Are Video Games Sexist?

[XSI]

Did you know that sexual disfunction among young, healty, males is on the rise, probably because of pornography?

Lol seriously? im 31 i watch a lot of porn, i have 2 lovers and wouldnt mind 2 more...nothing disfunctional...
food we eat would have bigger impact.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I never said you were young. I imagine if you asked your wife and daughters if they wanted to be objectified throughout their entire life, and how they feel about the skinty clad women in video games, they would likely have entirely different views. And for what it's worth, not all men are that shallow either If you feel trapped in your relationship, you're either in the wrong relationship, or you shouldn't be in one.

You also can't possibly represent women's views as a whole, so you're opinion on what women are like, what they do and how they feel is only covering one group of many, as is mine. The important thing to remember here is there are many groups with many views, and we should listen to them all.

LOL
My wife knows how guys are...she's realistic.
Maybe not all women but most do what they can to attract a partner....most use visual aides.
When I say trap I don't mean that literally...LOL
I think you're trying to deny human sexual nature and imo that's what's wrong today....

People are trying too hard to accept what everyone else is doing instead of accepting themselves.
and yeah women of all ages like to look as good as possible...they really appreciate when people notice...that in no way means they don't like to be appreciated for their intellect or by other means..

 

[RCoon]

they really appreciate when people notice

I agree entirely with that, but appreciating when someone notices that they make an effort in some shape or form, does not mean they "live to be objectified"

I'm not denying human nature, as a point, I'm trying to not deny anyone anything. Yes you should accept yourself for who you are, but you should also accept and respect other people for who they are and who they want to be and how they want to be treated. All of this is the point, and is basic human decency.

If you don't like gay marriage, don't marry a gay. If you don't like religion, don't be religious. But don't stop other people from telling people what they don't like. Simply, women don't want to play games that are overly sexualised, so they don't, but they are asking for people to make games with less of these tropes, so that they can play them without feeling put down. Isn't that what everyone deserves? To feel in a comfortable and accepted group of people, doing things they like in safety?

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I agree entirely with that, but appreciating when someone notices that they make an effort in some shape or form, does not mean they "live to be objectivised"

I'm not denying human nature, as a point, I'm trying to not deny anyone anything. Yes you should accept yourself for who you are, but you should also accept and respect other people for who they are and who they want to be and how they want to be treated. All of this is the point, and is basic human decency.

Well no...nobody wants to "Objectivised".
"Objectified" however yes!
I get that maybe 3% don't but the other 97% probably enjoy being someones "woman"...As a male I enjoy being a husband and a father...which also "Objectifies" me as a provider and a protector.
Women are "Objectified" as a nurturer, a mother and of course a stress reliever...LOL

and that all starts by them looking good and attracting a partner.

I get the point you are trying to make about females in games but that is what, like in real life, attracts the proper audience.

 

[RCoon]

Well no...nobody wants to "Objectivised".
"Objectified" however yes!
I get that maybe 3% don't but the other 97% probably enjoy being someones "woman"...As a male I enjoy being a husband and a father...which also "Objectifies" me as a provider and a protector.
Women are "Objectified" as a nurturer, a mother and of course a stress reliever...LOL

and that all starts by them looking good and attracting a partner.

I get the point you are trying to make about females in games but that is what, like in real life, attracts the proper audience.

Yeah sorry about that typo!
I appreciate your opinion, it seems largely justified, although the 3%-97% you think is the general consensus is probably very different by now, especially in this modern culture. I see those type of women too, and like the issue with the "vocal minority", because they are the most obvious, they appear to be the largest group. I don't have any factual figures for you, but I'd be surprised if the percentage for those who care isn't a lot higher.

 

[XSI]

we have a saying/joke here: man wants to understand women...poor guy lf he succeeds.
there are women like you both described, there are totally opossite. you can find any kind, with any thinking, one doing crazy things (lets make it interesting in bed) thinks its normal other just basic thinks its crazy. one want to be objectified and be a trophy other dont even let the thought of it. imho we dont know about women or people in general as much as we think we do.

 

[Lopez0101]

I think a lot of people forget the economics involved in the entire situation. If the audience exists and there is money to be made, games will be made for it. Look at the whole "indie" game revolution. There is money to be made there and there are a ton of games coming out of it. It started as the desire someone had to make what they wanted to play, so they did it. I often see the argument that big companies need to be the ones to lead the charge because they get the most 'airtime' so to speak. However, women, and men, are more than welcome to develop whatever the hell they want! Steam has made it far easier to be a small time dev and be available to a large audience. Maybe not console large, but showing that there is a market worth investing in will get the attention of larger devs.

Social change isn't something that's going to happen in one year, or five years. If woman want to see change they need to start doing it themselves. Some men need to learn to be decent human beings, but on the same token, why should men be the ones who have to solve what women see as a problem? Besides, most men are willing to bend over backwards for most women. Hell, look at the US justic system, very biased against men, very favorable to women. And who is the majority of lawmakers? Men. Maybe we need more women so men will stop screwing themselves over. As long as those women don't just try to harbor more of the favor they've benefitted from.

 

[AsRock]

What to explain? Some people have too much time on their hands for this pointless analysis. Video games are for fun. When I play MGS I don't really care that Snake has bubbly ass or something

Just what i was thinking, way to much time on their hands and lets face it if they added ugly girls in games they would complain about that too( as it be saying all girls are ugly lol ) all so and while were at it make all male chars in games ugly too.

All so when given the chance i always play a female char like WTF what guy wants to look at a guys ass and same goes who wants to have a ugly char.

Which brings me to Skyrim my wife did not play a Orc due to fact that it's a ugly char although iwanted to play the Orc due to the start stats.

 

[Drone]

I don't care about terrorism, but that's not going to stop them from blowing people up.

What's terrorism got to do with this? This analogy is just sad.

oversexualising games

I have no idea what games you're playing and honestly I don't even wanna know but games I play are not oversexualized (btw never heard of this word before).

And no need to bring genders here. Men don't have less rights than women

 

[RCoon]

People really are missing the point here.

I have no idea what games you're playing and honestly I don't even wanna know but games I play are not oversexualized

"I can't see it therefore it doesn't exist", is not a valid excuse for something though. we're talking boob armor and women lacking clothing in various fantasy games. Not to mention the "oh i'm a helpless lady please help me because I am the weaker sex" trope in games across all genres.

All so when given the chance i always play a female char like WTF what guy wants to look at a guys ass and same goes who wants to have a ugly char.

Firstly, the fact you want to look at a woman's ass in every game is a little sad, because you feel uncomfortable seeing the back of a male body. That's just something to do with psychology. Second, Pudge is the ugliest character in DOTA 2 and yet is THE most played character in the entire game. Ugly does not stop people from playing a character, it just stops the narrow minded shallow people, that look at form first, and function last.

 

[Relayer]

People (and all animals) eat, sleep, shit, and have sex. Everything else we do is so we can eat, sleep, shit, and have sex.

 

[AsRock]

People really are missing the point here.



"I can't see it therefore it doesn't exist", is not a valid excuse for something though. we're talking boob armor and women lacking clothing in various fantasy games. Not to mention the "oh i'm a helpless lady please help me because I am the weaker sex" trope in games across all genres.



Firstly, the fact you want to look at a woman's ass in every game is a little sad, because you feel uncomfortable seeing the back of a male body. That's just something to do with psychology. Second, Pudge is the ugliest character in DOTA 2 and yet is THE most played character in the entire game. Ugly does not stop people from playing a character, it just stops the narrow minded shallow people, that look at form first, and function last.

Who said any thing about being uncomfortable ?, so please stop taking shit out of context . And i never said ugly stopped everyone playing a char so again taking shit out of context.

 

[RCoon]

People (and all animals) eat, sleep, shit, and have sex. Everything else we do is so we can eat, sleep, shit, and have sex.

Doesn't really add (or hold any relevance) to this debate. Playing computer games does not aid or relate to any of those things except in special circumstances (e.g. playing video games is your job, which pays for food).

Who said any thing about being uncomfortable ?, so please stop taking shit out of context . And i never said ugly stopped everyone playing a char so again taking shit out of context.

I'll take it on advice I've been given to leave the thread. No amount of good willed productive debate I do is going to help anyone understand anything, especially not with all this language being thrown around for no good reason.

Some of you guys really disappoint me.

 

[Lopez0101]

I've never picked an orc in ES games because they're ugly. I usually pick Argonians.

Also, why not decry the fact that most enemies you kill in games are male. Lot more games where you kill exclusively men than games where you rescue a damsel in distress. Game developers need to make enemies 50/50 male/female in games. I'm tired of the gender discrimination in the people I kill!

There are tropes to get rid of in a lot of games, but I think it's biased and fuels debate for the opposite to happen when a lot of it is cherry picked to benefit only one group.

 

[AsRock]

Doesn't really add (or hold any relevance) to this debate. Playing computer games does not aid or relate to any of those things except in special circumstances (e.g. playing video games is your job, which pays for food).



I'll take it on advice I've been given to leave the thread. No amount of good willed productive debate I do is going to help anyone understand anything, especially not with all this language being thrown around for no good reason.

Some of you guys really disappoint me.

Lets face it the actual subject is not really productive. We all love good games and hope that the company's who make them make them how they see their game should be without religion \ gender or what ever interfering on the end product as like films and TV's it has done.

We play how or what we enjoy most doing and games like Skyrim give some really nice option how you enjoy your game.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

...which in my book covers everyone enojying Mass Effect, but that's a different topic entirely

She addressed the 52% thing. They counted everyone whom said they ever played a video game. That includes solitaire 20 years ago. Naturally it should be about 50% because that's the distribution of men/women. They might as well have asked have you ever drank water in your life. You'd get pretty much the same result.

She gave a much more accurate ratio: 7 males to 1 female that plays games more than 20 hours a week. The 52% number needs to be trashed because it means less than nothing.

 

[entropy13]

She tackled many things actually. She tackled how the gamers are counted in research, how the research should actually be done, and of course the actual nature of video games right now. She also tackled other people's views on video games. The breakdown in the link provides more insight. The mention of ethnography was interesting because it's a subtle jab on the "tumblr-class" of "feminists"; you can't bash a subculture if you don't immerse yourself in it. If you already assume that it's sexist right off the bat, and therefore you do not "involve" yourself as an outsider to that particular subculture, any subsequent analysis you make is invalid.

 

[Guitar]

I watched the video and she makes very good points.

Here's my thoughts on it. Besides watching this video and reading a few articles (glancing) here and there, I haven't seen much. I don't much care for what others think of my opinion. I'm a low class white male so I'm as entitled as can be and shouldn't have an opinion.

Everybody is always going to find a reason to bitch about something. This whole MODERN feminism shit is getting ridiculously out of hand and they are finding anything to attack they can, and now it happens to be videogames. Well guess what: males play videogames and I love looking at women's bodies. IF they are portrayed like that in a game, WHO CARES? How does that effect YOU? It doesn't. Guess what? I also loved Mirror's Edge. I liked Tomb Raider. Heavenly Sword? Yeah. There's plenty of examples of games with strong female characters and you cherry pick all you want out of anything to try and forward your point. I don't agree with the statistic that 52% of women are gamers - I think whoever did that study is kinda retarded. Playing Farmville doesn't make me a gamer as taking pictures with my phone doesn't make me a photographer. Gaming is a culture that some of us are deeply rooted into and it's actually demeaning to be looped in with the likes of people that play Candy Crush religiously and call themselves 'gamers'. Yes, the term has evolved and it does include more people than it used to, I will agree with that. But as a generic tag, it really hasn't. I'm not for all this PC crap that goes around, as you can tell. Stop letting these idiots on the internet have their soap boxes. Stop listening, stop paying attention. The internet gives any attention whore (oh wait is that sexist????) what they want and that is specifically what we are seeing here IMO.

 

[DinaAngel]

sometimes i wish there existed girl only games, theres sites like that, why not games too?.
i like the game transistor and blade kitten, main characters are girls, i really like those games, just wish i had more time to play them.

PS: i recomend The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, for fellow girlies that likes rpg with strong personalitys and a good story with lots of quest grinding. its a female main character
it got 88 in metascore


Hatoful Boyfriend is a girl main character, quite lovely

 

[TheMailMan78]

I believe there are bigger fish to fry and better time wasted than trying to figure out if a entertainment medium primarily driven by men for men trying to escape a politically correct world and a daily façade is a sexist environment. Of course it is. Mankind is still a primal instinctive species run by a mob mentality. Yet people will believe an ideology that we are beyond "OMG LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THOSE TITS" because they want to think man is now enlighten and beyond our brutal past. Of course we are not. Why should we be? We are all one power outage away from being tribes.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Well what kind of lol is here... who cares sexist or not... we seldom get normal games with PROPER storyline at all... classifying ALL games with such statement is kind of hasty and stereotypical...

Good game is a good game...

 

[Naito]

Too much analysis, not enough gaming.

We are all one power outage away from being tribes.

And another brilliant quote opportunity from TheMailMan!

 

[AphexDreamer]

You can't narrowly attack video games with out attacking entertainment in all forms. Video games are not the first to be some representation of another reality, you have movies before it and books before that.

All this because whats her face decided to make her self famous by trying to rally ignorant feminists on her side. She is standing on a ground she built herself out of twigs and leaves.

 

[Steevo]

Don't worry, we have an answer.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-video-game-designed-to-have-no-influence-on-ki,1857/

If you are uncomfortable with games portraying women as weaker physically than men, you should go to a gym, to a construction site, or read up on real physical attributes. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8477683

Since if you believe women are and can be in general as strong as men, you haven't seen a woman and are a man baby still in mum's basement.

If you are uncomfortable with woman being sexual, how about you go read one of the many romance novels, 50 shades of something, look through a playgirl or something else, I am certain none of them portray the object of their sexual desire as a pale acne covered asthmatic that has a tiny penis. Women like sex too, and almost ever woman I know says they find a womans body better to look at than men.

If your issue is the gender gap in consumption of this entertainment I would suggest looking above, and ask yourself how many men read romance novels, 50 shades, playgirl or other "female erotica" genre. Perhaps we should also be concerned with the gender gap there, and you may then feel free to fall on a sword and start equalizing it by reading and consuming that entertainment.

 

[Naito]

sometimes i wish there existed girl only games, theres sites like that, why not games too?.

I guess you can look at games similarly to books; they usually don't target a specific gender (although themes may be more associated with one or the other), but the ones that really generate a hugely biased (towards one sex) fan base were most likely written by someone who shares the same gender as the majority.

To attempt to answer your question as to why there isn't female-specific games, I'd say it's due to society as a whole. There was a time in history where women were not allowed to pursue careers in science and the likes and were often 'conditioned' to other lines of work growing up. Unfortunately, whether due to indirect remnants of the past and its ideologies still live on to some degree, or more likely women are not as actively encouraged to study such a field, the game development industry (and many others) have become male dominated. As such, and linking back to my book analogy, like how a man could write a book that incites interest more in males than females, game developers may unintentionally do the same.