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One hot-button decision that's an easy call was Ubisoft's decision not to have female avatars for the multiplayer. OK, so the main character in the story game is a dude. But why decide not to put in a little extra work to make a female avatar for multiplayer? BioWare and Bethesda aren't doing too badly on that front. Yeah, the outfits suffer a bit of gender divide, but there are strong female characters throughout and you can play a girl who kicks ass and wears power armor.

Those are some pretty easy first steps...

But yeah, greater diversity in gaming goals, themes, etc... would be pretty nice as well.

This is what's going to bring real change people.

Related: http://kotaku.com/how-anita-sarkeesian- ... 1688231729

Erik_Twice wrote:There are differences in tastes between genders but I think the whole debate about nonviolence and gender appeal misses a lot of nuance, like how women like horror games a lot.

Survival horror also seems to be one of the few genres that has lots of female protagonists. Also the violence performed by the player is usually few and far between compared to most action games, sometimes not at all in a few horror games and when it is called for it is usually defensive in nature.

isiolia wrote:Related: http://kotaku.com/how-anita-sarkeesian- ... 1688231729

See makes really valid points. Especially the smurfettee one. But I just wanted to say about the ass thing: , the common joke about males playing female characters in MMOs: "If I'm going to be staring at an ass for so many hours....".

Though actually when I played female characters in MMOs I kind of did roleplay a female in my head....until I got out of the starting questing hub, and all lore went down the drain.

Admittedly, I do love my sexy female characters, both as heroes and as enemies. While I would like to see more of all the things Sarkeesian mentioned, I don't think I would want to see the eradication of everything she takes issue against.

Here she had some good points. I have some niggles here and there, but otherwise she seems on point.

Not directly related to the thread, but in a similar vein:
http://kotaku.com/dead-or-alive-communi ... 1688796997

I understand the reasoning and idealism here, and I personally don't see why some are so against it, because I've never seen any tourney's of DoA using sexy costumes. But there was one point brought up in both the article and comments- the arguably sexy costumes for male characters have no bans. There is no reason given, but I imagine it has to do with the fact that it isn't seen as objectifying men- and as the comments point out graciously, only men want to see men who have muscles or are very cut, women don't like that.

I'll give you that the big muscled men is a power fantasy for some guys. Sure. Maybe even a lot of guys want that. But some women want it too. For my generation, the cut body ala Tyler Durden in Fight Club is ideal for quite a decent amount of women out there. But, the guy's in videogames are usually Mr. Universe wannabes, so it doesn't apply in the same way, right? I'd argue otherwise. We see women in videogames with breasts and asses outside of realism, and that's heresy. But a man with muscle nigh on impossible to get? Male power fantasy, ignore it. It seems counter intuitive to me, as a whole. The comments were going on that it would be okay to ban the sexy male costumes if the men looked like "twinks" that women or the gay community might like. I've seen a lot of things saying that there isn't need or want to change the men in games because they are all male power fantasies, but I argue with that. There's lots of men in games that just have cut bodies and gorgeous faces that some folks might find attractive. We can't just act like this is a one sided problem.

From what I remember the male characters in DOA aren't anywhere near as sexualized as the female ones. Now if this were Street Fighter, I'd have an issue, but in this case you couldn't call the representation of both sexes "equal".

Though the decision itself? Just silly/stupid imo.

Well, I'm not much into DoA, I just watch a stream or two on occasion. I just looked up the costumes for DoA 5 and the women definitely get the bad end of the stick. But then again, almost every male had a shirtless option, and at least two had option where pretty much the only thing they had on was essentially a speedo. Not saying its on the same level in this case though.

And I can't say they're wrong or stupid for their decision, because they aren't, its their tournament and they set the rules. I think just a flat out ban on costumes other than the basic would be more appropriate.

The comments just set me off. Anytime someone attempts to pick up on the possible sexualization of men in games, there's an argument that its just a male power fantasy and should be ignored. You wouldn't get a glowing response if you turn around and argue that beautiful women in games showing there body isn't a female power fantasy. I'm know quite a few women who would love to be oggled the way the gals in the game are. Anecdotal evidence, of course, but I think there is at least some merit to it. I think its about the same level of usefulness in argument as just playing things off as a male power fantasy as if there isn't a problem with cut prettyboys with perfect hair in games.

New vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC6oxBLXtkU