Big Boobs- why do people complain?

[Twilight_guy]

People don't have a problem with big boobs. People have a problem with he fact hat big boobs are there for the express purpose of attracting gamers by sexually tantalizing them. Now that has a time and a place but when you use it as a method to try and sell games, rather then say porn or something meant to garner that kind of response, it becomes a cheap way of using a gimmick. They complain for the same reason they complain about trying to sell games by making it slightly more graphically real, its a gimmick that doesn't contribute to the game experience overall but seeks to use a superficial means to increase sales. Its pandering to a particular group at the (supposed) expense of doing something more deep and interesting with a game.

Excellent writing and character development are also crutches game developers use to support bad gameplay

*eye twitch* I would argue that achieving this could be an ends in and of itself and is always a part of what games strive for, a good story and characters, whereas the aesthetics of boobs is not necessarily something needed in all games.

 

[bliebblob]

To put it very simple there are two things that annoy me about giant anything-but-subtle boobs in gaming.
The first is that publishers think that's all it takes to up sales enormously. The second is that they're right.

Don't get me wrong tho i love me a set of double cannons as much as anyone with a
y-chromosome but any joy they may bring in games is instantly overcome by a sense of
"Really publishers? REALLY?" If that's what i was looking for I'd be on the internet m'kay?

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I don't find huge bulbous water-balloon boobs aesthetically appealing. Simple.

 

[teebeeohh]

your point 3 is just wrong
there are fat and unattractive male characters in videogames, they are few and far between but they exist. Now show me a fat female that is not a zombie/mutated monster/fantasy creature that is inherently fat.

i don't mind big boobs but whenever they pop up in games i always have the nagging doubt in my mind that the character is about as deep as the pond my back yard and only has those boobs to attract some interest.

 

[RelexCryo]

your point 3 is just wrong
there are fat and unattractive male characters in videogames, they are few and far between but they exist. Now show me a fat female that is not a zombie/mutated monster/fantasy creature that is inherently fat.

Ghosthunter, PS2, the woman who lives in the abandoned mansion in the Swamp.

Many, many female characters in the Grand Theft Auto series. In 4, one or two fat women were contacts, and important to the story.

In Borderlands, the female governor has a horribly scarred face.

The Warthog woman from Bloody Roar.

Hammer, from Fable 2.

And many, many more.

 

[CoffeeOfDoom]

3. Complaint: Women are being treated differently from men!

Response: The exact opposite is true. Men and women are both held to a standard of physical attractiveness far above average in videogames and comic books. Men have their physical gender specific traits magnified, women have their physical gender specific traits magnified. Both are super beautiful/masculine/feminine. Both are being treated exactly the same. The average woman may not have giant boobs, but the average man doesn't look like the Incredible Hulk, Superman, Thor, Ryu/Ken, Marcus Fenix, or many other male videogame characters.

But having muscular men can be seen as enhancing their ability to fight in games. If you were playing as a skinny guy holding up a giant greastsword you would think it was ridiculous and would break immersion.
However large breasts on women doesn't add to their fighting prowess, in fact it would decrease it, as in reality they wouldn't be able to do loads of fighting moves without getting some serious back ache.

In reality, having giant muscles decreases your ability to fight. Our species evolved to fight with sharp pointy things, not clubs. Fighting with sharp pointy things is generally much more deadly and effective. That sort of fighting style tends to encourage agility, not overmuscled bulk. There is almost no scenario where that overmuscled bulk would be useful- in a gun fight, it is not necessary, and it makes it harder to hide behind cover.

But having muscular men can be seen as enhancing their ability to fight in games.

It gives the illusion that they are somehow better at fighting if they are muscular, where as if a woman has big breasts it doesn't. That was what I meant by my post, I wasn't arguing that muscle actually increase your fighting skill.
I see what you mean about shooters though (though I haven't played enough of them to make an informed opinion about them, hence why I used the greatsword reference), but I can see why they have muscled male characters in RPGs (and other games where they use swords etc).

 

[Random berk]

please keep them in the shirt of that genre.

I see what you did there...

I've got nothing against large breasts. Hell, if you find them in an already good game (Dead Rising) it gives you something nice to look at to make a change from the faces of whatever twisted ghouls you've just splattered. Large breasts in games which are so rubbish that the girl on the box art is literally the best part (every Guild Wars game that has been made so far) on the other hand are clearly just a cheap tool to try and sell a very bad game. Exaggerated proportions in female characters are great, but not if they're the only attraction the game has.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I don't even pay attention. I'd rather females stop dressing like sluts in video games. Armor that is sexualized rather than effective, for example. I never had an issue with tits.

 

[babinro]

I'm simply not attracted to the larger size, and so I don't like that this is the norm in video games.

Video games market themselves just like movies and sell using sex both with male and female characters. It would be difficult to sell a game like God of War if Kratos looked like Lester the Unlikely.

http://www.gameclassification.com/files/games/Lester-the-Unlikely.jpg

 

[Manji187]

Big-breasted females? I have no problem with that. It's when their chests become their defining aspect.

D. It confirms stereotypes about gamers that need to die if we are to be taken seriously

These are also my primary complaints. Big breasts add nothing to the story/ character...but they do distract and often detract plausibility. An F-cup archer...really? I guess you haven't heard of the Amazons and their practices.

Also it feels like the gaming industry is still in its puberty (although most developers are well over their twenties/ into their thirties and beyond). Time will tell if the industry grows up with the aging demographic or whether it will remain "forever young".

 

[Ekonk]

Yeah, well I don't like big boobs. Also it sets unreasonable standards of attractiveness to women.

Most of all if a game features a female cast who are 20% boob I feel kind of ashamed for playing it.

 

[Haydyn]

Big-breasted females? I have no problem with that. It's when their chests become their defining aspect.

D. It confirms stereotypes about gamers that need to die if we are to be taken seriously

These are also my primary complaints. Big breasts add nothing to the story/ character...but they do distract and often detract plausibility. An F-cup archer...really? I guess you haven't heard of the Amazons and their practices.

Also it feels like the gaming industry is still in its puberty (although most developers are well over their twenties/ into their thirties and beyond). Time will tell if the industry grows up with the aging demographic or whether it will remain "forever young".

I would so buy a game with realistic Amazon women in it. I can only imagine what they would look like weighing a bit more on the left side.

 

[Jim Grim]

Because most of the time they're just there to attract men to the game, and while sex does sell, it seems to me that if you have to resort to this cheap marketing trick you might have very little else to sell the game on.

 

[Legion]

So easy (responses are directly to yours):

1: Nobody is saying it's wrong to dislike breasts. The issue is when they are breasts on legs with no other character traits.

2: It has nothing to do with liking or disliking rare traits, it is to do with making these abnormalities seem like the norm. Something that isn't the case and is giving unreasonable expectations of people.

3: The issue isn't that they are being treated differently, it is that they are being treated differently because they have breasts rather than a more meaningful or deeper reason.

4: Same as point 2, it is about making large breasts seem like the norm and warping peoples expectations.

5: While you make valid points in why we like these traits, the point is that women are simply treated as sex objects in games, your point has absolutely nothing to do with why there should be sexy women in games because you cannot have kids with them.

6: Again, your point has nothing to do with the complaint itself. Just because developers use other things as a crutch doesn't negate the fact that they use breasts to sell games.

 

[jamesworkshop]

I've never really brought that argument when thoses exist, yeah they are made of plastic but videogame characters are made of polygons.

 

[Xanian]

Uhm...I guess how incredibly unrealistic it is for someone to be quick and agile with them. I'm a double D and I can barely run with 'em, let alone do a kick flip over an enemy. That shit HURTS!

So when I see Laura Croft doing extreme acrobatics, I can't help but chuckle thinking of how many times she'd have been knocked in the chin with those damn things.

 

[Sarah Frazier]

As a woman, I don't see a whole lot of problems with breasts in video games, for the most part. It's about as game breaking as male characters with shoulders or groins that can be bigger or smaller, but not entirely game breaking if done with some idea of what makes sense.

My only complaints come when said breast/groin/shoulder regions are taken to abnormal extremes compared to the rest of the bodies. Women who have breasts as big (or bigger than) their head each. Men with shoulders wide enough to provide enough shade for two or three other people. Or characters with hips/crotches so big that they must either be stuffed or awkward if that kind of size was put into real world situations. If the game is MEANT to be over-the-top and everything is too far one way or the other, then it's not so bad because EVERYTHING is off scale and something like monster breasts aren't that noticeable next to other things.

I'd rather see more modest armor that could at least give some support to such heavy and unwieldy things, or add breasts to the list of possible weapons the woman can use. Nothing is as confusing as getting smothered between two flesh pillows and waking up with all your stuff missing.

 

[Estocavio]

I think they look stupid, and they prevent me from taking the game remotely seriously.