Female Kerbals

[Nitrous Oxide]

I don't care for that theory(read: really dislike), but at the same time I'd love a pair of robot arms to be on the lady Kerb I'd use for friggin' all of my missions.

I'm not partial to it either, but it's silly. It's a game. A toy. Why does it matter so much? Why can't my Kerbals be androgynous? I use this... (key point: In general, male/female differences have been made more subtle.) All we need are some names, imho. But alas, they chose to reinvent the wheel.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Nitrous Oxide

[tater]

Also, while I won't enter in the whole ordeal of representation of groups in fiction versus the artist vision of the authors, I'll comment that thinking that women actually care about being represented by kerbals and their gender is pretty sexist again, because you assume that women actually play ksp for a plygonal model instead of the physical challenges and puzzles combined witht the humor of kerbals as funny and not careful astrounauts like the other players do.

So you'd play this for the space stuff if it was My Little Space Ponies all other aspects identical then?

[r4pt0r]

So you'd play this for the space stuff if it was My Little Space Ponies all other aspects identical then?

the things piloting the craft dont matter. hell till this whole female kerbal business reared its head I assumed kerbals were some sort of asexual sentient fungi, that is why they poof on impact, spreading their spores to reproduce. that theory i think is backed up by the finding of green organic matter on the launchpad when you get a surface sample.

plus quadrupeds would be much cooler aliens for our game.

Brohoof

[spidersVise]

I'm not partial to it either, but it's silly. It's a game. A toy. Why does it matter so much? Why can't my Kerbals be androgynous? I use this... (key point: In general, male/female differences have been made more subtle.) All we need are some names, imho. But alas, they chose to reinvent the wheel.

If it doesn't matter, why can't my Kerbals be representative of my gender, too? They're not androgynous. They have buzzcuts, square jaws, male voices, male names, etc. "But they're not human! You're judging them based on human characteristics!" Yeah. So? Game's based on human spaceflight. I feel it's a completely valid criticism.

[r4pt0r]

Game's based on human spaceflight.

Human spaceflight started un-manned.

[tater]

I never assumed they were asexual, they look like North American men during the space race, and they have male names. I didn't ever consider their gender, didn't have to, they are clearly male. Both my kids knew this instantly. People here have to really contort themselves to see them as genderless. Sexless? Yeah, never thought about it. But the little green guys? Guys.

PS---the devs said a while ago release would have girls. Next update is 1.0. Better argument would be about squashing bugs with an intermediate release before gold than girls.

Edited January 24, 2015 by tater

[spidersVise]

Human spaceflight started un-manned.

I said it's based on human spaceflight, not a direct copy of it. That being said, I do disagree with the dev's choice for career starting manned.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

If it doesn't matter, why can't my Kerbals be representative of my gender, too? They're not androgynous. They have buzzcuts, square jaws, male voices, male names, etc. "But they're not human! You're judging them based on human characteristics!" Yeah. So? Game's based on human spaceflight. I feel it's a completely valid criticism.

But, the thing is, the Kerbals aren't humans in the slightest. Male voices? Wow, so women can't have voices like that? Buzz cuts? Who said it's hair, and not the kerbals brain protector. Who knows?!

[spidersVise]

Hyper bole is my favorite bole.

@CanadianVending...

"Who knows?!"

We knows. Because the game is being made by humans. Played by humans. Based on humans. Features are exagerrated, proportions are changed, but they're still pretty obviously based on humans. They wear clothes, even. What purpose would sentient fungi have for clothes indoors?

Edited January 24, 2015 by spidersVise

[tater]

But, the thing is, the Kerbals aren't humans in the slightest. Male voices? Wow, so women can't have voices like that? Buzz cuts? Who said it's hair, and not the kerbals brain protector. Who knows?!

Wow. Jeb. Gene Cernan, sorry Kerman. Werner Von Braun, oops, sorry again, also Kerman. Know any girls named Bill? How about boys named, Sue?

[FlowerChild]

Human spaceflight started un-manned.

<Brohoof>

The above cracked me up, so I felt the need to return the gesture

[tater]

I'd have seen my little pony pictures on the splash page and moved on. I think I'm an adult. Sometimes.

[Claw]

Okay, I think this argument is coming around full circle again. As a reminder, the OP's stated point of view is...

I think that they should of not had the Female Kerbal be the "Mystery Feature", when instead it could be for something that could be useful. Like editor changes, or planetary additions. Or engine updates...

The official listing of planned features for 1.0 can be found here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content/326-Beyond-Beta

Along with a summary transcript of the Squad Cast: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/108305-Squadcast-Summary-%2824-01-2015%29-The-Valentina-Edition

And also

Lets discuss as civilized people

Which means arguments founded on unbiased logic and fact. This thread is an example of highly charged emotions, and perhaps you can see why threads such as this usually get shut down pretty quickly. The fact that some people didn't even realize where the name Valentina comes from shows that KSP is still teaching people new things, which is the sort of "realism and teaching" that so many people clamber about. You could say that Kerbals were amorphous, but that's no longer the case. Regardless of previous reasoning, the fact exists that there are now distinctly Female and Male Kerbals.

Please take a look at Max's tweet again, and note that only 24 hours passed between announcement of a feature and when it was confirmed just prior to the squad cast. Also realize that this feature has been announced for inclusion for a very long time.

Source: https://twitter.com/Maxmaps/status/558778656579805184

Hype has a way of creating itself. If the other reasoning for posting this thread is because of "Hype," that's not really something we can control. People are allowed to be excited about features, and not every feature will please every user. The nice thing is that there is a variety of features to choose from.

If the crux of this matter is that TheCanadianVendingMachine computer is being overloaded by KSP, then I suppose you can consider that you now have one less mod that you have to run. So in that regard, it's a wash. The people who work on artwork are generally not the same people who work on the code, not to mention that they are hired as artists...to do art. Max said that ~95% of the work on this particular feature was in creating the artwork. So diverting an artists skills to coding is something that the Squad team has to consider if the cost is worth the benefit, or is it better to leave them doing their primary job...working on art.

I am sorry that your computer has a hard time running the game for more than 15 minutes. We do try to offer help in that regard. But if this thread is simply going to continue to be a means to poke back and forth about issues of equality then I think it's run it's course. We certainly aren't going to solve an issue of this magnitude on a forum about a space video game.

Cheers,

~Claw