Virtual Hotties

[Darth Rosenberg]

Cortana evolving into basically a naked women was kind of uncomfortable.

I saw it as Cortana evolving from a fairly engaging character into an even more engaging and interesting character. She was always essentially nekkid and blue, and all the 'Cortana through the Halo timeline' comparisons in the world didn't change how I perceived her as a space Tinker Bell character.

 

[llubtoille]

I have a serious question;

Why, during these kinds of debates, do people insist on saying/implying that the male primary sex characteristic - our twig and berries, rod and reel, I'm-out-of-euphemisms - is in anyway comparable to female secondary sex characteristics - their boobs, flotation devices, whatever-you-like-to-call-them and their hips/thighs - at all?

Because they're not. At all.

Hmm, it might be that both the male genitalia and female breasts are physical things you can hold and squeeze, whereas the male breasts and female genitalia are both more a negative-space, a 'lack of' rather than a thing itself.

 

[Haru17]

Samus with an AI would be cool, some more dialogue in Metroid Prime games would be appreciated (aside from the cold AIs in corruption). I'm not super keen on the super sexualized holo-bait, as it would seem to liken her to the teenage fans Cortona is pandering to. That said, everyone has the right to be pandered to, we shouldn't object to one without criticizing the other gender's version equally.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

our twig and berries, rod and reel, I'm-out-of-euphemisms

Meat and two veg
Sausage and eggs
The Three Musketeers
The dic-tators
Winkie and the Twins
The Nixon Administration

Wait... what was this thread about? I've already forgotten.

 

[Ham Blitz]

There is only one thing I can think of looking at Larry there: Nudist Beeeeeeeeeach!

 

[octafish]

HA, I'm not a console gamer so I actually approached this comic as a comment about the new digital assistant planned for Windows 9. Then I noticed that the "Microsoft" employees had direct neural plugs, and I thought MS could never get that to work...

 

[Nurb]

Samus is a yaoi fangirl and Seph fanfic writer, no doubt about it.

 

[Zak757]

I would just like to take this space to re-iterate my love for man-buns If we sexualize equally i don't see a problem. Sexualized media will always exist.

It would be much better if we avoided sexualization and just welcomed sexuality instead. You can't sexualize characters that are already sexual to begin with. See: Mikisugi Aikirou

 

[2cool4u]

I have a serious question;

Why, during these kinds of debates, do people insist on saying/implying that the male primary sex characteristic - our twig and berries, rod and reel, I'm-out-of-euphemisms - is in anyway comparable to female secondary sex characteristics - their boobs, flotation devices, whatever-you-like-to-call-them and their hips/thighs - at all?

Because they're not. At all.

Eh, what male secondary sex characteristics aren't you allowed to show in public though?

... The ass? It's the only part of our body that is considered a secondary sex characteristic for both men and women, and unlike women, men don't show their asses very often. A girl can wear a g-string swimsuit at the beach without problems, but a man wearing a g-string with his ass free to enjoy the sunlight is probably a gay porn actor. But it's considered attractive for both genders.

As men and women, we should put aside our differences and our resentment towards each other and unite in the name of the only thing we both appreciate: the butt.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Ya know, I'd like to see an action game released in the west/United States where women play the competent adventurer/Player character (I don't consider NPCs competent at all because they need the player.) who has her pick of assorted guys without gender select for the player character.
Basically a gender swap of pretty much every game with a shred of a relationship without character creation.

Women get supported by assorted guys that are basically just barely useful at their jobs, wear next to nothing, and eventually need rescuing by the woman. Maybe killed off in absurd ways to help fuel the woman's desire to see justice done.

 

[Mikeybb]

Aw, now Larry looks like a fun guy to hang out with.

You'd have to fight the instinct to duck every time he turned around, but I'd pick him.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

"There's nothing else going on this week"? Didn't a terrorist organization issue a bomb threat against Sony in a DDoS attack, pulling down PSN's online service and compromising Xbox Live as well?

 

[Rayce Archer]

Speaking as a dude who likes ladies I'd be okay with the odd game or three featuring ripped dudes with huge schlongs.

One of my chief complaints about Skyrim was that while there's a bevy of hot ladies to marry (like that sexy filth encrusted babe you deliver letters for) female characters have to settle for a bunch of jackasses that look like the town drunk (and of course one who actually IS the town drunk).

Of course thanks to the console you can marry whoever you want, whether they're initially scripted to let you or not. Which- that's actually sort of creepy now that I think about it*.

*Except for Lydia who has unique romance dialog and is for whatever reason the only House Karl you can't marry normally.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

Ya know, I'd like to see an action game released in the west/United States where women play the competent adventurer/Player character (I don't consider NPCs competent at all because they need the player.) who has her pick of assorted guys without gender select for the player character.
Basically a gender swap of pretty much every game with a shred of a relationship without character creation.

Women get supported by assorted guys that are basically just barely useful at their jobs, wear next to nothing, and eventually need rescuing by the woman. Maybe killed off in absurd ways to help fuel the woman's desire to see justice done.

Pretty sad if your primary reason/motive to make such a game is political correctness. There's just not enough demand for such a game. As mentioned in the comic, it's extremely niche. Forget big developers, I don't even see small-medium sized studios interested in making something like that. If they did it might end up making them no money.

I'm sure an indie dev somewhere could make such a game as a mini-project to see how much popularity it gains. There are already flash/java-based erotic games aimed at females and homosexual males, but again they will be only getting a tiny (tiny) fraction of the popularity that straight-male games get.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Ya know, I'd like to see an action game released in the west/United States where women play the competent adventurer/Player character (I don't consider NPCs competent at all because they need the player.) who has her pick of assorted guys without gender select for the player character.
Basically a gender swap of pretty much every game with a shred of a relationship without character creation.

Women get supported by assorted guys that are basically just barely useful at their jobs, wear next to nothing, and eventually need rescuing by the woman. Maybe killed off in absurd ways to help fuel the woman's desire to see justice done.

Pretty sad if your primary reason/motive to make such a game is political correctness. There's just not enough demand for such a game. As mentioned in the comic, it's extremely niche. Forget big developers, I don't even see small-medium sized studios interested in making something like that. If they did it might end up making them no money.

I'm sure an indie dev somewhere could make such a game as a mini-project to see how much popularity it gains. There are already flash/java-based erotic games aimed at females and homosexual males, but again they will be only getting a tiny (tiny) fraction of the popularity that straight-male games get.

Of course it's niche. Very few guys want a game like that, because they don't want guys in posiions like that.
Yet the industry, and in part, the people fighting against female protagonists, insists on having women put up with it. That's basically, my point. If guys don't like games like that, why are women expected to like games that treat them that way?
Why is anyone expected to like games where women are treated that way in general? the annoyance isn't limited to women.

Yet here we are, with no signs of things really changing.

 

[Vault101]

I really would like more obvious man-candy in my games. I guess we do have idealized hunks too, actually come to think of it we have a lot of muscular men in games but they tend to be grizzled and look like abused meat. But i suppose those are from the 'male gaze' or whatever. I dunno. But i sure as hell see a lot of bulging, sweaty muscles in some areas. *bites lip*

I would have thourght drake (as much as I loath that dick weasel) would be a "general" kind of attractive to women

but then I'm realising as far as fictional charachters go I don't know what women like or why they like it

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

If guys don't like games like that

Hypothetically if the game you described came out tomorrow I highly doubt guys would even care, forget about "not liking" (that implies they actually care). Maybe a few MRA crazies would object, but those minorities (along with extreme feminists) can be safely ignored. This is of course because males have a million other games catering to them. Your gender-reversed game is free to exist and be produced for whoever is going to buy it - it's primary barrier won't be guys not liking it, but gamers (in general) just not being interested enough to warrant the development.

Reversing the situation won't work since you'll also have to reverse how gaming, technology, etc came around going back hundreds of years. Yes, I wouldn't like it if I was the minority audience for a popular product and it didn't depict my gender properly. No, I probably wouldn't try to get it changed because the hands of fate would probably make me not interested in video right now. Too many factors.

why are women expected to like games that treat them that way?

I'd like to think that women are not expected to like those games. The way the game is developed and marketed, one could conclude that the studios/publishers aren't even expecting women to be INTERESTED in those kinds of games, let alone like it. I mean do you think the devs of GTA and Witcher would expect women to actually enjoy their products? Heck no. They already know that, they know what they are making and who they are catering to. They are inclined to give zero fucks about Anita Sarkeesian and the likes, if anything she's helping their sales (a bit) every time she mentions their games.

But if some women do pick that game up and criticize it's depiction of women, that's between them and the devs/publishers. It's almost the equivalent of those women saying "Y U NO MAKE GAME FOR MY TASTES?" - that's how the dev/publisher will perceive criticism coming from women, especially feminists.

I can understand WHY women don't like it, I'll give you that. I don't expect them to like it, nobody should expect women to like such games. But that's the reality.
I wish women the best of luck to getting games made for them.

Why is anyone expected to like games where women are treated that way in general? the annoyance isn't limited to women.

The masses haven't really objected to women being treated like that in games, said games are selling very well. From the devs/publishers' perspective they did everything right. Who are you (or me) to convince them they are depicting women badly? They already know that and literally throwing it in consumers' faces, and consumers are gobbling it up.

If a woman decides to buy a game and doesn't like her gender's depiction in it, criticizing and complaining is the extent of what she can do - and then her criticism will be swiftly buried under countless others (i.e. straight male gamers) who found the game perfectly enjoyable and have no gender-related issues with it.

From what I've noticed, that's what happens every time. And the more often it happens, the less likely it is for future criticism coming from females to be taken seriously. Even if they are totally legitimate complaints, you get the picture.

 

[Overquoted]

Oh, you're clearly missing the important part -- Cortana is a sexual fantasy directed at straight men while Larry is a power fantasy directed at straight men. Don't you know how this works?

Ya ain't wrong. But that's not to say women cannot find certain male characteristics highly erotic. Though, I'd say your average woman probably prefers a less steroid-use looking physique. Something that looks more natural than your typical 'hard body' too. (Six pack abs are silly.)

Case in point: http://thats-normal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1743714_640694452656434_895588589_n.jpg

This is literally the first show to make me squee like some K-Drama fan. And part of it is that. But at the end of the day, that dude plays a real character, not eye candy. That's the only issue I have with sexualization of women in video games; it's eye candy with no substance. Ruins it for me.