Is sexism starting to vanish from video games?

[goober1988]

What I mean by this is that I have noticed that recent titles are starting to have more female lead roles in video games, but most of all, they appear to be normal proportioned women. For instance, Mirrors Edge stars a normal looking women lead role, no excessive boobage or lack of clothing. Another instance is an upcoming game WET http://g4tv.com/trailers/videos/17577/Wet-Trailer.html The female lead in this game also looks normal sized and is fully dressed. Does this mean that lead women are starting to look somewhat real? Is the video game industry finally starting to make women into people instead of the sex interest?

*by the way, most of us are familiar with X-Bladess and Dead or Alive, but im talking about NEWER titles. And the key word here is STARTING to vanish, theres definetly still a lot of boobage in video games right now, but the point is that its seems that it is STARTING to dissapear.

 

[Mariena]

X-Blades begs to differ..

 

[Cliff_m85]

I guess you mean 'vanish' and not 'banish'

 

[CliveMurdoc626]

Three words....DEAD....OR....ALIVE!

 

[Mariena]

X-Blades begs to differ..

Yes, but X-Blades is shit, we're talking about proper games.

I think it's a good thing. Fight the power. Burn some bras. I dunno, whatever girls do when they're happy.

< easy to tell why he doesn't have a girlfriend

Oh please. We're talking about video games in general. Read: recent titles. Anything mainstream and widely publicized counts here.

When this trend of non D-cupped, long blonde haired girls with G-strings and bikinis keeps up, only then I'll start believing that sexism is starting to vanish from video games.

 

[About To Crash]

I don't really think it was there to begin with. Sure, there was generally a girl of some kind to rescue, but that was just a generic classic goal to give you a reason for playing without having to create a difficult series of objectives when 8-bit was advanced. Besides, how long has Samus been in gaming, and just how badass is she?

 

[JMeganSnow]

Another instance is an upcoming game WET http://g4tv.com/trailers/videos/17577/Wet-Trailer.html The female lead in this game also looks normal sized and is fully dressed. Does this mean that lead women are starting to look somewhat real? Is the video game industry finally starting to make women into people instead of the sex interest?

This is normal-sized? This is fully-dressed?! Half the scenes show her either in the bathtub (albeit wearing a tank top) or in a chaise-lounge in short-shorts. And even in the fight scenes she's got midriff showing and her top is skin-tight.

But aside from all of that, there's very little sexism in games. Male characters are just as much eye-candy as female ones. It's not sexism to portray people as being attractive in art, it's a normal aesthetic development. I don't like playing unattractive characters, and part of the fun of RPG's is putting your character in a cool outfit. It's no different from the folks who like to pimp their auto in racing games. No one complains about "car-ism" because all the vehicles in racing games are hawt instead of seedy junkers.

Games are about living your fantasies. Who the hell fantasizes about being dumpy?

 

[Marble Dragon]

I think it would be totally awesome if video games started to lose sexism. Note "if" and "would." Some games are losing sexism. Others are most definitely not. (X-Blades, as mentioned by others, is a good example.)

 

[Mariena]

Oh please. We're talking about video games in general. Read: recent titles. Anything mainstream and widely publicized counts here.

X-Blades was widely publicized? I'd never even heard of it until I saw it in EB Games.

Yes, okay, we know you don't like X-Blades. It's about recent titles. X-Blades is recent. Thanks.

Anyway, this discussion has been had many times before. As long as men like to see scantily clad ladies killing bad guys with guns, there probably will be games that include such characters.

That's why I like character customization like seen in Saint's Row 2. I don't have to play as a bimbo at all. I could play as a skinny old lady wearing a top hat, or a fat humongous clown .. or something.

 

[TheDoctor455]

You know, if sexism does vanish from games entirely, games could finally begin to be seen as a more worthwhile venture than most action films (doesn't say much, but hey, it's a start). And if game writers start writing more intelligently than they have been in the past, then games might even replace films entirely (or almost entirely).

 

[Cliff_m85]

Onechanbara.

/thread

 

[KaiusCormere]

I don't think making characters unattractive is a good goal for gaming or a marker for the end of sexism. However, of course, there's a wide range of attractive...and it doesn't have to involve wearing a bikini as platemail. Sometimes that's fun, though.

 

[Tech Team FTW!]

Look at Duke Nukem Forever.
Look no further.

 

[jad4400]

I remember that there was an article in The Onion that joked about that disproportioned boobage that is in a lot of games

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/new_video_game_technology?utm_source=a-section

 

[CoziestPigeon]

Actually, Faith (I believe that is her name) was changed due to popular demand for "moar titz," if I am not mistaken.

So I'm going to go with "No."
Furthermore, "People are dumb."

She wasn't actually changed, there was just shit going around on the intertubes about how people wanted her to be changed or something like that. She definitely wasn't changed in the actual game.

 

[Huey1000]

Well, look at Res. Evil 5, it's not considered sexist, but it's considered racist. Someone will always turn a small opinion in politics into a huge deal in gaming.