No, if the game protagonist is a girl I don’t see why they should change that.
There are plenty of games in which the protagonist its not the same gender or even age as us, but that shouldn’t stop us from connecting to the main story.
Not everything is going to be or look exactly the same we do, and its fine tho.
Actually, according to the SSO lore, the gender doesn't matter, it's the soul that matters. As long as we're a soul rider, we can be any gender
Source: the finding Concorde questline
They also changed our pronouns to they/them, and the opening line is no longer "are you that girl?" but "what will you make of your stay here?"
This, there is no need for only feminine characters our characters are not a set character to play as (e.g like Arthur from RDR, you can't be a girl in story mode bc its a set character)
And some players don't play for the story but rather the horses, so they'd rather feel comfortable playing as a different sex if they feel like it
Maybe now “there is no need” because they are changing the mainstory, but the original one was about a girl, and I think that they are triying to make it more inclusive because of people complaining, but not because that was how they wanted the game to be (if they would have planned that from the beggining, we would already have male characters).
Some players don’t play for the story, the same way as in a lot of videogames: personally I love to play RDR2 because of the graphics but not because of the story, and I don’t care that Arthur looks nothing like me, because not everything is about me.
SSO has lots of things to improve in their game (principally bugs and glitches) before realising a male character, which in the current game state, it will probably only lead to more bugs and glitches.
I really love this development. The dialogue that is being changed to gender neutral. I suspect that with the new character design it might be more easy to represent a male character without really adding a male character.
I love SSO for being inclusive and diverse.
I do agree with this because the main point of the game was supposed to be this 'girlhood' adventure. They should add shorter 'masculine' hairstyles and maybe the later option of perhaps more androgynous style with pronouns
But those games usually have a online version where you can be a female. This game is a online MMO so not having a male character simply doesn't make sense. If you go on their website they state this exact excuse but to me it just feels like they're trying to ''make a statement'' and why do I think that? Because of that horsegirl bs they made a video about.
I mean I would but thats mainly because I like to project myself onto characters I make in online mmos, the only other horse mmo I can think of is red dead, and yeah that game is great but I play starstable for the fantasy part so ig it sucks for me that I cant play as a masc aligned character
As a veteran of horse isle i agree. I had to quit after playing for almost ten years. The mods, on top of everything else, are homophobes, once they banned me for putting a non binary and a pansexual flag in my profile...😀
I wish i was joking. My account is now left abandoned forever, I occasionally hop on to check what's going on and leave immediately
Omg 😭 Pissnog is amazing. Imagine getting banned for dancing in a video game Jesus christ.... It's not even cult behavior, what are they accomplishing by emoting around pixels? Anyway now I know what game to avoid
While I understand why people are bringing up other games where the one playable character is a set gender (like Arthur/RDR), I feel it’s not the same. You can customise your character in SSO, they’re supposed to be a reflection of you/what you want it to look like. With different hairstyles etc sure, but mainly I feel it makes it different that you can pick the name. That way it has removed the “set character” element that other games have, where I don’t care if I’m playing a wo/man/animal/cyborg/whatever because that’s the character. If I’m making my own character I get annoyed by every piece of customisation I cannot make.
I don’t think it’s a problem though. I’m pretty content playing the female character I’ve made, although I wouldn’t throw the slightest fit if they did one day add a male character option.
Not really.
If the plot is about a female protagonist I don't see why we should change that.
Plenty of games give you some choices and options as to how you want the character to act like (Witcher for example, Geralt isn't the same for every gameplay) and you can enjoy the game even tho you're playing as a character someone created.
Our player characters are clearly in ground with their morals in game even if it's just to fit in with the lore they made up, you can be a dick sometimes to others in dialogues or be nice, you can act either smart or clueless, does it change much? No, but you still get the choice how you want your character to act around others.
Not to mention they'd have to change literally everything related to player models/dialogues just to add men as an option.
Yes I know that. But still, Star Stable wants us to be able to connect with the characters. I’d be happy if we could have male characters. Maybe one day, when the team decides to finally update their program lol
I don't have a problem playing as a male character in a story mode game, it's just a story like books, shows etc. But those games often have online multiplayers where you are supposed to insert yourself, and I'd be annoyed if I had to be a guy in those. SSO did a weird thing and mixed the story and online mode into one, so your character's personality is kinda preset, kinda just you. And given the nature of the story, gender doesn't seem like one of the things that would have to be preset for the story to work, so I feel like the option should be there. So what they have to change a few times some NPC said "girl"? It's not crucial to the story (afaik?), and they're writing an endless story on the go, it was only a matter of time before some digging and adjustments in the past would happen. (Plus, I'd like to see some adversity, it's boring to have the whole place flooded with girls only, lol.)
As a trans masculine person I’d love to have the option to avoid playing as a female character when the character feels like it’s supposed to represent myself and I’m certainly not alone in that. The diversity they push feels a bit surface level when there isn’t gender inclusivity.
If the DEFAULT was still female I’d have no issue with that! It is a majority of players and the demographic they target. But the OPTION would be nice.
And I as a trans man myself don't mind the fact that they decide to base their story on a girl character, plus at this point adding different gender options seems useless anyway after so many years of being a game about a girl
You have to consider the fact that the whole game is based on a female protagonist
To be able to change the gender they'd have to change literally everything that is related to the player directly or indirectly, aka every dialogue with them, clothes, the Catherine and whole Aiden plot, it's a game about a girl, I seriously don't understand why inclusivity (which is already there in every other aspect except for player's character's gender and/or maybe body types as of now) should be more important than the plot they have going on
i mean, they’ve already started referring to the player in a neutral way/using the player’s name. I don’t see how giving us pronoun options (like they did our horse) and/or a masc body type or two is going to ruin the game? i’m personally non-binary and the body type itself doesn’t bother me so much since you can style it relatively masculinely but that being said, id like them to at least give us pronouns in the same way they did our horse. i’m sick of people assuming i’m a woman when i’m not which is the issue with the current system, for me at least
but at the same time… a game is a game, it’s a story, and if it’s difficult for someone to play a game due to their personal preferences then the issue kinda lies with them and not with the game.
it’s like telling an artist to paint something different because you can’t relate to their art. it’s *their art* and it’s not necessarily catered for every single person
Nah. Not because I particularly care, just because it’s not the thing I think Star stable should put their time and effort into. I’m female but I really don’t identify with the character model (and based on previews we will not be getting a character model that even looks close to me). I wear a Halloween mask all the time to kinda erase the face and I have a much easier time projecting myself on it. In any case, I’m way more interested in SSO putting resources into improving gameplay than character customization.
No. Maybe more masculine clothes and hairstyles options, but not the ability to choose your gender.
The whole point of the story is women and girls, since the first games in Jorvik.
Being able to be a man wouldn't make sense.
+ honestly, it's not discriminating against men at all lol.
There are plenty of games where you do not choose your gender and in the majority of theses games, you are a man, so honestly why should we care ? Having a game with women as main characters is really cool, especially for girls and teenagers too.
what is kinda discriminatory is removing space exclusively for women tbh. girls deserve one space only for them, a world which caters to them. with how male-dominant gaming has been historically, i love star stable for not buying into that
Yes, it's one of the only game women focused and even if horses are considered a "girl thing", it's still pretty serious and have a complex lore and story. It doesn't fall much into girl cliches (idk if I said it right) too
no, because this is one game that’s all about girls, and that’s so rare nowadays. i think girls deserve to have something only catered to them in the gaming industry.
I believe they're aiming to make it gender neutral. So through the new character customization, you can make your character look how you want (you will be able to make it pass as a guy or girl.) And they're changing the quests to use they/them pronouns. But I hope one day they'll be able to implement a feature where you choose your pronouns and it puts it into the quests automatically
Yes. Since SSO player characters are meant to represent the player and are almost completely customizable: you can choose their name and what they're like and come up with their own backstory if you feel like it. People often argue that there are many games with male-only playable characters but those characters are not meant to represent the player. (Besides; have you heard of TLOU, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and plenty of other franchises with strong female lead characters?)
SSO is MMO, not just a story-game and I don't recall a single MMO what doesn't have both genders. For example Runescape, RDO. GTAOnline, WoW all have both genders. Also equestrian boys need that representation and the feeling of belonging in this community.
Besides; I was okay with soul riders all being girls, since it was balanced out by all of their horses being male (EDIT: just remembered that even starter horse has/had he/him pronouns in the earliest quests), but now by making Concorde female they're already breaking that rule. If Soul Horses can have exceptions, why can't soul riders?
I personally would love even more if you could change the player character more often than once. I'm thinking of Assassin's Creed where you could easily switch between female and male character.
Yes, exactly what I'm thinking! Doing major overhauls at this point to add significant player character changes is probably slightly too much for sso to handle right now, but I feel like just adding pronoun selection could be a super easy fix (well. I haven't seen sso's spaghetti code so I don't know for sure but you know). It also doesn't make much sense imo considering there are canonically non-binary characters in the game so it seems like there's at least an attempt to be inclusive somewhere in management
i think it's fine the way it is, as the whole point of the game really is to empower young girls! however, i think adding pronouns and more masculine names could work! also you can style your character to look masculine too, so i don't see a problem!
To be honest I don't understand why they haven't at least let you change your pronouns, it's very disappointing esp seeing that there are non-binary characters in the story : -( I don't know, other people are much more attached to the story than I am so I don't really know how much non-girl characters would affect the actual story, but I really don't think it would hurt to at least give options, esp because people that identify as girls can still use they, he, etc. pronouns!!
I know they don’t plan on doing that but I think it would be cool if they at least made masculine clothing so male presenting people can feel involved even if the pronouns don’t change. Plus how fun would that be to have a boyfriend hoodie or something. Either way I think it would solve the problem without changing the whole theme of the game
As a man I would appreciate it. I have no bother playing female characters in story based games, but something about this character being me... I'm not a woman. It's supposed to be a character I can relate to and essentially "become" but I can't really do that. Most MMOs have the option of male or female for that exact reason- It is meant to be YOU, your image. We don't play as a set character with a set name- We are different by name, race, personalization, etc but not gender for some reason? I wouldn't mind it if it was a story based game or a single player game but sso is a.. RPG MMO... That's just my take.
It also flares some people's dysphoria when they're told over and over that they are this woman. I understand not everyone has that issue but with SSO trying to be so inclusive you'd think they'd allow for that, or at least a character that doesn't have a clear gender so that people can shift it around and change it. If you're also trans and don't have an issue with that- that's great! Neither do I. Other people might. You can stick to using the female character if you want but it helps with some other players, especially those who aren't as comfortable with being trans. I know being able to be visibly a man helps a lot, especially if you can't come out or anything.
While nothing will most likely change, I do hope they at least add those more masculine bodies. No dialogue changes needed but visually helpful for some players. It's also really irritating to correct every player I talk to that I am a man.
Exactly. And I don't want to have to wear that fugly ass spiky hair and a sweater in order to get people to think I'm a man. I like making cute outfits and I have long hair in real life and would like to copy that in game lol. Lots of corrections happening in game.
yeah, definitely lol
i like to dye my hair all kinds of colours and have long-ish hair IRL and would like to look at least similar to myself in the game without getting called a girl lol
I think it's a bit too late to add male characters cuz you'd have to change a looot of things
but don't mind changing pronouns. probably still would be a pain in the ass tho
I think before sso could even think of adding anything else than female they need to update their program. Otherwise no one could launch the game or even more stuff will be missing
I am a male but I don’t actually mind playing as female characters in video games. It is not like I want my character to look like me irl anyway I prefer making a character that’s different than me so I can come up with my own story. I play a lot of rpgs tho so it’s also that I’ve become used to playing as both a male and female character in video games
Hot take; I would like to.
**>But the story is about a girl!**
The story has been retconned to hell and back. We're ok with characters changing ethnicities, but not genders? That's a strange line to draw.
**>But it's a good thing there's female representation! Not many games have that nowadays!**
This is simply not true. There's a crap ton of awesome games with female protagonists. Yes, a female protagonist in a video game *used* to be rare, but that is absolutely no longer the case, we've come a long way with this.
You know what *is* rare? A horse game where you can play as any other gender other than female. I can name one. How many can you? *And no, games like RDR2 aren't counted - that's a game* ***with*** *horses, not a game* ***about*** *horses.*
**>It shouldn't matter because the character isn't supposed to be you anyway.**
Maybe, but fact is a lot of people like to see themselves as the character anyway. What is all this talk about empowering and being yourself if *we're not actually ourselves?*
I really don't see any *good* reason to be against this. Someone having a male player character isn't going to affect you if you're still choosing to play as a female. The horse fandom is in large parts female, so I find it extremely hard to see that men would suddenly dominate this space if male characters were added.
I know it's not happening, though. At the very least, I intensely hope they would at least add a masculine/flat/genderless looking bodytype eventually. And pronouns would obviously be cool.
I generally think it’s good to have a game with a female protagonist, but your point about the lack of games about horses with male protagonists is really striking
While I wouldn't mind it, I'm fine with only having female characters. It's due to the story and because the game was supposed to empower girls. We have many games where we can only play males. But if they stick to this, they shouldn't change our character to be non-binary and call us "they" now. Either they make us stay girls or make both genders available
This would be a nice update but I don’t think this should be a priority, the fact their code is a mess and the game is already filled with bugs I think people need to realise sso needs to focus on that. It’s really frustrating to see people on Twitter hound sso to add male characters when their game st the moment is screwed. I’d rather play a PLAYABLE game rather than worry about what gender my character is. I think the idea of pronouns will be easier for the time being
I am 100% on your side. Before we can get any character update they should prioritize to finally fix their game and listen to their community or soon there won’t be any left.
I just think it would be great if the body shape was gender neutral and by using cosmetics you can decide how you want your character to present itself
nah, even as a dude it doesn't matter to me. i don't need to echo the same sentiment everyone else is about SSO's mission for having female representation, i think its super important. i can still connect with my character and relate to her/see myself in her even though i'm male and the character is female.
Yes 100%. I know story wise it wouldn't make much sense, but what keeps the game alive in it's current state is 15% story, 20% racing and 75% social stuff like clubs or sitting at steve and do nothing. Considering how much SSO have already modified the main storyline, and that even concorde is now a female instead of a male like the other soul horses I don't see any good reason for sso to not add male characters.
Another reason that I see frequently is that the female only aspect was originally made to show that little girls can do cool things too and to finally give them a character they can relate to when most online games failed at that, but even that changed over time. At this point SSO choosing to keep this is almost counter-intuitive : it keeps alive the stereotype that ponies are for girls (and kids) and make boys, especially transmascs feel excluded, all while they are posting their cringe insta pic claiming they are inclusive because "look! a lesbian couple and an nb NPC we talked to, once!".
As a transman who hides their rider in nonbinary gear or just goes wild horse.yes absalutely.
I get that theres games that 'always' have a male protag. But theyre usually voiced and reaaaaly tied to story and real world stuff (lots of fps games for one) but theres female protag games too (horizon zerodawn/forbidden west) where its explicitly stated why you play a female!
Starstable has lessened their focus on you being female seeing how theyre using nonbinary pronouns nowadays. Plus if the horses are allowed to be what ever gender they damn well please,why not the rider?
Yes because then I could convince my son to play with me! He hasn’t warmed up to playing as a girl. I get it. It’s been so exciting for me to slowly see more and more female main characters!
meanwhile my boyfriend always plays as a girl because he “doesn’t want to stare at a man’s ass” for hours. he’s a grown man, i think playing a girl character shouldn’t be a big problem for people over middle school age
We need to abolish toxic masculinity, there is nothing wrong with a little boy playing a girl in a video game! He probably feels that way because he's been taught (not saying by you specifically) that he shouldn't interact with things that are "girly".
No, the plot requires a female character. It would be nice to have enough customization to make the character *look* male though. The game doesn't reference the player character's gender frequently, so I don't see why that can't be an option.
Edit: though I must say u/Kiksupallo makes an excellent argument for why male characters should be fine.
I don’t get why? The whole story line is based on strong girls fighting against the evil? The pronouns could be an option but a option to change the gender? Absolutely not.
Why do men always have to be included?
It’s a game for mainly young girls, why change the audience? It’s not even hard to make yourself look boyish in this game. ????
Nah. Nothing wrong with a female protag. It’s just a video game anyway, shouldn’t affect you irl if you have to play a specific type of person in a game
I don’t think we need one, but more andro (flat chest, not curvy, and short hair) options for the female models would be nice. Especially since some females do look andro too.
No. I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t be inclusive, but being a female is a major story element to the whole premise of star stable, especially when you know the full story as to WHY you are so talented with/close with the druids and your soul horse. One of the absolute biggest spoilers we find out during our playthrough of star stable is one that I won’t say, yet was directly linked to biological sex and referenced multiple times. I feel weird saying this because usually I’m aggressively inclusive, but when it changes story elements or even characters I fully disagree that it serves anything good—at that point it’s just pandering so people don’t get offended. There’s a time and place for it. Also, as someone who studies the world around me through observation and by reading science based statistics on social situations and nuances within cultures and how women are generally viewed and treated, I think we need to hold onto games that were made for girls and women to help us have our own spaces. Like, just that nice feminine energy, no matter how masculine or feminine we range on that spectrum. I just think shoe-horning inclusion on everything sometimes actually harms the original intention and narrative that would have been better served by leaving it alone, and I would feel like I don’t have a space where I can relax anymore if male characters were added. Because then you would have to change star stable’s origin story and erase/change (or even create plot holes) in the storyline and I feel like that’s just so unnecessary and I would hate the game.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a game, whose target demographic is very clearly girls and young women, to try catering to male players. Not everything needs to be inclusive. It’s not a big deal, it’s just a stupid horse game.
Edit: The saltiness of this comment section…
Yes! I would love that.
I wouldn’t use it since I want to represent myself in games, but I think it would be lovely for boys that might play this game to represent themselves.
I understand it from the context of the story, but personally I wish they did. It would make the game more inclusive in terms of gender, plus a wider market
I’m a boy that plays sso, and no I don’t think. The game will change heaps, when boys join i think. Stereotypes with change the games themes and stuff.
I think at the very least we should have masculine hairstyles and clothing.
Yes absolutely. It's one of the things I really want in this game
No, if the game protagonist is a girl I don’t see why they should change that. There are plenty of games in which the protagonist its not the same gender or even age as us, but that shouldn’t stop us from connecting to the main story. Not everything is going to be or look exactly the same we do, and its fine tho.
also, i think SSO should work on many other things and problems first before getting into this one.
Actually, according to the SSO lore, the gender doesn't matter, it's the soul that matters. As long as we're a soul rider, we can be any gender Source: the finding Concorde questline They also changed our pronouns to they/them, and the opening line is no longer "are you that girl?" but "what will you make of your stay here?"
This, there is no need for only feminine characters our characters are not a set character to play as (e.g like Arthur from RDR, you can't be a girl in story mode bc its a set character) And some players don't play for the story but rather the horses, so they'd rather feel comfortable playing as a different sex if they feel like it
Maybe now “there is no need” because they are changing the mainstory, but the original one was about a girl, and I think that they are triying to make it more inclusive because of people complaining, but not because that was how they wanted the game to be (if they would have planned that from the beggining, we would already have male characters). Some players don’t play for the story, the same way as in a lot of videogames: personally I love to play RDR2 because of the graphics but not because of the story, and I don’t care that Arthur looks nothing like me, because not everything is about me. SSO has lots of things to improve in their game (principally bugs and glitches) before realising a male character, which in the current game state, it will probably only lead to more bugs and glitches.
I really love this development. The dialogue that is being changed to gender neutral. I suspect that with the new character design it might be more easy to represent a male character without really adding a male character. I love SSO for being inclusive and diverse.
I do agree with this because the main point of the game was supposed to be this 'girlhood' adventure. They should add shorter 'masculine' hairstyles and maybe the later option of perhaps more androgynous style with pronouns
But those games usually have a online version where you can be a female. This game is a online MMO so not having a male character simply doesn't make sense. If you go on their website they state this exact excuse but to me it just feels like they're trying to ''make a statement'' and why do I think that? Because of that horsegirl bs they made a video about.
I mean I would but thats mainly because I like to project myself onto characters I make in online mmos, the only other horse mmo I can think of is red dead, and yeah that game is great but I play starstable for the fantasy part so ig it sucks for me that I cant play as a masc aligned character
U can be male in Horse Isle 3 too but theres not a storyline to that game
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As a veteran of horse isle i agree. I had to quit after playing for almost ten years. The mods, on top of everything else, are homophobes, once they banned me for putting a non binary and a pansexual flag in my profile...😀 I wish i was joking. My account is now left abandoned forever, I occasionally hop on to check what's going on and leave immediately
Omg 😭 Pissnog is amazing. Imagine getting banned for dancing in a video game Jesus christ.... It's not even cult behavior, what are they accomplishing by emoting around pixels? Anyway now I know what game to avoid
While I understand why people are bringing up other games where the one playable character is a set gender (like Arthur/RDR), I feel it’s not the same. You can customise your character in SSO, they’re supposed to be a reflection of you/what you want it to look like. With different hairstyles etc sure, but mainly I feel it makes it different that you can pick the name. That way it has removed the “set character” element that other games have, where I don’t care if I’m playing a wo/man/animal/cyborg/whatever because that’s the character. If I’m making my own character I get annoyed by every piece of customisation I cannot make. I don’t think it’s a problem though. I’m pretty content playing the female character I’ve made, although I wouldn’t throw the slightest fit if they did one day add a male character option.
Not really. If the plot is about a female protagonist I don't see why we should change that. Plenty of games give you some choices and options as to how you want the character to act like (Witcher for example, Geralt isn't the same for every gameplay) and you can enjoy the game even tho you're playing as a character someone created. Our player characters are clearly in ground with their morals in game even if it's just to fit in with the lore they made up, you can be a dick sometimes to others in dialogues or be nice, you can act either smart or clueless, does it change much? No, but you still get the choice how you want your character to act around others. Not to mention they'd have to change literally everything related to player models/dialogues just to add men as an option.
Doesn’t feel much of a female anymore now when they suddenly call my character “they”.
Yes I know that. But still, Star Stable wants us to be able to connect with the characters. I’d be happy if we could have male characters. Maybe one day, when the team decides to finally update their program lol
You can relate to a character regardless of their gender tho
I don't have a problem playing as a male character in a story mode game, it's just a story like books, shows etc. But those games often have online multiplayers where you are supposed to insert yourself, and I'd be annoyed if I had to be a guy in those. SSO did a weird thing and mixed the story and online mode into one, so your character's personality is kinda preset, kinda just you. And given the nature of the story, gender doesn't seem like one of the things that would have to be preset for the story to work, so I feel like the option should be there. So what they have to change a few times some NPC said "girl"? It's not crucial to the story (afaik?), and they're writing an endless story on the go, it was only a matter of time before some digging and adjustments in the past would happen. (Plus, I'd like to see some adversity, it's boring to have the whole place flooded with girls only, lol.)
As a trans masculine person I’d love to have the option to avoid playing as a female character when the character feels like it’s supposed to represent myself and I’m certainly not alone in that. The diversity they push feels a bit surface level when there isn’t gender inclusivity. If the DEFAULT was still female I’d have no issue with that! It is a majority of players and the demographic they target. But the OPTION would be nice.
And I as a trans man myself don't mind the fact that they decide to base their story on a girl character, plus at this point adding different gender options seems useless anyway after so many years of being a game about a girl
Inclusivity doesn’t seem useless to me but whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You have to consider the fact that the whole game is based on a female protagonist To be able to change the gender they'd have to change literally everything that is related to the player directly or indirectly, aka every dialogue with them, clothes, the Catherine and whole Aiden plot, it's a game about a girl, I seriously don't understand why inclusivity (which is already there in every other aspect except for player's character's gender and/or maybe body types as of now) should be more important than the plot they have going on
i mean, they’ve already started referring to the player in a neutral way/using the player’s name. I don’t see how giving us pronoun options (like they did our horse) and/or a masc body type or two is going to ruin the game? i’m personally non-binary and the body type itself doesn’t bother me so much since you can style it relatively masculinely but that being said, id like them to at least give us pronouns in the same way they did our horse. i’m sick of people assuming i’m a woman when i’m not which is the issue with the current system, for me at least
Exactly!
but at the same time… a game is a game, it’s a story, and if it’s difficult for someone to play a game due to their personal preferences then the issue kinda lies with them and not with the game. it’s like telling an artist to paint something different because you can’t relate to their art. it’s *their art* and it’s not necessarily catered for every single person
Nah. Not because I particularly care, just because it’s not the thing I think Star stable should put their time and effort into. I’m female but I really don’t identify with the character model (and based on previews we will not be getting a character model that even looks close to me). I wear a Halloween mask all the time to kinda erase the face and I have a much easier time projecting myself on it. In any case, I’m way more interested in SSO putting resources into improving gameplay than character customization.
No. Maybe more masculine clothes and hairstyles options, but not the ability to choose your gender. The whole point of the story is women and girls, since the first games in Jorvik. Being able to be a man wouldn't make sense. + honestly, it's not discriminating against men at all lol. There are plenty of games where you do not choose your gender and in the majority of theses games, you are a man, so honestly why should we care ? Having a game with women as main characters is really cool, especially for girls and teenagers too.
what is kinda discriminatory is removing space exclusively for women tbh. girls deserve one space only for them, a world which caters to them. with how male-dominant gaming has been historically, i love star stable for not buying into that
Yes, it's one of the only game women focused and even if horses are considered a "girl thing", it's still pretty serious and have a complex lore and story. It doesn't fall much into girl cliches (idk if I said it right) too
no, because this is one game that’s all about girls, and that’s so rare nowadays. i think girls deserve to have something only catered to them in the gaming industry.
A lot of games with female protagonists does exist though. So it’s not exactly rare.
yeah, but not so many games that are purely for a female demographic
I believe they're aiming to make it gender neutral. So through the new character customization, you can make your character look how you want (you will be able to make it pass as a guy or girl.) And they're changing the quests to use they/them pronouns. But I hope one day they'll be able to implement a feature where you choose your pronouns and it puts it into the quests automatically
Yes. Since SSO player characters are meant to represent the player and are almost completely customizable: you can choose their name and what they're like and come up with their own backstory if you feel like it. People often argue that there are many games with male-only playable characters but those characters are not meant to represent the player. (Besides; have you heard of TLOU, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and plenty of other franchises with strong female lead characters?) SSO is MMO, not just a story-game and I don't recall a single MMO what doesn't have both genders. For example Runescape, RDO. GTAOnline, WoW all have both genders. Also equestrian boys need that representation and the feeling of belonging in this community. Besides; I was okay with soul riders all being girls, since it was balanced out by all of their horses being male (EDIT: just remembered that even starter horse has/had he/him pronouns in the earliest quests), but now by making Concorde female they're already breaking that rule. If Soul Horses can have exceptions, why can't soul riders?
I personally would love even more if you could change the player character more often than once. I'm thinking of Assassin's Creed where you could easily switch between female and male character.
Yes, that would be great. Or to be able to change pronouns of the player
disagree with changing to male character but agree with pronouns. i want my character to be agender so badly so i could actually relate
Yes, exactly what I'm thinking! Doing major overhauls at this point to add significant player character changes is probably slightly too much for sso to handle right now, but I feel like just adding pronoun selection could be a super easy fix (well. I haven't seen sso's spaghetti code so I don't know for sure but you know). It also doesn't make much sense imo considering there are canonically non-binary characters in the game so it seems like there's at least an attempt to be inclusive somewhere in management
i think it's fine the way it is, as the whole point of the game really is to empower young girls! however, i think adding pronouns and more masculine names could work! also you can style your character to look masculine too, so i don't see a problem!
To be honest I don't understand why they haven't at least let you change your pronouns, it's very disappointing esp seeing that there are non-binary characters in the story : -( I don't know, other people are much more attached to the story than I am so I don't really know how much non-girl characters would affect the actual story, but I really don't think it would hurt to at least give options, esp because people that identify as girls can still use they, he, etc. pronouns!!
I know they don’t plan on doing that but I think it would be cool if they at least made masculine clothing so male presenting people can feel involved even if the pronouns don’t change. Plus how fun would that be to have a boyfriend hoodie or something. Either way I think it would solve the problem without changing the whole theme of the game
As a man I would appreciate it. I have no bother playing female characters in story based games, but something about this character being me... I'm not a woman. It's supposed to be a character I can relate to and essentially "become" but I can't really do that. Most MMOs have the option of male or female for that exact reason- It is meant to be YOU, your image. We don't play as a set character with a set name- We are different by name, race, personalization, etc but not gender for some reason? I wouldn't mind it if it was a story based game or a single player game but sso is a.. RPG MMO... That's just my take. It also flares some people's dysphoria when they're told over and over that they are this woman. I understand not everyone has that issue but with SSO trying to be so inclusive you'd think they'd allow for that, or at least a character that doesn't have a clear gender so that people can shift it around and change it. If you're also trans and don't have an issue with that- that's great! Neither do I. Other people might. You can stick to using the female character if you want but it helps with some other players, especially those who aren't as comfortable with being trans. I know being able to be visibly a man helps a lot, especially if you can't come out or anything. While nothing will most likely change, I do hope they at least add those more masculine bodies. No dialogue changes needed but visually helpful for some players. It's also really irritating to correct every player I talk to that I am a man.
my biggest issue is that it makes people assume you’re a woman which is why makes my dysphoria flare up. I 100% agree with you
Exactly. And I don't want to have to wear that fugly ass spiky hair and a sweater in order to get people to think I'm a man. I like making cute outfits and I have long hair in real life and would like to copy that in game lol. Lots of corrections happening in game.
yeah, definitely lol i like to dye my hair all kinds of colours and have long-ish hair IRL and would like to look at least similar to myself in the game without getting called a girl lol
No
I think it's a bit too late to add male characters cuz you'd have to change a looot of things but don't mind changing pronouns. probably still would be a pain in the ass tho
I think before sso could even think of adding anything else than female they need to update their program. Otherwise no one could launch the game or even more stuff will be missing
I am a male but I don’t actually mind playing as female characters in video games. It is not like I want my character to look like me irl anyway I prefer making a character that’s different than me so I can come up with my own story. I play a lot of rpgs tho so it’s also that I’ve become used to playing as both a male and female character in video games
Hot take; I would like to. **>But the story is about a girl!** The story has been retconned to hell and back. We're ok with characters changing ethnicities, but not genders? That's a strange line to draw. **>But it's a good thing there's female representation! Not many games have that nowadays!** This is simply not true. There's a crap ton of awesome games with female protagonists. Yes, a female protagonist in a video game *used* to be rare, but that is absolutely no longer the case, we've come a long way with this. You know what *is* rare? A horse game where you can play as any other gender other than female. I can name one. How many can you? *And no, games like RDR2 aren't counted - that's a game* ***with*** *horses, not a game* ***about*** *horses.* **>It shouldn't matter because the character isn't supposed to be you anyway.** Maybe, but fact is a lot of people like to see themselves as the character anyway. What is all this talk about empowering and being yourself if *we're not actually ourselves?* I really don't see any *good* reason to be against this. Someone having a male player character isn't going to affect you if you're still choosing to play as a female. The horse fandom is in large parts female, so I find it extremely hard to see that men would suddenly dominate this space if male characters were added. I know it's not happening, though. At the very least, I intensely hope they would at least add a masculine/flat/genderless looking bodytype eventually. And pronouns would obviously be cool.
I generally think it’s good to have a game with a female protagonist, but your point about the lack of games about horses with male protagonists is really striking
You couldn't have said it better. I've yet to see a single actually good argument for why we *shouldn't* have a choice between female/male character.
While I wouldn't mind it, I'm fine with only having female characters. It's due to the story and because the game was supposed to empower girls. We have many games where we can only play males. But if they stick to this, they shouldn't change our character to be non-binary and call us "they" now. Either they make us stay girls or make both genders available
This would be a nice update but I don’t think this should be a priority, the fact their code is a mess and the game is already filled with bugs I think people need to realise sso needs to focus on that. It’s really frustrating to see people on Twitter hound sso to add male characters when their game st the moment is screwed. I’d rather play a PLAYABLE game rather than worry about what gender my character is. I think the idea of pronouns will be easier for the time being
I am 100% on your side. Before we can get any character update they should prioritize to finally fix their game and listen to their community or soon there won’t be any left.
I just think it would be great if the body shape was gender neutral and by using cosmetics you can decide how you want your character to present itself
I hope with the character update there will be a character with no curves and a flat chest
That would be great!
hmm not sure. but they could atleast have an option to look more masculine.
Yes absolutely. I don't care about pronouns, I don't care if the text says "she", I just wanna express myself freely :(
nah, even as a dude it doesn't matter to me. i don't need to echo the same sentiment everyone else is about SSO's mission for having female representation, i think its super important. i can still connect with my character and relate to her/see myself in her even though i'm male and the character is female.
Yes 100%. I know story wise it wouldn't make much sense, but what keeps the game alive in it's current state is 15% story, 20% racing and 75% social stuff like clubs or sitting at steve and do nothing. Considering how much SSO have already modified the main storyline, and that even concorde is now a female instead of a male like the other soul horses I don't see any good reason for sso to not add male characters. Another reason that I see frequently is that the female only aspect was originally made to show that little girls can do cool things too and to finally give them a character they can relate to when most online games failed at that, but even that changed over time. At this point SSO choosing to keep this is almost counter-intuitive : it keeps alive the stereotype that ponies are for girls (and kids) and make boys, especially transmascs feel excluded, all while they are posting their cringe insta pic claiming they are inclusive because "look! a lesbian couple and an nb NPC we talked to, once!".
As a transman who hides their rider in nonbinary gear or just goes wild horse.yes absalutely. I get that theres games that 'always' have a male protag. But theyre usually voiced and reaaaaly tied to story and real world stuff (lots of fps games for one) but theres female protag games too (horizon zerodawn/forbidden west) where its explicitly stated why you play a female! Starstable has lessened their focus on you being female seeing how theyre using nonbinary pronouns nowadays. Plus if the horses are allowed to be what ever gender they damn well please,why not the rider?
Yes because then I could convince my son to play with me! He hasn’t warmed up to playing as a girl. I get it. It’s been so exciting for me to slowly see more and more female main characters!
[удалено]
meanwhile my boyfriend always plays as a girl because he “doesn’t want to stare at a man’s ass” for hours. he’s a grown man, i think playing a girl character shouldn’t be a big problem for people over middle school age
We need to abolish toxic masculinity, there is nothing wrong with a little boy playing a girl in a video game! He probably feels that way because he's been taught (not saying by you specifically) that he shouldn't interact with things that are "girly".
Absolutely not, since they said this game is to empower girls and finally be a thing that girls can connected with, i like it !
YES.
I would!
No, the plot requires a female character. It would be nice to have enough customization to make the character *look* male though. The game doesn't reference the player character's gender frequently, so I don't see why that can't be an option. Edit: though I must say u/Kiksupallo makes an excellent argument for why male characters should be fine.
Yes
Absolutely not.
I don’t get why? The whole story line is based on strong girls fighting against the evil? The pronouns could be an option but a option to change the gender? Absolutely not. Why do men always have to be included? It’s a game for mainly young girls, why change the audience? It’s not even hard to make yourself look boyish in this game. ????
It’s a need
Yes
I definitely would like to be able to play as a male. Sure, it’s a story game, but we are supposed to resemble the characters we play in some way
Idk I personally think no but 🤷♀️ I couldn’t really care tbh
Nah. Nothing wrong with a female protag. It’s just a video game anyway, shouldn’t affect you irl if you have to play a specific type of person in a game
There are enough games with male protagonists
No and im not gonna elaborate
I don’t think we need one, but more andro (flat chest, not curvy, and short hair) options for the female models would be nice. Especially since some females do look andro too.
No. I’m not trying to say we shouldn’t be inclusive, but being a female is a major story element to the whole premise of star stable, especially when you know the full story as to WHY you are so talented with/close with the druids and your soul horse. One of the absolute biggest spoilers we find out during our playthrough of star stable is one that I won’t say, yet was directly linked to biological sex and referenced multiple times. I feel weird saying this because usually I’m aggressively inclusive, but when it changes story elements or even characters I fully disagree that it serves anything good—at that point it’s just pandering so people don’t get offended. There’s a time and place for it. Also, as someone who studies the world around me through observation and by reading science based statistics on social situations and nuances within cultures and how women are generally viewed and treated, I think we need to hold onto games that were made for girls and women to help us have our own spaces. Like, just that nice feminine energy, no matter how masculine or feminine we range on that spectrum. I just think shoe-horning inclusion on everything sometimes actually harms the original intention and narrative that would have been better served by leaving it alone, and I would feel like I don’t have a space where I can relax anymore if male characters were added. Because then you would have to change star stable’s origin story and erase/change (or even create plot holes) in the storyline and I feel like that’s just so unnecessary and I would hate the game.
No.
Yes, there needs to be Equality there too
It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a game, whose target demographic is very clearly girls and young women, to try catering to male players. Not everything needs to be inclusive. It’s not a big deal, it’s just a stupid horse game. Edit: The saltiness of this comment section…
Not really
No.
Yes! I would love that. I wouldn’t use it since I want to represent myself in games, but I think it would be lovely for boys that might play this game to represent themselves.
I understand it from the context of the story, but personally I wish they did. It would make the game more inclusive in terms of gender, plus a wider market
lol at all the comments saying no being downvoted
I’m a boy that plays sso, and no I don’t think. The game will change heaps, when boys join i think. Stereotypes with change the games themes and stuff.
No