Poll: Female enemies in Games (and enemy feedback)
- Thread starter Jumplion
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I'm sorry, it's a game. I have never experienced a point where I feel squeamish because it's not real. Consequently, I generally have no issues with female enemies. I do feel that female enemies (the antagonists especially) are always portrayed as scantily dressed as possible and/or is a *****. There's never very much character development I find, and they almost definitively hold the monopoly on the "plot-twist" of character betrayal.
The only time I ever consider gender issues is on moral choices. A more general (and over-played, and infamous) example would be, of course, "No Russian". Now, I didn't fire upon the crowd purely because I thought the objective would be to kill Makarov and blah-de-blah-de-blah, you get the point. Now, in games such as Mass Effect where you can get simple yes and no choices, there might inevitably come up with a choice where you have to sacrifice a team member. I will always choose who I like the most, regardless of sex. If they're strangers, it depends on the context but I have natural leans towards the opposite sex.
I kinda forgot my point. Basically, I just don't give a damn about gender.
The only time I ever consider gender issues is on moral choices. A more general (and over-played, and infamous) example would be, of course, "No Russian". Now, I didn't fire upon the crowd purely because I thought the objective would be to kill Makarov and blah-de-blah-de-blah, you get the point. Now, in games such as Mass Effect where you can get simple yes and no choices, there might inevitably come up with a choice where you have to sacrifice a team member. I will always choose who I like the most, regardless of sex. If they're strangers, it depends on the context but I have natural leans towards the opposite sex.
I kinda forgot my point. Basically, I just don't give a damn about gender.
Just so that I'm clear, are you therefore condoning equal-opportunities violence? I wouldn't condone any kind of violence, against men or women. The point that I was making is that the comment made by whoever-it-was in the first place was completely unnecessary and particularly unsavoury.Deshara said:
Granted, there are a lot of male vicims of violence who don't come forward for a number of socio-cultural reasons, but I personally think that the attitude displayed in the original post is a particularly inappropriate one to be proliferating.
I suspect at the end of the day we'd both agree on that, so how about we leave it there?
I don't care, they are still humans just like males... well... in some games... point in, they are still the same species as their male counterparts and are no more or no less important, so yeah, lets shoot them.
My only problem is the nature of their screams. My friend was playing Boarderlands as the siren (Female PC) and he had to turn it off, his family was wondering what he was watching because it sounded like porn with guns and explosions.
Honestly, I wish there were MORE female enemies in games. I feel like a lot of games shy away from putting female enemies in precisely because of the idea that it's not okay to hit a girl, and that sort of conveys the idea that girls are not worthy foes, or something like that. XD I guess the argument could be made that putting female enemies in games encourages violence against women, but how is violence against women any worse than violence against men? Violence is violence.
Two games in particular come to mind: Yakuza and God Hand. Both have heavy focuses on beat-em-up combat, but Yakuza contains exactly one female enemy across the entirety of the first two games (I haven't played the third one; maybe it has more female enemies, I don't know), and she's part of a sidequest that actually involves her being a man in disguise and her brother being a woman in disguise. You fight them both, but the woman has a male sprite and the man has a female sprite. It's an extremely minor event that is easily bypassed and has no bearing on the rest of the game; I don't think the two characters even get names. The thing is, there ARE well-developed female characters in that series who would probably be very capable opponents, but you never actually get to fight them.
God Hand, on the other hand, has a pretty equal distribution of male and female enemies, and all of them are equally capable of kicking your ass. Of course, the women in God Hand tend to be scantily-clad and noticeably jiggly, and the protagonist gets a special "Spank" move that he can only use against them. So...on the one hand, there's definitely some female exploitation going on there, but on the other, I really appreciate that I'm allowed to beat the crap out of both women and men with the same wild abandon.
I guess what I'm getting at is, the theme of the game makes a difference in this regard. Yakuza is a fairly realistic and gritty game (comparatively speaking; let's just ignore the whole "punching tigers in the face" thing for the sake of this discussion) about...well, yakuza, and it makes sense that the women would be vastly outnumbered by the men. God Hand is a completely crazy, over-the-top parade of demon smackdowns, so pretty much anything goes.
As a slight tangent, what about females in fighting games? Does performing a vicious combo against, say, Chun Li make you feel any queasier than performing the same combo against, say, Dhalsim?
Two games in particular come to mind: Yakuza and God Hand. Both have heavy focuses on beat-em-up combat, but Yakuza contains exactly one female enemy across the entirety of the first two games (I haven't played the third one; maybe it has more female enemies, I don't know), and she's part of a sidequest that actually involves her being a man in disguise and her brother being a woman in disguise. You fight them both, but the woman has a male sprite and the man has a female sprite. It's an extremely minor event that is easily bypassed and has no bearing on the rest of the game; I don't think the two characters even get names. The thing is, there ARE well-developed female characters in that series who would probably be very capable opponents, but you never actually get to fight them.
God Hand, on the other hand, has a pretty equal distribution of male and female enemies, and all of them are equally capable of kicking your ass. Of course, the women in God Hand tend to be scantily-clad and noticeably jiggly, and the protagonist gets a special "Spank" move that he can only use against them. So...on the one hand, there's definitely some female exploitation going on there, but on the other, I really appreciate that I'm allowed to beat the crap out of both women and men with the same wild abandon.
I guess what I'm getting at is, the theme of the game makes a difference in this regard. Yakuza is a fairly realistic and gritty game (comparatively speaking; let's just ignore the whole "punching tigers in the face" thing for the sake of this discussion) about...well, yakuza, and it makes sense that the women would be vastly outnumbered by the men. God Hand is a completely crazy, over-the-top parade of demon smackdowns, so pretty much anything goes.
As a slight tangent, what about females in fighting games? Does performing a vicious combo against, say, Chun Li make you feel any queasier than performing the same combo against, say, Dhalsim?
I think the thing that causes people to feel uncomfortable about shooting female enemies may be something along these lines. In most games, the enemies are overwhelmingly male, to the point that it becomes the standard. When a female enemy suddenly pops up, especially one in skin tight clothing revealing a different and to some far more attractive form then that of the 4 foot wide generic male space baddie we've been shooting our brains get thrown off for a half second. The first instant of being thrown off is unconscious, caused by a shift in enemy appearance, knocking us out of the "kill moving thing" mode because we question if this thing is an enemy. From there, at least for straight guys, the built in instinct of liking that kind of shape/ voice kicks in. Hearing that voice scream or that form get damaged triggers some sort of primal dislike in us that isn't wholly rational.
I guess it could boil down to "guys generally feel like they should protect women (for whatever reason, cultural, instinctual etc) and that injuring them goes against our programming" Don't hit girls and all that.
I guess it could boil down to "guys generally feel like they should protect women (for whatever reason, cultural, instinctual etc) and that injuring them goes against our programming" Don't hit girls and all that.
I don't play fighting games, so I wouldn't knowSyndarr said:
No, I don't feel squeamish with that because it falls under the criteria for being over-the-top crazy. And as you said in your post, Chun-Li and Ivy could easily kick anyone's ass in the right hands (there's probably a joke in that...), so I wouldn't feel bad for beating them up or vice versa.
I gun down any and all threats to my avatar, regardless of species, gender, sexuality... you name it. What can I say? I'm just that open minded a guy. I like to think that having breasts does not override the fact that you happen to be shooting laser death beams at me.
...That said, I'm usually willing to, say, attach a zip-line to any passing pedestrian, male or female, and drag them along behind my bike. This is because such an act, whilst reprehensible in polite society, is quite acceptable within the realms of a videogame. I personally love the freedom to do all the evil shit I'd never even consider in real life.
Now, enemy feedback? One person mentioned the dogs, in Fallout, I think? They always make me a little sad... but people feedback? Adds to immersion. It'd be weird if the only feedback you got was a fantastically rendered scowly face.
...That said, I'm usually willing to, say, attach a zip-line to any passing pedestrian, male or female, and drag them along behind my bike. This is because such an act, whilst reprehensible in polite society, is quite acceptable within the realms of a videogame. I personally love the freedom to do all the evil shit I'd never even consider in real life.
Now, enemy feedback? One person mentioned the dogs, in Fallout, I think? They always make me a little sad... but people feedback? Adds to immersion. It'd be weird if the only feedback you got was a fantastically rendered scowly face.