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

[Pegghead]

Well they only do it to appeal to the more perverse gaming male mind because it would sell well which I think is a bit stupid. Even when they make a tasteful, aspiring female character in a game like saaaaay Alyx from half-life 2, with her tact and her wits she has a more normal body, yet there are about a thousand nude alyx mods floating out there on the internet. Besides, this subject IS kind of slippery fish, If you're going to object to the portrayal of women in video games, then I think you should complain about how they're portrayed in magazines and songs, that's quite a bit worse than Lara Crofts big you-know-whats. Or the extreme jiggleyness of DOA volleyball.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Can I just point out that I find a lot of male characters offensive too?

I don't like over-developed, ridiculous physiques that bear no relation to reality of any kind.

It doesn't seem like something that represents an idealised image (which I can relate to wanting to do.)

It seems more like an attempt to rub people's faces in certain characteristics...

"Look! Our hero has muscles so large he can barely move. But hey! At least you know he's strong, right?"

"I wear next to nothing, have painfully big breasts, and I can still kick your ass. Any questions?"

Idealism. Sure.
But whose ideals?

Certainly not mine.

 

[Toasty]

How do I join this Girl gamers group?

 

[El Poncho]

Superman doesn't need muscles since he already has superstreng, flying, laz0rz etc...

 

[sirdanrhodes]

When ever a female gamer argument arises, I just have to think to myself "Males" and "Core demographic", sprinkled with a bit of "Sex sells".

Seriously, until the presence of female gamers equals that of male gamers, I'm sorry, but women in games will have abnormally large features.

 

[Halo Fanboy]

Can I just point out that I find a lot of male characters offensive too?

I don't like over-developed, ridiculous physiques that bear no relation to reality of any kind.

It doesn't seem like something that represents an idealised image (which I can relate to wanting to do.)

It seems more like an attempt to rub people's faces in certain characteristics...

"Look! Our hero has muscles so large he can barely move. But hey! At least you know he's strong, right?"

"I wear next to nothing, have painfully big breasts, and I can still kick your ass. Any questions?"

Idealism. Sure.
But whose ideals?

Certainly not mine.

Why do you think realism is exclusively something we should strive for?

And what do different fantasy ideals have to do with a a representation of a person lacking "dignity?"

 

[HyenaThePirate]

What I find amusing is how women can isolate themselves into a group

How have women isolated themselves into a group except for purposes of analysis?

Please do not take my statements out of context.

What I said was

"What I find amusing is how women can isolate themselves into a group and feel misrepresented when in all honesty EVERYONE but "Good looking, tough white males" is misrepresented, under-represented, and in some cases, UN-represented at all!"

When you have a shared grievance that you are misrepresented or discriminated against (in this case, female complaints about the portrayal of women in video games) You have ISOLATED yourself, in effect, you have singled your specific group out to be something worthy of more focus above other groups. My point was that female gamers may have a legitimate grievance but do so by maximizing their own plight while excluding or diminishing the shared plight by other groups.

Females are not solely and exclusively misrepresented in games. There are other groups that are as well, if not in some cases more so... again I point to Blacks in games. Women get made into game characters of someone's exaggerated views of what is physically attractive, which while UNREALISTIC is mostly COMPLIMENTARY. Men might ogle them but they are created in the pursuit of beauty and artistic design. Blacks on the other hand are usually straight stereotypes of "hip hop culture" or big hulking Mike Tyson rip offs, rarely represented as being the "hero" or even overly intelligent in most cases. I'd rather be portrayed with over-exaggerated sexual body parts than as a hulking moron who slings around catch phrases.

If you want to say that non-white males are ALL misrepresented in gaming then I'm all for that and I agree. But if you want to single out a specific group as being more deserving of respect than another just because you happen to be a member of the offended party is really just selfish.

 

[Xorghul]

I know, it's extremely shallow and annoying, isn't it?
But unfortunately it's not going to change anytime soon.
Unless, you girls make your own war/action/orwhateveryouwanttomake game with realistic characters.

I wonder why no one haven't done that already...

 

[Legion]

What amuses me the most about these things is that it always ends up being made to sound like it's one huge male-driven conspiracy. Bear in mind that the voices of these characters are played by women, if they had such a huge deal with the physical aspects of the character I'd have thought they'd either complain, or not do the role. If they do it just for the money that's fine but then they have no right to complain afterwards.

My point is that clearly not all women have an issue with it, so how can the companies win? Adolescent males take up most of the players of these types of games and the companies are engineering the characters towards their target audience.


It's like guys complaining because all men in Sex and the City or one of those other god-awful shows/movies where the lead characters are middle-class women the guys are seen as toys and sex objects for the women to sleep with and use to make their husbands jealous or whatnot.

What's needed is not a change in the way women are portrayed in these games but some more games where they are more human, in which they have faults (physically or mentally) or where they are not made to be seen as sex symbols. Although they would need somebody who wants to take that risk, so step up ladies.

 

[Lynx]

I'm very tired of this debate. Action movies have very much the same issue. There is one tiny difference though - in movies they're at least real people who look like that. In that sense, I find it more okay than a video game lady with a waist as thin as her neck (= physically impossible).
But the whole thing is a work in progress. Both movies and games are improving - I don't think Zoey from L4D looks anything but natural, same goes for the character in Portal and some of the ladies/blokes from the latest Final Fantasy games.