Silverblade said:
This week I watched the review of Dragon Crown and read the Critical Miss comic about it and there were a lot of people posting about how bad/stupid/disgusting the female body shapes were in the game. And I remember there was a similar uproar awhile ago about that Hitman: Absolution trailer where Agent 47 fights a bunch of stripperiffic nun assassins.
My question is, are you guys saying that if I like women who have large breasts and/or are dress as sexy nuns that I am a bad person?
Its that I do like women with the sort of figure you see in Dragon Crown or Hitman: Absolution, and the feeling I get from these flame wars is that there are a bunch of people out there saying that because I like women with big breasts, or women dressed in sexy outfits that I am bad/evil/immoral. The idea that someone would label me as a bad person just because I have a certain sexual preference makes me angry.
I think the main issue is that women like that don't exist. They're not real people, they're a sort of power/sex fantasy that's unattainable.
The problem with that is that it tends to reflect bad writing. The creator doesn't have enough talent to create an interesting, well rounded female character, so they create an unrealistically proportioned female character to attract people through sex appeal. That's basically what the creator of Dragon Crown said, anyway. He made characters like that in order to "stand out." Personally I find a well written, compelling female character more attractive anyway, even if she wears baggy shorts and has a small chest. Personality is attractive.
The problem then builds. The more fake, empty female husks there are in video games, the more women are seen as objects instead of people. That's not really something we tend to see with male characters. The problem is then that every factor of every game is tailored solely to men, and women get shafted.
You're not necessarily a bad person, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with having attractive women and men in video games. I love Tifa Lochheart, who has a compelling personality, on top of being physically attractive. The problem with games like the ones you mentioned is that sexiness is portrayed as that character primary (and sometimes only) character trait. This is a problem, there's no way around that. It's the same issue I have with most anime. When a female character exists for the sole purpose of being eye candy, or her entire personality centers around being sexy, then that is not a good character. Games can, and should, try harder. Therefore, the problem isn't about having attractive women in videogames, it's about that attractiveness defining their entire personality. That's why people get offended, and I think that's totally justified.
There's a difference between a female character asserting her sexuality, and a female character being exploited. If a female character walks around in an outfit that's more sexy then functional (female warrior walking around in a metal bikini and high heels) then she's clearly being exploited. If she has no personality, or behaves unrealistically, or her primary trait is to be attractive, then she's being exploited. If she just happens to be attractive, or embraces her sexuality like a mature adult, but that has no bearing whatsoever on her personality, then she's a decent character. She's not an attractive girl who happens to have a personality, she's a well rounded intriguing character who just happens to attractive.