Blade_125 said:
Let's be fair here, it's hard to see anything past Lara's breasts. They take up a lot of the viewing range
I have never played any of the Tomb Raider games. Not because I care what lara wears, but because the game itself never interested me. I only used her as an example of a well known female character that has some contraversy for her overdeveloped... character design. I was trying to use her and show that games should be judged on the context of the character, but since you keep delving into specifics with her, lets go with purely theoretical examples.
Honestly though I think we are arguing the same thing. We both want characters to reflect what makes sense for the story, setting, and mood of the game.
To some of your other points. Seducing and seeking approval are two different things. I didn't say women dressed a certain way to get laid (because let's be honest, most girls could show up to a bar in a burlap sack and find a guy pretty quick). I said their dress is tied to their worth. Being desired and complemented. And this is a societal issue caused by both genders. Same with sex. Men are suppose to boast about the number of their partners (which is typically inflated) while women are suppose to avoid sex and have fewer partners. The funny thing is that when talking about heterosexual sex the total number of partners on average have to equal for both men and women. If some guy says we slept with 100 women, then either no other guy is having sex, or there are women with higher numbers of partners then they let on. I always laugh when I see headlines of studys that show men have 50% more partners than women. Someone has to tell these people that their hand doesn't count. Anyway I digress. The point is this is all about societies views and that these views need to change, as that will change the media as well, but this kind of change is very slow.
As for attacking Ms Sarkeesian, some of your posts seemed to me at least to be attacking her character and her mental capabilities. If I have misunderstood then my apologies. I don't have the energy to dig through your posts. If you are confident then that's good. If others point out how your comments come across then maybe you should look at your writing. It is hard to convey tone in words obviously.
Some women can be only window dressing, and I can even conciede some of your points on this, but I can see I didn't explain myself well. I mean that my biggest concern is how female characters who are not the lead but still important to the story have no real personality, and usually only act as a foil for the main character to overcome. Yes the damsel in distress is an old story, but just because something has been done for a long time doesn't make it right.
But that leads back to the view society has. Movies, TV, games, they all make what sells. THe least amount of work for the most amount of profit. Until we stop buying games or going to see movies where the women done make sense then nothing will change.
"Let's be fair here, it's hard to see anything past Lara's breasts. They take up a lot of the viewing range
"
Now that is a sexist comment.
And Yeah, it is REALLY OBVIOUS you have never played any Tomb Raider games with your obsession over her breasts and ignoring all her characteristics.
Judging character design completely out of context is wrong as it is the CONTEXT where you see their character. The context of the cutscenes and the very fact that they are fighting lions and mercenaries and traversing lethal environments.
Let's NOT go with purely hypothetical examples as we are talking about a REAL video games industry that has actually depicted such characters...
Have you never played ANY video game with a female protagonist?
First of all: Female protagonists in games who never hitch up with any male protagonist has NOTHING to do with why men are perceived to need to have had sex with many different women and often. Nothing. Lara Croft, Claire Redfield and so on never hitch up with a guy, they are completely focused on the story, finding the treasure or escaping the zombies.
"attacking her character and her mental capabilities"
Pointing out her lack of competence on this issue is NOT saying she has a low IQ or is stupid.
Pointing out the prejudices on THIS ISSUE is not a general attack on her character. Not like saying "well this person dodged the draft for vietnam, so she can't comment on this issue".
"my biggest concern is how female characters who are not the lead but still important to the story have no real personality"
This is a product of video games where you can't afford to have 4-hours of cutscenes, you need to be straight to the point. Characterisation takes time. Sorry but the "Q" type characters (you know, the guy who gives James Bond his gadgets) there isn't time to flesh him out. This happens with ALL supporting character, not just females.
The thing is the damsel in distress is as often as not a male character, like an nerdy (male) weapons scientists, the (male) president of united states, a computer hacker, a child, or your "buddy from nam". It's not always a damsel and is very rarely so now.
