Girl Gamer's Opinion

[Mudora]

I just needed to talk about this because this has been getting on my nerves for the longest time.

I'm also sure this might have been talked about before, but... I want the male perspective.

Ever since the gaming industry began, boys have been the dominate species of human to be in the gaming world, causing females to be on the outside looking in. I'm serious. I mean even females working in the industry look down trodden.

Due to this, girl characters in games make me angry... for many reasons.

For one, they end up being boy's fantasies of how a girl should look. We have the GIGANTIC boobs (I'm pointing to YOU Ivy from Soul Calibur), the armor that couldn't even cover the body of a two year old (which would end in a fast death), and for character development, you get too damn tough for your own good, wishy washy 'I-need-help-because-I'm-a-girl', or they're just too perky. Too perky is bad. Really bad. It's not realistic, unless you want a DIPSTICK to be lead heroine.

I feel like the game industry has no respect for the other gender... like they're OBLIVIOUS to the fact that maybe, just maybe girls like to play games too. Just like hardcore boy gamers. I mean, I'm surprised to see that in this day and age, I'm still looked at in disbelief that I play hardcore video games, I beat boys butts, AND I'm a girl.

Being a girl gamer, I would like to have more heroines out there as the main character, but every time I see a lead female... I feel... jipped... insulted... slapped in the face so to speak. Why does the heroine have to look so flamboyantly sexy, so that I have to go puke in a toilet to make me feel better? I mean, what the hell is WRONG with putting a woman in a (heaven forbid) full suit of armor? What IS it with the belly showing? I mean, sure we could do it from time to time, but I mean... fighting in a bloody THONG? A BRA? HIGH HEELS? GET REAL!

I mean, yeah, games are imaginative and fun, and I'm not saying we have to totally stop it, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels a little... barred off? I feel like if there is a woman in thong armor on the cover of a game, I'm immediately chained off from it. Like they're is a label saying, 'sorry, we didn't think girls would EVER be interested in this sort of stuff... try the barbie game over there".

In short, the gaming industry needs some more females. Maybe then girl gamers can get some of the respect they need. In a game, I don't need a freakin' MODEL to be the character...

I just want a chance to actually have my gender look like hero on the screen... not some stuffed up, big breasted, unrealistic, and un-identifiable lead character.

I rest my case.

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

I just needed to talk about this because this has been getting on my nerves for the longest time.

I'm also sure this might have been talked about before, but... I want the male perspective.

Ever since the gaming industry began, boys have been the dominate species of human to be in the gaming world, causing females to be on the outside looking in. I'm serious. I mean even females working in the industry look down trodden.

Due to this, girl characters in games make me angry... for many reasons.

For one, they end up being boy's fantasies of how a girl should look. We have the GIGANTIC boobs (I'm pointing to YOU Ivy from Soul Calibur), the armor that couldn't even cover the body of a two year old (which would end in a fast death), and for character development, you get too damn tough for your own good, wishy washy 'I-need-help-because-I'm-a-girl', or they're just too perky. Too perky is bad. Really bad. It's not realistic, unless you want a DIPSTICK to be lead heroine.

I feel like the game industry has no respect for the other gender... like they're OBLIVIOUS to the fact that maybe, just maybe girls like to play games too. Just like hardcore boy gamers. I mean, I'm surprised to see that in this day and age, I'm still looked at in disbelief that I play hardcore video games, I beat boys butts, AND I'm a girl.

Being a girl gamer, I would like to have more heroines out there as the main character, but every time I see a lead female... I feel... jipped... insulted... slapped in the face so to speak. Why does the heroine have to look so flamboyantly sexy, so that I have to go puke in a toilet to make me feel better? I mean, what the hell is WRONG with putting a woman in a (heaven forbid) full suit of armor? What IS it with the belly showing? I mean, sure we could do it from time to time, but I mean... fighting in a bloody THONG? A BRA? HIGH HEELS? GET REAL!

I mean, yeah, games are imaginative and fun, and I'm not saying we have to totally stop it, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels a little... barred off? I feel like if there is a woman in thong armor on the cover of a game, I'm immediately chained off from it. Like they're is a label saying, 'sorry, we didn't think girls would EVER be interested in this sort of stuff... try the barbie game over there".

In short, the gaming industry needs some more females. Maybe then girl gamers can get some of the respect they need. In a game, I don't need a freakin' MODEL to be the character...

I just want a chance to actually have my gender look like hero on the screen... not some stuffed up, big breasted, unrealistic, and un-identifiable lead character.

I rest my case.

Sorry but I disagree, if I'm not mistaken there's also plenty of man flesh in SC4 as well.

There are a multitude of fanservice female characters but there are also plenty of awesome female characters who have great personalities, kick ass and are great heroines.

Also with the dawn of customizable characters with millions of scalers there has never been more choice what you want your character to look like.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

This is why "gaming girls" annoy me. They're so goddamn sensitive.

The "women" (I put quotes there because I'm sure at least 70% of them are guys) on these forums have been making new topics to complain about this same stuff every week or so. Guys like big boobs-- get over it. You don't see me complaining when my character in Age of Conan wears a loincloth for the first 20 levels, or when male protagonists have absurdly muscular frames. That shit's not realistic, but you don't see us flabby, pale, basement dwelling geeks throwing up rants all over the Escapist.

 

[Yargaflarga]

Welcome to the world of video games.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

If you want a male perspective, there have been a couple threads that addressed this issue (and I'm NOT bugging you about the Search function--I don't think they would have come up in the search) and I'd be happy to send you the links if you like.

These threads invariably devolve into arguing over the existence or non-existence of sexism, claims that certain behaviors are natural and inherited from our prehistoric ancestors, and the assertion that the exaggerated depiction of masculinity in video games is just as discriminatory as the boobs-and-bikini-armor character design of female characters. I'm not saying you should discontinue this thread, I'm just saying be prepared for 7-13 pages of arguing about the above-listed subjects.

 

[Phyroxis]

I think that it can be overdone, just like the overly macho men in Haze. I just try to not bother myself with it.

 

[Beowulf DW]

I agree totally, although I think the same thing is done with males in games as well, but certainly to a lesser extent.

Males in games are also displayed the way a man "should" look. Most male leads are handsome and/or muscular. Can anyone name a mature game in which the male lead didn't have six-pack abs and a perfect musculature? I know that strong muscles are pretty much required for the hero stuff and all, but that doesn't mean that every single muscle on your torso has to show when you take so much as a small step.

It makes me feel self-conscious at times.

EDIT: It should be noted that I'm not trying to mitigate the objectification of women in gaming, I'm just saying that it's a wide-reaching trend that should be cut back.

 

[LordCraigus]

The "women" (I put quotes there because I'm sure at least 70% of them are guys) on these forums have been making new topics to complain about this same stuff every week or so. Guys like big boobs-- get over it. You don't see me complaining when my character in Age of Conan wears a loincloth for the first 20 levels, or when male protagonists have absurdly muscular frames.

You have a great point actually, most male game protagonists are just as guilty of being as equally unrealistic and cliched as their female counterparts. The thing I guess most guy gamers are happy to be playing well chizzled heroes with dashing good looks simply because we couldn't care less. I've never really thought of it this way before, simply because I don't give a damn because it's only a game.

As a general rule video game characters are nothing like the people playing them. But of course there's always exceptions, with both male and female characters.

 

[ElephantGuts]

Estoy de acuerdo, I'm kind of sick of the mostly naked female game characters with huge boobs running around in games. I think that our goal should be to have atleast half of all females in games to be realistic characters by 2014. And that especially includes games coming out of Japan, they're the problem here if you ask me.

And I don't like really big boobs anyway.

 

[AlisonPrime]

From another girl gamer's perspective i say...

Calm down

Yes, Women are objectified in gaming, but where are they NOT objectified? Music? Oh cmon, how many music videos have you seen where women were more than 50% dressed?

Movies - Dont think so, sure many women are shown as strong individuals, but just equally shown to be weak and sex candy

Games now, least there we had a chance. You ever play Xenosaga? it wasnt til the final game where women started to be scantly clad, the first two showed women in a strong sense, and put them as a dominant gender, but the series failed.

Soul Calibur 4 does have alot of scantly clad women, but what about Seigfried's new partner, she is fully armored, but that doesnt give us room to *****, so she doesnt count right?

im just saying calm down, Women are objectified all the time, i mean, i cant go out anywhere without getting a few looks and stares because i have a larger than usual chest, its just life, we have to get used to it.

The only time women will get equal respect in the gaming community is when we fund our own gaming company and create games for the female demographic, but as it stands, Games are a male created universe so we have to put up with girls having breasts that in the normal world would cause them to fall flat on their face. Clothes that would burst at the slightest movement. Its life, we got to get used to it, i used to ***** and moan about this subject too, but i moved on. Its something we have to get used to.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Did I call it or what? I did forget the "It's only a game," argument.

I need to make a Bingo came out of these things.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Seen this argument copy/pasted a million times. Don't care.

Change "women" to "people" and drop the girl-power attitude, and I'll jump on-board.

 

[tendo82]

I don't think the issue at hand is whether or not videogames have exaggerated depictions of both masculinity and femininity. The issue is who these depictions are servicing. And I think Mudora's complaint is that all these games are made with a male player in mind.

Sure, many male characters in videogames have completely unrealistic physical statures that only a few of us, such as myself, will ever achieve. However we live vicariously through these images - they provide escapism from the doldrums of our banal physical realities and forms of dress.

Female characters don't provide this escapism for women, they provide men with the escapist belief they can have or control a highly sexualized attractive woman. Let's not fool ourselves, female characters in videogames largely exist for the voyeuristic pleasures of male players. The ways in which female videogame players are enhanced and portrayed play up their status as sex objects.

Maybe some female gamers are fine with that, but there seem to be a growing chorus of voices asking for female videogame characters that portray the fantasies of a woman.

 

[Eiseman]

Sure, many male characters in videogames have completely unrealistic physical statures that only a few of us, such as myself, will ever achieve. However we live vicariously through these images - they provide escapism from the doldrums of our banal physical realities and forms of dress.

Female characters don't provide this escapism for women, they provide men with the escapist belief they can have or control a highly sexualized attractive woman. Let's not fool ourselves, female characters in videogames largely exist for the voyeuristic pleasures of male players. The ways in which female videogame players are enhanced and portrayed play up their status as sex objects.

Well said, good sir. Can't put it any better than that.

 

[Easykill]

I understand where you're coming from and I myself don't like it when games are pointlessly unrealistic, so normally I'd agree. But I hate these threads. They pop up everywhere, they start flame wars, and nothing is resolved.