I want to see female gladiators! YEAH!

[Dogfight]

Female gladiators! Nearly every MMO game I've played or even heard of have female and male options. There don't have to be penalties or bonuses or even any change in programming. It would be purely aesthetic. But this game could use some more eye candy.

I know this game is a business and you're in it to make money. If you want to see more traffic and more player retention then female gladiators is the way to go. Thanks for reading and good luck!

[DaMuchi]

mm... i think you assuming that Nate is here just for money is a bit offensive. and what aesthetics are you talking about? in this game you can only see your armour and faceless men being slashed to bits.

[Lunarion199]

- This game is way better than browser games of its category. Nate deserves more than what he may be getting presently.
- We really don't need female gladiators for asthetic point of view. But yes, strategically it may make sense. For example, female gladiators may have strength/ size attribute upgradable to maximum 8 points instead of 10 while agility/ presense upgradable to maximum 12 points. This may just bring more variety to the game.
- Female players, however little in number, will no doubt welcome the change if they get to create female gladiators. You bet.

Overall, I support the idea.

[Arkham]

Nate had spoken of adding female gladiators, and introducing exclusive styles associated with them in the future in an old post.

[Apoca1ypse]

you just want to sunder their armor and then show off your signature move dont you ;)

[Sythion]

you just wanna brandish your long spear and show off your lunge dont you ;)

[DaMuchi]

you just want to sweep her onto the ground rain death from above and hear her war cry don't you?

[Sythion]

You just want to get a second wind after your finishing blow don't you?

[Lunarion199]

I just wanna admire her skill and bravery, and request the emperor to free her from slavery :)

[Deus]

Hmm I don't think this post will help attract female players to the game (at least generally speaking). But to make some short comments;

Add possibility to make you’re gladiator female - yes that would be sweet but not necessary since I the owner might well be female (and why would I not want a stable full of male gladiators to do my biddings (slaves :P)). Jokes aside – it would have been different if you the player were supposed to take the role as the gladiator then excluding the possibility of female characters could lower their interest in the game (at least generally speaking :P).

Add different stats for male and female? Well I think it’s worth considering what that might imply and if it worth it. First of the “world of pit of war” is not yet well developed (in the sense a huge wiki on the history and culture of the world). For example I have seen posts about other races and such but nothing official yet. So in this world there might be cultural differences between men and women (at least among some races If there are different ones) and well that implies just that (in this fantasy world female humans have learned different fighting styles from male humans). But saying men are stronger that females or females are prettier that’s not much more than promotion of gender bias (unless one also can show a reason to believe that male humans are… and I don’t think games or game creators should involve them self in such businesses :P). Off cause one could say “in this fantasy world there are differences…” but that just pushes the problem to another level. And even though (I guess) most people won’t care (or maybe more accurately won’t be aware), some – such as me – do. And I’m generally not lured to play such games – so as a way to attract female players I’ll say nay rather it might work the opposite.

And sorry for that rant – I have been socially challenged since I took “to many” courses in Gender studies :P

[Sythion]

It's just as foolish to blame all differences between men and women on gender bias as it is to blame them all on biological differences.

Anyway, having female gladiators be statistically different than male gladiators would add more variety to the game, which is a good thing. I also think you are making some BIG leaps in concluding that the ability to have female characters will disuade female players. I don't think male only options is a more welcoming environment to female players at all. I also know both my and my friend's wife would be more willing to play the game if they could make a female gladiator.

As long as you don't have Caesary or Evony style ads, I'm fine with it.

[Deus]

It's just as foolish to blame all differences between men and women on gender bias as it is to blame them all on biological differences.

I don't blame anything on anything - not even saying that possible differences would be bias, biological or whatever. What I am saying is - if you want to do differences make them cultural (e.g. fighting styles) rather than "biological" – or based in “traits” (as suggested in a previous post where someone suggested men women should not be as able to have as high strength/stamina (or what it was) but instead have high agility/presence).



Anyway, having female gladiators be statistically different than male gladiators would add more variety to the game, which is a good thing.

Sure



I also think you are making some BIG leaps in concluding that the ability to have female characters will disuade female players. I don't think male only options is a more welcoming environment to female players at all. I also know both my and my friend's wife would be more willing to play the game if they could make a female gladiator.

I think you have misunderstood me gravely - I do not conclude any such thing. If you see my first comment I say YAY to female characters. Probably all my gladiators would be female if I had the option even. What I am saying is that if a game give in to views such as "women are weaker than men" and such it might dissuade at least some female players (and I guess men as well).


As long as you don't have Caesary or Evony style ads, I'm fine with it.

Agreed :D

[Sythion]

Sorry for misunderstanding :)

[Lunarion199]

Well, someone said about possible statistical variations only thinking of bringing variety to the game and nothing else; and just thinking that historically gladiatrix/ amazons or even female ninjas in their time took more advantage of reflexes and intellect rather than depending upon brute strength. A gladatrix usually fought without a helmet and brest-plate making her vulnerable but in turn enabling her rely more on agility and speed, as revealed in ancient evidences. She fought male gladiators, dwarves and lions too. By no means it would mean that on average a gladiatrix cannot be stronger than a gladiator. So please let's not jump to such serious conclusions.
Anyways, Apologies.

[DaMuchi]

i think having female gladiators is just one more thing to be balanced. and if any of you actually made any game in your life, you would know balancing is a f*cking pain in the ass.

[Deus]

Sorry for misunderstanding :)
Oh, or maybe I should learn to express myself more clearly :P


Well, someone said about possible statistical variations only thinking of bringing variety to the game and nothing else; and just thinking that historically gladiatrix/ amazons or even female ninjas in their time took more advantage of reflexes and intellect rather than depending upon brute strength. A gladatrix usually fought without a helmet and brest-plate making her vulnerable but in turn enabling her rely more on agility and speed, as revealed in ancient evidences. She fought male gladiators, dwarves and lions too. By no means it would mean that on average a gladiatrix cannot be stronger than a gladiator. So please let's not jump to such serious conclusions.
Anyways, Apologies.

Well, this is little my point but if you make “ninja gladiators” (don’t do that I’ll cry :P) that are more agile then strong then why exclude them to be all female/all male? If variation is what you want you can do “whatever-kind-of-gladiator” that’s both male and female. Or if you for some reason want the “amazons” that have a certain fighting style – make it into a certain fighting style (just as , rage or war or theatrics) except its excluded to females (why start change the attributes for “this kind of gladiators” – it’s not like raising strength on my theatrics are a primary objective so the “max 10” there makes it no more no less)


i think having female gladiators is just one more thing to be balanced. and if any of you actually made any game in your life, you would know balancing is a f*cking pain in the ass.

Yes (I never developed a computer game but I’ve been involved in development of tabletop rpgs).… that’s also a great reason to make the “differences” visible through making it fighting styles rather than the attributes because players can help checking out how the skills seems to work but when it comes to the attributes all I can say is that generally it seems like more is better than less (and unless one make “females can raise +100 while men can’t raise at all) or similar it might be hard to tell a difference.


And now to something completely different… it just “popped up” during this discussion… in an earlier post I said – correct me if I’m wrong – what you actually play is the owner of the stable and not the gladiators in their own. Now I like this notion but as a matter of fact this is only a “meta” idea (or whatever you want to call it) – there is nothing more to it than “it say so” – no “owner page” or whatever you like to call it. Now I don’t know how much work it would be to add but could it might be worth at least considering. That will say a side where you can create the owner – say name, gender (woho male female whatever) ad an avatar, information/story and so on… not even necessary to add any actual game stats to it (even though I did see achievements were suggested and what better place to have them than among the owner – since it’s him /her that gain prestige by “breathing” great gladiators). Just an idea that takes the lure of being able to play whatever gender you like into consideration while at the same time not making it into a game stat.

And maybe I ought to apologize for long posts since apologizing seems to be popular :P

[Sythion]

Simple way to implement female gladiators while giving them a sense of difference and variety:

*Use male gladiators as a base. Female gladiators have small differences in certain stats (size, agility, whatever), perhaps up to 10%.
*Change the range of stat possibilities to make female gladiators able to be just as big, agile, etc as male. For instance, if the range of male gladiators strength, is 50-80 and the average is 65. The range of female gladiators could be 40-80, with an average of 60. Agility would instead range from 60-80, averaging 70.
*Slave market randomly determines whether your gladiator is male or female.

I believe this will give statistical variance between men and women without causing too much of a balance issue.
It's not the most interesting solution, but it's a hell of a lot easier than designing, developing and balancing an entirely different skill tree.

[Lunarion199]

Why not ask female players themselves how they would like female gladiators to be like? Their preferred stats, preferred gear, preferred styles of fighting and preferred weapons? Leave the historical facts apart; this is anyway a fantasy game..
Anyone here??

[Sythion]

I don't think female forum posters is going to a large enough pool to be representive of anything.

[Dogfight]

mm... i think you assuming that Nate is here just for money is a bit offensive.

I agree completely. But one thing: I've never in my life said "just for money" in this forum. Never. I've never even used the word "just" at all here. If you see it in my post or any other post of mine please notify me IMMEDIATELY. Now in the meantime let me apologize beforehand if this was even implied. I love this game. The idea is original, the art is great and it doesn't take up hours and hours that most of us don't have.

The Arena section and the Tavern section are the only places anybody can even see anything that resembles a female. Oh yeah, there's the Spa in the Stables. Now, let's wander to the Stable and see the "Overview" of any one of your boys. We see 7 small pictures, each one that is associated to an attribute: all burly, bald guys. If anyone of your gladiators were women you'd have different pictures, right? I hope so. That's one example.

No need to stir up debate on which gender is more this or that. That's the kind of stuff that gets people into trouble (although it could get a LOT of free publicity). No need to re-invent the wheel or even lift the hood. It's the little things, the bells and whistles.

Whether anything like this happens or not doesn't matter to me. Like most of you, I'll keep coming back to see my gladiators tear it up in the Arena.