PlayStation Driver Gender Balance

I have my own player profile with a male character (because I'm a man) but I play on my partner's Playstation login because, as this is the only game I play on PS4, I didn't see the point in making my own. She fights zombies, and when she's out being the principal breadwinner for our family, I drive trains.

I've noticed that when I play, nearly all drivers and secondmen are women. Is this because the Playstation login I load the game from belongs to a woman and that determines the ratio of male to female playable and non-playable characters? I hope not, that would be silly.

I have no problem with women driving trains, why would anyone, it's just not very realistic to have 90% female driving staff whatever sex you are yourself. My second man in the 45 on NTP is always a woman, the same woman. I'd like to see the occasional man in that seat, you know, so we can *talk about the footy ;-)

Surely an even 50/50 split would be in order, whatever the player's profile or login gender.

*I have no interest in sports, I'm a nerd.

 

I don't really want to sound rude or offensive, but are you seriously complaining about gender equality in a train simulator ?

 

There's definitely a bit of gender bias going on here. Political correctness anyone?

I commuted daily for years on the NTP in the mid 1980s to the early 90s, and I NEVER saw a female driver or second woman on any of the peaks, 47s or even DMUs that worked the route.

Of course it could just be a statistical fluke that I never saw one during the literally thousands of days I went to work and back on these trains.

Like you I have no issue at all with women driving trains, but they simply didn't choose this career option during the era the NTP in TSW2020 is set in.

 

No, I'm complaining about gender inequality, as in there is a bias one way. I think I said it should be 50/50, not that that ratio would be authentic, but certainly better than me being practically the only male driver I see in the game when I play, which is so so far from reality.

But the main thing is if this relates to the login I'm using.

 

Secondmen and women on NTP? I only ever had passengers sitting in the cab with me, both guys and gals.

 

Even these days train drivers are 95% male and the in the 1980s that percentage was higher. So representing the railway as it is today would only result in 1 in 20 female drivers, this is definitely not the case in TSW.

DTG have decided that rather than represent reality they wish to take a political stance, one which says that there are too few women on the railways. Do the management actually hold that belief or really care? Probably not. But in the modern age of social media outrage and click-bait journalism, DTG will rather play on the side of caution and make sure that minorities are over-represented in the game to ensure they don't get negative press or complaints from groups representing minorities.

I don't think it's sexist or wrong to point out the game has too many females compared to reality, as let's face it, people complain about the realism of the game all the time, whether it's the physics of the locomotives or the appearance of the scenery, so why should the staff represented escape the same scrutiny? The game is after all intended to be a representation of reality.

Anyway, it's not going to change, because the only thing worse than not having enough women in the first place, is having enough women and then getting rid of them in favour of more men.

 

I just wish they didnt all look and dress like personal trainers and hair dressers.. menopausal with a dirty high vis would be more llikely..

 

If there was even a decision made at all. Chances are, somewhere in TSW's coding it says, "place NPC in secondman seat; also place NPC in the driver's seat of AI trains. No matter which one, anyone will do. Only make sure they wear the right uniform for the companiy they work for."

 

This is a topic I was always going to post one day. Very sad to see virtue signalling and pandering even in a train simulator. Those 'secondwomen' sitting in the cab are so out of place it's comical.

 

I don't expect there's any "correctness" going on. Maybe the programme doesn't even know male from female and it's just a randomly generated character that's placed in the seats. Sometimes there's no second man, sometimes they are not in the correct clothing. Hell sometimes there's not even a driver!

I've never actually done a role call of the characters in each route but it seems 50/50 male to female is about right I would think. On occasions you see more females because that's how it works, unfortunately it's not necessarily realistic though with regard to train crews. Well certainly not in the 80s.

stujoy - does your partner's PS4 know she's a female? (I can't remember if it asks when you register). Mind you that would assume DTG could access that information as well.

 

Interesting point. I'm pretty sure the PS4 does but not sure about the game. I just assumed both the PS4 and the game knew because of the imbalance I see. It didn't seem plausible to me for my driving partner to always be a woman unless the game inferred a preference from the player's login gender. If it doesn't and it's like that for everyone then that's even more silly.

Maybe someone from DTG could confirm? I'm genuinely interested.

 

Since the imbalance seems to be about 80:20 in favor of the ladies... maybe it was in fact supposed to be the other way round, and someone got the coding upside down.

 

Probably nearer 36 29 38.