Sexuality in gaming, your stance?

[Caiphus]

I don't understand this. Is not saying, "I don't don't want to play this game because (X reason)" not a criticism?

Also, what about people who buy games but don't like a specific thing about it? Shouldn't they also voice their opinion?

I think his point is, and it's probably a valid one, that a lot of people who criticise wouldn't buy the game anyway, even if their complaints were dealt with.

I'd use Twilight as an example. From what I've heard the romance in that book is bloody poor and sends shoddy messages about motherhood and sex and all that. I'm not going to go on a crusade about it though, because frankly, I wouldn't buy the bloody thing anyway.

 

[white_wolf]

I don't like it if she (and lets face it 9/10 times its a she) is the sole person in the game boss, friend, hero, npc, party member that is sexulized unless we are at a strip club and she is a stripper or we're at the beach and she's dressed for that occasion. Now if its the whole team, group, or theme of the game to have all cast be sexulized or under-dressed for the occasion, weather, or occupation then its fine.

For instance Prince of Persia Warrior Within is not ok the fem boss is deliberately and blatantly a sexual tease for the sole purpose of this. The cast of Guilty Gear is fine the majority of them are in some way sexulized or poorly dressed for their occupation.

 

[Kalith]

I think it's interesting that the *sexy* pics you chose are of girls that don't look like they're very far into puberty lolol.

I don't care either way, I love Lollipop chainsaw and I love Vi from LoL, they're both sexy to me

I do get your point though of less is more, leave the viewer using their imagination to fill in the blanks, but again, sexy is subjective so in you're opinion you are of course correct, but so am I and everyone else lol.

Mind you, I have to say that the looks of a character have pretty much zero to do with whether or not I'll play it.

 

[Creator002]

I've kind of gotten to the point where I don't care anymore when it comes to sexuality in any form of media. Just reading the discussions has burnt me out.
I say put whatever you want in games. I don't care if characters have every millimetre of skin exposed or covered. I don't care how the characters are written. I don't care what the characters represent. I just want an enjoyable gaming experience. If it makes everyone happy to have all women in games be strong characters without gender being a defining part of their character, fine. Do it. If the game is fun, I'll play it, I'll enjoy it.

 

[Depulcator]

I don't care about sexuality, I care if the game is good.

 

[lapan]

I don't like it if she (and lets face it 9/10 times its a she) is the sole person in the game boss, friend, hero, npc, party member that is sexulized unless we are at a strip club and she is a stripper or we're at the beach and she's dressed for that occasion. Now if its the whole team, group, or theme of the game to have all cast be sexulized or under-dressed for the occasion, weather, or occupation then its fine.

For instance Prince of Persia Warrior Within is not ok the fem boss is deliberately and blatantly a sexual tease for the sole purpose of this. The cast of Guilty Gear is fine the majority of them are in some way sexulized or poorly dressed for their occupation.

I don't think Guilty Gear is a good example or even the worst of it's genre. every single character in Guilty gear is over-stylized into sillyness.

Looking at the characters again the only one that seems under-dressed is Dizzy. The rest at most has shoulder-free clothes.

The males actually have less clothing on average

EDIT: Never mind, i misread your post

 

[zxvcasdfqwerzxcv]

In any good film, tv show, book, song or uses sexuality in context; only when it is needed. It should not be tacked on for sheer titillation, though neither should it be repressed if context calls for it. So I'm all for whatever level of sexuality in games, so long as it serves a purpose. If it doesn't it just feels tacked on, which brings the whole quality of the game down with it. If you have to tack on sex to sell your game, you've probably not made a very good game.

 

[LetalisK]

It's always funny how people react to other people's sexuality being catered for, though (think Anders hitting on you and many people's reaction to that).

Kind of off-topic, but I've found this be a bullshit complaint in the first place. I've been playing(read: plodding through) DA2 for the first time and one of the things I specifically looked for was this whole Anders debacle. However, I haven't been able to find a single instance where he was treated any differently in romance initiation. I kept hearing about how he gets foisted on to you, but it simple hasn't happened. My trick? Don't pick the big fucking heart conversation option. Hell, maybe it did happen somewhere, but if it did, it was utterly insignificant.

*cough* Sorry. >.>

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I honestly couldn't care less, although I definitely find the 'trying too hard' stuff to be extremely cringe-worthy. It doesn't make or break my enjoyment of a game though. That said, some of the simply ridiculous stuff could definitely ruin the tone of a game for me (imagine if Telltale's The Walking Dead had Soul Calibur's Ivy).

Characters like Ivy do absolutely nothing for me, they just look too ridiculous and stupid to have any attractive qualities at all. I'm more of an eyes/hair/face guy than a boobs or ass guy anyway, and I think its sexier when a reasonable amount is covered up and left to the imagination.

 

[Hagi]

I'm fine with pretty much anything.

Nothing against games employing titillation or even going way beyond that, no problem with sexualization of female characters ( or male ones, but that doesn't happen very often ).

Only thing I do have a problem with is a lack of variety. It shouldn't be as hard as it is now to find several games with female protagonists whom aren't sexualized. It shouldn't be as hard as it is now to find games with male protagonists who are blatantly and extremely sexualized.

I think in that aspect the medium still has a lot of growing to do, not just in character portrayal but also in more general. I think we could do with a hell lot more variety in genres, niches, characters, audiences etc.

 

[lapan]

Characters like Ivy do absolutely nothing for me, they just look too ridiculous and stupid to have any attractive qualities at all. I'm more of an eyes/hair/face guy than a boobs or ass guy anyway, and I think its sexier when a reasonable amount is covered up and left to the imagination.

I just find Ivys weapon interesting, if I'm playing fighting games chances are I've got no time to look at boobs anyways.
Also, the create a character mode allows to use her weapon while still playing a properly clothed woman or man

 

[Terminal Blue]

Kind of off-topic, but I've found this be a bullshit complaint in the first place. I've been playing(read: plodding through) DA2 for the first time and one of the things I specifically looked for was this whole Anders debacle. However, I haven't been able to find a single instance where he was treated any differently in romance initiation. I kept hearing about how he gets foisted on to you, but it simple hasn't happened. My trick? Don't pick the big fucking heart conversation option. Hell, maybe it did happen somewhere, but if it did, it was utterly insignificant.

I think the main "issue" there is that unless you are extremely careful in picking dialogue options you get a tiny rivalry shift from turning Anders down, and it's there regardless of whether you play a male or female Hawke.

From what I understand, people felt like in the case of a male Hawke you should have been able to say "no homo" and that should have removed any emotional consequences from the situation. You know, just like in real life. Because gay people are such a tiny minority they should expect their romantic intentions to always be rejected and should therefore never feel bad about it.

This is sexy:

I think what this illustrates is that you have a type, and it's a type I can see numerous problems with. Thus, I don't think you're successfully claiming any kind of high ground here because your argument is just "I don't find this sexy and that's a problem.. but I find this sexy and therefore it's not a problem".

Personally, I like breasts. They're probably my favourite thing about female bodies. However, I don't think that makes characters like Ivy any less of a problem.

The problem is the overall generally distorted appearance of women in games promotes an unrealistic and unobtainable image of what women actually look like. I've lived long enough to see enough women with fantastic bodies, but they still don't look like most female game characters. This is not just an issue of low self-esteem in women either, actually it strikes me as far more of a problem for men because it leads you to judge real people by the standards of fictional characters and thus degrades the quality of real sexual experience.

A game which is meant to be sexy probably shouldn't be making real life less sexy. You'd think it would actually supplement real life.

 

[Olas]

As someone who isn't even turned on by the stereotypical sexy female character, I find it painfully annoying whenever it's thrown in my face for no reason. I almost always hate fanservicey characters.

From a purely conceptual standpoint I don't have any inherent problem with sexualization. I see it just as an easy/lazy way to draw male interest. However I do wish the games/movies that use it would be honest and upfront about it, rather than playing innocent and acting like it's a coincidence that the girl's clothes got accidentally ripped off in combat. Every time I see something like that my eyes practically roll out of their sockets and I lose some respect for both the character, the story, and humanity.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Kind of off-topic, but I've found this be a bullshit complaint in the first place. I've been playing(read: plodding through) DA2 for the first time and one of the things I specifically looked for was this whole Anders debacle. However, I haven't been able to find a single instance where he was treated any differently in romance initiation. I kept hearing about how he gets foisted on to you, but it simple hasn't happened. My trick? Don't pick the big fucking heart conversation option. Hell, maybe it did happen somewhere, but if it did, it was utterly insignificant.

I think the main "issue" there is that unless you are extremely careful in picking dialogue options you get a tiny rivalry shift from turning Anders down, and it's there regardless of whether you play a male or female Hawke.

From what I understand, people felt like in the case of a male Hawke you should have been able to say "no homo" and that should have removed any emotional consequences from the situation. You know, just like in real life. Because gay people are such a tiny minority they should expect their romantic intentions to always be rejected and should therefore never feel bad about it.

This is sexy:

I think what this illustrates is that you have a type, and it's a type I can see numerous problems with. Thus, I don't think you're successfully claiming any kind of high ground here because your argument is just "I don't find this sexy and that's a problem.. but I find this sexy and therefore it's not a problem".

Personally, I like breasts. They're probably my favourite thing about female bodies. However, I don't think that makes characters like Ivy any less of a problem.

The problem is the overall generally distorted appearance of women in games promotes an unrealistic and unobtainable image of what women actually look like. I've lived long enough to see enough women with fantastic bodies, but they still don't look like most female game characters. This is not just an issue of low self-esteem in women either, actually it strikes me as far more of a problem for men because it leads you to judge real people by the standards of fictional characters and thus degrades the quality of real sexual experience.

A game which is meant to be sexy probably shouldn't be making real life less sexy. You'd think it would actually supplement real life.

From a female perspective, the least offensive pic in the OP probably is the bottom character (Ivy), as she is the only one that looks somewhat real. As a woman, I find the Anime eyes and the view we are "talking dolls" MORE offensive than the focus on our breasts.

Anime eyes IRL are just plain gross.

and honestly, having a guy stare at your breasts is actually better than them telling you that " you are like a little fiesty doll" The view of women here is the problem and the idea that guys think this is what women should be, or that this is even sexy is a part of the problem.

I do not mind sexuality in games, I am irritated to no end by portraying women as overly emotional high pitched voiced little dolls with giant insect like eyes. When a guy tells me how I am like a cute little doll, all I want to do at that point is kick him in the balls.

I have no idea why they can't just make women in games look like well, women:
http://www.mensfitness.com/women/galleries/top-10-sexiest-female-athletes-of-2013

 

[Phasmal]

It's always funny how people react to other people's sexuality being catered for, though (think Anders hitting on you and many people's reaction to that).

Kind of off-topic, but I've found this be a bullshit complaint in the first place. I've been playing(read: plodding through) DA2 for the first time and one of the things I specifically looked for was this whole Anders debacle. However, I haven't been able to find a single instance where he was treated any differently in romance initiation. I kept hearing about how he gets foisted on to you, but it simple hasn't happened. My trick? Don't pick the big fucking heart conversation option. Hell, maybe it did happen somewhere, but if it did, it was utterly insignificant.

*cough* Sorry. >.>

I think I remember him being a little flirty with my femHawke so I'll assume he does the same to manHawke, but I already had my eye on Fenris by then. Though I did romance him on another playthrough and found him a little needy.

But seriously, I've put up with so much boob-bouncing fanservice with a cheeky wink to the player over the years, and `YOU CARE ABOUT THIS WOMAN BECAUSE YOU FIND HER SEXY` when that's totally not what I'm `into`. So I think the people getting their panties in a twist can deal with a mage man giving you the quiet how-you-doin'.

However I can already see people in the thread doing the whole `Females don't play enough HARDCORE GAEMZ to have their opinions matter!`. Typical.

 

[King Zeal]

I don't understand this. Is not saying, "I don't don't want to play this game because (X reason)" not a criticism?

Also, what about people who buy games but don't like a specific thing about it? Shouldn't they also voice their opinion?

I think his point is, and it's probably a valid one, that a lot of people who criticise wouldn't buy the game anyway, even if their complaints were dealt with.

I'd use Twilight as an example. From what I've heard the romance in that book is bloody poor and sends shoddy messages about motherhood and sex and all that. I'm not going to go on a crusade about it though, because frankly, I wouldn't buy the bloody thing anyway.

Word of mouth works wonders, though. For example, how many people actually cared about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic before people started talking about how awesome it was? Now it's a freaking phenomenon.

When I was younger, the same thing happened with Pokemon.

 

[The_Echo]

This is trying too hard:

Spoiler

Honestly, I've always found Ivy to be disgusting. Same with Anna from Tekken.

How anyone finds them attractive is beyond me.

OT: I... don't really... care at all? The characters can look however the artists want them to. I don't care as long as they look good.

The Dragon's Crown Sorceress [http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/dragons-crown-sorceress-walking-animation.gif] looks good. Metal Gear Solid's Meryl [http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/4127/571181-meryl.png] looks good. The Last of Us' Ellie [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120122170345/thelastofus/images/e/e9/Ellie12.png] looks good. Spyro: Year of the Dragon's Bianca [http://spyropedia.com/images/b/b8/Biancarobe.jpg] looks good.

And any or all of those characters could look any other way, any way at all! So long as they look good.

Ivy's still fucking gross though.

 

[King Zeal]

The Sorceress is worse than Ivy too me, though. I can't imagine how much that jiggling hurts.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

This is trying too hard:

Spoiler

Honestly, I've always found Ivy to be disgusting. Same with Anna from Tekken.

How anyone finds them attractive is beyond me.

OT: I... don't really... care at all? The characters can look however the artists want them to. I don't care as long as they look good.

The Dragon's Crown Sorceress [http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/dragons-crown-sorceress-walking-animation.gif] looks good. Metal Gear Solid's Meryl [http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/4127/571181-meryl.png] looks good. The Last of Us' Ellie [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120122170345/thelastofus/images/e/e9/Ellie12.png] looks good. Spyro: Year of the Dragon's Bianca [http://spyropedia.com/images/b/b8/Biancarobe.jpg] looks good.

And any or all of those characters could look any other way, any way at all! So long as they look good.

Ivy's still fucking gross though.

What about those two do you find disgusting? They have muscular legs wide hips? To me they just look like women, more like women than Dragons crown sorceress and that Spyro junk. LOL

I would think making the women appear more like women and more muscular if they are going to be considered athletic in games would be an improvement over the majority of what they have in there now. The Dragons crown idea of women is absurd.

EDIT:
I would rather them just make women look like women:
http://www.mensfitness.com/women/galleries/top-10-sexiest-female-athletes-of-2013

But then again, I think the vast majority of male characters just look gross.