Sexual Objectification of Women in Video Games

[Kill Bones]

Iunno. 1st season clementine was just a cool character, not really a badass. I assume in season 2 they're going to evolve her into something of a badass, but that hasn't happened yet.

[Turtlicious]

Lady Squee said
Can I get a bit more info about The Walking Dead game? I have only played the beginning. What makes Clementine so unique? Other than her being a young girl with a hard life/

She is a living breathing human, and unique in the fact that she is the first child character to not be universally hated in a game. She's capable, smart, and works well with in the fiction. It's basically unfounded in most games to have a strong woman character, let alone a strong child.

[Turtlicious]

Kill Bones said
Iunno. 1st season clementine was just a cool character, not really a badass. I assume in season 2 they're going to evolve her into something of a badass, but that hasn't happened yet.

You must have made different decisions that I did. At the end my Clementine was a killer.

[The Imagination]

Grand Theft Auto has a funny way of portraying a variety of females. From the run of the mill obese America to the slutty, bad decision making teenager, realistically at that. Who was Niko's love interest, a girl named Kate who was both mediocre in attractiveness and actually developed positive/negative opinions on you depending on your greed?

GTA V is a bit worse though, what with the dating of silly strippers and what not.

And I don't quite agree with Assassin's Creed's portrayal of women, and men for that matter. Some of their historical paintings show them to be rather uh...unattractive. Except Anne Bonny, who actually looked like a sex symbol in most of her paintings.

[The Imagination]

The Nexerus said
Clementine isn't really badass?

Actually she really is?

[The Nexerus]

The Imagination said
Actually she really is?

Maybe it depends on the decisions you make.

Just barely managing to pull the trigger on exactly two zombies, both of which are chained up, doesn't scream 'badass' to me.

[Cpt Toellner]

I like Card

[The Imagination]

At 11 years old she managed to fight off a rabid dog, survive two or three nights in the wilderness, just before had managed to fight off an older male attacker and push him into a pack of zombies, survived being run aground by rather strong currents in a river, fight off a zombie that had broken into the shed just after writhing in pain after crudely stitching herself up, etc etc etc.

[Smiral]

The Nexerus said Just barely managing to pull the trigger on exactly two zombies, both of which are chained up, doesn't scream 'badass' to me.

>8 years old
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Wait shit he turns 9 during the first game and I guess she's around 10 in the second one

>10 years old

[idlehands]

Blitzkrieg said I like Card

He is pretty awesome.

[Awson]

I think Clementine sets an unrealistic standard of maturity and intelligence for other 8 year olds.

I demand Clementine be removed.

[natsumehack]

Blitzkrieg said
I like Card

As Do I.

[The Imagination]

The Nexerus said
Maybe it depends on the decisions you make.Just barely managing to pull the trigger on exactly two zombies, both of which are chained up, doesn't scream 'badass' to me.

Oh, and she pulled off a headshot from a zombie whose head was throwing about while managing to not shoot the woman struggling just behind it. That was at 8 years old. She learned how to shoot well exceptionally fast thanks to Lee, which in turn is thanks to Lily

[The Nexerus]

The Imagination said
At 11 years old she managed to fight off a rabid dog, survive two or three nights in the wilderness, just before had managed to fight off an older male attacker and push him into a pack of zombies, survived being run aground by rather strong currents in a river, fight off a zombie that had broken into the shed just after writhing in pain after crudely stitching herself up, etc etc etc.

I don't remember /any/ of those things. There are more options in this game than I thought, apparently.

[Kill Bones]

The Nexerus said
I don't remember /any/ of those things. There are more options in this game than I thought, apparently.

That's all in season two episode one

Which just came out

Spoilers

By the way

[natsumehack]

The Nexerus said
I don't remember /any/ of those things. There are more options in this game than I thought, apparently.

He really just saying stuff that happens in his head cannon.

[The Nexerus]

Kill Bones said
That's all in season two episode one Which just came outSpoilersBy the way

Thank you for the useful information that Imagination was too stupid to provide.

[The Imagination]

Awson said
I think Clementine sets an unrealistic standard of maturity and intelligence for other 8 year olds. I demand Clementine be removed.

Just because most kids were taught bullshit and life is peaches and gravy by most parents, including the mass amount of public bullshit kids are both fed and the shit they get into underneath their parent's noses doesn't mean all kids are immature. Keep in mind she's seen a lot of shit within 3-4 years of this happening while her brain is still vastly developing. Would you still act like an immature shit upon witnessing your baby sitter's decomposed head bashed into mush?

[Dervish]

The Imagination said
Grand Theft Auto has a funny way of portraying a variety of females. From the run of the mill obese America to the slutty, bad decision making teenager, realistically at that. Who was Niko's love interest, a girl named Kate who was both mediocre in attractiveness and actually developed positive/negative opinions on you depending on your greed? GTA V is a bit worse though, what with the dating of silly strippers and what not. And I don't quite agree with Assassin's Creed's portrayal of women, and men for that matter. Some of their historical paintings show them to be rather uh...unattractive. Except Anne Bonny, who actually looked like a sex symbol in most of her paintings.

I think a thing to keep in mind about those historical paintings is sometimes, it's based more of what the artist thought the person should look like than actually having a reference. In Anne Bonny's case, I don't think she sat down long enough to have someone commission a painting about some commoner Irish woman turned badass pirate, for instance. I'm sure a lot of the character portrayals are 'sexed up' for the audience benefit, so that does lend nicely towards the topic.

Either way, I tend to groan when I see things like your impractical female fantasy armours and the like. It's kind of embarrassing and juvenile. The best female characters are usually the ones that are designed to look practical and they're just as capable as the guys, if not more. There's a reason people think of Metroid: Other M as an abomination. Samus shouldn't be an emotional bag who only does things when she's ordered. She's a badass bounty hunter with one of the coolest suits of armour in video game history. Don't take that away by trying to humanize her, for fuck's sake. Gordon Freeman became plenty popular without one shred of dialog.

Likewise, the latest incarnation of Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider reboot is definitely seen as a step in the right direction. She wasn't designed to be a sex object, she was a terrified 20-something who was in a survival situation where she slowly became hardened to the things around her and was driven to save her friend. I thought that was a pretty cool game, and I want to see more with that franchise.

Like, game designers don't have to make female characters male power fantasies or basically make a male character with a pair of tits. There's nothing wrong with a female character having plenty of normal feminine traits and being empowered in the sense that they can star in their own games in a similar fashion to any male character. There's more female gamers than ever before now, and there's no reason that hobby should feel like it has to cater to one gender over another. And I kind of want to punch the dicks over online games who lose their shit when a girl joins the game. Cut the sexist shit, you insecure twat.

[idlehands]

@ Imagination, I'm pretty sure he was being saracastic.