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

[Creator002]

Despite the fact I own Lollipop Chainsaw, no. The main influences for me to buy a game are gameplay and story. Basically, if I feel as if I'll have fun with a game, I'll buy it. Sometimes I sacrifice a bit of gameplay for story, but generally if there's a good dose of both in a game, I'm happy.

 

[Mikeyfell]

maybe, possibly, yes...
Don't judge me.

I bought Record of Agarest War because I wanted a mouse bad with boobs on it...
It just so happened that Record of Agarest War is one of the best written JRPG's and one of the most fun games this console generation, But I wouldn't have ever heard of it if it weren't for the sexy shmexy add campaign.

Same thing with Bayonetta, I bought that game because

Spoiler: DAYUMN

I got lucky and it turned out to be really fun.


A ton of the games I like have extremely sexy characters in them, but then again don't like 90% of games have ridiculously attractive women in them?

So I have bought games in the past because of

Spoiler: hubba hubba

but usually it's just an added benefit.
Like I bought Catherine because of the puzzle platforming and

Spoiler: O_0

was extra


I have lucked out in the sense that I never bought a game that sucked because of sex appeal.

Spoiler: ahem

Yeah, I almost bought X-blades... I would have too, if it wasn't for Graham's cameo on Zero Punctuation.
Dodged a bullet there.

 

[spacecowboy86]

I don't openly look for it or really care whether it's there or not. I try to focus more on story and game play when considering my purchases...

...However, as an adolescent boy having an idea how the human mind and hormones function, it probably influences my decisions a bit in invisible ways. Although if a game looks like crap to me no amount of boobs are going to override the fact that I don't want to play it.

 

[afroebob]

Not to any significant degree, no. I might subconsciously lean slightly more to a game with some kind of sexual appeal, but if so than it so small to the point where I couldn't even pinpoint a game where I bought it for that reason even if I tried.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

Subconsciously it does.

For all of you...

 

[Smiley Face]

If it influences me at all, it's to not get it. I don't play games for sex appeal, I play them for other reasons, and the only thing that the use of sex appeal tells me is that the aspects I'm looking for aren't there, or they'd be marketing it to people who're interested in that stuff.

 

[Quadocky]

If Skull Girls is any proof, it pretty much shouts to me "For Creepy Desperate Nerds Only!"

So I definitely stray away from it. Doesn't help that the game is suppose to have a uber focus on pro-mechanics and junk. That just makes it worse in my view as then it starts screaming "For creepy fighting game nerds only!"

 

[Carl Anderson]

As with many of the others: Other, as in 'Yeah, it influences me to avoid the game". Frankly, if the publishers are desperate enough that they feel they have to use sex to sell their game, the chances are that the gameplay itself sucks. I won't avoid a game _just_ because it has characters with sex appeal, but I will avoid the game if it is sold _just_ on sex appeal.

 

[Tuxedoman]

No, not really.

Although I did buy the first Mass Effect because I saw it in a bargain bin, remembered that one Fox News story and decided that I just had to see it for myself.

Does that count?

Lawl.

This is the exact same reason I got the first Mass Effect. Bargin bin and all.
Glad I picked it up when I did, right before Mass Effect 2 was announced.

 

[Broderick]

Unless the game is designed specifically to get me off, I do not look at sex appeal in my game making decisions. To elaborate, if the game is a sex sim or some type of pornography, sex appeal is important. With regular "for fun" games, sex appeal and sexiness in general are on the last of my list of concerns when buying a game.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

To this day I refuse to play or even install TERA Online because of the sheer amount of objectification of women going on there, especially in terms of its armour design.

And I'm pretty sure I've also kept myself from buying a few games after finding out that the women in it were purely there to be eye candy rather than play any real and active part in the story.

So yes, a poor attempt at sex appeal can definitely influence my decision to purchase a game. It makes me ~not~ buy it.

 

[Naqel]

Yes.

If I had two games with similar gameplay, I'd pick the one that has hotter chicks first(cause I'd probably get both anyway).

This is double true when picking up a new IP.

 

[King Aragorn]

As with many of the others: Other, as in 'Yeah, it influences me to avoid the game". Frankly, if the publishers are desperate enough that they feel they have to use sex to sell their game, the chances are that the gameplay itself sucks. I won't avoid a game _just_ because it has characters with sex appeal, but I will avoid the game if it is sold _just_ on sex appeal.

This is exactly how I feel. You do not need to show me sex everywhere for me to buy it, if it's solid. Which is usually not the case, as most of my experiences with such games, they turn out to be bad.

 

[Guilherme Zoldan]

Sometimes, Hope did get me to buy FFXIII, but then again he is cute rather then sexy soooo...I dunno.

 

[shemoanscazrex3]

If it influenced me I would have bought Duke Nukem instead of The Walking Dead

 

[ViciousTide]

The rare games that are wonderful and you play for 100 hours, usually lack sex appeal. Thus you mod sex appeal into the game. Great example is Skyrim, and the better curvy nude ladies mods.. The developers realize all this and keep the real anatomy of the females in game, while having to hold back sex appeal desires from their bosses, to focus purely on game play development.

Another example, getting 2 female sith nude companions in SWKOT to do all the work for me as i zap with lightning.
The microtransactions need to include Nude mods (these could sell for $10/ transaction).

 

[Ryotknife]

Yes it does. It (usually) influences me not to buy a game. If they push the sex appeal from the start, chances are the game is going to be crap. That is not to say that a great game cant have sex appeal, obviously it can. But if its the part that you push the most it does make me suspicious.

 

[rasputin0009]

When I bought the original God of War, all I saw was "Cool! Mythology! I fucking love Greek mythology!" and "Swords on chains!? Fucking awesome!" (I was 15 at the time). And then I started playing it and was very surprised at the start. I had no idea there was nudity in the game and I thought "Cartoon boobs!? Fuck ya! I love boobs!". But the nudity never influenced me to buy the next games in the series because all I saw was, "More chain swords!? Fuck ya! They're improving the game each time by doing the exact same thing! Awesome!". So no, sexuality doesn't influence my choice in buying games. Chain swords do.

 

[CloudAtlas]

"Does sex appeal influence your decision to purchase a game?"


As many others already pointed out, at least implicitly, the wording of the question is a bit problematic.


Female characters being physically attractive is fine. Overly exploiting this attractiveness is not.
And will make me less likely to buy a game. If I still buy it, it will reduce my enjoyment of the game.

For instance, Lara Croft in the new Tomb Raider is every bit as attractive as she was in the older games, at least in my eyes, but unlike before, she's not sexualized in any way, and this game is so much better for that.


A game like the aforementioned Tera is just... no. No.

 

[Alidrasha]

Yes, it usually influences me to not buy the game and buy another one.