Great gaming article

[Ross Scott]

What I find funny is that most of the people who are so focused on this being a problem are males. I've known a lot of females who simply don't care if they are being sexualized in games.

No it's because the only people creating a fuss are males themselves.

Because the majority of women are going to be turned off from these kinds of games altogether, despite whatever merit they may have elsewhere and as it reinforces a stereotype that playing games in and of itself is immature, because look at the kind of content they get exposed to. Again, for me it's not about who is offended or not. It's about the rest of the world (females included) thinking gaming is immature and adolescent. A high degree and frequency of wanton sexualization treated in an unrealistic manner that's presented humorlessly goes a long way towards enforcing that perception. In other words, the more of this that dominates the landscape, the more it makes all gamers look bad.

 

I haven't seen the movie, but I've seen the trailer to "Suckerpunch." It's full of women dressed in schoolgirl outfits shooting guns and wielding samurai swords. What I saw looked like definitive man-child fantasy material. Now imagine if HALF the movies released in a year or more had material like this. Not only do I think less women would stop watching movies as much, but it would make the whole medium look bad and immature, even if there were exceptions to the rule. I feel that's where the gaming industry currently is.

 

As for "Games are for gaming, porn is for porn", you do realize that both books and movies contain a lot of erotic material, right?

Not to the frequency of gaming.

I consider the frequency of erotic material in games irrelevant, it's how it's handled. Even though I have other issues with it, I thought the game Indigo Propehcy / Fahrenheit had a decent protrayal of sexuality in the game. That's because it's more or less the way adults act, not a 13 year old's idealized sexual fantasy of how women are.

[Kirkreng]

I'm fine with sexuality in games. But that's the problem, sexuality in most games is just in there as a fanservice, not to portray sexuality in a real way or try to give a different view on it.

[Pinkie Pie]

Cue Heavy Rain, where Madison Paige's role is literally just to shake her ass in panties and have sex with Ethan.

[Axeldeath]

Not to the frequency of gaming.

 

HAHAHA. There are entire genres dedicated to this sort of thing, I think it's more likely you just don't pay attention to the current state of literature, or film, or music. Seriously, most Hollywood actresses are there to provide tits to look at.

[The Scoutman]

Not to the frequency of gaming.

 

HAHAHA. There are entire genres dedicated to this sort of thing, I think it's more likely you just don't pay attention to the current state of literature, or film, or music. Seriously, most Hollywood actresses are there to provide tits to look at.

At least, with these specific genres, they keep mindless sexualization apart from the more serious movies, meanwhile in gaming...you get the idea. Im not against mindless sexualization in games that dont take themselves serious or are aiming for that, but when a game is trying to be serious in every other aspect, do we really need girls in leather-bikinis running around while im trying to defeat the guy who murdered my family?

[Alyxx Thorne]

Yeah, I can understand that point of view perfectly.

[Axeldeath]

Not to the frequency of gaming.

 

HAHAHA. There are entire genres dedicated to this sort of thing, I think it's more likely you just don't pay attention to the current state of literature, or film, or music. Seriously, most Hollywood actresses are there to provide tits to look at.

At least, with these specific genres, they keep mindless sexualization apart from the more serious movies, meanwhile in gaming...you get the idea. Im not against mindless sexualization in games that dont take themselves serious or are aiming for that, but when a game is trying to be serious in every other aspect, do we really need girls in leather-bikinis running around while im trying to defeat the guy who murdered my family?

Please then, give me an example of a serious game with girls in leather bikinis runnning around.

[The Scoutman]

Besides all the examples given in the article and on this forum? I'd say nearly every JRPG game, some got a really compelling story, but nearly every female character ends up in some questionable combat armor.

[Axeldeath]

JRPG game

 

I said serious.

[The Scoutman]

JRPG game

 

I said serious.

You aware of the fact that the sexualization is the major reason why people dont take japanese games seriously right?

[Ross Scott]

You aware of the fact that the sexualization is the major reason why people dont take japanese games seriously right?

That plus the melodrama, the character behavior, and the hair styles. I'm actually convinced there must be a gene or something that determines whether people like anime. I realize this is about gaming, but the same issues with Japanese games I'd argue are synonymous with anime. While I can appreciate some of the fantastic ideas in stuff like Akira or Ghost In The Shell, the melodrama and the behavior of the characters are what kill it for me. In anime, people don't behave like real people, Japanese or otherwise. Even in "serious" anime, you always have characters striking an overly dramatic pose every 5 minutes. You also always have someone making this pose:

 

 

Nobody in real life does this, not even embarrassed people, it's just strange. Yes, people put their hands behind their head, but then they don't proceed to make that face unless maybe it's a woman posing for a calendar. Also when anime characters get angry, they look like this:

 

 

What can you say to that?

 

I'm willing to give anime and japanese games a free pass because they're alien enough that they sort of get a natural exclusion of being taken seriously, since their whole medium is entrenched in having a separate reality for human behavior from everywhere else. But with that logic, I'd say sexualization isn't the only major barrier to it being treated seriously otherwise.

[The Scoutman]

Yeah, I'm kinda glad I never followed much japanese content made after 2001, it seems to go pretty downhill apart from a few exceptions. Same goes for japanese games I suppose. Still, I think japanese games are quite "tamed" in the overall if compared to the wilderness of japanese animations. (kinda the opposite of the movie/game relationship in the west )

[Alyxx Thorne]

Hmm, I wonder if my relaxed opinion about female sexualization has something to do with my appreciation for anime...

[Estophelen]

Reading all this made me realize... nowadays I care more about the personality of a woman character and less about what she has on (or hasn't). Dammit Jim, I though I will never grow up!

 

Still, I don't mind staring at girls in games. If I get offended by their clothes, it's because I know that bloody chainmail bikini will seriously not protect you.

[BTGBullseye]

Reading all this made me realize... nowadays I care more about the personality of a woman character and less about what she has on (or hasn't). Dammit Jim, I though I will never grow up!

 

Still, I don't mind staring at girls in games. If I get offended by their clothes, it's because I know that bloody chainmail bikini will seriously not protect you.

Welcome to the world of "I'm not a teenage moron anymore!".

 

I'll sit there and joke about boobs, but when you can tell a girl that just got offended by a complement about her boob size "You have large boobs.", and get away with it without her taking offense... Try it sometime, it's a great determining factor in whether you're adult or not.