A Man's Game?

[Spolodaface]

http://bitsofjoy.net/?p=139

Quite interesting thing about how men and women are portrayed in games.
It's kinda long, so here's a couple of snippets:

"The relatively new medium of video-games has only been around for around 35 years and has had many great iconic characters. These have included; Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Gordon Freeman and Link. In contemplating video-game heroes, it becomes evident that memorable female characters are in the minority."

"It has become evident however from my studies of those three iconic games over the 3 decades of video-games that, in the mainstream market, we have male and female characters which do not represent individuality but rather slot into pre-defined stereotypes. These stereotypes are demeaning to both men and women, providing a standard to which men cannot meet and suggesting that women cannot undertake the tasks completed by male heroes in many games."

 

[Rikku4788]

i'll admit i only briefly scanned the paragraphs

but i thought i'd write something anyway...becuase i think its quite an interesting topic...

Male characters in games are there to be the hero, save mankind etc...its the same thing over and over but we love them anyway...because they have a nice sence of humour or a cool weapon..they manage to get the "likeability" factor...

Female characters are hardly looked at in the same way...most female characters are generally skinny,semi naked characters who may do the same things male characters, but people dont care because there too busy looking at how great she looks

im not applying that to ALL female characters but alot of them are.

not to be too cliche but look at Lara Croft, ive been a fan of the games since the begining but since they moved her to newer generation consoles shes got better looking. and i know we have better technology so she needs to look more realistic but how many male gamers out there play the game PURELY because they like the gameplay...not how great Lara looks in a pair of shorts.

 

[jebussaves88]

I have a mate who plays Tomb Raider, and he's about as sexually involved with the game as a pair of slippers.

 

[Gxas]

I have a mate who plays Tomb Raider, and he's about as sexually involved with the game as a pair of slippers.

Ooh damn. That's a pretty intense sexual relationship then.

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

Looking at the chart it doesn't really look like a majority of people mind.
I've never really played a game and thought of it sexist (well, ok maybe Duke Nukem, but that pretty much goes without saying), least of all while playing half-life 2 (Gordon Freeman is mentioned) where Alyx can definatley stand on her own two feet and doesn't need you to hold her hand through the course of the game, and usually is the one saving your arse from unseen enemies by providing some much needed sniper support.

 

[Nutcase]

Looking at the chart it doesn't really look like a majority of people mind.
I've never really played a game and thought of it sexist (well, ok maybe Duke Nukem, but that pretty much goes without saying), least of all while playing half-life 2 (Gordon Freeman is mentioned) where Alyx can definatley stand on her own two feet and doesn't need you to hold her hand through the course of the game, and usually is the one saving your arse from unseen enemies by providing some much needed sniper support.

It looks like 40% of the people do mind. Which is a *lot*.

 

[rossatdi]

For one I'd argue that Lara Croft is as big a symbol of gaming as you can get outside of Mario.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I have a mate who plays Tomb Raider, and he's about as sexually involved with the game as a pair of slippers.

I dunno, other than her downright silly Chest Size, Lara is a pretty GOOD female character.

Highly Educated, Extremely Capable, Self Reliant, Never needs a man to save her etc.

 

[Axolotl]

For one I'd argue that Lara Croft is as big a symbol of gaming as you can get outside of Mario.

In a 2008 poll on MSN she drew with Mario and Sonic as most iconic videogame character.

 

[rossatdi]

For one I'd argue that Lara Croft is as big a symbol of gaming as you can get outside of Mario.

In a 208 poll on MSN she drew with Mario and Sonic as most iconic videogame character.

Christ those characters have been around for ages!

But seriously, yeah, exactly. I certainly didn't play the original with any lust after angular lara.

 

[Sparrowsabre7]

Other popular female characters: Samus (admittedly the suit kind of skirts the issue here), Pokémon games allow for both genders, ditto most rpgs these days, Resident Evil games always feature a female protagonist or at least a partner of sorts and, whilst attractive, there's no particularly high amount of T+A about any of them (save RE3 Jill perhaps and Ada in RE4, though that's more sensual that slut =P)

 

[The_Anomaly]

i'll admit i only briefly scanned the paragraphs

but i thought i'd write something anyway...becuase i think its quite an interesting topic...

Male characters in games are there to be the hero, save mankind etc...its the same thing over and over but we love them anyway...because they have a nice sence of humour or a cool weapon..they manage to get the "likeability" factor...

Female characters are hardly looked at in the same way...most female characters are generally skinny,semi naked characters who may do the same things male characters, but people dont care because there too busy looking at how great she looks

im not applying that to ALL female characters but alot of them are.

not to be too cliche but look at Lara Croft, ive been a fan of the games since the begining but since they moved her to newer generation consoles shes got better looking. and i know we have better technology so she needs to look more realistic but how many male gamers out there play the game PURELY because they like the gameplay...not how great Lara looks in a pair of shorts.

You're forgetting about Blood Ranye, Samus Aran, etc.

 

[Axolotl]

Christ those characters have been around for ages!

But seriously, yeah, exactly. I certainly didn't play the original with any lust after angular lara.

Yeah those Roman's loved platformers, but they're games are still good (except sonic's).

Yeah I've played most of them and I never found myself filled with passion at the polygonal protagonist. And compare to an awful lot of female protagonists in most mediums having Lara Croft and Samus Aran as two of the most recognized female leads is fairly good.

 

[DiamondJack]

I'm going to be brutally honest with this one.

Games are about wish fulfillment. Do you wish you were an average slob who chokes in the face of danger? Do want to play a character with a six back, or one that can drink a six pack? Do you want to be a magnet to the opposite sex, a perfect specimen or somebody less then yourself?

Would you even believe the average slob could undertake a mission to save the world? I would certainly find that difficult to process; unattainable virtues, really? Lets just aim the bar low then, let's not aspire to anything, let's not educate ourselves or exercise because we can't be the very best so why bother? After all, obesity is a disease rite, and a disease is out of our hands, out of our control. Intelligence is just genetics; if you don't have it to begin with why bother reading your just wasting your time. This isn't the best response ever so I should just stop, but what if it's better then somebody else's? If that's the case I'd be repressing them with my words, making others feel bad.

You don't have the rite in Canada or the USA to be protected from being offended. If people are seriously concerned with the attributes of fictitious character they need to self reflect and ask why. Maybe if there's something in our lives within our control, that we don't like, we should work to change it.

It's way to easy in this society to sit back and point fingers, but you have the freedom to do so. That's what makes a free country a great country

 

[DiamondJack]

Honestly every single male I know (every one of my friends and major accuantances) that plays Tomb Raider plays it for the game play. The fact she's attractive is a nice bonous, after all who doesn't like looking at an attractive member of the opposite sex? Why do you think the first Tomb raider released on the PS2 was a flop? The gameplay sucked, and all the french characters she encountered were steriotypically snoody. Idios sacked core for screwing up the Tomb raider franchise one to many times. But hey, if all guys were doing was ogaling her body what would they care if the gameplay wasn't any good?

Would women find Dante attractive if he had a beer gut and hair all over his body? Do you even want to know how much Yaoi("boy love", gay porn written for girls)there is on the internet featuring Dante?

It's seriously a two may street here. The only difference is that sexuality in games doesn't bother me.

 

[DirkGently]

I find it kinda funny how deeply he looks into video games. I mean, I've got nothing against looking deeply into a game, I just would have chosen games that are, y'know, deep.