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].

[Not Big Surprise]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Calamari Toast:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Not Big Surprise:

you could just say they are
unless you disagree?


anyway, that's beside the point
i think there's beauty in them and not just because i'm in a transbian polycule
the relationships work together, the people involved mesh together
they devote time and effort into making each other happy, they enjoy each other's company, they grow and change as people off of each other, support each other through hard times

their relationship serves the purpose of being fulfilling to them, of bringing them happiness
and although some might say it's ugly because it doesn't necessarily function as a creator of children, i believe that it is beautiful because of the purposes it serves

The framework you set up is sound. I think it's a system that only gives back to its environment in a way that is more limited than the way in which the environment enables it, so I think it's a net negative unless you want to bring in the spiritual element.

i mean, happier people do give things to the environment, positive things
not just out of necessity, but also because loved ones are even more of a reason to try to change the world for the better

[Haruspex]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Mahoutsukai Yavin:

Coomer take

What are you saying here? You are aware there are adult games in your library with multiple hours played, right?

I've seen more than a few instances of activists who are quick to dish out the insults when it comes to straight men enjoying the sight of attractive women, but aren't shy about their love of gay furry sex, or whatever one's interests might be.

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

Yes, it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stuXpk_Re6I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc1PohWSLb8&t=140s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3jkg3J186Y&t=141s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwe57FSxZBA&t=7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWun6N9qbOk&t=97s

[Heitor Villa-Lobos]

I miss beautiful western games like Final Fantasy and Zelda.

[Mega Ultra Chicken]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Heitor Villa-Lobos:

I miss beautiful western games like Final Fantasy and Zelda.

The woke is slowly creeping into Eastern games. Silent Hill 2 remake's Maria was de-sexualized despite the character's sexualism being a significant symbol in the original game.

[The nameless Gamer]

When did games in the west even start having mentionable playable female characters?

Samus Aran - Metroid, Nintendo
Aerith, Tifa and Yuffie - Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix
Jill Valentine, Ada Wong - Resident Evil, Capcom
Chun-Li, Cammy White, Rose etc. - Street Fighter II and beyond, Capcom
Millia Rage, Baiken, Jam Kuradoberi etc. - Guilty Gear series, Arc System Works
Jun Kazama, Nina Williams etc - Tekken II and beyond, Namco
Sarah Bryant, Pai Chan etc - Virtua Fighter series, SEGA Japan
Zelda - The legend of Zelda, Nintendo
Shantae - WayForward

And many more. All from Japanese companies. Could anyone compile a list of memorable female characters from the west similar to this one? Genuine curiosity, not a rhetorical question.

[An Easy Target]

I'm pleasantly surprised at the richness of folk here calling out this superficial, baseless 'alpha' opinion.

Victoria's Secret magazines exist if looks are what you're after.

[ZZZZZ]

"dying out" means they look better than ever before

[Sixtyfivekills]

Początkowo opublikowane przez The nameless Commander:

When did games in the west even start having mentionable playable female characters?

Samus Aran - Metroid, Nintendo
Aerith, Tifa and Yuffie - Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix
Jill Valentine, Ada Wong - Resident Evil, Capcom
Chun-Li, Cammy White, Rose etc. - Street Fighter II and beyond, Capcom
Millia Rage, Baiken, Jam Kuradoberi etc. - Guilty Gear series, Arc System Works
Jun Kazama, Nina Williams etc - Tekken II and beyond, Namco
Sarah Bryant, Pai Chan etc - Virtua Fighter series, SEGA Japan
Zelda - The legend of Zelda, Nintendo
Shantae - WayForward

And many more. All from Japanese companies. Could anyone compile a list of memorable female characters from the west similar to this one? Genuine curiosity, not a rhetorical question.

Aaaaalright, you're on!

Faith - Mirror's Edge
Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
Kitana, Jade - Mortal Kombat 9 (yeah I'm cheating lmao)
Uhh.... The Severed Steel woman?





i give up

[Tonepoet]

Początkowo opublikowane przez The nameless Commander:

Początkowo opublikowane przez 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.

The argument doesn't strike me as something along the lines of there aren't sexy male video game protagonists. It's that people don't necessarily collectively lose their minds when there's a kinda fugly one like Wario, Raz, Nier or Trevor.

In fact, Nier was intentionally grizzled up for western release during the PS3/Xbox 360 era[nviziados.wordpress.com] and hardly anybody cared or noticed. The character used in the Japanese version of the game was more along the lines of a youthful boy. Imagine the outcry there would have been if 2B from the sequel games was done in like that.

Why isn't there a Warupeachi[www.thegamer.com]?

That's a bit of a double standard, don't you think?

[metamec]

The outrage about Disco Elysium's male protagonist was deafening.

Nobody could hear it.

[GhostHawk196]

I remember a time when every game with a female character in it was hot. Resident Evil 5 Excella Gionne, Metal Gear Solid 4 Naomi, Metal Gear Solid 5 Quiet, Mass Effect 2 Miranda, The Witcher 3 Triss and Yennifer. The good ol times…

[The nameless Gamer]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Tonepoet:

Początkowo opublikowane przez 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.

The argument doesn't strike me as something along the lines of there aren't sexy male video game protagonists. It's that people don't necessarily collectively lose their minds when there's a kinda fugly one like Wario, Raz, Nier or Trevor.

In fact, Nier was intentionally grizzled up for western release during the PS3/Xbox 360 era[nviziados.wordpress.com] and hardly anybody cared or noticed. The character used in the Japanese version of the game was more along the lines of a youthful boy.

That's a bit of a double standard, don't you think?

More than just a bit.

[The nameless Gamer]

When you think about it, there wasn't much beauty nor imagination in western games to begin with.

Quake, Doom, Medal of honor, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Command & Conquer (I love the franchise, but its early entries are NOT particularly imaginative, just recent events spiced up with a dash of science fiction), a myriad of sports games... with the exception of a few games inspired by Tolkien's creations such as The Elder Scrolls, Planescape Torment and Gothic I and II, most western games are either gritty realism in a warlike environment in 50 shades of brown and a variety of generic sports games.

Compare that to the vivid, vibrant and colourful design of games from the east. The Ys series, the Kiseki series, the Dragon Quest series, the 2D and 3D fighting games (Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter), Devil may cry, Bayonetta, The Castlevania series...

Beauty was rarely a factor in games from the west.

[replika]

modern games are all action-adventure slop, killing floor 2 is better than all of the games released today, tony hawks pro skater 2 has a better soundtrack than modern games, cinematic orchestra soundtracks and action-adventure killed creativity, now everything is a final fantasy ripoff.