throatslasher wrote:
Gamers are overwhelmingly male.
Not necessarily.
That number is probably closer to 50% than you might expect.
A recent study cited earlier in this thread puts the number of female gamers at 45% in the US. This of course includes all parts of gaming (social games and such) and it was a voluntary study on the internet, so we don't exactly have accurate numbers. But I do think we get a fairly decent picture of the actual amount.
Mowen wrote:
I didn't really read the thread or anything, but to be fair, the depictions of males in video games aren't usually very "realistic" either. :/ Definitely more variety than females, but it goes both ways.
EXACTLY!
I made a point about this earlier in this thread:
Searz wrote:
So it's completely okay when a male character is portrayed unrealistically and disproportionally?
Spoiler alert: men in that game aren't exactly realisticOr when males are pigeonholed into roles of strong, heroic defenders of justice or rescuers of damsels in distress?
"Well, basically you should treat me like a prostitute." - TotalBiscuit
throatslasher wrote:
tl;dr
Gamers are overwhelmingly male. Males like big juicy titties. Big juicy titties are in games.
I had a funny internet argument with a fem on reddit about overly sexualized women in comic books. Basically said comic writers are male, comic readers are male, if you're butthurt about it, go write your own comic staring a 300lb female protagonist and watch it not sell.
Obviously yes but that has nothing to do with the fact that female characters can be made actual characters rather than 2-dimensional busty ornaments. The three most common female archetypes are the damsel in distress, the *****ing betty and overly emotional companion. Females are obviously different than males but none of their characters are really explored in games which is a shame.
I think you can come up with at least 10 different male archetypes with examples and for females maybe 4. With examples I mean about 3 different characters otherwise you can't really call it an archetype.
^ Well, perhaps he's a titan.
Obviously yes but that has nothing to do with the fact that female characters can be made actual characters rather than 2-dimensional busty ornaments. The three most common female archetypes are the damsel in distress, the *****ing betty and overly emotional companion. Females are obviously different than males but none of their characters are really explored in games which is a shame.
I think you can come up with at least 10 different male archetypes with examples and for females maybe 4. With examples I mean about 3 different characters otherwise you can't really call it an archetype.
I think there aren't that much archetypes because there aren't that much games with a woman as main character, so there isn't much space for exploring female characters. If we assume that gamers are overwhelmingly male, I think the reason for that is that it's easier for male gamers to identify with male characters. Let's take Mirror's Edge as example, though I can't say it was the reason for being received badly, it might have been a part of it. In most games characters other than the main character are given some sort of archetype to make it easier to keep up with the plot(and it's probably also easier for the devs). So they pick an archetype that is well-known so they don't have to go in-depth about it. That goes for both female and male plot fillers. That doesn't take away that I agree with you that there should definitely be better archetypes for female plot fillers.
There's some change at the horizon I think, with latest example being Remember Me(didn't play so not sure).
GrandmasterD wrote:
Obviously yes but that has nothing to do with the fact that female characters can be made actual characters rather than 2-dimensional busty ornaments. The three most common female archetypes are the damsel in distress, the *****ing betty and overly emotional companion. Females are obviously different than males but none of their characters are really explored in games which is a shame.
I think you can come up with at least 10 different male archetypes with examples and for females maybe 4. With examples I mean about 3 different characters otherwise you can't really call it an archetype.
I think there aren't that much archetypes because there aren't that much games with a woman as main character, so there isn't much space for exploring female characters. If we assume that gamers are overwhelmingly male, I think the reason for that is that it's easier for male gamers to identify with male characters. Let's take Mirror's Edge as example, though I can't say it was the reason for being received badly, it might have been a part of it. In most games characters other than the main character are given some sort of archetype to make it easier to keep up with the plot(and it's probably also easier for the devs). So they pick an archetype that is well-known so they don't have to go in-depth about it. That goes for both female and male plot fillers. That doesn't take away that I agree with you that there should definitely be better archetypes for female plot fillers.
There's some change at the horizon I think, with latest example being Remember Me(didn't play so not sure).
********'s a pretty good fertilizer
Latest Legend wrote:
^ Well, perhaps he's a titan.
I think there aren't that much archetypes because there aren't that much games with a woman as main character, so there isn't much space for exploring female characters. If we assume that gamers are overwhelmingly male, I think the reason for that is that it's easier for male gamers to identify with male characters. Let's take Mirror's Edge as example, though I can't say it was the reason for being received badly, it might have been a part of it. In most games characters other than the main character are given some sort of archetype to make it easier to keep up with the plot(and it's probably also easier for the devs). So they pick an archetype that is well-known so they don't have to go in-depth about it. That goes for both female and male plot fillers. That doesn't take away that I agree with you that there should definitely be better archetypes for female plot fillers.
There's some change at the horizon I think, with latest example being Remember Me(didn't play so not sure).
They don't need to be PCs to be real characters. A lot of male NPCs are often pretty well designed, character-wise. However, females are often not like that.
GrandmasterD wrote:
uwotm8
You, good sir, clearly have no concept of that, I'd take
Jarvan IV and his Demacian Standard every day ;PWhat about The Mighty Great Draaaaaaven [[Draven] ?
"Yeah, I want you to be proud. I want you to be proud of me!"
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About the percentage of male gamers to female gamers... the amount of female gamers has definitely been going up. However, a lot of statistics about female gamers will include a wide variety of games such as casual / app games. I would say that most young people play SOME form of game, and those are often included in statistics. The kind've games that have the "hot female characters" will still often have a majority of male players vs female players, but it varies depending on the type of game.
I'd like to see more variety in female characters mostly because the typical ones you see are getting really boring, and changing up the age / looks could lead to more interesting characters.