BioWare’s Mark Darrah Explains Why There’s No Gender Differences in Anthem’s Javelins
We’ve learned quit a bit about the upcoming BioWare title Anthem since it made its debut, but there are still some things we just don’t know about. Namely, we’re wondering why there’s no variation for genders between the various Javelin suits you can wear in-game. It seems a bit counterproductive to ask for more realistic portrayals of women in gaming and then wonder why the character models between male and female characters look the same, but here we are nevertheless.
Fans wanted to know why the gender variations were not included in what we’ve seen of the game so far, and thus it looks like Darrah had comments on the reasoning, which ultimately comes down to reducing any sort of issues with player toxicity or harassment that could arise as part of including these elements in the game. Darrah stated the following in response to the question on Twitter:
“1. The differences were barely noticeable
2. In an era of harassment, having gender variation would mean also allowing players to choose their suit if they wished. This was unplanned work
3. And some other things”
The “some other things” don’t really make a lot of sense, of course, but the other reasons do. It’s actually a good thing that these suits don’t feature needless armor options like the “breast cups” that seem pretty unnecessary in other media, but that’s just this author’s personal opinion. As long as the suits look awesome and function well, who cares?