Because clearly there aren't any.

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/owGykVbfgUE/maxresdefault.jpg

(imagine if this commercial featured a woman instead of a man - the shitstorm would've been heard on Mars)

I find this idea that the only thing happening is merely innocent "questions, discussion and dialogue" rather ridiculous when that very post I responded to listed out several methods of social pressure to try to force specific changes. That is the real reason for these supposedly innocent methods of social pressure, control. My point there had to do with the base circular reasoning underlying the labels and assumptions behind them. You can read the RPS Deponia article comments and see the creator try to explain how his specific intention wasn't racially motivated and see how he was unable to try to prove himself innocent. The labels were applied without any apparent care about his actual intent. Why didn't John Walker, as some serious gaming "journalist" bother to do the normal legwork of a journalist instead of writing that ridiculous bordering on libelous review? A large portion of the "questions, discussion and dialogue" that I have seen has been accusatory, unfounded, assumptive, logically fallacious, and directed at promoting political correctness and identity politics as some superior ideal or standard.

I have no problem with an honest boycott where there is no pretense at being nothing but innocent discussions and dialogue. That isn't what has been happening with RPS and in the industry at large though. People with personal political agendas are pushing their agendas to achieve some desired end. I find their base assumptions to be false, and their accusatory labels and nature to be unfairly applied and disingenuous. If you think that everyone is going to just sit around and let certain people determine reality to be that which allows these people to define themselves in a manner that gives them special protected status and rights denied to the rest of the citizenry merely because they are a minority group of some kind who feels aggrieved in some way about anything they choose, you are seriously naive. They seek to apply an accusatory label of white/male/hetero privilege to my entire existence, which is supposedly proof in itself of my inferior existence or understanding of the world, and proof that these pressure groups deserve special protected rights or status to redress these unproven ills.

There is nothing odd about identifying actual impending legal threats to individual freedoms and liberty being made in the name of tolerance. As I said before, it has already happened with books, movies, and public displays of freedom of expression/speech, you have no basis to assume it won't also eventually be applied to games as well. That there is such a serious legal push within the EU to legally define and control these basic human rights I believe illustrates a distinct line between those pushing the same agenda through supposedly "innocent" means of social pressure and typical methods of radical activism/identity politics and the larger legal agendas be pushed through governments and the courts. For them, the ends justify the means.

Yeah, and if women didn't like beautiful, sexy women, in most romantic comedies we would have Bridget Jones instead of Sex in the city.

One of the least factual fun facts ever...

So, I guess shirtless Hemsworth in Thor 2 was for the male audience then? Thanks Joss.

How dare you insinuate that any woman would dig that!

http://thoughtsinlittleboxes.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/chris_hemsworth_thor_b1.jpeg

When you have a sexy men on screen - it's for men, because they want to look like that! If there is a sexy female - women wouldn't want to look like that, they're not that shallow! It's also for men, who think about sex all the time!

Patriarchy.

I did miss that. Thank you.

Why did Browder not come up with that answer? He didn't need to. The game being discussed in the article gives parity in character attire so what he should have said was, "Look at these character models. <pause> Next question about the game, please."

----

Interesting - and maybe ironic - avatar. I'm curious to know which qualities it represents for you, given the subject matter of the thread and your particular stance..

Really? His face looks like a thumb

btw. I remember how freaking crazy all women in my study group at university went when Khal Drogo entered the Game of Thrones universe. Even though he basically raped her wife on wedding night (by today's standards), they all loved him.

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31100000/Drogo-and-Dany-with-Rhaego-khal-drogo-31118786-1024-576.jpg

Maybe it is not the face per se, but the whole package, how he presents himself.

Like my ex once said: how can a big and powerful man like that also seem so intelligent? That seemed a very irresistible combination to her. I have no idea if Dwayne is really intelligent, but I admit he doesn't appear "dumb" similarly as e.g. Arnold (and I presume Arnold isn't even dumb either, doesn't he have an university degree or something? Just how he appears in movies, maybe due to lack on English skills and his choice of roles.).

Oh good, It's not just me thinking about that avatar

Lame to mention his/her avatar as it has very little to do with the subject...

How would they know, when there are such a small number of such games?

Revenge? Why would it be revenge? Are you suggesting that men would be uncomfortable with being the objects of sexual gratification? So their point is valid, then?

Really? I'd be interested in some references for that claim (and I mean that honestly and unsarcastically). The only recent example of a heavily sexualised female character designed by a female artist is Bayonetta by Mari Shimazaki, and that too was vetted by the Hideki Kamiya despite Shimazaki having worked over a year on other character designs.
And see, the difference between the portrayal of men and women are that the men, as designed (while generally quite muscular, and possible to view in a sexual way) are power fantasies for male gamers.
The women, on the other hand, are objects of sexual gratification (again, usually for male gamers, but I suppose not exclusive to them). They aren't power fantasies of someone WANTING TO BE POWERFUL AND BAD-ASS.
Imagine playing a game with a character in speedos...maybe the Hemsworth as linked above, or maybe Daniel Craig as shown in the initial scene in Casino Royale (I think?) as he emerged from the water, and then the camera zooming into his abs and chest or ass in slow motion in a sexual way when he does super moves.

The example that started this topic was an RPS interviewer simply asking about a character design in a game. There had been no animosity, or censure, or hatred.

But since you brought it up, do you think there is something wrong with trying to motivate the industry towards a more balanced portrayal of gender in video games? As a perhaps somewhat extreme example, there isn't really any specific censorship going on with regards to such ideas in movies (aside from a rating, of course), but that there has been a reduction in the huge amount of cowboy movies where the heroic cowboys gleefully kill the savage and villainous red indians.

As an aside, and completely divorced from the subject at hand (of any supposed underhandedness on the part of RPS or the industry in general) do you believe that gender portrayal in games is balanced? Do you believe it should not be improved?

Maybe not ;)...

Refer to the explanation below.

And if the avatar is a character (I'm not familiar with the source) that represents power, confidence, strength, and - yes - sexiness, this is what several of us are talking about. Sexy is a power all its own and isn't necessarily one-dimensional in gaming. And it isn't particularly offensive, either. I look at that avatar and feel not that Siannah wants us to think of her sexually, but that it's some character she really likes for a variety of reasons - the sexuality possibly being but one of them.

At the end of it all, a well-designed game has the player playing the character, not the skin. If one can't get past the skin then the game ends up being not particularly fun.