Gearbox Adding Female Marines To Aliens: Colonial Marines Due To Gamer Petitions

Female gamers noticed that there were no female marines in the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines. So they did what gamers have done best this generation: whine, cry, moan and pester the devs with petitions. Instead of using that idiotic “don't like, don't buy” slogan, the female gamers got proactive about there being a little too much schlong swings, man meat, boy beef, knobs on a string and banana peels without enough of the alternative, and so Gearbox listened. So now, Gearbox is adding female marines to Aliens: Colonial Marines.

I'm no fan of Jim Sterling but he's been on a roll lately covering a lot of pro-consumer topics relating to gaming and gaming culture in the right light. One of the Jimquisitions was about how whining, throwing meaningful tantrums and getting other like-minded gamers to do the same across forum boards, chat rooms and aggregators can spawn the right kind of results in favor of gamers, such as the Mass Effect 3 ending, Capcom letting go of disc-locked content and EA trying to be a little less evil, to name a few.

While the “don't like it, don't buy it” slogan has been used often, it's more like a shill slogan than pro-gaming advice. And thankfully, a certain Melissa K., didn’t wait for the game to release to “not buy it” as a show of protest against the lack of female marines in the game.

According to Games Thirst, Melissa took to the internet and rallied up support to get Gearbox to consider adding female marines to the cooperative, competitive and campaign modes in the upcoming first-person shooter, Aliens: Colonial Marines, stating that...

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. There is roughly 5-6 months before the game goes Gold and releases February 12th, 2013 so we need to let them know NOW that they are not being true to the ALIENS universe by not including the ability to play as a female in Multiplayer.

After starting a petition that garnered more than 4,000 signatures, it was just enough to get the attention of the company. Thereafter, Gearbox decided to make the change, with president Randy Pitchford saying...

“I want everybody to be clear that there are playable females in both the mulitplayer and the campaign,”

We realised some people were starting to feel bad. We exist to entertain people.”

Well that's good news.

I'm glad gamers are starting to realize that they really do control the direction of the gaming industry. While games may be a luxury it doesn't mean that you have to put with crap. It's still your money and respect has to be shown both ways, from gamers to developers and from developers to gamers.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is set for release in February, 2013 for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U. For more information feel free to visit the Official Website.