10 lies games tell us about women

[Rafie]

StarOcean said:

The average bust size is EE

 The problem hardly stops at Lara Croft though. On this issue, the prime-evil is no doubt Team Ninja. Their Dead or Alive series was once known for its "jiggle physics," a physics engine that was about as true-to-life as Mario Galaxy. And who could forget Rachel from Ninja Gaiden, (read: everyone) who embodies just about every problem on this list.

I know a lot of women with large breasts, guess what? They're proud of them. Not every female is a B cup like these articles seem to believe. What's wrong with a woman having large breasts? It's all fake, no one believes it's real. So why pretend it is? And since there are women out there with large breasts why discriminate them from appearing in media? That's not fair to them just because a few jealous A cups don't look that way.

Women account for 1/5 of the population

This problem exists across all media, but it's just as prominent in video games: the token woman. It is exceedingly rare to find a video game in which 50% of the characters are of the female gender.

It may be hard to believe but there are more males than females on Earth right now, at least at the moment according to the Human Sex Ratio. It's not quite 1/5, but the point still stands. But why should a creator be forced to make a cast with 50% female leads if the creator doesn't want to or did not intend on it? All this does is restrict creativity and force soulless characters that only exist because they have to. Let the creator make the game they want, not every game is Lucky Star where 98% of the cast is female. Let creators make what they want, don't restrict them with this imaginary "equality" (which is as about as real as Santa Clause btw) BS that just needs to exist in every game.

They're completely and utterly helpless

Some appearances of this trope are mostly accidental. Sometimes the game's AI is just terrible, causing the escort mission to be a frustrating mess as the lady you're escorting stands around getting shot. Other times the entire game is purposefully built around the idea of the woman being helpless

AI in most games is retarded. This isn't just women, it affects men too. And escort missions aren't only used for women, I've played many games where you escort a guy and guess what? 99% of the time they run into enemies because they're stupid. This isn't a woman exclusive issue. This is a gaming issue that progressively gets better as devs learn to make AI more intelligent. And so what? If a woman in a game is helpless, let them be helpless. Is it somehow better when a man is helpless? That sounds a bit sexist and hypocritical if you ask me

...or they're world-weary and sarcastic

Not every female character is inept, but if they're not incapable of walking down the street without a brave man helping them they're a world-weary soldier who has nothing left to believe in or a sarcastic jerk who has seen it all. Optional additions include: dark secrets, or a nurturing heart deep beneath the gruff exterior that only needs to be reawakened by the warm manly embrace of compassion.

Most women I know are sarcastic or "world weary". Why is it such a bad thing to have them like this? Must every woman be strong, independent, without any hint of personality whatsoever? That'd be very boring and it's a lot harder to connect emotionally to a brick wall than someone who does act specific ways. Also @underlined, that's bullshit and they know it. 

Common female occupations include Attractive Scientist and Daughter of Important Man

Women living in video games have a relatively small pool of jobs to pick from. Maybe they'll find themselves a clipboard and a pair of cute glasses to become Attractive Female Scientist, earning their keep by knowing passwords to doors you need to open.

Again, why is this a problem? Should the female be a construction worker? A teacher? A part-time employee of McDonald's? And is it so bad to have an attractive scientist? It's great that they're making females scientists! Science is a very important thing and promoting it is far from bad. "Daughter of important man" so? In Dragon Quest 90% of the heroes are sons/daughters of great kings and queens. Perhaps all characters should be realistically poor and don't belong to anyone important at all? Why? If the creator wants to make them related to someone important, let them.

Approximately 75% of women are blonde Caucasians

Male video game characters have enough problems with getting equal representation of all races and body types, but women have got it even worse. We’ve already established that in the world of video games women represent just 20% of the population.

I'm sorry but Mario and Metroid don't make up 75% of video games. This kind of proves the entire article was written by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about at all. It's not even close to 75% being "blonde caucasian" women. And if so, why does it matter? If in the world the game creator makes has women white and blonde why should it matter to you? It's their vision. Also, 20% making up cast (women, not blonde/white) is true, but entire video game populations (background characters and all) thats a lie right there. Also what do these journalist have against white people who are blonde anyway? XD I'm blonde and white as is my girlfriend, why are we so hated among the SJW community? ;~;

Ladies lack strength, but make up for it with gymnastics training

This might be the most prevalent lie on this list. We've all seen it. The female RPG character whose strength stat is at 3, but her agility is 14. Or the action game character who can't wield the bazooka, but has a special move where she cartwheels onto the enemy's head and breaks his neck with her mighty, dangerous crotch.

The strength and agility thing is common for the most part and I agree. But it's not really a problem when biologically women tend to be weaker but have better agility and flexability. It's not a rule that has to be followed and isn't always, but this tends to sit in the realm of JRPGs and fighting games. Also, since this is more realistic, why is this a complaint? The whole point of the article is to prove "lies" games tell us. This is an average and thus really isn't a lie. 

Latex is armor for women

We won't be the first people to comment on the absurd outfits game developers put their women characters into, but it's worth dredging up this sore subject one more time. Video game ladies run off to battle in outfits that look more like they're headed to a Zumba class than a war.

I'll agree they wear outfits that expose themselves to appeal to their male audience. But when most people who buy games are male, why not pander to them? It makes most financial sense as it increases the odds of some horny teen to go out and buy the game. Is it right? Probably not. But if your audience is more likely to buy your game based on the clothing specific characters wear, why would you pass that up to be politically correct? This isn't a medium about morals, its a form of media like any other that is in search of the ultimate prize: A lot of money. This goes for most of these points actually.

Women battle demons while nude

Latex may not be the optimal battle raiment, but at least it might protect you from a few scuffs, bruises, and scrapes. Some game developers don't even have the courtesy to give their characters a t-shirt before sending them off to fight the prime evils.

This isn't an issue in most games. This is more of a nitpick than anything important.

Their gender defines their entire existence

Take a look at some average video game ladies, and a striking pattern begins to emerge: They're almost universally driven by the fact that they're women. The following is a collection of the usual character motivations of the average video game woman, usually said through fountains of tears: "Because I'm his mother!" "Because I love him!" "Because he's my husband!" "Because I can't have babies so I have no reason to liiiiiiive!"

Being a wife/mother/daughter/niece/love interest are generally the only traits average video game women have, and it's what drives them. While men get to be war criminals, duty-driven soldiers, pioneers, engineers, secret agents, Kings, princes, chosen ones, etc. Oh, and if she's a villain, watch out because we guarantee she has an alternate form where she turns into a monster that looks like a vagina.

This is all garbage. This entire point is just completely off. And what the hell is wrong with the fact that their driven by their gender? They should be proud to be who they are, if they're a mother or wife or daughter let them embrace that about themselves. And they aren't ONLY those things.

This was just. Terrible. I was cringing while reading the entire thing, this sounds like a Tumblr post more than anything else. And they're only lies if people believe them, no one believes these are real. The whole point of most games is the fact that they're based purely in fiction. It cannot be a lie when no one believes it to begin with. And if they DO believe this stuff, they're probably too young to be playing video games anyway. 

You're my new hero...or heroine! ;)