Will You Play As a Male or Female in SSR?

[665b03eb80515CaveManta]

Nightdive Studios Achievement Unlocked: X/Y Chromosomal Selection.

In case you haven't heard, a gender choice for the main character will be added to System Shock Rebooted! That's right, now you can be a male or female hacker! Think Sandra Bullock in 'The Net'!

So, my insects, I ask; Who are you? The computer nodes can be repaired, but you..WHAT are you?
-Will you play as a male or a female? Will the choice be affected by what you are in real life?
-Do you even like having the choice?
I will have your secret. And you will learn more about hormones than you ever wanted to know.

If this game turns out to be good, I'll beat it over and over (Of course) and I'll play either gender. I don't have a preference, really.

[665b03eb8074cAurora]

I actually think, especially 56 years into the future, the hacker is likely the kind of personality who is not concerned with gender nor his physical representation in the flesh. He is a mischievous semi-autistic joker who, given the chance, would probably swap between the sexes merely to have fun, be a rebel, and mess with people.

However, I am concerned with gender and would like to play as female, as per my real life choice.

[665b03eb80b53icemann]

Stupid Nightdive messing with the SS1 plot again. Though at the same time I get that they want to make SS1 much more like SS2 (though in SS2 you were male also). I don't agree at all, but I get it.

Anyways. Male player of course.

However, I am concerned with gender and would like to play as female, as per my real life choice.

You chose to be female (in real life)?

[665b03eb80c3fAurora]

Yes. No secrets here.

[665b03eb80d78voodoo47]

not concerned with anything that can be safely ignored.

[665b03eb80eb1hemebond]

Sounds great. Nothing in SS1 or SS2, to the best of my knowledge, explicitly states the gender of the protagonist. I'd probably play through with all avatar options available.

[665b03eb80ffaKolya]

As a straight guy, I'll pick the female option of course.

[665b03eb81173Join2]

No choice, because that achievement won't be unlocked. It gives me satisfaction in some small way as I'm tired of the importance of gender options being blown way out of proportion.

[665b03eb813ddLearonys]

As a straight guy, I'll pick the female option of course.

You know Kolya, for a really long time your avatar gave me the impression that you were a female. I only found out you were male pretty recently. Whoops! 

[665b03eb816c3JML]

As a straight guy, I'll pick the female option of course.

Some people are getting ready to be offended RIGHT NOW!

[665b03eb819bbNameless Voice]

No choice, because that achievement won't be unlocked.

It's already been unlocked.

[665b03eb81d4aunn_atropos]

For my first playthrough I would choose the male character to keep the game as close as possible to the original.

If the choice is just cosmetic, as in the game is totaly the same except the "hrumpf" is changed to "hrimpf" and some new hand model, it would boil down to if the game overall is good. If it sucks, I wouldn't go through it again just for some minor changes.

If gameplay elements are altered based on gender, the question would be what the changes will be and why. That's a can of worms I'll gladly leave to NDS to figure out. But if it leads to replayability and different approaches to gameplay (and the overall game is good) I'll certainly play the Female version as well.

[665b03eb8235bZylonBane]

Think Sandra Bullock in 'The Net'!

How about we don't.

Stupid Nightdive messing with the SS1 plot again. Though at the same time I get that they want to make SS1 much more like SS2 (though in SS2 you were male also). I don't agree at all, but I get it.

Please tell me this post is very dry sarcasm. The hacker's gender is utterly irrelevant to the plot of SS1, and it is supposed to be an immersive sim, so there's really no downside to letting players "be themselves".

[665b03eb82830Aurora]

No choice, because that achievement won't be unlocked. It gives me satisfaction in some small way as I'm tired of the importance of gender options being blown way out of proportion.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/1629008

That brings the Mission Points from 5 up to 8, which unlocks:

    Closed Beta given to all tiers $50 and above.
    Gender choice added for player.

If gameplay elements are altered based on gender, the question would be what the changes will be and why. That's a can of worms I'll gladly leave to NDS to figure out.

I don't think they would go down that route. That would basically be two classes, and people are already unhappy about the game mimicking System Shock 2 too much. Besides, what important gameplay changes would there even be, unless the male and female versions are made into actually different characters? The female player is more agile and fits into smaller spaces but runs out of stamina quicker?

[665b03eb82ab6Nameless Voice]

How about we don't.

Agreed, that film was awful.

[665b03eb82db7Aurora]

They could have a cut-scene of the hacker hacking pizza.net by drag-dropping files.

[665b03eb8327bZanderat]

Male.  But really, who cares?

[665b03eb8351fSynaesthesia]

I'd wager everyone who's commented on this subject, including yourself, cares.

[665b03eb83973RocketMan]

I think this demonstrates that ND is more responsive to whining (probably because they fear it would hurt the product's profitability) than faithful to the game and what IT needs.  The game doesn't need gender selection.  It's a pointless effort except to appease some who are suddenly pissed off about it even though it never bothered them before.

The system shock story could be sustained equally well, regardless of player gender, which makes this new feature fairly  harmless (so far... let's see how far they run with it) but I just think it's a stupid tinselly decoration to add to a tree that's already got enough crap on it.

Reminds me of the recent Ghostbusters "reboot".  Gawwd...

The other thing is that this change is almost too trivial to bother with.  Off the top of my head, required changes would be:  putting gender selection first and then altering the intro/outro cutscenes to show a woman hacker and adding female grunt sounds.   That's literally it.  The hand model can very easily be made gender neutral.  Is it really that important to women to see a 2 second glimpse of themselves in a cutscene and hear some high-pitched grunting?  I'll re-iterate that it hasn't bothered me 1 iota to play games like Mirror's Edge that chose to restrict the protagonist's gender.  I considered it a part of the story subconsciously and enjoyed the game for what it was.

[665b03eb83b97Hikari]

Oh for the love of Gibson shut up.

Millinials are not ruining the world.

People wanting to remake old thigns do not invalidate your love of the original.

A company responding to feedback does not make them spineless.

You lot come off as unpleasable dipshits that should be safely ignored because nothing will ever make you happy.

As for the question.

First run will be male. 'Duke nukem' cracking wise about every enemy kill, every unfortunate corpse, every piece of odd architecture, and every implant found.

And then play as a female 'Bombshell' going on a rant about female empowerment and how i don't need no man *snap snap side side head shake* I might even add black sass to the mix because Why Not?

I do, however, in all seriousness, support the ability to have a gendered choice, though it'd be hilarious if it was less a binary and more 'mix and match male body female grunts female body male grunts' and all because Why Not it's 2064 and get with the times man. Besides variety is the spice of life.

[665b03eb83cffAurora]

The game doesn't 'need' a remake nor any of its features any more than it 'needs' gender selection. We are already getting System Shock 3 after all - not that video games are really 'needed' by anyone for that matter.

The gender selection allows female players to immerse themselves in the game better. Not that it would be restricted to female players, as even male players liked playing the female Shepard more than her male counterpart, for example.

If co-op is introduced (and I hope it is) then you would obviously see your fellow players, and the player model would be relevant in this regard.

[665b03eb83f08Nameless Voice]

I really don't get why people are complaining about this.

It's an option.  If you want the game to be completely like the original, then pick a male hacker.  Problem solved, no issue.

If it's not difficult to do and maybe helps a few more players feel immersed in the game, then it's nothing but a good thing if you ask me.
I like to have the option because too few games actually have female protagonists, even as an option.

Now, don't get me wrong - if the hacker in SS1 actually had much of a personality and was a character in their own right, then I'd be less eager to see it.  But they don't and aren't.  They are a blank slate for the player to place themselves into - as is the proper thing for a true immersive sim - so allowing the player to pick male or female doesn't affect the character at all.

[665b03eb84240Join2]

If co-op is introduced (and I hope it is).

Welsh meatball.

[665b03eb8462cRocketMan]

Now, don't get me wrong - if the hacker in SS1 actually had much of a personality and was a character in their own right, then I'd be less eager to see it.  But they don't and aren't.  They are a blank slate for the player to place themselves into - as is the proper thing for a true immersive sim - so allowing the player to pick male or female doesn't affect the character at all.

That's why I said it was a harmless change, precisely because, as you pointed out, it has little/no effect on the character's identity.  I merely think it's a pointless crowd pleaser.  I don't say it's harmful to have it.  It just bothers me why it's being added in the first place.  Plenty of games don't have gender selection.  Some that do, like Mass Effect, carefully planned for it and wove it into the story line.  Others, where gender isn't important or where it was chosen as a deliberate story-telling device, don't.  SS1 comes across  as the former so I don't see the point.  I'd prefer if stuff like this and stuff like RPG elements were scrapped in favor of spending that time on refining the game mechanics and environmental atmosphere.