Video Games and Sex

Back when humanity was more backwards and primitive, people were more satisfied with their primal roles, so the female was commonly depicted as being helpless and stupid, while the male would valiantly march out to rescue her. When video games made their debut, technology, means of narrative, and competence was pretty limited, so one of the few player motivations that could be established was to rescue a dumb klutz, which just further perpetuated the shameful portrayal of women, and this continued until later on when humans evolved to embrace equality. Today I'm going to be talking about the current state of female roles in video games, and what effect it has on the game industry.

It seems we're still in a stupid stage of human evolution because this shift in thinking has brought up another problem: the objectification of women. It seems game developers think the best way to empower women is to strip them down and turn them into violent maniacs. Yes, it looks like violent disproportionate women have become the "damsels in distress" of today. It's rare to see a fully-clothed woman with a profound personality fighting alongside her male counterparts. Unreal Tournament featured female soldiers with thongs. Prince of Persia took a horrible turn on its second installment and turned into a booty extravaganza. However, those women may be able to slaughter armies of ogres in those fantasies, but in reality they're still just eye-candy for boys. I'm sorry, but this is not empowerment.

This brings me to another point: why do we talk so much about empowering women? Don't you see it as a little condescending? It's basically like saying women need stronger role models because in reality they're too weak all over again, which is far from the truth. Women are statistically smarter and more hard-working than men. That's right, while men are running around with a ball in their hands and grunting like car engines, women are actually studying and expanding their knowledge of the world to help them make some significant contribution to society in the future. So the problem has nothing to do with empowering women, the problem is the absence of good female characters.

"Then why is this such a big deal?" you might ask. Well, a large reason why men make up the majority of video game players is partly because of its depiction of women. Think about it, if you were to walk into a store filled with pictures of male genitals, would you not be deterred from there?

This is also partly responsible for the negative image video games have acquired. Video games have the potential to become a very respectable art form, but with embarrassing things like Bikini Zombie Slayer representing the game industry's conventional usage of sexuality, video games will still be regarded by the media as a pass-time for immature man-children obsessed with gore and boobs.

Contrary to popular belief, sex doesn't sell in video games. Because of this shy disposition we have to nudity, we're reluctant to pick something up with huge boobs drawn on the cover art. When I first heard of Magna Carta, I was going to get it - until I saw the massive boobs. And just look at the most successful titles out there: Gears of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Halo. Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

I'm not suggesting all sex should be omitted, but to just use it in a better way. When done properly, sex could be used to engross players deeper into a story by helping them establish stronger bonds with characters. Indigo Prophecy is the perfect example of this. When done improperly, you get things like Leisure Suit Larry.

So if it doesn't help boost sales or does any favor to the game industry's image, why do developers do this? And why do you think we have this bashfulness towards nudity? Remember what a big uproar Janet Jackson's nipple slip caused in the Super Bowl? "Oh my god! There were kids watching." There're people who say that religion inculcated this immature outlook we have to sex, but if you're like me, you think religious principles, like "if you look at a girl's bum, gauge your eye out" were initially put into place because of an already present coy to the human body.

I think that after years of living under societal restrictions, individuals learn to repress their innate sexual desires, like their urge to slap a woman in the bum, their urge to grope a pair of breasts, and other things like that, and after years of complying to those regulations, human beings begin to develop a resentment for their own primal compulsions. But, in my opinion, we need to learn to stop looking at the human body with that kind of sexual lust. I think we should all follow the example of nudists - not to get naked, but not think much of it. We can still admire the beauty of the human body, but in a non-sexualized kind of way.