Regarding Gender and a Bionicle MMORPG

[Bricknave]

If there were to ever be a Bionicle MMORPG of some kind, would the monogenderness of the Elements (except Light) be an issue? As in, would it have to be retconned?

 

Let's say a Bionicle MMORPG rolls out, and gamers unfamiliar with Bionicle try it out. They reach the character creation stage. They see that as either a Toa or a Matoran, every Element only consists of the male gender except for four. Of those four, only one Element gives you the option to play as either a male or a female (Light).  Many gamers wouldn't mind this, but several will think this is nonsensical. They want to be able to play as a female Toa of Fire or a male Ga-Matoran. They are used to maximum character creation possibilites.

 

This wouldn't be an issue if only Glatorian and Agori are playable. However, the elemental powers of the Toa and the masks they use is kind of the core of Bionicle.

[Lyichir]

If there were to ever be a Bionicle MMORPG of some kind, would the monogenderness of the Elements (except Light) be an issue? As in, would it have to be retconned?

 

Let's say a Bionicle MMORPG rolls out, and gamers unfamiliar with Bionicle try it out. They reach the character creation stage. They see that as either a Toa or a Matoran, every Element only consists of the male gender except for four. Of those four, only one Element gives you the option to play as either a male or a female (Light).  Many gamers wouldn't mind this, but several will think this is nonsensical. They want to be able to play as a female Toa of Fire or a male Ga-Matoran. They are used to maximum character creation possibilites.

 

This wouldn't be an issue if only Glatorian and Agori are playable. However, the elemental powers of the Toa and the masks they use is kind of the core of Bionicle.

The gender restrictions would indeed likely be an issue in an MMO (as if it weren't enough of one already). Hoping for those restrictions to be eliminated (in the event of a continuation) or retconned (in the event of a reboot). Of oourse, I doubt a Bionicle MMO is likely to ever happen even if the theme DOES come back, since the MMO genre is somewhat past its peak, and making one that is profitable or just breaks even is a monumental task.

[fishers64]

They would probably just sidestep the issue like the Chima RPG did. The system allowed you choose your character/tribe/animal without specifying gender, so that's probably what they would do here. 

Edited July 20, 2014 by fishers64

[The Lorax]

While not really MMOs, we do have a a text-based RPG forum on BZPower, and over there we deal with exactly the same issue. Here's how:

 

The gender to element laws get thrown out the window.

 

Always. That's not to say that we don't get a majority of toa of fire being male and a majority of water toa being female (because we do) but the freedom to break those rules has been there in both the main BZPRPG and every successful contest RPG I have seen.

[Zidonaro]

You know of an easy way of solve this gender problem in all Bionicle media, including the storyline ? Just retcon the whole thing. Keep the genders of the characters that we're already familiarized, and allow both genders to exist in every element. It shouldn't be too hard.

[UnderscoreChronix]

Having all females play as Ga-Matoran wouldn't really work, so I think it would be best to just forget about gender in a game like that. May not be canon, but still.

[ShadowVezon]

Enjoyment of the Game comes before Plot-Accuracy. Sometimes you have to make changes to make it work. As long as you don't go too far and turn it into Bionicle Heroes.

[NorikSigma]

Exceptions to the whole gender restriction thing did exist, and if an MMO existed, or if Bionicle relaunched, hopefully the exceptions become more commonplace, maybe to the point where instead of (for example,)

 

"1 male for every 1000 females"

 

It would be down played as

 

"Generally more females than males"

 

Retcon to remove the whole thing would be welcome, and could be reconciled with the lack of female characters as "generally higher male population than female" for those who cannot accept retcons as a compromise.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Norik Of Celtania