Is sexism starting to vanish from video games?

[goober1988]

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.

Im not saying, "lets make all video game women ugly", your right, thats not a good goal. But making women realistic, rather than a zero waist and triple D's, is a more realistic goal rather than marketing off of sex so much. And yes, attractiveness does range from person to person, but its not about attractivness so much as nudity and female deprivation. When i play a video game, i like my player to be attractive just as much as the next guy, but it gets a little excessive when all you see is near naked women all the time. If i want to see that stuff, ill surf the internet, lol.

 

[Weaver]

I don't even like large, or rather, oversized breasts.

 

[Novacain4862]

So I'm guessing Velvet Assassin would fall under this too right? Even the lead Developer or something said he wanted to make Violette hot but not a "tits monster" or an "ass monster" respectable

 

[PrimeSynergy]

I think it's starting to, but only in 'confident' developers. By that, I mean developers who know what they are doing and are making a good game and don't need sex to sell it. Mirrors Edge is pretty much the perfect example. The game was decent and didn't need some overtly sexual girl running around to sell it.

On a side note, I refuse to believe they called the game 'Wet' just because of how fluid the gameplay supposedly is.......

 

[APPCRASH]

haha...no

 

[Booze Zombie]

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?

I'm sure having a covered midriff will really stop the bullets...

Sarcasm aside, sexism, I suppose, is starting to realize it's not really welcome anymore.
But, I think women will still be complaining until a 35 year old, female, investment banker in sensible clothing stars in a game.

I can see it now: "Bland: THE GAME! Cash checks, tell customers they're stupid as politely as possible and then go home and dream of not being an investment banker!"

 

[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.

Whether she was changed or not is actually irrelevant to my point.
The fact that people bitched about her not having bigger breasts (she's a goddamn athlete, people, those things just get in the way,) is the actual point-prover.

Of course, if that's all rumor, I got nothing.

Yeah, I wasn't disagreeing with you, just wanted to try and raise your view on humanity a little

 

[Silva]

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."

Actually, you are mistaken on that one. Faith wasn't changed, a piece of her concept art was manipulated which then circulated. The producer of the game was very outspoken against this redesign (he actually said so in an article in Hyper magazine I just read this morning) and so it never altered the actual game.

However, I do believe you are right on the general issue. Sexism, at least as far as character models go, is still very strong in games. Women are more often sexualised than men. Ultimately this comes down to what will sell the game, and breasts will sell to most gamers, especially in Japan, which is still the home of the medium. Younger teenagers still love it anyway, no matter where you are.

 

[MoganFreeman]

I hope not.

I do love me some unfeasibly large digital boobies.

 

[Paulrus_Keaton]

Designers are starting to grow up, that's for sure. But I can't totally back up this argument with written fact.

There still exist designers, mostly Japanese (see Onechanbara), that have yet to see a real women in their life that isn't spreading herself in CMYK. I find that more designers are starting to recognize that the fairest sex can do more than just extreme sex toy, twit, or man-hater. Sex sells, but without moderation you get shit like DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball.

On the flip side... well, MaxtheReaper already said it.

Furthermore, "People are dumb."

Many gamers can understand that there is a line between sexy and just "wtf is this shit" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiken_(manga)]. But sadly, not everyone is a mature gamer. Some human beings who lack internet just want to see them bounce across the screen. Or worse. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guy_Game]

 

[Erana]

haha...no

Yeah, pretty much.

I hope not.

I do love me some unfeasibly large digital boobies.

So... Do you know what an ootsuchi is?

 

[Doug]

Well it seems that way, lets hope the japanese dont mess up this growing trend...yes yes i know. Anyway, its about time really, fighting crime in tight clothing and cleavage really didnt do much for me...boobs.

Ahem, they ARE the Japanese... its inetiable they will get around to messing it up sooner rather than later. Bare in mind this is a country where an actual rape simulator sells!

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."

i r no dub!

Anywho, sadly, you're probably right

 

[Emeli]

Oh PLEASE!

I'm gearing up for a rant here, so settle in.

Having idealised women in skimpy clothing is NOT what makes games sexist. You want proof? Go play God of War, or any of the afforementioned fighting games and see if you can spot the impossible bulging shirtless chest. Video games don't have ridiculously unrealistic women, they have ridiculously unrealistic PEOPLE. It's all part of the escapism of video games, whether to ogle them or play them, people want eye candy characters. I'd go so far as to say it's worse sexism for guys, since every FPS or fighting game I've played in the last five years comes equipped with a trans-genre Mills and Boon protagonist.

Keep the g-string and pasties on the girl, but FFS, give her some MOTIVATION. That's what pisses me off in games. Why is it never a girl marine off to save the world for a pay check? Or in search of a kidnapped relative, or putting an end to a bitter rivalry or whatever motivates heroes nowadays? Why is every female character either just a sidekick or wanting pretty shinies or awaiting rescue? Honest to God the only reason I kept playing The Witcher was because every sexy trading card I picked up represented a female character completely uninterested in the hero's quest but in the game for her own personal reasons, ie. some hot, hot lovin'.

I'm gunna wind down now because otherwise this'll go on for a long time and maybe get me banned.

To conclude, games really need to get the hang of what sexism is before they think about eradicating it.

 

[Damian Domino Davis]

Is sexism vanishing from the vidya.

You best be joking.

Whether or not it's right or wrong, let me lay out a little practical truth for you: as long as we have two genders, we will have functional differences between them in all sorts of ways; as long as we have genders, we will have distinctions between them and how we react to them, what we expect of them, and more; and as long as we have two genders, we will have sexism. This will never change.

 

[Overlord Moo]

Oh PLEASE!

I'm gearing up for a rant here, so settle in.

Having idealised women in skimpy clothing is NOT what makes games sexist. You want proof? Go play God of War, or any of the afforementioned fighting games and see if you can spot the impossible bulging shirtless chest. Video games don't have ridiculously unrealistic women, they have ridiculously unrealistic PEOPLE. It's all part of the escapism of video games, whether to ogle them or play them, people want eye candy characters. I'd go so far as to say it's worse sexism for guys, since every FPS or fighting game I've played in the last five years comes equipped with a trans-genre Mills and Boon protagonist.

Keep the g-string and pasties on the girl, but FFS, give her some MOTIVATION. That's what pisses me off in games. Why is it never a girl marine off to save the world for a pay check? Or in search of a kidnapped relative, or putting an end to a bitter rivalry or whatever motivates heroes nowadays? Why is every female character either just a sidekick or wanting pretty shinies or awaiting rescue? Honest to God the only reason I kept playing The Witcher was because every sexy trading card I picked up represented a female character completely uninterested in the hero's quest but in the game for her own personal reasons, ie. some hot, hot lovin'.

I'm gunna wind down now because otherwise this'll go on for a long time and maybe get me banned.

To conclude, games really need to get the hang of what sexism is before they think about eradicating it.

Breath in...Breath out

I'd say it's going down, very, very slowly, but it's going down.

 

[Sanaj]

It's your opinion on the trend...is sexism starting to vanish from video games?

Personally I'd say no, it isn't.
It just doesn't seem to decreasing...personal opinions will effect their point of view on this subject greatly.
It's not something any two people are likely to define the same way.

Game developers make characters with big tits or otherwise sexy looking girls often and it works to increase sales.
Or even to get gullible people to buy terrible games because of the box art.

Most games includes too many stereotyped, cardboard cut-out stock characters.
These are both male and female.

 

[FROGGEman2]

Yeah, another one is Heavy Rain. Since game is JUST starting to become a real art form, these kind of things naturally disappear