Why female soldiers

[Voidfoam]

Now, i know its many threads discussing this. But i didnt want my question to drown in them. Cause i am sincerely curious!

Why is it so important for many players with female soldiers?

Dont get me wrong, i am in noway opposed to the idea of female soldiers. But Chris has many times stated this is a very work heavy/time consuming thing, for low gain.

Perhaps its not a good comparison but if you could choose between one extra tileset instead, or a bigger research tree wouldnt you go for this instead?

Myself i wont complain at all about female troops, BUT i would choose Goldhawks time to go on other game mechanics than "chicks with guns" anyday in the week.

I mean its not an equality statement. Its a computer game.
Is it just because old X-Com had it?

How about som Sebillian females also? You would like that. Wouldnt you? You perverts.

Cheers!

[Commissar Pancakes]

Just nostalgia getting the better of us, T'is all.

[flashman]

Well I have started playing many games as female characters for some variation. Also do not discount an increasing number of female gamers. I could name 30 who play pc/ps3/xbox/portables

[Voidfoam]

Well I have started playing many games as female characters for some variation.

Hmm okey. I could agree upon this. I for one just started my second ME play through as a woman. Mostly because the female actor is 50 times better than the male counterpart. But this is strategy gaming, not character based, as ME for example.

Yes more female gamers indeed. But without any research to back my claim, i think i can safely say that they are still relatively "thin on the ground" when we are speaking turnbased strategy .

Anyways its beside my point (because i am not against women in games), and that being i want it motivated with more than just catering to female gamers and nostalgia if i am gonna see it take a shitload of project time from more important gameplay stuff unopposed.
There are much more important stuff to focus on i believe. But then again, if a majority of the community really want Goldhawk to spend time on this, then i will shut up and let the girls fight also.

In short; i am worried a relatively pointless detail will take a lot of resources, and i wanna hear people argue their motivations.

[flashman]

Chris has said female soldiers if implemented would get
1) new portraits- maybe 30
2) Female versions of the armour equip screen -for all armours

All sprites on the battlefields would remain the same- once you have armour on who can tell.

[thothkins]

In short; i am worried a relatively pointless detail will take a lot of resources, and i wanna hear people argue their motivations.

Pros
I miss female characters from X-Com, waaaahh!
Extends a welcoming hand to a potential customer base of half the planet.
Increases the chances of more women looking at a turn based strategy game
Provides solid character roles for women. No skimpy chain mail here.
Adds variation to the portraits.
Doesn't look as though the game developers are misogynists.
Would work with only the portraits done, considering the bulky armour.
...and possibly one armour type (but it's not essential)
minimises the chances of half my squad being called Ethan again.

Cons
Combat forces of 1979 didn't have too many front line women. Solution: add in roles they did have/ ignore it.

[SilverMoonFlare]

Being a heterosexual male-nerd without any special perks i prefer to have pretty female characters in games i play because i don't get any attention from females IRL
Also, sausage fests suck and a little variety is always welcomed.
And female soldiers were in the original X-COM

[flashman]

Be prepared for scary looking eye candy

[erutan]

One way around the non-frontline troops thing is to have them mainly come from insurgent armies like Vietnam. Some NATO countries had female soldiers, but none saw deployment, but then again half the male soldiers have no combat experience.

Plus yeah, it's nostalgic. It also probably seems stranger to Americans than people in most other countries.

[The New Romance]

Nostalgia, plus this isn't 1963 anymore. There's female gamers, and there's male gamers who care about the inclusion of females. Games have been about men more than long enough, and if we ever want to break into the "games are art" category (which I personally really wish for), the potential inclusion of about half the world's population is more than enough reason.