RPGDX > Forums > General Discussion > Making of a female game star: Bikini vs. Baggy Pants

Tenshi

- You KNOW I jumped all over this article as soon as I found it! I almost wet my pants (Well, not really), this is like... wow... I love this woman and I don't even know her! THANK YOU, GOD!!!

Article :: "Making of a Female Game Star: Bikini vs. Baggy Pants"
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/15/technology/circuits/15desi.html?ex=1053662400&en=9cc1ec96ca7e7562&ei=5059&partner=AOL

- If you're interested in what small rant I made, check here:
http://angel-boards.tanime.net/angelboard.php?cID=main&boardID=main&t=1d72e8b364B1

- Must ... breath... *gasp* ...
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- Jaeda

akOOma · Posted: Fri May 16, 2003 1:23 pm Post subject:

Baggy Pants...with a String Bikini undernear
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Just another post to increase my rank...

Mobius · Posted: Fri May 16, 2003 4:01 pm Post subject:

hmmm....sounds like my lead character except for a bit of things and it sounds like my game except they just started and I've been on the job for 4 years.
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It is best not to meddel in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with a varity of condoments.

The Anarchist · Posted: Fri May 16, 2003 6:44 pm Post subject:

Well, I guess a string bikini would be nice, perhaps not even that, perhaps a cheat to make her naked and... wait! Must not degrade females... must resist naked woman... must ignore impulses...

Sorry, but sex drive usually wins over reasonable thought. Much as I would like to be objective and to really appreciate the well thought out look of a female character, if I was honest with myself i'd go with string bikini every time.

Gameplays my real porn when it comes to games though. I'd consider it an insult to have DOA extreme volleyball in my house, but not to have DOA 3 (or 2, which I actually own - long live Dreamcast!) for example, because they play so damn well. Please don't flame me :)
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Some may know me as MidnightDreamer... time for a namechange.
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Matt2j · Guest

Hey, I didn't know that was you. You could not have picked a better name to change to.

Matt

Sirocco · Mage Joined: 01 Jun 2002 Posts: 345

Scantily-clad chicks in games.

This is something I've always considered awkward and gimmicky -- and yet it's still around. Fantasy and science fiction are always quick to portray males as adequately clad, well-prepared individuals who are ready for whatever may come their way. Females, on the other hand, are dressed for pure sex appeal, and certainly wouldn't last past the first goot cut in a real battle. I can't count the number of fantasy pics I've seen of women with totally exposed legs and midsections, just begging to be sliced open. And no one... I repeat... NO ONE would ever want to try walking in a chain mail bikini.

Imagine the chafing... eek!

It's important to note that sexuality goes way beyond showing skin... a character can exude sexuality without ever showing the slightest hint of cleavage, or wearing a micro-mini-teeny-tiny-skirt. Although fan service is always welcome in moderation, it just seems absurd to expect me to picture every female in a g-string while I'm playing a game. Game developers oft proclaim their ongoing quest for total realism in gaming, and yet drop the ball when it comes to good (and realistic) character design.

.

Ninkazu · Posted: Sat May 17, 2003 12:52 am Post subject:

I haven't really read this entire thread, but I just wanted to say that I'm not against the scantily clad women, but that they're just in every single game that you'd think all game designers are all virgins. That may be true, but not for my man Mandrake! Congratulations again, dude.

BigManJones · Scholar Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 196

This discussion reminds me of the old argument 'when playing a p+p rpg, play the character you get on your first role; who cares if its not demi-god like stats? A good player can make the most of anything' To which I always respond BULLSH*T! I play games to live in a fantasy world; not muck about with mundane everyday constraints.

Now having said that, if a girl in a game is TOO hot then to me that completely destroys the 'suspension of disbelief' because I spend so much time trying to put her in nice poses. Besides, its just not right to have your temperature elevated by a video game character.

Ninkazu · Posted: Sat May 17, 2003 2:50 am Post subject:

Ya, if you wanna do that, why not make a porn game?

....hey, why NOT make a porn game?

js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

Ahem. People, have you forgotten aeris? (SP?)
She was well-dressed, and she was still very... umm... I'll stop there.

But anyways, the two female characters in my rpg, Anne and Kira, seem to know for themselves the un-practicality of wearing bikinis in the heat of battle. I wouldn't say they're over-dressed and always walk around in a mask and plate mail, but they certainly aren't like Tifa, who was 99% boob and 1% human.

mandrake@scantilyclad · Guest

Tenshi · Posted: Sat May 17, 2003 5:34 pm Post subject:

BigManJones · Scholar Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 196

A friends sister was going off about "the exploitation of women" a couple of years ago (not in gaming but in TV and movies). She was taking the normal stance that women are being exploited and marketing was all about selling women as sex objects. He responded with the comment "Yeah, but they do the same thing with men" And low and behold, they were watching tv at the time and no less than three commercials in row came on showing bare chested, muscular men in soap and deodorant commercials. She was forced to concede his point.

ThousandKnives · Guest

Who is most exploited by the tried-and-tested "sexy woman" marketing/RPG character design stategy?

The men who dole out their hard-earned cash for a sub-par product simply because they are hypnotized by T&A.

Of course, they sort of have it coming for being so myopic and gullable.

I want to point out, however, that video games are often forced to accentuate both feminine and masculine attributes in order that they be properly and easily identified as such. Pixels, lack of voices, and lack of subtlety in animation contribute to an environment where extremes are a necessary migration.

Graphics in video games arent so much simulations as they are representations, which means that NOTHING (trees, rocks, people, and animals are all included) ACTUALLY looks the way it does looks in real life. The abstracted designs in games are instead intended to evoke the FEELING of looking at these things.

It's hard to evoke the feeling of looking at a woman without exaggerating her features, or she may end up feeling gender-neutral or even worse masculine. That's simply the way things are. If you want to fiddle with lines of script to accomplish her femininity, go ahead, but it's simply not going to work for every female character. Besides, you may be accomplishing an even more base form of sexism by stereotyping women's behaviors instead of their body-types.

Thats not saying things aren't occasionally taken to extremes. But you're talking about chain mail bikinis. I'd like to know what game thats from, because in fact I can't EVER remember playing a game with a character in a bikini in it. Unless you are referring to the Magic Bikini or Sexy Lingerie equipment that occasionally can be found in Dragon Quest games (which, true to DQ style, isnt graphically represented in any form).

The Anarchist · Posted: Sun May 18, 2003 6:49 pm Post subject:

Matt2Jones: Thanks, but I couldn't have picked a worse name to change it from either. MidnightDreamer? What was I thinking.

Tenshi: