In the aftermath of Marek Tymiński’s now-viral poll on gender selection in medieval fantasy RPGs, the CEO of CI Games has taken a decisive stance that is sure to resonate with many gamers. Following overwhelming support for the traditional “male or female” character options—88% of 49,000+ voters—Tymiński announced via X that the studio would not only adhere to these preferences in future games but also retroactively update Lords of the Fallen to align with player feedback.
With over 49K votes, 88% of you said you prefer “male/female” choice. As a player-first studio, we will update Lords of the Fallen (2023) and future titles in the series accordingly. Stay Tuned. https://t.co/L6MgMk7Ada
— Marek Tyminski (@tyminski_marek) January 15, 2025
“With over 49K votes, 88% of you said you prefer ‘male/female’ choice,” he said. “As a player-first studio, we will update Lords of the Fallen (2023) and future titles in the series accordingly. Stay tuned.”
Lords of the Fallen had infamously abandoned the traditional male/female gender options in the name of supposed “inclusivity” when the game launched in 2023. This drew the ire of a gaming audience utterly exhausted by identity politics in AAA gaming.
This announcement marks a significant shift in the industry. It highlights what many see as a complete rejection of the “Body Type A/B” system, which has become a flashpoint for gender politics in gaming. It’s also the first time a studio has actually listened to the fans and made a change like this to reject woke ideology after a game has released.
A screenshot from the trailer for Lords of The Fallen – YouTube, Gamespot
Designed to provide gender-neutral character options, Body Type A/B allows players to choose traditionally masculine or feminine bodies without assigning them the labels “male” or “female.” The response from CI Games’ audience clearly indicates a preference for more straightforward traditional character creation options that doesn’t insert gender politics into the video game world.
The move to remove Body Type A/B from Lords of the Fallen is unprecedented, as retroactively altering a game’s character creation system is no small feat. This decision seems to showcase CI Games’ commitment to its audience and, should this promise come to pass, show that it truly is a “player-first” studio as Tyminski stated.
A poll from Marek Tyminski of CI Games on Gender selection in medieval RPGs – X, @tyminski_marek
The studio’s willingness to adjust based on direct player input is a sharp contrast to the approach taken by other developers, such as BioWare with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. That title introduced an array of progressive customization options, including mixing voice types and adding top surgery scars, but its commercial failure suggests these changes alienated a significant portion of the player base.
This shift by CI Games could have a ripple effect throughout the industry. Many developers have embraced progressive customization options, often at the expense of player preferences. The backlash to Dragon Age: The Veilguard—which suffered from poor sales, high refund rates, and low trade-in value—serves as a cautionary tale of how not to approach these issues. By directly engaging players and acting on their feedback, CI Games has positioned itself as a player-focused studio in an industry often criticized for ignoring fan input.
A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare
This moment may represent more than just a change in one game. For CI Games, it’s a bold declaration: the player’s voice matters. Whether other studios will follow this example remains to be seen, but for now, Tymiński has set a standard others may be wise to emulate.
Are you surprised that Lords of The Fallen will change its gender selection options? Do you think other studios will take note? Sound off in the comment section and let us know!
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Victory!
It’s a small win, but I’ll take it.
One small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind
I’m a dude you’d know it when you see me male geez never thought I’d have to explain that. No nonsense body type a body type b 🤣😂🤣😂 who ever thought that up and decided to push it needs to go back to school the Muppet!
We should buycott. BUT only if he actually follows through.
Wow. I honestly, truly wasn’t expecting this to happen. I thought they’d use this poll only going forward, but to actually go back and fix their older game and remove the wokeness? I admit, I’m much less skeptical about these devs now than I was two days ago. This is EXACTLY what needs to happen, and the rainbow-police on social media will give this situation a ton of free publicity. The woke NEED to see their rules and conditions falling apart right in front of them, they NEED to see their world crumbling down and realize they have LOST. I won’t ever go back and play Terraria until those devs do the same thing and remove the character creator’s gender ambiguity. I don’t expect them to at all, but I’ve played enough of it between 2011 and 2022 for one lifetime.
Just because the big AAA studios in America ignore the fanbase doesn’t mean every studio out there can, or can even afford to.
Sites like this give invaluable feedback to what buyers find acceptable. Think about how hard it is to get customers to fill out those surveys even when they give out free stuff, and we do it on here for nothing.
If it’s a setting that can recognize it, I’d be fine with XX and XY. If it’s a significantly sci fi or magic setting where you can change your chromosomes, you can have people swapping around. However, we’ve seen the level the woke want to take it where medieval levels of medicine have mastectomies, and some will always go further if allowed.
Oh, not me; it’s got to be explicitly male or female, absolutely no exceptions. Different races, species, or whatever comes afterwards, but it should always be a binary choice between male and female above all else. It was what we had up until identity politics began to dominate the culture, it worked fine, and no one complained. I wouldn’t accept anything else going forward simply because I know it wouldn’t be in good faith; it would more than likely be a last vestige of identity politics trying to worm its way in.
Yeah. Fair point. Even if we had alien creatures trying to do stuff, they’d try to force the woke philosophy into it now.
Well… they already did, actually. Remember the Mass Effect board game making Liara a “she/they” all of a sudden? Sad, but true.
Thank you. I never even played Andromeda.
“BuT wHaT aBoUt PeOpLe WhO aRe XXY or XYY” – people who have an extra chromosome that isn’t x or y
We are humans not robots or “things” like that “ types of body choice “ stuff
I think it’s bad to change existing games for ideological reasons as it erases original intent for political reasons, but wokeness is subversive in the first place so I’m willing to make an exception.
[…] as a marketing meme ∟Arrowhead CCO comments on DEI, says to ‘make good games’ ∟Lords of The Fallen Dev Vows to Update Game to Replace Body Type A/B With Male/Female After Players … ∟Players Overwhelmingly Vote to Keep RPG Video Game Character Genders Male and Female in […]
This is great news, the are positive moves being made by many companies at the moment. But we must remain careful we know that many woke companies will claim to be based in the coming years and we have watch what they do not just what they say.