Gaming: are women misrepresented?

It seems to be a topic that has come up time and time again, but are Woman misrepresented in video games? Kung Fu Factory’s co-founder Ricci Rukavina believes so. In a recent interview with CVG discussing KFF’s up and coming take on the MMA scene entitled MMA Supremacy, Rukavina’s response to the question was “On the whole, I would say yes. And I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.”

[GavinMannion]

I think everyone can agree women are misrepresented but honestly so are men and what's so wrong with that?

[L6RD7BLU3]

meh, I guess it depends on the viewer

[N4Gsukballs]

As Long As Your Playing Cooking Mama No.

[L6RD7BLU3]

lol

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

Yes

It makes no sense for characters like Cammy, Sophitia, Ivy, that girl from xblades, Rachael (NG) and the like to be dressed the way they are. Sorry it's just true. They're just designed for sex appeal. And men arent misrepresented nearly as much as women.

[Neckbear]

"It makes no sense for characters like Cammy, Sophitia, Ivy, that girl from xblades, Rachael (NG) and the like to be dressed the way they are."

...But it's a videogame. It doesn't need to make sense.

"And men arent misrepresented nearly as much as women."

They're presented as either total assholes or Mary Sues (Which is the most common term for these kind of characters, even when the male denomination is "Gary Stu" or whatever). I'd say that is an incredible misconception of the male sex.

Hell, your perception is quite flawed. Most male characters in videogames have as much clothes on as female ones, or even less. But oh my, female ones have breasts! How dare them sexist developers to showcase such horror! Sexual appeal! Pervert pandering!

Stop with the feminism and misandry, please. Gets rather bothersome after a while. Girls show off breasts, which appeal guys. Guys are half naked most of the time, usually showcasing some muscles and whatever which appeal to women. You notice the former, yet don't care about the latter because:

1. You're male.

2. Your point of view makes it totally acceptable to have virtual guys showcasing nipples, but oh my, the blasphemy when a vitual woman does- think of the children!

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

"But it's a game."

Your point?

"They're presented as either total assholes or Mary Sues"

Hardly as often as you seem to believe. I know there are games out there like Duke Nukem that misrepresents men but they pale in comparison to games that misrepresent women.

"Hell, your perception is quite flawed. Most male characters in videogames have as much clothes on as female ones, or even less"

Soul Caliber, Darn near any Final Fantasy, Streetfighter, MK, Ninja Gaiden, Xblades, Blazblue, Guilty Gear, Metal Gear, Heavenly sword, any Super Hero game, Bayonetta, Tomb Raider, Wet, Duke Nukem, ect...

The list goes on. Compare how women are portrayed to how men are in any of those games. And it's not just about how women are dressed, it's how theyre portrayed. Which is usually for sex appeal.

"Stop with the feminism and misandry, please. Gets rather bothersome after a while."

Sorry, wouldnt want to ruin your wank time.

[madjedi]

@exgamers "Soul Caliber, Darn near any Final Fantasy, Streetfighter, MK, Ninja Gaiden, Xblades, Blazblue, Guilty Gear, Metal Gear, Heavenly sword, any Super Hero game, Bayonetta, Tomb Raider, Wet, Duke Nukem, ect... The list goes on. Compare how women are portrayed to how men are in any of those games."

Really metal gear and heavenly sword and final fantasy-kai and nariko are portrayed negatively, just because nariko is wearing a revealing outfit doesn't negate her positive characteristics of bravery, loyalty and leadership. kai isn't a damsel in distress either, also one of the main enemy generals is a woman.

Yeah the helpless females of metal gear like sniper wolf, eva, the boss, the b&b corps, meryl or the all female army of liquid ocolots "the frogs". Or genius ones like sunny, emma and naomi. Oh right they aren't helpless at all.

Yes a complete and total insult to determined, intelligent and independent woman everywhere, just because the character designs are visually appealing to men -_-, the primary audience. Really probably the stupidest series you could ever use to back up your points, when it proves you wrong.

Look beyond the hourglass shape, buddy to the person underneath.

And final fantasy woman have ranged for strong and independent to princess peach types and anything in between. So i don't feel like listing them.

I don't have any problem with the main character being a woman or independent strong willed female characters. I do have a problem with the blatant bullsh*t your spouting about these 3 series, they are not really disrespectful to women compared to alot of games.

Go back and actually play these games, then come back when you actually know what your talking about. And take the stick out already.

The other games you mentioned, i don't care about, but blazblue and guilty gears series look at the character styles, they aren't supposed to be realistic. -_-

[ClimateKaren]

You ever see what that Kratos wears when he goes out to fight?

[Sharingan_no_Kakashi]

Like I said (for the 3rd time) I know there are games that misrepresent men but not nearly as much as women.

GOW's case is a bit different. Even though there is a lot of sex games, scantily clad women and nudity in it, to me it's more about keeping in line with the Greek mythology. And Kratos's attire makes sense seeing as he was torn to bits in hell.......twice. But I've never seen a military personnel wear a swimsuit EVERY DAY (Cammy). Her character design is still one of the most puzzling. Well not really. It's for sex appeal XD.

[ClimateKaren]

@Exgamer
Haha I know what you meant, I just couldn't resist.

Rated M indeed.

[ERMAC_]

Don't just base it on fighting games...most of them have wank material in one way or another.

2D MK girls wasn't that bad. I think when they started copying other 3D games in the PS2 era it got the habit.

Not that I want involved in subjects like this anyway, just saying fighting games have this in all the ones still alive, even VF, the most photo realistic FG has some "outfits".

[RememberThe357]

Play Uncharted and ask that question again. It all depends. Just like any other entertainment medium.

[ChineseDemocracy]

I agree, Uncharted (for the most part) had realistic characters. Just goes to show that you can be successful without totally conforming to every stereotype.

But then you get games like Bayonetta, DoA, Soul Calibur, MK, Tomb Raider, etc.

[TheBrightIdea]

Insert any media medium here "blank" are women misrepresented?

Answer is yes.

[AKS]

Cautiously comparing video games to another medium of entertainment, movies (i.e., I don't want to get into the Ebert debate again), most roles tend to be assigned in large part due to attractiveness. Other visually oriented forms of entertainment are not the best at representing realistic portrals of women (and to a lesser extent, men), either.

There have been some very positive representations of womens in games, such as the women of the Uncharted series and my personal favorite Alyx Vance of the Half-Life series. I feel pretty comfortable in stating that those positive portrayals were well received considering Uncharted 2, Half-Life, and Half-Life 2 won enough awards between them to start a museum. Hopefully other developers will eventually learn from their examples.

[coryok]

ya, theyre misrepresented, so are guys. theyre misrepresented in movies also, and i dont care

no one wanted to play a game as a fat sack of ass, or in games like mass effect, date the chick with the mustache

its not any developers fault though, if the consumers didnt care about how their characters looked then developers probably wouldnt put so much money and effort into graphics trying to make them look good

[frjoethesecond]

Well said. As long as people know how people are in real life I don't care either. Videogames are meant to be fantastic, not ultra realistic.

Realistic portrayals of people are all well and good but so are fantastic impossible characters. A lot of people play games because real life is boring IMO.

[dinkeldinkse]

But men are just as misrepresented. 95% of video games characters are nowhere close to representing whatever they are supposed to be.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

perhaps but gaming is hardly the place to start looking at the misrepresentation of women.
It is a result of......however ridiculous or fickle.

[ionlyneedonebubble]

Yes they are & so are men. So...

[earbus]

A bit more diversity would help they are either a giant tit on legs or a righteous war hag be good to see a mother go crazy ape shit defending her family more unpredictability in all games instead the stale formulas would be nice.