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In retrospective, what do you think of the sexualisation in video games back then?

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Personally I think that the stupid sex mini games in GoW or equivalent in Witcher (those cards in W1 were dumb) don't really need to be in the games unless they are of particular genre or age rating.

Now, sexy character design and even nudity in certain scenes (similar to an R rated movie) are absolutely fine.

This whole recent drive of making most female characters not attractive in AAA Western games is kind of nuts.
 

cireza

Member
I'd rather have sexy or good looking guys and girls in my games because they are games and I don't want to spend hours looking at ugly guys/girls.

Sex mini games and scenes are dumb though.
 
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Crayon

Member
Thinking about it, the character has to be really good and the game has to play really well to pull it off these days. Otherwise it's straight cheesecake and it's corny. Not offensive or anything but harder to take seriously.

Like if classic costume cammy acted like a bimbo and she was in a trash animu vn, she would be a lame cheesecake character. In fact, she was a little lame with the baby face and the bubbly win pose in st. Later on when she looked like a killer AND played great was when that was a great, sexy character.

Aloy looking more like a normal girl without makeup was a good choice imo. That game played good but wasn't fire or anything, and everyone talked like people around the office in facepaint. So none of the writing and thus characters are very good, including aloy. Maybe having a super hot character would be great for some but for me it would be cheesy. That game is quite good at feeling like you are wandering around in the woods keeping an eye on the dinos so they don't fuck you up. It does hit a certain immersion at the best of times and if aloy looked like a porn star that would fuck it up a bit.

Like idk what to think of that character in stellar blade yet because idk if she has any personality and idk if the game is going to play right. If she turns out to be cool and the game plays great that'll be one thing, but it could go the other way and then you are just playing a cheap bayo knockoff with a sex doll as you mc. It would make the game look stupid. I'm hoping it's good and the character is at least appropriate and has some originality.

I'm writing more than I intended to...

2B is an awesome example of a character who is actually set up as a garter-belted tsuntsun body pillow and then seriously go places from there. It's some metal gear level deconstruction. Amazing character. Almost a commentary on using a sexy character to sell a game.

Of course you have to talk about bayo. One of the most recognizable and beloved video game characters ever conceived. Her fucking clothes explode off when she does a finishing move and nintendo is okay with that. That is a genius character and really few complain about her overtly sexual.... everything.

It's a good thing lucky chloe is wearing that big jacket because that character would be even more fucking stupid if she had jiggle tits out while she was breakdancing and making stupid faces.

Leo in T7 on the otherhand is kind of fascinating with the androgynous presentation. Boring character though. Would be worse with sexy makeover.

Another example from T7 is Lidia. Obviously a beautiful and shapely woman but you don't really think of her like that because shes the pm of poland (seems legit) and her moves are awesome. Actually, this is a PERFECT example.

If this red bodysuit:

apps.11045.14462601646357445.687fad34-ff2d-430c-abcb-de2931fbdbf8.40953da3-8298-4fdf-bb5c-6c4dfd097af2


..had (stylistic difference allowing) big chewy nipples poking out like this red bodysuit:

58227255969ddcd371630cacb1e37f45.jpg


... that character does not get better. Even a character as cool as Lidia could not live down a set of beastly cans like that. Back then, somebody more likely than not would say they should make her tits bigger and show more skin. Maybe even have her nipples erupting from body paint. This Taki design is a nice extreme example of what it was like back then and how yeah, it got a bit stupid.
 
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E-Cat

Member
To put it in the simplest terms possible: Dumb fun for 'the boys' (aka people playing video games back then). Boys like boobs and butts. These days, there's an effort to extinguish human nature. But it's still there, just not visible in mainstream discourse.
 
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Tams

Member
It doesn't matter at all, the target audience was young men in most of those games back then, they tried to appeal to what they wanted to see. Honestly Id argue that our society is over sexualized in comparison to anything those games did back in the day lol.

Personally tho, id like romance/active sex focus to be toned down/cut out of art/media more in general unless it's directly related to a story/gameplay in a meaningful way. Most of the time its just bad writing in stories or is copy/pasta thrown in without adding any value the art it's included in, it can really chug the pacing of a story or kill my sense of disbelief. Too bad that shit sells like hot cakes.
Then write your own 'better' stories then, Tolstoy.
 

GametimeUK

Member
I have 0 issue with sexy characters. Over the top sex appeal can be stylish and cool as fuck if I'm being honest. I'm not saying every game has to be this way I'm simply saying there's definitely a place for it in my opinion. It sucks that showing a bit of skin is demonised, but fully ripping a character apart in a videogame is a lesser evil. When it comes to this hobby that many of us enjoy there's so many possibilities and I hope we continue to explore them.
 

MikeM

Member
I’m a fan of it. I mean, guys like Kratos run around shirtless and he is a jacked dad with a beard. Can’t tell me women don’t love that. There are obviously other examples of similar out there.

Movies like Magic Mike exist and women love that shit.

But if its women- its off limits now for some reason. The double standards are alive and well today.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
People are giant fucking babies. Video games and sex used to be tight together.

Look at Lara croft. They reedited her character model to make her boobs smaller and her less attractive after the new tomb raider came out in 2013. They can say whatever narrative they want but they did it because of optics. Did the same in the new movie too.

It's like they actively hate their past.
 

Portugeezer

Member
I’m a fan of it. I mean, guys like Kratos run around shirtless and he is a jacked dad with a beard. Can’t tell me women don’t love that. There are obviously other examples of similar out there.

Movies like Magic Mike exist and women love that shit.

But if its women- its off limits now for some reason. The double standards are alive and well today.
The double standard is the fact that men don't care if we're objectified.

Ugly women, hot women, poor women, rich women... objectify me ladies, my body is ready.

People are giant fucking babies. Video games and sex used to be tight together.

Look at Lara croft. They reedited her character model to make her boobs smaller and her less attractive after the new tomb raider came out in 2013. They can say whatever narrative they want but they did it because of optics. Did the same in the new movie too.

It's like they actively hate their past.
I thought she was attractive in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and had a tight body (dat azz was still perky). She just didn't wear any overly sexy outfits which fits the game more as graphics fidelity/realism improves.
 
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Wildebeest

Member
I like trashy content. I find it fun. It is preachy, sermonizing, self-righteous content that makes me barf. I guess I'm old school, as I take it all as hypocrisy and people trying to make out that they are better than others without putting in real effort.
 

Pejo

Member
I'll tell you one thing, if I had to pick between a game full of Takis from the OP or females from modern day western dev games, I'd pick Taki all day every day. It was insane to me how quickly things changed after the goobergate crap and from the constant shaming on social media to basically erase sexy female designs from western games.

I always advocate for attractive characters. I see enough ugly ass people every day of my life in real life. It's not like sexy designs can make a bad game great, but it can go a long way to help me enjoy it.

Nexus and Loverslab got us covered.
PC masturrbaaa... uh i mean raaaace!
This is another reason I like PC gaming, I can just change my experience as necessary. But Nexus already is compromised and are selecting which mods they will or will not support. Like when they took down that one for taking the virtue signal flags out of Spiderman.
 

Woopah

Member
I think the sexualisation and misogyny in the marketing of video games was often worse than in the games itself. There was definitely a time when the industry was very focused on teenage boys / young men as a market and I think its better that it's looking broader than that now.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I’m all for sexy looking characters in games. I mean, who the hell wants to look at ugly people? I sure as hell don’t.

And yes, I like to see some skin. 🤷🏼
 

Eiknarf

Banned
Can't they co-exist?

Why’s it have to be all or nothing?

I mean, wasn't Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 banned in America cuz it was too sexual?
There should be a place for both because video games are escapism… fantasy… things that are unattainable or hard to achieve in reality


Let’s have some games with sexy chics, and other games with ugly chics. Done.
 
Gore and extreme violence is pubertal nonsense I wish completely disappeared.

Sexy designs are awesome and I want it back. Taki was great, old-school Lara Croft too👌

Sadly violence won this battle, at least in the west. Some devs may have a gore on/off option but nobody have a sexy on/off option.

Modders has somewhat saved the downfall though.
Until the mod site owners ban those mods. Look what they did about flag mods. Can't have that LGBT flag changed in your single player game or the site owner will call you a bigot, cave in to thr militant people that don't even play the game and start up censorship. How long do you think it will be before they put the crosshairs on sexy mods? Pandora box has been opened, nexus mod site owner is compromised alo g with moddb.

You could say free market, make your own mod server depository, but then Twitter wokies will call for banking to and cloud flare to remove the site or prevent visa/Mc debit purchases from them.
We seen this show too many times.

All they had to do was just stand by principles and allow people to download the mod if they wanted to. A single player game isn't forcing anything on anyone else. The whole point of mods is to modify your personal game.

This is why mods can't be the answer
The answer is game devs growing a spine along with people boycotting devs who bend the knee and change shit from pressure from crazy activists. The problem is normal people work and have lives, activists look for shit to be offended by and cause trouble.

Sexy is fine, it's up to the dev. It can be overdone but that's the beauty in our society. You do t have to buy it. I don't like child high pitched Anime characters but like jrpgs. I don't try to have them removed from games. Obviously the devs and Japanese culture has some affinity for cutie or annoying prepubescent characters (think Lymle from star ocean 4). They can keep them and also include sexy characters. Dragon crown would not of been the same if the characters all looked non muscular or had flat tits and ass. Aethetics and art design is a thing.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
It was kinda cringe, but so is the over-sanitization we have today.

Honestly i just want to see twatters seething.
 
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MagnesD3

Member
Then write your own 'better' stories then, Tolstoy.
Well I could come up with a good story, character's and set pieces but I wouldnt be confident with my current know how to write dialogue correctly or describe things in a proper pacing in at least a written story (it would flow like a run on sentence without proper technique).
 
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Eiknarf

Banned
It was just a different time. Like MTV was all tits and ass back then as well.
A girl raiding tombs in hotpants with 2 enormous guns and 2 even bigger boobs felt like a novel idea.
Videos have ten times more tits and ass today. Megan The Stallion, Nikki Minaj, Cardi B, and seven hundred other female artists. Just watch almost any female artist’s videos on YouTube or Instagram or TikTok today. Difference is, it’s technically not MTV. So you’re only right on a semantic level.
The other difference is, it’s the female artist themselves who WANT to put their tits and ass on display. Not a male producer
 
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Eiknarf

Banned
Isn’t it ironic how Joel on the HBO show The Last of Us portrayed by Pedro Pascal is the hot, sexy man of the hour… but not one female in the entire 10 episodes can be sexy? Why’s he allowed to be sexy?
So let’s ask ourselves looking forward to season 2: Will Ellie be sexy? Will Abby be sexy? Will Dina be sexy? No. No. No. (and this is coming from me, who ranks the last of us as the best video game. So I am not some biased anti-Neil Druckmann guy. But I am obviously not blind and I can see that Neil has a bias.)
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I like it when female characters are attractive. I think it goes too far when it’s obvious they engineered some character as fap material for lonely nerds who are terrified of real life women.
 

NahaNago

Member
It's weird that there was such a big war over it considering how sexualized everything is nowadays from hot tub twitch, only fans, music videos, tik tok, instagram, and female cosplayers. It's the female cosplayers that throw me off the most honestly.
People who get mad at the lack of it these days need to get a life. we have pornhub now, & sexy women
This honestly just seems like trolling at this point considering how often this gets used.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
It’s not sexualization .. it’s fantasy. Guys were handsome and muscular, girls were beautiful and strong. It’s what everyone wishes they were. There were plenty of games where you could be other things as well. Unlike movies video games have always been more diverse in that aspect.

Bottom line everyone always has fantasies of being something they are not.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
The textures in Soul Blade were such that it took me a while to notice that Namco was trying to show Taki's nipples through her outfit. In future Soul Calibur iterations it was easier to tell. Always thought it was curious considering they didn't do that with other characters.
 

Aion002

Member
As a brazilian that grew up watching big tittied people (both females and males), dancing almost naked every february during carnaval on open tv with my parents...

Taki was hot and still is hot.


Also, it's so fucking weird to me how some people are "annoyed" by the human body being attractive and yet they're are fine and happy with gore.

I guess sex is scary for some and ripping heads aren't. I blame the church.
 

draliko

Member
I thought was a pic thread... Damn... Anyway was nice... I'm a simple man I like nice looking females even when they're digital
 

ungalo

Member
Let me set up the story first. I was at my mom's house last week and went to the living room while she was preparing some food. My old PS3 was still there so I fired it up to kill time. I had a God of War III save and loaded it, arriving at the part with Aphrodite. You know, the one with the sex mini-game.

I figured I'd just do it while my mom wasn't looking but she came back earlier so I put it on pause. I waited for her to be gone before resuming but a minute later, some guests came in so just turned off the console. I don't mind eviscerating Hades or chopping off Hermes' legs in front of people, but a fucking mini-game would make me look like a degenerate.
It's cringe to watch any sexual scene in any movie with your mom, it doesn't mean it's a problematic scene. I don't see your point.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
When I was a kid and videogame boobs actually where a thing we had this ffs, back when you had to use your imagination

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Reminds me of Sword of Sodan where the only reason to play that turd of a game was the sex appeal of the main characters

Y107Rjr.jpg
 

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
It's a non issue. Sex is the reason we're able to even discuss this. It's inherent primal to not only us humans but most of life on this planet.

With that said there's the matter of how to incorporate sexual themes in media, in this case videogames. Well, that's mostly up to the creators. Not only in regards to tastefulness, but a myriad of ways sexual content could be displayed. And seeing there's so many ways humans like specific things sexual there must be a market for all.

For me personally I'd like myself some subtle sexuality in my games, if those games work just as well without any. And even then I don't mind a wink wink sexy outfit or camera view focusing on well...

There are many aspects which eventually make up how the inclusion of sexuality play a part in a game as a whole.
 

ÆMNE22A!C

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
But yes. There's a difference between DOAX and a hypothetical bare chested woman in some CoD game. Know your audience. Or take a chance I suppose.
 

Goalus

Member
Reminds me of Sword of Sodan where the only reason to play that turd of a game was the sex appeal of the main characters

Y107Rjr.jpg
I don't agree.
Maybe I was too young at that time, but the reason I remember the game at all are the HUGE sprites (Amiga version). I clearly remember how impressed I was by the size of these sprites, I had never seen anything like it before.

Swordofsodan4.jpg

Wow.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
I don't agree.
Maybe I was too young at that time, but the reason I remember the game at all are the HUGE sprites (Amiga version). I clearly remember how impressed I was by the size of these sprites, I had never seen anything like it before.
I can understand that. It played like total ass, though.
 
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