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

[Avatar Roku]

Anyway, I see what you're saying. Although men are hyper-idealized as well, women seem to get it worse. For example, look at Resident Evil 5. Both Chris [http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/avatar/big/f9d7b0bb0e868666d084d6b20abe5d4820081103135743.jpg] and Sheva [http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sheva.jpg] are clearly fanservice, but at least Chris doesn't have to put up with the male equivalent of this [http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/residentevil/images/thumb/5/5d/Sheva-alomar-tribal-costume.jpeg/300px-Sheva-alomar-tribal-costume.jpeg] for an unlockable costume.

Oh god the Tribal Outfit. Some of the cutscenes in that are placed in a way that makes me think most of them were created just to ogle her in that outfit.

Like the final cutscene before the last boss fight, where you look straight up her skirt. I actually cringed.

 

[CptCamoPants]

I'm a guy, but I hope you don't mind me commenting anyway. Frankly it shocks me that not so much how women are presented, not just in video games, but in the media in general, but how many women seem to just tolerate it and often even encourage encourage it. It just blows my mind. So I find this tread rather refreshing really; and as for the portrayal in video games, you're right, it's crazy. I don't even get why anyone would find that attractive in the first place.

You should probably go into more detail. "I don't even get why anyone would find that attractive in the first place." There are so many things this could mean.
Are you gay?
Do you not like skinny women?
Do you not like women with big breasts?
I like a lot of the women in video games, not necessarily the ones with huge tits, and the problem is being VERY overblown here.
Also: Don't complain about DOA, all it was meant to be was jackoff material for guys and really shouldn't apply here, unless you're going to start complaining about softcore porn being disgraceful to women, too.

 

[Ernie1042]

Honestly? As a woman I don't care much.

When I see a female video game character with an F-Cup, I just think, "God, she must have back problems." and walk on.

So what if, because of this, a guy expects me to have giant boobles and a waist small enough to use his watch like a belt? Should I feel sorry for myself because he's been brainwashed into this ridiculous standard for beauty?

Media of every type is using sex as a selling point more and more. You just have to get over it. When you stop caring, your life gets that much easier.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Anyway, I see what you're saying. Although men are hyper-idealized as well, women seem to get it worse. For example, look at Resident Evil 5. Both Chris [http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/avatar/big/f9d7b0bb0e868666d084d6b20abe5d4820081103135743.jpg] and Sheva [http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sheva.jpg] are clearly fanservice, but at least Chris doesn't have to put up with the male equivalent of this [http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/residentevil/images/thumb/5/5d/Sheva-alomar-tribal-costume.jpeg/300px-Sheva-alomar-tribal-costume.jpeg] for an unlockable costume.

Oh god the Tribal Outfit. Some of the cutscenes in that are placed in a way that makes me think most of them were created just to ogle her in that outfit.

Oh god the Tribal Outfit. Some of the cutscenes in that are placed in a way that makes me think most of them were created just to ogle her in that outfit.

Like the final cutscene before the last boss fight, where you look straight up her skirt. I actually cringed.
I just facepalmed.

Oh damn, Wordsmith.

Weren't you 200 short just yesterday? Christ, how much do you post?

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

Apathy's far from a solution, though.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

This is where I point out - unlike sexual orientation, race or class, GENDER is not a minority. There are problems with other representations, I know, and it does suck. But you have to see here, that HALF the world's population is being displayed as often nothing more than a sex object.

SO? All of a sudden GENDER is more important than sexual orientation, race, or class? Are you saying we should treat women better FIRST, THEN turn our focus to minorities, Religious persons, and homosexuals?

HALF the world's sex object is not being displayed as often nothing more than a sex object... ALL of it is. Again, leading MEN in games are ALMOST ALWAYS displayed as some rippling specimen of dripping masculinity, tall, handsome, and bad ass. Even Sam Fisher and Snake in their old age look better than the MAJORITY of gamers.

And in the end it's a moot point... Women may be portrayed as sexy vixens with exaggerated body parts, but women do not represent a LARGE to noticeable demographic in the gaming industry. Hardcore female gamers are a rarity, casual women gamers are usually THAT.. "Casual", preferring to stick to the "bejeweled" games and playing the Sims. Yes, I know that sounds terribly stereotyped, but that doesn't deny that a quick poll of any community will demonstrate that I'm probably closer to right than wrong, so it is not meant as an insult.

When women begin to demonstrate openly and widely that they are a large and committed group of gamers to break that image that gaming is a male dominated activity, then perhaps gaming companies will take a look, but first you have to tackle the larger area of misrepresented women: Film. Because as long as movies, television, and porn portray women as sexy objects of male desire, gaming will continue to do so as well.
They are only following the trend and as long as women keep going along with the trend in every other form of media, they have every right to do so.

 

[RoyalStranger]

Not so much tired of how games portray females (in physical form, or what they're wearing), however I'm tired of the same, run down formula used to create these over-exaggerated profiles. I'm not at all threatened by what sells in the market, its just that male characters seem to have more going for them than female. Better character designs, various shapes, etc.....females normally appear with a large bust size, tight clothes..really, the only thing that varies is whether the girl is supposed to look seductive or innocent.


What truly bothers me are the Female characters that play the typical, helpless, damsel in distress role that is oh so overused.

 

[katie monsterxRAWR]

Honestly, except for Curly Brace in Cave Story, I don't know of any female characters that make me proud to be a female gamer, and Curly was a robot!

I can't stand it.

I mean, a few women in the Shadow Heart series break the personality molde but as far as physically, not even close. DD's on a girl who is 5''7', 2'' waist, and 4'' hips. Not to mention that when you play as her the camera loves the ass.

It's insane. At least in comics I have a FEW women who make me happy to be a woman.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Ivy's cool and all but I fear what will happen in the next SC game, she's going to be all boobs and less clothing than she already has.

Same. I prefer to imagine her looking like she did in SC2...which isn't hard, since that's the one I still play.

Personally I'd go for girls in ALL forms of media to not have overtly gigantic breasts and guys to not be overtly muscular macho men.

Mostly, however, I just ignore it and in games such as SC4 I make my own character who looks like a more realistic kind of girl.

Honestly, it's the clothing more than the chest size that bothers me (though yeah, I tend to minimize the chest slider during my character creation, too). I don't really have much of a problem with large-breasted female characters who <url=http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/3599/340l.jpg>don't <url=http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/208/404964-arcueid_large.jpg>dress <url=http://bestgamewallpapers.com/files/tales-of-the-abyss/tear-grants.jpg>like <url=http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Other/Features/2008/Street%20Fighter%20Retrospectives/Chun-li%20and%20Blanka/screens/Chun-Li_SF_Alpha_2_Gold--article_image.jpg>skanks.

_>

And there's still a few I don't mind, anyway. I'm sorry, lack of dress or no, <url=http://www.capcom.co.jp/fate_uc/img/wallpaper/wp10_1024x768.jpg>Rider is still awesome.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Not this again. Who the frack cares about female gamers? Stop whining about girls in video games being hotter than you could ever, ever, ever be. Until they turn all the male characters to fat, greasey, cheeto covered slobs you have no right to complain.
Simple fact is, the majority does not want a fat, acne scarred chick any more than they do in their male leads. Apart from Mario how many ugly, unappealing male main characters are there?
The only thing that really destroys female gamers dignity is when they are seen crying over such a trivial matter.
Society likes pretty people. If you do not like it, do not buy it.

Plenty. Depends what you find ugly and unattractive.

I find the entire cast of Gears of War entirely revolting to look at.

But that's completely beside the point, and not worth arguing with someone who's never going to see the point anyway.

Many female characters are fundamentally unappealing to females.

The way you describe it doesn't even begin to have anything to do with the problem anyway.

Female characters predominantly conform to male ideals. So do the male characters.

A completely one-sided perspective, and it really gets old.

Why does everything have to be a dumb, thoughtless stereotype exactly?

 

[Kamikazi1231]

Yeah, but to be fair i hate the representation of most male characters in video games as well. Yeah, because we are all totally muscle bound idiots without a brain in our heads, who have so many issues that our only way to deal with a problem is "kill it to death". Heck when was the last time you saw a regular looking male character in a video game & no "gangsta" looking characters don't count... there is nothing normal about gangsters.

-M

I'd probably say Fallout 3. That game is pretty good at having its characters in desolation and living in poverty.. not to say that's a regular looking character. Just probably more realistic then Superman/DoA bodies. Besides that maybe in the Myst series? lol

 

[NeutralDrow]

*snip*

Yes I do. I played the first 2 SC games then got sick of it. I play the occasional Tekken, SF. I have only stopped in recent years as there are not many on PC. However their plots were always paper thin at best.

Street Fighter, perhaps. Tekken, Soul Calibur, Guilty Gear, Arcana Heart, King of Fighters, and the like still have decent-to-excellent stories. Melty Blood has a great story (up to Act Cadenza, when they dropped story mode and just went with arcade stories). Just because you don't pay attention to it doesn't mean the story and character isn't there.

Anyway, true about E. Honda. But his kind are very few and far between.

That was the other guy. I'd have pointed you to Heihachi, Ganryu, Bob, Rock, Marduk, Dragunov, Feng, and Wang.

Unless you were just looking for fat more than just ugly, in which case all I can think of are Bob and Cheng Sinzan.

 

[NeoSilver]

And in the end it's a moot point... Women may be portrayed as sexy vixens with exaggerated body parts, but women do not represent a LARGE to noticeable demographic in the gaming industry. Hardcore female gamers are a rarity, casual women gamers are usually THAT.. "Casual", preferring to stick to the "bejeweled" games and playing the Sims. Yes, I know that sounds terribly stereotyped, but that doesn't deny that a quick poll of any community will demonstrate that I'm probably closer to right than wrong, so it is not meant as an insult.

When women begin to demonstrate openly and widely that they are a large and committed group of gamers to break that image that gaming is a male dominated activity, then perhaps gaming companies will take a look, but first you have to tackle the larger area of misrepresented women: Film. Because as long as movies, television, and porn portray women as sexy objects of male desire, gaming will continue to do so as well.
They are only following the trend and as long as women keep going along with the trend in every other form of media, they have every right to do so.

That's an old fashioned view if I've ever seen one.

Just 'cause you don't see girls playing what you consider "hardcore" games doesn't mean they aren't there. Most of the gamers I hate playing against are women. They are a demographic nowadays, and they deserve a little respect for it. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to crawl out from the rock they've been living under.



I don't say that to be rude, I say that because it is the truth. I've seen women come out on top in matches of Halo on a regular basis. I've seen all-girl gaming groups as far back to when we were monkeys playing Quake II on Windows 98. Heck, my own kid sister has a win-loss ratio of 22-1 on just about any fighting game I can think of. (I say 'just about' because I've not had a chance to play her in King of Fighters.) I think the games industry needs to give 'em some actual respect, instead of just catering to the supposed all-male audience.

 

[shadow skill]

Hyena to answer your question about Japanese games and the whole pretty boy thing, it is my understanding that in the case of RPGs they are marketed towards women rather than men.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Many female characters are fundamentally unappealing to females.

Yeah, you pretty much just summed up your own argument right there. Thank you for making my job easier.

Meaning what exactly?

I suppose that can make sense if you go by the presumption that the only people that play games are boys/men in the age range of 15-25 or something...

But beyond that, you basically just seem to be saying there's no point trying to change anything because nobody who plays games actually cares.

Well, of course they don't, because they've long since been driven off by the incessant idiocy.

If the lead character in a game was something you really found disturbing, wouldn't that kind of put you off actually playing the game?

I mean, even if the game is still good regardless, you're forcing a rather sizeable group to try and ignore something, or otherwise count on the fact that they're not going to look at it at all.

But hey. If all we care about is that one specific group...

 

[NeutralDrow]

Hyena to answer your question about Japanese games and the whole pretty boy thing, it is my understanding that in the case of RPGs they are marketed towards women as well as men.

Fixed. There's nothing inherently unappealing to men in most Japanese games, let alone RPGs.

 

[Daedalus1942]

I would usually keep this within the Girl Gamer group... but just in case you haven't joined, or you didn't know it existed, I thought I'd share one of our rants with the rest of the escapist.
From characters to covers, women are repeastedly represented in unrealistic, often impossible (according to physics and anatomy) ways, that are completely IRRELEVENT to their characters. So none of those "What about Superman's chest?" comebacks. He has to be strong to beat the crap out of people, you don't need GG breasts and a leather suit to be a kick-butt lady.
SO girls, what are your thoughts?
PS - I am not saying females are ALWAYS presented this way, just most of the time. A *big* most.

Well, you have Jade from Beyond good and evil...