Sexy Characters

[OctoberFox]

I really really love this article. I love that it's a well thought out and fair piece on the issue for a change. None of the usual shaming, or "men are pigs, women are victims" rhetoric. Bravo, Mr. Croshaw.

Resonating most with me is the point about developers treating people a certain way, and I feel this was about a lot of violent games implying that's the same as mature, or breast physics meaning it's an adult game. Neither of these things are intrinsically mature or adult but are treated with ham-handed abandon as the avatars of these qualities. Gears of War is a perfect example, where violence is treated with a puerile glee, paired with beefy slabs of men being "gritty" while laying waste to horde of creatures with their obvious phallic representations, as if this is somehow the definition of what video game manhood has become.

Ultimately the industry's developers and publishers, even their marketers, must learn to grow up and treat their adult demographic with more respect. This, in my opinion, must include a more realistic or at least less juvenile approach to sexuality. The consumers can choose for themselves what is or isn't acceptable only when the industry give us the freedom to do so, and better still without pandering or cheap halfhearted imitations of what adult content looks like through the lens of a developer that wants to market to thirteen year old gamers.

 

[wAriot]

I would like you to play a game in which a promiment part of it is about being a woman who has to flirt and seduce attractive, sexy guys. Part of the flirting also includes staring at the guy's crotch to fill your meter.

Been there, done that. Also in this case, you have to look at boobs, not a crotch, and everyone likes boobs.

 

[wAriot]

You just invalidated your argument, so I won't waste any more time with you.

"Everyone likes boobs, isn't it?! There's no way someone doesn't - even homosexuals or women like boobs better!! Totally!! So let's keep the white heterosexual male privilege! Because what he likes, EVERYONE MUST LIKE!!"

It reminds me of that guy who wrote that male bodies are gross, while female bodies are attractive.... AS A GENERAL RULE THAT EVERYONE IS SUPPOSED TO AGREE TO.

Hahah, relax, it was just a joke. Yeah, I know that not 100% of the population likes breasts - but a high percentage does. Heterosexual men? Check. Bisexuals? Check. Lesbian women? Check. Then we have gays; and according to most of them I know (I'm member of a LGBT forum), they all like boobs too, even if it's just to a subconscious level. It's what feeds us when we are young, you know. So in the end, we have heterosexual women. And again, most of them I know like to play with their own breasts, or her friends'. Don't even ask me why. But they certainly don't dislike them.

I know, of course, that this is just on a personal level, and doesn't prove anything. Just because I've met a lot of people that likes boobs, doesn't mean everyone does. But I think I can accurately conclude that the percentage of people that doesn't like them, or even legitimately hates them, is very tiny. This game is probably not for them, and you, if you are part of that group.

 

[wAriot]

snip

Your comparison is flawed, because a penis isn't analog to boobs. A well toned male chest would be. And yes, everyone likes a well toned chest, even heterosexual males.

P.S.

The feeling is mutual. I'd probably off myself before having to put up with someone as stuck-up as you.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Watch any anime for 5 minutes and you'll be overwhelmed by sexualized yet insecure characters.

Oh, ignorant generalizations. Don't ever change.

Tell you what, I'd like you point out the sexualized yet insecure characters present in anything made by Studio Ghibli for me.

I'll wait.

OT: just curious, am I the only one surprised that Tomb Raider didn't come up in this? By which I mean the series in general, not the latest entry specifically.

Studio Ghibli doesn't make anime series, they make movies. Plus they often have children as the characters where this property isn't exactly going to apply.

I can make those "ignorant generalizations" as someone who watches a LOT of anime and sees this over and over and over....

 

[Shjade]

Watch any anime for 5 minutes and you'll be overwhelmed by sexualized yet insecure characters.

Oh, ignorant generalizations. Don't ever change.

Tell you what, I'd like you point out the sexualized yet insecure characters present in anything made by Studio Ghibli for me.

I'll wait.

OT: just curious, am I the only one surprised that Tomb Raider didn't come up in this? By which I mean the series in general, not the latest entry specifically.

Studio Ghibli doesn't make anime series, they make movies. Plus they often have children as the characters where this property isn't exactly going to apply.

I can make those "ignorant generalizations" as someone who watches a LOT of anime and sees this over and over and over....

You said "any anime," not "any anime series."

You can make roughly similar generalizations about pretty much any genre of entertainment television. Which is why generalizations like that aren't really helpful and don't mean much.

 

[Norithics]

Tell you what, I'd like you point out the sexualized yet insecure characters present in anything made by Studio Ghibli for me.

If you're not going to acknowledge that Totoro is roiling, smouldering temptation made manifest, then I just don't see how we can have a serious conversation about this subject. Elephant in the room.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Watch any anime for 5 minutes and you'll be overwhelmed by sexualized yet insecure characters.

Oh, ignorant generalizations. Don't ever change.

Tell you what, I'd like you point out the sexualized yet insecure characters present in anything made by Studio Ghibli for me.

I'll wait.

OT: just curious, am I the only one surprised that Tomb Raider didn't come up in this? By which I mean the series in general, not the latest entry specifically.

Studio Ghibli doesn't make anime series, they make movies. Plus they often have children as the characters where this property isn't exactly going to apply.

I can make those "ignorant generalizations" as someone who watches a LOT of anime and sees this over and over and over....

You said "any anime," not "any anime series."

You can make roughly similar generalizations about pretty much any genre of entertainment television. Which is why generalizations like that aren't really helpful and don't mean much.

You know what I'm referring to. Sounds like you're just arguing semantics just to argue.

 

[Piorn]

Might be a bit off-topic, but in my experience, Sex as a secondary topic in videogames doesn't work.
Sure, some innuendo is alright if it comes from actual characters, but I'd say if you want to make a game about sex, then fine, make it about sex, do an M-rating and go all the way so we can play it in privacy.
You can make great porn games, but I have yet to see a case where including porn into a regular game has actually raised the overall quality of the product.
Don't just throw in one awkward sex scene in so all the sweaty teens have a reason to buy this.

 

[Shjade]

Tell you what, I'd like you point out the sexualized yet insecure characters present in anything made by Studio Ghibli for me.

If you're not going to acknowledge that Totoro is roiling, smouldering temptation made manifest, then I just don't see how we can have a serious conversation about this subject. Elephant in the room.

Oh, of course he is, but insecure? Hell no. Totoro oozes confidence.

@Thanatos: I do indeed know what you're referring to: anime-style UST, as opposed to the UST found in any other genre which is essentially the same thing. In other words, ignorant generalizations, as first stated, aaand now we've gone full circle hooray~

 

[Requia]

Sigmund Freud did a massive disservice to psychology. Now you have people like Yahtzee saying crazy things like that knights who want to avenge their slain loved one are doing because they are "sexually insecure" (<-- what does that even mean) or some shit... *sigh*

Edit: Also, when I was fourteen, I can say unequivocally that when I was a 14 boy, I would have taken up an offer of sex faster than Sonic the Hedgehog can run with power sneakers on.

I always think of psychology and Freud like this, teaching freud in psychology is like teaching roman/greek surgery in medical school. Its outdated and outmoded and barely relevant.

Outside of explanations for how Freud got more or less everything wrong it isn't covered (except, supposedly, in France, god help you if you need psychological care there).