Do we really want this?

[Treblaine]

How bad are video games at this REALLY? Dead or Alive beach volleyball was years ago and it tanked.

Here is a typical list of highly rated and popular games from last year (2010):

Metro 2033 = no sexy ladies
Bioshock 2 = no sexy ladies
STALKER: Call of Pripyat = no sexy ladies
Mass Effect 2 = VERY tame sex-scenes
Supreme Commander 2 = no sexy anything
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 = no sexy ladies
Assassin's Creed 2 = too busy killing for sexy ladies
Just Cause 2 = no sexy ladies
Splinter Cell: Conviction = again, the most erotic thing here is Michael Ironside's voicover...
Split Second: Velocity = nothing
Blur = not even a sexy girl to start the races
Singularity = I don't think women even exist in this universe
.Aliens Vs Predator = sausage-fest
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty = Nothing
Blazblue: Calamity Trigger =
Witcher 2 = I believe you see one boobies, then nothing
Darksiders = no nothing
Civilisation V = Cleopatra...
Dead Rising 2 = nothing
Fallout: New Vegas = oh, the whores, I guess so... revealing yet not that apealing
Nail'd = no hot ladies
Call of Duty: Black Ops = nothing

the OP has found a few exceptions that only stand out as extreme BECAUSE they are exceptions, I don't think people realise quite how much more other media formats get away with in terms of female nudity and hyper-sexualisation of women.

I think it's interesting that such a male dominated medium as Video Games can be so devoid of sex. Maybe because it is replaced by the greater male urge for violent competition?

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

Let the industry continue, I don't mind

 

[migo]

As a lesbian, I feel I can comment from both points of view.

I don't like the over-sexualisation of women in games. I find examples like the above more off-putting than attractive, as well as a reinforcement of the stereotype that all gamers are men, and all men are slobbering neanderthals.

Sadly, yes. Although it's easy enough to look at that a bit more objectively. Porn's restricted to adults, so it's more that it's eye candy for teenagers who haven't quite figured out how to use the internet yet.

For one thing - women simply don't look like that. Particularly in the second picture (is that Nina from Tekken? I'm not sure) - boobs simply cannot be that enormous and pert. You will never see a woman with a rack that large and buoyant. It's ridiculous.

It can get pretty close (yes, I'm speaking from hands on experience, and no, no implants), and that's totally feasible given her outfit has a lot in common with a corset. Now what's ridiculous is a woman with a rack that big is going to be in way too much pain from bouncing to be an effective fighter.

I also dislike the implications behind the fact that so many women in games exist as eyecandy rather than serious characters. I'm no feminist, but I do dislike the extent of objectification of women in games. I hate that the man is always the hero, and the woman is the boobacious love-interest.

You're just playing the wrong games?

Personally, I don't find the above examples attractive. I much prefer to see women in games like Jen, from Primal [http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2002/playstation2/primal/p_790screen001.jpg]

You don't think the camel toe is overdoing it?

or April Ryan of The Longest Journey [http://kisd.de/~krystian/blog/thelongest_opener.jpg] (April not necessarily being attractive, but still one of my favourite female characters in a game).

She's got a bit of uncanny valley effect going, but otherwise has a plausible figure - but the skinny arms combined with her breast size put her as a pretty damn implausible outlier.

 

[migo]

One thing's been bugging me.
What the fuck is a "mangina slave"?

I'm not sure what exactly a manginga /slave/ is, but a mangina is when a guy tucks his dick and balls between his legs and holds his legs together so it looks like maybe he's got a vagina instead. Think the final scene in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

As for the general topic, the biggest fans I've come across IRL of overly sexualised and unrealistic women are other women. As the fetishisation of Alyx Vance shows, once you hit past puberty guys are more interested in virtual girls they think they might actually get.

 

[Chibz]

This is exactly what makes it nearly impossible to get female games to even consider playing video games.

Such a zarking shame, too.

 

[migo]

I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's more that mainly most game devs are men, so video games just aren't appealing. One of my (girl) friends loves King of Fighters and her favourite character is Mai. Another one is a huge Street Fighter fan and her favourite character is Cammy. So generally, girls who like fighting games like the hot female characters, but the ones who don't just don't like fighting games to begin with, so it really wouldn't matter what you do with the character models.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

What ever sales. Not to sure why people can't just freakin' Google Search.
Hell, I've found equally or more perverted pics without wanting to, on Google.

I really hate games that use sex as the main saling point. 'Cause you know it's gone to be a bad game, but it's gone to sale because of half naked people.

 

[migo]

That's probably why Heavy Rain is so highly rated.

 

[Saint of M]

I've covered this topic in a some of my blogs. This is a problem we have had in every form of art or entertainment. it seems the moment mankind invents something or an art form we have found to use it in pornography or make pornography with it.

Now sensuality and nudity have been done in a tasteful ways before, but at the moment we have seen so much that the suply is greater then then demand. We see so much we are now desensitized, to this type of content, so we have to go bigger and more blatant.

However now its getting to the point where it is too much and all but the horniest of us are getting annoyed by this. I can appreciated beauty when I see it, but but not like this.

Since Yuna is overplayed in this area, I'll go for DMC's lady.

DMC3: While the school girl outfit and the occasional shown mid-drift is there for fetish fuel, and she is an attractive young girl. However I saw her as more of a strong young woman, who was willing to play rough with the big boys and kick ass with the best of them.

Go to number 4 and we have a girl in short shorts that are so small that they are practicable little boy undies, and apparently nothing underneath that shirt that is already halfway done bursting apart. While her chest hangs more realistic then most video game females, she has gone from a key plot device and major character, to only being there for a few brief moments for the a minor plot device and some pans at her cleavage and butt.

That is what we got.

Plus some girls are not helping things much either

while i can agree with the beginning part of your post, what is so wrong with those pics? it basically shows that those characters CAN be realistic and that girls aren't as fat as we realistically try and make them out to be sometimes

point taken. I've seen skimpier outfits, this might be a better one:

 

[Kiju]

The majority of gamers are teenagers.

The majority of gaming teenagers are probably virgins, and have never even gotten close enough to one of these sorts of women to even touch them.

Thus, they can fantasize and "enjoy" themselves while looking at these characters being under their power and control.

Honestly? ...yes, I think they've gone way...way too far. The "armor" for a female in most MMOs is very...shall we say, useless? Exposing the breasts, the sides, the hips, knees, and the vast majority of the torso in a swordfight is a one way trip to becoming twice the woman they used to be...or half, however you look at it. If they're hookers/strippers/ladies-of-the-night, then fine, dress them like that.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

From my personal perspective, I'd like to see more games where the female is built and garbed in a fashion that is congruous with her lifestyle. A piece of armor that protects the bust and leaves the midriff sides and neck exposed is simply an uncomfortable garment. Similarly, when I see those flimsy limbs, I am left wondering how they manage to swing the giant blade they wield. Most female models I've been shown look like they are in danger of passing out due to lack of adequate nutrition.

 

[Gill Kaiser]

Of course they are, its a cop out way to boost sales to those single nerdy types who ogle internet porn all day.

I'd probably describe myself as a single, nerdy type, yet I think that subtlety and class is sexy, and most of the above sexualisation of women is lazy and tacky.

 

[The_Deleted]

As a lesbian, I feel I can comment from both points of view.

I don't like the over-sexualisation of women in games. I find examples like the above more off-putting than attractive, as well as a reinforcement of the stereotype that all gamers are men, and all men are slobbering neanderthals.

For one thing - women simply don't look like that. Particularly in the second picture (is that Nina from Tekken? I'm not sure) - boobs simply cannot be that enormous and pert. You will never see a woman with a rack that large and buoyant. It's ridiculous.

Which video games on the whole, tend to be.
It's not exclusive to CGI these days either with all the photoshopped bimbos gurning out of magazines. For all the fuss, we buy into it without even realising it sometimes.
I'd sooner see an some fantasy in my gaming than some ridiculous adherence to what is realistically acceptable. I want my women unattainable, my heroes... well, more like Drake, to be honest than the tosser in Gears of Wars and my robots fuck off huge and transforming.
I think it's gone past the point of sexism to just being, at best, an artistic conceit or, at worst, a go to stereotype.
And let's be honest, nothing is more sexist and unreasonable than the fashion / lifestyle magazine industry, so we don't do too bad. Atleast we know it's ridiculous.

 

[GotMalkAvian]

First off, let me start by stating the painfully obvious: Sex sells. Always has. Probably always will.
Scantily-clad women are nothing new to the entertainment genre. Hell, let's go back a few decades in the fantasy genre; an old fantasy standard is the fully-armored male knight fighting next to a female warrior wearing armor that covers roughly .000001% of her body. Yet people (mostly male) have eaten this up for years, and it shows no sign of stopping.
Oh, and to the people saying that males are just as sexualized, thanks for the laugh. I don't know a single woman who finds the cartoon characters in games like Gears of War attractive. Unfortunately, exaggerated male characters are designed to appeal to males, too. Most of the women I know would rather see more realistic-looking males like Ezio.

*removes his hat and bows his head in anxious preparation for his brain slug*

 

[Battenbergcake]

Seriously how could EPIC get away with such scandalous full frontasl nudity in Gears of war?
(also how does one mask an image with a spoiler warning for those who might not want to see, something i cna't find out how to do.)

 

[Veleste]

To be honest, do you really want to play a game as an unattractive person? What I've seen is that the over sexualisation of a female character does more harm to the game than good. How much ridicule have you seen X Blades receive for it's ridiculous main character? Many games reach success without sexualised characters - Mirror's Edge comes to mind for some reason - and it seems to be a trend games are moving away from - thankfully - in all areas except fighters but little victories I guess.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

To be honest, it's more the audience's fault than the developers. Take Oblivion for example. The female armours are practicaly the same as the male ones; incredibly unrevealing, armour that would actually work as armour. However, Oblivion having such a large modding community there are countless mods to change them, remove the underwear, give the women thongs, etc. It's practically impossible to find good female clothing mods.

Even when a developer doesn't cave to the virgin boys, people will mod it.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

As a woman, i like beatyuful digital girls. I know they are not real, and hope most people too. And if there are "objects" of fantasy, then its ok. They aren´t real, so there have no feelings to be hurt, becaus some gamers use them for aerm.."hand-work."

Think the 3rd pic of the first post might catch a cold. Thats too naked for me. Looks like a pornstar wearing a fantasy-outfit.

but what bothers me most are the real girls. americas/germanys/________-next topmodel, these thin (anorectic) joung women, whose only job is looking good and being a living hallstand.
And that many girls want to be like them. That almost every woman-magazine is full of diet-tips. This bodyimage is like a virus and it hinders much women to get normal self esteem (only loose 10 punds, then i will be better looking, attractive etc)

Im from germany, so this might be a predjudice, but appearantly beauty contests are much common. If i see little girls dressed as women, i feel disapproval.

No one should only be measured on appearance. but this is utopian.

i can highly agree to this, but where im from, for the most part, your either

A) pretty damn skinny and obviously you work on your physique more than the average person world wide.

or

B) you are a fat slob who straight up doesn't give a fuck and basically fits the tom boy style

(yes yes i know, stereotypes are bad, but im not even kidding, its either butch mcgee or skinny gym girl)

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I've covered this topic in a some of my blogs. This is a problem we have had in every form of art or entertainment. it seems the moment mankind invents something or an art form we have found to use it in pornography or make pornography with it.

Now sensuality and nudity have been done in a tasteful ways before, but at the moment we have seen so much that the suply is greater then then demand. We see so much we are now desensitized, to this type of content, so we have to go bigger and more blatant.

However now its getting to the point where it is too much and all but the horniest of us are getting annoyed by this. I can appreciated beauty when I see it, but but not like this.

Since Yuna is overplayed in this area, I'll go for DMC's lady.

DMC3: While the school girl outfit and the occasional shown mid-drift is there for fetish fuel, and she is an attractive young girl. However I saw her as more of a strong young woman, who was willing to play rough with the big boys and kick ass with the best of them.

Go to number 4 and we have a girl in short shorts that are so small that they are practicable little boy undies, and apparently nothing underneath that shirt that is already halfway done bursting apart. While her chest hangs more realistic then most video game females, she has gone from a key plot device and major character, to only being there for a few brief moments for the a minor plot device and some pans at her cleavage and butt.

That is what we got.

Plus some girls are not helping things much either

while i can agree with the beginning part of your post, what is so wrong with those pics? it basically shows that those characters CAN be realistic and that girls aren't as fat as we realistically try and make them out to be sometimes

point taken. I've seen skimpier outfits, this might be a better one:

fair enough, i was just saying 3 out of the 5 last girls i dated could easily pull that look off realistically (they had natural huge boobs, and were decently skinny enough), however none of them were gamers so they did not dress like that for me =\

 

[I Max95]

crystal dynamics is trying
but is this much better

Spoiler

That is the new lara croft and shes said to be more sensitive and she has lost all her combat training