Why can't pixels be sexy?

[Dejawesp]

This seems to be a major taboo among the gaming communities to imply that a 3D animated or just animated character is attractive. What are pixels anyway? Anything you see on a screen is a pixel. The more the merrier. Especially nowadays that things are so well animated it shouldn't be the degree of sin that it is.

I mean hell does anyone remember the first Tomb Raider game? That was hot and her tits where triangular. The game even had a nude patch. Though back then downloading 1 MB took 45 minutes so most people had to settle for screenshots from someone who had the nude patch... Anyway. Has this become a culture where geeks rage on other geeks for being bigger geeks? Does levelling up in the geek community actually lower your status in the geek community? Okay drifting off again....

Or what about art? can things drawn by for example Azazel1944 not be attractive because its pixels?

Do geeks need to feel ashamed while with other geeks for proclaiming VG girls like Morrigan (DA) or various MMO girls hot? Heck most females created by blizzard in the past 15 years have been attractive.

 

[moretimethansense]

Who says they can't?
I openly admit to game/anime/whatever charecters being attractive all the time, I think it's just folk trying distance themselves from heir geekiness.

As an aside, most pics of "real" girls are about 40% fake anyway, photoshop, specialist lighting and there's the fact that digital cameras mean thea they're technically pixels too.

 

[Wolfram23]

Personally, I've found many of those overly sexified female characters in games to be very sexy. Well, at least when I was younger, but not so much these days. It's not to say I don't think, for example, Bayonetta isn't hot but it definitely doesn't give me the same feeling as, say, seeing a real pretty girl.

But yeah I think it's silly to say a game character or anime character can't be hot/sexy. Afterall what is it to be sexy? Something that stimulates ones sex desire? Well, if people have furry fetishes and S&M fetishes there's no reason someone couldn't have an attraction to these "fake" females.

As for the people who proudly declare "Not hot, I don't find pixels attractive" I'm not sure but I get the feeling that they're just being dramatic/compensating for *something*.

 

[ABLb0y]

Hell yeah, pixels can be sexy. just look at Vanille from ff13.

 

[Fawcks]

You want some hawt pixels?

Krystal from Starfox, Ninetales in Pokemon, Amaterasu from Okami...

... I'm having trouble thinking of other furry chars...

... Carmelita Fox?

 

[Gentleman_Reptile]

Oh pixellated women (and men, if your a lady-type) can absolutely be sexy. And so they should be.

It's just a matter of specific elements that make them sexy, based on good execution and personal preference.

I find that the problem often rears its ugly head when a digital character who is obviously intended to be "hawt" is argued over by the two different parties who are either attracted to her or not, and neither party seem to state their case very well. Thats when the waters get muddy and you'll see a juvennille bickering over her degree of attractiveness masked as important moral issues like the maturity of the gaming medium.

 

[Calcium]

I actually had this discussion with someone a couple of days ago. I said they could be attractive, she said it was impossible. Argument didn't go anywhere.

 

[infohippie]

Who says we should be ashamed of finding female characters attractive? Yeoman Kelly Chambers, for example, is hawt.

 

[Fawcks]

(and men, if your a lady-type)

Only for lady types, huh? :C

 

[latenightapplepie]

Yes, in the same way that a TV or film character can be. Or in the way a sculpture, painting or etching can be.

Just don't let your appreciation of a mere depiction of something prevent you from appreciating the real deal, so to speak.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

Or what about art? can things drawn by for example Azazel1944 not be attractive because its pixels?

Do geeks need to feel ashamed while with other geeks for proclaiming VG girls like Morrigan (DA) or various MMO girls hot? Heck most females created by blizzard in the past 15 years have been attractive.

A visual stimulus is a visual stimulus-- your brain does not care about the physicality of what it perceives. It reacts in predictable ways to certain patterns of line, shade and color-- not to mention the fact that what we actually perceive in any situation is distorted from reality by our accumulated mental biases and, frequently, our imaginations.

 

[Legion]

People who claim that "pixels" cannot be attractive are usually just trying to make themselves seem more like a "normal" person and less like a "geek".

The same goes for when you hear about someone creating a life sized Big Daddy suit and people claim "They have too much time on their hands" while they are sitting there at a screen, watching a video of someone who has used artistic talent to make a replica of something.

Sexy characters and art are supposed to be sexy, the mind can tell the difference between reality and fiction but the body cannot. If you see a picture of an attractive woman, your body will react in a similar way to seeing a real person with that appearance.

Just don't let your appreciation of a mere depiction of something prevent you from appreciating the real deal, so to speak.

This is pretty much the only issue with being attracted to something you see in a screen/magazine/whatever.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I'll go a step further.

What we find sexy in actual women is equally as fake as what we find sexy in pixels. Makeup and push-up bras and plastic surgery and all that specifically fetishized clothing aimed at nothing other than drawing our attention.


The only difference between the two is that pixels don't present themselves as though they're real, they're more honest about it all, which is what makes them be easy to call upon. Because naturally, if you're not real you can't possibly matter, it's not like people would go up in airplanes and dive into buildings killing thousands for things that aren't actually real, right?

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

This seems to be a major taboo among the gaming communities to imply that a 3D animated or just animated character is attractive. What are pixels anyway? Anything you see on a screen is a pixel. The more the merrier. Especially nowadays that things are so well animated it shouldn't be the degree of sin that it is.

Yeah, I have no idea why people do that. Obviously the characters are there to be sexy - the whole point is to be attracted to them.

I mean, Garrus from Mass Effect? HAWT. Sure, it would be very painful and impractical to actually do him in real life, but my Fem Shep gets shot twenty times a day and keeps fighting - she can handle the pain. And anyway, it's a fantasy - he's hot.

I find lots of video game characters hot. **shrug** I could list them, but other than Garrus and Aya Brea from Parasite Eve and Third Birthday, I think most of my favorites have been mentioned already.

 

[Jennacide]

Because people are close minded jerks that instead of trying to admit "Character X may not be real, but admittedly they are very sexy." And of course, then generic frat boy Y will punch you and make claims like "you need to get laid." General stereotyping aside, this is pretty much the main reason. But for the most part you're in a game community right now that will agree with you that you can find video game and/or animated characters sexy. And it's not like it's anything new, look up the story of Red Hot Riding Hood, a cartoon that was shown at USO shows around WW2. People praised the shit out of RHRH.

And of course, I'm not about to make any negative comment about guys lusting after digital girls, because that would make me a hypocrit. Male trolls in WoW are my thing. They're just so rugged and manly. <3

 

[Hiikuro]

Aren't there quite a lot of historical examples of reality-imitating sexuality? I seem to remember an age old statue of that, and there is the case of "The dream of the fisherman's wife".

Is not erotic pixels in games just a more modern variant of this? If history finds it acceptable, why not modern culture?

I would rather cherish this more modern variant, and feel like a part of a human behaviour that has lasted many millennia.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

There were erotic drawings back in ancient Egypt even, it's not a new thing.

 

[Erana]

Of course they can be. Why else is porn almost as old as art itself?

They just aren't real people, and shouldn't be mistaken as being able to give anything more than the most superficial of pleasures to be had in a relationship.

 

[Admiral Stukov]

Some people need to get of their high horse and stop pretending to be the most mature guy or gal in the world just because they've passed 18. There's nothing wrong with enjoying something perceived as immature every now and again, be it crude dick-jokes or Ivy's massive melons. Everything is not for everyone, fine, just don't act like it's wrong for someone else to enjoy something you don't.

 

[jpoon]

Pixelated Bayonetta is damn hot. I need to find a real woman like her...