As usual the media tries to spin it in the most asinine way to put normal folks in a bad light. If you don’t like [new product] then you’re racist or sexist because this company has decided to use the idea of progressiveness as a shield. Not far off from them capitalizing on pride only to go back to the status quo as soon as the month is over.
Maybe there are a very small minority that for whatever reason just don’t like playing as women for dumb reasons, but I’d wager the vast majority know what this actually implies for the game as a whole. With the talk of the humor in the game also being “toned down”, it’s not hard to wonder whether it will even have anything at all that the last games are known for. Just as an example, Saints Row has had the option to play as a woman for a long time now - no one is upset that that’s also the case for the new one. No, people are upset that the humor and tone are entirely different and in the vein of some hipster garbage rather than what it really ought to be given the series’ roots and history. It’s a betrayal of expectations of fans who have supported you, in exchange for trying to entice new fans who have shown many times before that they do not buy games regardless and are never satisfied.
Female characters have been in games for near about as long as games have existed, and have been equally as good and bad as their male counterparts…and yet thanks to rhetoric from pathological liars like Anita Sarkeesian, many take at face value the notion that it’s a fairly new concept and that any that came before are only ever sexist examples. It’s extremely ridiculous and falls flat on it’s face as soon as you do any if your own research into the topic.
For me personally, I don’t trust that Rockstar can write a good female character regardless of any underlying agendas, given how awful gtav was…where the only decent character was Trevor, especially coming after iv. I feel the good talent was probably working on RDR2 for far longer, and have since decided to leave the company before this whole online focus bullshit started really being set in stone. It wouldn’t surprise me if the story had forced online implementation and leaned heavily on shark cards either. Whoever likes that kind of thing, well, all I can say is…good luck. Suckers are born every day.