Gender equality for companions?

coop500

Does gender equality matter to you for companions?
ATM it looks like we're gonna get two more females, leaving us with three females and only one male.
Personally this kinda bums me out a bit, as I prefer male companions when possible in games.
What's your thoughts?

coop500

Other/mixed (feel free to comment)

Gonna go with mixed as, ATM, I am bummed, but IF the writing devs impress me with their personality, it won't bother me as much.

However if they go the easy route and make the khajiit evil and the breton goody too shoes, then she's basically just female Bastian and that would bum me out/feel wasted.

Elsonso

Doesn't matter to me

Bastian hates the competition.

Fennwitty

Eh, would be nice to have it equal

I'm hoping there's no ulterior motives like encouraging sales of outfits and costumes to a perceived demographic.

SerasWhip

I rather have more females

still waiting for Serana

Lady_Galadhiel

Yes, I much prefer equal gender options.

Where is my sexy male Altmer templar knight?

whitecrow

Doesn't matter to me

I would be happy if I didn't hear the word "gender" for ten years.

Casul

I don't use companions, I just came here for (insert reason)

Don't use them. But as always.

Character development/relationship > gender

SammyKhajit

Doesn't matter to me

If the companion personality and dialogues are terrible, it doesn’t matter what gender they are.

Still, this one understands some players want another male companion. An Elam Drals type would be fun. Or that half naked Nord by the Hews Bane wayshrine. He looks like he’s buff, and in need of gainful employment.

Arunei

coop500 wrote: »

Gonna go with mixed as, ATM, I am bummed, but IF the writing devs impress me with their personality, it won't bother me as much.

However if they go the easy route and make the khajiit evil and the breton goody too shoes, then she's basically just female Bastian and that would bum me out/feel wasted.

They said in the stream that she wants to "do right by the player" and implied she's not just female Bastian. Judging by what they were saying, it seems like both of the new Companions won't really care if you go around committing All the Crimes.

Gaebriel0410

As long as it stays roughly equal I don't mind, 4 is kind of a hard number to judge by since it's so low. Maybe the archetypes or voice actors at hand made female chars a better choice in this case, or perhaps their gender ties into the questline (in case Isobel is nobility, since there's examples of both patrilineal and matrilineal succession in High Rock, but not much specific info about it is known, so it might well differ by region, and as such could tie into a storyline involving succession) .

What I would like to see gender equality in, is HAIRSTYLES.
Or any cosmetics for that matter, if a dude can wear a dress, he should be able to wear eyeliner too.

adriant1978

Other/mixed (feel free to comment)

I'd generally lean towards balance, but if there is a good reason why a companion should be of a particular gender I wouldn't want their characterization undermined just for the sake of equal numbers.

Note that "we think that our playerbase is mostly male and prefers to collect waifus" is not a good reason.

Ilsabet

Doesn't matter to me

If I were more invested in a romance aspect to the companion system, both I and my characters might want a larger pool of men to choose from, but since these partnerships are going to be strictly platonic, I'm more interested in their personalities than their genders.

Malthorne

I rather have more females

I would like to have two female companions out at the same time

Soulshine

Gaebriel0410 wrote: »

As long as it stays roughly equal I don't mind, 4 is kind of a hard number to judge by since it's so low. Maybe the archetypes or voice actors at hand made female chars a better choice in this case, or perhaps their gender ties into the questline (in case Isobel is nobility, since there's examples of both patrilineal and matrilineal succession in High Rock, but not much specific info about it is known, so it might well differ by region, and as such could tie into a storyline involving succession) .

What I would like to see gender equality in, is HAIRSTYLES.
Or any cosmetics for that matter, if a dude can wear a dress, he should be able to wear eyeliner too.

Speaking as a hardcore Bowie fan... I agree with this!

Incredibly ridiculous that all options of hair and makeup are not open to all chars.

Hapexamendios

Doesn't matter to me

Not important

Galwylin

Eh, would be nice to have it equal

I prefer males also. If you could romance them then female companions would be interesting (I guess males too for that) but honestly I don't think any more about them than I do a non-combative pet.

Kiralyn2000

I rather have more females

Bastian who?

daim

Doesn't matter to me

I dont really care. I might be interested of a dark minded character though. But looking the new appearences im assuming we will get the same fluff, boring sweet-talkers as the last two.

Stania

Eh, would be nice to have it equal

Probably ZoS are trying to pander many player's need of having more waifus.

I usually play with other players, so I don't need companions, but yeah, I think that's kinda unfair. Like Mass Effect 1 where you could have a romance with two gals (straight and lesbian) but only one guy (straight relationship only).

Kesstryl

Yes, I much prefer equal gender options.

This whole thing could be alleviated if they just offered more companions period. We got two in an entire year last year. Why couldn't they give us two more with Fargrave/Deadlands? Looks like two per year will be the new normal. So two years from now maybe the genders will equal out. Just make more than two companions a year and broaden the pool so everyone is happy.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

I rather have more females

Perhaps they could offer companions with gender-neutral names and you could choose from either a male or female version at the beginning of the quest line? It doesn't seem like that much more work, and it would make a lot more people happy.

@ZOS_Kevin

Elsonso

Doesn't matter to me

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Perhaps they could offer companions with gender-neutral names and you could choose from either a male or female version at the beginning of the quest line? It doesn't seem like that much more work, and it would make a lot more people happy.

Twice the dialog, which I have to consider is probably the most expensive part of a companion.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Yes, I much prefer equal gender options.

I want the companions to be well done characters that are balanced in both which sex and race they are. So the ones after these should be two male ones to balance it out.

ArchangelIsraphel

Other/mixed (feel free to comment)

I'd rather have a design your own companion system so that I can make characters that are more interesting to me. I don't need voiced dialouge for them- just give me basic companion functionality.

I'm also really disappointed that the only male companion we've had is...well. Bastian =_= ugh someone let us use helms, please

Jaimeh

They must have some internal statistics of how many female vs male toons there are, etc., and perhaps saw that female companions would be better received?

myskyrim26

Yes, I much prefer equal gender options.

I wish I had a male Khajiit companion for my RP ( I miss J'zargo so much). Yet I'l be happy to have a female Khajiit, as my main is an Altmer lady strictly loyal to AD

jasonhunter

Doesn't matter to me

Wow I dont care. At all. Now excuse me while I recover from my hemorrhoids and anxiety disorder. I have real problems and dont care for virtual grievances...

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

I rather have more females

Elsonso wrote: »

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

Perhaps they could offer companions with gender-neutral names and you could choose from either a male or female version at the beginning of the quest line? It doesn't seem like that much more work, and it would make a lot more people happy.

Twice the dialog, which I have to consider is probably the most expensive part of a companion.

But, they really don't have much to say now.

Danikat

Eh, would be nice to have it equal

I think the most important thing is to have companions with an interesting personality and character design, and if a particular gender fits the character they want to make then they should go for it.

But overall I think they should aim for similar numbers of men and women, and other things like a good mix of races, opinions on things like your character committing crimes etc. Short of letting players design their own companions it's probably the best way to give everyone a chance at finding companions that work well for them.

(Also it's what I do with my characters. When I'm making a new one if I think the idea fits a man or a woman better I'll go for that, but if I think they could be either I'll pick whichever I currently have the fewest of. At the moment I've got 4 women and 4 men, but I'm not sure I'm going to keep the newest one, so it might go back to 4 women and 3 men...or I might have another idea for a male character I do keep.)

Chips_Ahoy

So we must have a female/male version of the prophet?
Lyris?
Sai?
Abnur?

Or does that equality only apply to the crown store companions?

First of all it is a business, you do not need to be a genius to know why that decision.

I would prefer that they sell companion tokens and create mine.