I'll be honest: I like scantily-clad women in my games, running around in a bikini made of stainless steel and Kevlar just as much as the next guy. I'm not the kind of guy who will buy Tomb Raider or Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 just because I want to see some digital jugs, but I do appreciate the time and effort that my artistic brethren put into the characters in games I play, like Guild Wars. Still, I can't help but find it amusing at how women are portrayed in games, and the debate surrounding the issue.
Let's get the obvious out of the way right now - women are usually overly sexual in games because most people who play games are male. More importantly, they are teenage / college-age males… you know, the kind of males who really like polygons formed into vaguely female shapes. So naturally, in order to make this target audience want to buy, developers feel the need to pepper their games with this sort of thing. I guess I can't blame them though, because it works, even if it gives gaming a distinctly bad taste for women who feel adventurous enough to give it a try.So where does that leave the socially conscious developer? If I want to include a female character in a game, should she be uber-sexy? Would it be more tasteful or real to include a not-so-shapely female character? If the rest of the characters in my game are war-scarred, trash-talking heavyweights, doesn't it follow that any female characters I throw into the mix should be the same? And would anyone (even the ladies out there) really want to see an overweight, scorched and scarred, trash-talking woman running around in the typical spandex armor, shooting people?I should mention that I also enjoy female characters with real stories, who seem more real than the typical ladies of electronica, like Jade (Beyond Good & Evil) or April Ryan (the Longest Journey). But I still find the debate over the sexiness of women in games amusing at times… Because, despite all the grit and grime that usually covers the male heroes of our games, aren't they too usually physically perfect specimens?
I was freaking out when I read the title and saw it was you. XD
Anyways, I guess including a girl in a game would attract some people…<font color='white'>*cough*sad, lifeless people*cough*</font>Did you write this, Fred?
I really don't care for women in games. They're a distraction and a gimmick. When I want to look at girls, I usually manage to do so by leaving the basement and going outside. If you're going to lust after a girl, best make sure that she's real.Not to mention that it is, as you said, demeaning to women. Their only purpose is to make young men horny? Yeah, that makes sense. In movies, attractive girls often serve to advance the plot (i.e. the evildoer is too busy looking at the girl's boobs to notice the ray gun pointed at his head). In games, there is no reason to add scantily-clad women.Yes, that's a pun. [;)]
Well sexy women do work, I agree.
And i also think its time for games to have more leading female roles, and not just really 'sexy' looking , 'perfect' females, but ones with more personality, a bit of character development, I think, would go a long way, as women are protrayed shallowly in videogames…(I think it might be a big hit with the feminists out there(well, if it gets enough attention and popularity it would…))I meant what Polystyrene Man said what I put as invisible text on my last comment.
look at Alyx from HL2 - she wasn't sexual in anyway, but she was cool - especially when killing stuff
It scraes me to see guys drooling over computer generated chicks.
>_>^Exactly.
I think this still happens because of habit as well…
Some companies have bad habits when making their games, *cough*capcom*cough*, and they tend to keep the trend the same as it worked the last 10-20 times…