Women on Sex and Videogames

KillerBetties.com continues to produce interesting female oriented gaming commentary. Their latest piece is entitled Sex and Videogames, with several female gamers commenting on the likes of Leisure Suit Larry, the Anarchy Online 'Play Me' ads, and the breast size of electronic actors. From the article:"Do you think the shift towards breeding game designers in college with specialized degrees is going to detract from the casual-gaming young female? Companies so intent on hiring people with only complete devotion to videogames... I didn't know I wanted to make games until my last year of college."

Comments

all we need is better rumble packs

[evilmousse]

here's a game guaranteed to get your girl off ^_^;;

finally stoner videogame boyfriends and needy nontechie girlfriends can be 100% on the same page!

Re:Boobs

[Sentry21]

While you point out an interesting contradiction, keep in mind one subtle difference: the women on magazine covers are women - they are real. Perhaps they are more 'beautiful' (read: airbrushed) than the average woman, but they are still real. Real breasts, real hips, real legs.

Women in videogames are pretty much 100% fantasy. Waists so thin they can wear a wedding ring as a belt, breasts so huge that no material existing today could truly contain their gravity, and of course, so much jiggle that any real woman would be unable to maintain her balance. Oh yeah, and no depth. They just kill things, or look pretty (or both).

The best comparison is between video games and porn - the typical non-amateur 'porn star' is so over-inflated and made-up that they bear no more resemblance to the average woman than the average man does. You never see their personality, and most consumers don't really care anyway.

Let's have realistic woman, let's have interesting women, let's have personalities. Look at Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, or Alex from Half-Life 2. Real women, and attractive (insofar as they're not real) - not hard on the eyes, but not unrealistic either. As such, they're easier to realte to as well, for any gamer.

Boy, would that be nice.

Barbie Standards

[White Roses]

Are video game females portrayed as unrealistic? On the whole, yes. Some are better than others, for instance the comic-like drawings in Need for Speed Underground 2 aren't all that unrealistic. Lara Croft? Not a chance. But then, Barbie, who has been popular with young girls forever, is also unrealistic, so I don't see why that would be driving young girls, who would eventually become mature women in the industry, away from gaming. Maybe it's the lack of decent stories to have the female characters interact in? The female Jedis in Jedi Academy are every bit as skilled as the males. And the story line doesn't change in a gender dependant manner. But that's a small sampling. Certainly, Lara Croft and The Operative from NOLF are strong female roles.

On the other hand, not that many males are portrayed realistically either. Seen NFL Street Big? Yeah, those gorillas are realistic.

Now if you'll excuse me, I left Virtual Valerie in a compromising position.