Well he certainly doesn't appeal to me. Am I less of a man because of this?

You don't have a vote, because only feminists may whine when some character isn't designed specifically for them.

The video wasn't making this claim. The claim was that these overly muscular men in video games are not targeted at a female audience -- they are not there for female titillation the same way that women are used for male titillation. This doesn't mean that muscular men can't be targeted at female audiences.

They are targeted at the widest possible audience and people who spend the most money on their products. Not only men, but white, heterosexual men. It's only a business practice and has little to do with sexism.

Most clothes shop are majorily targeted at women - men's section is usually only a fraction of a size of the women's. Is that sexism? Is that oppression? No, it's business.

The question is - if the fact white men spend the most money on games is a result or a cause for such practice. And I don't really have an answer.

One more thing. Some people claim that in most games there should be a choice between skin colour, sex and all for your main character. But that would be bad for people like me who like their characters well written and established. I don't care about my character's race, sex and sexual orientation - I want them to be written well.

When you allow diversity in choice, you usually sacrifice some depth in writing. Even in RPGs I prefer when your main character's core is set in stone. I prefer games like Gothic over Skyrim.

OK, going back to the romance novel thing - we know that these characters have been designed with women in mind, right? After all, it's a genre that almost exclusively caters to women. But when it comes to video games, which both men and women play, it's your contention that the same type of look is designed almost exclusively for men?

Also, while I don't particularly care for keevek's clip of Death as a fantasy image of myself, I can understand what he's saying. I don't enjoy the muscle-bound guy as a fantasy image for myself too much, I would prefer something more similar to keevek's taste.

You can't imagine how pleased I am to hear this ^^. There are few "sciences" more pathetic than evolutionary psychology...

Of course they do it because it's profitable and sex sells, etc. This doesn't mean it can't be sexist or perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Look at the other side of the argument as well -- men have significantly more variety to choose from. They can play other types of characters than these these overly buff protagonists. As I've been saying over and over, the issue is not as much that these sexualised female characters exist, the issue is that they are so pervasive.

While male characters could stand to have a little more variety as well (especially some more older characters would be welcome for me), female characters get the really short stick -- for example, where are the anti-heroines, the not so perfect protagonists?

I don't know and it's a fucking shame. I guess this is too risky for not being profitable. I guess 14-25yo men who spend the most on video games wouldn't like that.

I accept this as a sad reality, because there is no world where making something unprofitable would be beneficial to anyone.

AAA companies tried more than few times to introduce a new franchise with exclusively female protagonist and most of them flopped. I don't say they are sexist for not trying again.

I can only applaud when they do - like with Mirror's Edge or The Walking Dead (African-American protagonist in video games is rarer than diamonds).

Just like I don't blame huge clothes making corporations for not expanding their male sections. Men have nowhere near as much choice as women when it comes to clothing. But they don't spend as much on them as women, so the lack of choice is understandable. The result is, I can barely find any clothes for myself...

It looks like a dead circle - women don't spend as much money on games because they don't have a choice that wide to please all of them, and in result they don't have much diversity to choose from, because they spend too less on games.

I have no idea how to break that circle. Designing more games with female protagonists doesn't seem to be an answer if people don't buy them. And that would break only one circle. What about old characters, asian, hispanic, arabic protagonists? They simply don't exist in gaming.

It's a shame for me, because exactly because I am white heterosexual male I'd love to explore worlds with a character who's perspective is vastly different than mine. But I don't know what to do so teenagers buy a game with unpopular character choices.

Sure, harmful stereotypes exist for men as well. However, they have more to do with success/wealth/status and less with looks.

And what makes it different? Actually, it's easier to make yourself "more pretty" than to make yourself more successful.

Believe me, men are just as much frustrated with stereotypes in media, but for different reasons. I wouldn't make a decision which are more harmful to human psyche. There are more eating disorders among women, that's right, but there are also more suicides among men.

Our entire lives exist around what you should be, what you should strive for.

I think that from AAA side, simply demanding better and more varied characters could solve the problem. You'd still have your Mass Effect Tits'n'Ass Mirandas, but they wouldn't stick out as much. Secondly, as audiences get older and more sophisticated, I don't think they can keep pandering to the young teenage male demographic forever. I hope this means we get some more complex and less handholdy games as well. Lastly, I think we have to stop treating games as consumer products (toys) and elevate them to the status of books and movies.

My hopes, however, are in the indie scene -- there's more diversity in people making them and it's generally less risk averse. Games are now easier to distribute with online retail and there's lots of options with licensing engines and middleware, so I think game development will get more and more accessible for a wide variety of people.

As soon as they stop making one 2D mario platformer after another :P

But I agree - indie games rock when it comes to breaking the patterns.

Some Indie games trying to be retro/nostalgic succeeded, Primordia was like something out of the 90s Point and Click Adventure age. It really felt like a game from the 90s.

Wish I could say the same for other games in other genres.

There are also games in the works like Among the Sleep -- a first person horror game where you play as a toddler. Or Tangiers -- a third person stealth game where you play as an alien creature invading a surreal world.