanistan). There are no political implications to having female avatars. Even the U.S. government has often debated removing their restriction on not having women serve on the front lines, because the fact is that there no longer are "front lines" and female American soldiers are being killed while fighting as soldiers (Google Silver Star recipient Leigh Ann Hester). If the game is going to have any reflection of reality, then the game creators must be aware that the North Korean military has for many years had female soldiers and in fact women are not excluded from conscription in North Korea. Both sides of an online multiplayer game could easily (and accurately) allow for female avatars.

[Wyvern]

Aside from "immersive reality" this is a game. Having female avatars might attract more women to the game, and it certainly won't deter men from buying the game. Many games have brought in female avatars as DLC because of the continued requests for this simple character customization (Resistance 2, MGO) while other shooter games have successfully used female avatars from the beginning with little or no controversy (R6:Vegas, UT3, etc). From a marketing perspective, there simply is no downside to having female avatars for online play.

[ApplePowerPC]

Just a side note of possible interest, but actually many women served in the Soviet military DURING World War 2. Women were pilots and flew combat missions, there were many units of female snipers (Lyudmila Pavlichenko being one of the most famous snipers), and females also served in ground units. Actually, the Russians have a history of using women in war (including their civil wars and WW1) whenever it was convenient for them to do so due to lack of men, and also because Russian women have always fought for the right to serve their country in a military role. Even back as far as WW1 and their civil war, they had small battalions that were made up entirely of women and these battalions did actual ground fighting. I guess this is one of the reasons I find it so irritating when some men say "but women don't serve on the front lines" for many countries, women have always served on the front lines. Not in huge numbers but they've been there.

[Common]

if you have played UT3, R6;Vegas or MGO after they introduced female avatars, you'll find that gaming is very simply "see enemy, kill enemy" and you'll very quickly not care if it's a female avatar or not! It's also important to remember that quite a number of those female avatars will be played by men who just like the novelty of having a female character. Though if you do hesitate to kill me because I have a female avatar, you'll have time to think over the error of your ways when you're responding, because I'll have absolutely no hesitation in killing you!