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Closed Create A Gender Balancing Program for the Star Army of Yamatai

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Wes

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I made another waifu-based character today and she turned out great, and look forward to using her in the Star Army Recruiting thread...but I was also thinking, it would be nice to have more male characters. I was thinking I should have Hanako (head of Star Army Personnel) clone a bunch of male soldiers to start balancing genders. On the OOC side this would mean creating a ton of male NPC to try to balance out the female ones better. I don't expect it to break even but a push in a more balanced direction would be nice. I could use some of the tools I've found (like Artbreeder) or made (like the Star Army Bio Writer AI) to give them unique bios and I could freely give them to GMs who need NPCs and/or offer them as adoptable pregens to new players (kind of a grab and go character bio).

I was thinking they'd be Minkans but I'd also like your feedback on whether these males might include male Nekovalkyrja.
 
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For as long as I've been on the site (and as I understand it, for the majority of its history) the SAoY has been female-dominated and I see no real issue with that. In fact, I feel that a female-dominated military and culture is an important part of Yamatai's faction identity and nicely counterbalances the traditionally male-dominated Nepleslia.

If it is actually a problem that needs solving, I don't think we need yet another tidal wave of NPCs to do so but should rather encourage more male PCs to be made.
 
I agree with RaWolfe and Alex Hart. The only thing I have to add is that I like the idea of male Nekovalkyrja, but I understand the lore behind female nekos so I would hope they'd come with a good in-universe reason for being created instead of cloning Minkans.
 
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I do definitely agree that there's a lack of male characters compared to female characters on the site. For the Star Army specifically, I was originally going to point out that it could be because Nekos are exclusively female (aside from some exceptions), but honestly other factions have the same thing where there's a lot more female characters than male too. I'm not certain how much it would help OOCly because it would certainly create a lot of male NPCs, but not necessarily PCs. I'm also a little concerned it could lead to a slippery slope where eventually it gets applied to PCs and limits how many female characters players are allowed to make.

I do like the idea of male nekos though. I understand the reasoning behind them being female, but it's still always seemed a little odd to me that they only make female ones; I mean they're created in large numbers synthetically.
 
It's not a slippery slope. Star Army isn't one of those romance forums where we need to balance genders because everyone's expected to hook up. I just want to make male NPCs way more available so that we run into them more in the RP and have more of them on our ships. People are out there criticizing Star Army because it looks like a harem anime and I think having more males would make the site seem less weird.
 
I think it would be interesting to see gender diversity in general represented in the SAoY.
 
If you need help making bios names ect I am here. I could also draw up a base character photo that I can interchange skins hairs ect for to make profile pics if you need help.
 
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Male Nekos aren't really needed, just improve upon the Minkan military upgrades. They can always be downgraded when they leave for civilian life.
 
Even though my only Yamataian characters were men for the longest time, part of the faction’s appeal, and indeed the site’s, was the detailed worldbuilding. Yamatai had catgirl warriors and Nepleslia was a country of big GI Joe supersoldiers; that is (and was for the latter) cool. Making a guy who joins the Star Army has always seemed to me as especially badass because while Neko are created to be loyal soldiers, most males who join do so because they’re patriotic citizens of the Empire. It’s a little thing that really enriches the entire setting and the choices that players make during character creation.

Different reflections on reality make fictional settings worthwhile and interesting. I’m all for more characters being guys in Yamatai, and think they’ve definitely grown in prevalence since I joined in 2005 without any major setting changes. But I don’t see a need for the setting itself to change to fix any perceived problem such as increasing the number of artificial males into the population. Militarized Minkans are essentially on par with regular Neko right now when it comes to abilities, so it’s not like they’re at a huge disadvantage anymore.

Ultimately it’s your site and faction, Wes, and you need to enjoy it. If it’s any consolation, the whole “harem anime” thing is solidly in Yamatai’s IC past from my perspective and, while it might be mentioned or alluded to from time to time, it always seems like a fond and archaic memory to highlight the setting’s history. Anyone who says Yamatai is weird today is grasping. Yamatai today is the most detailed and unique setting among the site’s factions and one of the most detailed among sci-fi countries in general.
 
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I think people who are downvoting are overestimating the impact implementing this will have. I could make 100 NPCs (which is kind of the game plan because there's only so many that will be able to find RPs) and still barely make a dent on the gender ratio. This won't drastically change Yamatai, it'll just be a commitment to make more male NPCs when I make NPCs. With that in mind, I hope you'll change your mind on this.
 
I'm for it because it's just you making more male NPCs. It's for you to do, not anyone else. I've always had a lot of male/female balance on the Kaiyo. Currently we have 8 female PCs and 5 male ones. I know that's not equal, but it is a lot better than the 8:1 ratio I think a lot of people think there is. I say go for it, make the SAoY representative of what you want it to be.
 
Honestly I say go for it and add more. I mean it would be nice to see some extras and not be exactly rare. Also development of new NPCS is always a plus. I know people have been going for Nep more GI Jo and Yam Cat Girl in Space army but I mean it would be good to just see some expanded horizons.

Also interesting about male Neko's, I mean again i'm for it though curious why the change ?
 
This won't drastically change Yamatai, it'll just be a commitment to make more male NPCs when I make NPCs. With that in mind, I hope you'll change your mind on this.
My vote’s neutral.

If you just want to make more male NPCs then I’m not even sure why it’s something to be voted up or down. Who would downvote that? Diversity is important when it comes to someone’s creative time and getting away from making art of women for now is your choice.

The added-on question about Neko men is where setting concerns come into play. I would not upvote that without an extensive setting discussion. They’re Neko valkyries, after all, and having male Neko remain rare — especially now that militarized Minkan are basically on the same ability level — seems like a good norm for the setting barring some major IC development.
 
I don't see the problem with making more male NPCs but as I said, there'd still be a pretty significant imbalance with more female PCs. Not that there's a problem with trying to balance it out by having more male NPCs. As long as it doesn't turn into something that limits players I don't really see an issue with it and I think the idea of male nekos is cool.
 
I think we've had too many male Nekovalkryja or "female with male parts" Neko to not warrant a clause on how to make these characters or how these characters exist. I also think it'd be cool to have them around.
 
I’m all for more characters being guys in Yamatai, and think they’ve definitely grown in prevalence since I joined in 2005 without any major setting changes. But I don’t see a need for the setting itself to change to fix any perceived problem such as increasing the number of artificial males into the population.
To snip a bit from Raz's post, this is kind of my feeling. I don't see any real need for something like mass cloning of males in Yamatai like is suggested in the original post. I also don't feel like 100 new NPCs won't really do much beyond go "Here's another 100 NPCs but this time they're dudes"

I'm personally against male neko being something that is purposefully produced by the Star Army, as it produces a soldier unable to meet the basic requirements of being a self-reproducing soldier, which is kind of the only differentiating factor between Nekos and Minkans. I don't think that it should be something we absolutely forbid making, but I don't think it should be something we encourage either.

Overall, I just don't see any actual problem to be solved. There's nothing wrong with having a military and a society in which women very heavily outnumber men. Just like there's nothing wrong with how Nepleslia has a military and a society in which men very heavily outnumber women. This is just part of the flavor of the factions in question, and as far as I can tell there's no actual sexism or anything going on IC or OOC.
 
Honestly, the most logical "male Neko" are Minkan with cat ears. Like everyone's favorite nekojin Jackson Howard. He literally has the exact same abilities as a Neko even though he's a militarized Minkan but gets cat ears:


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By definition, a "valkyrie" is a woman. The inspiration that Nekovalkyrja draw from — mythological warriors who "choose those who may die in battle and those who may live" (per wikipedia's description of valkyrie) — is so cool and fitting for Neko in Yamatai's setting. Male Neko are rare for a reason. It's also important to remember that Minkan and Neko are both the latest in the Ningyo Heiki synthetic person project. Neko (default warriors who can become civilians) and Minkans (default civilians who can become warriors) are two sides of the same coin and species.

Wes already clarified his original question, but I thought I'd still remind everybody about facts on the wiki itself. Characters can be a male Minkan with cat ears and the same abilities as any regular Nekovalkyrja soldier. It just seems kind of silly to want more men to fall under the gendered term "valkyrie."
 
To snip a bit from Raz's post, this is kind of my feeling. I don't see any real need for something like mass cloning of males in Yamatai like is suggested in the original post. I also don't feel like 100 new NPCs won't really do much beyond go "Here's another 100 NPCs but this time they're dudes"
I also agree with this, and that's why I'm neutral on this suggestion. NPCs aren't the same as PCs (unless they're used like the GM's PC), it wouldn't exactly solve a gender imbalance from an OOC perspective. Also it'd feel a little awkward lore-wise IMO if they decided to suddenly start creating a lot of male clones for the sake of having more males.
I'm personally against male neko being something that is purposefully produced by the Star Army, as it produces a soldier unable to meet the basic requirements of being a self-reproducing soldier, which is kind of the only differentiating factor between Nekos and Minkans. I don't think that it should be something we absolutely forbid making, but I don't think it should be something we encourage either.
Do they really need to be a self-reproducing soldier? They already produce nekos in mass with machines, there's hardly a population problem where there's not enough soldiers.
 
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