Are sexualised women in games insulting to male audiences too?

[theriddlen]

Whaaa? Of course not!

I like girls, so having them in games is a pleasure. As long as one is not a insecure, problematic idiot with issues, he won't have problems with it.

 

[ranasan]

I find it obnoxious when they have such a completly unlikabe character and they try to justify her being there by using her gigantic cleavage.

 

[cikame]

I haven't played those games either.

I do enjoy seeing how Lara Croft becomes more detailed with each game but not to the point where i buy the game because of it, for example i skipped Underworld because the demo was pretty bad.
I enjoy a good looking woman, in any format, if Trip or Elika (Enslaved, Prince of Persia) were standard stocky unfit mums i probably wouldn't have cared about their journeys.

Also, as a final note, don't look only at games. Hollywood actors and actresses are all good looking for a reason, good looking people make better entertainment than us normal people.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

When it's overt, yes. Feels like the devs are saying "you play games? Poor bastard, here's some titties, and if it's any consolation, they're better than the ones you'll never see IRL. Sorry about you never knowing the loving touch of a woman and all that, but if the stuff he creates is any indication, our renderer is strongly sympathetic to your plight."

I can't help but feel like they'd be awestruck if they saw the girl I'm going to be taking out tonight; not because she's out of my league, but because I'm getting any action at all. I don't mind being underestimated, since it gives me a chance to make people eat their words, but it's another thing altogether to buy a product and have the manufacturers transparently state their expectations for you to be a lonely basement-dweller that doesn't have any hang-ups about furiously masturbating to a polygonal over-idealization of the female form.

 

[loc978]

Insulting? Nah. If I got insulted every time someone made a ridiculously blatant attempt to sell me something I don't want, I'd have an aneurysm within the first month. Marketing with sex has become so artless as to appear to be a self-parody in my eyes.
I do find it baffling that some people actually fall for such transparent marketing ploys, though.

**edit**
also, of the games listed by the OP, the only franchise I've played a game from is DOA (aside from Ninja Gaiden, but I've only played that for NES, where there are no tits)... and only #2 for the PS2. It's definitely an over-the-top, unbalanced fighting game... and the men are presented as badly as the women.

 

[Rachel317]

I think if she's not JUST a set of tits, then it's slightly better.
This is from a girl's point of view, so maybe I'm not qualified to comment, but I always thought sexuality targeted at men was sexist in the sense that it's debasing males to a very basic element of their personality and they assume that ALL guys will ONLY play games if the girl is highly sexualised.

I don't deny that that there are guys out there who WILL play just for the boobs (I'm looking at the main target audience of Bayonetta and the like, here, even though she was a fantastic protagonist) but girls are JUST as sexual as guys (studies have found females respond to sexual images just as quickly as men - don't ask for a link, I was linked through a cracked.com article and don't remember which one - they don't market guys with their penises (peni?) out to women, even though women are sexual creatures too. Reeks of double standards. Not that anyone would want to see a naked dude in games (although don't get me wrong, it DOES happen, and it still strikes me as being wrong)...

But yeah, OP, I can see why you'd find it offensive! It's a very simplistic marketing ploy and degrades men in terms of males being seen as ONLY interested in the boob age.

 

[Phuctifyno]

Yes.

 

[CarlMin]

To answer the question in question. Yes.

 

[Xaio30]

Of course it is insulting! If a game has a great story etc. and then all of a sudden a pair of enormous boobs show up, I would lose all my respect for the designers behind the game!

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well it is kinda an insult to my intelligence, or at least I think it is. I don't even like slutty looking big titted women anyway.

 

[GeorgW]

It's insulting to humanity. And they don't only do it to women

 

[can't-think]

I don't care really, most male characters are also stereotypically good looking so it goes both ways.

 

[PrimoThePro]

It loses immersion for me. I dislike that in a game. And yes, it's a cheap trick to get sales.

 

[ABLb0y]

Thats another reason i hate Bayonetta.

 

[Bolleman]

Well... I wouldn't say I'm insulted, stuff like that doesn't get to me in that way. But I have to agree that seeing a game using large breasts as a way of marketing makes me very very sad.

And I actually disagree, I don't think sex sells as often as one might think. Like X-blades, Achuidowhatever bikini samurai squad, I will admit that the use of tits has made me a bit interested in them, but games cost way to much to be bought by for that reason alone. There are so many other variables to be counted into a game that tits can very rarely make up for. I have actually tried X-blades, it was shit.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I don't really care. If a game is good I don't care whether it has tits or not. Neither do tits influence my purchase.

 

[Darkauthor81]

I find it insulting. I'm here to be told a story, no matter the medium that's being used. Just because I like anime and video games doesn't mean I'm the perpetually single sexually frustrated social misanthrope that producers assume I am.

Which is why I don't like most anime as well. Since they always put "someone an anime fan can relate to" as the main character. Which is always some whiny, sexually repressed guy with a heart of gold that the women see and are attracted to.... Makes me wanna puke. No I don't relate to them, in fact they piss me off.

I met a guy like this in the real world. He use to be really overweight but now he's skinny and pretty, and convinced that he's not. So he lived in a self absorbed world convinced no girl likes him even though I see girls checking him out CONSTANTLY. Oh how much I wanted to punch the emo out of him.

 

[AngloDoom]

Assuming all men like giant tits and big asses in video games is almost (if not just as) bad as making all women out to be overly sexual tramps. However, as it is insulting to assume all men are like this, it's been proven that a lot do in fact like it and will continually go pay for absolute shit even if there is a hint of nudity.

Yeah, it may not apply to everyone, but it applies to enough that it makes the game developers continue to use it over and over and over to sell more games.

This is pretty much an /thread repose, I must say.

It is indeed insulting, patronising most men as if to say "you'll jump at the first thing that has an ass". The problem is that most men will...and not just at games.

 

[Dwarfman]

I never buy games with half naked, "sexy" women in them because those games usually look terrible to me. Not to mention I don't find cartoons sexy... Except Jessica Rabbit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy5THitqPBw

Hmmmm....gigggidy giiggggidyyyyyyy