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jmmalima
27-12-2008, 18:14
Hi all.

Now, let me start by saying that I am a MALE player. People who played the game probably know where I'm coming from with this introduction, for those who don't , then let me tell you my first experience with the game. Much to my surprise, when I went to 'customize' my character , you cannot chose a male character. I was gobsmacked. I searched in vain on the net, because I felt I was certainly missing something, but no.

Now , I must ask the question, why in the world can you not choose a male character????? I mean, we are in the age where even Football Manager allows you to chose a female manager. How many male riders do you know? THEY EXIST AND THEY ALSO BUY GAMES!!!!!
It certainly is not because of the 'storyline'... because the 'storyline' is so, so weak , even for a children game would the story be weak, let alone for a game clearly aimed at the pony club teenager crowd, and in any case, male or female plays no role in that story.
And speaking of the storyline, the first experience with it was both hilarious and ... well shocking. The first cut scene dialogs are reminiscent (also in quality) of a certain type of movies that shall remain nameless, such is the 'quality' of it. What role does this 'storyline' serve? What is the purpose of it? Is the game experience enhanced by it? Would it be decreased if it was not present? Well, judging by the vast amount of simulation games without storylines I would say it is pretty irrelevant and a waste of resources that could be best used elsewhere.

And getting back to the male / female discrimination (hmmm... EU to intervene? :laugh: whould it be so hard to at least allow a male player on the multiplayer mode??????? Is this idea so ridiculous?

Let me back track a bit , back to the customization, and a minor thing, the horse, there are six types of coat, one of the most common, the brown and white patched, is not present.

Another minor thing, why is it that there is no proper dressage hat present? It seems even weirder when the bonus videos show the riders with them...

As to the game on itself, I think that if the 'storyline' was removed , and the game was allowed to work as a proper video-game simulation of horse riding , it would be greatly enhanced... but hey, what do I know , I'm only a costumer... And it's a shame , because the events are very nice to run, there is a nice element of skill required with the remotes, and graphically, for the Wii , it actually looks good.
I think you guys have the basis of a decent horse riding game, or at least as much as horse riding can be simulated sitting on a sofa, but this male / female discrimination really got onto me. Now , where is that project manager?... weirdblue

Oh, another small one, the 'uncle' , even though pretending to have an USA accent, actually says 'interesting' in the British manner.

tacoboy
02-01-2009, 06:16
I completley agree with the above statement. I will quote something from your game site. When you go to the site click on the FEI button and you will see a little explantation of what the FEI is and does. In the text it says, "Equestrain Sport presents some unique qualities: its one of the very few sports where men and women compete on equal terms....." with that said WHY IS THERE NOT A MALE CHARACTER? please explain that. IF there is no male character please take that quote away.

kalniel
02-01-2009, 11:31
The FEI explanation tells you about the real life organisation that is FEI, but the game isn't a complete earth simulator that exactly mimics real life (would be far too boring if it did that!) - so some compromises have to be made. There are many games where you have to play a male character, so having one more that you have to play female can't be that big a problem surely? It's not like the game is saying that actually only females can buy and play the game.

But I do understand your points - if enough of a male market showed interest in this game then I'm sure they'd consider adding male riders for the next one.

jmmalima
02-01-2009, 12:29
...
But I do understand your points - if enough of a male market showed interest in this game then I'm sure they'd consider adding male riders for the next one.

Not wanting to sound cheeky, but please explain how is the male market supposed to get into a game that obviously shows no interest or tries nothing to capture them?

I may be old fashioned , but from your statement we could be led to believe that long gone are the days when the seller tried to grab a market share.

And even if no game can possibly portrait the experience of riding a horse, it would still be fun it you could somehow immerse yourself in the game. I still wonder why the multiplayer offers no option for a male rider, I mean , it would be fair to assume that 1 in 6 riders would be a male?

carsinmotion
20-01-2009, 00:02
They did it because then they only have to create a single 3d model/animation of a female character instead of paying someone to make a model of a male character and then paying someone else(or paying one person more for their extra time/effort) to animate that character AND paying people to create a story line based on a male main character (at the very least they would have to create a male "best friend" and a female "romantic interest" which is more modeling/animating and money). Which all in all, could actually make the price of the game go up. Besides, more females are going to purchase this game statistically than males. Probably 80:20 females to males buying this game.

This coming from someone who knows people in the video game industry.