I acknowledge the fact that not all games have oversexualized female characters, like the girls in the games by Valve, the protagonist in Mirrors Edge, among others. However, I really dislike games that do include such oversexed bimbos who I cannot like or relate to in any way.
Extra Credit covered this topic splendidly in a previous video, I advise you to take a look.
That probably wasn't actually a 27-year old. You know how YouTube restricts certain videos to people who aren't registered as 18 or older? Yeah, the kiddos have come up with an ingenious way around that. LYING!
Anyways, this is partly why I never played females in MMOs, because I couldn't, and no one else could, take my character seriously when she was in a chain mail bikini.
tawmus said:
For MMO's particularly you are gonna be staring at your character's ass for untold hours. It better be a nice one.
I suppose, as players we could just not buy these games, make a political statement .. but then again I'd get bored fast.. and i'm sure all of you would too.
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
All that needs to be said, by the Extra Credits guys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ZVZRsy8N8
As for my own thoughts, as a male: it's tiring. Turn it down a notch, seriously. How juvenile and inconsiderate can you get? Males. Females. People, characters. We need to evolve a little.
If nearly every single female character in movies had huge boobs and wore revealing outfits all the time, you wouldn't think that could be considered a problem?
If nearly every single female character in movies had huge boobs and wore revealing outfits all the time, you wouldn't think that could be considered a problem?
Occasionally if they get too over-the-top I don't like it, but girls with cleavage and sexy outfits really don't bother me. Besides, girls get plenty of good-looking men anyway. I mean, one of the best things about Fable 3 for me was the abundance of attractive male characters. (Though only 1 was a potential marriage partner)
Trust me, girls get a fair amount of eye candy. Maybe not as obviously as some of the ladies in games, but we have it.
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)
Wow, man. Mangina slave? I don't even know what that is. So angry... leave the angst to the tweens, pops. (Don't be offended, older people... I'm only a couple years younger than that angry man)
OT: We probably do... just, some of us might not want to say it.
Well. This is going to be a reply, somewhat in two parts/views.
It's not bad that girls in games are shown to be cute/attractive. Neither is it bad if guys are shown to be attractive/handsome.
However, it does get a bit..sad, I suppose, when all the female characters seem to have a breast size minimum of somewhere around D or DD. It just makes me want to shake my head in shame. If that's the only way a game can get sales is because of 'teh hawt gurls' is pretty bad in itself, and shows that the game might not be that great.
Back to my first point, it's not bad if a few girls have large breasts. That's what I like to call 'realism'. Out in the world, not everyone has a flat chest, or a chest that looks like inflatable beach balls. Some girls are flat chested, some girls have 'beach ball' breasts.
Now I do know that games usually aren't supposed to be realistic, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't dismiss it as a pointless opinion. In a sense, I wonder what games would be like if all the females had those aforementioned 'beach ball' breasts and if guys had muscles the size of a basketball. Would this make gamers self-conscience about themselves? Or would it make people strive to match those appearances?
Personally, I don't think it'd be possible to attain either appearance without some outside assistance. But if it leads to gamers getting out, exercising, and losing weight to make themselves look better in general? Then maybe that's something that I'd want to happen.
Albeit, it could make a turn for the worse. In an extreme case, of course..I mean, not everyone would do it...right?
I mean..If some people try to attain that video game standard, then realized it couldn't be achieved without spending money they may or may not have, it could lead to those people neglecting their body even further, secluding themselves from society, in that aforementioned extreme case, the people could take their own lives due to not being able to meet the said 'video game standard'.
But no one would ever do that. I, as a generally kind person, wouldn't want that to happen to anybody.
To sum it up, girls in games CAN look all curvy and big-chested, and it not being a problem. Can all girls in games look that way? No, it could make people think falsely that those looks should be everywhere when they not. Guys, as well, can look all buff and manly and it not be a problem, as long as it's not over-kill by manly buff-ness.
My own opinion not relating to the above self-opinion:
Why do I seem like one of the few guys who like those 'subtly' cute girls? Like the ones who may have a small-ish chest but make up for it with how they act? Girls that fall under that category includes fully clothed women. Not all girls have to go next to nude to be found attractive (in games at least. No real girl should go nude to attract people..I'd hope not). And speaking of which..I like the RE5 Jill. She looks so cool..Like she's ready to kick ass and...kick ass. Which she generally does.
If nearly every single female character in movies had huge boobs and wore revealing outfits all the time, you wouldn't think that could be considered a problem?
No, but gaming is using the same tactic as Hollywood and advertisements for years.
The reason they use sexy ladies? Because guys like good looking women. We associate good looking women with our fantasies, specifically the baser ones leaning towards sexuality. We associate Sex with good.
If you have enough advertisements with sexy ladies in it, somewhere some way, men will associate it with that brand.
This isn't some liberal feminist theology; its basic Pavlovian psychology, and it works.
The same is with video games (as seen with some sales of games that will not be mentioned becasue they have already been alot already). It doesn't matter how bad the game is, people will by it for the boobies.
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)
That seriously made me laugh out loud. Sounds like a youtube comment alright! I bet the asshole who typed that screamed "YEAH!" and punched the enter button...then crushed a beer can he just chugged on his forehead.
Anyway, yes, I agree, but I think it's less about making money though(as some people here are saying), and more about who is making the games. Realistically do you think there is a bigger boob division at most game studios? Nope.
The fact is, most game developers are young men, and young men like boobs. And they're taking their queues of what is awesome from their childhood and what has come before (i.e. Heavy Metal, Masters of the Universe, etc)
The picture examples that were given are pretty extreme too. Personally I can't find that sexy and I don't know anybody who does. If you look at one of those misshapen women and go "waaaaaa....she's so beautiful!" then we have nothing in common.
The closest thing to sexy in a game in my opinion is Alyx Vance from Half Life 2, because she was realistically proportioned, and her character had a cool personality. And clothes.
Yeah I neglected to mention those pictures were a few examples of overly sexualised women.
I agree with the Alyx Vance example, also females like fem shepherd in mass effect are well done too.
ME2 let's the female Shepard have lesbian relationships, but male Shepard can't have gay relationships. I think it's a deep seated nerdy obsession with objectifying pretty, unreachable women (although most straight guys do it). I don't mind since they are games after all, but some originality with the female gender would be appreciated; it's either "She's the baddest chick out there, has monster tits and doesn't take crap from anyone" OR "She is the most useless women out there, she whimpers and hides behind the male protagonist and has monster tits, she can heal you though..."
I want game developers to keep making attactive female characters, I just don't like the idea that in certain games a male character may wear a suit of heavy armour and look like a real warrior ready to kill.
While a female character will wear the same armour but look like some kind of crossbreed between a pole dancer, a porn actress, a bikini model and a bucket of scrap metal all rolled into one wierd hybrid of tits, metal and arse.
These developers should keep the females realistic to fit in with the scene the game is set in.
ME2 let's the female Shepard have lesbian relationships, but male Shepard can't have gay relationships. I think it's a deep seated nerdy obsession with objectifying pretty, unreachable women (although most straight guys do it). I don't mind since they are games after all, but some originality with the female gender would be appreciated; it's either "She's the baddest chick out there, has monster tits and doesn't take crap from anyone" OR "She is the most useless women out there, she whimpers and hides behind the male protagonist and has monster tits, she can heal you though..."
Well I'm not really going into sexual orientation and such in this topic, though you do have a good point there (may make another topic about that later down the line).
But yeah the females are usually put into one of those mind sets, hardarse or bimbo usually both with double G cups barely covered by a small bit of fabric.
ME2 let's the female Shepard have lesbian relationships, but male Shepard can't have gay relationships. I think it's a deep seated nerdy obsession with objectifying pretty, unreachable women (although most straight guys do it). I don't mind since they are games after all, but some originality with the female gender would be appreciated; it's either "She's the baddest chick out there, has monster tits and doesn't take crap from anyone" OR "She is the most useless women out there, she whimpers and hides behind the male protagonist and has monster tits, she can heal you though..."
Well I'm not really going into sexual orientation and such in this topic, though you do have a good point there (may make another topic about that later down the line).
But yeah the females are usually put into one of those mind sets, hardarse or bimbo usually both with double G cups barely covered by a small bit of fabric.
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