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"Video games need fewer 'sexy' women and more you can actually fancy"

Fuz

Banned
Maybe she should play The Secret of Monkey Island. Or NOLF. Or BG&E.


Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

Eheheh yeah.
 
tumblr_mhzc3szMbS1r3va8go1_500.jpg
 

SmokyDave

Member
Yeah? By saying he "wisely avoided her trap"? Uhhh, no, that wasn't "evident" at all.
...I didn't actually say that though, did I?

We do not use quotation marks when we're misleading via paraphrasing.

Someone's protesting much, eh? xD
Regardless of your personal life (which is irrelevant honestly), if you can't see how your original post comes across as implying that women are insecure and "boy he sure smartly dodged that bullet" by suggesting his answer was not in good faith but merely to reassure her petty feelings of jealousy, I guess I can't help you.
I mentioned my personal life because you made a judgement on me personally. My original post implies nothing more than I suspect he wisely ducked a loaded question. If you want to segue that into me seeing all women as little glass princesses that need cosseting at all times, that's on you.
 
Nearly 200 posts of poor reading comprehension admissions.

She's not saying sexy women in games are bad or anything, just that they're often created to be nothing but. She also does offer examples of characters will actual personalities for consideration as well.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
Why are people suggesting the boyfriend wasn't being honest?

Had my partner asked me the question I would have answered in similar fashion. I can think of a few female characters I really like, but none I actually fancy.

It's rare a game portrays /any/ characters well enough for this to be an option, and as well rounded female representation is lacking more than male it's even rarer to find.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
There are plenty of charming female game characters, including those who were all sexified. This article just makes an assumption because of what her boyfriend said and runs all the way with it? lol.

I agree with these:
Samus, Lara Croft (pre-reboot), Jill Valentine, Sherry Birkin, Ada Wong, Princess Zelda, Liara, Sarah Kerrigan, Aya Brea, Meryl, Shantae
And I'd add Quistis, Lulu, Rikku, Bayonetta, Courtney Collins (MGR, if you talk to her on coms a lot), Vivienne, tons of SMT characters, Faye Lee (Binary Domain), Jessica (Lunar SSS), etc, etc. I'm remembering plenty of cool female characters over all the years and many genres. I mean, personable/likable characters male or female are rare enough in games, but when a game has them, they usually have both.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I can't say he's lying, but I'm not attracted to any videogame characters at all because polygons and sprites don't do it for me... not because of a personality deficiency. Although it is true, so many female characters are written to be little more than showpieces for their male counterparts.

But I also think virtually all videogame writing is abysmal, so.
 

Riposte

Member
Ignoring her troubled examples (the demands for what a "personality" is seems to change radically at a whim, from Leon (invulnerable quipper) to a BioWare character (vulnerable husbando/waifu bait) to Link (facial expressions, sometimes), the real fact of the matter is that this girl is being a weirdo geek and expects that to be universal. It's somewhat passable in some situations to say a videogame girl is sexy (because they are representations of something sexy), but to make this about the connection you have with the character and about dating potential and shit is pretty fucking weird. And for men, utterly emasculating and uncool. Nevermind any sort of jealously people are getting mad about being pointed out, what's a man have to gain by revealing he wants to wife a videogame character, to anyone, even himself? Nothing, which is why this only comes out amongst strangers on the internet (unless they are socially fucked up, which apparently includes some of her friends).

As for why there are more men for choices (however you define personality), it's because there are more male characters in central roles. With that pointed out, the rest becomes a bunch of pointless blathering dancing around the main point, probably in order to look like they had something original to say.
 

wmlk

Member
It's not hard at all because there are many good examples of characters that aren't just sexy. Anyone with with experience in a wide variety of games from different places can see this. It's why I always find these articles somewhat amusing.

Yeah, I feel the exact same way. I just think that the dialogue present in games' media today makes it possible for more of these things to come out of the woodwork. It's a vicious cycle.

I don't recall any engaging story with interaction between the two genders where women are just objects. Stories just flat-out don't work with that dynamic.
 
You're allowed to laugh and cry and feel every potential swath of emotions at a fictional videogame character, but god forbid you're that fucking weirdo who gets physically attracted to an artistic representation of traits some percentage of human beings find attractive.

So instead it's socially acceptable to say that Link isn't sexy, but he has a really good personality when he stands around blinking and saying nothing, and thus you can stay on your high horse and repeat a blanket statement about gender representation without anything necessarily new or insightful to say, other than the launching point for your thesis comes with someone who maybe just wanted to keep playing Monster Hunter that night.

Here's a bonus image of poor Link unable to find the dozens of female characters who are both subjectively "sexy" and socially "fancy-able" mentioned in this thread.
B29FYWACAAAqhY1.png:large
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
...I didn't actually say that though, did I?

We do not use quotation marks when we're misleading via paraphrasing.
Okay, since I've apparently grossly misrepresented you, then please explain the difference between "wisely avoided her trap" and "wisely ducked a loaded question [...]".

If you want to segue that into me seeing all women as little glass princesses that need cosseting at all times, that's on you.
Ahem:
That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.
Uh-huh...
 

Kinyou

Member
There are plenty of charming female game characters, including those who were all sexified. This article just makes an assumption because of what her boyfriend said and runs all the way with it? lol.
To her credit, she also asked some friends, lol

But seriously, it's a bit of a weird article. There's certainly no shortage of guys who fancy videogame ladies. The only thing I can really gather from it is that we need better written characters. That's not a gender exclusive problem though.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
To her credit, she also asked some friends, lol

But seriously, it's a bit of a weird article and the only thing I can really gather is that we need better written characters. That's not a genre exclusive problem though.
This part is significant:

I don’t think the paucity of truly attractive female characters comes from a focus on creating engaging men, it frequently seems to emanate from a desire – or a pressure – to create women for the sole purpose of obvious sexual allure. The seeming inability of developers to represent an array of female body types and identities perpetuates the idea of women as decoration, leading to stunted character development. If the default starting position is sex appeal, you automatically create a character whose looks define them.
 

wmlk

Member
You think many male characters are designed for sex appeal?

Many male characters are designed to look good, yes. Just like many female characters.

In my edit, I was saying how it's possible to have more to the character outside of the designs even if their looks were the foundation.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Yet the same thing clearly happens with many male characters, and they aren't defined by their looks. The same thing can be done and has been done with women.
...What? You think male characters are designed for sex appeal towards women (or gay men) first? Really now.

Many male characters are designed to look good, yes.
1) Many but not necessarily "most", unlike for women
2) "looking good" is different than "having sex appeal". John Marston might be a good looking man but he was clearly not designed to appeal to ladies first. Surely you understand the difference?

Another example would be, say, if we took female side-kicks. Take this vs this. Both are attractive women but you see the difference in design philosophy, yes?
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
This part is significant:
I definitely disagree with that. Lulu for example was the best character in FFX. She was immediately more mature, intelligent, likable, and focused than the others. She was pretty much the leader of the group. I think of all those things, not just her big tits hanging out.

Her point there is also undermined when she says...
Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil (but only the Resident Evil 4 Leon with that jacket)
...which is basically the game equivalent of Ryan Gosling in Drive.

How about this idea: You aren't attracted to females, so you have no idea how attraction to their personality in dynamic with attraction to their looks works. It's a fool's errand to act like it has magical rules different from the way you stan your boy toy characters and then attempt to define what those rules are by conjecture from what a few guy friends said.
 
My own selection includes, but is not limited to: enigmatic cowboy John Marston from Red Dead Redemption, spiritually-minded assassin Thane from Mass Effect, Alistair and Solas from Dragon Age, moody cop Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil (but only the Resident Evil 4 Leon with that jacket) and Link from Legend of Zelda – but particularly the Hyrule Warriors version of Link.

So a character with awful one liners as his character...and in a jacket.

...and a mute character with no personality, and the glittered up version especially.


Really, really not good examples.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I definitely disagree with that. Lulu for example was the best character in FFX. She was immediately more mature, intelligent, likable, and focused than the others. She was pretty much the leader of the group. I think of all those things, not just her big tits hanging out.
Unless the article stated that there could be zero existing counter-examples to the trend, I fail to see where you're going with this. Obviously not every single female character is a vapid sex toy, but I don't think the author is saying that, only that it's annoyingly common. No?
 

wmlk

Member
...What? You think male characters are designed for sex appeal towards women (or gay men) first? Really now.


1) Many but not necessarily "most", unlike for women
2) "looking good" is different than "having sex appeal". John Marston might be a good looking man but he was clearly not designed to appeal to ladies first. Surely you understand the difference?

Yeah, I understand the difference, but who's to say that Nathan Drake or the entire FFXV cast wasn't designed to have sex appeal and look attractive (chest hair physics for Nathan Drake), and also have more to their characters than just their looks?

Again, as people have pointed out for female characters, Lulu is a big example of a character giving off a suggestive first impression but being remembered as something else entirely.
 

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

This.

Because honestly, I could easily just list the entire cast of Dead or Alive as women I wish I could fuck in real life.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Yeah, I understand the difference, but who's not to say that Nathan Drake or the entire FFXV cast wasn't designed to have sex appeal and look attractive (chest hair physics for Nathan Drake), and also have more to their characters than just their looks?

Again, as people have pointed out for female characters, Lulu is a big example of a character giving off a suggestive first impression but being remembered as something else entirely.
Again, a few counter-examples are not indicative of a trend (or lack thereof).
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Unless the article stated that there could be zero existing counter-examples to the trend, I fail to see where you're going with this. Obviously not every single female character is a vapid sex toy, but I don't think the author is saying that, only that it's annoyingly common. No?
It's a trend in videogames to have shitty characters. I would completely disagree with any notion that would imply that the ratio of shitty female characters to good female characters is any worse than the ratio of shitty male characters to good male characters. If that is not a point she is trying to make, I don't understand what this article is even on about.
 

Shahed

Member
I kind of agree with the premise. I mean I'd prefer women with meaningful personalities that are decently written over simple pure eye candy. And that hold true even if the sex appeal character is well written since it can detract from the overall impression I get from said person. They can be made to apear good looking if need be, but being attractive doesn't necessarily mean looking sexy.

I think a good example is Tifa from FFVII. I think Tifa while kind of objectified for her big boobs and the whole tank top and mini skirt combo is a good character that's decently written. While visually she appears the sex appeal character, she doesn't remotely act like it and if anything falls into the mother/nurturer archetype. That's why even if they're one and the same character, I much prefer her Advent Children iteration. One of them comes off as a sexy character with skimpy attire and overly large boobs, while the other is pretty without going too far. While both have the same character behind them, the latter is easier to take more seriously.
 

TheChaos

Member
Funny that the author mentions Thane as he was designed around being a female love interest:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...ct-the-creation-of-thane.aspx?PostPageIndex=1
"We had a written description of him to start with; we usually get about a paragraph of text to start, and that's all we really need. For us the key words were “career assassin”. The problem was, he was going to be the female love interest. Now that doesn't sound like much if you think about it, but it got us all mixed up a bunch of times, because women were going to have to find this guy attractive. So we asked all the women in the office what they liked in their aliens, and that kind of got us going off a lot of weird directions in the beginning and made it harder than it should have been."
 
How about Jack from Mass Effect 2?

JackBlack.png


Loved this character. When I found out she wasn't playable in Mass Effect 3 I was very disappointed.
 

Cleve

Member
I think most people in this thread are assuming a major dodge, but what if he was telling the truth.

I can't say I have any fantasy crushes on fictional characters be it in games, books, etc...

I think this is a more common theme with women(or maybe I'm wrong, based off this thread). The fan-fic scene certainly seems to be skewed toward that direction. Within my circle, my male friends are more likely to discuss women we know in some way (cute waitress at the coffee shop, girl in a class, someone at the gym, etc...) than actresses, media stars, or characters from video games/books while our female counterparts gush on about male celebs, pop stars, or snape slashfic depending on the girl.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Morrigan Stark said:
Again, a few counter-examples are not indicative of a trend (or lack thereof).
Trend for male protagonists is to be (mostly male)power-fantasies, which is generally portrayed to also be sexually attractive to opposite gender(s). At least, it's a rather pervasive theme in all forms of media and general social preconceptions.
 

hiex_

Banned
Videogames don't need less of anything. Keep the stupid over-the-top sexuality, and have more of what he's talking about too.
 
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