Female attractiveness in gaming, how far is acceptable?

[Soxafloppin]

Attractiveness isn't an issue really, If you create something generally you want it to look nice.

I think the hilariously massive tits can go though.

 

[crimson sickle2]

There is no limit to how attractive any character can be. That said, interms of exploitation, because that's what this has turned into, how appearances are presented should mimic or play a part into how the character actually is. I don't mean the bad guys are ugly and the good are beautiful. I mean appearances should be used by either the designer or the character to further some goal if possible, not just eye candy. I'm completely fine if the evil witch character wears revealing clothing if she uses it to seduce people to her side, I'm not okay with the noble hero fighting the demon lord to wear a chainmail bikini unless she uses similar tactics as the witch or has some weird character traits. Context plays a part, but "it's a different, weird universe" doesn't work unless every aspect is changed. In an average fantasy world's case, where most guys look like Metal Gears with swords and the girls look like they're going to a beach, it doesn't work, but in Conan's case it does because the guy is wearing about the same if not less.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

As MovieBob once said in one of his Big Picture videos, it's not so much about attractiveness as it is about how that attractiveness it presented. As in most female characters in video games exist primarily as eye candy for 13 year old heterosexual males and are thus presented and posed as though they're a lingerie model on stage. ...either that or a mcguffin princess with no brains to speak of.
Here's Bob's video, he words it much better than me.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/4719-Gender-Games

 

[Erttheking]

Who the fuck cares?

You don't see women having this debate, cause most gamers don't care, especially the women. Women see impossibly sexy women all the time in advertising geared for them . Women have been bombarded by impossibly high standards of beauty since advertisement was created.

This conversation is always had by men, and usually men whose own experience with women is substandard.
It almost always degenerates into one huge circlejerk, with people slinging around words they don't understand, and bringing in philosophical concepts that nobody cares about, when the everybody knows the answer already:
Girls in games are going to be as hot as the people playing the games want them to be.
The people playing the games are adolescent men with limited experience with women who love to see sex in their games, whilst whatever women are playing games, have far better reasons to stay away from games, than "The characters are too hot".

Can we please give these stupid, high-view-badge-grabbing, threads a break?

.......ok. I'm not going to apologize for making a topic and asking a question that I was geniunely curious about.

 

[mechalynx]

Eh, what is attractiveness? Personally I think that Lara Croft is a lot less attractive today, having veered off into the uncanny valley in Angel of Darkness and beyond. Something about those eyes and lips... Am grateful that I don't need to look her in the face most of the time, hurr hurr.

It's fine if a male or a female is an eye-candy, as long as that's not all they are.

 

[Yellowfish]

Wait, there really are people who think that making a female character from a movie/videogame/whatever attractive is mysoginystic? I really, really want to believe that I just misunderstood the OP.

And if it really is wrong and sexist, then why the male part of the cast of Twilight is composed entirely of pretty boys? Isn't that sexist too? I did feel incredibly offended when I was dragged to see the first movie when it came out, only to watch my girlfirend drool over Robert Whatshisname for two hours. And why nobody complains about Hollywood actresses being too attractive?

 

[Ariseishirou]

A principle that has served me well is: "Does the character's design interfere with the believability of what she does?"

So for example, a character in Buffy the vampire Slayer would be expected to perform differently from a character in Gritty Warfare 4. A chainmail bikini is acceptable in some genres (for example, Valis 3) but not in others (realistic historical wargames).

Besides, attractiveness isn't a simple metric. I know some women who are very attractive who could kick my ass. But what you want to avoid is women who are depicted to enhance their sexual attractiveness at the expense of depicting their competence. [http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/legacy-of-the-greeks/amazon-warriors]

Different settings demand different degrees of suspension of disbelief. What will be acceptable depends on the setting.

This fine gentleman and scholar has said pretty much everything I came to say. Female characters should be dressed and proportioned appropriately for the setting. Impossibly busty bikini-clad warrioresses would look just fine in a 300-like setting, but in a gritty, serious war shooter or deep human drama, not so much. Same goes for the men, but it tends to be less of a problem. Sure, in less serious fare they'll be overly muscled and (maybe) scantily clad, but in the war shooters they'll always be wearing realistic tactical gear and often be quite grizzled, in the human dramas they'll look like normal men wearing suits/khakis/what have you. Not sure why female characters often don't follow suit, but they really should.

 

[viking97]

The answer is as it is with a lot of things; it depends.

To use alyx vance just because, if she had been dressed as a playboy bunny but everything else about her had been the same, she as well as the game would have been impossible to take seriously. If ivy from soul caliber had been dressed in full business casual, it would have been A) out of place and B) a buzzkill for those who like to see breasts bounce around. Is it in poor taste? perhaps, but is that really a bad thing? there's a time and a place for fan service, and you just have to ask yourself when that is. Complaining reflexively about any revealing female character doesn't show much more maturity then your average sexist gamer.

Context is key, as always.