Poll: Videogames and Women

[Iron Lightning]

The drive to compete and competitive multiplayer are masculine things. Thus people will revel any form of femininity that arises in those situations.

Amusingly enough, some of the most eager PvPers in my guild are rather "girlie." But I digress.

Well, MMORPGs are a little more egalitarian with their PvP since you can play in a healing, support, or crowd control role which is also why you're less likely to be called a fag in World of Warcraft than in Modern Warfare 3. I expect that a few of your guildmates play DPS though, and I say that when they do that they are expressing their masculine side. Nearly everyone is a mixture of masculine and feminine qualities.

If you were playing a rousing game of Halo and someone started complaining because they got killed in a fair fight would you not be annoyed?

If I was the one who'd killed them, I'd probably say "you lost; get over it" and leave it at that.

I'd be a lot more annoyed at someone who tried to tip the scales in their direction, lost, and whined about it. Or who was on a team, fucked up, and blamed everyone else.

Of course you would, because in my hypothetical example the complainer would be exhibiting the feminine qualities of sensitivity and anti-competitiveness which is inappropriate in such a context.

I'm not certain that you are so lucky. Obviously those women who share your status of not being routinely harassed would not be very vocal in proclaiming such. With that in mind, consider the possibility that a vocal minority of rightly outraged women have made their plight seem much more commonplace than it actual is.

Could be, but it seems just a bit too widespread for that to be entirely the case.[/quote]
That's definitely believable. However, I should state that we ought not care so much about the sexist assholes who happen to play videogames. This problem seems to me to be mostly unsolvable. You can't fix stupid.

The bigger issue is the still widespread but thankfully decreasing trend of objectifying women. I wouldn't say that the medium shouldn't have any smut, though, in fact I think the best way to solve this issue is to have more smut. If we were to become more open-minded about porn games then we could channel all this sexual energy away from where it's inappropriate.

 

[FamoFunk]

Couldn't care what I'm portrayed like tbh. As long as I have my games and I can play them I'm happy.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

So it's this same thread we've had 40,000 times now? And I have a deft feeling that the pic of Miranda's ass was some kind of inter-office joke at Bioware...

 

[TheDooD]

So it's this same thread we've had 40,000 times now? And I have a deft feeling that the pic of Miranda's ass was some kind of inter-office joke at Bioware...

I think it is cuz I seen the 4th body type for human female troopers in SWTOR and holy shit that was a huge ass.

 

[FalloutJack]

-Captain Karma? Seriously?-

Misogynism is the hatred of women, ergo no. The gaming industry and indeed ANY industry will do many things for money, not out of any dislike of women. The things you are irked about are over-reactions, much like anyone claiming that violence in video games equals more violent people among the players. Again, these businesses are in it for the MONEY, bottom line. It's nothing personal.

 

[josemlopes]

I've been trying to get my sister into videogames lately (need an extra player for my HoN team), but one thing that's putting her off is the utterly reprehensible attitude that games, and gamers, have towards women.

We've all laughed at the Evony ads. But even mainstream games like

Spoiler: Mass Effect

Spoiler: Soul Calibur

Spoiler: Ninja Gaiden

treat their female characters like...pieces of meat to be drooled over. Is this really the image we should be presenting to the world? The press is quick to label games as juvenile adolescent male fantasies and our response is to EMBRACE this criticism? What the hell?

And the community is barely any better. Friends of mine regularly keep their identities secret (unless teamspeak is involved) because of the torrent of abuse they get online. Don't believe me? Check out the fabulous http://fatuglyorslutty.com/ to see the vitriol lady gamers get.

This attitude is PERVASIVE. Look at Battlefield 3, banning women from its launch party (rather than telling the men "Dude, don't be a creep"), the creator of a fighting game (forget which, MvC maybe? I've lost the link) discussing, in a panel about female character design, which of his creations he'd like to have sex with.

Games have an image problem. But we don't want to fix it, we're happy in our little corner with our boobalicious characters and internalised misogyny.

We can be so much BETTER than this. How can we expect gaming to be taken seriously as an artform, and as a hobby, when we're happy to let this behaviour run unchecked?

This may help a bit

Although I must say, the terrific mo-cap and voice acting does help a lot to make the characters beliveble, its not just the looks. Go play the demo and you will be impressed by the quality of the characters, its almost the only strong point of the game (it isnt a bad game, its just that the "story" aspect of the game is just WAY better then the gameplay)

 

[Chemical Alia]

There's always Cinematic Mod and a "few others" to fix that mistake, it's still the same character after that mind you, saying and doing the same things, but apparently because it has *boobs* now it's a bad thing.

Cause some of you people won't be satisfied till every single female character in video games resembles some sort of antropomorphic primordial ooze instead of an attractive human being, cause it makes it so so *wrong* if it does.

Wonder how many of the women and men who argue against it here would dress sexy and form-fitting if they could actually pull it off instead of argueing about it on some website xD

If by "fixed" you mean throwing needlessly up-res'ed and tacky textures, pointless assets that detract from and ruin the carefully planned and well-researched atmosphere and art direction, then yes, that's what Cinematic Mod does. That Alyx model is a hilarious example of everything that's wrong with the subject of women in games. It strips out everything that her look is intended to convey to the player about her personality.

This argument may be a bit too far over your head if you think it actually boils down to jealousy over video game characters' looks or personal insecurity and is not really worth discussing then.

 

[Emergent System]

And the community is barely any better. Friends of mine regularly keep their identities secret (unless teamspeak is involved) because of the torrent of abuse they get online. Don't believe me? Check out the fabulous http://fatuglyorslutty.com/ to see the vitriol lady gamers get.

This attitude is PERVASIVE. Look at Battlefield 3, banning women from its launch party (rather than telling the men "Dude, don't be a creep"), the creator of a fighting game (forget which, MvC maybe? I've lost the link) discussing, in a panel about female character design, which of his creations he'd like to have sex with.

Eh, the portrayal of women in gaming could be better, just like the portrayal of men (though there tend to be more men, so we get to see more idiotic stereotypes for men than for women, though they're not any better), but it's not like books, comics, movies, TV series, etc, are any better at portraying either gender...

And those stupid comments in http://fatuglyorslutty.com/ look perfectly normal to me... for either gender. I read the first 4-5 of them, and I couldn't tell what they have to do with women. I get stuff like that every time I engage those idiots in "conversation".

 

[Gamergeek25]

Okay maybe not all female characters needs to be like Ivy or Miranda, but whats wrong with having some hot characters. Also I love your biased poll. Hell Yeah! as a yes seems to me to imply its to make the poster who picks it feel immature.

 

[oZode]

I never was a fan of characters who use impractical armor for the sake of sexiness. Please leave more stuff to the imagination game maker guys.

 

[CATB320]

There's nothing wrong with a character being attractive, but it's pretty much impossible to deny that games are marketed towards male gamers. And most of the time, it's the female characters that get the short end of the stick. It sucks, but what can you do?

 

[FarleShadow]

I can't help but feel that the argument of 'sexy girls in games' cannot be immediately countered by 'have you ever seen an unattractive guy in games'?

Even generic-zeros are cut from the same manly cloth.

 

[That_Sneaky_Camper]

Oh tragedy, men like women, what has this world succumbed to?

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with liking tits and ass? We're happy because this isn't sexist, it isn't wrong in any way, it's just displaying what the creator thinks is a physically appealing woman.

Instead of complaining about women being displayed sexually, which makes you a sexist, you should be complaining about women not being fleshed out enough as characters and relying on their image too much.

Gamer attitudes are a different issue, specifically guys being dicks.

Thank you. Finally someone that gets it.

The issue isn't that women are beautiful. There should never be a problem with a character being physically beautiful. No one ever complains about a man being physically attractive, but they would if that was all that there is to that man's character such as if he were a smug pretty boy. The same thing applies here, women that are beautiful should not have that beauty be the sole focus of their character with nothing else to flesh out their character.

There is nothing inherently wrong with games that focus on that beauty aspect, a game should just try to be upfront with you on whether or not it will be full on fan-service or if a serviceable plot will surround the character. There is certainly room for fan service alongside meaningful character development, it has been done before.

Yes gamer attitudes can be a problem. The stigma of girls not being welcome as gamers needs to be done away with.

 

[Vault101]

Look at the pic of Alyx, and point out to me one part of her that has been sexualized in order to improve her appeal to the male demographic. Answer? There aren't any. Yet any chart that lists best female VG characters will have her riding high near the top.

My goodness! It's almost as if gamers can appreciate female characters that aren't dressed like fantasy hookers. Stop the presses!

If Valve can show that women don't need to objectified in games to still be successful characters, why shouldn't other developers try and match that, and raise the bar for female presence in games generally?

There's always Cinematic Mod and a "few others" to fix that mistake, it's still the same character after that mind you, saying and doing the same things, but apparently because it has *boobs* now it's a bad thing.
Cause some of you people won't be satisfied till every single female character in video games resembles some sort of antropomorphic primordial ooze instead of an attractive human being, cause it makes it so so *wrong* if it does.

Wonder how many of the women and men who argue against it here would dress sexy and form-fitting if they could actually pull it off instead of argueing about it on some website xD

mistake? are you fucking kidding me?

can you honestly NOT play a game unless the charachters are dressed like strippers? can you not understand WHY charachters arnt dressed like strippers?

yeah..thats just pathetic

" but apparently because it has *boobs* now it's a bad thing." < yeah thats EXACTALLY that this is all about /sarcasm

 

[Halo Fanboy]

Is this even a comprehensible question? Are video game characters treated like objects (uh yes as they should be ,) treated like meat (wut?) The central question of the thread is so vague I really can't come up with any real answer. If you asked me this question about men I would say absolutely the same thing.

 

[Condiments]

And us gamers wonder why most women find the very idea of playing triple AAA games abhorrent. Our industry is mostly made and tailored around the male experience, or at least what society perceives we should value.

I think the bigger issue about this is story/writing, and developers relying on cheap pandering to their audience. Attractive females and hyper confident/masculine stereotypes are the staple of the day, to bring in the Male 15-14 audience.

 

[The Lunatic]

In terms of the community, internet people are assholes to other internet people, just because you're a different gender doesn't mean you have some immunity to that, and expecting the salivating moronity of Xbox live to say "Whoa, hold on now gentlemen, we have a lady here, let's all behave" is just being silly.

However.

In terms of the portrayal of women in games, it's pretty awful.

Especially games like Soul Calibu... Actually, fighting games almost entirely.

 

[Necroid_Neko]

When it comes to females being portrayed in video games I have no problem with it. I like to play a sexy character as much as any guy,so as long as the characterisation's good I won't have a problem with a skantily dressed heroine.
However, the way Im treated by guys when they find out I'm female? (primarily by hearing my voice o ventrilo or people who know me calling me by my name) Yeah, that's not so nice. I'm frankly pretty sick of all the kitchen jokes, the 'only fat ugly girls play WOW, you must be hideous' comments or the attitude of 'finally, a female player! Time to bust my charm and that lady will be miiiine'. Obviously there's a lot of guys who are cool with female players, but it really is annoying (and sometimes upsetting) when they act like idiots just because someone has boobs in real life.