I would like to share with you all

This is meant to be serious, so if there is another section where this belongs then feel free to move it. Also, it is simply MY personal opinion, I'm not attacking anyone, GOT IT?

The most disappointing thing about being a male gamer is that a lot of guys just like female protagonists for their looks. Yes, I admit that MANY female protagonists would be desirable and appealing in real life, and that certain outfits add to it, but there's a whole lot more to them than just cleavage or facial features. Some have tragic stories, or journeys of self discovery, heck, some of them are even confused about their feelings for the male characters. Even if they are fictional, they have the qualities that real humans have. Shame on those who simply play games for the females' skimpy outfits. I don't go for girls just because of their looks in real life, so why should it be any different in video games (and anime too, for that fact)?

 

Because I like looking at attractive women.
In real life if I do this then I'm a creeper
But in video games and anime I can do this without any social backlash.
There are some games and anime that's selling point is tits.
If you don't like tits then don't watch/play it
If you like tits then watch/play it
Simple as that

 

If Tifa was fat and had warts all over her you wouldn't have her in your avatar
That I can make sure of

 

...

 

Because they're not real people. If I look at a girl and think she's kind of pretty, that's okay to me, but it won't be my only reason for liking her. In a game, it's different. Writers tend to be male, and that means that their ability to write for females tends to be subpar. Thus, they lack realistic personalities and are only good for their looks.

That said, there are video game girls that I admire as role models and genuinely good characters. That those are still very rare.

 

I don't mind if a chick is hot and also kicks ass, really. Lightning from FFXIII is a badass and she has amazing legs--I have no qualms with that. There are games out there that are sold by sex appeal--let's not forget Soul Calibur V's ad campaign--but sex sells. We all know it, regardless of whether we agree with it or not, if we feel it's right or wrong. Video games aren't the only ones that do this. Hollywood movies are often filled with actors who may not be the best of their trade but that people like for looks. That's the society we live in. Thankfully not every movie is like this, just as not every game is like this. If people are looking to get off on polygon displays of boobs, well, I feel sorry for them but that's their prerogative.

Might I add that it's probably an issue with males too, granted there aren't as many games clearly doing this, but how many male video game protagonists can you think of without washboard abs?

 

In my opinion, coping with "inner beauty" is not very appreciated in real life. It's sad to say, but a lot of people these days people judge both girls and guys harshly on how they look and sometimes their personality. Also, I'm gonna state what Larry and Misty just said. Video game characters are (usually) not real characters, thug giving people a cue to judge and fantasize over the characters. Game developers and movie directors make characters very "cute" or "sexy" because it sells. If the main character was a unattractive person, many people would criticize on how the character looked. People tend to be very shallow and unappreciative on what's presented to them. In a video game, it's not supposed to be realistic. People don't usually buy video games for its realism, but for its non realism. Everyone knows a girl/guy character would not look/dress like that in a society like ours. It all comes down to this. All that matters is that if the product sells well. In order to do that, they target the major audience, in this case guys. And how do they appeal to them? BIG BEWBIES AND REVEALING CLOTHING. I just hope that not all companies will follow down this direction if they want to sell a game

 

Was re-reading this thread and just wanted to thumbs up this post. Most rational opinion I've seen on the subject.

And to the last part: ....Seriously, Dante.

 

......... WOW the sexism in this thread. To the person who claims that drooling at fictional women isn't creepy, it IS creepy when you post it in public forum. To the person saying its ok because they're "not tangible," again, creepy. To Librekd, I assume that's sarcasm to point out the irony of "armor" designs for female characters. And finally, to the person who cited Lightning, congrats, you win the prize for getting what female characters should be.

Here's the thing, like Misty pointed out, there are characters that are attractive and realistically characterized. Unfortunately, they seem to be in the minority. It is much more common for female characters in all mediums to be intended for sex appeal before anything. More often than not, they are designed with unrealistic proportions, wear impractically revealing clothing and are characterized with sex appeal in mind. Why? Because it sells.

Most egregiously is the fact that MMOs are stereotyped as ALWAYS having practical, (relatively) realistic armor designs for male characters, but chainmail bikinis for female characters. Like almost all stereotypes, there is truth to this, as evidenced by Librekd's pic. Particularly, Asian MMOs have female "armor" designed for sex appeal over practicality. This becomes especially egregious when you realize that about 52% of MMO players are, in fact, female. I am very confused by how things are designed when literally HALF of the player base is female.


The issue is not sex appeal. Its that female characters are designed with sex appeal as the only thing in mind.

Tifa is a great example of a good character. Does she have sex appeal? Yes. Is she a strong character without being written as a male character with a slim figure and breasts? No. In the original game, her breasts are unrealistically oversized and she does martial arts in a miniskirt, but she is written quite realistically and has plenty of character development. It also doesn't hurt that Nomura actually redesigned her with smaller, more realistically proportioned breasts and a practical outfit when doing the Advent Children designs.

It is not too much to ask for female characters to be written well instead of putting them in a thong and calling it a day. They CAN and SHOULD be written as characters, not eye candy. If they are eye candy as a side-effect, great, but eye candy should not be the main focus.

 

I fail to see the point in this thread, game developers aren't going to design unattractive characters, it doesn't matter what their skill set is, their design is always going to be appealing, back story or no.

 

Way to miss the point. The problem isn't that they're attractive, its that they're attractive... and that's it. They're often not portrayed as anything more than male fantasies. The thing is, they don't HAVE to be portrayed like this. Good writers portray women as people, not objects, you know, exactly how they SHOULD be portrayed. However, because it is still acceptable to the public at large to portray women as objects, most writers don't bother.

 

...

 

Good writers write good characters, or at least write characters that have a purpose.

For example, Fallout 3, where in you can become a slaver and enslave any person you meet, that is possibly the worst form of portraying people as objects, you could argue.
Especially the character Clover who has been turned into a murderous bodyguard for the head slaver, wherein she is used to protect and have sex with him. She has been manipulated to think this is right. She literally embraces being an object.
They didn't write her as a person really, but as an object, as a bodyguard with no thought for herself. It was the honesty and quality of her writing that made her a good character, person or not.

So it's in the quality of writing, the truth in it,t he reflection of your life and conveying it to the audience.

And how some should be portrayed could be argued with how real people actually act. We should all be virtuous, good, selfless, but we are not, we are diverse and as such characters need to be diverse. It's be pretty boring having the same type of character in a game.

 

Being a girl I try not to look at the negative's of female game characters. Try to appreciate the time, effort, and artistic style that is used to create the characters instead of looking at only the negative aspects of the character. Games like Skyrim help to show that even female characters can be made tough, or strong with a good story back round. Look in the eyes of the artist and why they created the character.

 

I was actually reading an article about how blacks are heavily stereotyped in video games and always play second banana or have a lesser role.

link:
http://kotaku.com/5897227/come-on-video-games-lets-see-some-black-people-im-not-embarrassed-by

It doesn't matter what minority is being stereotyped, but they are all being stereotyped frequently. Storytelling in video games hasn't matured to the point where it won't occur as frequently or will only occur when it's called for. It's still a heavily commercial industry and sexy women or badass rappers are going to dominate the sorts of characters we see in popular games.

 

Honestly, the Fallout 3 example is a rare case where portraying a woman as an object is done well because it doesn't glorify it and, in fact, makes no effort to hide how horrible it is.

As for the rest of your post, you have, like so many others, missed the point. Sort of. You clearly understand that characters can be written well, regardless of gender, you just seem to think that I'm trying to tell people how they should be written.

Its not about trying to press some bullshit black and white morality. Its about the fact that many games don't even try to portray women as more than eye-candy with a personality that can be described as a man with a slim figure and breasts. Women in real life are just diverse as men, but women in video games are written unrealistically more often than not.

 

Yes women are diverse in real life. But games aren't real life and are far from representative of real life. But the same could be said for films, for books and foe cartoons.

I won't dent that things written in games aren't realistic, but it's like any forms of writing, people take artistic license to write a story. Sometimes that means leaving the characters behind, by not developing them at all.

Ultimately the reason games with unrefined female characters with good lookking appearances is becuase that's what the public want. It's a media product, it caters for what the public wants so that it sells. And like Misty said, sex sells. That's not restricted to the gaming industry and shouldn't be dumped on gaming writers because they're following what their bosses tell them, who are following what the public wants.

 

And that excuses sexist writing? As you can't seem to get through your head, despite multiple people saying it repeatedly, the issue is not and never will be that women in games are attractive. It is absurd to say that that is an issue. The issue is that they're eye candy first, characters second. Claiming that sexist writing is ok because "its not real life" is ****ing idiotic. Its not "artistic license" to portray a woman in a sexist manner, its sexism, plain and simple.

Not to mention the fact that, regardless of it being real life or not, these characters are still people. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far, regardless of how "realistic" the story is.