Like a lot of design decisions in Rust, the introduction of female character models was done by the game creator, Garry Newman, as a social experiment.
Newman was curious to know whether female character would be attacked more due to being perceived as weaker than male ones, or attacked less for being perceived as being fragile and vulnerable. The female character models were introduced less than a month ago and were met by internet anger from gamers who didn't like the fact that genders were assigned randomly and permanently tied to Steam ID.
Rust sales grew 74% when we added female models with forced gender pic.twitter.com/oOo10gTVc2
— Garry Newman (@garrynewman) April 21, 2016
In light of the overwhelmingly negative internet reception, Newman was surprised to observe that the number of concurrent Rust players nearly doubled when the update went life "which is the opposite of what many said would happen."
Newman noted that he's never seen such an increase in player counts outside of Steam sales. The game creator doesn't really know why the introduction of female models might've drove all those sales, but we kinda have our own theories. Perhaps the introduction of female models made the game more welcoming to girl gamers. That, or the update stuck a chord with a segment of gamers who are willing to pay for a 50% chance to see rasterized boobs. What do you think?
