Straight guys can't appreciate their lower abs too?   

Not unless those abs are sitting below some breasts.

Back on the actual topic, i just realized the OP said you should be able to change your appeance 'whenever you want', didn't even catch that till now. Although now some of the previous posts make more sence. In SP thats fine, your only spending your own time; in MP that would be a nightmare. Although i am sure the devs already figured that out, i enjoy stating the obvious.

Just wanted to put in my two cents. I'm a guy who regularly plays female avatars. I love character customization! The more options, cloths, hairstyles, and body edits I can do, the more I feel "in touch" with my avatar. It goes a long ways for me. And this is from someone who loves the Civ and MoM and MoO style games as much as I liked Sims Not so much the new one which is plagued with crap securom issues and next to unplayable).

So I totally second the posts comments. It makes the game more accessible to everyone, male or female or anything in between

; )

The more the better. I wouldn't want it to take away from the rest of the game play, but great gameplay with an avatar I think looks like a tool can really hamper the experience for me.

Now that i think about it a bit more, i think i really do protect and use hotter units more. Was playing wesnoth and realized i had used all my male mages up as cannon fodder while my female mages went on to level 4 times and becomes Great Mages. All because the females have a slit in thier robes that shows off thier 4 pixel tall leg once they level up a few times. Oh ya.

Its largely symbollic. In any case, I would love it for my Sovereign to Grow Wings at some point, that would just be cool. And to then grow a scaled forhead, with scaly protruding eyelid-like eye coverings, and slited Snake pupils for glowing yellow eyes ... hmm sorry?

Oh yes, I quite love customization ... I just wish there was some High-End magics to "enhance" our sovereign's physical form, even if it was purely cosmetic (although it would be nice if the wings allowed flight, and the eyes allowed for darkvision)

Customization, which seems to have a strong place in Elemental's overall design so far, is good.  Appearance customization, with no mechanical effects, is also good.  A gender option is good, but it should belong almost entirely to the latter category.

In line with the original post, and looking at these types of customisation from a sales perspective.

Do we have any data that would at least give us an idea of:

a. The number of female TBS players.

b. What features tend to attract them to TBS the most.

c. Are female preferred features significantly different to the male preferences?

With this information, a meaningful decision can be made regarding the level of additional resources that should be put into the game to attract female customers, that is if anything additional is needed at all (maybe female TBS players just like TBS?).

I also think that it is quite dangerous to make general sweeping remarks about what most men or women like in general, let alone what they might like about something as specific as a TBS PC game.

People differ quite significantly, even those from the same family raised virtually in the same way. There is a saying that goes, "all of your fingers are not alike" (i.e. some are longer, thicker, etc.). The meaning there being, that these categorically equal appendages that sprout from the same source are all different, like siblings.

The word "many" is safer than the word "most", as it is very difficult and costly to accurately measure data about a statistical majority of our population.

As for biological and physical gender parallels, my view is that a faithful transferance would not necessarily equate to a more enjoyable playing experience for either gender, as it seems like it would be a hindrance to the fantasy feel of the game.

Lastly, if the actual majority of TBS players are males, then it might serve to implement the female aspects of the game in a way that more men prefer (if this information is accurately obtainable), and ideally in a way that many male and female players can enjoy. Otherwise, you might take it as a given that good TBS is enough to pull male customers, whilst customisation options are the female drawing card (if that is the case). The point here being, these decisions should be based on what has been garnered from a large data sample, and not based on what some people might think are accurate generalisations from their point of view or comparatively limited experience.

A ) we have no idea

b ) we have no idea

c ) we know exac... Just kidding, no idea.

As far as we can tell, women do play TBS games, there dosen't appear to be anything that they universally agree on(true for all thing about people in general too) and since no one has even been able to come up with any female oriented features, we certainly can't tell the difference between that and standard games.

We also suspect that each person likes and dislikes things as an individual and not as a demographic, so attempting to make a game more friendly to any particular demographic is likely to fail, unless we are aiming at a demographic such as "People who love apples".

I also suspect that on an environment like the forums here it's hard to get an exact handle on whether the suggestions are coming from a man or woman. I actually thought that Wintersong was female when I first came here because that was (and still is) the gender of all of his avatars....

That's wrong info. Here it is my first avatar in this forum (Brad forgive me):

I have been "accused" of being female, male, anything in between, a bot... If I use an avatar of a dog, that doesn't make me a dog. Really.

That particular avatar was before I showed up. The first one I ever saw was the blonde cartoon tiger thing.

Then what about...?

 or 

Even

Doi, its obvoius that Wintersong is a Bot

Ok, ok, most avatars..... and I think that the cover sov is either female or androgynous to be interpolated as one if put in a lineup with a lot of other females.

I remember wintersong mostly as the Singing Bird. Although I suppose the Blonde Cartoon Tiger is more prolific.

Is it just me, or did winter change his Avatar more than three times in one day recently ...

@Scoutdog: I don't see where you find evidence that could allow anyone think that the one in the cover is female. No, long hair is not valid.

@Tasunke: Singing Bird? And I tend to change of avatar (more than once a day) whenever I find myself playing with the Photoshop. Or in the last case, with Inkscape.

As I said, either female or androgynous enough to be seen as one.

I guess it's an old Metroid habit of mine to refer to unknown genders as female unless othewise hinted....... but if you look at movies and stuff, it often is....... (@ least in the States)

Female player of Galciv2 here (and Master of Magic back in the day), just preordered the game after reading the previews.

Who cares about changing a character's hair style and looks, what I would REALLY like to see is an option to specify whether a dynasty marries off the daughters, or the sons, or a mix. Also, the ability of creating female units. I think that it would enhance the game because we could create custom races of amazons if we wanted, and so on.

About the idea that female characters should have less strength, more charisma, etc. - I strongly disagree. Players should have the freedom to create a female counterpart of the Hulk (or a weak, but very charming male character) if that's what they feel like playing.

I disagree with the argument against female units based on the fact that women had to be home to rear children, could be pregnant, and so on. What about all those elderly frail looking sorcerers in fantasy then, shouldn't they all be in a retirement home instead of hurling fireballs at each other? If I wanted to play a side with female units I could justify it to myself with any made up possible explanation, e.g. "the second daughter of each family is not married off but sent to war" or whatever else, after all it's not a historical game, it's a fantasy and it should afford freedom.

Said that, I am perfectly happy to play with male units only, if implementing also female ones would take too much time. If it's just redundant and cosmetic work, I don't care if my unit is male, female, or a red dot on the map. Choosing what offspring go off to be champions or spouses though, that would really enhance the game and make it more interesting, I believe.

As for the OP and customisation, and attracting female players.I think that us females who play games like this don't care all that much about customisation, although maybe more than a male player. The art in Elemental from what I've seen is already going to be very appealing. If anything I think that something that would appeal to women is some  element of choice in the looks of things  - e.g.

- a heir grows into adulthood. Let me see three possible outcomes of the genetic mix between the parents and choose my favorite portrait for him among them.

- a new heraldic (sp?) symbol is created by marriage. Again, rather than just giving me one random result, let me choose between three or four options.

However, as nice as it would be, it's fluff.

I couldn't have said it any better. Trying to enforce a medieval viewpoint on the world of Elemental is just wrong... It's a fanatasy world, nothing should stop me from making a faction where the women rule, and the men are send of to a mariage with a friendly faction. 

While the OP makes some good points and if they got included it would be benificial for the game overall. There is only one thing in this entire 4 pages that sticks out to me.....

"No Chainmail Bikini's" 

All I have to say is...

-1 prestige

I approve of Chainmail bikinis. Sure it might only offer 30% of the protection (or 50% if it was slightly less bikini), but it would decrease the opponents initiative/movement speed, and increase the morale of allies

I do. So does my wife.

For a lot of people, being able to customize the characters makes them "yours" and gives you added interest in what they're doing. Plus making a cool looking unit is fun. It's a good idea.

I just wish you could do it with the sovereign without it affecting stats. Right now putting one in a dress gives you major disadvantages over armor, and since the clothes don't cost stat points it's problematic. I hope they just change appearance clothes to be seperate from equipped stat items and let you make your sovereign look however you want, but the next best thing would be to make starting gear cost customization points if it's going to affect stats.

(I guess it's called a "female friendly feature" by some because it's popular among women, but it's also popular among lots of men.)

Heh ... I would prefer to have the equipment that I "buy" for my sovereign to wear not necessarily depict what he is going to look like.

However, chances are equipment we wear will determine what we will look like (which is cool ... but not from a "clone" perspective)

Therefore, I suggest that we should be able to buy "enchanted" clothing.

Basically, the clothing gives the same stat as X equipment, and costs the same number of points. However, since its clothing, it can be any of the non-stat attributed accessories. Meaning that, as long as your clothing isn't an armor that contains a pre-existing stat, you can determine the level of enchantment (stats n points).

I'd also be cool to have "Magical Wizards Robes" that give bonuses to magic, so you can choose a weak sovereign (physically) that is stronger in magic, instead of only having the Tank or No Tank option (meaning that you will have full set of options ... Warrior, Tank-Mage, and Maxed Mage (cheaper spells and more powerful spells).

Add to that the ability to grant mundane Clothing the physical defensive capabilities of regular armor (costing same points as said armor of course) then suddenly you have turned a limited option into a myriad of choices.

This idea makes too much sense. File it away under Stardock.

I always wondered, did Stardock name their company after the island of magicians in the world of Midkemia (see Raymond E. Feist)?