Its obvious why forum posts like this'll and other discussions of VG themes will rage about the conflict of male fantasy needing to be transcended for equality and further art to take place in the digital realm. A lot of guys have a hard time dealing with women in reality or 80 hrs plus coding a character, itd better be something you like making. The vixen is an easy motivator, while some have more serious heartfelt overall msg they want to get out.
But look at this way. The standard of real representation and real character depiction in books and film never put the porn or smut market into obscurity. They just got narrowly defined outside of the realm of respectable media, and explicit tantalization just has to become more so a niche, just like military fantasy FPS's will have to after CoD's success. That's not to say that devs and writers and artists can't blend mediums but the best way forward is to either establish acceptable levels of context and dimensionality to smart players and viewers when making super sexualized characters i.e. (you could be just as fearful of the character as attracted to, or perphaps an in game gold digger that will take 3/4ths of your exp because she has children to feed...etc), or file things off into the niche bin if the intent of the game is simple attraction.
Now maybe a hypothetical future where there's a sudden booming 'porn' or 'pulp' game genre. while premiere praised titles are more emotional, utilitarian and reflective of modern values could present a whole new line of controversies but at least there won't be this fighting over homogenous reviews.
After all, there are creative folks who don't give a rats ass about getting a pulitzer or an Oscar either. They make what pleases em. But its largely up to the indies to define narrative in gaming now, because we see how cynical the big heads are. With this self publish biz, they're just waiting for the artists to fill in the blanks so they can make money.
But look at this way. The standard of real representation and real character depiction in books and film never put the porn or smut market into obscurity. They just got narrowly defined outside of the realm of respectable media, and explicit tantalization just has to become more so a niche, just like military fantasy FPS's will have to after CoD's success. That's not to say that devs and writers and artists can't blend mediums but the best way forward is to either establish acceptable levels of context and dimensionality to smart players and viewers when making super sexualized characters i.e. (you could be just as fearful of the character as attracted to, or perphaps an in game gold digger that will take 3/4ths of your exp because she has children to feed...etc), or file things off into the niche bin if the intent of the game is simple attraction.
Now maybe a hypothetical future where there's a sudden booming 'porn' or 'pulp' game genre. while premiere praised titles are more emotional, utilitarian and reflective of modern values could present a whole new line of controversies but at least there won't be this fighting over homogenous reviews.
After all, there are creative folks who don't give a rats ass about getting a pulitzer or an Oscar either. They make what pleases em. But its largely up to the indies to define narrative in gaming now, because we see how cynical the big heads are. With this self publish biz, they're just waiting for the artists to fill in the blanks so they can make money.