Female Gamers: Are you tired of being presented with no dignity?

[ae86gamer]

I don't really care. I mean, I know that the majority of gamers are male and that they only do those things to appeal to them and make them buy their games. It doesn't bother me in the least bit.

 

[lacktheknack]

It IS getting better. Alyx from Half-Life universe, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, Faith from Mirror's Edge, even Chell from Portal... although some of the best examples are pretty obscure or not thought of (Human Kerrigan in Starcraft, Jane Wilde in Second Sight). And if it's worth anything, The transition from "Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness" to "Legend" involved a bust shrink (and considering how many times I stopped right in front of a dart trap in TR3 only to get shot through the nipples, a bust shrink seemed in order).

 

[Venatio]

Sorry I messed up the quotes, I suppose I "mispaste" it. No pun intended. Actually ya there is

So sorry The Austin. I fixed it up so its correctly stated now.

ave two complaints against you're argument.
1) Tidus is a whiny ***** whose only redeeming quality is that he is a sports jock. He doesnt quite strike me as the type of guy a girl gamer would like. Squall makes more sense but thats only because he was the strong silent type... And he has a better sword.
2) 20 years ago games didnt have enough pixels to simulate cleavage.

Er, it was me that made those quotes, not The Austin.

But to answer your questions 1.) girls DID dig into Tidus. Simple as. You can't understand it. I can't. But girls DID.

2.) Videogames were considered to be a boys only hobby 20 years ago and unless they were specifically targetted for girls i.e. a My Little Pony game, were always targetted at boys. And this was, as you said, before they used cleavage to sell them. Hell, even girls/ women used to degrade videogames as a boys only hobby back then.

Now, games are targetted at both genders by selling sex to both genders.

 

[teisjm]

You want over-sized men with wearing next to nothing in games?
I can show you that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hcElGydzb8&feature=fvst

As an added bonus, it has a japanese commentator, which is the new definition of epic lols.

 

[rasmusernst]

I think it's gotten a bit better. But in my opinion, the gaming industry still has a long way to go, when it comes to interesting female lead characters and believable supporting characters/love interests etc.

 

[brewbeard]

I would like to cite Fallout 3 and Mass Effect as examples of progress in this field. In Fallout 3 there was no attempt to exploit female characters "essentials" with flimsy clothing, no Power Armor Bikin's or anything of the sort. And raider chicks dont count because you often blew them up into a bunch of tiny pieces before you remembered to check them out, and other exceptions aside the game was boringly chaste. In Mass Effect I was a little dissapointed because anyone smart enough to outwit a blind monkey at chess could imagine what Ashley Williams looked like nekid while in her "military grade" armor. But atleast she had a place in the story rather than just as a pit stop in bed on the way to fight the bad guy.

WRPGs in general tend to be pretty good about this. The characters in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II weren't oversexualized, nor was Dr. Rho Bowman from Anachronox. Both of the early Fallouts were pretty good about it, too. It's likely a direct result of WRPGs focusing more on story and character development than flashy action shots and eye candy, but it's worth noting that the genre tends to buck the curve. Even when it does (Planescape Torment's over-the-top CGI renders) it's generally a sideline to the general presentation in the game.

 

[LeonLethality]

Unfortunately we are still in a very male driven culture. It will take some more time for females to be represented better in video games. In the mean time, girls have heroes like Alyx Vance and Samus Aran to look up to instead of the characters from DOA Beach Volley Ball.

amen not much more needs to be said but it kinda angers me that it is, equality is still yet to be achieved and I want it to much faster than the rate we are going at.

 

[VanityGirl]

lol, i find the who thing funny.
why have girls with big tits? because sex sells. d+Duh, as a woman I know that!
My boyfriend and I were talking about Meryl being a lead for the MGS future games and I said, "No, because then you couldn't have all the hot girls building up sexual tension with your lead character"
Also, many guys don't particularly like playing as female leads. (Thats what my boyfriend says anyway)

=P

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

lol, i find the who thing funny.
why have girls with big tits? because sex sells. d+Duh, as a woman I know that!
My boyfriend and I were talking about Meryl being a lead for the MGS future games and I said, "No, because then you couldn't have all the hot girls building up sexual tension with your lead character"
Also, many guys don't particularly like playing as female leads. (Thats what my boyfriend says anyway)

=P

That is why I am fond of games that give me an option. Then again, I am a character gen whore so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[ChaosTheory3133]

Also, many guys don't particularly like playing as female leads. (Thats what my boyfriend says anyway)

=P

True, except in the MMO market... Where many a lonely guy rolls a female to have "something to look at".

 

[bob-2000]

yea, i really do hate how badly most women are portrayed, and how there are very few women main characters. Of course, it does make me appreciate the well done women in games like Half-Life.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

I hate to point this out, but the way I see it, the problem begins right when people begin dividing themselves into exclusionary groups to begin with.

Just by having a group for "Girl gamers" is in itself a form of discrimination.

If men suddenly decided to form an exclusive group called "Guy Gamers" women would have fits.
Now the quick response to such thing might be logically "Well men are the largest group of gamers so starting a group of Guy Gamers is redundant" but thats the same excuse black activist groups have hidden behind for years (I'm black, so I can make such a statement). It's a double standard... black equality groups are able to make all kinds of provisions for African Americans (NAACP, United Negro College fund, the Black Caucus, etc) but if white people make a group, it's considered "exclusionary and racist". Imagine if they created United Caucasian College fund or the National Association for the Advancement of White Folks (NAAWF). You would have people out in the streets crying foul.

The same applies here. You can't seek "dignity" and representation by directly calling to attention the difference between you and "them" with a publicly exclusionary group.

But I think I shall drop out of this conversation with that final post, seeing as it's an incendiary topic and apparently several people have already felt the wrath of the moderators for expressing their own opinions, perhaps distastefully I'll agree, but still it was their opinion.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

I would like to cite Fallout 3 and Mass Effect as examples of progress in this field. In Fallout 3 there was no attempt to exploit female characters "essentials" with flimsy clothing, no Power Armor Bikin's or anything of the sort. And raider chicks dont count because you often blew them up into a bunch of tiny pieces before you remembered to check them out, and other exceptions aside the game was boringly chaste. In Mass Effect I was a little dissapointed because anyone smart enough to outwit a blind monkey at chess could imagine what Ashley Williams looked like nekid while in her "military grade" armor. But atleast she had a place in the story rather than just as a pit stop in bed on the way to fight the bad guy.

WRPGs in general tend to be pretty good about this. The characters in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II weren't oversexualized, nor was Dr. Rho Bowman from Anachronox. Both of the early Fallouts were pretty good about it, too. It's likely a direct result of WRPGs focusing more on story and character development than flashy action shots and eye candy, but it's worth noting that the genre tends to buck the curve. Even when it does (Planescape Torment's over-the-top CGI renders) it's generally a sideline to the general presentation in the game.

This. By the gods, this. Well, that, and I personally didn't find the female characters in Final Fantasy VIII (8) to be oversexualized (though selphie's dress could have been a foot or so longer..), I mean, look at Fujin (the dominant one in the raijin/fujin relationship), Edea (sort of-ish at least, her clothes were...a chapter for themselves) etc.
I will, however, agree somewhat in that the female characters feel a bit.."weaker" at times, there's no denying that. Or the fact that the last disc or so felt like an acid trip. But hey, it's still one of my favorite games of all time. Hell, I hear a lot about how the female characters of FF VII is oversexualized too, but other than Tifa, I can't think of any. You could make an argument out of yuffie's clothing be sort of skimpy (from what I remember, she wore shorts and that's about what I remember...), though wutai seemed like a place where the sun shines a lot. Aditionally, there's just something about yuffie that makes her more the "annoying little sister" kind of character than a sex symbol to lust over. Even so, don't listen to me, I'm just rambling with a rusty mind.

 

[Boxmeister]

what about men? We are muscle bound military men or bishonen young teens trying to kill satan

Another thing I notice about some fake gamer girls they do these very sexual poses with game consoles and controllers? I wonder what do you females think about that?

^it's retarded is what it is!

I don't think it's just girls that are getting the inflated end of the stick here,, I mean, have you SEEN Marcus Fenix? If I met someone that size in real life I'd be damn scared.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Arrgghh.
There will always be men who think women are sex objects and love seeing their arse bounce around on screen. This will never change, no matter how much we complain about it.
If the games good, I don't care if the woman's stark naked, thin and blond.

 

[DaMan1500]

I think it's just because the vast, vast majority of gamers are dudes. That's just how it works. While almost every guy I know plays videogames regularly as a hobby, I know a total of 0 girls that do. It just makes sense to apeal to the majority. After all, how many realistic representations of guys can you find in, say, the Twilight books, or the Oxygen network? I'm not saying it's a good thing (including Lara Croft's cup size in the manual? Really?) However, unless way more girls start playing games, I doubt it'll change any time soon.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

deal with it. every otherform of mediadoes this, and i havea feeling noone really thinks Ivy is something to live up to, as opposed to "music" and televsion and magazines.