It really depresses me that people are apparently so weak willed to over analyse things to this extent.
"Peach is a Woman! Look! She does typical woman things! Why isn't she doing MAN things! For Equality!".
Because that's not her character.
That's not the way she was designed.
That's really all there is to it. I'm pretty sure most men don't see peach and think "Oh, all women must be like that".
Likewise, I'm sure most women don't look at Marcus Fenix and think "Oh, all men must be like that".
There is no "Sexism" in characters, people are capable of being stereotypes. Any character is capable of acting in any way, the idea that we have to be offended because a certain character acts a certain way is just silly.
I have enough security in my view of the world to know that a female character in a video game acting like a stereotypical female isn't going to rock my view of women and make me think they're all weak and helpless.
The argument is basically "There isn't enough diversity for women in games".
You're absolutely right.
The same is true for men.
Majority of male characters: Some hero figure, generally experienced in whatever they do (Generally killing other things.), emotionally undeveloped.
Majority of female characters: Needs protecting, serves as goal for protagonist, often sexualised.
Both are completely inaccurate to any reality.
One may argue the females are more "Negatively portrayed", but, this is really just opinion. While you yourself might not want to be some Disney princess who's rescued from every situation, there are a fair amount of people that do.
Likewise, while some men may want to be the hero who's emotionally stunted and detached, there's a fair amount of us that really can't think of much worse.
But, at the end of the day, it's completely irrelevant, because I'm entirely capable of saying "Hey, this is just a character. Maybe he's just like that."
And the moment it stops selling so well, I'm certain change will happen.
It's just silly to think that any change can happen just by bitching hard enough, that's not how it works. Games are products, if games with well developed female characters who aren't stereotypes start to sell well, you can sure as hell bet they'll be more of them.
But, that's not the case. People buy and support characters which are stereotypes, some of the favourite characters in gaming are hilariously stereotypical characters with almost zero personality beyond this.
Because, at the end of the day, it's a game. It's supposed to be fun. And when fun comes into it, reality takes a back seat, and given that males make up the majority of this market, it's obviously going to pander to stereotypical male fantasies.
And the most common of which is...
Games exist to make money, and they're going to do that however they see fit. They're most certainly not here to be respectable about it. And for the most part, that's going to involve things like this. And I fully suggest that if you want to change that, you actually work towards doing so rather than bitching on a forum or supporting somebody else's bitching.
If a game's portrayal of a man, or a woman offends you, don't buy it.
Likewise, any game that you deem progress on this, support it.
"Peach is a Woman! Look! She does typical woman things! Why isn't she doing MAN things! For Equality!".
Because that's not her character.
That's not the way she was designed.
That's really all there is to it. I'm pretty sure most men don't see peach and think "Oh, all women must be like that".
Likewise, I'm sure most women don't look at Marcus Fenix and think "Oh, all men must be like that".
There is no "Sexism" in characters, people are capable of being stereotypes. Any character is capable of acting in any way, the idea that we have to be offended because a certain character acts a certain way is just silly.
I have enough security in my view of the world to know that a female character in a video game acting like a stereotypical female isn't going to rock my view of women and make me think they're all weak and helpless.
The argument is basically "There isn't enough diversity for women in games".
You're absolutely right.
The same is true for men.
Majority of male characters: Some hero figure, generally experienced in whatever they do (Generally killing other things.), emotionally undeveloped.
Majority of female characters: Needs protecting, serves as goal for protagonist, often sexualised.
Both are completely inaccurate to any reality.
One may argue the females are more "Negatively portrayed", but, this is really just opinion. While you yourself might not want to be some Disney princess who's rescued from every situation, there are a fair amount of people that do.
Likewise, while some men may want to be the hero who's emotionally stunted and detached, there's a fair amount of us that really can't think of much worse.
But, at the end of the day, it's completely irrelevant, because I'm entirely capable of saying "Hey, this is just a character. Maybe he's just like that."
And the moment it stops selling so well, I'm certain change will happen.
It's just silly to think that any change can happen just by bitching hard enough, that's not how it works. Games are products, if games with well developed female characters who aren't stereotypes start to sell well, you can sure as hell bet they'll be more of them.
But, that's not the case. People buy and support characters which are stereotypes, some of the favourite characters in gaming are hilariously stereotypical characters with almost zero personality beyond this.
Because, at the end of the day, it's a game. It's supposed to be fun. And when fun comes into it, reality takes a back seat, and given that males make up the majority of this market, it's obviously going to pander to stereotypical male fantasies.
And the most common of which is...
Games exist to make money, and they're going to do that however they see fit. They're most certainly not here to be respectable about it. And for the most part, that's going to involve things like this. And I fully suggest that if you want to change that, you actually work towards doing so rather than bitching on a forum or supporting somebody else's bitching.
If a game's portrayal of a man, or a woman offends you, don't buy it.
Likewise, any game that you deem progress on this, support it.