This may be a controversial issue I'm discussing here but it needs to be said I am so tired and fed up of people using women to sell their games! so many games do it without you even noticing and are successful because of their advertising essentially doing nothing but showing their sexualised fictional female creations for sex appeal towards their audience "lets just show em' a girl, that'd do!" I'm not saying women shouldn't be featured in games of course they should but the manner in which they are stereotyped and there just to clearly sell a product and make the player horny is unacceptable, this doesnt apply to every single game which shows off female characters and they don't have to be shown in a macho male- esque variant and should still remain good looking (look at the contoversy of Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn) but it's when it goes too far in games I get annoyed at what developers are trying to do. I booted up Ridge Racer Type 4 from Namco and what do I find as the intro? nothing but a sexist representation of women right here, just watch it if you must. Does the girl really need to be there? why can't she be driving the car? are they saying women need everything to be done for them? The intro is nice but is a nod to sexism and is clearly using the girl for sex appeal.
Now let's look at a franchise that is made to sell using sex appeal and women in a provocative manner, Dead or Alive. I'd admit the girls in the game are a nice addition but is it necessary to make a goddamn spin off title that isn't a fighter for guys to play those girls in sport activities wearing bikinis? Ask yourself if this is something good to represent women. Just being a guy I am insulted by this because it almost comes out as a sick excuse to sell off using sex. There's not much of a reason to buy Dead or Alive Extreme 3 unless your really looking to experience some erotic trip to the beach looking up at these girls. It might sound like heaven and is pervy which is exactly why people make fun of this franchise and its sad because the fighting games are so great but in Tomonobu Itagaki's mind Dead or Alive needed to feature big breasted women to make it a success, that's okay for him but using women to sell his game? that's quite ridiculous.
Whilst other fighting games are still nowhere near the level of Dead or Alive's marketing and depiction of women, there are still problems. Ivy from Soul Calibur has a controversial design because it's again, made for sex appeal so people buy the game, she might not be so heavily advertised but then again this is an attempt to gain sales by attracting people to the game so they have something to adore and look at, quite embarrasing. Also you have Street Fighter V's Chun-Li. It is almost DOA-level with the amount of costumes she has got now and they show her off in a provocative manner not to mention the size of her thighs although it's exaggerated she's the strongest woman in the world it is quite insane to have thighs that huge for an Asian woman. Capcom's Street Fighter is aimed towards a universal audience including children but that doesn't stop them from trying to use their female world warriors to sell.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not here to say women are always used to sell games. That's clearly not the case and you can clearly see there are good examples of when women are used not solely for the purpose to sell a game even if you'd disagree I'd say Lara Croft in Tomb Raider isn't too overly sexualised but then again she was made for sex appeal wasn't she? I just want developers to stop using women to sell games and appreciate how this is getting less common in this day and age, hell some gamers might not like that and want women to be depicted and presented to them in video games in sexual fashion but it's really a bad method to sell your product, the female character has to be there for a much bigger meaning and not just for sex, they are fictional characters in the end, at least most of them are.
Now let's look at a franchise that is made to sell using sex appeal and women in a provocative manner, Dead or Alive. I'd admit the girls in the game are a nice addition but is it necessary to make a goddamn spin off title that isn't a fighter for guys to play those girls in sport activities wearing bikinis? Ask yourself if this is something good to represent women. Just being a guy I am insulted by this because it almost comes out as a sick excuse to sell off using sex. There's not much of a reason to buy Dead or Alive Extreme 3 unless your really looking to experience some erotic trip to the beach looking up at these girls. It might sound like heaven and is pervy which is exactly why people make fun of this franchise and its sad because the fighting games are so great but in Tomonobu Itagaki's mind Dead or Alive needed to feature big breasted women to make it a success, that's okay for him but using women to sell his game? that's quite ridiculous.
Whilst other fighting games are still nowhere near the level of Dead or Alive's marketing and depiction of women, there are still problems. Ivy from Soul Calibur has a controversial design because it's again, made for sex appeal so people buy the game, she might not be so heavily advertised but then again this is an attempt to gain sales by attracting people to the game so they have something to adore and look at, quite embarrasing. Also you have Street Fighter V's Chun-Li. It is almost DOA-level with the amount of costumes she has got now and they show her off in a provocative manner not to mention the size of her thighs although it's exaggerated she's the strongest woman in the world it is quite insane to have thighs that huge for an Asian woman. Capcom's Street Fighter is aimed towards a universal audience including children but that doesn't stop them from trying to use their female world warriors to sell.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not here to say women are always used to sell games. That's clearly not the case and you can clearly see there are good examples of when women are used not solely for the purpose to sell a game even if you'd disagree I'd say Lara Croft in Tomb Raider isn't too overly sexualised but then again she was made for sex appeal wasn't she? I just want developers to stop using women to sell games and appreciate how this is getting less common in this day and age, hell some gamers might not like that and want women to be depicted and presented to them in video games in sexual fashion but it's really a bad method to sell your product, the female character has to be there for a much bigger meaning and not just for sex, they are fictional characters in the end, at least most of them are.
