Are young girly boys, muscular soldiers and buxom women really that offensive?

[Halo Fanboy]

I am willing to admit that all of the above listed character types are very cliché, but it seems that that alone doesn?t justify the pure hate a game gets when one of the above is revealed to be the game protagonist. It?s hard not to feel annoyed when Gears of War gets bashed for its indulgence in unrelenting machismo or the fact that most of the people that hate X-blades but haven?t played it cite the obvious gripe.

Are the complaints about these archetypes shallow and narrow minded, or am I completely wrong and these types of protagonist should be abolished so that the industry can mature and evolve?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

They are not really offensive to me. They just show that there is a lack of vision and creative integrity in the industry.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

I believe I've said it before somewhere, but where are the Simon Pegg "Shaun of the Dead" protagonists? Testosterone lactating killing machines get old.

Tits are ok as long as it isn't the entire game. For real life examples, see any film starring Eva Mendes' breasts.

/mysogynism off

 

[Garla Mapit]

They are called cliche for a reason. It's like More Fun To Compute said, it shows a lack of imagination. It's boring. It's been done before. Sure, sometimes that's what we want. A game where we have enough muscles to rip a VW in half or a character who wouldn't be able to physically stand due to the weight on her chest, but those are more of the random fun indulgences to me. Like getting ice cream. It's a nice treat, but get it all the time and your just sick of it.

 

[teisjm]

I honestly doesn't care that much. I care a lot more about gameplay than the personality/physical appearence of the protangonist, since they're rarely that relevant.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

I honestly doesn't care that much. I care a lot more about gameplay than the personality/physical appearence of the protangonist, since they're rarely that relevant.

You've obviously never played Resident Evil 5. Or Army of Two.

 

[TheHorizon]

Where the hell did you hear someone calling it offensive?

Bad on self esteem/image? Yes.
Offensive? Not really...


"OH MAH GAWD U HAZ M0AR MUSCLES TH4N MEH!!!!! U O MEH 1 FR33 GYM P4SS!!!11!1!SHIFT!!!"

 

[teisjm]

I honestly doesn't care that much. I care a lot more about gameplay than the personality/physical appearence of the protangonist, since they're rarely that relevant.

You've obviously never played Resident Evil 5. Or Army of Two.

I've tried Army of two briefly at a friends, and isn't it basicly just a shooter like most other shooters where you shoot stuff?

Haven't tried resi 5, but I've played through resi 4 twice, and if they ressemble each other just a little, the protangonist isn't that important.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Depends on their personalities, or lack thereof. I can think of characters in all three cases that I like.

I would hesitate even to call such things cliche, because that term is vastly overused.

 

[kaziard]

from my experience, its never JUST baecause of those steriotypes, its more that the game has other, glaring problems and these are just laid ontop to finish of the flamage.

 

[NeedAUserName]

People only complain about them because of their sheer lack of originality.

 

[dmase]

I would like to thank that if there were space marines thats how they would be because real marines... hell national guard guys or at least some of them act like there the king shit. You have to have a bit of machoism to be in the miliary it like a law or your going to be the guy that everybody shuns, so aren't they being more realistic. Given not everybody that is in armed forces has arms that big and half of the nurses that treat those soldiers are going to have DDD, but the machoism is realistic.

 

[dontworryaboutit]

I honestly doesn't care that much. I care a lot more about gameplay than the personality/physical appearence of the protangonist, since they're rarely that relevant.

You've obviously never played Resident Evil 5. Or Army of Two.

I've tried Army of two briefly at a friends, and isn't it basicly just a shooter like most other shooters where you shoot stuff?

Haven't tried resi 5, but I've played through resi 4 twice, and if they ressemble each other just a little, the protangonist isn't that important.

The sheer amount of cinematics in both started to crush my soul. RE5 isn't populated with a single likable character, and having to hear them babble for indefinite periods of time made me want to tear out my hair (although I must admit at times the dialogue was unintentionally hilarious). But I suppose that may have just been me.

 

[teisjm]

I honestly doesn't care that much. I care a lot more about gameplay than the personality/physical appearence of the protangonist, since they're rarely that relevant.

You've obviously never played Resident Evil 5. Or Army of Two.

I've tried Army of two briefly at a friends, and isn't it basicly just a shooter like most other shooters where you shoot stuff?

Haven't tried resi 5, but I've played through resi 4 twice, and if they ressemble each other just a little, the protangonist isn't that important.

The sheer amount of cinematics in both started to crush my soul. RE5 isn't populated with a single likable character, and having to hear them babble for indefinite periods of time made me want to tear out my hair (although I must admit at times the dialogue was unintentionally hilarious). But I suppose that may have just been me.

that sound more like bad story to me

 

[Skeleon]

Gustaf Brackmann.
Literally a brain in a jar.
That's what I call a good character.

I don't really mind the stereotypical characters.
However, they mostly populate the more uninspired games which I stay away from anyway.
They'd rarely get a chance to annoy me.

 

[Vrex360]

I think it's really immature and it caters towards the 'horny thirteen year old' demographic a fair bit. Really I think games as an industry need to grow up with these sorts of things, because when blowhard politicians want to try to make a point that games are an immature medium they can point at something like this:

...and call it a day, thus it gives games a really bad reputation and only helps to convey the belief that all men think of as women is merely sex objects. Or as one guy phrased it:
"A woman is now only the body componant attactched to the breasts."

Now as for the men... being a tall, muscular braod shouldered man myself big men don't bother me and I think that if we are going to so openly sexualise women in games I think it would be very unfair not to showcase attractive men too.

That said if we just got rid of both... it would be very welcome by me.

 

[Yossarian90]

Im not offended by them, but its hard to relate to these characters. The buxom women you don't relate you just stare and look at your mate then go "Are those real?"
The muscle man tends to be an arrogant, one liner, action hero
and the young girly boys are just annoying sometimes

 

[Archemetis]

Hell, a small-chested leading female and an average built typical male would be welcome additions to any game in my opinion.

And that's gotta be something because I honestly love large breasts, but in games I'm just sick of seeing them.

Large breasts get on my nerves, because they serve no actual purpose in games besides "HEY LOOK! TITS!".

Muscular men have actually kind of annoyed me in games too, It's not so much that I don't appreciate muscles, no no, I'd like some myself one day, it's just that sometimes they're a bit overdone...
for example, Street Fighter IV or Resident Evil V.

And then the girly boys, which, it sounds a little generlistic/rascist but, If it comes from Japan, what else can we really expect?

and yes, it gets on my nerves as well...

 

[bjj hero]

Unoriginal, yes. If done properly though it can still be fun. Gameplay is key. Its only really offensive if you're insecure though. So what if the protagonist is massive and OD'd on testosterone and/or growth hormone? Its a fictional charecter.