Thats a nice chart - definitely helps put some things in perspective for people. Buuut in my experience, the actual development cycle is more like

Yeah, I get the difference and that seems reasonable to be frustrated about. I guess it comes down to whether or not the core game was satisfying and seemed worth the full price.

I'm sort of in the middle of this issue, but just want to point out - some of those cases do exist and others aren't really applicable.

Yay for differing opinions and constructive conversation that leads to expanded perspectives on gaming issues... Your comment will surely help him see how he is mistaken and change his opinion, thus helping your side of the issue gain more traction with developers.

I don't have much of an issue with it, so actually, honestly curious here - what are your main points of contention with it?

Hah I agree. But the issue isn't about mechanics, but rather the RPG experience - how the world engages with you as a player. It's tough to do, but try to imagine if in every game you ever played, every NPC, bit of dialogue, even some mechanics, treated and referred to you as a woman. Imagine if you were playing…

Heh not quite. I'm not mindlessly defending the opinion of a poor little damsel. I just see the issue differently than you do and am providing an alternate viewpoint. A little extra perspective is a good thing. It's both healthy and wise to consider where other people are coming from, rather than immediately shut them…

As an animator, I'm venturing a guess to say that a lot of the first person animations are probably hand animated (not mocap). A super basic mocap base for some things, potentially, but it generally isn't worth it due to how specialized the first person animations need to be. They need to look and read correctly…

Hah dude thousands, maybe millions, of people have taken bath salts. Just because the one face eater guy did doesn't mean its a common effect of the drug :P

Haha well, I'm not trying to use this as my end-all be-all final stroke of damning evidence against your case, but merely because you brought it up - my girlfriend is a big gamer. Played through all of the MGS, Silent Hill, Resident Evil series and more recently plowed through Fallout 3 and is now 200+ hours into…

Heh in the grand scheme of development - with thousands upon thousands of decisions being made, tech being created, features being designed, implemented, cut, playtesting and resulting changes, it actually is a fairly minor change I think. But, you're right that it won't be totally free either.

You've got a good point - taking the business perspective into account here is really critical. That's how most decisions are made in development, sad as that may be. That being said, it's worth noting that to some degree, part of the reason for the imbalance in audience gender is that games are continually created…

You're partially to mostly right about what would need to be done. I do think you're really overestimating the amount of money and time it would cost though. And this single decision definitely wouldn't push the date of the game. That's a bit far. If they were going to make the game with this gender option feature…

Absolutely, I agree. Giving the player the ability to LITERALLY do anything is completely absurd. We're totally on the same page there. Two things though. First, this is something that will actually detract from her role-playing experience. Every other character will be referring to her as a male, adding a tiny…

She is taking a particular jab at video games, you're right. But that's because games are the only interactive medium in which you, the player, embody the main character. When the world engages the main character, they're engaging you. In movies, books etc. you simply play an observer watching things play out from the…

Hey, that's cool. I mean everyone is entitled to their opinions. I just don't think it's out of place or unfair, like everyone else is suggesting, for her to bring up a grievance that will impact her role-playing experience. Especially when it's a feature that would be relatively simple and inexpensive to implement.

Hey man, I'm just trying to be fair here and see both sides of the issue. Why is it pretentious and dumb of her to wish she could play as a female? Given the silent facelessness of the character, it would've been very simple and inexpensive to implement that.

I definitely see your point (and I will say that its a much more reasonable argument than nearly everyone else is putting forth here). A few things about that though.

Wow you really took it to the opposite end of the spectrum there - straight into hyperbole, didn't ya? It's not outrageous for her to want more female representation among game protagonists. She was merely responding to Jason's mention of Arkane's "lofty promise" of "you can play however you want." She never said…

I'm a dude - just throwing that out there. That was hardly "fema-nazi bullshit." I think it's perfectly reasonable to be a bit frustrated if you have nearly no relatable representation in game protagonists. 90% are white males (which I am), so it's entirely understandable that some gaming ladies would feel a bit left…