What are some well-sexualized male game characters?
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First, let me welcome you for finally joining the Escapist!IndieGinge said:
Second, don't mind Soup too much. He can be full of himself. But he can be loads of fun.
I can see what he means though. From the pictures I've seen of Vanderloo, he does look a little dopey, and Sheploo kinda does too. I get why some people find him sexy though.
And I guess Drake would count. I find him cute enough in a dashing way. But the one who holds my game crush heart is this guy:
*drools* Guh, where was I? Uh, yeah, he's just all around sexy. The voice, the face, his bum... *drools*
Oh, he also fits my play style very well. And those pants.
FF to 4:38
I'm reasonably certain that all the romance options in the Mass Effect series were designed to appeal to their targeted gender (save Garrus and Tali, who weren't made to be love interests and only became LIs because Mass Effect fans are scary).
... I'll let myself out...
Um, one question. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT SHEPARD FACE?Jensen, as said before, has gelled spiky(ish) hair, has built in sunglasses, and Bale's Batman voice, so he does kinda come off as a bit douchey. What puts me off though is that he's something like 60% implants. That, and that stamp on his head. And his voice. But only a bit.
And I guess Drake would count. I find him cute enough in a dashing way. But the one who holds my game crush heart is this guy:
*drools* Guh, where was I? Uh, yeah, he's just all around sexy. The voice, the face, his bum... *drools*
Oh, he also fits my play style very well. And those pants.
FF to 4:38
I'm reasonably certain that all the romance options in the Mass Effect series were designed to appeal to their targeted gender (save Garrus and Tali, who weren't made to be love interests and only became LIs because Mass Effect fans are scary).
Moving on, I'd forgotten about the sunglasses and Christian Bale voice, it's been awhile. The implant related squick make sense. To be fair though, Jensen's voice was no where near as bad as Bale's own.
Also, I'd not seen that scene with Alenko. Never romanced him. It was worth a grin and a sharp exhale of breath.
Also, how are we scary? Besides, you know, the xenophilia. It's not our fault the best personalities were kept in the non human bodies! (And this is definitely not a pathetic justification! Why are you looking at me like that?)
According to the wife of a designer of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link is certainly one...after a make over that she made his husband do:
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/zelda-ocarina-of-time/1/7
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/zelda-ocarina-of-time/1/7
Not a lady, but I'm into the dudes. The guys who rev my engine have already been brought up. Prince of Persia (from Sands of Time), Leon, old!Dante (especially in DMC4). I could add that Chris Redfield is pretty hot too (both pre- and post-steroids), plus Billy Coen and Carlos Oliveira (Capcom is good at making sexy guys, okay?).
I know I'm forgetting some of them, for sure. The thing that keeps me from finding some of the AAA guys attractive is that they always seem to be portrayed as hyper-aggressive douchebags. Might have great abs or a handsome face, but it doesn't do squat for me if I want to punch them every time I see them.
Also, I don't know who this is:
But whoa. Sign me up.
I know I'm forgetting some of them, for sure. The thing that keeps me from finding some of the AAA guys attractive is that they always seem to be portrayed as hyper-aggressive douchebags. Might have great abs or a handsome face, but it doesn't do squat for me if I want to punch them every time I see them.
Also, I don't know who this is:
But whoa. Sign me up.
He actually is. I was really surprised. Though he gets progressively less hot the more crazy and damaged (both physically and mentally) he becomes.Quiet Stranger said:
I'm a hetero guy but I don't think anyone is gonna contradict me on these points:
The kind of hypersexualisation that some men like in their female characters doesn't tend to work the other way around. This is because exaggerating feminine characteristics doesn't really have any downsides until it starts to push things into creepy uncanny valley territory, whereas exaggerating masculine characteristics past a certain point will make a man seem threatening. Nobody wants to sleep with someone who could easily snap them in half, like Kratos.
So, you want to keep things moderate. Your male character needs to be in pretty good shape - the kind of physique you get if you're a pretty active sportsman is good, but don't push it beyond that. Roid abusers and egotistical gym addicted douchebags aren't generally considered sexy.
There's less agreement on other characteristics. Buzzcuts can look a bit too aggressive and threatening, so hair that more approaches mid to long is usually better. It should be well taken care of too. Lank greasy locks are bad. A solid jawline tends to do quite well, as does a good chin. Those who like bishonen types might look for softer, boyish features.
Chest hair is a big divider. It seems to be more or less out of fashion now, and the fact that there are basically no modern 'sex symbol' kinda men with chest fuzz makes it hard to tell how well it would actual go down if one were to pop up. But Sean Connery was considered sexy for an older guy, wasn't he? So it can work. A few women have commented that they rather like mine, too x)... so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I personally think completely hairless chests kinda make it look like men haven't been through puberty properly yet, but whatever. This is one area where there's loads of disagreement.
So basically, trying to make a character that every straight woman/gay dude finds sexy is going to be pretty difficult, but if you can cover your bases by having one more feminine and one more masculine character then you're probably set.
The kind of hypersexualisation that some men like in their female characters doesn't tend to work the other way around. This is because exaggerating feminine characteristics doesn't really have any downsides until it starts to push things into creepy uncanny valley territory, whereas exaggerating masculine characteristics past a certain point will make a man seem threatening. Nobody wants to sleep with someone who could easily snap them in half, like Kratos.
So, you want to keep things moderate. Your male character needs to be in pretty good shape - the kind of physique you get if you're a pretty active sportsman is good, but don't push it beyond that. Roid abusers and egotistical gym addicted douchebags aren't generally considered sexy.
There's less agreement on other characteristics. Buzzcuts can look a bit too aggressive and threatening, so hair that more approaches mid to long is usually better. It should be well taken care of too. Lank greasy locks are bad. A solid jawline tends to do quite well, as does a good chin. Those who like bishonen types might look for softer, boyish features.
Chest hair is a big divider. It seems to be more or less out of fashion now, and the fact that there are basically no modern 'sex symbol' kinda men with chest fuzz makes it hard to tell how well it would actual go down if one were to pop up. But Sean Connery was considered sexy for an older guy, wasn't he? So it can work. A few women have commented that they rather like mine, too x)... so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I personally think completely hairless chests kinda make it look like men haven't been through puberty properly yet, but whatever. This is one area where there's loads of disagreement.
So basically, trying to make a character that every straight woman/gay dude finds sexy is going to be pretty difficult, but if you can cover your bases by having one more feminine and one more masculine character then you're probably set.
TBH, I disagree.Valnyan said:
The major point being that a sexualized male pretty much overlaps with the strong, manly male.
Maybe we need at least a little exaggeration to justify calling them "sexualized", in which case I'd say it's fair to count the following:
- Big Boss/Snake
- Vamp
- Kratos
- Nathan Drake (wat?... he's a bit sickeningly-generically-good-looking is all ;d)
- Dante
- Chris Redfield from RE5 (dem muscles...)
- Most fighting game characters (Ryu... Ken... Liu Kang... Johnny Cage... all have highly-defined muscles)
Probably lots more but they're pretty common IMO.
Bahahahaha...TehCookie said:All these mentions of Solid Snake and not a single ass picture, I am disappoint.
That totally IS one of the enduring memories of MGS2 though, isn't it?
Dat........ assssss... as it were.
Couldn't one argue that men are objectified in different ways, e.g. when they're depicted as expendable cannon fodder and die en masse?PedroSteckecilo said:
I think that's fair enough, IMO. To call it objectification when someone is reduced to an object of war. Not sexual, but it's clearly much worse and has actual consequences.
As well as I still don't nderstand WTF sexual objectification is even supposed to mean.
As though it's a crime for someone to make bad female characters where they still manage to make them look nice or at least horribly boobulous.
Meanwhile, all of the crap male characters in games (and there are tons), are never mentioned in a gendered context.
Essentially all the romance-able male allies from dragon age(other then Anders or whatever his name is, and not Ogrin either).
I liked the female characters from the Dragon Age game's, but my female friends spew orgasmic love hate over there romances with them through there play through.
I liked the female characters from the Dragon Age game's, but my female friends spew orgasmic love hate over there romances with them through there play through.
Just about all the characters from Urban Reign, Brad Hawk especially. There are all kinds of ethnicities represented here as well - American (black/white) Chinese, Thai, and Japanese.
Sexualized in the way they're all macho.
Sexualized in the way they're all macho.
how on earth did i forget about Roche?Mikejames said:Don't you pretend that Roche isn't where it's at.spartandude said:
well can we put most of the cast from Witcher 2 in there, with exception of Geralt, Zoltan and Dandelion
Thane in Mass Effect was designed to be the sexy dude counterpart of all those perfect-body-skintight-outfit asari. Did it work?
Well... It might have. But to take Thane as an option, the ladies (and dudes playing FemSheps who were into dudes) had to be immune to Garrus Vakarian being Garrus Vakarian.
Which just goes to show that if you have a rather bizarre looking but incredibly awesome guy, and a smooth, suave, sophisticated, sexy guy... Most of the ladies will go for the awesome personality.
Too bad so few dudes are the same.
(Just to put across my opinion on the matter- while I thought both characters are awesome, I though Thane's romance was better executed. ME2, Garrus had very few conversation options, which left it feeling too shallow for my liking, compared to Thane being both a later recruit and having much more to say; and ME3, they tried to introduce Shepard/turian kisses, which just boggled my mind. Just my thoughts there.)
Well... It might have. But to take Thane as an option, the ladies (and dudes playing FemSheps who were into dudes) had to be immune to Garrus Vakarian being Garrus Vakarian.
Which just goes to show that if you have a rather bizarre looking but incredibly awesome guy, and a smooth, suave, sophisticated, sexy guy... Most of the ladies will go for the awesome personality.
Too bad so few dudes are the same.
(Just to put across my opinion on the matter- while I thought both characters are awesome, I though Thane's romance was better executed. ME2, Garrus had very few conversation options, which left it feeling too shallow for my liking, compared to Thane being both a later recruit and having much more to say; and ME3, they tried to introduce Shepard/turian kisses, which just boggled my mind. Just my thoughts there.)
Just because a character gets someone (or a large number of someones) hot in their undergarments, does not mean they're sexualised.Marcus Kehoe said:
Morrigan was sexualised. Her outfit literally screamed "look at my skin". None of the male characters were designed to be physically sexualised.
Even Zevran- easily one of the most sexual characters in the game- is not "sexualised". His words are all about sex, sure; but his appearance is not. He just wears the same leather armour as other rogues, and it's hardly "sexy" armour. (Unless you take the full-covering-on-men Dalish armour and put it on, say, Leliana. Or a female PC rogue.) The closest I can think of to a male romance option having a "sexualised" appearance in Dragon Age is, weirdly, Fenris. (Spiky bits and armour aside, his basic outfit is kind of skintight, and it randomly has exposed skin where it doesn't make much sense to have exposed skin.) But I really don't think of him as being anywhere near comparable to Morrigan's "outfit".
One could argue that Varric's half-open shirt and rather dense chest hair is supposed to be sexualisation, but I don't think so.
The problem is that men have this knee-jerk reaction to sexualised men in their media. Even if it's their to titillate other people, they seem to feel very uncomfortable with it. (And no, I'm not talking about hulking manly men who they can go "hurr look at him I want to be like him" about. There are a lot of those, and they are provided FOR the predominantly heterosexual males to want to be like. I'm sure you've heard it all before...)
Frankly, I'm just as uncomfortable with ANY sexualisation. (I don't mean sexiness, just for the record.) I'm not attracted to video game characters; so when a video game goes "mm look at how much skin this character is showing, aren't they sexay" it actually turns me off the game. And I can't, off the top of my head, think of any game where a male character is using that crude "look how hot he is" approach to try to get a reaction from me. Trying to get a reaction from my character or another character in the game is fine; but trying to get a reaction from ME makes me feel... unpleasantly voyeuristic. But hey, I'd be the first to admit I'm weird.
This thread has nice timing, my younger sister and I were just talking about our ideal visual design for characters (male and female).
She said that the male high elf race from TERA pretty much encapsulates the whole thing for her.
She said that the male high elf race from TERA pretty much encapsulates the whole thing for her.
[/spoiler]
I do have to agree that some of them are very attractive, even sexy at times.
(a gallery of Male High Elf outfits is available here: [a href='http://tera-online.cc/gallery/high-elf-male/']the robes are her favorite styles[/a])
On the other hand she also pointed to the Male Castanic race in the same game, granted the Castanic (male and female) are designed to be ludicrous amounts of oversexualized (most if not all of those pictures of absurd TERA 'armour' come from the Castanic race)...making them great for this topic:
[spoiler][img src='http://lookingforgirls.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/sexualization2.jpg'][/spoiler]
I'm not terribly enticed by most of them, but can understand why others are.
(more Male Castanic here: [a href='http://tera-online.cc/gallery/castanic-male/']contrary to most races the robes are the most conservative outfits[/a])
It's worth noting that a large part of the reason these two are enticing is the animation design they have, note this video of male high elf emotes:
[spoiler][MEDIA=youtube]'usnaVTMtp7I'[/MEDIA][/spoiler]
I think TERA, despite the reputation it has, does a wonderful job of sexualizing many different styles such that there is something for most everyone. The Elin in particular is a female body type that, unfortunately, doesn't get much service.
I do have to agree that some of them are very attractive, even sexy at times.
(a gallery of Male High Elf outfits is available here: [a href='http://tera-online.cc/gallery/high-elf-male/']the robes are her favorite styles[/a])
On the other hand she also pointed to the Male Castanic race in the same game, granted the Castanic (male and female) are designed to be ludicrous amounts of oversexualized (most if not all of those pictures of absurd TERA 'armour' come from the Castanic race)...making them great for this topic:
[spoiler][img src='http://lookingforgirls.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/sexualization2.jpg'][/spoiler]
I'm not terribly enticed by most of them, but can understand why others are.
(more Male Castanic here: [a href='http://tera-online.cc/gallery/castanic-male/']contrary to most races the robes are the most conservative outfits[/a])
It's worth noting that a large part of the reason these two are enticing is the animation design they have, note this video of male high elf emotes:
[spoiler][MEDIA=youtube]'usnaVTMtp7I'[/MEDIA][/spoiler]
I think TERA, despite the reputation it has, does a wonderful job of sexualizing many different styles such that there is something for most everyone. The Elin in particular is a female body type that, unfortunately, doesn't get much service.