Beauty in western games is dying out

[Vasitheas]

A lot of you are probably aware of this sometime ago through reddit posts. This vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgqXFeborQ8 (0:44s) sums it up nicely.

I noticed this years ago, back when I was playing [R6:Siege]. When Siege first came out, we had attractive female characters like IQ. Years after, Ubisoft started blog posts about women taking up positions in their company and suddenly we got operators like Gridlock. There was a lot of drama concerning her appearance.

For the last few years, there's a trend of downgraded female appearances, including many upcoming games. [Perfect Dark] just to name one of them.

A lot of old games still have a lasting impression today such as [BloodRayne] and [Tomb Raider]. The reason is quite simple. Beauty sells. Sex also, but that's a different topic.

Some of my friends and countless forum users are concerned. I told them I think it's a phase and more than a decade is needed for this to change. The West has always been very slow.

A long time ago, video games in the West were a man's club, like sports. Men knew what men wanted and we were happy. But when women started coming in, around the last 2 decades, there were a lot of problems. Namely, they weren't skilled, only a distraction. Men didn't mind it at the time because it was a new. But if you sucked and you weren't a woman, that's a different story. A decade or more after, women finally got good at what we do.

Now in the West we've got women coming into the decision-making and designing roles. They've got a simple message: 'We don't like pretty women because it makes us look bad. We're secretly jealous, resentful and spiteful.'

Fortunately, the East didn't go backwards like us in the West. So they're still rolling out awesome games. Not long ago, [Nier Automata]. Recently, [Stellar Blade]. Now, [First Descendant]. Soon, [Chrono Odyssey].

[󠀡󠀡]

"west" hmm

[Sixtyfivekills]

Remember Shahdee and Kaileena from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within? I always had to look behind me to make sure my parents weren't nearby, good times.

[The nameless Gamer]

You stop buying the popular mainstream games which have models you don't like and
a) buy eastern video games or
b) go off mainstream and actually search for western video games which have beautiful characters
c) don't limit yourself to "realistic" characters. Stylized and hand-drawn games HAVE pretty characters.

[secuda]

Just buy the games you like.

[Pierce Dalton]

I bet you never played the original Perfect Dark. Joanna was a tomboy, not a Hollywood actress.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1Ms91FREyXw/maxresdefault.jpg

[MistyMountainHop]

To be fair, the ugly modern female game character trope seems to run proportional with how much the game sucks in general, so it can be useful as an early warning system.

[Pierce Dalton]

Originally posted by MistyMountainHop:

To be fair, the ugly modern female game character trope seems to run proportional with how much the game sucks in general, so it can be useful as an early warning system.

Why do gamers only complain about ugly women, never ugly men?

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by Pierce Dalton:

Why do gamers only complain about ugly women, never ugly men?

They are a lot rarer and even if there are any, they're usually not main or playable characters.

[MistyMountainHop]

Originally posted by Pierce Dalton:

Originally posted by MistyMountainHop:

To be fair, the ugly modern female game character trope seems to run proportional with how much the game sucks in general, so it can be useful as an early warning system.

Why do gamers only complain about ugly women, never ugly men?

Because most gamers are male.

[Sixtyfivekills]

Originally posted by MistyMountainHop:

To be fair, the ugly modern female game character trope seems to run proportional with how much the game sucks in general, so it can be useful as an early warning system.

Eeeeeeh, not quite.


Everyone is praising Stellar Blade for Eve's design, which is an eye candy don't get me wrong, but nobody talks about how she's... shockingly boring as a character?

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by MistyMountainHop:

Originally posted by Pierce Dalton:

Why do gamers only complain about ugly women, never ugly men?

Because most gamers are male.

That's not true, though, is it?

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/494867/distribution-of-gamers-by-gender-usa#:~:text=As%20of%20December%202023%2C%2048,video%20gaming%20audiences%20were%20male.

[Pierce Dalton]

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

Originally posted by Pierce Dalton:

Why do gamers only complain about ugly women, never ugly men?

They are a lot rarer and even if there are any, they're usually not main or playable characters.

Nah, the explanation is that gamers are a bunch of horny virgins. Every women must be sexy. But men? Who cares how they look?

[MistyMountainHop]

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Originally posted by MistyMountainHop:

Because most gamers are male.

That's not true, though, is it?

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/494867/distribution-of-gamers-by-gender-usa#:~:text=As%20of%20December%202023%2C%2048,video%20gaming%20audiences%20were%20male.

Playing Candy Crush for ten minutes while being driven around in an Uber does not make one a gamer.

[Spirit]

true too many woman developers and diversity hires in the video game industry. they can't allow beautiful female characters and they probably get paid more the more woke the game is

skyrim is an example of real diversity. modern devs force it and it just doesn't work

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by Pierce Dalton:

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

They are a lot rarer and even if there are any, they're usually not main or playable characters.

Nah, the explanation is that gamers are a bunch of horny virgins. Every women must be sexy. But men? Who cares how they look?

That's a pretty badly generalizing blanket statement. Let's have a look at male characters in video games:
Mortal Kombat male characters are mostly pretty sexy hunks.
Dear or Alive's male characters are actually just as sexy as the female ones.
Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun: Anton Slavik and Michael McNeil are both rather pleasant to the eye.
Dante from Devil May Cry.
Hayabusa Ryu from Ninja Gaiden
Sketch Turner from Comix Zone
Marco and Tarma from Metal Slug
A plethora of characters from Arc System Works and SNK fighting games (I better not even start listing them)
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)
Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid)

Shall I go on? That's from the top of my head, but I could do some searching and find a whole lot more. I think the effort people put in designing those characters kinda throws shade at your statement.