Marvel Doesn't Think Female Characters Attract Players

[ChronoRogue]

"MARVEL DOESN'T THINK FEMALE CHARACTERS ATTRACT PLAYERS"

What if, in general, they're right? Not because they are male, but because they are more popular. People forget that these are businesses and that their job is to make money. Why Marvel Comics is currently content to lose money is an anomaly. But, if it leads to comics that you enjoy more, you're certainly welcome to embrace it and reward Marvel with your cash! Just don't be surprised when other fans do the same for what they like.

Eh maybe in general there are more popular male characters than female characters in comics, if we go by the most recent 2015 CBR ballot (1,200 votes) the characters they are picking are clearly more MCU-biased than popularity picks. Just taking a look at the Top 30 Marvel characters
http://www.cbr.com/2015-top-100-dc-a...s-master-list/

Fox Characters: Wolverine, Dr Doom, Magneto, Cyclops, Thing, Deadpool, Storm, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Silver Surfer, Gambit, Emma Frost, Rogue
Non MCU: Daredevil, She-Hulk, Punisher, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel
MCU: Black Widow

All rate higher than Nova, Winter Solider, GotG & Ant-Man. Why they didn't add She-Hulk, Black Widow or Ms Marvel for female reps when they still have the rights to them seems to explicitly spell MCU promotion to me. I mean, it's one poll, but I don't think there's any real outliers in saying these characters are more popular. Even for casual game audience for Marvel vs Capcom, characters like Psylocke and Gambit still get requested over MCU characters.

[LOSTie-chan]

The roster is bad. The game looks bad. And Capcom should feel bad.

[Sprite]

The roster is bad. The game looks bad. And Capcom should feel bad.

Pretty much this. All that hype and excitement, just to come to this. :/ That's Capcom for you.

[Of Atlantis]

Eh maybe in general there are more popular male characters than female characters in comics, if we go by the most recent 2015 CBR ballot (1,200 votes) the characters they are picking are clearly more MCU-biased than popularity picks. Just taking a look at the Top 30 Marvel characters
http://www.cbr.com/2015-top-100-dc-a...s-master-list/

Fox Characters: Wolverine, Dr Doom, Magneto, Cyclops, Thing, Deadpool, Storm, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Silver Surfer, Gambit, Emma Frost, Rogue
Non MCU: Daredevil, She-Hulk, Punisher, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel
MCU: Black Widow

All rate higher than Nova, Winter Solider, GotG & Ant-Man. Why they didn't add She-Hulk, Black Widow or Ms Marvel for female reps when they still have the rights to them seems to explicitly spell MCU promotion to me. I mean, it's one poll, but I don't think there's any real outliers in saying these characters are more popular. Even for casual game audience for Marvel vs Capcom, characters like Psylocke and Gambit still get requested over MCU characters.

Casual gamers outbuy comics fans by a wide margin, I'd imagine. That's probably who they're aiming for with its initial release, though the exclusion of Fox owned and female characters are bound to alienate a few, no doubt. Hopefully Marvel will see the numbers, assuming they will tell a story, and wake up.

[Turlast]

A lot of people are actually saying the game looks significantly better in the latest build.

I gotta see it firsthand, though.

I'm a Vs fan no matter what, but this roster is just uninspired. At least the system looks fun.

[JoeWithoutFear]

Well they are not.

According to...? Gotta cite your sources like the poster down below did.

People are shocked and against this roster.

People are shocked and against everything these days, on BOTH sides of any issue. Imagine if being shocked and against something justified attention and action? Literally nothing would get done.

And want more female characters asap. There are many they would gladly pay for.

How many is many? Compared to how many who don't want that? That's the number you need to be basing your argument on. A few dozen people on a site like CBR is hardly translatable to sales. Again, as I'll point out later, CBR is unique.

And even if that WERE the case, 4 out of 36 is still unacceptable and there are many characters in that roster that simply weren't even asked for.

It is a fair point that sometimes these rosters have characters that I think are purely there for surprise value. Like, "I can't believe they put Solo on the roster!" ... for example. But, don't confuse that with people "asking" for any of these characters. That's not how it works. People sit around a board room and decide what strategy is going to get them the most dollars -- surprise value and all.

Having Winter Soldier over Black Widow is a joke.

Is it? WS was the subtitle of a major film. Personally I like WS over BW. But, historically BW is a more relevant character, yes. So it depends on if they are judging off of history or immediacy. Also, personally, I like Black Cat, Silver Sable, and Firestar over WS.... are any of them in the game? ;-)

Fighting games are the game genre where female characters are at least as popular as the male characters.

Now THAT is a fantastic, relevant and fact-based point! It would be nice to have numbers, but, I know from almost 30 years of fighting games that this is true. Still, if we're talking about the Marvel side (OP doesn't mention the roster based on actual fighting games), then that's a different story.

Eh maybe in general there are more popular male characters than female characters in comics, if we go by the most recent 2015 CBR ballot (1,200 votes) the characters they are picking are clearly more MCU-biased than popularity picks. Just taking a look at the Top 30 Marvel characters
http://www.cbr.com/2015-top-100-dc-a...s-master-list/

Fox Characters: Wolverine, Dr Doom, Magneto, Cyclops, Thing, Deadpool, Storm, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Silver Surfer, Gambit, Emma Frost, Rogue
Non MCU: Daredevil, She-Hulk, Punisher, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel
MCU: Black Widow

All rate higher than Nova, Winter Solider, GotG & Ant-Man. Why they didn't add She-Hulk, Black Widow or Ms Marvel for female reps when they still have the rights to them seems to explicitly spell MCU promotion to me. I mean, it's one poll, but I don't think there's any real outliers in saying these characters are more popular. Even for casual game audience for Marvel vs Capcom, characters like Psylocke and Gambit still get requested over MCU characters.

That's a fantastic way to build a real argument on this point. Still, what was the sample for that list? If it is CBR users, you'd have to be living in quite an echo-chamber to think CBR is a representative sample, especially in terms of a gender-based subject. Just check out all the gender/race-based topics that dominate these forums, it's hardly representative of a culture in which only 18% wish to identify as feminist, yet, 85% believe in gender equality. And that's a Vox pole, so, those numbers are probably even more contrasted in reality.

Still, I think you've made the strongest argument so far. Especially because I think characters like Gambit and Psylocke are more popular than some of the characters included. But, what if Capcom wants some of that "surprise value" I mentioned earlier and so popular characters, even female ones, were bumped off in favor of immediately popular (MCU) ones and novelty ones? It doesn't make it ideal from an entertainment aspect, and it might not even be ideal from a marketing aspect...

...but my point is... I promise you those are the criteria Capcom is using to make these choices. They are not trying to make a statement about gender. Trying to approach a perceived problem like this roster from a gender-based perspective is like trying to solve a math problem with an impassioned, well-worded, inspiring speech about why two plus two equals five. It'll feel right and sound great, but ultimately be irrelevant and inaccurate.

But, hey, that's just my input. I could be wrong.

[Confuzzled]

"MARVEL DOESN'T THINK FEMALE CHARACTERS ATTRACT PLAYERS"

What if, in general, they're right? Not because they are male, but because they are more popular. People forget that these are businesses and that their job is to make money.

When and whom did Marvel and Capcom poll when it came to character popularity? And if Injustice 2's ranking of characters by their popularity is anything to go by, female characters are very popular. Injustice 2's Most Played Top 3 are all women. The lowest ranking woman (Cheetah) has no less than 7 male characters below her.

You're telling me Marvel's female characters are far less popular among gamers than say, Black Canary and Poison Ivy?

[Fairyprincess]

Their obviously ignoring the x men/ fantastic four characters. And focusing on movie characters......

Given that, they could have included black widow, nebula, Scarlet witch....

[storydove]

Saves me money, I'm not going to bother getting it. And this was a game I was sure I was going to get, but having just Captain Marvel & Gamora is dumb.

[The Kid]

I was mad but the game looks like **** so whatever. When it comes to fighting games, there are much better options

[JoeWithoutFear]

When and whom did Marvel and Capcom poll when it came to character popularity?

I don't know. Neither does the OP or anyone in this thread. I'm only presenting the perspective that, most likely, the reason for the roster is not some anti-female agenda. And I feel like that's the tone in a lot of posts in this thread.

And if Injustice 2's ranking of characters by their popularity is anything to go by, female characters are very popular. Injustice 2's Most Played Top 3 are all women. The lowest ranking woman (Cheetah) has no less than 7 male characters below her.

Thank you for citing actual data! I think that's informative. Do you happen to know how mechanical advantages enter into that? Once a game is released, some players will choose who they use most based on effectiveness. I'm not saying that's the biggest factor, just wondering how someone familiar w/ I2 might be able to give some insight on that factor.

You're telling me Marvel's female characters are far less popular among gamers than say, Black Canary and Poison Ivy?

No, but, like I said, they could be using a different metric than Capcom (which we also don't know) and it could simply be a "menu = diet" situation regarding the play stats. Again, I think we need more information before leaping to any one conclusion, that's all. And, call me naive, but when you don't live your life according to Buzzfeed, Huffpo and Kotaku, you realize that most people are pretty darn cool when it comes to human equality. *shrug*

[Valamist]

Well when the game was announced I was going to pre-order it and I was looking foward to it. I mean, they where premoting Capitan Marvel up there with Iron Man, so that had to be a good sign... then the character list was revealed. Only 4 female characters? That is just pathetic. If the thing in behind this was truly "well, men don't like female characters so..." then I hope its a big flop.

[aja_christopher]

As someone who is still mad that he couldn't play with Gambit and Psylocke (or Spiral) as a team on X-Men vs SF, all I can say is that this is nothing new.

Definitely could have lived without both Juggernaut and Sabretooth -- Jean Grey, Rachel, Surge, Mystique, Magik, Sage, M, Aurora, Domino, Meggan, Selene, Deathbird: nearly all of them would have been better picks, especially from the X-Men, who are known for their strong female characters.

[WebLurker]

It looks like a pretty movie-heavy list. So, it could be less sexism and more trying to pick characters who're big in other media these days, which happened to be more male characters?

[JediKage]

Well Carol is not in any movies....Hawkeye and Nova over Black Widow and Scarlet Witch?