gender issues in games (part 1 - character design)

Okay, this isn't really going to be a series, just something I talk about when I feel like it.

I think today I'll explain why I'm talking about it.  Read this article first, not the comments.  And now you know why I'm thinking about it.

Gender is.... naturally complicated.  Men are usually the ones making the games (which is something else) so when it comes to character design, women are usually sexualized

While the men are... not.

I know there are unsexualized mature women (Jade from Beyond Good and Evil and Faith from Mirror's Edge for example)  and sexualized men (Tekken's Jin for example)  and, admittedly, Kaine's case is VERY complicated so she's getting her own post later.

But, by and large, this is the general trend.  Which is why women get very frustrated.

For me, at least, either turn down the fanservice on the female characters or turn it up on the males.  It's really frustrating when men are "complicated" and dressed reasonably but women are more "fanservice" and... that's it.  (Yes, I'll know I'll get called on for some characters such as Tifa, but let's just look at the general picture right now.  That is the exception, not the rule.) 

Some fanservice isn't that bad.  Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII has a belly button ring you can see, and that's it.  Othertimes, it's so overboard it may as well be parody, but it gets to be more then annoying when the first female character's show up, and it's a big breasted women wearing nothing but underwear, which has happened alot.  And then personality ends up just being somewhat one dimensional.  Admittedly, early non RPG games (and even some early RPG games) didn't really give anyone a personality so they are excused,  but since technology has developed, this has to change.

Again, nothing against fanservice, when done in moderation.  Girls do wear Midriff bearing shirts (which is why Jade isn't on my sexualized list)  and men do sometimes go around shirtless.... though unless they're exercising or in a naturally hot climate that just makes them look like jerks in my opinion.

Just make design practical (I can see a few small edits that could turn Lara's outfit from fanservice to actual climbing gear.... like extending the pants and shirt so she doesn't risk getting easily cut)   or give it a reason.  (Kaine)  and make the men a bit fanservicey too.  Again, in the realms of practicality.

And please, for the love of Cosmos, give the girls a real, complicated, personality, will ya? 

Then maybe we can look on these designs as something outdated from yesteryear, rather then something we do need to fix now.

So, can I ask a favor?  May I get a list of your top video game characters, one for each category.
1) Sexualized male
2) Sexualized female
3) Unsexualized male
4) Unsexualized female

Thank you for reading this post.  I'll try to tackle other gender issues later, and maybe I'll rewrite this post some day.

On Disk DLC

(My apologies if this is random/not very well thought out today. I'm in a tad of a rush because I'm helping around the house)

This is kinda a problem now a days (I'll talk about DRM later)

On Disk DLC.

DLC (or Downloadable Content) is either a bane or boon of the modern digital based gaming culture. It can be generally anything. New Skins for characters to change how they look, a new map for the latest shooter, or a game add on for post game content. Sometimes glitch fixes and character balances come along for the ride too.

Three companies, for me, that do DLC right are

1) Media Molecule with "Little Big Planet". Alot of the material is available for free so DLC covers new costumes (such as Solid Snake, Ezio, Cloud, etc) or new levels that have a new mechanic added in (Such as Metal Gear Solid's levels with the Paintinator and Pirates of the Caribbean's levels with water focus) They sincerely listen to the community and try to get costumes and levels that the fans want.

2) Harmonix/EA with "Rockband" (series). The DLC just keeps on coming so it's become absolutely apparent by now there just wasn't enough room on the disk to have all of this music. Add in licensing issues and some music not being released when the game came out... it leads to respect on my end that they keep this coming.

3)Criterion/EA WITH "Burnout: Paradise City" There was a lot of DLC provided for free and when you paid it was for the higher end items like the "Famous Cars" pack or the ENTIRE ISLAND that they added to the game.

(Special Notice goes to Square Enix who up until now generally refused to put DLC into their game so that was nice since what was on the disk is the entire game. No shelling out of extra money required)

So, what about the other games? Well, let's look at something like Fighting Games.
Before, Alternate costumes would be something to be unlocked on the disk and they would look different from their main costumes aside from recoloring. (As this was sprite based it would, admittedly, be a bit easier) Now most costumes are added in as DLC. Most people want to know why they can't just unlock these costumes. It gets worse.

Sometimes the material is already on the disk and you're just buying (or preordering) a key to do this. (this can be noticed if the downloaded item is incredibly small) These Keys used to be in game flags, like "Beat the boss in 3 minutes" for example. However turning them into something to buy for a few dollars turns the costumes from a badge of honor for gamers into a grab for money by producers.

Then there is problems like with "Marvel Vs Capcom 3" where if you preordered at Gamestop you would get the Jill and Shuma Gorath DLC. "Great!" you may say, except these two are almost completely on disk.

No, really, apparently it's only slightly buggy.


This was done only to influence preorders, which makes it a money grab.

If the DLC is sincerely off disk, I don't mind. Things get cut during production and sometimes they have time later to remedy this. Other times they just couldn't get it to work license wise. Sometimes the disk is just packed full of data and the only way it can be in game is when it's downloaded. I understand these. Not to mention that gaming is expensive to produce and it's always a gamble. So, now that people will buy DLC, it makes sense to put some into the games.




But why pay $2 for these costumes, when they are already on the disk?