Your Gender/Sex IN VIDEO GAMES, and does it matter to you?

[Obsidian sucks]

for a third person action game I like to play a good looking woman, first person and RPG I play a man. For a full party I like half and half, usually restricting woman to the druid/thief/cleric/sorceress/bard roles. 

[Belle Sorciere]

I prefer to play female characters and for a time I was completely uninterested in RPGs that forced you to play a male character. Now I am only mostly uninterested.

 

Also, I think the sheer number of guys using the "I want to stare at a cute butt" excuse is silly. All this "no homo" is also silly.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Belle Sorciere

[Amentep]

I prefer to play female characters and for a time I was completely uninterested in RPGs that forced you to play a male character. Now I am only mostly uninterested.

 

Also, I think the sheer number of guys using the "I want to stare at a cute butt" excuse is silly. All this "no homo" is also silly.

 

Or perhaps you misjudge the value some place on cute butts...

 

Seriously though, I iknow in some P&P games - particularly when other players were re-creating their idealized selves, not doing so raised eyebrows. Heck, it happened in non-RPGs too - I still remember a guy, when Street Fighter II came out, taking some ribbing (good natured and not) because he chose to specialize in Chun-Li.

[Belle Sorciere]

 

I prefer to play female characters and for a time I was completely uninterested in RPGs that forced you to play a male character. Now I am only mostly uninterested.

 

Also, I think the sheer number of guys using the "I want to stare at a cute butt" excuse is silly. All this "no homo" is also silly.

 

Or perhaps you misjudge the value some place on cute butts...

 

Seriously though, I iknow in some P&P games - particularly when other players were re-creating their idealized selves, not doing so raised eyebrows. Heck, it happened in non-RPGs too - I still remember a guy, when Street Fighter II came out, taking some ribbing (good natured and not) because he chose to specialize in Chun-Li.

 

 

I've heard the excuse so many times over the past twenty years that I am simply incapable of taking it seriously as anything but a hasty assurance that the dude in question is totally straight, guys, honest. That's not meant to imply that they're not straight, just that they are very insistent on making sure everyone knows they're Straighty McStraightStraight.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Belle Sorciere

[redneckdevil]

U misjudge the power of the booty

[Amentep]

 

 

I prefer to play female characters and for a time I was completely uninterested in RPGs that forced you to play a male character. Now I am only mostly uninterested.

 

Also, I think the sheer number of guys using the "I want to stare at a cute butt" excuse is silly. All this "no homo" is also silly.

 

Or perhaps you misjudge the value some place on cute butts...

 

Seriously though, I iknow in some P&P games - particularly when other players were re-creating their idealized selves, not doing so raised eyebrows. Heck, it happened in non-RPGs too - I still remember a guy, when Street Fighter II came out, taking some ribbing (good natured and not) because he chose to specialize in Chun-Li.

 

 

I've heard the excuse so many times over the past twenty years that I am simply incapable of taking it seriously as anything but a hasty assurance that the dude in question is totally straight, guys, honest. That's not meant to imply that they're not straight, just that they are very insistent on making sure everyone knows they're Straighty McStraightStraight.

 

 

I figure its a bit of both. There are still some people out their who can't wrap their minds around anyone not playing a character exactly like themselves; its a time tested excuse that can diffuse awkwardness, in a way.  And yet it could also be true.

[SonicMage117]

U misjudge the power of the booty

I know alot of guys who play as a female character just to have something nice to look at and I don't blame them. I mean, if I was single I could get away with that lol

 

I have seen alot of guys who do this being called sexists but I think that's a bit outta place... After all, if a male is attracted to a female body, this is a compliment to the devs and it's the devs - if anyone- who should be called sexists.

 

Anywho, I have just been reminded that I own Arcana Hearts 3 and Nitroplus Infinite Blasterz on Steam which is the ultimate feminist game but also the ultimate sexist game. Reason being that all the characters are strong, smart and lovable females from visual novels which consists of female fanbase. However, a good 95% of people who play these 2D female anime fighters are all male because guys like to look at the booty.

 

I think it's an interesting subject for sure. I love playing as female characters though, even when they are not attractive. As long as they're BA! :D

 

P.S I can't wait for the new Darksiders game, which has that fiery haired vixen. She looks awesome.

[redneckdevil]

 

U misjudge the power of the booty

I know alot of guys who play as a female character just to have something nice to look at and I don't blame them. I mean, if I was single I could get away with that lol

 

I have seen alot of guys who do this being called sexists but I think that's a bit outta place... After all, if a male is attracted to a female body, this is a compliment to the devs and it's the devs - if anyone- who should be called sexists.

 

Anywho, I have just been reminded that I own Arcana Hearts 3 and Nitroplus Infinite Blasterz on Steam which is the ultimate feminist game but also the ultimate sexist game. Reason being that all the characters are strong, smart and lovable females from visual novels which consists of female fanbase. However, a good 95% of people who play these 2D female anime fighters are all male because guys like to look at the booty.

 

I think it's an interesting subject for sure. I love playing as female characters though, even when they are not attractive. As long as they're BA! :D

 

P.S I can't wait for the new Darksiders game, which has that fiery haired vixen. She looks awesome.

It all depends for me. MMOs I enjoy playing female characters (the draeni in wow with thier own built in high heels and my gnome warlock clamedia, love seeing her booty shake).

Single character games such as fallout, I usually play as male. I've played females before and really as fair as gameplay goes, its no different. Story wise role-playing, I'm usually a guy bc with my huge backlog and usually only able to finish a game once, I rather have a male character because it's easier for me to connect and bigger impact roleplay....bc I'm a guy. Sexist I know.

Otherwise games like Diablo with set characters, I go with what looks better. Does the character look more badass or more attractive? If it's a chick looking more badass (usually the case with casters) I'll roll with that.

I play games to have fun and to escape, I don't give one fig if my decisions on what "gender" I prefer playing as long as I'm having fun, is considered sexist/racist/etc by others. Different strokes for different folks, if that's not good enough then people can sod off and leave me be with my fun

[SonicMage117]

Yes, we are in that age sadly. Where everything is offensive I guess but thankfully, that doesn't stop game devs from making games how they want (most of the time).

[Belle Sorciere]

Nah, the idea of people taking offense at everything is hugely overstated. Oversensitive people see someone object to a thing and freak out because they can't handle that the objection exists, that's all that's happening.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Belle Sorciere

[Gromnir]

Nah, the idea of people taking offense at everything is hugely overstated. Oversensitive people see someone object to a thing and freak out because they can't handle that the objection exists, that's all that's happening.

 

you might be understating a wee bit

 

"Some recent campus actions border on the surreal. In April, at Brandeis University, the Asian American student association sought to raise awareness of microaggressions against Asians through an installation on the steps of an academic hall. The installation gave examples of microaggressions such as “Aren’t you supposed to be good at math?” and “I’m colorblind! I don’t see race.” But a backlash arose among other Asian American students, who felt that the display itself was a microaggression. The association removed the installation, and its president wrote an e-mail to the entire student body apologizing to anyone who was “triggered or hurt by the content of the microaggressions.”"

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

 

and the now (in)famous yale halloween insanity

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/

 

warning: video does get a little sweary

 

 

 

 

just a couple examples. 

 

doesn't seem overstated for Gromnir, but am admitted older and have a different pov.  the threshold for what we consider offensive speech/actions which demand a response is clear o' a different magnitude than many.  to us, there is a ubiquitous problem with oversensitivity.

 

we got free speech and with free speech is a moral responsibility to respond to offensive and hateful speakers.  at the same time there must need be a recognition o' the fact that the only speech which requires Constitutional protection is speech which tends to offend. free speech is meaningless if every eggshell fragile listener's feelings must need be accommodated.

 

none o' which has much to do with gender o' avatars in games so...

 

typical we play male, but am kinda flexible 'bout such stuff.  is a few games wherein the female avatars simple appeal to our sense o' aesthetics more than the male options.  if we wanna see a somewhat stocky adonis, all we need do is look in the mirror, so opting for a female avatar is an infrequent change o' pace.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps added warning... jic sweary triggers folks.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Gromnir

[Belle Sorciere]

 

Nah, the idea of people taking offense at everything is hugely overstated. Oversensitive people see someone object to a thing and freak out because they can't handle that the objection exists, that's all that's happening.

 

you might be understating a wee bit

 

"Some recent campus actions border on the surreal. In April, at Brandeis University, the Asian American student association sought to raise awareness of microaggressions against Asians through an installation on the steps of an academic hall. The installation gave examples of microaggressions such as “Aren’t you supposed to be good at math?” and “I’m colorblind! I don’t see race.” But a backlash arose among other Asian American students, who felt that the display itself was a microaggression. The association removed the installation, and its president wrote an e-mail to the entire student body apologizing to anyone who was “triggered or hurt by the content of the microaggressions.”"

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

 

and the now (in)famous yale halloween insanity

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/

 

warning: video does get a little sweary

 

 

 

 

just a couple examples. 

 

doesn't seem overstated for Gromnir, but am admitted older and have a different pov.  the threshold for what we consider offensive speech/actions which demand a response is clear o' a different magnitude than many.  to us, there is a ubiquitous problem with oversensitivity.

 

we got free speech and with free speech is a moral responsibility to respond to offensive and hateful speakers.  at the same time there must need be a recognition o' the fact that the only speech which requires Constitutional protection is speech which tends to offend. free speech is meaningless if every eggshell fragile listener's feelings must need be accommodated.

 

none o' which has much to do with gender o' avatars in games so...

 

typical we play male, but am kinda flexible 'bout such stuff.  is a few games wherein the female avatars simple appeal to our sense o' aesthetics more than the male options.  if we wanna see a somewhat stocky adonis, all we need do is look in the mirror, so opting for a female avatar is an infrequent change o' pace.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps added warning... jic sweary triggers folks.

 

 

Okay, so:

 

I don't know that you're older than me. I remember you from the 90s on Black Isle and possibly Bioware forums. Without revealing our real ages, it seems to me that we're probably similar in age.

 

You didn't demonstrate oversensitivity.  You linked a couple things and basically said "See? Oversensitive!" Given that microaggressions (for example) are well known and well understood both academically and in the real world you're going to need a far more substantial argument than "look at this thing! It's an example!" It's not an example of anything but people trying to address real problems they face.

 

Your post is an example of the oversensitivity that I was talking about, though. Are you really so fragile that these things offend you? That you don't even try to understand what they're saying or what's going on?

Edited September 9, 2017 by Belle Sorciere

[injurai]

What's between your pixels doesn't matter.

[Gromnir]

 

 

Nah, the idea of people taking offense at everything is hugely overstated. Oversensitive people see someone object to a thing and freak out because they can't handle that the objection exists, that's all that's happening.

 

you might be understating a wee bit

 

"Some recent campus actions border on the surreal. In April, at Brandeis University, the Asian American student association sought to raise awareness of microaggressions against Asians through an installation on the steps of an academic hall. The installation gave examples of microaggressions such as “Aren’t you supposed to be good at math?” and “I’m colorblind! I don’t see race.” But a backlash arose among other Asian American students, who felt that the display itself was a microaggression. The association removed the installation, and its president wrote an e-mail to the entire student body apologizing to anyone who was “triggered or hurt by the content of the microaggressions.”"

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

 

and the now (in)famous yale halloween insanity

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/

 

warning: video does get a little sweary

 

 

 

 

just a couple examples. 

 

doesn't seem overstated for Gromnir, but am admitted older and have a different pov.  the threshold for what we consider offensive speech/actions which demand a response is clear o' a different magnitude than many.  to us, there is a ubiquitous problem with oversensitivity.

 

we got free speech and with free speech is a moral responsibility to respond to offensive and hateful speakers.  at the same time there must need be a recognition o' the fact that the only speech which requires Constitutional protection is speech which tends to offend. free speech is meaningless if every eggshell fragile listener's feelings must need be accommodated.

 

none o' which has much to do with gender o' avatars in games so...

 

typical we play male, but am kinda flexible 'bout such stuff.  is a few games wherein the female avatars simple appeal to our sense o' aesthetics more than the male options.  if we wanna see a somewhat stocky adonis, all we need do is look in the mirror, so opting for a female avatar is an infrequent change o' pace.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps added warning... jic sweary triggers folks.

 

 

Okay, so:

 

I don't know that you're older than me. I remember you from the 90s on Black Isle and possibly Bioware forums. Without revealing our real ages, it seems to me that we're probably similar in age.

 

You didn't demonstrate oversensitivity.  You linked a couple things and basically said "See? Oversensitive!" Given that microaggressions (for example) are well known and well understood both academically and in the real world you're going to need a far more substantial argument than "look at this thing! It's an example!" It's not an example of anything but people trying to address real problems they face.

 

Your post is an example of the oversensitivity that I was talking about, though. Are you really so fragile that these things offend you? That you don't even try to understand what they're saying or what's going on?

 

so if Gromnir is baffled by the oversensitivity o' a person or group, it is an example o' nothing save our own oversensitivity?

 

...

 

the first atlantic article is not representing one o' "a couple of things."  is many examples.  am wondering if you read it.

 

"Jeannie Suk wrote in an online article for The New Yorker about law students asking her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape law—or, in one case, even use the word violate (as in “that violates the law”) lest it cause students distress."

 

"Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern University, wrote an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education describing a new campus politics of sexual paranoia—and was then subjected to a long investigation after students who were offended by the article and by a tweet she’d sent filed Title IX complaints against her."

 

"In June, a professor protecting himself with a pseudonym wrote an essay for Vox describing how gingerly he now has to teach. “I’m a Liberal Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,” the headline said."

 

"A number of popular comedians, including Chris Rock, have stopped performing on college campuses (see Caitlin Flanagan’s article in this month’s issue). Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke."

 

"During the 2014–15 school year, for instance, the deans and department chairs at the 10 University of California system schools were presented by administrators at faculty leader-training sessions with examples of microaggressions. The list of offensive statements included: “America is the land of opportunity” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”"

 

"Nearly all of the campus mental-health directors surveyed in 2013 by the American College Counseling Association reported that the number of students with severe psychological problems was rising at their schools. The rate of emotional distress reported by students themselves is also high, and rising. In a 2014 survey by the American College Health Association, 54 percent of college students surveyed said that they had “felt overwhelming anxiety” in the past 12 months, up from 49 percent in the same survey just five years earlier. Students seem to be reporting more emotional crises; many seem fragile, and this has surely changed the way university faculty and administrators interact with them."

 

"In a particularly egregious 2008 case, for instance, Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis found a white student guilty of racial harassment for reading a book titled Notre Dame vs. the Klan. The book honored student opposition to the Ku Klux Klan when it marched on Notre Dame in 1924. Nonetheless, the picture of a Klan rally on the book’s cover offended at least one of the student’s co-workers (he was a janitor as well as a student), and that was enough for a guilty finding by the university’s Affirmative Action Office."

 

"Last year, at the University of St. Thomas, in Minnesota, an event called Hump Day, which would have allowed people to pet a camel, was abruptly canceled. Students had created a Facebook group where they protested the event for animal cruelty, for being a waste of money, and for being insensitive to people from the Middle East. The inspiration for the camel had almost certainly come from a popular TV commercial in which a camel saunters around an office on a Wednesday, celebrating “hump day”; it was devoid of any reference to Middle Eastern peoples. Nevertheless, the group organizing the event announced on its Facebook page that the event would be canceled because the “program [was] dividing people and would make for an uncomfortable and possibly unsafe environment.”"

 

"Jeannie Suk’s New Yorker essay described the difficulties of teaching rape law in the age of trigger warnings. Some students, she wrote, have pressured their professors to avoid teaching the subject in order to protect themselves and their classmates from potential distress. Suk compares this to trying to teach “a medical student who is training to be a surgeon but who fears that he’ll become distressed if he sees or handles blood.”"

 

a story linked in the aforementioned story which contains multiple further examples: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/greg-lukianoffs-story/399359/

 

and such is only a bit over 1/2 o' the article.

 

and no, the validity o' microaggressions and trigger warnings is not "well known and well understood both academically and in the real world."  such stuff is highly controversial.

 

"However, there is a deeper problem with trigger warnings. According to the most-basic tenets of psychology, the very idea of helping people with anxiety disorders avoid the things they fear is misguided. A person who is trapped in an elevator during a power outage may panic and think she is going to die. That frightening experience can change neural connections in her amygdala, leading to an elevator phobia. If you want this woman to retain her fear for life, you should help her avoid elevators.

 

"But if you want to help her return to normalcy, you should take your cues from Ivan Pavlov and guide her through a process known as exposure therapy. You might start by asking the woman to merely look at an elevator from a distance—standing in a building lobby, perhaps—until her apprehension begins to subside. If nothing bad happens while she’s standing in the lobby—if the fear is not “reinforced”—then she will begin to learn a new association: elevators are not dangerous. (This reduction in fear during exposure is called habituation.) Then, on subsequent days, you might ask her to get closer, and on later days to push the call button, and eventually to step in and go up one floor. This is how the amygdala can get rewired again to associate a previously feared situation with safety or normalcy."

 

one article.  we would be here all day if we included more, such as

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberal-but-not-tolerant-on-the-nations-college-campuses/2016/02/11/0f79e8e8-d101-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html?utm_term=.29c553a8f60e

 

and the quick growing disinvited college speaker list.

 

want more... intimate? hurlshot has mentioned how his students often confuse him with their observations concerning what is racism.  there is a tendency for his students to see racism in things/events/speech which hurl finds innocuous.

 

is there a number o' examples you need?  if you is gonna turn this into an absurdist thing where every example we offer is nothing more than additional proof o' our oversensitivity, then am gonna simple bow out after this post as we are dealing with the kinda polarization dilemma we discussed earlier.  

 

...

 

gonna share an anecdote we partial shared previous on this board. is 'bout when we first started attending public school. the reservation schools were terrible, and our grandfather recognized how we were gonna need social skills, particular with non indians (aside: for years we were taught "indian" were cultural insensitive, but now am told by younger family how "native american" is actual a microaggression.  who knew?) if we were gonna have opportunities beyond the borders o' pine ridge. so, we were going to local public school... which weren't particular local.  Grandfather would drive us 40 minutes to where bus would then pick us up... and another hour + to get to school once picked up by the bus.  

 

at school, our young self encountered a new kinda bullying for the first time.  sure, we had been 'round other indian kids and had suffered the typical kinda cruelty which is normal 'mongst all children o' every culture. sudden find one's self 'mongst so many openly belligerent white faces were unnerving to say the least.

 

first day ends and Gromnir, tears in his eyes, tells grandfather he don't wanna go to school any more.  no, we says we won't go to school no more..

 

Grandfather gives us a long and silent stare. finally, he says, "ok."  a taciturn man were our Grandfather.

 

next day we do not attend school. huzzah.  however, we is worked harder than have ever worked before.  hands is blistered and every muscle in body burns. literal am too tired to eat dinner, and though we smell o' horse manure and sweat, we go straight to bed after day's chores end.

 

following morning, Grandfather asks us if we wanna go to school.

 

"yes sir."

 

on the way to dropping us off for the bus, our Grandfather and Gromnir discussed our school problem.  we explained to the old man how difficult it were with so many white kids making fun o' us for being stupid and poor and indian. we were afraid we were gonna get beat up. almost as bad as the kids open hostility were the pity we saw in the faces o' the white adults who were teachers and administrators at the school. were a nightmare for us.

 

grandfather asked us if we felt shame for being indian.

 

"no."

 

did we feel shame 'bout being poor?

 

"maybe. a little."

 

did we feel like we were stupid?

 

"no. i am as smart as anybody at that school, including the teachers."

 

so our grandfather shrugs.  tells us there is no shame in being indian or white or black or chinese.  just is.  tell us if we is ashamed o' being poor, the best way to fix that problem is to get an education. tells us if we is so smart, then we should act like it and start by "fixing your own problems... smart guy."

 

we both kinda chuckled.

 

the old guy in patched denim jacket drove us to school in his ancient ford pickup. the weathered skin o' his face was dark and gnarled as redwood bark and his eyes bright and black as a crow's. he didn't talk much. he rare smiled.  he was devout catholic but we had never heard him pray.  he were well educated and taught us to enjoy books.  he were our Grandfather. on that trip to school he gave us advice and we wish we could recall the exact words, but were a long time ago and we were young and tired and too stupid to realize how important were the things he were telling us.

 

wish we could recall exact.

 

the old guy told us we could never be given respect-- we would need earn it.  we would need take it. we would need fight for it and once won, we would need battle to defend what we had earned. we would meet people who were hating or pitying us for no other reason than our being indian.  we would meet people who hated or pitied us for no reason other than our poverty.  complain to teachers or grandfather 'bout the injustice o' it all were pointless 'cause nobody could make people change their minds.  tell a bigot he is wrong won't change his mind. punish a bigot won't make him less a bigot-- opposite is gonna happen.  get you teacher to punish the kids for being bigots and those kids will hate you even more, and they will only be more bigoted with the next indian kid they meet.

 

old guy told us to stop thinking 'bout "fair." were never gonna be fair for an oglala kid from pine ridge. respect o' white kids and white teachers weren't gonna come fair.  perhaps we didn't need respect from such folks, but if we wanted it we were gonna need earn it.  we were gonna need prove every day we deserved respect.  were gonna be a lifetime battle 'cause even once earned, many would still believe we had lucked or cheated to succeed. 

 

wish we could remember exact, but his wisdom weren't unique.  have heard similar from mlk and others.  older generation. different times. nowadays is microaggressions and triggers rather than personal responsibility and manning-up... which is, no doubt, a microaggression. we want a relative level playing field for jobs. we want an honest chance in courts.  we want fairness we know we ain't ever gonna complete get.  halloween costumes at yale? they, the previous generation, fought for the civil rights act and nowadays it is "safe places"? 

 

clearly Gromnir don't condone bigotry, but again, the First Amendment protects offensive speech. is axiomatic that there is no need to protect speech which fails to offend anybody. allow self to be affected by every marginal or imagined offensive utterance or condition is pretty much the definition o' oversensitivity, particular in a society which also claims to value Free Speech.

 

longer response than deserved. could tell you didn't read the atlantic article when you observed how we linked "a couple things," or if you did, you weren't gonna budge from your pov-- no how, no way. am suspecting this is a polarization dilemma, but can't fault us for lack o' a full response. 

 

done.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Obsidian sucks]

I think a lot of you guys are lying to yourselves about playing woman, if they were ugly you wouldnt be playing them. More importantly developers believe you wouldnt be playing their games if their women were ugly. 

[HooAmEye]

I'm pretty sure that I am not attracted to Death Godlike

[Hurlshort]

I expect the male avatars to look good as well, so not really a double standard.

 

 

 

 

 

want more... intimate? hurlshot has mentioned how his students often confuse him with their observations concerning what is racism.  there is a tendency for his students to see racism in things/events/speech which hurl finds innocuous.

 

 

They tend to be using it as a funny buzzword more than actual indignation. But I think that glib use of the word at a young age makes it harder for them to have a strong understanding of what racism is. Then you end up with a bunch of kids that think it is funny to be racist and a bunch of kids that think everything is racist.

 

It's ok, I'm taking care of it one class at a time.  

[SonicMage117]

I think a lot of you guys are lying to yourselves about playing woman, if they were ugly you wouldnt be playing them. More importantly developers believe you wouldnt be playing their games if their women were ugly.

I've played as "ugly" women plenty of times, unattractive demonic looking women, burned victims, etc. So Idk about that.

 

Max Caufield from Life Is Strange isn't anything to look at, loved playing the game as her because of her personality, story, and the game itself. I could name many more games but the point is, a woman doesn't have to be attractive for me to prefer to play as them vs male characters.

 

So no, not lying. I guess I just have a mature mind when it comes to that. Like i said, being married and having kids changes everything. I don't expect people who aren't married out there anywhere to understand because they haven't developed that mindset yet.

 

And no, I don't think devs in 2017 are saying "More people will play our games if the females are hot, they HAVE to be hot so the audience will be bigger" because it simply isn't true. Sex doesn't sell like it used to and there's a good reason for that. The whole "Hot girls in the game will help it sell more" is just another myth. Hot and perfect isn't relatable, realistic is. Realistic meaning imperfections, flaws and indirect susbtabce of that nature. It's why Hollywood has changed as well, nobody likes the Megan Fox model-types anymore, everyone wants the girl next door.

 

I think people genuinely want good games with good stories. Transistor is a great example of how well a female game appeals to men without the "hot" factor having any place but then again, who's to say sexy or hot is/isn't just one thing. After all, there are people who think women are sexy with clothes on and as soon as they take their clothes off, not so much.

[Bartimaeus]

I expect the male avatars to look good as well, so not really a double standard.

 

Yeah...there's more criteria than just "attractive" here, especially if you're applying it to non-human characters that you have little to no capability of being attracted to. Banjo-Kazooie, for example, I think the characters are well-designed and appealing...but I'm certainly not attracted to them. Yooka-Laylee, in comparison, I don't like the designs as much - I don't think a lizard and a bulbous-looking bat are quite as appealing as a goofy bear and breegull. I want characters' designs to be appealing in some manner, not necessarily attractive: sometimes, it means NOT attractive in the traditional sense, and sometimes it does. Depends on the type of character and their personality and such.

[213374U]

and no, the validity o' microaggressions and trigger warnings is not "well known and well understood both academically and in the real world."  such stuff is highly controversial.

 

OMG are you serious? it's <currentyear>! I hear someone wrote a paper on it, so it's right up there with the Coriolis effect and Van der Waals interactions!

[ManifestedISO]

Camels aren't even native to the Middle East.

 

Wouldn't mind exploring that cognitive behavioral modding avenue. Seems our self constantly reminds ourself we could have done better at everything in a painfully insistent tone.

 

 

Don't have a game gender preference. Equal fun as Lara C. or Nathan D. 

[Gromnir]

"I expect the male avatars to look good as well, so not really a double standard."

 

 

our limited mp experience, and considerable sp experience, suggests there is more likely to be unattractive male avatar options than unattractive female avatar options. even in sp games, a male protagonist might be, say as a random example, an immortal who bears the scars o' potential thousands o' lifetimes on his granite-grey skin. in mp games where avatar body types is limited, there will invariably be a husky-pants male option, but frequent the female options is limited to degrees o' attractive rather than overt porcine. will leave to others to explain the difference.

 

personally, we choose, when choice is possible, options which do not conform to popular notions o' beauty.

 

the seated/at rest boxer.  la belle heaulmière. fallen caryatid carrying her stone.

 

henri-cartier-besson photography.

 

dorothea lange photography.

 

cristina garcia rodero photography.

 

​is some o' the images which came to mind when we thinks o' beauty and/or compelling and is the kinda thing we most often try and actualize via avatars. most such images wouldn't be considered attractive by modern gamer standards. actual disappoints us how so few games allow us to replicate our chosen image.

 

slight variations o' supermodel or hollywood icon is boring to us.  

 

...

 

even so, we won't lie. 1991 Gromnir thought jennifer connelly were smokin' hot.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK1wR0pB12M

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited September 10, 2017 by Gromnir

[Janmanden]

Feels like there is an option missing, the meh one seems a bit too indifferent, which is never the case for me..

 

I have a strong sense of both genders and the homosexual ones as well and I play them all, because it's a game and I want to experience everything that it has to offer. In games that doesn't offer any difference I go with the ones I think fits the class and my character the best, but I have tendency towards picking female characters, because for some inexplicable reason, perhaps being heterosexual does have some pull, I just happen to like girls..

[injurai]

Anecdotally, I find women navigate towards attractive male characters as much as men to attractive women characters. But that women are less fussed about average/less-than-average men then men are about average/less-than-average women. Especially when it comes to being receptive to marketing, in the end everyone seems to love lovable characters regardless.

 

Looking at Japanese games it's honestly kind of disturbing how even in realistic looking (non-animu) games like Yakuza or Final Fantasy XV, the women are largely still "ethnically-anime." Say what you want about Kojima and Quiet but that in some ways feels like progress. A real women! I suppose western games have their own stylization that drifts from realism, but it's far more reeled in. We do have this obsession where feminine girls can't be hard. The Olympic woman archetype is always ignored in favor of the skinny butch archetype.

[SonicMage117]

My useless but honest thoughts on anime vs realistic, for what it's worth:

 

It's hard for me to picture any anime character as realistic as the basis/point of them is to be fantasy and cute and give the watcher somwthing they cant from a real life woman. I'll say, it's far too easy to draw a perfect woman than to find someone in real life so it's a bit unfair for me to say that anime does a well enough job to capturing a "realistic" essence in any way.

 

Other than that, I have yet to see an anime or anime-related game with some realistic or relatable writing that can pull me into a realistic juncture like an non-anime medium can. The anime culture is definitely a popular thing but I'm wondering what age audience it's holding the most right now.

 

Anyhoot, Quiet is a great character so is Ciri. I think both of them are attractive. I don't think Fury from Darksiders is attractive or realistic (well maybe it is, who knows what the horsemen really look like after all) but somehow am more interested in her character.

 

I think alot of people get confused that realistic means powerless. As a huge fan of anything Nitroplus and an avid player of Nitroplus Infinite Blasterz, I'd say a girl/woman doesn't need superpowers to be strong in her own way but can melt a man with her heart, what she says or how she says it.

 

Don't get me wrong, you get to see flaws in anime girls - more often than none but it's a mixture of all the elements that remind me that I'm watching a cartoon and thus even the most mature animes out there still make me feel like I'm watchimg something made for the tween demographic.

 

All those waifus though. I never could quite understand the obsession that some people get with anime women. The stereotype being the shy schoolgirl lol maybe it's just me. Perhaps I am missing something or lacking in imagination.