Why is there only 1 Male Companion and 3 Female?

TheGent · August 2022

I think that's pretty "ist" considering the outrage if it were the other way around (you know this is true dont say its not). Can we atleast get ONE more strong male companion in this game besides ONE. ? I know i cant be the only person thats picked up and requested this.

Cendrillion21 · August 2022

TheGent wrote: »

I think that's pretty "ist" considering the outrage if it were the other way around (you know this is true dont say its not). Can we atleast get ONE more strong male companion in this game besides ONE. ? I know i cant be the only person thats picked up and requested this.

You're not. It's been asked but I'm not aware if it's been answered. I would also like at least one more male companion.

spartaxoxo · August 2022

There would not be outrage the other way around. There are plenty of men in this game. A single update having more women doesn't make the game sexist.

spartaxoxo · August 2022

Cendrillion21 wrote: »

TheGent wrote: »

I think that's pretty "ist" considering the outrage if it were the other way around (you know this is true dont say its not). Can we atleast get ONE more strong male companion in this game besides ONE. ? I know i cant be the only person thats picked up and requested this.

You're not. It's been asked but I'm not aware if it's been answered. I would also like at least one more male companion.

It has been asked and answered. The devs are aware of the feedback. Don't know if the guy will be strong.

VaranisArano · August 2022

It's been asked.

The Devs didn't answer, as far as I know. And they probably won't answer questions like this when they wear their agenda on their sleeve.

Truth be told, I was a little surprised myself that ZOS didn't continue on with one male and one female companion. It seemed like an unobjectionable pattern to me.

But because I'm pedantic like this, it's 1 male and 3 female companions, not 4.

merpins · August 2022

Who cares? The companion system is new. They release a couple each major update. Since there has only been 1 major update since companions were introduced, there is bound to be disparity. If they release 2 at a time, they have no obligation to make one man and one woman. Hell, they don't even have the obligation to make either of them have a gender; they could give us a sentient slime named Garfunkle, get Chris Pratt to voice it, and have the character have no concept of gender in the first place because it's a *** slime.
If they released a companion in each and every zone of the game, as in all the ones that have already been done, and 80% of them were men or 80% were women, then there'd probably be something going on. But I doubt they're gonna release companions in each old zone to begin with. Hold your horses. It's new.

VaranisArano · August 2022

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Cendrillion21 wrote: »

TheGent wrote: »

I think that's pretty "ist" considering the outrage if it were the other way around (you know this is true dont say its not). Can we atleast get ONE more strong male companion in this game besides ONE. ? I know i cant be the only person thats picked up and requested this.

You're not. It's been asked but I'm not aware if it's been answered. I would also like at least one more male companion.

It has been asked and answered. The devs are aware of the feedback. Don't know if the guy will be strong.

Did they? Cool! Guess I missed it.

Treselegant · August 2022

Who cares?

People who prefer male companions, that's who. I'm happy with my current companion but it always seemed to me less care was put into his implementation (less reactions to areas etc) than the female companions so coupled with the two new ones also being women - there currently seems a bit of a bias.

spartaxoxo · August 2022

VaranisArano wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Cendrillion21 wrote: »

TheGent wrote: »

I think that's pretty "ist" considering the outrage if it were the other way around (you know this is true dont say its not). Can we atleast get ONE more strong male companion in this game besides ONE. ? I know i cant be the only person thats picked up and requested this.

You're not. It's been asked but I'm not aware if it's been answered. I would also like at least one more male companion.

It has been asked and answered. The devs are aware of the feedback. Don't know if the guy will be strong.

Did they? Cool! Guess I missed it.

Yup. Here you go

First statement

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just wanted to highlight that the team is aware that players would also like more male companions. We have passed that feedback along for their consideration for future companions.

We'll also pass along the want for and older grumpy adventurer for consideration.

Second statement

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hey All, we have been reviewing feedback across the board related to companions. While there is nothing to report yet, just wanted to let you know that the team has seen feedback related to more future male companions. They will consider this feedback for possible future companions. Thanks all for your suggestions.

merpins · August 2022

Treselegant wrote: »

Who cares?

People who prefer male companions, that's who. I'm happy with my current companion but it always seemed to me less care was put into his implementation (less reactions to areas etc) than the female companions so coupled with the two new ones also being women - there currently seems a bit of a bias.

There's 4 options. It's not that less care was put into any one character's implementation, but that he was probably the first one designed so they hadn't gotten it down yet. I say "who cares" because people that are so passionate about it are overreacting. You don't have much choice yet. That's a fact.
Plus, personally, I don't care if my companion is male or female. I'd rather have a UNIQUE companion. A troll, or a wolf, or a goblin. Why they all gotta be normal ES races? Give me a companion named Gorf that is an adolescent hill giant.

spartaxoxo · August 2022

merpins wrote: »

Who cares? The companion system is new. They release a couple each major update. Since there has only been 1 major update since companions were introduced, there is bound to be disparity. If they release 2 at a time, they have no obligation to make one man and one woman. Hell, they don't even have the obligation to make either of them have a gender; they could give us a sentient slime named Garfunkle, get Chris Pratt to voice it, and have the character have no concept of gender in the first place because it's a *** slime.
If they released a companion in each and every zone of the game, as in all the ones that have already been done, and 80% of them were men or 80% were women, then there'd probably be something going on. But I doubt they're gonna release companions in each old zone to begin with. Hold your horses. It's new.

I agree completely. There is only a single "extra" woman right now. Just one. Since by this logic they had to have 1 of the ladies, there is only 1 extra lady. That's how few companions have been released. It's easy to claim a skew when there are so few. Now if we get like 10 companions or at least a couple more releases and there is still only Bastian, I'd say there is an issue.

Treselegant · August 2022

I say "who cares" because people that are so passionate about it are overreacting.

Hey, people disagreeing with you about something that is important to them in game isn't 'overreacting', sheesh, you'll be using the word 'hysterical' next.

FlopsyPrince · August 2022

Does it have to be an equal number to be "fair"? Can no release tilt that balance?

Are you really sure players prefer a balance over an imbalance, whatever that imbalance is?

I play mostly female characters now (though I did not originally in WoW) because I like the look better. I do have my namesake as male, but I think all the others are female. I would still rather have a female companion personally. I don't claim to represent the whole playerbase, but I am not convinced that the desires are for a complete 50/50 split across the playerbase. It could be most want all males, but I am not convinced.

No way to find that out, especially in a forum, without stirring up controversy though.

An interesting question would be what percentage of characters (especially "active" ones) are male vs. female.

merpins · August 2022

Treselegant wrote: »

I say "who cares" because people that are so passionate about it are overreacting.

Hey, people disagreeing with you about something that is important to them in game isn't 'overreacting', sheesh, you'll be using the word 'hysterical' next.

I'm saying it's an overreaction because there's only 4 options. There's no skew in men vs women in companions. There's just a super small sample size because they only release 2 at a time. the Devs have no obligation to release 1 man and 1 woman companion each time they release companions. They could release 2 women, 2 men, 1 man and no one else, they could give us a wolf, or a talking mudcrab. It doesn't matter.

TheGent · August 2022

it just seems more fair that way. i mean 1/ 4 is kinda off balance atleast make it 2/4...i think it puts off a bad message. and is quite hypocritical really. because if it were 4 males and 1 female the whole world will be outraged, people would be getting fired at ZoS for all types of buzzwords.

MaraxusTheOrc · August 2022

merpins wrote: »

Who cares? The companion system is new. They release a couple each major update. Since there has only been 1 major update since companions were introduced, there is bound to be disparity. If they release 2 at a time, they have no obligation to make one man and one woman. Hell, they don't even have the obligation to make either of them have a gender; they could give us a sentient slime named Garfunkle, get Chris Pratt to voice it, and have the character have no concept of gender in the first place because it's a *** slime.
If they released a companion in each and every zone of the game, as in all the ones that have already been done, and 80% of them were men or 80% were women, then there'd probably be something going on. But I doubt they're gonna release companions in each old zone to begin with. Hold your horses. It's new.

Please release Garfunkle.

TheGent · August 2022

spartaxoxo wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Cendrillion21 wrote: »

TheGent wrote: »

I think that's pretty "ist" considering the outrage if it were the other way around (you know this is true dont say its not). Can we atleast get ONE more strong male companion in this game besides ONE. ? I know i cant be the only person thats picked up and requested this.

You're not. It's been asked but I'm not aware if it's been answered. I would also like at least one more male companion.

It has been asked and answered. The devs are aware of the feedback. Don't know if the guy will be strong.

Did they? Cool! Guess I missed it.

Yup. Here you go

First statement

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Just wanted to highlight that the team is aware that players would also like more male companions. We have passed that feedback along for their consideration for future companions.

We'll also pass along the want for and older grumpy adventurer for consideration.

Second statement

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hey All, we have been reviewing feedback across the board related to companions. While there is nothing to report yet, just wanted to let you know that the team has seen feedback related to more future male companions. They will consider this feedback for possible future companions. Thanks all for your suggestions.

Oh cool! I didnt know that! Well thats good news then.

spartaxoxo · August 2022

TheGent wrote: »

it just seems more fair that way. i mean 1/ 4 is kinda off balance atleast make it 2/4...i think it puts off a bad message. and is quite hypocritical really. because if it were 4 males and 1 female the whole world will be outraged, people would be getting fired at ZoS for all types of buzzwords.

There are 8 male patrons and 0 female patrons, and there is one thread about it. There are 4 extra men, no dev statement, and a general lack of caring. Not that there needs to be any outrage on any of this, this is one of the most egalitarian games on the market.

There is 1 male companion and 3 female companions, and there has been several threads about it and multiple dev statements and people have generally made it loud and clear they want more guys. And none of that is from what I would call the "whole world would be outraged."

For games across the industry, there are more games that only male than only female. This is from 2017-2021, the last five years.

Just because there is a conversation around gender in video games, does not mean it's sexist and the whole world would be outraged if this game had released two male companions. This franchise has not generated that type of outrage in years, because it's one of the most equal franchises on the market.

They do need more male companions and they are coming, the game has had only a singular new companion duo since it's initial one. There's no need to make this out to be more than it is. This is not a world wide outrage level thing, regardless if they were all male or all female. Let there be more than such a tiny sample size before making those kinds of judgements.

ZOS_Kevin · August 2022

Thanks for sharing my previous comments on this @spartaxoxo. Appreciate it.

Just want to reiterate this here. The team is aware of this feedback regarding more male companions and factoring this in for future consideration. I have passed feedback similar to the ask for more male companions myself. So they are aware of the feedback.

Lastly, please consider how these questions are phrased and the potential accusatory nature of phrasing. There will be times when gender identity of companions will be the same while other times it won’t be. There is no malicious intent behind it, but the team is aware of the current feedback around the current balance.

Katlefiya · August 2022

Four female companions???

I don't think so.........

Eric_Prince · August 2022

It's great ZOS are hearing us, but please let it be brutal orc or wood elf warden. I specifically request female high elf goth necromancer with big ears. Or flat ears, whatever.

Aliyavana · August 2022

I think we’re gonna get the male redguard warden from the morrowind trailer next year if its set in the telvanni peninsula

spartaxoxo · August 2022

Eric_Prince wrote: »

Sure, but let it be brutal orc or wool elf warden. I specifically request female high elf goth necromancer with big ears.

I kinda wish Brahgas had been a companion. I haven't finished the tales quest line yet, so maybe I'll change my mind. But so far I likes he's not constantly making acorn puns and isn't super goofy. But, still has a bit of wit.

Eric_Prince · August 2022

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Eric_Prince wrote: »

Sure, but let it be brutal orc or wool elf warden. I specifically request female high elf goth necromancer with big ears.

I kinda wish Brahgas had been a companion. I haven't finished the tales quest line yet, so maybe I'll change my mind. But so far I likes he's not constantly making acorn puns and isn't super goofy. But, still has a bit of wit.

I'm fine with any male companion while I'm having my high elf dominatrix.

M0ntie · August 2022

I was hoping for a sassy male ancestor of Marcurio from Skyrim

anvilbert · August 2022

Companions are the least of the issues on my mind with where the game is going. But since the subject is here where is my buxom female companion, why do all the females look like they skipped to many meals.

Parasaurolophus · August 2022

I don't understand why there should be a balance between what gender the companions are? This somehow limits the creativity of ZoS.

Carcamongus · August 2022

How about a voriplasm companion?

EvilAutoTech · August 2022

We needs a shadowscale.

ArchMikem · August 2022

Because the next chapter will give you two Male companions.

morrowjen · August 2022

4? Is there a missing female companion I don't know about? As for why... I'm sure it has to do with the these were simply the companions writers put forth. Male gamers have been choosing to play as female for years now and that might've had something to do with it but more than likely it was just these characters were envisioned by their writer's as females. It also might've had something to do with the availability of voice actors.

I love Ember but it wouldn't surprise if she weren't the result of a scheduling conflict for a male VO and that the real reason she doesn't have a more common Khajiit grammar and accent is that she was written and voiced on short notice because something came up with whatever male companion they might've had planned. IOW, it really wouldn't surprise me that her voice was the result of necessity and hitting a deadline rather than innovation.

Regardless of why we might've gotten 2 females this time instead of one male and one female like with Mirri and Bastian I'm pretty certain next group will have at least 1 male. But more than likely all the complaining means they'll rush out 2 males next time regardless of what plans might've been.