This is the biggest non-issue in any game ever. I can't even imagine how anybody's first thought would be "how DARE the man be directly controlled by the arrow keys instead of the woman." I've made games for my girlfriend several times, with some games having her control me and others controlling herself, and neither time did we think what character was being controlled was an issue.
Hell, I actually read this post to her, and she was just completely confused and annoyed that someone found this a problem.
There's no sexism to be found here. The male just happens to appear on-screen first and that's who you control. I'd struggle to find a single woman that would've even noticed that.
> I'd struggle to find a single woman that would've even noticed that.
This is kind of ridiculous. Clearly, people are noticing and some of the people who notice might be women.
I noticed because I assumed which ever character was right-side up would be controlled by the arrow keys. I didn't think it was sexist. I thought it was a flaw in the game.
People tend to focus on characters instead of directions. Since the male was the first person I controlled, it was natural that I kept on using the arrow keys to control him and I didn't even take a second to thing about it. Nobody would expect to be moving right, hit the flip button, and then start moving left just to "prove the developer treats genders equally." The control scheme would be disorienting and far more people would complain about that. And if you suggest the player select their gender at the start, then puzzles would have to be adjusted to suit this. It's needless effort to appease people that the game wasn't even made for.
And judging by the name, I'm assuming joeyh is a male, and the only other person to be "bothered" by it is also a male (dgreensp), so my claim isn't exactly baseless.
Besides, this was a game made by a couple. There's outrage where their shouldn't be any. This guy's partner doesn't need to be "liberated from male-dominated control schemes."
You don't understand at all — the whole point is that you're concurrently controlling both characters, but then for some reason it's always from the player's perspective of the male. It's a bug.
The game starts with the male on the bottom, I press right, the and both characters move to their right. When you flip the male to the top, both characters move to their left when you press right. I expect my keyboard movements to directly correspond to both characters from their own perspective.
Hell, I actually read this post to her, and she was just completely confused and annoyed that someone found this a problem.
There's no sexism to be found here. The male just happens to appear on-screen first and that's who you control. I'd struggle to find a single woman that would've even noticed that.