by skarekrow13 Tue Oct 01, 2013 11:07 am
Hugh, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being attractive. I do want to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Elifia and say that most of the traits you mentioned aren't actually tied to genetic or biological expressions of gender. For example, Lara Croft is in no way masculine for being strong enough and accurate enough to use two fully automatic weapons at one time. Hillary Clinton is similarly not masculine because she's perceived as a take charge leader who is fearless about expressing her opinion. I also don't consider myself to be feminine because I insist on kissing my daughter on the cheek and telling her I love her every time I put her in her car seat.
The issue, and I know this has led to an argument before (not saying anyone has even hinted at that tone here yet but felt it needed the disclaimer), is that over the top males are part of a male fantasy too. The lead character is generally someone who is supposed to fulfill the player's desire or fantasy in the immersion of the world. Basically, there has to be something to love to keep you involved in their journey. If you follow my game reviews on Fextralife (shameless plug) my next edition will feature a game I put down solely because I thought the lead is an ***hole. Getting back to the point, an over the top "masculine" character is defined pretty much how Hugh put it. This is typically recognized as desirable for male players as the "I'd like to be this" archetype. Most of us were raised to look up to powerful figures so Kratos, literally any male from Gears of War, etc. are supposed to evoke the feeling of "Aw man, it'd be AWESOME to be like this guy." However, with female leads (in a stereotypical "male" world like video games) the idea is pretty much never to get the player to say "Aw man, it'd be AWESOME to be like this woman." The gripe is that attractiveness is used in most cases to COVER UP the desirable traits. How awesome would your life be if you were more like Lara Croft or Samus Aran? Now compare that awesomeness to Nathan Drake's or Mega Man's fictional lives. On the surface they SHOULD be near identical fantasies. Go around kicking some rear. Lara and Nathan are pretty much the same character in my opinion.
Now then, we should examine two things:
-First, ask yourself honestly, do you approach these games the same way? Do you feel the same way about the characters? Me personally, I've never once considered the tightness of Nathan Drake's pants or thought to myself, "his buns look pretty good while those guns are blazing." Being completely honest again, I admit I'm not above liking the short shorts on Lara Croft. It takes some effort for me to realize on a cognitive level that Nathan is far more prepared for running, jumping and falling on rocks without causing some pretty awful abrasions during the course of the game. She's nice to look at so who cares about a scraped knee right?
-Second, why is it that the developer for Uncharted hasn't seen fit to "leak" a code claiming to make Nathan nude? Because Lara Croft had that happen. Now I know the actual code didn't actually make her naked but that clever ploy pandered to the "this character is sexy" idea to create a "controversy" regarding her sexuality to bring more attention to the game (and make more sales I'm sure). In a similar vein, where's the JUSTIN BAILEY code for Mega Man? Wouldn't it be great to see him run around shooting other robots in a speedo? Samus can be just as effective in a bathing suit as armor so why not him?
So my overall point is not that it's a problem that women are attractive. The real issues for me are that there is very little variety to the theme and that sexuality (like I said above) is used as a distracting element for females. Are some men exaggerated and theoretically "equal" in this regard. Absolutely. Nathan Drake is conventionally handsome. A lot of male leads are. But how attractive is the main in Overlord? Who the hell knows. He wears a helmet the whole time. The "scary guy in the shadows" is a common male lead. I would like to point out that it's my understanding that this is not really a female fantasy most of the time. What about Mario? A chubby, big nosed guy with a crazy mustache. Yeah, he's funny but he's not a stud by most standards. There's more like him. So male leads have variety too.