Poll: Does sex appeal influence your decision to purchase a game?

[ShinyCharizard]

It's said that female characters in games are overly sexualised in order to appeal to male gamers and hence sell more copies. But being a male gamer myself I just don't understand it. That is pretty much last on the list of my priorities when it comes to buying a game. So I'm curious to see what others think.

 

[AyaReiko]

Other: Depends on the game.

More accurately, depends on if I'm expecting a significant amount of fanservice or not.

 

[Elijin]

I voted yes on your poll, but only because of the wording.

Does sex appeal influence my purchasing decision? Yes. If I can see a lot of sex appeal when I look at or research the game, I start asking why. Like if looking at promo videos and such just shows me a bunch of sexy ladies, and little to no game play or narrative elements....Im going to assume those elements are weak, and they're hiding it behind the sex appeal.

So yeah, if a game shows too much sex appeal, at the cost of showing the actual game, I'll skip it as a sketchy title.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Not at all. Too much of the fan service turns me off of certain games actually. I can't play stuff like Dead Or Alive with all of its jiggle physics because then the uncanny valley comes into play and stuff just gets weird.

 

[Dendio]

Sure Does. Especially if im on the fence about buying the game. Having something visually pleasing gives the edge/ grabs my attention

 

[Sandernista]

I chose other because of the ambiguous nature of your question.

It really depends. I didn't buy Oblivion because the female armor is "soooo hot", but I'd be lying if I said Ivy in HD didn't influence me buying the newest Soul Caliber.

 

[piinyouri]

No, someone could make a Vanillaware quality sprite game with traps and I wouldn't buy it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well it certainly did when I was younger and had no fast internets, those awful days when porn still had to be printed on paper.

Now I'd say it's pushing me the other way, you put boobs on display first and I will constantly question the remaining game quality when this is all you could come up with.
Then again we are still creatures of primal desires and I may subconciously still flock to those games even if my logical side is screaming "you mindless perverted asshole, stop buying this shit!", that certainly happens with youtube vids.

 

[TheRaider]

Only reason i bought starcraft 2 was kerrigan. Never going to meet a girl like that!

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Like others have stated, if fanservice is played up too much, I'm likely to be repelled from buying the game. For example, I have heard good things about Bayonetta, but have not played it. Why? Well...frankly, the cover just is too blatant. It's almost to the point where you are embarrassed at the thought of taking it out of the store.

 

[Nouw]

Not at all. In fact, character design in general comes rather low in terms of influencing my decision.

 

[Scarim Coral]

No, I don't buy a game just for the cover alone even if it is sexy. Normally I have to know the game beforehand (preview and reviews) if I'm going to buy it.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I suppose it does but I dont think oooo sexy lady I am buying this game but if I am on the fence about buying it it may sway me one way or the other depending on how blatant it is i.e I prefer to have a sexy character or a cool character etc to a bland one but to much sexualisation will put me off because it makes me think there must be something wrong with the game unless it seems to be getting almost universal praise then I will get it and try for myself.

I think most people are influenced by it though unless they have no sexual drive whatsoever games are purchased (or not) based on many decisions conscious or not but for most I would imagine sex appeal would be a low priority when buying a game as it is for myself. Oddly though I think it would be a higher on the list of priorities when deciding why not to get a game which is strange, as I said for me personally this only puts me off if it is blatant and rubbed in my face and you just think wtf? like in that BMXxxx game or whatever it was called a while ago I couldnt believe anyone would buy that.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

No. I've never bothered to play games like Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball or something like that.
And looking at the games I recently bought,I find that some of them doesn't even have women at all in them,like Battlefield 3. Of course most have,but no,they are not over-sexualised. (Primal Carnage,Crysis 2,Skyrim) And even if they have a woman or two that are what you would call 'handsome' or 'good looking' like Lara Croft in Tomb Raider,and perhaps suggestive like Citra in Far Cry 3,the fact that these games featured nice looking women wasn't the reason I bought them.

The things that usually make me buy a game is the setting and the gameplay.
Perhaps after these two,graphics also have some importance.
But I don't break it down to individual characters of the game to decide if I'll get a game or not.

 

[Savagezion]

Poll suggests this is a primary deciding influence which I doubt will score higher than gameplay or other crap. Considering the sales and importance of offering love interests in games, I would say that it influences many. It plays a factor for most for sure. Sex sells to both men and women alike. It's in our nature. When you consider the escapism offered by fantastic tales, this only makes sense that most people would stay with a story longer if it had characters they found sexually attractive than if it didn't.

Yeah, it does as I suspect it does to most people regardless of the poll outcome. However, the question would probably be better asked as "Does having an abundance of T&A influence your purchasing decisions?" as I bet that better reflects what you are asking. If so, then not necessarily in my case - but it can depending on the game.

 

[veloper]

Negatively, yes. It would have been clearer if that option was split from the other yes in the poll.

Sex appeal is fine most of the time, but if I get the impression that polygons in bikinis are the main appeal of the game then I'm out.
I want a challenging game and I cannot fap at polygons.

And sometimes the shit those game artists come up with is just too embarrassing and I'd respect it more if they put a photo from a porno on the game box.

 

[spartandude]

not really, if im honest when i want sex appeal and such i would just look at porn

 

[hazabaza1]

Not that I realise.
It's generally one of those "oh hey boobies, looks like I won't be getting this any time soon" situations but advertising is all subtle and shit so I dunno.