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].

[Pierce Dalton]

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pierce Dalton:

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.

I'm not saying they're not, that wasn't the point.

[Sixtyfivekills]

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pierce Dalton:

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.

Most of these are not by western devs/publishers though.



that's all the arguments I have, I don't remember the last western game I've played besides replaying Prototype. So yeah, add Alex Mercer to your list, dude was the coolest guy I've ever seen when I was young.

[The nameless Gamer]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pierce Dalton:

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

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.

I'm not saying they're not, that wasn't the point.

And I'm saying that people are merely designing their characters to be aesthetically pleasing. Frankly, I don't want to look at realistic characters in video games. Does liking character designs like in Arc System Works or French Bread fighting games make me horny?

[The nameless Gamer]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Sixtyfivekills:

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

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.

Most of these are not by western devs/publishers though.



that's all the arguments I have, I don't remember the last western game I've played besides replaying Prototype. So yeah, add Alex Mercer to your list, dude was the coolest guy I've ever seen when I was young.

A whole lot of western-made games are first-person, RTS games or involve some sort of character creation. Baldur's Gate I and II, Fallout I and II, The Elder Scrolls and the Gothic series, Planescape Torment, Warcraft I, II and III, Starcraft, the Command & Conquer franchise and all its clones, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Doom, Bioshock I and II...

[magic]

why do all of you basement losers have private profiles while posting this kind of garbage this is crazy.

[GhostyOsty]

What a shame you can't add it to your rule 34 list. Oh no a fictional character is a fictional character, better complain about how unattractive they are in which apparently only good looking characters can only have screen time.

[Pierce Dalton]

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pierce Dalton:

I'm not saying they're not, that wasn't the point.

And I'm saying that people are merely designing their characters to be aesthetically pleasing. Frankly, I don't want to look at realistic characters in video games. Does liking character designs like in Arc System Works or French Bread fighting games make me horny?

I'm not talking about the developers, I'm talking about gamers. No one complains when a male character is not handsome, but all women must look like models. You mentioned Mortal Kombat, Kano for example is ugly as hell... but no one cares, right? Shame they never made a skin of the actor from the first movie, he looks freaking badass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQoN-HBFWjw

Honestly, this just makes the gaming community look bad, it's like people are screaming PLS GIMME SEXY GIRLS

Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to see sexy girls, but you don't need games for that, people can find them elsewhere.

Send more Jesters, pls :)

[The nameless Gamer]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pierce Dalton:

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

And I'm saying that people are merely designing their characters to be aesthetically pleasing. Frankly, I don't want to look at realistic characters in video games. Does liking character designs like in Arc System Works or French Bread fighting games make me horny?

I'm not talking about the developers, I'm talking about gamers. No one complains when a male character is not handsome, but all women must look like models. You mentioned Mortal Kombat, Kano for example is ugly as hell... but no one cares, right? Shame they never made a skin of the actor from the first movie, he looks freaking badass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQoN-HBFWjw

Honestly, this just makes the gaming community look bad, it's like people are screaming PLS GIMME SEXY GIRLS :WH3_greasus_rofl:

Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to see sexy girls, but you don't need games for that, people can find them elsewhere.

1) Kano is pulling the villain look in that MOVIE with facial expressions. I'm pretty sure if he wasn't ACTING OUT a character we're supposed to want to lose, he could look way more appealing.

2) Notice the word "realistic". Yes, people who play video games want VISUALLY APPEALING characters. And just because certain people don't like a design, doesn't mean it's universally hated. I for one don't like Juri Han from the Street Fighter series, but there is a small army of people who do. My favourite SF character is Makoto. And yes, that includes her design. I like the contrast between her tomboyish face, haircut and demeanor and her figure which would be right at home in Dead or Alive. But that figure is most of the time obscured by a shabby and oversized karate gi... which is also part of the appeal of the design, as it's telling a part of her story. There is a lot more to character design than just how they LOOK.

[Pierce Dalton]

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pierce Dalton:

I'm not talking about the developers, I'm talking about gamers. No one complains when a male character is not handsome, but all women must look like models. You mentioned Mortal Kombat, Kano for example is ugly as hell... but no one cares, right? Shame they never made a skin of the actor from the first movie, he looks freaking badass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQoN-HBFWjw

Honestly, this just makes the gaming community look bad, it's like people are screaming PLS GIMME SEXY GIRLS

Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to see sexy girls, but you don't need games for that, people can find them elsewhere.

There is a lot more to character design than just how they LOOK.

Well, sure. Reason why people shouldn't be so concerned about it.

[The nameless Gamer]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Pierce Dalton:

Opprinnelig skrevet av The nameless Commander:

There is a lot more to character design than just how they LOOK.

Well, sure. Reason why people shouldn't be so concerned about it.

That's fair. After all, there's an entire direction in art, expressionism, dedicated to the aesthetics of the ugly and appalling. Not my cup of tea, but some people find it appealing. I don't judge.

[atomicgirl]

They're making women ugly in gaming to help fix the epidemic of awkward 20 year old Incels and 30 year old virgins preferring video game characters over real human beings.

[The nameless Gamer]

Opprinnelig skrevet av atomicgirl:

They're making women ugly in gaming to help fix the epidemic of awkward 20 year old Incels and 30 year old virgins preferring video game characters over real human beings.

This is an insult to players and designers alike. And females making such derogatory remarks won't help themselves to look more appealing.

[atomicgirl]

Opprinnelig skrevet av MistyMountainHop:

Opprinnelig skrevet av MancSoulja:

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.

Who said women only play Candy Crush? They play and mod for The Sims, one of the best selling PC franchises of all time, developed by Will Wright, a legend in the gaming industry. Do you or did you ever play The Sims? Do you even mod?

[The nameless Gamer]

Opprinnelig skrevet av ciarruh:

western games have been uninteresting anyways, why don't you talk about that? rather than making this a beauty contest.

All games are uninteresting if you are not their audience. Think the whole world wants to play grindy Korean MMORPGs and the flood of Souls-like games from Japan?

[Haruspex]

Opprinnelig skrevet av MancSoulja:

Opprinnelig skrevet av 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.

Look to the right of that page under "Special Properties". It reads, "Including smartphone gamers".

These kinds of statistics usually count grandma and her Candy Crush addiction among the "gamers". Not that mobile games aren't games, but there's a distinction there, and the Venn diagram of gamer-gamers and mobile-gamers doesn't have a huge amount of overlap.

If we look at Capcom's recent poll[captown.capcom.com], there were over a quarter million respondents. 82% are male. It's a good sample size, and fans of Capcom are more likely to be among the "gamer" demographic, discounting your auntie playing Sudoku on her iPhone. Capcom also has a pretty wide range of different genres and kinds of games, so you'll get a decent selection of different people with different interests.

Also interesting is that Unique and attractive characters is a close second place globally under what gamers look for in a game, behind only exhilarating gameplay. In Japan, Unique and attractive characters are the #1 most looked for thing.