Petition for Playable Females in Colonial Marines Multiplayer

Gamers have launched a petition this week to include playable females in the multiplayer mode for Gearbox Software’s Aliens: Colonial Marines.

In a live chat on EA’s Origin, Gearbox Producer Brian Burleson was asked by user “Vasquez” if there would be the choice to play a female marine. His response:

Burleson: Ah, no. [something unintelligible]

Presenter: Even though there’s a classic female in the movie?

Burleson: Oh yeah, yeah. Vasquez was one of the first [something]. There’s lots of girls in the game, actually. We’re not… it’s not just all guys or anything.

It does seem a strange decision. Before Terminator 2’s Sarah Connor, before Lara Croft, before I was even born, Ellen Ripley was a strong female action hero in 1979, an era where women’s earning were 62% of men’s. Famously, the original script was written as gender-neutral with Ripley only receiving her female first name in the 1986 sequel.

In casting the successful second-in-command as a woman, Ridley Scott was making a bold and deliberate statement. I’m very much relieved to hear that Gearbox have included women in the campaign mode. At least they’re not trying to “bro” up the series completely.

Alien fan MOOSH89 from the AliensColonialMarines.net forum has set up a petition requesting that Gearbox add the ability to make custom female avatars for the multiplayer mode.

From the petition:

This is unacceptable for a game that makes such claims as are listed on its official website, made after a film franchise that has many strong female characters like Ripley, Vasquez, Ferro and Dietrich to name a few.

You can see the full Q&A with Burleson online [28:40 for the multiplayer question]. The petition itself is here, just shy of its 1,000 signature goal at the time of writing. SEGA and Gearbox Software have no comment on the issue at this time.

Aliens: Colonial Marines will be released on 12th February 2013 for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U.