wha!? ... I clearly say its Ironic the best black characters come from Japan! Where was I being negative?

I went back and looked at what you said, I missed that you said "best" in your statement. I thought you said "funny and ironic black characters still come from Japan."

And yeah there have been some good ones, and there have been some bad ones too. But we're learning, now we need to focus in over on the female side of the board.

So I've been keeping track of the podcast and saw that another one of the hosts posted a comment. Someone asked the host a punch of questions about her position and she wrote a very nice detailed response to it. She was very classy and didn't bash the commenter which I find refreshing.

If you haven't listened to this podcast at least give it 15 minutes, I really think it's a good podcast and it gave me a new perspective on this topic.

The fact about Ashley in Mass Effect 3 blew my mind. I had no idea they did that to her.

I think it's trash. If women don't like how they're being portrayed in games, then they shouldn't play or they shouldn't pay attention to it. Otherwise, men would love to say how they feel about how they're portrayed in stupid-ass movies designed for chicks to watch.

Games are fiction, for entertainment purposes only. Why do people have to blather on about the socio-political issues that they might be related to when it doesn't matter at all whether they are or not? So what if the RPG girls wear skimpy skirts? If you don't like them, don't play the damn game. Similar to how a guy wouldn't agree to watch a stupid chick flick. But you don't see guys complaining about it.

Women shouldn't feel like some self-entitled minority who needs special considerations. If they want to be treated equally, then they should not act like babies who want this or want that extra treatment. If the game industry is sexualizing women, then they're turning men into serial killers. Same apple in different pies.

Wow. That's a lot of hate, and a lot of junk.

You really think that guys don't complain about some roles in movies or TV? It happens all the time, but it's ignored because of all the action movies and adventure movies they star in that its considered a small minority. What's happening with women in gaming is has been happening for years and shown signs of stopping.

Can you explain what Kojima did? Or what the ME crew did to Ashley? Or how in the focus group (first topic in the podcast) the girls from ages 11-17 made all social games, many of them about looks and appearances? True some of it is about society but games aren't helping.

And it's not just about the women, it's about men too, they talk about that in the podcast. How its insulting to some men (including two of the hosts) that they do these things. And I agree with them.

Oh and as for your "same apples in different pies" comment? Really? Good luck with that.

Have attractive characters so that people will want to cosplay as them? Is that an actual complaint?

I'll be fair. No that is not a complaint. If Kojima wanted to make a character so that people would cosplay as them is not a bad thing per se. Making a character that is intended to be "erotic" and THEN saying they made Quiet that way so that girls would cosplay as her AND boys would by her figurine is bad.

And who says the character has to be attractive to cosplay as them? Why can't they just be cool looking or awesome?

What medium of entertainment portrays women better than gaming?

For every positive example you could offer for tv, print, advertising, movies etc. there are infinitely more examples that are not considered positive

Before you start critizing maybe offer an example to aim for

Umm.....what?

I actually believe that just about every other medium of entertainment portrays women better than gaming. Think about it. How many family shows are out there? Or dramas with powerful leading ladies? SVU, Elementary, Blacklist, Revolution, etc. Movies are more mixed because they can be talked about for both genres and ratings but the point is still there. Yes there are always going to be bad portrayals of men and women, but many times it can be blamed on the show itself or the script that defines the characters.

Games on the other hand have an unusual knack for making female character overly attractive. Beyond the point of "reality" and into "this will get us more sales."

Now yes, there are shows, and movies that try and get attractive actors and actresses to sell their product, but the show is still dependent on the plot and other things to survive. Looks only go so far. In games though there are franchises that have the looks feel as important as gameplay.

They talk about fighting games in the podcast and how many of the fighting game franchises have female characters that make you do a double take. For me I think of Taki and Ivory in Soul Calibur. Then when they mentioned Dead or Alive Extreme, that dumb volleyball game, I remembered the review on X-Play and the reviewer said "what's the point of this?"

Games take liberties that other mediums don't. That's all.

Why are these mutally exclusive? While someone doesn't have to be attractive to be cool looking or awesome, a lot of pretty people are cool and awesome. 

And I highly doubt the figure part. MGS (and most games) get ignored by figure manufacturers.