Yeah, but my problem is that that female gear up there? Virtually every characteristic she holds is a typecast of a: a sexualized object of attraction, and b: a simple gender-swap of the gears we already know. Big deal.

You know what? Gears of War would be a perfect game to do all sorts of gender-, racial-, and, of course, sexual-role analysis in the universe Blezinski has created. I'd be interested in what intelligent gamers can come up with in a 60 page thesis paper...

It's actually explained in Jacinto's Remnant, the second book, that most of Delta Squad ate all the women before the war started to 'bulk up', except for Dom. Dom, in turn, blew the brains out of the last women on Sera, so ladies in Gears 3=unpossible.

The art is from a comic what do you expect? Of course the female gear is going to be like this.

Wouldn't a female character having a more central role detract from the burgeoning romance being cunningly built up between Marcus and Dom?

Being the celebration of macho culture that it is, I can't see a female character being playable in Gears. In a supporting role, sure, that's something to ogle. Otherwise, nah. Unlikely.

@Zombutler

0_o

Giant feet...

@covah: naw meng, just giant shoes.

Probably one of the Carmine brothers is really a Carmine sister. Who is really the Locust Queen. Who is really Cole Train.

She can kick my ass anyday.

Call me (a guy) a feminist, but if given the chance, i'll always pick to play a chick in games. Maybe i like the form of a woman onscreen, maybe i like voiceover, maybe i just have some subconscious desire to be further examened in theraphy.. but what i really want to know is this:

WHERE'S MY GOW2 FOR PC GOD DAMN IT?!

No where in sight..ever?

Damn.

Her name should be Venus, like that one ninja turtle that everyone remembers.

It would seem that young woman went into combat without proper support.

Given Cliffy B's concept of the human form, I suspect the female character to look something like this:

Brian Keljore, strangely enough as I lay here on the floor laughing, I find that to be a pretty good example of the CliffB.

I'm gonna call it now:

One of the Carmine's has an androgynous name and it turns out to be a chick.

GEARS 3, CODE IT AND SHIP IT!

zerotolo, that's it, that's exactly how its going to play out, EXACTLY.

As long as she is pleasing to the eyes, I'm all for it.

I thought there was already a playable woman in Gears. Goes by the name of Dom! OH SNAP!

But seriously, Ben Perlee is right. She's just going to be the female stereotype every game has done before. Although, now it will fit in just perfectly, instead of being used for no reason. I mean, what is GoW that isn't ego stroking to begin with?

@Brian Keljore: Hot.

Gasp! What would become of all the overcharged, muscularized homoeroticism if a woman stepped into the game?

I think there's a good chance of playable female characters in Gears 3.
Halo did it (Though all they had to do was a voice but still.

And besides that, Female characters are one of the main things people on the forum had asked for.

While I can understand none for SP, I don't see the problem in putting in some for MP it's not like people dying and respawning while trying to capture control points is canon.

In the last gears novel Aspho Fields there are a few strong female leads...

Ultimately though the novel does not reflect on why there are only a few women, i could only assume that its the same reason in our own modern military...

Anywho it would be great to have a female gear...

"Given Cliffy B's concept of the human form, I suspect the female character to look something like this: "

To be fair it would make more sense. I find it a bit weird in games where you have the choice of either heavily-armoured roid-monkey men or a slim, scantly-clad women. Especially since the differences are almost always cosmetic.

I don't want women in Gears. No offense but since this game is based on characters with SUPER MACHO Persona's she will be some tomboy who's sexualized and most likely will get with Marcus and Dom. That will kill her as a character. Then again Gears is a game with next to no story.

I wouldn't mind a female gear in the game but I don't think Bleszinsk can write and create a decent female character based on what he has done so far. The whole thing with Dom and his wife was supposed to be dramatic and emotional and it felt tacked on and didn't really need to be there. Also his other comments along the lines of "notches on your bed for how many women you sleep with" lines tells me that he really doesn't have the attitude to write and create a female video game character that will be meaningful in any way.

Hm... hammer from fable 2 XD

The only way I can think of to explain a realistic role of women in the GoW universe is to keep them safe from combat for repopulation purposes. But I guess you could say the same for guys too.

If you gave her a sexy body like the girl in the pic, then people will just call her a female stereotype and if you try to make her fit in more with Marcus and the guys, she will probably resemble a 7 foot tall World of Warcraft dwarf female.

WHA!? Gears of War without the misogyny?

Maybe Dom will stop being such a whiney pussy and bang this new broad

People will bitch if she is built like an ox and people will bitch if she's the stereotypical female video game character. The world will still turn.

@Cosmitz
I agree; I also always pick the female character if I can. I always get asked if I'm a closet transexual by my friends when I do, but I feel that if I'm supposed to stare at an ass for 12-15 hours, it had damn well better be female.

@GDMFSOB "but I feel that if I'm supposed to stare at an ass for 12-15 hours, it had damn well better be female."

See, this is absolutely the most used/abused excuse by males to justify the use/selection of a female avatar in games. It's true for WoW, and it's true for GoW.

And it pisses me off to no end that people use that lame excuse to hide their feminist/homoerotic behaviour. I have no qualms with you being a fag, more power to you, but I do hate liars. In WoW when someone used that excuse I would ask "So instead of paying attention to the raid and killing the boss or healing your friends, you're staring at your avatars ass?" and I would ask you the same "instead of watching where that brumak is going to come from or where your downed teammate is, you are/would-be staring at your avatars ass?".

What I'm trying to say is; come OUT of the closet, stop using the old excuse of wanting to look at a female avatars ass instead of a male one, as that is not the norm and neither is your homosexually deviant lifestyles ya faggots.

Also, cocks.

It's the sign of a of a well written fiction universe when you can add in any race, gender or even existing diease (mental or physical) without tacking it on. It's a sign that the universe is real and real things happen. People die, people get sad and women exist.

Gears is not a well writen universe it's simply a SUPER masculine fantasy although there's nothing wrong with that it's awkward for all parties involved when they try to pull off anything more than that. If they have to think about woman as "Do we HAVE to add in a woman?" rather than just flowing with an original idea and the girl just fits into place then they're probably trying to hard.

P.S. Don't make women wear obviously less protective "fanservice suits." It's just weird and makes them look like Lara Croft wannabes. She's in a war make her a fighter! If you're gonna do it pull a goddammed Samus people!

@RiotMonster

Again I think it's a mistake to show them as women in the first place. It's like they're noticably making a big deal out of it. Keep her in a helmet, Make her the same as all the guys (Don't make her damsel in distress or the super fighter girl) and then pull a Samus. Suddendly show that she is a woman but don't stop the game just keep going like nothing's happened. That's probably the best way to bring in a female character I can think of.

1) Female Avatars are better on the eyes.
2) Its more humiliating for (macho) people by getting killed by a female char.
3) Psychologically I be more concerned about keeping a female avatar alive then say, Dom or Marcus - I don't really care how may times those morons get Gibbed.

I'd like to fill her Emergence Hole, if you know what I mean.

It's true that Gears is not the most well-written universe, but it's pretty accurate to say that Science-fiction on the whole is not that well written, with a few notable exceptions. Look at Star-wars; massive, but a pile of shit. Sorry, but it is (in a literature sense). Don't get me wrong, I like reading Sci-fi, but most of what I've read is crap. Fun to read, but crap. The last really good sci-fi book I read was Brave new world, and shit, that book is years old. To pretend that Sci-fi is anything more than pulp is wishful thinking. Like I said, I like Sci-fi as a medium, but it works better in games and film than it does in literature. It's a bug-bear of Sci-fi writers that the world of literature doesn't take them seriously, and some of their best writers like Kurt Vonnegut spent years trying to undo the damage (in terms of his reputation as a serious writer) that being labeled a Sci-fi writer in his early years marked him with. So yes, have a pop at the machismo predictability of the Gears universe, it is indeed cliche, but fuck me, you're blind if you don't think it applies to 99% of all other Sci-fi tale-telling. I'm currently reading Dicken's 'Hardtimes' at the moment, and there is more 'literature' in the first two chapters than in a whole dang bookcase of Sci-fi.

^ What Zombutler said, it's canon you know!

Que Sera, Sera.

We have guys with muscles bulging EVERYWHERE and wearing heavy ass armor. Then comes along a skinny chick in a bikini. Yup.

Dykes of War 3: The Scissoring.

Well, if you consider the books canon, the reasoning as to why women are left out of service is for the reason someone already posted- they're needed to reproduce. IIRC, women have two options- baby-popping or positions like Anya's.

Going deeper into spoiler land, pre-Emergence Day, women were part of the armed forces; Anya's mother is a decorated officer and then there's Bernie, who, at sixty, spent something like a decade traipsing across the continent on foot to get back to the Gears. Therefore there is some sort of precedent for female players. Weight/strength considerations could be balanced... somehow. :/ Dunno, don't care who I can play as so long as I can chainsaw things.

SP campaign tends to be very story driven... but multiplayer tends to be where the demand is for avatar variations (including gender options).

I haven't played Gears... but as long as a female is consistent within the world, there's no reason not to include that option in multiplayer.

Given the Gears art style, I don't think that a female will integrate well.
Given the Gears characterization, trying to add 'depth' by adding a woman... will just result in another over macho character, this time with tits.

If I wanted a macho charter with enormous tits, running around doing big bro-man sort of things, I'll watch Fight Club again.

I think the Gears universe needs a lot more women.

@Rammstein

I admit, I lol'd.

Now I'm no Gears fan but if there is a reason as to why there are no women then why isn't somebody explaining why there's a chick in the above comic book?

I can hear the writer's brainstorming sessions already.

Any WH40K players here? How 'bout them Sisters of Battle? Eh? For a woman to be a warrior she also needs to be an orphaned nun. 'Cause that's how women get tough enough to be soldiers, right?

The popular media has been serving up feminist propaganda like this for years. In real life, women don't serve on the front lines of combat because they're not physically and psychologically adapted for warfare. So feminist sympathizers im the film, television and game industries concoct fantasies where women are expert marksman and can beat up large men with martial arts moves. The inclusion of Anya as a playable character, if she is a playable character, is just propaganda. She's there to make people think women are as tough as men.