id Software’s next DOOM title could feature a female Doom Slayer. The possibility was teased by game director Hugo Martin, who revealed during an official Twitch stream this month that the team had actually been actively discussing the idea behind the scenes. Martin pointed out that the introduction of a female Doom Slayer has to be “meaningful,” however, which suggests that her debut, should it happen, would tie in greatly with the story.
“I’ve thought about it,” Martin said in regard to a female Doom Slayer to the franchise. “I think if we did it, I’d want it to be lethal. I think it’s interesting how it would impact the Glory Kills and the weapons that she would have. The fighting style [would] certainly [be] all aggression, absolutely, but a different type of aggression.”
“I would really strive to have it impact the gameplay in a way that was meaningful. I’ve definitely put a lot of thought into that, actually. Tonally, when it comes to designing the action, you think about, ‘if The Slayer is a Ferrari, then what would a female Slayer be? What would a Medieval slayer be?’ How would that effect things and what sort of analogies would you draw from that to allow it to influence the experience? It definitely would be cool.”
As VGC noted in its coverage, id Software had already toyed around with the idea of a female Doom Marine in Quake 3 Arena, which featured a character (or, more specifically, a tutorial bot) named Crash. As if her skin didn’t make the analogy clear enough, other bots referred to her in chat as “Doom Girl,” “Doom Lady,” and “Doomette.”
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but can’t say that for sure until part 2 comes out.
I wonder how the snowflakes would respond to changing Lara Croft as the protagonist in Tomb Raider but for the next TR game, Crystal Dynamics use Jonah Maiava as the protagonist?
Just hope they don’t fall into the "female character wears nothing but armored bra" trap.
There are plenty of women with strong bodies they could use.
Controversy one way or another tends to have a risk of impacting sales. It would be silly to take that risk.
That, and I don’t think your assumptions about who buys FPS games is necessarily accurate. I don’t think it skews one way or another on the political spectrum.
Generally the worst thing you can do when trying to market a product is to turn off roughly half the potential market unless you think it will massively drive sales in the other half, but then you also have to consider the impact on other titles in your portfolio.
As always the best approach with anything business is to try to avoid taking sides or hiring politicall controversial people as much as possible, unless you feel it is unavoidable.
He says some stuff in Eternal, but it’s not like actual monologue or dialogue. Just a few words.
Yeah, he doesn’t say much, but what he does say is poignant and inspiring.