Because voting with your wallet doesn't work when you're up against heavy demand for sexualised images and what you want from the genres you play isn't there to buy. It's hard to find games in some genres (JRPGs, their sub-genres and fighting games, for example) that don't sexualise almost the entirety of their young female characters with ridiculous costumes. Many regular posters here enjoy JRPGs despite this.
Short answers- women are sexualised routinely, men aren't and not to the same extent. Topless dudes are often a power fantasy rather than a sexualised one. I don't see how you can play games and argue that male/female characters are treated equally in terms of character design, animation, posing and camera work etc. This thread has dozens upon dozens of examples, whereas any attempt to find the male equivalent (and plenty of Era members have honestly tried in good faith, in this thread and others) has to head towards specifically visual romance novels to reach any kind of genre-wide parity compared to pretty much any other type of game.
Because it wasn't 338 pages long when that was written, was it. Calling an OP written 8 months ago, that put a lot more work into framing a discussion than most, 'arrogant' for not predicting its own longevity is pretty ridiculous.
Oh I wonder why?
I find Dragon Ball much better when it has some sense of self-awareness and knows when not to take itself too seriously, so I disagree with that making it worse.
I concur, Vaan is comically shoehorned in and pointless as a character. The story hinges more on Basch or Ashe, Vaan could be removed without losing any critical plot
Are you really comparing rampant sexism and objectification with a game not having the type of combat you like?
you dont have to agree, but begs the question.
Not born that way: groomed, from childhood, through the media you consume, to believe certain images are "ideal". And this is why the constant stream of sexualised women is a problem.
No. Even 'tolerant' societies can lead to the 'tyranny of the majority', always prioritising the majority interest does not negate the legitimate grievances of minorities, which is why major western publishers are starting to take this stuff into account.
I agree with all of this.
I don't get it. DOA is a shitty game that just survives for the drama about oversized curves on female characters in every iteration. Everybody knows that.
Doesn't matter what men want. When you sell a product you and your tastes are not important. The important is your target's tastes. If you try to sell something that your audience is not looking for, you are going to close your business. If women press is like that, it's because women want it like it is. Otherway these companies would close their business time ago and new ones with real women desires would flourish. That's how business work.
Almost as if we're here to discuss an issue we all believe is a considerable problem and that it continues to promulgate in popular video game media, thus we discuss the new instances and the new problems they bring to bear.
There are no hard answers. It's a work in progress. Always is. Always will be.
I've worked in magazine publishing for 20 years. The history of magazine advertising over the last century, even in lifestyle/fashion magazines that now have a largely female editorial staff, is one where pretty models are used by the male-dominated advertising and media-buying firms to sell products to women by saying they aren't pretty enough, and to men by saying they will automatically attract a pretty woman with said product. It isn't a 'propaganda game' women 'win' by the cosmetics and fashion industries using impossible standards (and photoshop) to sell them stuff. Still, it beats forty years ago where the advertising line was that women were stupid, vapid domestic slaves with the mind of a toddler I suppose.
I'm thinking that might just be you reading something into a lot of these responses that isn't there.
Oh god is that why I haven't touched a most jrpgs since that era?
It's almost as if the endless amount of ridiculously sexualised female character designs provides a thread discussion loop of example posted/critique/example posted/critique. People enjoying discussing something that is as regular as the weather doesn't make it pointless if they all think it's bloody pissing it down again.
Dead or Alive 6 has deliberate improvements to female character design. Boob jiggle is gone, and the women are dressed far more appropriately. It is a Japanese game with a history of extreme sexualisation. My point: even so-called "waifu-obsessed" cultures can change given time.
What the fuck even is "women press".
This thread is not advocating indoctrination, which ironically is actually the reason some people fail to see what is wrong with seeing female characters as eye candy first that need to be somehow heavily justified to be an actual leading character without it.
