Girls and the games aimed at men
- Thread starter mstickle
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Female characters in video games, particularly leading ones, tend towards unnatural or at the very least highly unusual physiques. I can sort of understand how this might contribute to body image issues amongst insecure women, coupled with general media (led by the fashion industry) and its quest to portray the ideal woman as a top-heavy waif. Yes, this is unfortunate. In settings where the inclusion of female characters make sense, they should be built in a manner that make sense for the role the character fills.
Let me flip this around for a moment, however.
Most men aren't built like the main characters in video games. Some might say that most gamers don't even come close to his nerdy sidekick in terms of fitness, but that's the result of poor lifestyles so let's disregard this and focus on the fact that many male leads are muscled far beyond what their role dictates. In fact, many male characters are muscled beyond what the genetic potential of most males allows for without anabolic stereoids or artificial hormone supplements. Young men have body image issues the same as women do, but it seems to give far less political capital to invest time and money into researching the mental health of males than that of women.
Eating disorders are bad, but so is body image-induced hormone and steroid abuse, an issue running rampant where I live. If you want to yell about how supermodel heroines in games cause eating disorders or alienate women, fine. But don't claim men have it any better in this regard; most guys have as small of a chance at looking like GoW's Marcus Fenix as female gamers do at looking like Lara Croft.
On the topic of the higher frequency of male protagonists...
Men have a greater potential for the development of muscle than women do. This is a matter of biological fact. There are a number of games where a female lead would seem contrived and not very believable. To use GoW again: Would it make sense to put a woman in Marcus' role? This mountain of flesh is going toe-to-toe with monstrous piles of muscle on two legs. For a female character to fill his role in a sensible manner, she'd have to be even more of a freak of nature than Marcus is.
On the topic of CoD... I don't know. I'm not terribly familiar with the setting, but my general feeling is that it makes sense to include characters of either gender when the setting allows for putting them in that role. Including female/male characters in a particular role just for the sake of political correctness, however, is stupid and an insult to the intellect of the average player.
Adventure games and other games that don't rely so much on physical combat, on the other hand, lend themselves equally well to female and male leads. Games that allow you to entirely customize your character's appearance and behavior, such as many modern RPGs, are even better at this.
Someone said earlier that the choice of protagonist gender in games like Mass Effect just lets you play a female character in a male character's shoes. I think this argument is faulty. In the particular case of Mass Effect, other characters do respond to your character's gender in different ways. If you feel you're still just playing John Sheppard with a female character in Mass Effect, you're likely either not paying attention to conversations or you have the memory of your playthrough with a male character too fresh in mind. In fact, most of the recent Bioware games seem to do reasonably well at allowing you to play a character with the gender of your choice without favoring one gender heavily over the other in terms of believability. The same can be said for RPGs such as Fallout 3, although these games are a bit less intensive on the side of non-combat NPC interaction and as such the impact of playing any particular gender becomes less apparent.
Let me flip this around for a moment, however.
Most men aren't built like the main characters in video games. Some might say that most gamers don't even come close to his nerdy sidekick in terms of fitness, but that's the result of poor lifestyles so let's disregard this and focus on the fact that many male leads are muscled far beyond what their role dictates. In fact, many male characters are muscled beyond what the genetic potential of most males allows for without anabolic stereoids or artificial hormone supplements. Young men have body image issues the same as women do, but it seems to give far less political capital to invest time and money into researching the mental health of males than that of women.
Eating disorders are bad, but so is body image-induced hormone and steroid abuse, an issue running rampant where I live. If you want to yell about how supermodel heroines in games cause eating disorders or alienate women, fine. But don't claim men have it any better in this regard; most guys have as small of a chance at looking like GoW's Marcus Fenix as female gamers do at looking like Lara Croft.
On the topic of the higher frequency of male protagonists...
Men have a greater potential for the development of muscle than women do. This is a matter of biological fact. There are a number of games where a female lead would seem contrived and not very believable. To use GoW again: Would it make sense to put a woman in Marcus' role? This mountain of flesh is going toe-to-toe with monstrous piles of muscle on two legs. For a female character to fill his role in a sensible manner, she'd have to be even more of a freak of nature than Marcus is.
On the topic of CoD... I don't know. I'm not terribly familiar with the setting, but my general feeling is that it makes sense to include characters of either gender when the setting allows for putting them in that role. Including female/male characters in a particular role just for the sake of political correctness, however, is stupid and an insult to the intellect of the average player.
Adventure games and other games that don't rely so much on physical combat, on the other hand, lend themselves equally well to female and male leads. Games that allow you to entirely customize your character's appearance and behavior, such as many modern RPGs, are even better at this.
Someone said earlier that the choice of protagonist gender in games like Mass Effect just lets you play a female character in a male character's shoes. I think this argument is faulty. In the particular case of Mass Effect, other characters do respond to your character's gender in different ways. If you feel you're still just playing John Sheppard with a female character in Mass Effect, you're likely either not paying attention to conversations or you have the memory of your playthrough with a male character too fresh in mind. In fact, most of the recent Bioware games seem to do reasonably well at allowing you to play a character with the gender of your choice without favoring one gender heavily over the other in terms of believability. The same can be said for RPGs such as Fallout 3, although these games are a bit less intensive on the side of non-combat NPC interaction and as such the impact of playing any particular gender becomes less apparent.
Actually i just found one with smaller than mine,congrats!I said that it's in the MALE NATURE to fight and participate in wars.Btw,NOT because you pick up a FPS,after all,this thread points out that women can do that too.funguy2121 said:
Other than that,allthough i'm 100% sure you know that i abandoned this thread,you decided to "bring me back" by saying something SO stupid.
I agree,you are "friggin' dumb".Have a lollipop junior.
I'm glad someone noticed I wasn't whining. I simply thought it was funny and it got me thinking.funguy2121 said:
People aren't exactly reacting in a unexpected way - they seem to get all their info about women being whiny helpless bitches from games I guess
I'm am glad that there are some people can at least see my point of view.
To be honest, I find it patronising to think that playable female characters are there purely for female gamers.
"Aww, well look at you! You're playing games! Would you like me to girl up the game a little for you and give you a girl character to make you feel included? There you go!"
It's a game. The gender of your character is unimportant if you're enjoying the game and not just the novelty of being a girl gamer. AGH. [I know a Halo-mad 'GURL gamer' who bugs the hell out of me.]
"Aww, well look at you! You're playing games! Would you like me to girl up the game a little for you and give you a girl character to make you feel included? There you go!"
It's a game. The gender of your character is unimportant if you're enjoying the game and not just the novelty of being a girl gamer. AGH. [I know a Halo-mad 'GURL gamer' who bugs the hell out of me.]
I'm not a fan of the girl gamers that go out of the way to show that they are a girl - you know, "girl" in their gamer tag, say after every game "you were beaten by a girl" and all that. In fact depending on my mood if a guy asks if I'm a girl or a little boy sometimes I take the I'm a boy route just for amusement. That's not to say I don't want people to know I'm a girl, I don't exactly advertise it. I know I wouldn't be the only person using a female even if I was the only female playing at the time, I just wish there was one, simply because I feel like it and in a multiplaer environment that has no story basis there is no real reason why not.CargoHold said:
But of course I can live without it too, happily. Just as I've done my entire gaming career. I would never promote "girling up" a game just for a female avatar, I doubt it would be as fun anymore. I'm really not hoping for much of a change, the story should have whatever gender was intended for the story, just a slightly different character model in MP.
There's like no females in COD and other military games because females can't go into the front lines as infantry.
In case you say that's sexist it's not. Tests were carried out and only 2% of woman in the army were as fit as the men, and even then the men continued to surpass them afterwards. I wouldn't want someone who was unqualified to do what has to be done on a battlefield, to do what has to be done on a battlefield, would you?
In case you say that's sexist it's not. Tests were carried out and only 2% of woman in the army were as fit as the men, and even then the men continued to surpass them afterwards. I wouldn't want someone who was unqualified to do what has to be done on a battlefield, to do what has to be done on a battlefield, would you?
To be fair games that cater to girls are generally crap or are about cooking or raising a family
The reason for that is a male with a squaddie mentality won't leave a woman behind to get on with the mission, kinda sexist but chivalry IS positive discrimination.
I'm a chick, and it really doesn't bother me any. Yeah, it would be nice to have more options, more female characters, etc. But like you say, there is going to be a ton of shit that has to be played down to keep girls from bitching about it being sexist.stinkychops said:
I hate to say this, and I'm not trying to diss my own gender, but the more estrogen you pump into the gaming world, the mo' problems your going to face. I can't hardly stand the testosterone fueled arguments that run rampant as it is.
Final line. Games should be a bit more accommodating, but until there is a larger community of females genuinely interested in video games, I don't think developers should feel pressured to compromise the overall feel of the game by adding in female related content when the fan base is almost entirely male.
PS: - - And I have no problem being a little white southern girl playing "The Solider" in Borderlands.
I honestly don't really know how to market exclusively to a female crowd without being called sexist (My Little Pony anyone?). As in real life, guys don't know what women want, much less nerds.
If we're talking about making more realistic female characters (Fariah, Sands of Time) who don't wear paper towels and have breast steroids, okay, but I see that more as a copout. Or, just ONE of the MANY things that would/should be in a game thats marketed towards women (because knowing women, it can't ever be that simple).
If we're talking about making more realistic female characters (Fariah, Sands of Time) who don't wear paper towels and have breast steroids, okay, but I see that more as a copout. Or, just ONE of the MANY things that would/should be in a game thats marketed towards women (because knowing women, it can't ever be that simple).
Haven't you answered yourself by saying you only come across one female gamer a week if you're lucky?
Games, whether it be right or wrong, are not aimed at women. Some are, but most aren't. And I find it a little hard to believe you have such a problem with CoD - Soap's basically genderless until you see him in MW2. And if I was playing a woman in CoD I can't say I'd care.
Games, whether it be right or wrong, are not aimed at women. Some are, but most aren't. And I find it a little hard to believe you have such a problem with CoD - Soap's basically genderless until you see him in MW2. And if I was playing a woman in CoD I can't say I'd care.