Sexualization In Games Is Declining

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New research into almost six hundred playable female video game characters shows that sexualization in games has been on the decline since 1995, despite what critics have recently been squawking about. The study concludes that there is still work to do but the situation is no where near the epidemic level some would have you believe. Also, just so you know, there is no relation between the lead researcher and myself. ;)

Lynch and researchers Jessica E. Tompkins, Irene I. van Driel, and Niki Fritz studied the portrayal of 571 playable female characters from 1989 to 2014 and found that, on the whole, things have actually been getting better. According to their findings, sexualization in video games reached a peak in 1995 and has since declined save for a few notable spikes (including a massive one in 2012). According to Lynch, this points to "a pattern of change in sexualization over time that indicates the industry may be reacting to its critics."
 
Well no crap. These movements are almost always overblown. As the market itself grows and changes so do the games themselves. We're well past the days of every company using "hot" women to sell video games and all the stuff. There is always "work to do" when it comes to diversity and all that stuff but it's steady progress and it's happening. There isn't the kind of demand that these "feminists" and "SJWs" claim there is and nor is there this mass of people that refuse to play games due to the lack of representation.
 
NeoNemesis said:
Should have probably put NSFW on that... I was lucky that nobody happened to walk by my cubicle when that popped up.
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likewise, or at least shrink the photos a little, no need for near-full screen images for no reason other than to share boobies.
 
I love udder boobies. They make me so happy that such things exist. That and the penis monsters in Spore.
 
Well of course there was a spike in 2012, that's when borderlands 2 came out and that game was nothing but boobs right? Right?

...

Buttstalion!
 
If they were to tone down any future Borderlands games, I would be very disappointed. They have the perfect mixture of just about everything.
 
I'm still very upset because make-up commercials on TV are ALWAYS catering just to women for some reason. Also dress billboards = no dudes. Just because 99.9% of make up and dress buyers are women doesn't give them the right to discriminate. Oh wait, nevermind, I just remembered that SJW's have a double standard.
 
It's a bit funny...

I never really liked using the "bikini" armors and such for my characters so games with more cool looking armors for females is great. But the fact that it's happening because of SJW push kind of ticks me off. The double standard, and the suppression of art... ugh.
 
What about all the games with extremely fit male protagonists?
 
I didn't see any mention in the article on what female gamers want for in game character depictions. All too often, things like this get decided by folks trying to get published rather then folks trying to learn if what's in the game is becoming closer to what customers want in the game.
 
Reacting to critics? More like reacting to the fact that females now play these games in much greater numbers than before. I don't think very many people have given a shit about the criticism beyond the amount that it may have resulted in lost sales.
 
pothb said:
It's a bit funny...

I never really liked using the "bikini" armors and such for my characters so games with more cool looking armors for females is great. But the fact that it's happening because of SJW push kind of ticks me off. The double standard, and the suppression of art... ugh.
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I dunno man..there is something deeply satisfying about whipping some big dudes ass with a chick in a skirt. Granted I'm only talking about PVP where there is a person on the other end and I'm more referring to the ultima online days..but still I do sort of miss those days.
 
Well, I usually like knight skirts, they look awesome. Perfect example being Valkyries in Valkyrie Profile. Skirts in general too, I don't really mind, it even looks cool imo. But it's a bit weird when you see a bikini armor.

EX:
th

VS
or more to the point....
 
Making games appeal to as many people as possible? What are these developers trying to do, make money?

Anybody who thinks this is a reaction to Twitter slactivists is fooling themselves. This is because women are buying games and developers would like to sell them games, it's called business. Lady-money is the same money as man-money. You know what else? Gay-money is the same money as well.

It never ceases to amaze me that a female character that doesn't look like a cosplay-prostitute hybrid is pandering yet one that does look like a cosplay-prostitute hybrid isn't pandering. It's all done to move product, some times you don't get to be the lone audience.

Asian games occasionally skirt the edges of kiddie porn, yet somehow that's not pandering. Yet a woman with a fucking shirt on is?
 
Except, most of these people who are listened to are, as many have said, a small minority.
 
Seventyfive said:
I'm still very upset because make-up commercials on TV are ALWAYS catering just to women for some reason. Also dress billboards = no dudes. Just because 99.9% of make up and dress buyers are women doesn't give them the right to discriminate. Oh wait, nevermind, I just remembered that SJW's have a double standard.
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50% of gamers are women, so your post means what?
 
evilsofa said:
50% of gamers are women, so your post means what?
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People really not to stop quoting that number. That's like saying PC games make more money than console games when talking about AAA games. That number counts ALL games. Including mobile and Facebook and other free to play titles. A vast portion of that 50% only play things like Candy Crush.
 
Derangel said:
People really not to stop quoting that number. That's like saying PC games make more money than console games when talking about AAA games. That number counts ALL games. Including mobile and Facebook and other free to play titles. A vast portion of that 50% only play things like Candy Crush.
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Like most statistics, people only quote numbers that apply to their argument.
 
Derangel said:
People really not to stop quoting that number. That's like saying PC games make more money than console games when talking about AAA games. That number counts ALL games. Including mobile and Facebook and other free to play titles. A vast portion of that 50% only play things like Candy Crush.
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42% of women own game consoles, while 37% of men own game consoles

Mobile game revenue expected to be larger than PC game revenue or console game revenue in 2016

Paying customers are paying customers. More and more of those paying customers are women. Is the game industry supposed to ignore that?
 
pothb said:
Actually, isn't that number true only when you include phone games like bejeweled?
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Bejeweled isn't a phone game, it existed way before smartphones was even a thing.

You mixed it up with Candy Crush, THAT came after SP's came out.
 
Ah whatever, I don't really play phone games, can't remember all the names.
 
Bejeweled has been ported to phones, yes, but the original game itself pre-dates smartphones by over 5 years (if we use iPhone 1 as the landmark beginning of SP era).

Candy Crush is one of many many clones of bejeweled.
 
I was just talking to my wife about this. I don't like inappropriate clothing in video games, and I don't know why. For example, I'm looking for an alternative to one of my favorites, Guardian Heroes, because MS/Treasure/Sega don't know how to port the XBLA remake to Windows Store. In the original, Guardian Heroes, the lead female looked like this:

5794912684_dd08c589ce.jpg


That is appropriate armor for a warrior. Yea, the boobs are a bit much, but for a video game it's pretty tame. But then some of the developers go and make a spiritual successor called "Code of Princess." The game's main characters is this trash:

latest


I'd have to play through the game as a near nude-female with animated shaking boobs with every motion (based on the trailer). I know this is a first-world problem, but this stuff just annoys me.
 
I think it's the immersion, I mean, wearing nothing but but taking sword slashses like it's nothing just seem weird. There is always a suspension of disbelief but there is always a point that just makes you think, wtf?

Not gonna lie, one of the reasons I stopped playing RE4... was because I couldn't make this:
resident-evil-4-ada-wong-1-640x853.jpg

into this:
off_cgart-re4-003.jpg


I tried for days to mod it to swap the model, and when I couldn't I just gave up and stopped playing.
 
evilsofa said:
42% of women own game consoles, while 37% of men own game consoles

Mobile game revenue expected to be larger than PC game revenue or console game revenue in 2016

Paying customers are paying customers. More and more of those paying customers are women. Is the game industry supposed to ignore that?
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They're not. However AAA publishers are not going to take massive risks on big budget titles. They put out what the feel is the safe bet. The safe bet being what brings them tons of money each time. Progress is rarely ever quick and until it effects their bottom line AAA publishers are going to make what works. The thing is, most of the people playing mobile games are never going to play "core" games. They're simply not customers for more "traditional" video game experiences. That market doesn't factor into other games.
 
Daniel_Chang said:
I was just talking to my wife about this. I don't like inappropriate clothing in video games, and I don't know why. For example, I'm looking for an alternative to one of my favorites, Guardian Heroes, because MS/Treasure/Sega don't know how to port the XBLA remake to Windows Store. In the original, Guardian Heroes, the lead female looked like this:

That is appropriate armor for a warrior. Yea, the boobs are a bit much, but for a video game it's pretty tame. But then some of the developers go and make a spiritual successor called "Code of Princess." The game's main characters is this trash:

I'd have to play through the game as a near nude-female with animated shaking boobs with every motion (based on the trailer). I know this is a first-world problem, but this stuff just annoys me.
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Ya, old games somewhat made sense when it came to armor for women. I play RF Online, where the armor was essentially pants and a shirt. By level 20, you'd have some plate armor, while you wouldn't have like a belly covering. By 40, you were fully covered in plate armor. By 50 you were fully covered with even bigger armor. By 55, you had armor plates on top of armor plates and your shit glowed.

I'm fine with skimpy clothing if that's the way the game is. Like Dead or Alive Xtreme. I'd expect chicks to be in swimsuits when they're playing mini-games on a beach. I don't really expect chicks to be in swimsuits killing zombies. Unless she just happened to be at the beach and bam! Zombies. Course as the game progressed, you'd assume she'd put on more clothes.

It doesn't bother me enough either way, so long as the gameplay is still good.
 
Darunion said:
Like most statistics, people only quote numbers that apply to their argument.
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The problem is, there's a statistic for just about everything out there. I'm sure if I looked hard enough, I could find statistics that Hitler was good for the Jews. Even studies such as this can often be spun with facts predisposed to trying to prove an author's desired conclusion. It's just getting harder to know what's true anymore, if looking at the bigger picture.
 
Games, TV shows and movies are stupid in that lately, they have just been having sex in them for the sake of having it in them. (This is when it is not needed at all.) Good stories, plot lines and action should be able to carry themselves and when you throw in sex just for the sake of it, it does not add to the game, movie or TV show at all.
 
I've always thought games were fantasy. People's bodies are exaggerated in fantasy. Men are bigger stronger, women can be more feminine, sexy, etc... There are always elements that could stand to be reigned in, but broadly, I don't think its an issue.
 
evilsofa said:
42% of women own game consoles, while 37% of men own game consoles

Mobile game revenue expected to be larger than PC game revenue or console game revenue in 2016

Paying customers are paying customers. More and more of those paying customers are women. Is the game industry supposed to ignore that?
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I hate to be the cynic here, but I'm going to call bullshit on any study that claims a pure gaming medium has more than 30% of its audience as female, much less a higher percentage than males. Especially when the two given numbers Don't even add up to 100%. Where did the other 21% disappear? I would be hard pressed to believe this for a second unless some verification of those numbers was done. Not to mention none of the numbers in that entire study add up in the slightest. Just look at the age groups. If you add that up you get 149%. That isn't even possible. This entire study is piss poor made up numbers.
 
The reason that the numbers don't make sense to you is that you are reading them wrong.

They aren't saying that 42% of console owners are women. They are saying that 42% of women own a console. IE if you raided the home of 100 women, on average 42 of them would have a console.
 
Daniel_Chang said:
The reason that the numbers don't make sense to you is that you are reading them wrong.

They aren't saying that 42% of console owners are women. They are saying that 42% of women own a console. IE if you raided the home of 100 women, on average 42 of them would have a console.
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Are your sources reliable?
 
Krenum said:
Are your sources reliable?
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Pew Research is very reliable. However, the statistics can say almost anything you want them to. Also it's based on the people polled actually responding truthfully and the entire thing is about ownership and not user base or exactly which systems they own. The base stats don't really say much. A detailed breakdown would need to be:

Which consoles each group owned.
Types of games each group plays.
Who the primary users of those consoles are in the household.
If the owner intends to buy more consoles.
A MUCH broader age range of uses, since the poll only asks about adults.
 
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