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Petition to play as a woman in Aliens: Colonial Marines surpasses goal

"Have you ever been mistaken for a man?"

A recent petition aimed at convincing Gearbox Software to allow playable female characters in Aliens: Colonial Marines' multiplayer has sky rocketed past its goal of 1000 signatures earlier today. As of writing this the total was at 1493.

The petition began after Gearbox producer Brian Burleson was asked in a livechat on Origin if people would be able to play as a female marine. "No, no we don't," was his response, followed by, "There's lots of girls in the game, actually. It's not just all guys or anything."

This struck many as peculiar given that the series starred a woman. "The Aliens franchise is dominated by strong females such as Ripley, Vasquez, Ferro, Dietrich and most importantly, the Queen," said petition creator Melissa K, aka MOOSH89 on the official Colonial Marines forums where she initially posted about it.

"We believe Aliens is the perfect starting point for developers to start including playable females in more multiplayer shooters... There are many females that enjoy playing video games and are fans of the films who are tired of playing as a male all the time. Let's let Gearbox Software see how important this is to the Aliens franchise!"

"What we want is the ability to create a custom female to represent ourselves just like the men can, in multiplayer/co-op in order for us to 'become a Colonial Marine' as well as accurately represent the other half of the United States Colonial Marine Corps!"

We've pressed Gearbox and publisher Sega for comment and will update as we hear back.

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