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

[Gromnir]

Since it was brought up, I have some pretty strong opinions on the whole climate we have today regarding weight. While I am going to be quick to defend anyone who is belittled or attacked over their bodies, I'm pretty concerned about the health implications of normalizing obesity. Living healthy and being active SHOULD be priorities in our society. 

 

Video games typically represent an ideal or exaggerated version of a person. You can jump higher, fight better, and run longer than the common man or woman. So why would obesity be common?

 

hurl isn't actual doing the realism bit to explain character options in computer games?  the jump higher, fight better, and run longer body types rare is actual available to women in video games regardless, but such don't explain why wide-body options is far more likely available for male avatars than is the case for female. tor body type 4 male is based on realistic expectations o' characters running marathon distances or jumping basketball dunk heights? 

 

bioware has admitted they ain't in the realism business but is rather doing "wish fulfillment."  am doubting realism is a significant part o' the equation for most game developers.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[SonicMage117]

This... This has been seen in too many games too many times lol

[Eumaios]

I didn't understand the question. I sometimes play as a female, in which case I will make an aesthetically appealing character. I make no apologies for my tastes in aesthetics. In fact, since the trend is that our predilections are beyond our control, I don't see how anyone can accuse me of anything for my preference either in terms of the female form or the other attendant attributes such as dark hair, dark eyes, and fair skin. Of course, I don't make cookie cutter characters, so if I make such a character, figuring I'm going to be looking at my character more than anything else during the course of the game, I will often vary things in one attribute or another. Sometimes the female form is slender, sometimes athletic, other times curvy or even a little more sway in the walk away. Other times, especially if I feel more attachment to the character as a better version of my own person, I'll play a male. In that case, I'll worry less about the body but the face will typically be a tanned guy with medium brown hair.

 

I don't know about shaming people. I've always tried to be kind, let alone polite, but I don't think people should be overly sensitive. I say that as someone who used to weigh 400 pounds. Let me tell you, if you're really fat, you always know it, even if people are polite about it.

[algroth]

Thank the Heavens Urgot got a rework.

Edited September 12, 2017 by algroth

[Vaeliorin]

Since it was brought up, I have some pretty strong opinions on the whole climate we have today regarding weight. While I am going to be quick to defend anyone who is belittled or attacked over their bodies, I'm pretty concerned about the health implications of normalizing obesity. Living healthy and being active SHOULD be priorities in our society. 

 

Video games typically represent an ideal or exaggerated version of a person. You can jump higher, fight better, and run longer than the common man or woman. So why would obesity be common?

I'm in no way saying that normalizing obesity should be a thing.  Heck, I don't have any wish to have a fat player character.  But there have been fat characters in games at least since Baldur's Gate, and they tend to always be either evil or comic relief.  Honestly, I hadn't even noticed it until I was playing Baldur's Gate a year or two ago and started clicking on random citizens in the actual city of Baldur's Gate and every single citizen with the fat character model either talked about food or made some sort of joke (often related to food.)

 

If they just got rid of fat characters in games, I wouldn't complain.  It's just that if they're going to be there, it would be nice if they were offered roles as diverse as characters of any other body type.

 

Honestly, if developers just relied less on stereotypes, I'd be happy.

[Hurlshort]

 

hurl isn't actual doing the realism bit to explain character options in computer games?

 

HA! Good Fun!

Not at all, I am saying video game avatars tend to represent an ideal. It is not really ideal to be overweight.

[Gromnir]

 

hurl isn't actual doing the realism bit to explain character options in computer games?

 

HA! Good Fun!

Not at all, I am saying video game avatars tend to represent an ideal. It is not really ideal to be overweight.

 

and once again, the type 4 body for males in swtor is hardly svelte and clear not representative o' a world class runner or jumper, eh?  idealized? is such your ideal? 

 

one must ask why is different for males than females.  am suspecting answers will be predictable polarized.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[SonicMage117]

I think it goes both ways really...

 

It doesn't matter who says "There are more attractive women then men in video games" for the simple fact that nobody can prove this.

 

It's not like we've played every game or even most games in the world to be able to come to this conclusion, so why anyone is treating it as fact as if they knew for sure is beyond me.

 

I'd be willing to bet that there are actually more unattractive women in video games (today) than attractive ones - thia isnt the 90's- and just as much out of shape females as males but since there will be no end to this argument.

 

I mean, we only ever hear of the new "hot" thing in video gaming. Media exacts perfection and attractive. In other words, you don't know it exists or has happened so therefore to certain individuals, it hasnt.

 

If I were to list how many out of shape women or unattractive women I've seen i video games the list could go on but let's be honest here, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in/out of shape differs to the demands of an individual. One man may say "Get some meat on her bones!" Another will say "She's perfect!"

 

Bah! I digress.

[SonicMage117]

 

[SonicMage117]

 

[Eumaios]

I don't begrudge the argument that games shouldn't glorify or normalize obesity. I just don't agree with the idea that it's even remotely an issue. There are competing perspectives here that apparently have become more of a spectrum. I mean, rhetorically everything can be expressed as for or against, but the larger argument has gotten a bit weird and multi-directional to me. Games should not make everyone woman feel as if she needs to be an hourglass hottie, but games also shouldn't promote dangerous lifestyles by normalizing obesity. On the other hand, they probably shouldn't normalize having sex with a hooker and then murdering her to steal your money back and then driving over to an enemy drug lord and cappin' his ass so you can take over his drug trade. If we consider options in computer games as causative for societal norms, we better invest some heavy weaponry when the next Grand Theft Auto hits the shelves.

 

The body image question has always been strange to me, but now it's become surreal. This Hurlshot guy seems to be earnest and sincere in his statements, and I don't mean to disparage him or his statements, but society has a long way to go before the balance of saying that fat people are stupid, lazy, and comical gets turned into obesity being the 'in' thing because people can make an RPG character that carries a few extra pounds. I agree with SonicMage117 that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I don't know if the chicken came first or the egg, but either society has trained our beholding eye to think that pencil thin chicks are never more sexy than when they knock six hefty guys on their asses or our collective eye has trained society to the same end. Frankly, I'd like to have some female character who, while attractive in face and fit in form, doesn't make me laugh by being pathetically thin and beating down large, well-trained men with absolute ease. I've known women I suspected could put the smack on me, but they sure as hell didn't look like every physical part of them had stopped growing at thirteen with the exception of their breasts.

 

Then again, I'm kind of wasting some free time I've had on this message board, so I'm probably not comprehending the all sides of the argument as well as I should.

[Amentep]

FWIW, I seem to recall you can create an overweight female Boss in Saints Row 2 (can't really recall character creation for 3 & 4 since I spent my time trying to recreate my SR2 Boss).

 

EDIT: I should add, its the only game that I can recall allowing for making a really obese PC (male or female).

[Valmy]

 

 

Honestly, I hadn't even noticed it until I was playing Baldur's Gate a year or two ago and started clicking on random citizens in the actual city of Baldur's Gate and every single citizen with the fat character model either talked about food or made some sort of joke (often related to food.)

If they just got rid of fat characters in games, I wouldn't complain.  It's just that if they're going to be there, it would be nice if they were offered roles as diverse as characters of any other body type.

 

Honestly, if developers just relied less on stereotypes, I'd be happy.

 

 

The 90s were a special time.

 

Though lots of named NPCs used the fat model and I don't recall any jokes made at their expense.

[algroth]

Regarding the depiction of obesity in RPGs, I'm of the opinion that videogames and art in general aren't obliged to represent an ideal lifestyle, or for the other matter diversity. The presence of an obese character doesn't need to be tied to the disclaimer that their lifestyle may not be a healthy one, I think most people can deduce that much either from their depiction or from the real-life examples of obesity. On the other hand I don't necessarily think making a character obese would do much for making them more interesting and engaging than if they wouldn't be. I guess I can see it more as a result of a character's traits and background more so than a trait in and of itself.

Edited September 13, 2017 by algroth

[SonicMage117]

If it matters to anyone, it's evident that plus size is in...

 

Oveewatch, Pyre, Fortnite and Agents Of Mayhem all have plus size female protagonists. So there's that at least to prove my point. I can name many more but well, I'll just stop there for now.

 

Is plus-size desirable? Well, whether we like it or not, it's becoming more and more prominent in games just as homosexual characters are becoming more prominent in children's films and so on.

[redneckdevil]

both are good things happening is a good thing.  

[evilcat]

"You cant tell best without trying both."

I dont mind other sex hero, liked Portal, NieR and LiS.

There are some games, races where female are just looking better.