When I think about an ‘adolescent’ game, Soul Calibur always springs to mind. It’s like the epitome of the word; large breasted ladies fighting each other in thigh-high boots and strange ‘armour’ that somehow constitutes a form of defence regardless of its impracticality.
At first I couldn’t help thinking the artists had gone somewhat over the top with Soul Calibur IV. Look at Ivy. She practically has a bum on her chest. The bum-chest defies the laws of gravity. The bum-chest is miraculously protected and supported by a strap of purple material.
Breast or Bum? Answers on a postcard…
It’s easy to take this stance, it’s something you can point out in hosts of games. Oh, look, more armoured bikinis. Great, another misrepresentation of women, and so on.
But have you ever thought about the guys? Male characters vastly outnumber the ladies. They’re nearly always huge, handsome, strapping, toned and have a generic cool-looking scar over one eye. Even worse, the guys are either totally, utterly awesome, complete with a deep masculine voice or they’re generic, badly trained dispensable guards. As far as men go, I think they’re worse off than women. They either take the form of an unbelievable hero who can take on the world and flirt with the ladies, or one of many simpleton soldiers a player is expected to swipe down by the hundreds.
I think women have a tendency to complain about female characters more than any other game ‘element’ I can think of (this includes myself). In comparison, I was wondering, do doctors roll their eyes every time they pick up an instantaneously effective health pack? Do recruits in the army feel angered by a recharging health bar? Some athletes and professionals (for example, Tony Hawk) actually promote all their hard physical labour being demeaned into button-mashing.
I’m certainly not a doctor and I’m in no state to join the army (I’m short-sighted with the strength of a fly and an unhealthy caffeine addiction), but I’ve never heard complaints from these groups, or any other. So, as of now, the repetitive complaints about female characters are going to stop from me. Games are ridiculous and unrealistic in many ways, but that’s part of the fun. Would you enjoy a game where after taking a single bullet, you either:
a) Died.
b) Got bandaged up by a fellow soldier, and shipped back to a hospital where you had to sit in bed for months before any opportunity of returning.
There are fundamentals and traditions in video games (exploding barrel, anyone?) and although I’ve fought hard in the corner for ‘normal’ female characters for a long time, I’m putting an end to it now. The day where all females become fully clothed brunettes with mid-length hair and average form would be a sad day.
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