WHY DO FEMALE GAME DEVS MAKE EVERYTHING SO UGLY?! || Sydney Watson

[@R3tr0w1]

It's due to insecurities and jealousy over fictional characters

[@booma2808]

imagine being jealous of pixels

[@GiblixStudio]

@@booma2808 there are plenty of people who can't separate fiction and reality anymore it seems. they think that the actors acting a certain character makes the actor that fictional character. so if that fictional character is evil then so is the actor. according to their unhinged thinking. at GDC there were devs that stated fictional characters are real people... I mean if that doesn't say how far gone they are...

[@thesadmusicboy]

Fr... It's like those hardcore vtuber fans (hopefully not us) that get jealous because that specifically vtuber has a bf...

[@aaaaaaaaz76]

They want to insert themselves in our games.

[@Lazarusgaweseb2438]

How does one get jealous over polycons?

[@chero666]

>We want "realistic depictions of women." >deny the reality that attractive women exist in real life.

[@lordfuzzle9282]

Makes the character way uglier then actress voicing the character. 🤡

[@Cardinal_claw]

This is my biggest thing about it. Sure there are some characters who breathe and their chest acts like jello and some impossible armor, but a large majority of the characters that are being criticized really aren't outside the realm of nature. Plus, fantasy. Also the hypocrisy, like that one head journalist who criticized Stellar Blade for being oversexualized despite being modeled off a real person and fairly covered up but praised Aphrodite in Hades 2, who is flat out wearing nix.

[@supremecaffeine2633]

​@Cardinal_claw Also, the impossible armor almost always happens in fantasy or sci-fi settings. Making easily explainable with magic, superpowers, or advanced technology.

[@aspektric]

Many such cases!

[@zerrodefex]

For some reason the unimaginative uggos need a character that "represents" them when everyone else has no problem stepping into the shoes of a fictional character that doesn't remotely resemble them. It's like an "actor" who can only play themselves on film and their character even is named after them so that they don't get confused when reading their lines.

[@1234redwing]

"if you use a mod to make the character more beautiful then you only view them as commodities" but they are commodities, I purchased them with the intention of entertaining myself

[@ghostrazgriz1_blaze359]

Careful, they'll start making the argument that games with people in them are slaves... (this is absurd, but these people couldn't logic their way out of a wet paper sack...)

[@CdrChaos]

It makes sense especially when the developers purposely made the character LESS attractive for the sequel. Like Mary Jane in Spider-Man 2, or Aloy from Horizon.

[@ashtonchavarria4252]

​@@CdrChaosthe Mary jane one was actually a self insert from one of the female dev

[@Sage_Orias_YT]

​@@ashtonchavarria4252it's always a self insert. Something about those really piss me off. Because it's always some trauma dump type shit more often than not.

[@CdrChaos]

@@ashtonchavarria4252 I want to act surprised, but I just can’t. She looked the part of the girl next door in the first game, and then they made her look older like a single mom.

[@NozoBox]

When I was a kid after watching Kill Bill with friends, we made swords from wood and recreated fightscenes from the movie. We were all male. We didnt care that the 90% of the characters were female. We just thought they were cool as hell (still do).

[@basbarbeque6718]

"Representation matters" Apparently not when you're an attractive woman.

[@Zadamanim]

I've noticed that too, like it almost seems misogynistic that you can have masculine men, feminine men, and masculine women, but NOT feminine women. Because that's "objectifying" for a women to be feminine? Even just having boob sliders that actually represent the full range of peoples bodies is controversial to them...

[@Nevario1]

I've always thought that if you NEED to see yourself in any form of media to feel human - you need to go to therapy because you have more issues than you realize.

[@ElbowDropper]

It's always representation. I like Goku as a character not because of his skin color and I'm black. Games are meant to escape reality not copy it.

[@undertakernumberone1]

now i am reminded of the fact that, after Toriyama's death, some folks tried to go "but dont forget these racist characters he made!!!"

[@marucic8967]

​@@undertakernumberone1 It was from Sweet baby inc

[@BrahmaDBA]

As someone in his late 20s, no one represents me better than a green octopus who is frenemies with a sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea.

[@scover3]

When those people say that you need a character to be the same skin color as you to care about him, all I can think is racism. Cause how the f is skin color is relative to normal people's level of sympathy. Or sex, or looks, or whatever else they come up with. The only thing that matters is how good the character is written.

[@Tommy9834]

Representation is only important to narcissists. They're the only ones who need to "see themselves" in media.

[@arbiter11171]

Male voices in video games: ultra masculine or silent. Male character models in video games: ultra athletic, mega athletic, super athletic, or Olympian

[@TheBubbeloo]

The only time they intentionally put a fat/ugly/both guy into a videogame is either as a NPC, a joke, or a villain.

[@PongoXBongo]

And you don't hear us men complaining. Women also need to stop complaining.

[@Nyanpasu_pasu]

Yea that's dope af, who wouldn't wanna be a superhuman, BB athlete?

[@martijnkoning3354]

Thats a tale as long as time within marriage ​@PongoXBongo

[@CdrChaos]

*Laughs in Nathan Fillion*

[@Vfanatic1]

I think a big part of the problem is that there are women who, honest to God, believe that by getting rid of objectification of women in gaming that it will inprove the lives of women across the globe. Which js like saying Persona 5 fixed the corrupt Japanese government and social norms by bringing attention to it, it did not.

[@ethanfreeman1106]

That's just a roundabout way of saying some people are delulu... Most slacktivists are. All extremists are. These are on about the same level as Hitler and his Nazi army when it comes to believing in a "greater cause" they're contributing to. But all they do is oppress others and force nonsense idealism down others' throats by whatever means they see fit. The hypocrisy is unreal.

[@GunbladeKnight]

Reminds me of a review of a Daria episode I saw where they concluded that if we got rid of beauty standards, then people would stop worrying about how they look or something. As if nothing would take its place as the new standards.

[@ninjatango]

Nobody believes that. that's cope.

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

Never mind the fact that objectification is a side effect of having the freedom to think and feel whatever you wish and to express your ideas in some form. You can do whatever you want but you will NEVER be able to kill objectification. Objectification is actually an emergent property of how we communicate and interact with one another. It isn't the "big bad thing" that some people say it is. Like they say: "Being reduced to an object" but we only mean an "Object" in a lingual sense. (The women are not reduced to something without agency. That's propaganda.)

[@Udrenser]

It's just to further communism, they don't actually care about women.

[@Its-Me-JD-X]

I worked for a Dutch Development studio for a couple years, Alana. I can 100% confirm that this is happening on a global scale. We don't hear "Let's make the game as good as possible" from our leaders/bosses. We get to hear "Let's make the game as inclusive as possible so everyone feels happy." When asked questions, you are told "Deal with it or leave." I could tell you stories that are happening in these Studio's, Alana. Stories that will make you laugh and cry at the same time...

[@yoshtheman115]

Is it just me, or was Alana looking to rag on the lady in the video?

[@kunka592]

@@yoshtheman115 Didn't rag on her enough, IMO. She still seems to want to tone down things other people like because she doesn't like them. Literally what she's criticizing others of, just to a lesser degree.

[@yoshtheman115]

@@kunka592 such as?

[@StarboyXL9]

I believe you, hopefully more and more of the devs leave and start indie studios that gatekeep the moneygrubbers and diversity fanatics, but that's merely a faint hope.

[@michaelbuckers]

It's all about Blackrock is running an ESG extortion racket. You either co-opt your product into a soapbox for the alt-left activists, or not get money to make anything. AAA games can't be developed out of CEO's pocket, they need to take out huge loans. And it just so happens that Blackrock almost completely monopolized this sector, and Blackrock's director has an agenda to push.

[@thunderflare59]

They'll treat fictional characters like real people and real people like fictional characters, then get mad at you for knowing the difference.

[@masonreppeto882]

THere's no way you're not a cyael enjoyer.

[@sauce2514]

The same people aren't complaining when others mod the males' sausages to be gargantuan or dress them up in bdsm gear.

[@aoihitori]

Because it benefit them the most. They're just doing this out of spite and double standards.

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

I tend to play games where I give the women super dopey outfits and give the men massive schlongs, myself. Why? I think it's funny. I sometimes voice characters and make them say super questionable, self-degrading, shit... why? Because it's funny. Some people can separate fiction/fantasy from reality... and then there are SJW/Woketards. But if I nude mod a female character: I'm worse than Hitler.

[@Jack-kx5rf]

Reminds me of the Redo of Healer hate a few years ago. SPOILERS The male main charcter is raped on screen multiple times and is tortured and it's said that off screen he has been raped tens of thousands of times and forced to take drugs that makes him dependant on his abusers. Then in the second episode he breaks free and gives a biblical eye for an eye and rapes on of his rapists. Twitter blew up accusing the show of glorifying the rape of women.

[@aoihitori]

@@Jack-kx5rf because they are activst. Rejects of common sense.

[@btb554]

​@@Jack-kx5rf I guess because he's the main character and he's set to certain morals as the mc by the audience. If he had killed his rapist instead of doing the same to them people wouldn't be as mad (since a lot of people consider rape much worse than murder and a rapist much viler & disgusting than a murderer). If the mc was a female doing the same to her rapist instead of murder, people would react more or less the same. I read a story with a similar plot in the past of a fmc doing this and I remember the readers were hating on the character a lot and criticising the story. Since the story wasn't that popular the outrage wasn't as mainstream as the redo of the healer. Not saying any of that is right, but this is what I've noticed from people online or otherwise.

[@primary2630]

The idea that female characters only fit into 3 archetypes is insanely dishonest.

[@weonanegesiscipelibba2973]

blame OverlySarcasticProductions (Red) for spreading that even further

[@joegaddy2030]

Wait how is it dishonest?

[@joegaddy2030]

​@@weonanegesiscipelibba2973Why balme red?

[@icyatlasartworks]

​​@@joegaddy2030 It's because there's significantly more than three archetypes of female characters, even moreso if we include main characters, and downplaying every other archetype just to make an argument about the appearance of women in video games is dishonest.

[@lawliet617]

yeah and those 3 things she listed also applies to male characters too

[@Heisen2420]

In short, They (The Karens) just can't stand the idea that there are people (Fictional or Real-Life) prettier than them.

[@aoihitori]

Look at the people who complain about it, those two who stepped on the stage doesn't represent every women.

[@renaissancenovice7202]

yep

[@Spadez86]

They all look like wilderbeest with too much makeup and bullrings.. So of course they're jealous

[@NotImportantPersonNumber2]

Fictional chicks are great and it even allows people like me chance to talk to a woman or even the chance of geting laid.

[@-scrim]

Don't forget the Shaniquas with the Karens.

[@Kez_DXX]

Women like strong biceps, so men go to the gym to get biceps. Men like women with fox ears and tails, but women refuse to go to the gym and become kitsunes. This says a lot about our society.

[@Tyrannus_Gaming]

A tail, and hairband, are cheaper and require far less effort than going to the gym. Just saying.

[@kishin901]

I remember when I was younger TedTalks were about new technologies, major events and new understandings in different fields of study. How the heck did we get to some no name bint whinging about video games.

[@danieln6700]

Yip they used to be good. Now it's standards falling so much

[@LordJackass]

They jumped the shark immediately after Sam Hyde tbf.

[@masonreppeto882]

@@danieln6700 They were never good. I've never heard a good ted talk.

[@senatorarmstrong4936]

"Humanizes us to ourselves." I don't feel like a person unless Jill Valentine looks like Nicocado Avocado.

[@SuddenFool]

In that quote she is basically saying, she is not an interesting person and has nothing interesting about herself or her life. Instead of expecting media to reafirm her humanity, she should instead invest time into become a person with interests that others wants to be around to reafirm she's human and not just a meat bag infront of a pc.

[@lucascoval828]

🤢🤢🤢

[@ВасяТёркин-е9л]

And behaves so as well...

[@Orphan_of_Kos_or_some_say_Kosm]

@@SuddenFool Or maybe she should realize that this obsession with everyone being "interesting, not boring, having a personality" is modern garbage born out of insecurity pushed by people with fried dopamine receptors and their obsession with identity and social media, and that people hundreds of years ago had significantly less going on for them and others still enjoyed being around them?

[@F11-c1u]

Yea I like when the kid throws a ball at the beat up mouse in poke-mans, so brave. I want to just like them. :^^)

[@seo1335]

Remember people, if you're hot, you're not allowed to be seen as a person. Right journos? -.-

[@Ammothief41]

Pretty much, I think their logic is if you were born attractive then it's not fair to everyone else who wasn't. Of course what's considered attractive is subjective so what they really mean is they want special treatment without having to work for it.

[@schnek8927]

@@Ammothief41 What's considered attractive is objective. It's a science, pretty much. Exceptions, usually stemming from some form of mental illness, do not make the rule.

[@Ammothief41]

@@schnek8927 The way it's being used is subjective. If you're surrounded by starvation, fat is good, indicates you're doing well. If you're surrounded by food, then fat is bad, indicates you lack self control. 🤷‍♂️ All of that isn't even genetic and individuals have control over it.

[@denkerbosu3551]

@@Ammothief41 "If you're surrounded by starvation, fat is good, indicates you're doing well" it indicates it's good, not that it's attractive. It's good because you can get food, but you're attracted to the food, not her.

[@real_smilegamez]

@@denkerbosu3551 It's attractive socially, because you are seen as wealthy. Now that it's honestly easier to be fat than healthy, healthy is considered wealthy

[@S20TBL]

The funny thing is that when it's pointed out most people prefer good looking fictional characters, these weirdos use the "muh realism" argument as a smokescreen to defend hideous character designs and some folks actually fall for it.

[@kirbyjoe7484]

It's perfectly fine for devs to design their characters anyway they like which includes making them more realistic if they so choose, but the problem here isn't the devs, it's their corporate overlords interfering with the creative process. It's the reason this plain and ugly female character trend is generally limited to AAA games where big corpo PR and marketing BS is forced on the devs by the higher ups. Female devs are not the ones who responsible for this eyesore we are seeing in AAA games. Some of the most attractive and eye popping character designs I have seen were created by female devs. It's woke corporate culture and activists that are the source of this mess. The proof is in the pudding. Compare female characters brought to life by women working in indie studios where the devs have complete control over the artstyle and creative vision versus those you see in AAA titles where corporate BS dictates everything. The difference is night and day. Female indie devs have given us games like Skull Girls which have absolutely jaw dropping characters and jiggle physics. Now fast forward to the present where a big corporation bought and took over the Skull Girls dev studio, and what do we see? The corporate higher ups replaced the original creators and had them immediately start censoring the game. Female devs are not the ones responsible for this trend in AAA games. Most female gamers and devs like attractive female characters. It's not just guys who are into it. If you don't believe me, go ask some of your female gamer friends if they would rather have an attractive character or not. I personally don't know any women who prefers plainer designs other than my elderly mother who is in her 70s. Also, take notice at who we see complaining about this issue in the video. Most of these women are NOT game developers. They are journalists, activists, and other talking heads.

[@S20TBL]

​@@kirbyjoe7484 Wait, who are you arguing with? I never even mentioned anything about the devs themselves being the problem, I only mentioned "realism" being used as an excuse to defend hideous looking monstrosities. Also I saw you posting more or less the same reply under every other comment. Chill bro lol

[@DoctorFail]

Realism is freaking boring.

[@supremecaffeine2633]

​@@DoctorFail Realism can be boring. But real life is stranger than fiction.

[@KopperNeoman]

@@kirbyjoe7484 If the devs were doing it, I would be demanding the corporate overlords force them to stop. There have been Queer devs openly complaining about corporate actually doing their jobs in this regard. (Unfortunately, IN THE PAST, and not NOW) I am the customer. We are the customers. Placate me - placate US - or leave the industry.

[@morthim]

'violence against women is bad" "okay" *replaces women with guys in suits* "where are the female characters?" Ma'am, this is GTA. either the pedestrians are male or female.

[@Matthew_Y]

I hate the time im living in. Other generations had legitimate concerns and causes to fight against. I get this crap. I hate it soooo much.

[@mrspecs4430]

@@Matthew_Y there are still plenty enough legitimate concerns to be had and causes to fight for. It's just much easier now to distract oneself from it and live in denial.

[@SuddenFool]

I saw a psychologist speak on this last year i believe where he explains why men and women look at this issue so differently. Men see the attractive male characters as an inspiration to reach for and the ugly ones as what happens when they get lazy. While women saw the attractive women as a societal expectation of what they MUST be right NOW instead of a goal to strive for. Having talked with friends about this. Most of the dudes agree it's an inspiration to reach for. While they women i know disagree that's what they see themselves but still fully believe it's what non gamer girls actually see. Though take that with a shovel of salt because it's pure anecdotal from my perspective.

[@aleksiheija8170]

What you say is true.

[@sedivh0]

"impossible beauty standards" the random fast food restaurant employee:

[@davidalvarez2686]

7319 known languages in the world and this man chose to speak Facts.

[@low-keyvibin3189]

Random cashier do be like that and you will never seen them again 💀💀💀

[@Tsupek]

I..its a game character, it quite literally is an object. They don’t have feelings or anything unless they are programmed with them

[@rgama1173]

And event them is just a simulacra of emations, they are still fake

[@yokai1235]

they aren't programed with emotions they just fake emotions

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

Funny thing is that "object" usually is only used in a linguistic sense. (Think: Topic, Subject, Object etc.) But these characters are "Objects" in a very literal sense.

[@Tsupek]

@@Unethical.FandubsGames like literally!

[@NatePossibilities]

You can't code feelings. We're just living in the end days where PepsiMicrosoftRaytheon tells you what to believe. I learned everything I needed to know about AI from Terminator 2. Now I'm just waiting for judgement day. Guh guh guh gah guck

[@GinTheHuman]

as a 6'3" male I can't tell you how many times I've made or mained a female character in a game and beat the crap out of someone and over vc told them "that's why I'm a princess." and still felt immersed in my game

[@TheMetalfreak360]

I am a dude. And I like to play as pretty/hot girls, and as guys that are so buff they cannot wear a proper shirt and cannot scratch their own backs. It is a fantasy, and I don't wanna look at a mirror. I don't wanna play as a fucking NPC extra on the stand for a FIFA game.

[@SuperLifestream]

I play good looming characters because I want something good to look at for hours on end. I make ugly characters when the game isn't played in 3rd person. In ARK I'll play the shortest torso, longest legs, smallest head etc, because you don't look at your characters that much

[@jackgala316]

​​@@SuperLifestream to be fair though, when playing Ark, it's almost an unwritten rule to make your character as funny looking and bizarre as possible, lmao.

[@sygmarvexarion7891]

I disagree. There is no change in female beauty standards, it's just that some people who hapen to hold a lot of cultural power right now like to PRETEND that the standards have changed, and companies pander to them because disagreeing with them has consequences. This is basically like The Prohibition. People didn't shun consumption of alcohol, it's just that a group of influential people managed to convince the government that people at large wanted alcohol to be banned, which wasn't true, obviously.

[@Lampoluke]

A Brazilian once presented me with the term "Symbolic Elite" basically it means the group of people in charge of propaganda.

[@jspsand7085]

I agree, and honestly I'll go as far as to say that beauty isn't subjective but it's something we inherently know.

[@OrganicRobot761]

And when those people were trying to get prohibition passed, they were known for going into places that served alcohol and destroying everything within reach.

[@lorecow88]

It's about money at the end of the day. The BlackRocks and Vanguards of the world are greasing a lot of palms to maintain this illusion.

[@kirbyjoe7484]

Spot on. It is not female game devs and gamers who are to blame for this mess. This is the direct result of corporate PR and marketing BS. That's why it is so prevalent in the AAA gaming scene where it's the suits who get the final say on the creative vision of the projects rather than the actual creators. You generally do not see this in small indie studios, even with female design leads. It's because the creators maintain completely control over their vision for the entire project and it shows.

[@yawx5]

I'll reject those ideas as much time as i can. There is no shame in liking sexy and attractive characters. Anyone who tell otherwise have some insecurity issue, and this is their problem, not ours

[@BitterSweetChili]

i agree. as a man i want to play a sexy woman, and when i get a man he should look good too and always thought that girls think so too (in turned-around order). i dont want to play a overweighted spy with unbelieveble acrobatic skill or a balding 40-years old guy fighting with monsters; when they are ugly i dont care what is dangling where on their body. i think i can talk for alot of people when i say "plus for beauty, plus for personnality, plus for gameplay, plus for gameplay, etc." the more the better.

[@SSBUR]

​@BitterSweet-jk9bj Now I actually really wanna see a game that's has the main character as a decrepit 90 year old man with the fighting prowess of solid snake who just destroys in street brawls

[@yawx5]

@@SSBUR pretty sure you could find that in some indie steam game 😗

[@icyatlasartworks]

​​@@SSBUR I think that's just Sifu, they just need to make a mod to have the old character model look more bony lmao

[@Cardinal_claw]

​@@SSBUR I actually heard a story recently about an Asian man who was very athletic apparently, who after retiring got bored so he started robbing stores. Went on for a few years because no one expected it to be an old man lol

[@acrab6527]

"Only three types or women can exist, the sex object, the badass, and the girl forced to fight." Yes you have named 100% of all characters ever conceived in fiction. Active, passive, and avoidant. Those are literally the only options, genius.

[@lucascoval828]

😂😂😂

[@Spectrum0122]

Fr they're called tropes for a reason.

[@MatthewVanston]

This reminds me of a French Star Trek parody sketch in the 80s by a comedian trio called "Les Inconnus", where there is this quote by Bernard Campan: "There are three types of homosexuals: active, passive and rollmops."

[@reves3333]

there is only one type of video game and it cause violence these are the same people 50 years ago

[@ninjatango]

Holy shit you're stupid lol

[@stefanootes9526]

Body positivity isn't really a thing for men as we are "supposed" to be miserable. If people bully us for our weight or how our body looks, we get the choice to do something about it OR if change isn't possible learn to live with it. It is a sad reality, but as soon as you understand this as a man, a lot of what others say about you stops dealing "mental" damage. 🤷‍♂

[@Mamiya645]

In my more social 20's, one female friend with humongous sweater-puppies received a lot of hate from other women, because she was simply that "blessed" in the opinion of the haters, who disregarded her backpains and discomfort. She was really really overweight! There was another female friend who was fit enough to go on duty as an armed UN peacekeeper around the world, she too had two very large and uncomfortable companions with her. She received EXTRA hate from other women, because she was like that - but also fit - and a respectable upstanding wonderful citizen.

[@unicorntomboy9736]

I have seen a few women who are like that

[@nikkikado4079]

because for some reason they're insecure about characters being beautiful when both men and women are typically made attractive

[@Seisry]

Men in games are usually ugly.

[@Enchie]

You usually don't play ugly bastards for instance.

[@metaempiricist]

Industry insiders have said its so trans people can identify with the ugly characters. Their words not mine.

[@kirbyjoe7484]

No, female devs are not the ones responsible for this trend in AAA games. Some of the hottest character designs I have seen have been created by female devs. The whole "make female characters plain or unattractive" is a corporate PR thing, not a dev thing. The proof is in the pudding. Compare female character designs in indie games with female devs where the devs have complete control over everything to AAA titles where corporate BS is king. The difference is night and day.

[@DrakeOola]

@@kirbyjoe7484 Yeah no, all the top OF accounts are ran by dudes because women don't know what men want. Most top OF "models" put a man in charge for all the decision making and management and it's the same for all types of sex/beauty work like porn or modeling where guys are running it all because they actually know what men want to see... 💀

[@aoihitori]

There is no other explanation about this other than insecure DEI. I used to be a modder and the common Mods that you could see a LOT in western games are "Characters", to make em prettier or cooler. These Devs/Writers should learn to separate Fiction from Reality cuz Envy is a poison. Human rights doesn't apply to A.I. and Fictional Virtual characters.

[@realisticthought1781]

DEI. Dumbass egotistical idiots

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

I used to do texture mods and a bit of modelling, myself, but yeah. Lots of people were just better at it than I. And yes. The demand for "I want this but prettier" is huge. Also "I want this because it's hilarious".

[@aoihitori]

@@Unethical.FandubsGames yeah there was also a difference from a Character that was made by player to look unrealistically ugly cuz it's funny vs. the character that was given to player by developers that realistically ugly and it's not funny.

[@ACatHandler]

I hate when they misrepresent what people are obviously asking for, we're not demanding "unrealistic beauty standards" or "insane proportions" or whatever, i just don't want one of the main characters to be distractingly ugly for no reason. Not hideous does not mean hyper sexualised, it means normal looking

[@critica77y77]

Or if that’s too much to ask, at least make them look interesting. If one of the major female characters has cybernetics that look like they were designed by H. R. Geiger, that’s good, that’s interesting, there’s a story behind that. It builds intrigue. “Stocky woman with masculine jaw” is not an interesting design.

[@Ikdulo]

She thinks men are sex objects? That is so... Flattering. Thank you. Its good to know we are appreciated.

[@andrewd578]

There isnt a shift in what people find attractive, theres a shift in what is an acceptable opinion to state out loud.

[@danieln6700]

Yip ppl are trying to deny reality and change things to what they want and not what's actually happened

[@viniciuslorenzini7195]

One thing about ugly male characters: they are often "cool ugly", think Ruffus from Street Fighter, Baraka from Mortal Kombat and such. They can be ugly but definitely are not bland. They go into "cool technocyborg things" "abyssal horror" or just "joke character". Games also have those kinds of ugly for women, but the push for "modern audiences" comprises mostly of "ugly and bland with the californian man jaw industrial complex workind on the double". I think this is why it is more noticeable with females. (As a case in point, you don't see so much backlash over Marisa from SF6, as she might be ugly, but the centurion look makes her cool ugly)

[@Mr.Marbles]

Exactly this. When they make „ugly“ women, they always look just plain weird. Uncanny valley like weird. Give us cool ugly characters. I mean everybody loved the fat merchant from RE for example. Why? Because he is a cool character.

[@gabrielarrhenius6252]

I once saw the reasoning one had of why awesome women look good, because we would make them look better in our feelings

[@gabrielarrhenius6252]

@@Mr.Marbles We can have cool women who just objectively are "meh" or "okey" but they are called beautiful because they look better in our heads...

[@jerecklacap8867]

I never in the life of me thought that a person can be both Misandrous (hating male gamers) and Misogynistic (hating beautiful women) at the same time.

[@lordsathariel4384]

they hate the people with the qualities they want but can't have and they hate the people who would prefer said qualities makes sense to me. Reminds me of a group of destiny players I used to play with years ago the people who first helped me get into public raiding 1 of the older members she was to put bluntly depressed and let her self go all over the place everyone in the group male and female supported her sorting her self out once she did however 2 of the girls actively started targeting her because they realised when she wasn't depressed she was nicer and more charming to be around then them and took it as a slight. Some people will happily say they want you to do better or want to support X demographic but then the moment said person or group is doing better then them and they can see it people throw a fit faster then toddlers.

[@LeHarmacist]

Crab mentality moment, if they can’t have it then no one can

[@Klahwoo_]

The former is because gamers resisted rolling the red carpet for these tourists for over a decade, the latter is just older women hating on younger petite women. A tale as old as time.

[@WAAAAAAGH]

They're misanthropes. They just hate people in general because they've been taught to hate the things that make us human. They hate the tried-and-true methods that have made the world and our species what it is. And I hate them for that in kind.

[@NamelessKing1597]

Misanthropic

[@IceNinja2007]

Simple answer: Envy

[@lucascoval828]

Always has been.

[@RayRahu]

Envy is the lesser part. The reality is misandry. They hate men. The "male gaze" .. the act of a man simply looking at a pretty woman is an affront to these people.

[@EZW_Riptide]

@@lucascoval828always has

[@Sombody123]

Jealousy even.

[@Nah-pz9ml]

We were warned

[@r.babylon2885]

I had a girl be all sarcastic about Buffy once, complaining that she's hot and has superpowers. I told her that Buffy still has to work out and is athletic. Of course she's hot. Buffy wouldn't be jumping fences, doing spin kicks, and fighting vampires if she was 300lbs.

[@RobinShirewood-o3g]

Not back then, it is however the end of 2024, bet they'll try it at some point

[@grandotaku2501]

Sidney ignores that almost all of the ideological insanity comes from intersectional feminism.

[@denkerbosu3551]

Type B ignoring Type Bs are the issue? Say it ain't so!

[@rayanderson5797]

Fun fact: heels were originally a thing for men. They came from riding boots, and it was considered manly because you know who rides horses? Soldiers. (At least that's the perception of the time). And obviously if it's what soldiers do, it's gotta be the manliest thing ever.

[@marmyeater]

Women: We can do everything men can do, and we can do it in heels. Cowboys: I'm about to ruin this girl's whole career.

[@LordB-dg8ks]

So, Twitter wants us to stop objectifying objects...

[@dwightk.schrute8696]

The same people who say objectification is bad are very eager to reduce other people into a set of intersecting categories. I bet they needed training wheels for their tricycle.

[@eur0be4t3r]

Solution: Womanize Objects

[@Ruggderv]

​@@eur0be4t3r Ah! Gajinkifikation is the way to go.

[@SoulAtParadise]

twitter wants us to stop objectifying women no matter if they are real or fake but they have no problem doing it to men.

[@chinarvartak4738]

​@@eur0be4t3r anime community already does that... (I'm from that community😈)

[@FrstSpctr88]

Yet the male characters in bg3, while there are less sexy mods for them, they are not considered sexist by same people...

[@DrakeOola]

The only reason there's less "sexy mods" for male characters is because not a lot of women code, mod, 3d model, or even play video games to begin with. If more women actually played video games then there would be more "eye candy" catering to them but leave it to feminists to invade male spaces and cry about how there's not enough representation for women... I mean it's fine if women want to play video games but they sure as hell shouldn't complain about how we're not designing everything to please the minority, especially when women aren't even the ones creating and designing the video games to begin with. Men are designing a product for men but instead of women becoming game designer themselves to make their own game how they want it to be, they'd rather just cry and complain and force men to do all the work designing it for them even though women aren't the ones buying, supporting, playing, or even creating the games... If you want games to cater to women then go actually pay a developer or learn how to do it yourself. Until women actually start providing money to the gaming industry then why the hell should games have to cater to their ever beck and call?

[@eddthe9th]

*Slowly pulls out adeptus sororitas screaming violently with absolute fury in response to them saying women only have 3 voices in games*

[@TrueUnderDawgGaming]

If these journalists had their way, there would be laws against NPC violence 😂

[@SmokingMan26]

Funny history lesson, Women stole high heels from men. Yes men wearing heels was a thing.

[@BitterSweetChili]

yeah, i heard that some years ago. something about "being more male to be accepted by men"-logic. just like nowaday with pants. nothing wrong with it, some men do prefer women with some or other sort of "maletouch", if im allowed to phrase it like that. can that logic be turned around? it feels like it with "men should show their emotions more often". i myself do like it attractrive when women can at least carry some weight, helps in everyday life. girls dont need to go buff all out, but at least some parts, where i heard some girls say "oh nooo ... im sooo weak. i cant carry this package of tissues and towels. please do it for meee" was always a major turnoff when they played damsel in distress, just to push around heavy mobiliar through the appartment when im not around.

[@estebangrafeuille9111]

@@BitterSweetChili heels were originally used for horse riding, so that you can handle the stirrup without slipping.

[@williansnobre]

​@@estebangrafeuille9111the fact that it made you look taller was also a cool thing

[@l0sts0ul89]

​@@estebangrafeuille9111 pretty sure they were actually made for butchers to help reduce tracking blood around

[@chadmagnus5850]

Men used makeup too, during medieval times. While in Japan most women abandoned the Fundoshi underwear, because men would wear it during work and only working women were wearing them. Noble ladies and women, who could afford it, went commando.

[@geebeepman]

people who cant enjoy video games, shows or movies without characters that look like them are just straight up narcissists.

[@LG_random]

And losers

[@Spectrum0122]

They have no personality and only.view people on a surface level

[@DrakeOola]

Even worse is how when they do make characters in the name of DEI it's always poorly written because their entire identity is centered around that one trait and they quite literally have no personality or interesting traits beyond it... Like if you have a trans video game characters, that's just it, that describes literally everything there is to know about them because every 5 seconds in the story is going to constantly bash it in your face otherwise how will anyone know they're an oppressed minority? No time to give the character any real personality because it all has to be spent explaining and reminding you of how trans they are. 🙄

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

@@DrakeOola It's funny because you can find examples of modern fiction where the main character will be like some black kid and his whole thing is he loves dinosaurs, is a bit of a nerd, is naive enough to make mistakes, and while brave - lacks confidence in himself. And then you can have a show set in LA or some shit where you have an ethnic minority whose entire backstory is ethnic minority, their hopes and dreams are to fight the po-po, and they keep saying gangsta shit. By the end of the story: It's the same shit. It's like people keep trying to tell them: You can totally have diverse characters.... but being diverse isn't a character trait.

[@DrakeOola]

@@Unethical.FandubsGames To be fair a lot of minorities are making being a minority their entire personality nowadays so every day those films are getting more and more realistic...

[@starfrost850]

Once again, people treating fictional characters as real and real people as fictional characters. It never ends, does it?

[@npc2153]

It's on purpose to distract people from real problems. Like the collapse of the country and the blatent corruption in government.

[@Siegram999]

I hate idol culture .

[@Varage-j7b]

She don't need to get back to that. Men say "I wanna look like that." Women say " we don't look like that."

[@kylewilliams2943]

I'm ugly in real life... why would I want to pretend to be ugly in my escapism?

[@Fa11inglightofficial]

the thing about voices is super dumb because the idea that the voices are all overly similar. yeah because humans have certain cadences and tones of voice that they find more pleasant to listen to, and sound designers explicitly want the product to sound good to the listener unless they're actively trying to produce another very specific emotional effect.

[@luminous3558]

Nah its also because the English voice acting scene is trash and pozzed by extremist politics which leads to it being very incestuous in its hiring. Just compare japans array of character tropes that all have a unique voice and then try to find an english equivalent. There are a lot of things to do with voice acting but its not done in EN because the tropes do not exist.

[@Unethical.FandubsGames]

@@luminous3558 "The English voice acting scene is trash" The English Voice acting scene is bigger than you think it is. It's not limited to just LA Studios. As to your next statement: "Just compare japans array of character tropes that all have a unique voice and then try to find an English equivalent." You totally can do that. Just find works that aren't produced by big LA studios, or other woke clique companies like Funimation and you've probably got some. So you'll be looking for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese products that are now distancing themselves from certain studios, indie games, and indie studios. I know... it's easier to boil it all down to a few studios in California like an American boiling world politics down to American Politics... but lacking nuance in any discussion only leads to ignorant takes and stagnant topics. In an attempt to distance oneself from the woke crowd, you actually seek to emulate them by behaving as their coinflip reversal. Don't be doing that, dude. It's not cool. This isn't meant as an insult. You're probably a smart enough dude to realise it, yourself.

[@SC-zq6cu]

they wanna self-insert but that reminds them how fugly they're irl and they can't take that 'trauma' so by making the game chars somewhat comparable to their ugliness what they're hoping is that society will keep seeing these now not-as-pretty chars as still being pretty because they're the same chars as before and thus hope to lower beauty stds in general thus making it so that others don't think they're as fugly as before and then they can feel good abt themselves.

[@LG_random]

That's sad and pathetic 💀

[@holymaggots70]

We used to make fun of people with low standard or poor taste, never ever in my life will i expect a nation to normalize n popularize Tags:UB, what mentally ill time we live in

[@kblargh]

Why? It's simple, they're turning videogame women into videogame feminists.

[@pewthepuny2849]

I'm the least racist, sexist, bigoted and bodyshaming person in the world, but I can only think of someone as a fellow human being if they look exactly like me.

[@AndragonLea]

The funny thing here is that the demands of uglifying characters to the point where they would be categorized as suffering from "severe appearance deficits" by psychologists come almost exclusively from people that aren't actually gamers. I've seen that argument from "reviewers", Twitter slacktivists and wannabe influencers as well as from news articles from publications nobody thinks are relevant anymore, but I can't remember a single time in my entire 20+ years of gaming where any of my friends, male OR female, complained that a female video game character was too hot or offputting because they wore appealing costumes. In fact, most women tend to react positively to attractive characters. In a discovery that surprises absolutely nobody, women like attractive people just as much as men do. In short: this outrage is entirely artificial, the actual target audience either doesn't care or actually likes the "problem" and the people crying about it are either parroting the company line or bitter people that don't like that being attractive is a positive thing because they lack that quality.

[@rgama1173]

Its envy, videogame ladies are pretty, so they get jealous and destroy it

[@bobjohnson5557]

First TED talk featured a conventionally unattractive woman and the second one was androgynous AF. What a surprise they dislike attractive characters.

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

I agree that a lot of female characters can be bland and boring. But games with well written female characters often become some of the most popular out there.

[@grymns]

Case in point, Early WoW's Sylvannas

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

@@grymns OMFG I freaking love that character. She is the reason the forsaken was my favourite race in WoW. Her personality, intentions and decisions are completely understandable. After losing her homeland, she doesn't have any reason to show pity and compassion for anyone else. This is why she cheats and backstab anyone that isn't useful for her any more. I think that Jaina Proudmoore is also a good believable character. From the perspective of the original Warcraft 3 and the expansion. Maiev too. While I absolutely think she is very annoying. Her personality is still quite believable. Spending 10k years as a warden only for the greatest of the threats to break out of prison ought to make anyone grumpy. I would definitely enjoy some deepening of her lore (if it was made by the writers of the original Warcraft).

[@zeraphos5586]

Plenty of female characters are bland and boring because the writers are men, this is also the reason there are more male characters and why more male characters are written better because men writers know what men want. What we need is more female devs and writers who are normal.

[@sweetrolldealer]

@@zeraphos5586 no, what we need is more competency. Gender has no role is competency

[@rumplstiltztinkerstein]

@@zeraphos5586 Good point. One big issue as well is that the leadership as well are often just men. They have to present the project and characters to a bunch of men that don't care about the literature and just want to reach the widest audience possible. First they wanted to sexualize female characters to boost sales. Now they want to follow the guidelines of DEI companies because they expect more profits from it.

[@megasean3000]

If you want diverse selections of women, just play the Persona series. Natural girl bosses, geeky hackers, beauty models, cross dressers that make it secondary, old ladies, smart girls, dumb girls, girls who fell on hard times, girls who haven’t, and some of the best depictions of child characters I’ve seen in gaming ever. It stuns me thinking about how the series does female characters in some of the most organic ways without compromising their appearance or detracting from the male characters who are just as diverse. If these modern devs made their characters half as rich as the Persona series, they’d be able to make awesome games that don’t suck.

[@wristcontr0l]

You randomly brought up Casca, as I was sitting here listening to your video while re-reading Berserk, and now I'm checking my room for cameras.

[@nocount7517]

The infantilization of minorities by these people is disgusting.

[@nemesis.astolfo]

What does that even mean? Like I don't see how the definition fits this

[@themagnus2919]

I don't respect minorities enough to agree.

[@zetsumeinaito]

@@nemesis.astolfo Women who drank the kool-aid are doing their best to protect and take care minorities from the white man, while letting them get away with actual crime. Seattle and Cali are examples. Firing the more qualified white man to hire a PoC/G/S with less to no experience. And passing laws that just let people rob stores and not be arrested and punished for it. PS: All it's doing is training minorities to act the victim and not work for what they got, while ramping up race hate. PPS: Weird but true conspiracy. Dividing the nation is helpful to some very adversarial nations to the US. Black lives matter? NY Times? Funded by the CCP. Diversity Equity and Inclusion? Blackrock and Vanguard. Blackrock and Vanguard also have investments in China that directly fund CCP owned companies building nucl3ar warhe@ds, which is quite illegal, and the CEOs should be arrested for treason.

[@TiredDoktor6391]

bro, what you talking about?

[@nocount7517]

@@TiredDoktor6391 Beats me.

[@skynet0912]

If they wanna depict characters more realistic in games, shouldn't they also then change it so the vast majority of female characters especially in fighting games, should get their faces smashed in by the male fighters, and not be depicted as easily able to go toe to toe with a male character twice their size and with the same level of training?

[@shadeslayer2499]

Ahh yes I (a scrawny 16 year old boy who weighs 140 pounds) am incredibly offended that the doom slayer doesn't have a 1:1 copy of my physique and is very muscular unlike me P.S. I'm 6"3 that's why I consider myself scrawny

[@EazyDoesitxD]

The number of men i know from the gym who actively admit they only go to the gym because they wanna look like Goku or Jin or Ryu or Kratos or Superman is CRAZY Men see these body types and are like 👍 👌 im gonna try and be like that. Women see these body types most like it and are quiet. The loud minority crys and gets offended that they dont look like that.

[@venusstar2963]

I started working out because I wanted to look like Spiderman lol. RN I look like a slightly less defined Luffy.

[@CPPpotkustartti]

Pokemon games had first gender choice in second generation Crystal version that came after Gold and Silver. Her name, i think, have been Crystal as well. After that it became normal to ask for players gender at start. There was manga or comic during first generation where there was girl named Green who was one of main trio. Others being Red and Blue (both boys). That part do make me wonder if they wanted to add choice between two genders before but couldn't.

[@KeiosKod]

A female character whose entire face is a scarred mess of exposed flesh and bone, perhaps with the nose cut off to add an extra level of disfigurement and create a resemblance to a skull, would still be received better as a design rather than presenting a female character who isn’t even simply just homely, but outright ugly. That’s because the former makes you wonder what kind of horrible events the character has gone through while the latter makes you think that the game dev is trying to present this as the ideal female. One makes you think the dev has a story they want to tell while the other is the living embodiment of a sermon that wants to shame you for thinking anything else from what the dev wants you to believe in.

[@Joshua-fz5zx]

If cartoon jiggle physics are a serious concern of yours, you're incredibly privileged.

[@RaccAttack77]

I think my favorite part of this whole topic of “intentionally making female characters ugly” are the female vtubers calling people who get upset about it gooners/incels/etc while having a model that’s got massive tits, hourglass figure, perfect face, and constantly makes lewd jokes otherwise And to be clear, cause there’s always someone who reads it wrong, I’m not including Alana in that group of vtubers

[@thek2despot426]

Which vtubers do that? I haven't heard many that even talk about social issues, let alone this one, and let alone with that take.

[@luminous3558]

@@thek2despot426 There is an endless ocean of vtubers streaming to 5-20 people or vtweeters who just spend all day posting on twitter about social issues. You just dont see them because you arent looking for them.

[@waymoretheoutlaw5895]

I have never needed to be represented in a video game. I play video games to ESCAPE the real world, my problems and the world

[@tio_john]

it's good to see people lik you endymion and Vara dark bringing the topics into discussion and it's great to know people aren't blind to the bs.

[@undertakernumberone1]

what i always find annoying/amusing... the male characters being an Orlando Bloom/Brad Pitt/Henry Cavill mash up? I wonder how the people that, say, cheer the change of MJ from SM1 to 2 would react if their husbando was suddenly small, balding, overweight and hairy as to be more realistis and be less harmfull to body images etc. Side note: i want classic Lara Croft back... badass, confident, 2 pistols instead of that bow... side note 2: regarding clothing, i wonder if they consider stuff like the classic barbarian in fur boots, fur loin cloth and, maybe, fur cape ans not much else also bad in terms of clothing...

[@DrakeOola]

Wtf they gave laura croft a bow??

[@CEnow]

@@DrakeOola Yes, they took Lara "Craft" too seriously ... the new games of the series suck by the way.

[@dynostretch9215]

@@DrakeOola Every western female character has to be Katniss from Hunger Games now, that's the law.

[@GeorgeMonet]

Henceforth all male characters shall look like George Costanza. So let it be written, so let it be done.

[@adjuchasbrokk8033]

Western video game female checklist: - Half-shaven masculine haircut - Grating girl-boss masculine personality - Ugly face with masculine features - Can physically overpower 20 gym bros no sweat - Bizarrely asexual (zero chemistry with anyone) To summarise, it's not just that they're being made ugly, they're being made masculine too. Whenever you want to push back at this sort of thing, just hammer on why the beauty of a character needs to be "realistic" but not the character's ridiculous strength, special powers, clothes and hair styles? Video games aren't inspirational, they're escapism.

[@christianalanwilson434]

Japanese/Korean/Chinese video game female checklist: - Attractive - Feminine There's a reason why all the waifu gacha games rake in tons and tons of money.

[@aerinsoleris]

schrodinger lesbian/bisexual

[@luminous3558]

@@Brick_Boi_ still attractive and feminine.

[@Siegram999]

@@christianalanwilson434 big trope I also see alot with powerful female characters in asian games is they make them intelligent even if naive or otherwise wise. In western games the powerful women come off as more obnoxious and annoyingly quirky almost if they need to "mansplain" to people constantly. they are generally just written as unlikeable characters that always act as victims. the ones that aren't are usually just the ideal women for nerds which I honestly dont mind aslong as people aren't being pretentious about it.

[@rtbear674]

Wider audience, means their body size wider. but too bad they dont play videogames they are just terminally online in social media.

[@renaissancenovice7202]

They want to get attention (so social media), not give it (so doesn't buy games)

[@Sarubotai]

Prime example of what we normal people now call "The TikTok Brain" lmao. What happened when women actually used to argue and push for meaningful change instead of nitpicking at pixels...

[@zetsumeinaito]

37:16 - 37:24 but... women took high heels away from men in the first place... That's right, originally men wore high heels first. Women also took the color pink!

[@SamM_Scot]

I feel its specifically mostly western female dev artists. All Asian female design artists are pretty based with many being personal favourites in all of gaming :-)

[@lucascoval828]

Exactly.

[@SamM_Scot]

@@lucascoval828 I mean both Stellar Blade and Bayonetta were designed by female Asian artists :-)

[@Spiralpaladin]

@@SamM_Scot I was just about to cite both of those games as examples until I saw your reply. Beat me to it! XP

[@BZUltimix]

Those aren't fictional characters, those are what we call "self-inserts." . Not ugly self-inserts but also not attractive enough for the vast majority to care, like they shouldn't exist to begin with. 🤷‍♀️ . (in-game not irl lol...ok "maybe" a bit of both, idk- 👀)

[@13TriplesSs]

looking at lara croft and being worried that devs are gonna make more "hypersexualised designs like it" is the most closet gooner bs i've ever heard

[@tommypowell4994]

I have never thought representation mattered... ever. The characters aren't me, i like characters because they aren't me, what they look like doesn't matter, if they are hot it's just a bonus. I like female characters, i like male characters, i like white characters i like black characters, i like asian characters, it makes no difference. The only thing that matters is if it's a likable character who is given a good personality.

[@Sujad]

Those leaked details from Activision-Blizzard show that women barely account for 20% of the market.

[@ZeroZero86997]

Poor Pippa , imagine catching strays as part of a compliment for a point

[@npc2153]

Prefer flat over gross fat tits. Bleh.

[@StarboyXL9]

@@Brick_Boi_ Just like "Eris pads her chest" ehh Aqua?

[@TheAurgelmir]

I never really got why people were saying Shadowheart was ugly. Sure her haircut is a bit edgy - but then again she is the "edgelord" RPGer personified. But, the issue is: She's the only female party member that's conventionally attractive. The others consist of a red muscle mommy, an angry frog with no nose, a grandma and a middle aged school teacher. Meanwhile on the male character side, you have: Hunky mage, Sexy Vampire, Boyband member black guy, Muscle Daddy with a furry kink, and Muscle daddy with a hamster.

[@luminous3558]

She is ugly tho. Like cute ugly maybe but certainly not designed to be hot. But thats a Baldurs gate issue overall, they obsessed over realism and representation which lead to character customization being terrible. If you want to make a character you only have 8 face options and those are spread across ethnicities so you get 1 asian face, 2 black faces, etc. So you better be happy with the one face that looks like what you want to make.

[@utarefson9]

Consider the face model. Then take a look at the women in your life. It's essentially a male face stuck on a womans body. There were quite a few picture comparisons around when the game came out, you can probably find some.

[@Siegram999]

I didnt think any of the female characters were ugly I just didnt find them attractive which is why i never intentionally romance anyone cause even when it came to their personality I just wasnt interested.

[@TheAurgelmir]

@@utarefson9 I have been playing the game since when early access came out. Those pictures are from modded games. Also she litterally looks like her voice actress.

[@critica77y77]

Hey, don’t diss “red muscle mommy.” To a lot of people, that’s peak attractiveness.

[@SteelGnat]

its somehow always Western Developers while Eastern developers most famously in Japan and Korea it not a big deal some of the most well known risky art of characters have been female artist

[@puddingcatsteamboat6393]

they are definitely making them less attractive, in fact i’d say they are purposefully making them look trans in a lot of cases but just never out and out saying they are trans. it’s all agendas and PR, they know people will focus on this crap and they can use it as PR and also an excuse in cas their games fail, they straight up learned all these bad habits from hollywood.

[@kristophesiem5336]

You've never met a trans person in your life and that shows. Most transexual people are vastly more attractive than some cisgender people, and some are probably uglier, cause no group of people is better than the other. Idk why that random bit of transphobia was needed to make your point.

[@UrGonnaLuvMyNutz]

Imagine some colored pixels on a screen making you lose all confidence in yourself to the point of demanding and screaming that people change the game that you weren’t going to play anyways

[@Scorpio1721]

If I have to look at an ass for 30-100+ hours, its going to be an ass I appreciate/appeals to me. Its not that every character has to be pretty, my character should be if I WANT them to be. If i'm paying to escape reality, then the escape should be something I want. (The real world sucks by design, and the escapes are designed by real people affected by said world...can't win) edited for clarity and poor grammar

[@jordanhaley8623]

As a straight woman, I like looking a pretty characters! Its a form of art and I don't look at at of ugly character to be honest.

[@bleh491]

About the Pokémon part. The option to be a girl wasn’t added till crystal version. However in the manga for red blue yellow, they had 2 females protags and one would go on to be the playable female option in the gen 3 remakes firered leafgreen

[@szysi3k]

Beating off to triangles was a challenge that most of us who tried - succeeded.

[@rmelzhim6033]

Very attractive people exist in reality, so making characters in games uglier doesn't make it any more realistic. There's also tons of female artists and game devs that like sexy female characters too, so I just don't get how this has been happening. It almost feels like someone is paying for all this nonsense to happen.

[@AGnar0k]

​@@Brick_Boi_"we must force behaviours 🤓"

[@5ilver42]

There is a trope/stereotype that in social environment women quite regularly devolve into scheming and sabotaging of each other's social status in order to position themselves so be the most attractive mate to the men around them that have status. I don't know if there is any concrete study as to all of the factors, or how often this sort of thing happened, but it does occur regularly enough that most people understand this and can imagine a scenario like I've described quite easily. In any case, I often wonder (is it seggzist to think this sort of thing?) if the _uglification_ of women in video games and media stems from the involvement of (weak/jealous/unhappy) women in the creative process and they project this scheming and sabotaging into their work... and if this is what is happening, is it consciously done or done without thinking? I would imagine that the topic would be brought up at some point in production, making it a conscious decision...

[@Kaltsit-]

Geega, Ironmouse, and Shylily are big supporters of attractive women in video games. And I’m certain that Geega and Ironmouse are straight. Don’t know bout Shylily tho, she’s been more zesty than Geega

[@senorsanches7820]

37:15 looking it up and the earliest depiction of high heels were made for wealthy men to give them extra height as well as click into the stirrups on horse saddles to help with with horseback archery

[@02091992able]

27:24 that is around the time that women started rejecting men because of them having the hobby of playing video games. Thus, why the percentage of gamers being men has declined. But now in 2024 men are rejecting women mainly because the unrealistic expectations of success they force on men. Such as having to make 6 figures salaries a year and be over 6 foot tall.

[@SuperNova-nl5eb]

26:15 if there was a men's body positivity movement, it was DoA

[@1234redwing]

Forget scantil5 clad, we need to bring back the ancient Greek concept of heroic nudity, distinguish the hero from everyone else by having them be completely naked.

[@lorddaro7771]

I find it quite peculiar that so many of these people seem to think that a sexy (female) characters can't have any other traits except sexy. Makes you wonder how they are viewing their own romantic partners.

[@frycarson]

I remember playing Tomb Raider and my grandma saying along the lines, "So I see what you like," laughing as the camera focused on Laura's massive triangles. I was too young to understand what she meant; I thought she meant action games.

[@BattleSpew]

Now that I've taken time to think about it, I have a few really good counterpoints. 1. When you pick the most hypersexualized female characters and compare them to the average male characters, of course it will appear sexist. But, let's take those same female characters and compare them to the most hypersexualized MALE characters. Kratos, Urien, Kazuya Mishima, Majima Goro, Kazuma Kiryu, Geralt. You will never find a female character dressed as skimpily as Urien in a mainstream game. He wears a small white thong, and nothing else. His pecs are bigger than nearly any female character's breasts. His long, golden locks are more luxurious than most female characters' hair. While some of the others listed wear more, they are still dressed to kill. Male fashion being different than female fashion. 2. Changing a female character's appearance with mods to be more attractive is really no different than a female applying makeup to appear more attractive. If you put on makeup to look better, then how are you not objectifying yourself? 3. There are also mods to improve male character appearance. But, let's be honest, males in videogames are frequently more conventionally attractive than their female counterparts. Perhaps because there is less stigma attached to fantasy male appearance. 4. Women in real life often dress in far more revealing clothing than men do (unless at the beach). So why should their videogame counterparts be any different in this regard? Average woman in summer may wear a summer dress, sandals, and a purse. Deep cleavage, bare arms up to the shoulders, low-cut back, and bare legs from mid-thigh down. But, you show that much skin on a female in a videogame, and it's suddenly "pure sexual male gratification".

[@kaigen999]

No one ever complains about the male characters.