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status of the male-dominated industry environment. With the number of female players
increasing, the sexualization of female protagonists did not have a great improvement. Instead,
sexualization is still a selling point in the market:
In my opinion, female characters are sexualized because it is what the market wants. Once
video game consumers make it clear that they are no longer interested in seeing pixelated tits
and ass, game developers will stop pumping out women who are expected to wreak havoc in
bikinis. The prototypical male characters shown above are popular because they fuel a
distinctly masculine tough-guy fantasy - the rugged adventurer with raw sex appeal who
kicks ass and always has a witty retort. It is an appealing concept, and it sells video games.
A few participants shared their discomfort on sexualized female characters in video games,
while they considered game companies and gamers put more focus of attentions on the contents
of games rather than sexualization itself:
Sexualization is not a focus of gaming. Sexualizing female characters should not be used as
a device to gain attention and appeal for the franchise. The main things we should be
focusing on with regards to games are the mechanics, gameplay, backstory and not the
physicality of female characters particularly which is known to be commonly exaggerated in
a negative way, and not for the means of promoting confidence in body type and sexuality.
The fact of the matter is, women who are sexualized in games are often demeaned,
victimized and objectified, and many women take offence to this, as the focus of our video
games should not have anything to do with these concepts.
Rather than complaining about the environment of video games, most participants focus
more on the reason why sexualized characters in video games are welcomed. In fact, the
sexualization both of female and male characters has been existing for a long time since video
games rose, and it will not fade away as long as gamers has requirements of it:
Marketing is the easiest explanation. As the old saying goes ‘Sex sells. Human beings are
sensitive to visualization, which means that our eyes are sensitive to bright colors and
provocative pictures. This, however, confuses our instincts as humans and can easily distract