Do Developers Understand Sexy?

[Tearen Wover]

I've just been thinking recently...

With the video game industry so heavily catered towards man-folk, developers naturally try to play men for our boiling (or in my case, gently pan fried) sex drives. So, that means more sexy ladies in video games right?

WRONG!

In their pursuit for over the top female allure, I can't help the fact that developers, or at the very least, 3D modelers don't understand what sexiness looks like. Now, this may be because some developers are under-sexed walking zit farms who have all the animal magnetism of a hairy angler fish...

But surely not all of them. For me, the problem is that most people in generally believe that 'sexy' and 'hot' are the same thing. Don't believe me?

How many times have you heard a gun, car, or good meal called 'hot'...

...well, in a different way than just being physically warm.

But how many times have you heard a gun, car or good meal called 'sexy'? Ah, now you see my point.

You can have someone who is hot but not sexy and vice versa. Regardless, let's look at some examples;

Here is a picture of Samus Aran in her Zero Suit. Skin tight latex on a rockin' bod. Sexy, right?



Well maybe. But here's a picture of Samus in mostly armor. Same expression, same body...zones.



Better, right? Why?

Well the first picture is definitely a show of Samus' hotness, insofar in the fact that she's definitely not ugly (if you can get past the whole uncanny valley thing).

But the second picture is deeper. It forces you to really look at her face, to connect with her as a character, and really appreciate the feminity that exists in her despite the magical death armor. And that's sexy. (Probably slightly more profound if you've unlocked that scene.)

So hopefully you see where I'm coming from here. Developers seem to perceive 'sexy' as visually appealing to your loins. But really sexy is more than just prettiness, it's about wanting to be with that person/gun, to hold them connect. It's not just YAAAYYY quee: BOOBIES!!!

It's "Wow...she's really something."




So...how about you? Any examples or thoughts?

[Belle]

You might as well scratch out 'developers' and put down 'entertainment media', because fuck if this isn't a widespread problem.

[Proto Man]

Boobs

I think I've related the story that I'm playing FF13-3, and Lightning gained a cup size for the sole purpose of jiggle physics.

In a game where you play a slumbering warrior-turned-monster-turned-warrior-turned-HandOfGod, they felt the need to upgrade her knockers. This is something that the actual designers have admitted to doing and state was an order from Motumu Toriyama, the game's director.

And this is a game series that's supposedly anchored in a 'strong, female character.'

And they gave her bigger boobies for zero reason other than appealing male fans.

[Omni]

Yeah I read that sheepish interview. Like, what? Sometimes, the pandering to the Japanese male audience is really gross.

[Monkey D. Luffy]

I've yet to play XIII-3 (it's on my to-do list), but bulbous knockers doesn't even make sense for a character such as Lightning. While they're at it let's give Hope a bigger bulge. -_-

[Thaal Sinestro]

The entire concept of a female character needing to be "sexy" OR "hot" is just... PROFOUNDLY stupid to me. Like, make GOOD CHARACTERS. You don't need to think about her tis or ass or any of that shit. If you make an interesting character, people will like that character, maybe even feel romantic about them, based on WHO THEY ARE.

Alright, yeah, I get it, knuckle dragging fuck wits are like, "BITCH NEEDS SOME FINE KNOCKERS IF I'M GONNA PLAY HER" or the oh so profound mmo player saying, "if I'm gonna watch their backs for all this time I want a fine ass to look at."

To those people, stop just reducing people into bags of meat to stuff your dick into.

[Erza Scarlet]

Well, and that's sort of what Nealapph was getting at, I think. I believe his original point WAS, in fact, that a character being "sexy" is more based around their circumstances and character than how hot they are. In that sense, the better the character is, the more "sexy" it is, regardless of presence or lack of "FINE KNOCKERS."

The truth, unfortunately, is that sexy sells, and won't stop selling any time soon. I, for one, would rather accept this and push for that to be a result of a well-crafted character (And probably at least somewhat attractive, but with less focus on teh jiggle boob physics), than to simply condemn any and all use of "sexy" characters.

[Tearen Wover]

More or less, yeah.

[Omni]

I pretty much agree with what Thaal said. Make good characters, sexiness (in whatever form) why is it necessarily necessary for ANY character?

But I do also agree that if you decide you want a character to be sexy for whatever reason, there are better ways to do it than just exaggerate their sexual traits.

[Magus]

I think I might actually have the opposite opinion.

I simply don't care. I can appreciate a strong and intelligent character w/ really interesting development who doesn't need to be overtly sexy. That's great. But on the flip side, I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with a character that is overtly sexy, male or female. As long as they fit into the universe and aren't just a hilarious cop-out, I'm all for it.

[Omni]

^I pretty much agree with that too.

[Thaal Sinestro]

More or less, yeah.

Oh, and I really want attempting to direct any of that angst in your direction. I pretty much agree with you. I hope it didn't sound like I was jumping down your throat, which in retrospect I can see it kinda seems like that. Sorry buddy, not my intent!

[Thaal Sinestro]

I think I might actually have the opposite opinion.

I simply don't care. I can appreciate a strong and intelligent character w/ really interesting development who doesn't need to be overtly sexy. That's great. But on the flip side, I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with a character that is overtly sexy, male or female. As long as they fit into the universe and aren't just a hilarious cop-out, I'm all for it.

And yeah, also this. There's nothing wrong with sexuality or being sexy, it's just the OBSESSION with it that riles me up. The CONSUMPTION of a character, and by extension the humanity they represent, is what p isses me off

[Proto Man]

Yea, I have nothing against Tifa from FF7, who is a pretty cool and interesting character who happens to have tig ole bitties.

But when you take Lightning and you increase her breasts so she can make 'sexy' poses and cram herself into ridiculous outfits that don't even make sense for the character to wear in the first place... and you do this all for the sole purpose of entertaining your male audience, then you make me want to sink Japan into the ocean.

I think that was a run-on sentence. My bad.

Edit - You know what's sexy though? Fucking blood and grime.

[Kurusu Akira]

Welp. Honestly, I... don't find myself caring. There's really nothing to be done. Facts are facts; sex sells, and devs are going to take advantage of that. Are they terrible people for it? I don't think so. They gotta eat too, and if they want to get paid they need to make something that sells. Am I thrilled? No. But nor am I outraged that they're exploiting human nature to get paid. Hell, pretty much every retail job ever is taking advantage of human nature, too. It's really not that terrible. It's a little sad, but that's the way people are, and it's the way people will be for the foreseeable future. *shrug*

[Belle]

Obviously character is the most important aspect. The problem I see so often today is not that there are sexy characters - I like Bayonetta - but that there is a growing trend to objectify and 'sex up' female characters whose sexuality was never the focus. Samus is a poster-child of this. It wasn't enough that Nintendo took her out of her power armor and put her in a skin-tight suit that showed every nook and cranny, but they went so far as to slap high heels on her, too. I'm reminded of this article:

Samus deserves much better, but instead, she’s gotten so little from her developers, who either don’t know how to design her correctly or simply don’t care. Samus’ character is on a downward trajectory - now her gender, rather than her attitude, has become her selling point.

That said, I think developers do understand 'sexy': they understand that the bulk of people that buy their games - boys in their teens and early twenties - love this shit. And often it probably isn't even their fault, but the fault of someone higher up pushing sales over artistic integrity.

It blows but isn't new; it's just becoming more and more egregious in a medium that we enjoy. All ya can really do is let the industry know you want more Ripleys and hope there are devs out there that desire the same thing.

[Trixie]

Female characters interest me, because I'm a dude and I already know how my brain works. Boring. If I could be a chick for a couple months it would be eye opening and fascinating. You know what female character had the liberty of being sexy and fucking complicated at the same time? Eva from Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater.

And then in 4 with the 3 different girls in those suits that made them lose their minds and become primal. Sure when you killed them it revealed a rather sexy girl on the inside, but seriously a character that makes me wonder "Why the fuck did you end up in that fucking octopus suit and why are you ripping my arms off? I want to know more about your history" wins the "Good Character" award. Laughing Octopus was one of them I think.

[Thaal Sinestro]

When people tell me stiff like, "well they'd how it is," it's well fuck world hunger too, right? People are just HUNGRY, there's nothing wrong with that." Like, if you see a problem and you don't like the implications of that problem, DO SOMETHING TO FIX IT. You don't need to be writing agri letters our throwing bottles, but having an attitude of, "We can solve this issue if we put effort into it," goes a long way.

When media changes, mind ate changed. When we present characters and attitudes to people, the way people think about the subject matter CHANGES. If course just having hyper sexualized versions of characters which have no business being sexualized is indicative of I bigger problem with the way prior bite women in general. But the more mindful and respectful we are of character and sexuality in games, the more the attitudes, tones and themes of our culture will change. That goes for EVERY media, but babes especially are lagging.

And this whole mentality that boys INHERENTLY want huge tittied, empty, fuck-bag characters is inaccurate. We TEACH boys what to like and how to like it. So if THEY'RE the ones who buy games the most, shouldn't we be doubly concerned with teaching them the right lessons?