Starcraft 2 Discussion

[Samurai8472]

And another thing. Is it me, or is this game just one gigantic sausage fest? There are hardly any female characters in this game worth noting, and the ones that do show up aren't all that interesting or crucial to the overall plot.

I mean, let's look at the cast roster:
Jim Raynor = Male
Tychus Findlay = Male
Graven Hill = Male
Matt Horner = Male
Egon Stetmann = Male
Rory Swann = Male
Arcturus Mengsk = Male
Valerian Mengsk = Male (btw, WHO THE &^%$ ARE YOU?!)
Zeratul = Male
Horace Warfield = Male

And for the women?
Kerrigan: The person everyone wants to kill.
Ariel Hanson: A character that you have the option to kill. If not, her role is done when her story is complete, so kind of the same thing.
Nova: The one shot mission character who doesn't join your crusade if you side with her.
Mira Han: Another one shot character who is forgotten once that mission is over.

Well, this certainly paints a good picture, doesn't it? Surely the folks at Blizzard/Activision have nothing but respect for their female characters.....right?.......RIGHT?!

The tech's seem to be female

 

[Rii]

It's strange because it assumes the player is male, so none of the male units even think to flirt with the "commander". Of course, if you're meant to be playing as Jimmy, I suppose that makes some sense.

I'm sure that's the excuse they'd run with in any case.

And they can always point to WoW. In that game - where players choose whether to play as male or female - both sexes have /flirts.

I still think the Kerrigan thing was basically a desperate attempt to make the game appealing to more than just the hardcore SC players. Fanboys like to objectify women from their favourite shows, so it's almost like they trotted her out just to put a face on the game/franchise. Much more so because now Kerrigan is the whole basis of the Starcraft mythology - it wouldn't be surprising if Helfer shows up to pimp the game on Fallon whenever the Zerg campaign launches.

I'm not so sure. I think that if you go outside Blizzard's devotees, hardly anyone would be aware that Kerrigan is voiced by Tricia Helfer. They play it up, sure, but at Blizzcon and such; and everyone there is already part of the faithful. It's not in the adertisements or anything.

For my part I don't have a horse in this particular race. Honestly, left to my own affairs I doubt I'd have noticed the change.

One voiceover which does disappoint me though is that for the Battlecruiser unit. It's not nearly Russian enough, and actually seems somewhat bland when compared to the rest of the unit sound work. The Medic is my favourite:

"Call me when the swelling goes down ... on second thoughts, just call me."
"Here's some lotion, a comb, and a blowtorch. Good luck!"
"I'm sorry, this is a pre-existing condition."

In-game expendable units are one thing, but characters that carry the story are another. And while you may say Kerrigan is the most important character in the SC universe, this is not her story. And while there may be hope that the next expansion will give her something big to do, I doubt Activision's recent attempts to remove and discourage female leads in their most recent games will help in those matters.

I'm sorry, but this is complete crap. There is no chance that Kerrigan is not going to be the 'Raynor' of the Zerg campaign and similarly no chance that Selendis is not going to fulfil the same role in the Protoss campaign. Perhaps you should actually wait for issues to manifest themselves before complaining about them.

And the notion that you don't give a sh&% is... well... kind of a bummer.

I didn't say I didn't give a shit about the dearth of female characters: I dismissed the notion entirely. The issue that I can't seem to care about too much about despite acknowledging its existence is an issue that you, similarly, don't seem to care about.

It's kinda fun to apparently go from 'crazy feminist' to 'defender of the (masculine) status quo' from one thread to the next though.

I'm just saying that being ok with this trend of male dominant characters and silently hoping for the best won't really accomplish much.

You're asking an individual game to bear the weight of industry-wide trends. And even if the objection weren't nonsensical with respect to that game, it'd still be unreasonable. I guess you're on the 'Tara shouldn't have died because there's a long history in fiction of lesbian relationships not having happy endings, thereby implying that something is wrong with them' bandwagon too? To hell with the artist and their 'story', there're 'trends' to be concerned about.

 

[Jeyl]

It's kinda fun to apparently go from 'crazy feminist' to 'defender of the (masculine) status quo' from one thread to the next though.

Defender of the masculine status quo? Sorry, women come first.

Perhaps you should actually wait for issues to manifest themselves before complaining about them.

Expect the worst but hope for the best. Besides, having my expectations wrong sometimes makes my liking of the game all the better.

You're asking an individual game to bear the weight of industry-wide trends. And even if the objection weren't nonsensical with respect to that game, it'd still be unreasonable.

You know what I find unreasonable? A company that believes women don't work. That's the company that Blizzard is now sharing the same bed with. Yet as a gamer who supports a lot of Blizzard's work, bought four copies of the game in question, has had great fun with it despite some of it's other misgivings, I'm the one being unreasonable in saying that I would have liked a little more diversity in it's cast of characters.

I guess you're on the 'Tara shouldn't have died because there's a long history in fiction of lesbian relationships not having happy endings, thereby implying that something is wrong with them' bandwagon too? To hell with the artist and their 'story', there're 'trends' to be concerned about.

At least Buffy had a lesbian couple. Did you know that the show also had a female character as it's leading protagonist who also didn't have much luck in her love life?

 

[Ayelbourne]

One voiceover which does disappoint me though is that for the Battlecruiser unit. It's not nearly Russian enough, and actually seems somewhat bland when compared to the rest of the unit sound work.

True, but I still had quite a good laugh when he was all "Can we get this over with? I've gotta raid tonight."

 

[-Brett-]

I'm sorry, but this is complete crap. There is no chance that Kerrigan is not going to be the 'Raynor' of the Zerg campaign....

Upon beating the Terran campaign, I'm not so sure.

 

[Jeyl]

I'm sorry, but this is complete crap. There is no chance that Kerrigan is not going to be the 'Raynor' of the Zerg campaign....

Upon beating the Terran campaign, I'm not so sure.

**SPOILER**

Well, from the ending we got, I see no reason to assume that Kerrigan has lost all her telekinetic powers, or even her powers over the Zerg. If anything, she would have to start a new swarm from scratch. Maybe this could lead to a first time 'good' zerg race? I'd be interested in seeing that. I am getting a wee bit tired of going from good guy to bad guy via races. Remember WCIII The Frozen Throne's tagline?

"Death could not stop him. Can you?"

Uh, no because I'm PLAYING HIM!