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Guardian article

One evening, while playing Monster Hunter 4, I decided to ask my boyfriend which video game ladies he has a crush on. I figured we all have a secret little list of characters that make us wish they weren’t just polygons on a screen and who, frankly, we just fancy. My own selection includes, but is not limited to: enigmatic cowboy John Marston from Red Dead Redemption, spiritually-minded assassin Thane from Mass Effect, Alistair and Solas from Dragon Age, moody cop Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil (but only the Resident Evil 4 Leon with that jacket) and Link from Legend of Zelda – but particularly the Hyrule Warriors version of Link. Having admitted all this to my boyfriend, I wanted to hear his list of fanciable women characters. That’s only fair, right?

“I can’t really think of any,” was his surprising reply. “They’re nearly all designed to be sexy, but they … they don’t really have personalities.”

Those of us attracted to men have a fairly varied selection of looks and personalities to choose from in video games, because male characters generally have more going on than skimpy armour and gravity-defying body parts. Sure, you’re probably over-catered for if you like, say, cynical young guys with buzzcuts and tribal tattoos, or grizzled cops/soldiers/space marines with gigantic chips on their muscular shoulders. But if you’re interested in women who offer more than titillation, the search is more trying.

Browse through any game collection and there are going to be a lot of female characters bouncing about the place, with little more to add to the story than a chainmail bikini. It’s an unavoidable and often embarrassing part of the hobby I love – the sense of shame when someone walks in on you playing Soul Calibur and you have to assure them that it’s a great fighting game and, yeah, all those clothes falling off is just “quirky design”

I asked other friends about the female characters that got their digital hearts fluttering, and the answers were nearly always women who were intelligently written and who were not overtly sexy: Claire Redfield from Resident Evil, Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, Faith from Mirror’s Edge. But these are the characters that always get mentioned. No matter how many interesting female characters you indignantly list in response to this observation, there are a hundred male characters for every one of them.

I don’t think the paucity of truly attractive female characters comes from a focus on creating engaging men, it frequently seems to emanate from a desire – or a pressure – to create women for the sole purpose of obvious sexual allure. The seeming inability of developers to represent an array of female body types and identities perpetuates the idea of women as decoration, leading to stunted character development. If the default starting position is sex appeal, you automatically create a character whose looks define them.

Sexiness definitely should not be banished from video games – it can be an interesting character element. Bayonetta, Vivienne from Dragon Age: Inquisition and Morinth from Mass Effect 2 are all examples of how sex appeal is brilliantly effective when it makes sense to the character and the world that has been created around them. All too often, though, female sexuality in games seems to be stuck in some mid-90s lads’ mag purgatory, recalling the era when model Jo Guest advertised the sci-fi sim Battlecruiser 3000AD by straddling a boxed copy of the game, and when Lara Croft was in Playboy. At least she has moved on.

The most frustrating thing is that objectification creates hurdles for genuinely intelligent and engaging writing. Games have reached a point of narrative maturity where they can make us laugh and cry, where virtual environments are places we can lose ourselves in for hundreds of hours. But the persistence of “sexy” female characters who don’t make sense in the carefully crafted worlds they inhabit is jarring. Meanwhile, television is now widely considered to be the go-to place for quality drama, producing a whole gamut of provocative female characters from the casts of Orange is the New Black and Game of Thrones to Diance in Bojack Horseman.

That’s what I’m asking for: characters whose sexuality makes sense and who have different things to offer. I don’t want fewer attractive women in games, I want more of them. As strange as this may sound, I want my boyfriend’s list of crafty digital crushes to be as long and varied as my own.

Interesting article, and a slightly different spin on the representation of woman in games. What do we think, GAF?

 

[kinggroin]

True story. At the bathhouse in Witcher 3, the hottest woman was the plus sizer doing her little swivel dance in the corner. Most realistic looking NPC there.

Kind of burnt on that "perfect" proportion body style being all that's objectified.

Edit:

Spoiler

She never spoke. Just swiveled :-(

 

[ZiZ]

waifu thread?!!

 

[SmokyDave]

Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

waifu thread?!!

I'm not sure if one actually "fancies" a waifu

 

[Awntawn]

Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

 

[Skux]

I don't find a woman attractive if I don't find her physically attractive. That's part of attractiveness. That's what makes you notice and want to get to know her better.

The author is having trouble separating sexiness and attractiveness, because there really isn't that big of a gap between them.

 

[Impeccable]

I don't find videogame women sexy or someone I want to fancy.

 

[Griss]

“I can’t really think of any,” was his surprising reply. “They’re nearly all designed to be sexy, but they … they don’t really have personalities.”

"I'll take 'Things you tell you girlfriend' for $500' , Alex."

Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

Well, beaten.

 

[Tenebrous]

I asked other friends about the female characters that got their digital hearts fluttering, and the answers were nearly always women who were intelligently written and who were not overtly sexy: Claire Redfield from Resident Evil, Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, Faith from Mirror’s Edge. But these are the characters that always get mentioned. No matter how many interesting female characters you indignantly list in response to this observation, there are a hundred male characters for every one of them.

This was actually the only one that came to mind. Intelligent, friendly, family orientated and determined. She's not sexed up like many other characters are, but she's still attractive... I'd take her out!

 

[Somnid]

Yeah, the counter argument here is moé. Not that it doesn't have it's own particular set of problems with creating shallow archetypes but it's essentially the idea of a character you have a crush on, just not specifically sexual. I'm sure there is plenty of room to combine some of these concepts for better written and designed characters.

 

[Stilton Disco]

You know, they've got a point.

It's easy to point at female characters that are hot, but ones that I'd ask out a real life equivelant of? I'm struggling to think of many.

Tali from Mass Effect 2, Kinzie from Saints Row are about the only two I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[HideyoshiJP]

waifu thread?!!

Waifu thread.

 

[MaschinenZimmer]

Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

Yup, pretty much.

 

[Corronchilejano]

Well, she's not wrong but I'm not sure there's a point to being right.

 

[ZiZ]

There is a better selection of males, because most video games star males, making the males characters far more fleshed out.

She also admitted to liking Link who has no personality whatsoever, and specifically the eye candy version of Hyrule Warriors.

Also, most guys wouldn't admit to fancying virtual characters, especially to female friends.

 

[PrivateRyan]

“I can’t really think of any,” was his surprising reply. “They’re nearly all designed to be sexy, but they … they don’t really have personalities.”

Excellent and safe response to a dangerous question.

 

[Foggy]

Haha, no way it matters if there's a paradigm shift in female representation in games, she's gonna get the same answer from her boyfriend.

 

[Acidote]

This article sounds like:

Although she has a point, but one thing does not exclude the other.

 

[Klossen]

Being sexy and having a great character are not mutually exclusive and I'm tired of that assumption. Those male characters she named? All who most would say are attractive male characters. Just because they were attractive didn't hurt their character.

On that note, I also see plenty of excellent female characters ignored in gaming because they look "sexy" which is automatically tied to shallow for many. Ashe in FFXII is an excellent character with a clear-cut character arc that I never see mentioned. Is it because she's too sexy to be considered a good female character?

 

[Fury451]

I agree with the general sentiment, but I find most men to be pretty shallow in their portrayals in gaming also.

There's a serious lack of depth to most characters that's just as prominent of a problem as over-sexualizing. Arguably it's definitely more common with female characters for sure though.

But I would take Elena out in an instant if she ever drops that chump Drake for a real man.

 

[JDSN]

There is a lot of improvement in writing and graphics needed to make any kind of video game character sexy to me.

 

[Rymuth]

Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

This.

She's not wrong, though. She makes a very good point and I was discussing the very issue with a couple of friends last week...however, I have little doubt her boyfriend was not being honest.

 

[KojiKnight]

To the people thinking the guy in OP dodged a loaded question... let me ask you, are there any female characters you'd fancy being in a relationship with? I don't mean a one night stand, I mean someone you could spend a sizable portion of your time with and think you'd enjoy their company... I can't think of too many personally.

 

[RandyBobandy]

Fancy a fictional character?

 

[oni-link]

I don't find a woman attractive if I don't find her physically attractive. That's part of attractiveness. That's what makes you notice and want to get to know her better.

The author is having trouble separating sexiness and attractiveness, because there really isn't that big of a gap between them.

Well I think she is saying she would like to see more female characters designed to be attractive, and not just "sexy"

Alyx from Half Life 2 is designed to be an all round attractive person, not just in looks, someone like Ivy from Soul Calibur is just designed to be "sexy"

There isn't anything wrong with the latter, but compare Bayonetta with Ivy, one has a ton of character and personality and one is just, well, Ivy (not that i'm saying you should want to date Bayonetta, she's just an example of a good character)

Its a call for better female characters in games, without saying that means they need to be ugly or unappealing for this to be the case

 

[CHC]

-Faith from Mirror's Edge
-Jack / Samara / Dr. Chakras from Mass Effect
-Rosalina from Mario
-Jill Valentine in RE1
-Chie from Persona 4
-Alyx from Half Life 2
-Chell from Portal

And many more...

Like many of its kind this article presents what the author sees as a problem without offering any solutions or counter-examples, not to mention the boyfriend-who-won't-admit-his-game-crushes trope is about as eye-rolling as it gets.

I'm not trying to sound crass, but what is the author looking for? Unabashedly fat / physically unattractive female characters? At the end of the day "attractive" just has certain physical implications, and differing from those norms is just unusual in any medium.

 

[Terareflection]

To the people thinking the guy in OP dodged a loaded question... let me ask you, are there any female characters you'd fancy being in a relationship with? I don't mean a one night stand, I mean someone you could spend a sizable portion of your time with and think you'd enjoy their company... I can't think of too many personally.

As a girl, I really can't think of any male characters I would spend time with either.

 

[Fisty]

I can say, without a doubt, I was absolutely in love with Elena from Uncharted, she was such a well-written and real female. Beautiful as well, without the ridiculous sexy that most women in video games end up getting stuck with.

 

[-Horizon-]

This article sounds like:

Although she has a point, but one thing does not exclude the other.

lmao

 

[Frog-fu]

To the people thinking the guy in OP dodged a loaded question... let me ask you, are there any female characters you'd fancy being in a relationship with? I don't mean a one night stand, I mean someone you could spend a sizable portion of your time with and think you'd enjoy their company... I can't think of too many personally.

That might be because they're characters in a video game, i.e. not nearly characterised or developed enough for your mind to even remotely think of them as real, therefore making it hard to imagine being in a relationship with them.

I think you're overthinking this if you're thinking about enjoying the company of fictional characters in an intimate sort of way.

 

[ConsumerSquare]

Thane?? Sicko.

I'd be into a couple of the ladies in Alpha Centauri.

 

[Bronetta]

To the people thinking the guy in OP dodged a loaded question... let me ask you, are there any female characters you'd fancy being in a relationship with? I don't mean a one night stand, I mean someone you could spend a sizable portion of your time with and think you'd enjoy their company... I can't think of too many personally.

They're fucking video game characters, I don't want to.

 

[pswii60]

I don't think females should be in a game to be 'sexy', or to be 'fancied', but for the very same reasons that males are in the game - which is for neither of those reasons usually.

Regardless, more female characters should be in games that female players can connect with.

Or, we should just go back to the old days of having animals as our main videogame characters, that'd be even better again.

 

[BibiMaghoo]

A character does not need to be sexualised or 'fanciable' to be interesting. That is in itself a trap, because it perpetuates the very thing she is deriding. Characters need to be written as that, not as some intended eye candy for the player, but neither as a character designed to be attractive. Mainly because real actual living people are not designed to be anything, and are forged as an individual through life events. To copy that is easy, make a person, with motives, aspirations, likes and quirks, or not. Don't give them half an outfit and a slim build, make them flirt with the player character and call it a day. That shit is terrible, and I'd rather it was in no games at all, or at the least games that cater specifically for that, so I can not buy them.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

To the people thinking the guy in OP dodged a loaded question... let me ask you, are there any female characters you'd fancy being in a relationship with? I don't mean a one night stand, I mean someone you could spend a sizable portion of your time with and think you'd enjoy their company... I can't think of too many personally.

 

[diggmcbadass]

I don't want to be emotionally manipulated into having a crush on non-existent video game characters. That's what all my other media is for.

 

[CadetMahoney]

questions is to a male audience but aren't 50% of gamers female?

 

[NumberThree]

I feel bad for anyone who can't talk with their partner about other people (heck in this case fictional characters) they find attractive.

I don't find a woman attractive if I don't find her physically attractive. That's part of attractiveness. That's what makes you notice and want to get to know her better.

The author is having trouble separating sexiness and attractiveness, because there really isn't that big of a gap between them.

No, you're having trouble seeing the point of the author. They're not saying female characters shouldn't look physically attractive, but that they need to have the personality to go with it.

 

[Sakujou]

that guy wisely got out of the crossfire.

for me, its rinoa from ff8. best looking and awesome heroine of all time.

sadly, there is no one in real life coming close to her.

but somehow its right, most girls in videogames have too big breasts or too big butts. this grosses me out. i mean i have to deal with a lot of ugly female persons in real life, why are female characters designed so ugly?

rinoa=ff8
lilly=ff9
are the way to go for me.

 

[Pila]

MH4U has the ace gunner and I like her. She always sounds pro while talking about gameplay stuff, she never tries to be sexy, it's a good female character.

More ace gunner gals, please.

 

[McDougles]

While I agree on the idea that women characters should be more three-dimensional in their attractiveness (no pun intended), the idea that the author listed a mysterious group of female characters we're not privy to that her 3rd-party boyfriend "didn't have a crush on" is proof of her point is silly.

On the top of my head, if I suggested (author repeats omitted):
Samus
Lara Croft
Joanna Dark
Yuna
Jill Valentine
Sherry Birkin
Ada Wong
Princess Zelda
Elena Fisher
Jade
Liara
Anya Stroud
Sonya
Sarah Kerrigan
Mass Effect's Shepherd
Alex Roivas
Zoey from Left 4 Dead
Bastila
Aya Brea
Konoko
Meryl
Shantae
Aveline
April Ryan, etc.

and her boyfriend admitted to having a crush on some of those characters, would the piece be dead in development?

 

[redcrayon]

Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

This. Jesus wept, if my wife asked me that all I'd see would be Admiral Ackbar standing behind her shoulder, yelling his catchphrase at me over and over again.

I've got a soft spot for Aveline from Dragon Age II. Far more competent and responsible than the PC, actually has a job and gives a toss about her minions, and has a romantic side buried under several pounds of chainmail.
The fact that you can't romance her but can help her get together with a guy she likes makes her probably the most 'real' female party member I've seen in an rpg. My sister-in-arms.

 

[Mesoian]

Video games need better writing in general, this is not an issue that is restricted to female characters.

 

[King Cobra]

Honestly I just think her guy dodged a loaded question and told her what she wanted to hear. I would say the exact same thing if I was put in that situation when in reality I loved looking at the sorceress from dragons crown.

I bought this game just for that.

 

[Kinyou]

Sounds to me like her fella wisely ducked a loaded question. That dress looks great on you and I don't fancy anyone unless they have an amazing personality like you dear. No I wasn't looking at her breasts, merely admiring that lovely brooch she had.

haha, you might be right. There's no short amount of gamers out there who fancy digital ladies. Just look at waifu culture and how it tends to sip into gaming

 

[Wiktor]

Yeah, seems the guy was dodging the question. While there's still a lot to be done in introducing personality to women in videogames (plenty to do for male characters too), there have been dozens, if not hundreds of virtual women that gamer could "fancy"

 

[Greddleok]

Clearly the man hasn't played Fire Emblem Awakening.

 

[Agremont]

In my opinion video games need more varied character designs. Less defaulting to sexappeal. It's so mindnumbingly predictable.

Alas, it isn't going to happen though, especially when it comes to female characters.

Only slightly related to the topic though. I agree with most of the article though.

 

[struggler_guts]

Amen. I'm waiting for someone from witcher 3 to grab my heart, so far the 2 main ladies I've met haven't really done it for me.