Big Boobs- why do people complain?

[Sarah Frazier]

- a bit of snipping-

Oh. My. God. Those women... Those breasts don't look right at such a size, and them bulging veins... *something pops and smoke comes out of her ears*

I seriously can't think of a response to anything else in this thread after that...

 

[Steve Fidler]

um actually physical attractiveness isnt magnified amongst both genders. just think of the amount of male game characters who have ugliness as their dominant physical characteristic

to me it isnt unlike ads that focus on a girls ass or boobs, to sell a product that has nothing to do with either. you wanna argue that they are harmless, fine. but then explain to me your theory of why they appear on the majority of video game females

if you want to keep big boobs then lets at least make it even. make the majority of male characters with their dick practically busting out of their pants and have it bounce around with each step

I'd like to see some examples of ugly male characters, lead or otherwise, who aren't intentionally ugly for the purpose of storyline (Such as Mr Hide in Dr Jekyll)

For any male characters you find that are average (as in my example of Gordon Freeman) they would need to possess no Above Average feats of ability. Gordon Freeman is a highly intelligent scientist, a crack shot, and strong enough to bludgeon armored foes with a crowbar. Even if he isn't the sexiest male (which is actually is to a lot of people), he is still above average.

 

[Doctor What]

Most of the time it's because they hurt and cause back problems.

But for me, it's because they are nowhere near me.

A very philosophical answer, no?

 

[redstar alpha]

Well from a personal stand point they are a turn off in the real world and in a game they just break my suspension of disbelief because, come on, no women has ever had breast that large and been anything other than a regular visitor to the doctors for back pain.

I like my eye candy as much as the next man (or women) but I think we should really try and grow up a little.

 

[Zakarath]

It bothers me because it makes the game feel as though it is just pandering to juvenile male teens.

 

[beeejay]

In some cases it seems completely silly and adds nothing to the overall value of the game. But mostly it feels like the developers are going, "see, see look she has big boobs, dont you love her? Come on you filthy pig, look doesnt that turn you on! Now buy my game".

Okay that might be a bit of hyperbole but my point is that the character designs are so blatenly designed to try to turn me on. Eye candy is great but this is not making a good image for the industry.
Finally I think that this problem is mostly going away and in a few more years it will level out a bit.

 

[Steve Fidler]

Male Characters who fit the Overly Attractive or otherwise Above Average Ability type:

Spoiler: Dante from Devil May Cry

Spoiler: Kratos from God of War

Spoiler: Jim Raynor from StarCraft

Spoiler: Marcus Fenix from Gears of War

Spoiler: Hawke from Dragon Age 2

Spoiler: Commander Shepard from Mass Effect

Spoiler: Uh, Niko Beliic? or something from Grand Theft Auto 4

These are the most 'Realistic' games that have been released over the last little while. I realize that the majority of them treat their female characters in the same way, which is just fine, as I stated in my initial post.

Spoiler

Men in video games are most often portrayed in the light that women would find them attractive, and men would find them 'awesome' (just another word for male-male attraction.)

Women portrayed in video games are of like mind. Bigger breasts are more attractive, this is evolution. Bigger Breasts = Greater Fertility = More Babies = Men Want.

Video Games are also, for the most part, about fantasy. Running and gunning down Flood and Covenant isn't something we do in real life, but we enjoy doing it in Halo because its fulfilling a fantasy and it's fun to do. The focus on a game is to make it enjoyable. Since (likely, I don't really want to google statistics for this) most men enjoy larger breasts, larger breasts improve the enjoyability of games. Just because this isn't the case for some people, doesn't mean it isn't the case for the overwhelming majority. Even characters like Nova/Kerrigan from StarCraft have abnormally perfect breasts, and tight bodies that are extremely flattering. A game that has very little focus on the individual characters and more on the whole scope. Do you think Kerrigan would be a more identifiable character if she had all the traits considered negative by the viewing public? Just because she is more in-line with the statistically average "Realistic" woman? Average weight, unstyled brown hair, possibly a bit of upper lip hair and a much less refined and non-seductive ass wiggle when she walks.

I agree that imperfect characters make better characters in any Story based medium (Books, Movies, Games, etc.) but physically imperfect characters are not always the way to go about it. Yes, Alyx (Half-Life 2) is a great character. She is much more plain, much more boring than the typical female character. She is imperfect in many ways other than her average-below average breast size. But do you not think her tight jeans, adorable freckles, and interesting hairstyle were choices made by the artist/designer to compensate for her otherwise drab appearance. It wasn't an available choice for them to make her an over-the-top sex icon, because the Half-Life world is gritty, chaotic, and drab. The characters need to be, too. Gordon Freeman isn't your typical male character, either.

The Sims is an example of the player being in control of how their characters work, and I have never seen someone make a flawed, average looking character in The Sims 3, because the options just aren't there to do it. Yeah, you can make your character fatter, and shorter, or thinner, and taller, but you can't make them overly obese, you can't make them anorexic. You can't give them bad teeth, a lisp, or any level of deformity. The artists and developers specifically left that out, because it wouldn't be used; and if it were to be used it would be out of irony and interest in how ugly you could make a character.

I've lost where I was going with this...

It's unrealistic because it should be unrealistic. Characters in video-games are Above Average individuals, that is the point.

Obviously, if you go back, there are Cartoony games that used flawed and otherwise below average characters, like Leisure Suit Larry and Dink Smallwood, but that was for comedic effect and set the tone of the game. Games that pander themselves as "Realistic" are driven towards barrel chested, chiseled, or otherwise bad-ass male characters just as often as they are towards tight assed, large breasted, pouty lipped female characters.

 

[Axolotl]

Why do people complain about Big Boobs in games?

Because it's a sign of blatent pandering that's a sign of immaturity and ageneral lack of real depth.

 

[Koski]

I don't like them in games because they're usually used on women who look completely disproportionate to said woman's body. For big boobs to look good on a woman, they need to be balanced out by the rest of the body. Which is why women with a thinner build should not have large basketballs sticking out from their chest.

For larger boobs to look good, the rest of the body needs to balance it out. Not to mention, do you have any idea how much they'd get in the way? Purely logically speaking, Ivy would have some serious lower-back problems, not to mention running around fighting with those things and no sports bra? Yikes. Ow.

I think it's a little ridiculous to assume people can actually fight with those volleyballs. I have relatively small boobs, by they still get in the way of exercising.

 

[Eldarion]

Big boobs are just a shallow way of making a female character attractive. It takes real effort to make a hot small chested female character.

Blazblue knows what I'm talking about.

I'm not into large breasted women anyway, I look for nice legs and a pleasing shape. Noel is two for two.

 

[Steve Fidler]

Big boobs are just a shallow way of making a female character attractive. It takes real effort to make a hot small chested female character.

Blazblue knows what I'm talking about.
picture

I'm not into large breasted women anyway, I look for nice legs and a pleasing shape. Noel is two for two.

So long, slender legs, perfect skin, always styled hair, a cute outfit and big beautiful eyes aren't a shallow way of making a character attractive?

Not the mention the broadest shoulders I have ever seen, holy crap.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Why do people complain about Big Boobs in games? I seriously want to know. I have heard several answers, but the ones I have heard don't make sense. I will list the ones I have heard below, and my responses to them. If you have an opinion that I don't list, please, list it below.
6. Complaint: I believe big boobs are a crutch game designers use to support bad games!

Response: Excellent writing and character development are also crutches game developers use to support bad gameplay. Text adventure games are a pretty good example. That doesn't justify hating excellent writing, character development, and overall narrative.

7. Complaint: "Because idealised men are designed to appeal to men, whereas idealised women are also designed to appeal to men, which is not fair."

Response: If there is a lack of fanservice to women, that is a serious problem. It doesn't mean that fanservice for men is morally wrong, which is why I didn't understand the objections to big breasts in games, but it is still a big issue that game designer don't seem to be consistently interested in providing fan service for both genders. Also, female protagonist design should also primarily be designed to create characters that woman want to play as. I am not trying to argue that most or half of female video game characters should have larger than average breasts, just as not all male characters have huge muscles, not all female characters need huge boobs.

8. Complaint: "because it is not realistic for a very athlethetic woman to have them, it breaks immersion."

Response: Another good point I have no real solution for, other than to say that for games where immersion matters, it should be reserved for characters who aren't extremely athlethic, assuming the game developer wants to do it at all.

6. Your argument is fallacious by comparing big boobs to character development. Writing is not a crutch for a game; it is development for a game. If you honestly think that in the year 2011 good gameplay makes up for shitty writing and empty characters, then I have no reason to listen to anything you have to say. And if you honestly think that big boobs contribute to a videogame, then you are defending a fetish and nothing more.

7. Big boobs to me makes the game feel immature and childish. To me having big boobs in a game is condescending to gamers and feeds into a negative stereotype.

8. Big boobs =/= nice boobs. and girls who weigh 120lbs rarely have DDs.

 

[valleyshrew]

Large breasts are appropriate in a game where motherhood is explored. Not in fighting games. I do hate the hypocrisy about it though. It's actually the norm to have large breasts now (mostly due to obesity). Intelligence should be a much more favoured trait and defines the character much more deeply than physical appearance.

 

[Steve Fidler]

Large breasts are appropriate in a game where motherhood is explored. Not in fighting games. I do hate the hypocrisy about it though. It's actually the norm to have large breasts now (mostly due to obesity). Intelligence should be a much more favoured trait and defines the character much more deeply than physical appearance.

How do you intend to develop a characters intelligence in a fighting game? Please, elaborate on that.

 

[Mudze]

Because I prefer small breasts. It's really that simple for me. Large breasts make me physically nauseous. They're unwieldy, useless, they look like the person's been ill for months, stretched.

Blech.

 

[Eldarion]

Big boobs are just a shallow way of making a female character attractive. It takes real effort to make a hot small chested female character.

Blazblue knows what I'm talking about.
picture

I'm not into large breasted women anyway, I look for nice legs and a pleasing shape. Noel is two for two.

So long, slender legs, perfect skin, always styled hair, a cute outfit and big beautiful eyes aren't a shallow way of making a character attractive?

Not the mention the broadest shoulders I have ever seen, holy crap.

She is standing at an angle, but back on topic. I think "perfect skin" doesn't count. She is an anime character, everyone in that game has perfect skin.

To answer your question, its a lot less shallow than just putting huge breasts on the girl. I mean thats kinda the entire point of Noel's visual design, so prove that a fighting game character can be attractive in other ways. The exact same game has Litchi who is basically there to make fun of the large breasted trend.

 

[RelexCryo]

Why do people complain about Big Boobs in games? I seriously want to know. I have heard several answers, but the ones I have heard don't make sense. I will list the ones I have heard below, and my responses to them. If you have an opinion that I don't list, please, list it below.
6. Complaint: I believe big boobs are a crutch game designers use to support bad games!

Response: Excellent writing and character development are also crutches game developers use to support bad gameplay. Text adventure games are a pretty good example. That doesn't justify hating excellent writing, character development, and overall narrative.

7. Complaint: "Because idealised men are designed to appeal to men, whereas idealised women are also designed to appeal to men, which is not fair."

Response: If there is a lack of fanservice to women, that is a serious problem. It doesn't mean that fanservice for men is morally wrong, which is why I didn't understand the objections to big breasts in games, but it is still a big issue that game designer don't seem to be consistently interested in providing fan service for both genders. Also, female protagonist design should also primarily be designed to create characters that woman want to play as. I am not trying to argue that most or half of female video game characters should have larger than average breasts, just as not all male characters have huge muscles, not all female characters need huge boobs.

8. Complaint: "because it is not realistic for a very athlethetic woman to have them, it breaks immersion."

Response: Another good point I have no real solution for, other than to say that for games where immersion matters, it should be reserved for characters who aren't extremely athlethic, assuming the game developer wants to do it at all.

6. Your argument is fallacious by comparing big boobs to character development. Writing is not a crutch for a game; it is development for a game. If you honestly think that in the year 2011 good gameplay makes up for shitty writing and empty characters, then I have no reason to listen to anything you have to say. And if you honestly think that big boobs contribute to a videogame, then you are defending a fetish and nothing more.

7. Big boobs to me makes the game feel immature and childish. To me having big boobs in a game is condescending to gamers and feeds into a negative stereotype.

8. Big boobs =/= nice boobs. and girls who weigh 120lbs rarely have DDs.

I never said character development = breast size. I never said the two were equally important. Moreover, I never implied that either. I also didn't say that gameplay makes up for bad writing/narrative. I said some games, particularly text adventure games, try to comphensate for bad gameplay with superb writing. My point was that something that is used to comphensate for a weak point of a game is not inherently bad, simply because some designers use it as a crutch.