You know, I think it was actually quite far along when they made the switch -- they had an "Our Man Flint" kind of character, very tongue-in-cheek, but apparently they were drawing a lot of comparisons with GoldenEye, which was totally not what they were going for (they had exploding cats or something at that point). I can remember reading a PC Gamer when it was first revealed, and still be really interested in it, but the game was vastly improved by changing the character -- it actually happened quite late, maybe only about a year before ship.

I would say I'd never attempt something similar, but of course, we rewrote all of Republic Commando in the last *six* months of development.

As for writing women... just impossible for me to say. I have given it some thought, and in fact, I have a game tucked away in the back of my brain that features a female character, but to me that was just how the idea formed and I'm not sure that her being female is necessary. But it's the way I've always thought about it, so if I ever attempted it, that's the way I'd go. But I have yet to write a single line of dialogue for a game, so maybe I should be extra careful :)