Off My Chest
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For me the problem here is that the only characters that are sexualised are women. If the game is sexual, then just add the beautiful naked guys. I am sure that this move will double the audience (i am the audience).
In a lot of games the men are not exactly realisticly sized either. They aren't often as sexualized as the women, but most are max 15% body fat and shredded to the point that they'd need steroids in real life.
Dummy thicc Solid Snakes clapping cheeks come to mind.
That Marvel wannabe Overwatch video game puts women in tons of skimpy outfits but those men's asses and chests are on display as well in skintight outfits.
"It's like I'm wearing nothing at all."
...stupid sexy Flanders.
i miss 70s and 80s male sexualization
I always hate looking at pictures of dudes who are roided to the eyes and almost dangerously dehydrated; it just looks painful like I could poke them and they'd bruise.
the difference is that the bodybuilder aesthetic isn't usually what women are into. Nothing inherently wrong with it of course but it's still built for the male gaze. If you ask a gym buff IRL about it they'll tell you most people who notice their physique are men. The shredded video game dude can instead be thought of as a signifier of masculinity and sometimes as a fantasy for men to project themselves into while playing.
I don't think the washboard abs and boulder shoulders would disappear entirely if male characters were designed more for the female gaze, but we'd probably see some more dad bods and smaller dudes too. Hades comes to mind as an example.
Hades characters are not what i would consider "dad bods" or "smaller dudes". They almost all have V tapers, visible abs, and a low body fat percentage. The biggest thing in hades for the female gaze IMO is more attention to costume/outfit design.
There are possibly more relevant examples than Hades, it was just the first that came to mind. It is not a complete departure from typical male character design, don't get me wrong, but I do think there's a greater variety than most games - Hypnos, Sisyphus, Orpheus, Icarus, Apollo, Hephaestus, and Narcissus are who I'm thinking of more specifically. The general character style does still lean on muscular definition (and they're generally still pretty unrealistic bodies for irl humans) but there's more room for a variety of builds and not everyone is portrayed as particularly strong or lean. You are correct that a lot of it comes down to outfit design, but that is still part of the overall character design and it does still feel like a step outside the norm.
Hey Baldurs Gate, we sexualise everyone.
Op is just mad they like muscle mommy Karlach, I mean we all do
And then there's the rare case of Marvel Rival Captain America's Summer Skin.
As a guy, I never understand what women find attractive about men. My partners in the past have tried to explain it to me, but when I pointed out other examples it's always "no, not like that." There must be some qualities I'm blind to.
I think it's a self selecting problem as well, since so many game developers are men, and we make what we know and understand. If there was more women designers, I'm sure we would get more hot guys, and maybe not even notice.
Maybe you are too straight to find men attractive, and those games are really made just for "male gaze". I dont think people will find hot guys hot, if they are not into them.
I think it's more like, there's things that men find attractive, and things women find attractive, in both men and women. Right now even the men are designed for men