Now, let me make it clear that this topic isn't discussing things such as how men or women are dressed in gaming and how they're 'exploited' -no, that topic has been as overdone here as the Wii U/Vita d00med threads. Then again, maybe this issue has also been dealt with a lot here as well. 

This is just over observations I've made over the past 2 or 3 years. And that is the problem with age and sexualization. Should games portray younger characters in games with any sexual appeal at all or is it borderline pedophilia as some claim? 

I believe the issue itself is very touchy because the age of consent in many places varies A LOT. In Japan the legal age of consent is 13 years old, so some games that come from Japan show younger characters more sexual-looking in nature than let's say, a western dev might. However, while the general consensus for the west states 18+ is when looking sexy is 'ok', you have to consider that even in the United States the age of consent varies greatly. 

For example in Washington is 16 years old (at which point they can consent with any adult), while in my state, Oregon, the minimum age of consent is 12 (with restrictions).  Now, whether or not these laws are good or bad aren't for me to say, but they do show that the age of consent even in a large country like the US isn't set in stone. And I'm sure a lot of other countries have varied ages of consent too.  But I do believe people should think outside of terms of where they're from and consider the culture and values the game comes from and understand that those may differ from the country the potential consumer may be from.

So should gaming have some sort of set age where a character is 'ok' to be sexualized? Because it is absolutely impossible to please everyone except by changing the age in different regions (ex. Bravery Default setting the character age higher in NA than in Japan) or should the devs be able to express their art however they want but also face potential consequences involved by not slightly altering the age per region? Or perhaps the system in place is best where we just up the age to 18+ in the west to cause less of a problem?

NOTE: Some may argue that games don't need ANY sexualization and I won't argue that they're wrong as I believe their opinion is also valid, but people will make games with sexualized characters regardless of what others think. But this discussion probably shouldn't devolve into that sort of debate as that is not the topic at hand, no, it is about whether or not their should be a set age, keep it the same, or just continue doing things as we always have with ages being changed in different regions.

Sexualize everything! Then explain to the audience that the 13 year old looking girl who is dressing so scantily is actually a 300 year old being that becomes more powerful if she wears less clothes.

I agree. I think that devs should be able to express themselves and not have to restrict their artistic vision. Just wondered how many would want a set age, we shall see how this thread goes v.v XD

Putting an age on anything is a bit nonsense imo cause Nintendo can just make her age be 18 when they localize without it affecting the character model or anything and bam problem "solved." Its like that dragon chick from FE:A that looks like shes 10 but the reason its "okay" for her to get married and have kids is cause she is 1000 "years old"

So what I m trying to say is that if the girl looks toooo young that cant be gotten away with that "she is 18" trick, then sure but if she can, then nope.. Even then it is a slippery slope cause she could be short and still be 18 so maybe just leave it up to the developers choice. And since it should be entirely optional, there is no reason for it to affect ur game experience

XCX has the advantage of making the 13 year old's face look quite essh so I doubt she will be turning anyone on

So you also saw that article on XCX XD yeah, I'm not sure many people will be turned on by her either. But hey, at least she isn't as bad as the main character in default... poor creature has a face only a mother could love, even then, maybe she's just being nice.

Is there some set age in place? O_o

This seems to be a strange question.

Unlikely. As Nintendo did with Bravely Default, they'll change ages and alter costumes.

What I'm meaning is should there be an actual set age as to not upset people from countries that may take offense from a character being portrayed/dressed in a manner innapropriate to their culture. I'm more for keeping things as the dev intended but was wondering how many people would rather want a different alternative. Idk I was bored XD