Sexy Gaming: A Do's and Do Nots Discussion

[MiracleOfSound]

Spoiler

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Don't be so serious guys, come on we all like boobs.

Why would you post a picture of a character idolized for her ass when you're defending b00bs?

Awww are you dissapointed?

You can catch a glimpse of side boob there if you try hard enough...

Or you could always just google image her tribal costume if you need to see some titty flesh that bad.

Also to answer your question, because it's a sexy picture of a woman that is not overtly vulgar or sexually exaggerated.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

like i said before WHY THE FUCK IS EVERY FEMALE CHARCTER WEARING HALF A NAPKINS WORTH OF FABRIC AND EVERY SOLIDER IS WEARING A FUCKING HOUSE ?????

BECAUSE THE TARGET MARKET IS MAINLY MALES WHO LIKE TITS AND NOT NUDEY MEN!!!!

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Female characters in video games are always ludicrously out of proportion and dressed in bondage gear...

Now that in itself is interesting as in those cases (I'm looking at your Rachel from Ninja Gaiden) they seem to be a juxtaposition of the confident (and slightly slutty) maneater and the submissive damsel in distress.

Is that what we as men really want? I'm thinking... perhaps yes.

 

[Worgen]

Im not sure its as much of a problem of over sexualization as it is sociaties view of woman in general, as others have stated men are overly sexualised just in diffrent ways (strong protectors, muscular, extremely gruff voices etc) but in our sociaty women are still viewed as that which must be protected, that a woman must always defend her virtue. But men on the other hand, we are the hunters, we are to go out and spread our seed so to speak, so the objectification of men isnt seen as a bad thing since men doent really object to being objectified, most men would probably enjoy it if it happened.

 

[Paragon Fury]

If my memory of anatomy holds true...women wouldn't have to pull their pants that far down if the urinal was made to stick out a little farther.


But as far as the topic is concerned - neither gender does much to help the situation either. A lot of men desire the females depicted because they either don't exist in real life, or because there are so few of them they might as well be put on the endangered species list.

Women don't help because they feed it. They act like they like it (or they really do like it), flood their media with it, and try their best to be like it. When is the last time you saw a female scientist on the cover of Cosmo?

The urinal itself would have to be designed different, I'd think. And height would be a major issue for the most part. You can only aim so much.
It's too much of a hassle with our anatomy, and then trying to adapt it into our culture of clothes and restroom ethics.
In closing: unneeded, imo.

As for the actual topic and in response, I agree that both genders are responsible for it, but women psychologically feel the need to look the best they can anyway. (I am sure there are exceptions, but there is no crime admitting the want to feel good about your body)

The problem is that ideal beauty from mass media is either hard to maintain or unobtainable, and usually nothing but depicted eye-candy. It's a bit different from how men are stereotypically shown, whether they're lithe or wearing half a car, because they're often independents with many admirable traits, unlike most women figures, where they serve no more purpose than to stand-out, or be some plot device.
Not like I'm saying that Hulk Hogan A, B, C, and D in Gears of War should be ignored, as they portray what many things a guy might be self-conscious about, but when you get down to it, do men really wish they were as built as your typical WWE wrestler? As far as I remember, most women don't even like that shit, and neither do they.

I feel like I'm missing something, or it'll come across wrong, but whatever.
OP: There is nothing wrong with being sexy, or having an appealing character. The woman body looks good, and it's been an object as such for a long time, to both women and men. It's the fact that it's the norm in the media today, and spreads a negative influence to those who wish they could obtain such.

Also, I have no idea what Cosmos is, so I can't exactly tell you.
(I assume a magazine, obviously, but I never heard of it)

No, most men don't want to look like the guys in Gears, but they do want act or be as like them as humanly possible. However, that is generally hampered by the fact that we can only get about a fourth of the car on before running into logistical problems.

Women need to improve women's image - not men. We don't have the control in this situation ladies - you keep feediing this image of high standards, and unobtainable or not, its what we're going to expect because its what you keep trying to show us.

And Cosmo, or Cosmopolitian is one of the US's best selling women's magazines.....which is tootally and wholly devoted to "beauty" and "fashion" and general glofication of the stereotypical "attractive woman". Each month, it has a different woman on the cover. There has never been a female of a high-statue on the cover, save for Michelle Obama. They are always actresses and models. There has never been a scientist, engineer, or Ph.D on the cover.

 

[Nostalgia]

Women need to improve women's image - not men. We don't have the control in this situation ladies - you keep feediing this image of high standards, and unobtainable or not, its what we're going to expect because its what you keep trying to show us.

Hey, hey, hey. I feed nothing but the need to look away. (overexagerating, sure, but I'm nothing to look at)
So, I guess you can say that I'm doing my part?
Also, I'd argue that it's not entirely our fault, but our own society as a whole and how it evolves. Voluptuous women used to have the most desirable body at one point.

And Cosmo, or Cosmopolitian is one of the US's best selling women's magazines.....which is tootally and wholly devoted to "beauty" and "fashion" and general glofication of the stereotypical "attractive woman". Each month, it has a different woman on the cover. There has never been a female of a high-statue on the cover, save for Michelle Obama. They are always actresses and models. There has never been a scientist, engineer, or Ph.D on the cover.

That would explain it. I have no interest in such, and so it would be expected that I wasn't exactly sure was it is. Even if I did, I couldn't really answer your question, but due to its nature, it would only seem to answer itself. (yes, I am aware now that you knew the answer. That was the whole point.)

 

[teisjm]

Oh, and when we're talking of exagerated sizes how come noone brought up weapons and shoulderpads in WoW?

Because WoWs visual aesthetic is clearly fantasy based, its not meant to be realistic.

Unlike most of the female in-game characters with huge cleavage which are never fantasy based?

Everyone knows huge swords are penis enlargers... as long as you're not on the recieving end, then they might cut off a few inches

 

[Electric Gel]

I suppose there?s a place for ?sexy? people in video games, but the sheer amount gets right on my wick. I just don?t like every woman looking like some Greek goddess of fertility, and on the other side, every bloke being built like Hercules.

The thing that makes the human race so interesting is that we?re all different. Ugliness breeds character. It invokes emotions that aren?t completely sexual. When a characters average or ugly, at least in my case, I connect with them more. I actually care about them; they?re not just two giant breasts flopping all over the screen, distracting me from the story.

The games I most dislike for this are JRPGs. Everyone?s good looking, even the bloody villain (The best villains have faces like arses.) I can?t get into a story when all the characters are a bunch of ?perfectly? formed eighteen year olds poncing about playing dress up.

 

[RH3INLAND.]

It's kind of an even spread. While yes you do see alot of unrealistically beautiful and scantily clad women, there are nearly just as many unrealistically muscle bound men.

Prime examples: Marcus Fenix, Kratos, Chris Redfield. I could go on.

I don't think there would ever be a way to appease both sexes in this one, but I'm sure that everyone would rather play a character that's really good looking, as opposed to a character that's super ugly.

 

[NewGeekPhilosopher]

isn't she suppose to be 39?

I've seen much sexier 39 year olds than that.


*Runs to Google*

I haven't.
Old people are old.

Not even on the interwebs?

She's sexier than OP's example.

Faith as a character design makes more sense than having a big breasted character doing all that running. THINK OF THE BACK PAIN!

Seriously though, we need more diverse females in video games. Anime has not only little girls who fight evil, but an action Librarian who kills people with money she found in a briefcase in one instance. HOW BADASS is THAT. She can also manipulate paper to make weapons. So far, in video games, we have Faith who runs to complete her objectives (which is better than what Ivy from Soul Calibur has to deal with), a martial artist cop named Chun-Li who's more famous for her thighs than her career as a police detective, and Samus who doesn't really need to show off much skin to be awesome, because she has a big gun and she kicks arse without compensating for it with her figure.

I also thought the character Ling from GTA: Chinatown Wars shouldn't have been a "women in refridgerators" character as Gail Simone or whoever came up with that term put it.

 

[Silva]

I'm going to be terribly politically incorrect here and say: you know what, I kinda like the sexualisation of women in games.

While it's true that women are far more often sexualised than men, it's also true that male characters in games are generally fit, muscley and far better looking than most of us male gamers. There are exceptions, but that's true for the majority of the time.

A female gamer might say to me: "but you've never had a FEMALE go on and on about how sexy a male game character is". Wrong. Yes, I have. Cloud, Dante, Isaac, Ash (yes, Ash, I'm not even kidding), Solid Snake, Leon. All of these are Japanese game characters, protagonists and male, and the fangirls adore them. And I've heard more than three girls in my life rave about how hot they are. And no, not because they're "emotionally mature" (Dante certainly isn't) or "misunderstood" as the preconception goes. They like these males purely for their sexual appearance, making graphical comments about their legs and the like.

And yes, of course it is frustrating, if you're not gay and have no fun listening to people rave about people of your own sex on a screen when you're already in the room. But you get the benefit of the opposite sex also often being sexualised, so this is a balanced thing even if you still call it a problem.

To reiterate: the truth is, neither gender is modelled non-sexually. Both are using sex to sell the game, and so it's time we got over it a bit.

Now that that rant is over, I'll give you an honest answer about where developers should draw the line with sexualising characters.

Nowhere, presuming it stays within the R rating or below. There are adult games already and they deserve the popularity that they're gaining.

It's not very admirable if a developer comes to the point that they need sex to sell a game, but frankly consumers can be smart enough to notice that for themselves. Any game box with more space allocated to breasts on the concept art than to the title of the game itself will probably come under that category.

Now that in itself is interesting as in those cases (I'm looking at your Rachel from Ninja Gaiden) they seem to be a juxtaposition of the confident (and slightly slutty) maneater and the submissive damsel in distress.

Is that what we as men really want? I'm thinking... perhaps yes.

YES. Wow, you nailed it there. That's EXACTLY what they're portrayed as most of the time.

And yes, I think it is what we men really want.

 

[sorry user name taken.]

lara croft now =D

think they finally understood less is more lol rather than major boobage (compared to what she was before...)

little black dress ( yeah its a old game but i thought she was cool when i was younger)

true that sex sells but i think these days we're seeing stronger female characters in games

alyx being my favorite

 

[latenightapplepie]

Don't be so serious guys, come on we all like boobs.

Boobs are boring. Speak for yourself.

On topic: The ridiculous physical proportions of (supposedly) human characters are just that. The gaming community should name and shame the quasi-pornographic images that some videogames consistently produce. If you want to look at this sort of thing, go look at an actual porno!

 

[tk1989]

Oh, and when we're talking of exagerated sizes how come noone brought up weapons and shoulderpads in WoW?

Because WoWs visual aesthetic is clearly fantasy based, its not meant to be realistic.

Unlike most of the female in-game characters with huge cleavage which are never fantasy based?

Touche on your counter argument my good friend. You have a good point; Soul Calibur games and the like are also fantasy games, but you can't disagree that the visual style of WoW is meant to be more imaginative and fanciful. Games such as Soul Calibur are going for a more 'realistic' visual style (which, in my mind is quite the misnomer)

 

[Cheesebob]

For starters I figured I'd cut RIGHT to the chase...

That's not sexy...

it is to me...

Ivy is ridiculously fat to be wearing that amount of clothing she is wearing...damn I bet thats like forcing a lump of meat into a mesh of cheese wire

 

[Mighty Wulrus]

OK Mostly games are based around the protagonist running around if the females had huge boobs then they would end up with two black eyes...

 

[Mighty Wulrus]

Don't be so serious guys, come on we all like boobs.

Boobs are boring. Speak for yourself.

On topic: The ridiculous physical proportions of (supposedly) human characters are just that. The gaming community should name and shame the quasi-pornographic images that some videogames consistently produce. If you want to look at this sort of thing, go look at an actual porno!

Boobs are great, I personally love them...
however they are not that important so I kinda agree with latenightapplepie...

 

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Think of it this way. There certainly are male characters that are pretty in games, but there are also characters who are plain looking, and even those who are downright ugly. In some cases their powers are even linked to said ugliness. Women on the other hand are nearly always pretty. They only really range from realisticly pretty to if that were real it would be sent by skynet. The expectation is that irregardless of what role they are playing in the narrative women are expected to be pretty, while men are expected to be powerful. A male character can be ugly, but provided they are dominant they can still overcome enemies, get sex, etc. I don't object to women in games being pretty, what I object to is that they have to be pretty.

 

[New Troll]

There are two main types of female characters, those portrayed as eye-candy and those portrayed more realisticly. Over the past several years, more and more female characters have adapted the later mainly due to a larger base of female gamers, but also because of the more in depth quality of image consoles/ systems can handle. An extremely sexy face makes less need for bogus breasts and skin, skin, skin.

Personally, as much as I love my scantily dressed vixens, they really only belong in certain genres of games anymore (i.e. fighters.) Being a true RPGer, I prefer realism.

 

[SecretTacoNinja]

It has it's place, but a juvenile presentation of sexually attractive characters in gaming is the main problem. No-one has the same problem with all the good looking people in hollywood, as at least they are less obviously objectified.

Oh, and Ivy? No, I wouldn't. Not worth the half an hour it would take to unbuckle all her armour.

'Scuse me...

"Armour"

A shoulder plate and gauntlet is not armour.

This is armour:

...

You know what? I can't find one damn image of a female warrior who doesn't have her tits sticking out.

Thank you internet.