I think they should have kept it equal.

But also importantly I'd prefer they start adding more important characters as companions than random nobodies.

Like this expansion - Jakarn would have made a really cool companion who could have then followed us around for the story and have added dialogue for this story. It probably takes more work and effort than just having random people who are isolated from the world around them, but this is the level of quality I'd like to see them strive for. One of the reasons I enjoy FFXIV for example is the ongoing relationships you develop with the game's NPCs, whereas most of this game is very isolated and disjointed in the storytelling.

Other examples of how this could be used is having someone like Quen from the Thieves' Guild as a Companion. Great characters already in game that add variety in personalities and in-game activities. Maybe there are good options from Dark Brotherhood.

I also think the current companions should get new personal quests and expand on their stories also, else it's a bit stagnant for characters we have with us a lot of the time.

Don’t put so much into it. Flip a coin four times in a row. A perfect split between heads and tails in those 4 tosses happens less then you think it does.

(Unless you are Rosencrantz & Guildenstern of course.)

ADarklore wrote: »

I'm glad I'm not the only person who is not happy with this. I don't know WHY they opted to go with two females instead of a male/female offering... I'm loath to think it has anything to do with any political motivations... but I AM left with the question of WHY? Is it because they see more players using Mirri than Bastian and assumed that it was because of the gender? Instead, the reality of it being most people hate Bastian and his 'white knight' persona.

I must live in a completely different reality then, perhaps my world is flat and carried aloft by four great cosmic elephants, standing atop a flying apex sky whale as it glides across the star-dappled skies. Since well, most people I know absolutely love Bastian for exactly that personality.

And I see a lot of people on similar flying space whales (radiant apex, lucky ***) nodding with me in agreement as they float past, so it's obvious Bastian is the best companion by unequivocal divine decree.

i think men havent been represented fairly in this mmo or video games in general for a long time now, and thats typical. genshin impact has like 80% female characters, and I will be waiting years for lost ark to introduce the male variant of shadowhunter.

i think there's reasons for this, but i think 1 male and 1 female companion each expansion is more fair. we have now 3 female, and 1 male. typical of the ratio in other games, like genshin or lost ark 25% men, 75% women.

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Sorced wrote: »

It makes me feel like ZOS is trying to court the straight male gamer community. I realize the female companions are probably more popular, but I would appreciate a close to 50-50 gender balance a lot. It's not a trivial issue for me, personally.

^THIS is why I said in one of my comments that I hoped it wasn't POLITICAL... because it could either be these companions are being designed by straight men or they're pandering to the "METOO" movement by appealing to the 'empowered female' attitude so prevalent today.

Some people say, "Why does gender matter?"... first off, they had already discussed adding a 'romance' option later, so yes, in that respect GENDER DOES MATTER!! Secondly, some people prefer to hang out with males instead of females... how many guys do you know hang out on their days off with female friends? Most hang out with their buddies. Females tend to hang with females... that's how most people choose their friends. I have mixed friends, but being a gay male, I am more inclined to hang with other gay men or straight women. But in-game, I'm much more inclined to want to have a male companion with potential romance options down the road (if they add them in-game). Right now, while Bastian is somewhat nice to look at, his white knight attitude gets in the way of my character who is a shade of grey when it comes to morals and who wants to play all the content with ONE character, but in doing so, currently cannot utilize Companions depending on content being player. Bastian is morally 'white knight' and Mirri has a thing against the Dark Brotherhood and the Blade of Woe.

Many people have said, "Well, I use Bastian on my character that..." that's nice for players that have multiple characters... but for a player that has only ONE character, it'd be nice to have a male Companion who is also a shade of grey morally.

So in this Chapter... once again I won't have the option to have a MALE character who is morally grey because the devs opted, for whatever reason, to bring us two females. Again, I'm not sure WHO made this decision, but IMO they were WRONG and I cannot understand why they wouldn't have expected some backlash for it. You'd think after the outrage over on FFXIV when they said they wouldn't be releasing male Viera... that ZOS would have paid more attention to the whole gender aspect when adding Companion characters to games. MOST people want diversity, they want options, and choosing genders is one of those options that many players want.

Heartrage wrote: »

It’s only the second set of companion. If they keep adding only females i would see it as a problem especially if they add a more meaningful relationship system. For now, I think it’s fine but i would expect two male for the next chapter.

I wouldn't expect any particular quotas. I just want it to be the case that say in a couple of years, the genders will be roughly equal (no need for them to be exact).

But when there are so few companions as there is now, it's easy to have things be gender imbalanced. They literally only added one more lady than male than they "should" have to have the system remain gender balanced. And now people are talking about ratios as if they don't fluctuate wildly when the amount of objects are low.

So for example in 2023 they could add 1 lady and 1 man in the next chapter, and a then another male companion in the Q4 DLC. That year we'd have 66% of the companions being men (2/3) but would put us 3 men and 4 women. Then the next year they could do 2 guys only. And that would be us at 5 men and still 4 women.

That's an arbitrary example not an actual suggestion, to show how they can keep an eye towards gender diversity with men and women roughly equal in numbers, without being forced to fit a particular quota of okay now we HAVE to do 2 guys. Gives them more flexibility to tell the stories they need to tell while still keeping in mind that gender diversity is important.

Mirri would be ideal for me except for her fixation on some bugs.

One that didn't mind Dark Brotherhood might be useful, but I am not sure which negatives I would prefer.

I currently prefer Bastian over Mirri, at least on the only character I've acquired them on so far. But I don't really care strongly enough to have a companion gender preference overall, and I wouldn't particularly be looking forward to leveling a new male (or female) companion to replace Bastian with.

Youyouz06 wrote: »

There's more important issues with the game

There are always more important issues with the game. That doesn't mean the other issues aren't issues.

Companions have been a major feature of 2 chapters now so this is significant for a lot of players.

Kesstryl wrote: »

fall0athboy wrote: »

Fennwitty wrote: »

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

Honestly, that's kind of what I expect. Video games tend to have more males playing them and they want to sell costumes for "the waifus".

I want more male companions because I am a gay man.

Exactly, I'm a female player and I know plenty of other female players, and many of us do get sick of straight male players being marketed toward because we want shiny things too. I also have a gay guildmate who is not happy about this. Diversity is good for everyone. Companions are still new, and to have an oversight like this so early in the companion system when you have such a huge diversity of players with different tastes is why threads like this appear. We are not being political, we just see what's going on and are not happy about being brushed aside for the perceived player demographic being marketed towards.

Same,I am a female and I much prefer male slaves....errr I mean companions.
I dont think the 2 female companions would be a issue of we would already got at least 2 more companions with the Deadlands.However having to wait an entire year for new ones just to find out it will be 2 females was let down.
I will most likely unlock the Khajiit but I wont bother with the Breton as I use Bastian as tank.

I don't see how wanting another male companion option is unreasonable or trivial. We invest a lot of ourselves into our characters and a companion is basically an extension of that. We spend a lot of time with them and should have equal options to choose from. It was like a slap in the face being denied that and I have 0 interest in these new companions now.

My personal preference is to have more females since I prefer to use them in games... but I understand that I am not everyone and by all rights, the next couple SHOULD be men (or maybe non-binary? That would be cool).