Do we really want this?

[Eclectic Dreck]

From my personal perspective, I'd like to see more games where the female is built and garbed in a fashion that is congruous with her lifestyle. A piece of armor that protects the bust and leaves the midriff sides and neck exposed is simply an uncomfortable garment. Similarly, when I see those flimsy limbs, I am left wondering how they manage to swing the giant blade they wield. Most female models I've been shown look like they are in danger of passing out due to lack of adequate nutrition.

 

[Gill Kaiser]

Of course they are, its a cop out way to boost sales to those single nerdy types who ogle internet porn all day.

I'd probably describe myself as a single, nerdy type, yet I think that subtlety and class is sexy, and most of the above sexualisation of women is lazy and tacky.

 

[The_Deleted]

As a lesbian, I feel I can comment from both points of view.

I don't like the over-sexualisation of women in games. I find examples like the above more off-putting than attractive, as well as a reinforcement of the stereotype that all gamers are men, and all men are slobbering neanderthals.

For one thing - women simply don't look like that. Particularly in the second picture (is that Nina from Tekken? I'm not sure) - boobs simply cannot be that enormous and pert. You will never see a woman with a rack that large and buoyant. It's ridiculous.

Which video games on the whole, tend to be.
It's not exclusive to CGI these days either with all the photoshopped bimbos gurning out of magazines. For all the fuss, we buy into it without even realising it sometimes.
I'd sooner see an some fantasy in my gaming than some ridiculous adherence to what is realistically acceptable. I want my women unattainable, my heroes... well, more like Drake, to be honest than the tosser in Gears of Wars and my robots fuck off huge and transforming.
I think it's gone past the point of sexism to just being, at best, an artistic conceit or, at worst, a go to stereotype.
And let's be honest, nothing is more sexist and unreasonable than the fashion / lifestyle magazine industry, so we don't do too bad. Atleast we know it's ridiculous.

 

[GotMalkAvian]

First off, let me start by stating the painfully obvious: Sex sells. Always has. Probably always will.
Scantily-clad women are nothing new to the entertainment genre. Hell, let's go back a few decades in the fantasy genre; an old fantasy standard is the fully-armored male knight fighting next to a female warrior wearing armor that covers roughly .000001% of her body. Yet people (mostly male) have eaten this up for years, and it shows no sign of stopping.
Oh, and to the people saying that males are just as sexualized, thanks for the laugh. I don't know a single woman who finds the cartoon characters in games like Gears of War attractive. Unfortunately, exaggerated male characters are designed to appeal to males, too. Most of the women I know would rather see more realistic-looking males like Ezio.

*removes his hat and bows his head in anxious preparation for his brain slug*

 

[Battenbergcake]

Seriously how could EPIC get away with such scandalous full frontasl nudity in Gears of war?
(also how does one mask an image with a spoiler warning for those who might not want to see, something i cna't find out how to do.)

 

[Veleste]

To be honest, do you really want to play a game as an unattractive person? What I've seen is that the over sexualisation of a female character does more harm to the game than good. How much ridicule have you seen X Blades receive for it's ridiculous main character? Many games reach success without sexualised characters - Mirror's Edge comes to mind for some reason - and it seems to be a trend games are moving away from - thankfully - in all areas except fighters but little victories I guess.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

To be honest, it's more the audience's fault than the developers. Take Oblivion for example. The female armours are practicaly the same as the male ones; incredibly unrevealing, armour that would actually work as armour. However, Oblivion having such a large modding community there are countless mods to change them, remove the underwear, give the women thongs, etc. It's practically impossible to find good female clothing mods.

Even when a developer doesn't cave to the virgin boys, people will mod it.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

As a woman, i like beatyuful digital girls. I know they are not real, and hope most people too. And if there are "objects" of fantasy, then its ok. They aren´t real, so there have no feelings to be hurt, becaus some gamers use them for aerm.."hand-work."

Think the 3rd pic of the first post might catch a cold. Thats too naked for me. Looks like a pornstar wearing a fantasy-outfit.

but what bothers me most are the real girls. americas/germanys/________-next topmodel, these thin (anorectic) joung women, whose only job is looking good and being a living hallstand.
And that many girls want to be like them. That almost every woman-magazine is full of diet-tips. This bodyimage is like a virus and it hinders much women to get normal self esteem (only loose 10 punds, then i will be better looking, attractive etc)

Im from germany, so this might be a predjudice, but appearantly beauty contests are much common. If i see little girls dressed as women, i feel disapproval.

No one should only be measured on appearance. but this is utopian.

i can highly agree to this, but where im from, for the most part, your either

A) pretty damn skinny and obviously you work on your physique more than the average person world wide.

or

B) you are a fat slob who straight up doesn't give a fuck and basically fits the tom boy style

(yes yes i know, stereotypes are bad, but im not even kidding, its either butch mcgee or skinny gym girl)

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I've covered this topic in a some of my blogs. This is a problem we have had in every form of art or entertainment. it seems the moment mankind invents something or an art form we have found to use it in pornography or make pornography with it.

Now sensuality and nudity have been done in a tasteful ways before, but at the moment we have seen so much that the suply is greater then then demand. We see so much we are now desensitized, to this type of content, so we have to go bigger and more blatant.

However now its getting to the point where it is too much and all but the horniest of us are getting annoyed by this. I can appreciated beauty when I see it, but but not like this.

Since Yuna is overplayed in this area, I'll go for DMC's lady.

DMC3: While the school girl outfit and the occasional shown mid-drift is there for fetish fuel, and she is an attractive young girl. However I saw her as more of a strong young woman, who was willing to play rough with the big boys and kick ass with the best of them.

Go to number 4 and we have a girl in short shorts that are so small that they are practicable little boy undies, and apparently nothing underneath that shirt that is already halfway done bursting apart. While her chest hangs more realistic then most video game females, she has gone from a key plot device and major character, to only being there for a few brief moments for the a minor plot device and some pans at her cleavage and butt.

That is what we got.

Plus some girls are not helping things much either

while i can agree with the beginning part of your post, what is so wrong with those pics? it basically shows that those characters CAN be realistic and that girls aren't as fat as we realistically try and make them out to be sometimes

point taken. I've seen skimpier outfits, this might be a better one:

fair enough, i was just saying 3 out of the 5 last girls i dated could easily pull that look off realistically (they had natural huge boobs, and were decently skinny enough), however none of them were gamers so they did not dress like that for me =\

 

[I Max95]

crystal dynamics is trying
but is this much better

Spoiler

That is the new lara croft and shes said to be more sensitive and she has lost all her combat training

 

[Saint of M]

is it just me, or does the new Laura look hotter?

 

[etherlance]

O.O What game be that from?

Lineage 1 or 2 I think.

 

[etherlance]

Greetings and salutations fellow victims of the brain slug, your kind slave master has once again come before you to quell your feeble attempts at an uprising with a topic of discussion that has bothered me for many a moon now.


I am a Man, a Guy, a Male, a Dude, a Brother and as such I like Females, Girls, Women, Ladies........well moving on to the point.

I have seen for a time now that the game industry has picked up on this point and over the years has provided us guys with a smorgasbord of cute/sexy female characters to oogle at in games..........

But have they gone too far?

In many games now, particularly MMORPG's there has been a massive influx of overly sexualised female characters put on show.

Now For obvious reasons I cannot speak for female gamers but I actually look at these giant breasted pole dancers parading as knights/mages/thiefs and I feel a deep sense of shame in my stomach......though that could be the brain slug larvae entering the final stages of gestation.


I took my opinion over to YouTube where I was met with extreme hostility to this matter.
My favorite comment came in this flavour:

"You stupid little mangina. Someone should have stabed your ***** mother when you were inside her womb, so you would not be here doing your shit now. Kill yourself, you pathetic mangina slave".

(This comment was made by a 27 year old man I might add)

But to end this topic I'd like to hear your opinions on this matter, are female characters overly sexualised in games and what can/should we do about it??

One free brain slug shall be delivered to the first few lucky people to comment on this subject..........The brain slug demands it!!!

Females are oversexualized everywhere. Have you never seen porn?

Yes I have seen porn.......but I'm talking about girls in video games not girls in sexual adult videos.

There's something of a slight difference between them.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

To be honest, it's more the audience's fault than the developers. Take Oblivion for example. The female armours are practicaly the same as the male ones; incredibly unrevealing, armour that would actually work as armour. However, Oblivion having such a large modding community there are countless mods to change them, remove the underwear, give the women thongs, etc. It's practically impossible to find good female clothing mods.

Even when a developer doesn't cave to the virgin boys, people will mod it.

That's what annoys me about the high and mighty declaration that gamers don't want skimpy armour; we as a group blatantly do because that's all we bloody well make. Oblivion was one of the few games where I could make a female character and actually have them look halfway competent but I've never found any tasteful female armours on the Nexus. It annoys me because there's some real potential for tasteful, characterful armours in that game but no one will make them.

I completely agree, I just thought I'd mention the Sonja armour from Underworld is on the Nexus, if you hadn't got it already. I can't really think of any others. It's full of stupid anime armours.

 

[VanityGirl]

You expected kindness on YouTube?

But honestly, games with a "sexy" female will sell more. Just like games with sex in them will sell more copies. It's the ebb and flow of games.

Do I find it slightly weird when I see a girl with a bit of string covering her nipples? Or course! Does it surprise me? ... Sadly no.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Yes, many female characters are oversexualized.

And I, for one, appreciate it completely. More, please!