That escalated quickly.

It did! Confusing, because I did not really see a political agenda in the OP (but then I am often blind to these things).

On the other hand, if anyone does want to start a Political Movement whose core manifesto is;

1) to play more x-wing;

2) to play more x- wing with the people you love;

Well - sign me up siblings, I'm off to paint some placards!!!

That escalated quickly.

It did! Confusing, because I did not really see a political agenda in the OP (but then I am often blind to these things).

On the other hand, if anyone does want to start a Political Movement whose core manifesto is;

1) to play more x-wing;

2) to play more x- wing with the people you love;

Well - sign me up siblings, I'm off to paint some placards!!!

That was basically the agenda of OP. He just feels that focusing on the female characters would further that agenda, because the people he's trying to get hooked on the game are women who prefer to use female characters. I think he was hoping for custom cards that would show the pilots.

Savor your victory while you can, forum warrior! You and your kind are soon to be modded!"

Pity the most badass female character was created for a long and unrightfully forgotten game

about truly the most epic and glorious days of SW lore.

the days FFG denied even trying to implement into the game.

I was never overly fond of Tann. Not sure why.

Still, lots of happy memories of SW:GB. Granted, since I was even worse at RTS games than I am now, a lot of those memories involve Super-Ewoks* with laser staffs, but still. Fun times.

*Remember when cheat codes were a thing?

On topic, I've been working on an Alternate Blue Ace card with Jessika Pava's* name and art, but Strange Eons doesn't have a good template for Alt art cards.

*Other things alternate cards I'm working on: "Overclocked Processors" so that IG-88 will no longer do drugs, Alternate versions of Unique Astromechs so Corran Horn can fly with "Whistler," Wedge can fly with "Gate," and Poe can have BB-8 back.

Simon the Killer Ewok. The answer to every problem ever encountered in that game. The map editor was awesome, it was actually pretty intuitive.

That escalated quickly.

It did! Confusing, because I did not really see a political agenda in the OP (but then I am often blind to these things).

On the other hand, if anyone does want to start a Political Movement whose core manifesto is;

1) to play more x-wing;

2) to play more x- wing with the people you love;

Well - sign me up siblings, I'm off to paint some placards!!!

That was basically the agenda of OP. He just feels that focusing on the female characters would further that agenda, because the people he's trying to get hooked on the game are women who prefer to use female characters. I think he was hoping for custom cards that would show the pilots.

Savor your victory while you can, forum warrior! You and your kind are soon to be modded!"

Pity the most badass female character was created for a long and unrightfully forgotten game

about truly the most epic and glorious days of SW lore.

the days FFG denied even trying to implement into the game.

I was never overly fond of Tann. Not sure why.

Still, lots of happy memories of SW:GB. Granted, since I was even worse at RTS games than I am now, a lot of those memories involve Super-Ewoks* with laser staffs, but still. Fun times.

*Remember when cheat codes were a thing?

On topic, I've been working on an Alternate Blue Ace card with Jessika Pava's* name and art, but Strange Eons doesn't have a good template for Alt art cards.

*Other things alternate cards I'm working on: "Overclocked Processors" so that IG-88 will no longer do drugs, Alternate versions of Unique Astromechs so Corran Horn can fly with "Whistler," Wedge can fly with "Gate," and Poe can have BB-8 back.

Simon the Killer Ewok. The answer to every problem ever encountered in that game. The map editor was awesome, it was actually pretty intuitive.

simonsays

I love how consistently badass the female Imperial pilots are. You can pretty easily fly Juno, "Whisper", and "Howlrunner" as a list and it'd be great. So it was that I kind of slipped into referring to "Deathrain" as female, on account of the gender being ambiguous and the pilot ability being awesome.

Unfortunately when I went back to check the preview article, the pilot is referred to as male:

As tempting as Enhanced Scopes may be for any TIE punisher pilot, it is a uniquely effective system upgrade for "Deathrain," who can choose to deploy bombs from his ship's front guides. Judge his maneuver correctly, and you can easily fly right up to a ship like the Millennium Falcon to deploy and immediately explode your Cluster Mines for six attack dice against zero defense dice.

From Obliterate Your Enemies.

But given that preview articles are frequently wrong on some of the details I'm happy to overlook it and keep using a feminine pronoun for "Deathrain". All signs point to it being a completely FFG-invented pilot so I don't think anyone has grounds to nerd-rage on me for it. And hey, maybe we can swing opinion and get her some good semi-official back story after the fact

Also, this is the one saving grace of the generically named TIE/fo pilots: any or all of them can be referred to as female and no one can tell you you're wrong. It's not as good as having a proper back-storied pilot but at least it's something.

I'm still a big advocate for Shira Brie in an X-Wing and then an Imperial only Lumiya crew. Would also like an R2-KT astromech.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

Anyone else disturbed by the new way of thinking that everything needs to be quotas?

Nope.

Actually: I've not noticed any quotas recently. I've noticed that since the 1990s, the formal attempts at creating diversity through quota systems have decayed. But I've not noticed a new way of thinking that demands them.

However! You seem to be confused about why quota systems exist. So let me explain it.

People tend to maintain the status quo, regardless of whether it's right or not. People tend to hire and promote less-qualified people who look, sound, etc the people they have always hired and promoted. The human brain just gets stuck in a groove and it requires a conscious effort to bust outside of that groove.

A quota is one way of attempting to force brains out of that groove. It's not the only way. But it's _a_ way.

Very specifically, a quota is not "insulting to women, as it creates a system were their own merits are put second to being a woman." Rather. It lets women who are equally qualified compete against the men who are getting an unfair advantage by virtue of being men.

How do we know men are being hired and promoted above what they should merit? Look at studies of blind auditions for orchestras. Gender got much closer to parity once orchestras no longer knew if they were hiring men or women.

Anyway. This has gone on a bit to long.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

"Money doesn't matter!" says the trust fund millionaire to the person living rough in a cardboard box.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

Serious answer: Because that's how humans work. It was difficult for me to accept this at first, because as a straight white guy literally every film/movie/video game had someone I can easily identify with in it, so I just accepted this status quo as 'normal'. Therefore anyone wanting their race/gender represented in media was somehow bringing their 'identity politics' to the table. Thankfully I stopped being an angsty 16 year old.

Not so serious answer:

No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

The only way that sentence could be worse is if you said 'females' instead of 'ladies'.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

"Money doesn't matter!" says the trust fund millionaire to the person living rough in a cardboard box.

Tell me how the "money" matters in this case.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

"Money doesn't matter!" says the trust fund millionaire to the person living rough in a cardboard box.

Tell me how the "money" matters in this case.

Congratulations you couldn't have missed the point more.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

"Money doesn't matter!" says the trust fund millionaire to the person living rough in a cardboard box.

Tell me how the "money" matters in this case.

Congratulations you couldn't have missed the point more.

I can see how money matters to a man living in a cardboard box. I don't see how the sex of an imaginary pilot matters in this game. Congrats on being a snob.

Serious answer: Because that's how humans work. It was difficult for me to accept this at first, because as a straight white guy literally every film/movie/video game had someone I can easily identify with in it, so I just accepted this status quo as 'normal'. Therefore anyone wanting their race/gender represented in media was somehow bringing their 'identity politics' to the table. Thankfully I stopped being an angsty 16 year old.

As a straight white guy I've always found statements like this thoroughly bizarre. Yes, there is an overwhelming amount of both of those qualities in leading roles, both in cinema and games, and it's a good thing that this trend is shifting. But being able to identify with someone in literally every film, movie and videogame? Really? I am absolutely nothing like Luke Skywalker, He-Man, Captain America, Indiana Jones, John Matrix, Kyle Reese, Alex Murphy, Marty McFly or Jack Sparrow. Pretty much the only things I have in common with these characters are whiteness and maleness.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

Serious answer: Because that's how humans work. It was difficult for me to accept this at first, because as a straight white guy literally every film/movie/video game had someone I can easily identify with in it, so I just accepted this status quo as 'normal'. Therefore anyone wanting their race/gender represented in media was somehow bringing their 'identity politics' to the table. Thankfully I stopped being an angsty 16 year old.

Not so serious answer:

No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

The only way that sentence could be worse is if you said 'females' instead of 'ladies'.

Actually, that is exactly how angsty 16 year olds behave. I don't play games because there are white males in them, nor do I feel any need to identify with them when there are, nor am I going to avoid games that lack white males. I play games because they are fun and I enjoy them. Identity politics need not enter the equation.

I say we take off and nuke tumblr from space, only way to be sure.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

"Money doesn't matter!" says the trust fund millionaire to the person living rough in a cardboard box.

Tell me how the "money" matters in this case.

Congratulations you couldn't have missed the point more.

I can see how money matters to a man living in a cardboard box. I don't see how the sex of an imaginary pilot matters in this game. Congrats on being a snob.

You should probably feel bad that I have to explain this to you, but never mind:

It's easy for the millionaire to say money doesn't matter, because he has money.

It's easy for the man to say representation in media doesn't matter, because he is represented in media.

This is a game about tiny plastic ships (and depictions of those ships on cards - not the pilots), strategy and luck. Why do you have to "identify" with the figure(s) on the table? Why is it that girls *need* "strong female figures" to play the game? Does the sex of the imagined pilot actually have something to do with the ability of the ship? No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

Serious answer: Because that's how humans work. It was difficult for me to accept this at first, because as a straight white guy literally every film/movie/video game had someone I can easily identify with in it, so I just accepted this status quo as 'normal'. Therefore anyone wanting their race/gender represented in media was somehow bringing their 'identity politics' to the table. Thankfully I stopped being an angsty 16 year old.

Not so serious answer:

No. Ladies, stop being sexist, grow up and play the game if you want to play, but leave the identity politics out of it.

The only way that sentence could be worse is if you said 'females' instead of 'ladies'.

Actually, that is exactly how angsty 16 year olds behave. I don't play games because there are white males in them, nor do I feel any need to identify with them when there are, nor am I going to avoid games that lack white males. I play games because they are fun and I enjoy them. Identity politics need not enter the equation.

That's the metaphor. Representation is money. You've been swimming in it so long you not only can't fathom how it might be scarce and precious to someone else, you've actually got the nerve to lecture that person about how it shouldn't ****ing matter to them.

Sorry everyone. That's me done for the thread.

You should probably feel bad that I have to explain this to you, but never mind:

It's easy for the millionaire to say money doesn't matter, because he has money.

It's easy for the man to say representation in media doesn't matter, because he is represented in media.

Considering that you didn't "explain" anything, you should feel bad for making that comment. Once again, how does the sex of the imaginary pilots matter in this game? Do you typically avoid movies and games, solely because they lack someone of your sex / race? I don't feel the need to be "represented" by a tiny plastic TIE fighter or X-Wing - why do you? That seems really silly, to me.

You should probably feel bad that I have to explain this to you, but never mind:

It's easy for the millionaire to say money doesn't matter, because he has money.

It's easy for the man to say representation in media doesn't matter, because he is represented in media.

Considering that you didn't "explain" anything, you should feel bad for making that comment. Once again, how does the sex of the imaginary pilots matter in this game? Do you typically avoid movies and games, solely because they lack someone of your sex / race? I don't feel the need to be "represented" by a tiny plastic TIE fighter or X-Wing - why do you? That seems really silly, to me.

wow

BECAUSE YOU'RE ACCUSTOMED TO YOUR IDENTITY BEING THE DEFAULT. Can you not fathom how that might be different if you were a member of a gender/race/sexuality that wasn't quite so spoiled for choice in terms of role models in films/comics/TV/whatever that looked like them?

That's the metaphor. Representation is money. You've been swimming in it so long you not only can't fathom how it might be scarce and precious to someone else, you've actually got the nerve to lecture that person about how it shouldn't ****ing matter to them.

Sorry everyone. That's me done for the thread.

Actually, I can't fathom the concept of being so dependent on an imaginary character as a "role model," based solely on their race or sex, particularly to the point that you would avoid a game or movie which lacks such a character. I don't feel catered to in most forms of media, nor do I feel any need to be catered to - that's what I meant when I said "grow up." The characters of Star Wars are great because of what they did, not because of their skin color or their sex. I don't feel any need to "identify" with them - I just sit back and enjoy the fantasy for what it is. My point is that I don't need someone to look like me to identify with them - why do you? I've played many games with female leads, and I didn't sit there thinking "Wow! This game needs more males!"

If you feel "represented" by tiny plastic TIE fighters or X-Wings, then I will leave you to that - whatever floats your boat.

I'm just surprised with there being art already, that they haven't done a Howlrunner promo.

BECAUSE YOU'RE ACCUSTOMED TO YOUR IDENTITY BEING THE DEFAULT. Can you not fathom how that might be different if you were a member of a gender/race/sexuality that wasn't quite so spoiled for choice in terms of role models in films/comics/TV/whatever that looked like them?

That's the metaphor. Representation is money. You've been swimming in it so long you not only can't fathom how it might be scarce and precious to someone else, you've actually got the nerve to lecture that person about how it shouldn't ****ing matter to them.

Sorry everyone. That's me done for the thread.

Actually, I can't fathom the concept of being so dependent on an imaginary character as a "role model," based solely on their race or sex, particularly to the point that you would avoid a game or movie which lacks such a character. I don't feel catered to in most forms of media, nor do I feel any need to be catered to - that's what I meant when I said "grow up." The characters of Star Wars are great because of what they did, not because of their skin color or their sex. I don't feel any need to "identify" with them - I just sit back and enjoy the fantasy for what it is. My point is that I don't need someone to look like me to identify with them - why do you? I've played many games with female leads, and I didn't sit there thinking "Wow! This game needs more males!"

If you feel "represented" by tiny plastic TIE fighters or X-Wings, then I will leave you to that - whatever floats your boat.

Jibberish.

Half the fun of this game is that it is set in a fantasy setting; the lore, the fluff, the fun of it is as important as the little plastic ships we push around - whether we are children or adults. And for many people a feeling of empathy and association is as natural a part of that enjoyment as rolling the dice or opening the box on a new shiny. Natural, normal and fun!

If then a key demographic tells you they would enjoy the game more if they had more characters that they identified with, why not listen?

Strikes me as natural; nobody here is talking about quotas or Vader getting in touch with his inner interior designer. Just a few more female pilots to spread the joy to some new players - that simple!

More players means more fun for all of us surely.

BECAUSE YOU'RE ACCUSTOMED TO YOUR IDENTITY BEING THE DEFAULT. Can you not fathom how that might be different if you were a member of a gender/race/sexuality that wasn't quite so spoiled for choice in terms of role models in films/comics/TV/whatever that looked like them?

That's the metaphor. Representation is money. You've been swimming in it so long you not only can't fathom how it might be scarce and precious to someone else, you've actually got the nerve to lecture that person about how it shouldn't ****ing matter to them.

Sorry everyone. That's me done for the thread.

Actually, I can't fathom the concept of being so dependent on an imaginary character as a "role model," based solely on their race or sex, particularly to the point that you would avoid a game or movie which lacks such a character. I don't feel catered to in most forms of media, nor do I feel any need to be catered to - that's what I meant when I said "grow up." The characters of Star Wars are great because of what they did, not because of their skin color or their sex. I don't feel any need to "identify" with them - I just sit back and enjoy the fantasy for what it is. My point is that I don't need someone to look like me to identify with them - why do you? I've played many games with female leads, and I didn't sit there thinking "Wow! This game needs more males!"

If you feel "represented" by tiny plastic TIE fighters or X-Wings, then I will leave you to that - whatever floats your boat.

And that is akin to the millionaire saying that he doesn't see what the big deal is, that there are job opportunities everyhwhere, that he doesn't need help, so why the hell should the homeless guy.

My goodness, it's such a good anological fit, and every post of yours brings the analogy closer and closer. Putting it briefly: Don't be so certain that your perspective is the sole source of validity - for you own sake, if not for that of others.

I've been homeless.

Never blamed people with money though.

Eh? What's that got to do with the price of fish??

Anyway, here's an all-female list for ya, Blail!

Miranda Doni (37) K-Wing (29), Twin Laser Turret (6), Tactician (2)

Jan Ors (34) HWK-290 (25), Crack Shot (1), Twin Laser Turret (6), Tactician (2)

Ibtisam (29) B-Wing (28), Crack Shot (1)

And have you seen Paul la Rue's custom cards? He's done portrait versions of Miranda, Guri, Howl and Kath, might be worth a look?