Geek Woman: I understand that there is a character creation feature in the game? What will it be like?
Rose Hunt : The character creation and customization features are among my favorite features of the game. You will be able to select your character's starting template and then be able to tweak them to look precisely how you want them to by adjusting hair, skin tone, build and facial features. Once you've created the basics and played to earn a little cash, you can outfit your PC with his own personal style by clothing him, adding tattoos and accessories. The more money you earn the better style you can afford. Your attention to style can earn you respect on the street, which is important to gameplay.
Anne Odom : The character creation and customization feature is unbelievably robust. Everything is adjustable - from overall character build, to variations of skin tone, to lengths and angles of ear lobes. The other day, one of the technical artists made a character who's head looked exactly like an ape.
Geek Woman: An ape. But no women, you'll never hear the end of that I'm guessing. Are there the obsequies "Ho's" in the game?
Anne Odom : I'm not sure if you mean obsequious (doormats) or ubiquitous (everywhere) in this question, I'll answer it both ways.
Geek Woman: I blame my southern new england accent. I guess you can spell that obsequies or obsequious. But anyway, any Ho's in the game?
Anne Odom : There are hos, but I wouldn't say they are obsequious. I am regularly clocked by all of our women NPCs - hos, joggers, senior citizens, business women. Don't assume that if you start acting up all the women around you will go running for cover. Saint's Row women won't put up with it - and they have a mean right hook.
Anne Odom : It's also important to note that we have a wide variety of characters in the game. While we certainly have prostitutes, we have women from all walks of life, all different backgrounds, and a wide variety of demographics making up the population of the city.
Rose Hunt : Yes, there will be ho's. There will also be grannies that will attack you with walkers and buff joggers who fight back when they're assaulted. Make no mistake, the ladies are not pushovers in Saints Row. It's especially gratifying to see ho's lay down a cover of gunfire to assist you in a getaway.
Geek Woman: What steps have been taken to avoid the rampant sexism that we saw in GTA?
Anne Odom : In this respect, comparing Saint's Row to GTA is a little bit like apples and oranges. The GTA series features story lines that come from a pretty serious and dark perspective. Saint's Row is comes from a much more "tongue-in-cheek" angle, and plays upon a variety of overblown cultural stereotypes to build some really enjoyable humor. Every demographic can expect to feel the sting of Saint's Row wit, and we certainly didn't spare the women.
Anne Odom : That said, I'll reiterate that strong women are integral to the storyline that's been developed for this game - something I don't feel we've seen in any GTA game to date.
Rose Hunt : Our writer and designers took care to make sure that the women in the game portray a variety of archetypes. We have women who are arm candy, mastermind manipulators, tough chicks that can kick your ass and just good people trying to get by. I give the design team top marks for the amount of thought and effort they put into this one. They even changed the gender of a key character because they wanted to place women in several varied roles.
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