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].

[Sixtyfivekills]

Originally posted by atomicgirl:

Originally posted by MistyMountainHop:

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?

Will Wright?


You sure his name is not Phoenix?

[atomicgirl]

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

Originally posted by 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.

All I got out of your response is that the truth hurts.

[the vampire of time and memory]

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

Originally posted by 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.

bro really said "females"

[LT. Thing]

The beauty of MY BUNGALOW MUST BE DYING OUT WITH HOWARDS STINK

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by atomicgirl:

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

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

All I got out of your response is that the truth hurts.

Then let me expand that response:
Can a video game character touch me?
Can I be her lap pillow and she mine?
Can I offer her home-made pastries?
Can I take out to a romantic date?

I know that the answer to that question is NO. But anyone making a disparaging statement like you did seems to forget that. If a female is insecure and jealous because of a string of 1s and 0s on a plate with microchips and circuits, that's HER problem.

[xjulep]

Stop playing the worst genre in all of gaming, RPG, and you won’t have this problem

[Bagel]

Back in time people didn’t care about how characters im games looked like. It’s just more nonsense trumpster election campaign propaganda. The early Tomb Raider games were fun and immersive, that’s what made them special. Lara Croft was the main character but only made up of a few polygons and I don’t think anyone was playing the game just because of her physical appearance but rather because of her personality and story.

Same goes for many other games where most characters were made out of a few pixels.

Right wingers are getting desperate and need something new to campaign on, so now it’s ‘woke’. Tomorrow they’ll make up new problems to split the society for their own gains of power.

[Sixtyfivekills]

Originally posted by Donut:

Back in time people didn’t care about how characters im games looked like.

Sorry but I find that hard to believe. Good characters sell games.

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Originally posted by Donut:

Back in time people didn’t care about how characters im games looked like.

Sorry but I find that hard to believe. Good characters sell games.

If only good-LOOKING characters sell games, how did Mario games remain top-sellers for 40 years?

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by ciarruh:

u worry about beauty in western games because you don't get ♥♥♥♥♥, lets be real.

Can a video game character touch me?
Can I be her lap pillow and she mine?
Can I offer her home-made pastries?
Can I take out to a romantic date?

I know that the answer to that question is NO. But are you sure you know it?

[Sixtyfivekills]

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

Originally posted by Sixtyfivekills:

Sorry but I find that hard to believe. Good characters sell games.

If only good-LOOKING characters sell games, how did Mario games remain top-sellers for 40 years?

Mario is a good looking character though. Not in a "oh man look at those abs, those muscles, so strong and handsome", but he's easy on the eyes, cartoony, very memorable and has hell of a legacy.

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by ciarruh:

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

Can a video game character touch me?
Can I be her lap pillow and she mine?
Can I offer her home-made pastries?
Can I take out to a romantic date?

I know that the answer to that question is NO. But are you sure you know it?

you would try if they were ai and you could interact with them, its a comfort thing.

I'm pretty sure a female android would be more pleasant company than a generalizing female who looks down on people.

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by ciarruh:

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

I'm pretty sure a female android would be more pleasant company than a generalizing female who looks down on people.

i know

And there's your answer. It's not just looks that make someone desired.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Donut:

Back in time people didn’t care about how characters im games looked like. It’s just more nonsense trumpster election campaign propaganda. The early Tomb Raider games were fun and immersive, that’s what made them special. Lara Croft was the main character but only made up of a few polygons and I don’t think anyone was playing the game just because of her physical appearance but rather because of her personality and story.

Same goes for many other games where most characters were made out of a few pixels.

Right wingers are getting desperate and need something new to campaign on, so now it’s ‘woke’. Tomorrow they’ll make up new problems to split the society for their own gains of power.

Nobody plays a game just because they find a character attractive. (Well, maybe a few do, but they're anomalous.)

Attractive characters though are a factor. A good game is still a good game if the characters aren't attractive, but a good game with attractive characters is better than one without.

And perhaps you've forgotten the craze behind Lara Croft. She was only made up of a few polygons, yes, but she was attractive, or at least as attractive as PS1 graphics could make her.

Then in all the official art, they created her with a certain amount of sex appeal. They advertised her with sex appeal. There was a whole ad campaign for TR2 suggesting "the boys" weren't at their usual spots at the bar, or the ball game, or the strip clubs because they were all at home playing Tomb Raider.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxG3henG1KA

She was the first virtual character to be featured as a centerfold in Playboy magazine, August 1999.

In the movie, they cast Angelina Jolie, a very attractive woman, for the role of Lara. They did this for a reason.

So I agree. Nobody really plays games only because they find a character attractive. But it is a factor.

[xjulep]

The other fact is that cheesecake is classless. Whether you care… hard to say. But it’s true