I suppose where I disagree with several here is concerning the fact that most female characters in games are largely eye candy. It's been noted that they're being treated as objects, etc, and D-Fens pointed to this as a symptom of the failure of feminism.
I simply don't think that the point of feminism was to change male instincts. To my mind, feminism has done its worthy job when a woman who wants to be taken seriously can be taken seriously. This is why 'feminist' has become something of an insult nowadays - modern neofeminists have moved far beyond this to much more questionable social engineering projects - projects that many reasonable people can think are wrongheaded.
It is both pointless and wrong to try to convince men that they don't like looking at naked or near-naked women. They do. Society and ethics can suppress primal urges and prevent them from being acted upon, but they don't just go away. Video games are not sexist for providing the largely male market with what they want, just as Playboy is not sexist. Neither acts to teach males that women are objects any more than video games teach players that real violence is acceptable. I would argue that the vast majority of men are perfectly respectful of women in everyday life while still enjoying a glimpse of skin in the movies or on television. Concerns that videogames feed sexism seem to me to be about as serious as claims that they feed violence.
That said, I would expect this to generally change as more females enter gaming. Selling games on sex does wonders for the current young male demographic, but an increase in the number of families and women involved is going to create market pressure for something a little tamer.
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