Sunday Thoughts: Sex Sells
Do we really want it to?
Published: 13:30, 10/10/2010 by Kris [Halbpro].
28Today I was watching a video on YouTube and it had an ad for a browser based MMO on the side of the page. The ad showed a computer generated elf in a skimpy bikini and along with that had the tag “Beautiful worlds, beautiful girls”. Hardly an original advertising concept, but it got me wondering why games use sex as a sales device?
I understand why the basic device works for other media, you give people someone to lust over and draw their attention at a primordial level at the very least. It’s cheap, and it’s lazy but you can’t deny that it works well. I will admit that I probably fall for the trick all the time, at some level we all do. I won’t want something just because it has someone good looking on it if it’s truly terrible, but it probably at least makes me pay attention to average content.
Of course you can only use sex to sell to a certain extent. The perfect example of this is Megan Fox in the second Transformers film. The film wasn’t exactly a masterpiece by any means, but it was a fun and slightly silly action movie that at least sort of amused for a few hours. However there were two scenes with Megan Fox that seemed completely and utterly pointless, and were just included to sell the film based entirely on breasts.
Now I might not like this in films or TV shows, but I do understand the principles behind it. What I can’t understand is the use in games. At least with the Megan Fox example they were using a real, very attractive woman. In games the characters are entirely computer generated, there’s no physical presence to lust after. At the low, primordial level our brains probably can’t tell the difference between created and real people but we can certainly tell at the conscious level. It seems frankly bizarre that people drool over these characters, or spend hours on naked Lara Craft cheats.
Games aren’t the only medium that uses overly sexualised character designs to sell, comics are equally culpable of creating women in overly skimpy or tight costumes. This is changing to some extent now but it’s a long held critique of comic books, and one that is now equally applied to games, that female characters are just there for eye candy. I find it hard to argue against that, but if you look at how male characters are created it’s obvious that they’re not exactly presented conservatively either.
The main issue I have with the use of overly sexualised characters, particularly in games, is that they’re certainly one of the things holding them back from receiving the recognition they so richly deserve. In fact after the current popularity of violent games I think the use of overly-sexualised characters is the thing most holding back games from being taken seriously as a medium.
Games as a medium are often described as being in their infancy, but perhaps adolescence would be a better term. Until games can manage to shake this image of sexy games characters we’ll never truly advance. Personally I’d rather have a deep and meaningful story or complex and fun puzzles than a beautiful virtual character, but I don’t know if that will ever become the prevailing opinion.
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10/10/2010 at 14:04
Member since: Feb 2009
I got my fingers burnt with Samantha Fox Strip Poker back in the eighties . My mum went ballistic !
10/10/2010 at 14:33
Member since: Dec 2009
You’re not actually meant to strip off yourself ! :p
10/10/2010 at 14:29
Member since: Dec 2009
Isn’t prostitution the oldest game..?
10/10/2010 at 14:33
Member since: Sep 2010
this is a very interesting topic,thanks for bringing it up.
yes it is true that sex sells it is something that we cant ignore or fight it just plain works,a good example is the Megan Fox one you mentioned above,i am not a big fan of movies made from cartoons/anime/TV series/comic books and books,very seldomely are they as good as the original and in some cases the stories are changed and/or large chunks of the story are missing,but besides this i still went to see the transformers movie with my friends because of all the hype surrounding the 2 scenes you mentioned above with Megan Fox,i was not forced and went willingly because it did seem a great picture i got in my head when i was imagining these scenes.
scientifically it is sound,on a sub-conscious level our minds urge us to want to see these things,our minds are always in overdrive trying to find us a partner,this is what remains of our ancestral roots,its what links us to our past and also causes the human race to survive as it is programmed into our genes.
in terms of games and the fact that these characters are not real and are computer generated,it does seem odd that we are attracted to these polygons that merely form a 3D image of that character,but again this comes down to the brain and humanity,no human is perfect and no person will ever look perfect either or have the perfect personality and therefore we are always trying to find perfection in our partners based on what our likes and dislikes of how they look are,but what games/anime/comics do is that they remove this out of the equation,they create the perfect character that appeals to a large variety of gamers,in a sense they are doing something that cant be done by nature,this excites us because our sub-conscious does not pick up on the fact that these characters are not real,it only focuses on what we believe to be sexually attractive in a woman,in most cases these characters are what we want of the real woman but because there is no such thing as perfection, we then find this very interesting.this then in turn convinces us to buy the game simply because of our instincts urge us to.you are right by saying it is a very lazy way of advertising, but it works.
honestly if a game is good,then it should not matter how the character looks,this is true but honestly i cant imagine SquareEnix making a game with unattractive characters anytime soon,and yes this may one day change but in a world where you go to see a movie mostly because of the woman dressed in bikinis, i am very skeptical that this will ever happen.
if it does change eventually i don’t think that the loss of these characters will change the gameplay or the story,rather think of this as a bonus to the game than a hindrance as the character design does not hinder how great the game is,a good example are the 2D games that had characters that were not attractive as they were just tiny little block people,honestly if they made the game with high resolution graphics and attractive characters but did not change the game and how it plays you would think that the game is still great and possibly even better.
and besides can you imagine playing DOA beach volleyball with unattractive girls,i don’t think it would have sold as well as it did.(no story,okay gameplay but sold on sex appeal alone)
10/10/2010 at 16:25
Member since: Mar 2010
O_O
10/10/2010 at 21:37
Member since: Nov 2009
OMGGIANTWALLOFTEXT deals 9999999 damage.
Your last point reminded me of Bayonetta. Devil May Cry did pretty good with similar gameplay but without the protagonist stripping down every second combo. In this case it had the exact opposite effect on me than what was probably intended by the devs. When I played the demo my first thought was that they tried to hide the flaws of the game with boobs.
10/10/2010 at 14:52
Member since: Aug 2009
People have been drawing porn a lot longer than they have photographing and videoing real people. Plus there’s the whole hentai thing, although it’s not as big in the west. It’x not that weird when you think about it, but I agree that it doesn’t do much for me. And the oversexualisation probably does hold the gaming industry back from being taken seriously, but I think it’s grown up a lot.
10/10/2010 at 15:01
Member since: Jul 2009
I despise porn in all it’s forms, and I agree with it’s pointless use in games, and movies too! Unfortunately this kind of think has been deemed OK by too many people for us to do anything about it now!
10/10/2010 at 15:08
Member since: Jan 2010
Dot tell Bunimomike, you’ll put him out of business!
10/10/2010 at 17:22
Member since: Aug 2009
Care to explain why?
10/10/2010 at 18:50
Member since: Jan 2009
Bunimomike is a graphics designer for websites. According to him, one of the most commom projects Graphics designer work on is Porn Websites.
10/10/2010 at 20:52
Member since: Feb 2009
Your name is kind of funny for this topic !!
10/10/2010 at 21:39
Member since: Nov 2009
What’s the point of having internet access if you don’t like porn? I’m confused.
13/10/2010 at 23:18
Member since: Aug 2010
you despise porn in all its forms? sereiously? in no offensive terms atall, and in a genuinely inquisitive tone… are you a chick?
10/10/2010 at 15:04
Member since: Apr 2009
does this have anything to do with a lot of video game companies being from japan or drawing inspiration from japenese games? they are pretty bad when it comes to women in low cut tops and short skirts or men who look like 80′s action stars. just a thought
10/10/2010 at 15:53
Member since: Mar 2009
It doesn’t help that the
“typical” gamer is still perceived to be a teenage boy and hence the prime target of such marketing. We were all teenage boys once (apart from women and the under 13s) and it’s part of our nature to be drawn to sexuality at that age.
TV, films and music all use the same tactics, so I guess if we want gaming to be accepted as mainstream, we have to accept the downsides that go with it.
10/10/2010 at 17:31
Member since: Apr 2010
I would agree with this as being the primary reason, gamers are seen as young still, as to be fair as a medium it hasn’t been around long enough for any very old gamers to have grown up with it. Sex sells because it appeals to our base instinct, and I think it is more prevalent in games and comics as they are seen as targeting the youth. Games are maturing though, and I think now they are in a similar situation as films, with hot women in blockbusters and more average women in games like Heavy Rain, though even that had the obligatory shower scene!
10/10/2010 at 20:04
Member since: Jul 2009
With you guys all of the way. The industry itself has matured incredibly. To see us overtaking the film industry – just phenomenal. However, perception is everything and “they” really do think we’re all hopped-up teenagers with a insatiable desire to see boobies or kill bad guys. It’s pathetic really.
If I wanted to see (semi) naked women I’d download some porn. Ok, if I wanted to I’d look at the content updates I work with for the porn site I design but seriously, littered in games like we’re all trying to masturbate ourselves to death? Pa-thetic.
I find it so sad but that’s the mature side of me talking. I utterly loathe when there’s an overly attractive lead that’s obviously been signed up to start in whatever programme or film just as a visual hook. Especially when it’s to its detriment. Actually, if it was just a hook I’d be fine but when they have two hours of screen time and you know exactly how the casting process fleshed out *ahem* it’s sad.
The gaming industry needs to stop throwing mindless bimbos into games so it can finally be taken more seriously (or at least perceived that way). It’ll take another generation to truly get past this all. As it happens, we might see a divide of game types where we have the porn-film equivalent (like DOA) and genuinely wonderful games that no longer pander to a crowd of clunge-hungry teens.
I shall refrain from looking at the incredible cultural differences between the West and the likes of Japan. That just makes it worse!
10/10/2010 at 20:50
Member since: Dec 2008
Pity that Lara never fully stripped of for a waterfall scene, in an artful way, but then I suppose all teenagers HDTV screens would be smudged and blurry, and all 30+’ers like me would never be able to defeat the final Boss.
10/10/2010 at 21:47
Member since: Nov 2009
Bunimomike said: I utterly loathe when there’s an overly attractive lead that’s obviously been signed up to start in whatever programme or film just as a visual hook.
I agree. It can be quite distracting sometimes. Completely unnecessary in my opinion. I wonder if this is the reason why Sony only has female hosts for their PSN Series (Qore, The Tester and that other show).
Oh and also: you said boobies… *giggles* :P
10/10/2010 at 18:35
Member since: Sep 2010
i don’t care,if a game is a great game,then i don’t mind how the characters look and if it helps businesses to sell games then let them do it,if i was in their position and there was a chance more sales would come of it, i probably would do the same thing.
10/10/2010 at 21:28
Member since: Mar 2009
Let’s get specific. Do you guys think God of War III was over the top? There is certainly a lot of boobies in that game, but I think it was still done tasteful (and fit well into the story).
11/10/2010 at 16:20
Member since: Forever
It certainly fitted in with our preconceptions of greek mythological times.
So whilst I think it was entirely gratuitous and unnecessary especially the obligatory token sex scene which was only there to garner some internet articles, it actually didn’t look out of place, like for example Megan Fox bending over for too long in Transformers2
11/10/2010 at 10:10
Member since: Aug 2008
Personally I find it really embarrassing when I’m playing a good title and trying to show my girlfriend how deep, immersive, plot-driven and stylish games can be only for some bouncy warrior woman in ridiculous armour that only covers 10% of her body appears. It undermines the whole game.
Once again the Uncharteds stand out as trailblazers with two attractive female characters and the sexual tension and chemistry that make characters really engaging to watch/play yet without overt sexuality or crazy booby physics!
11/10/2010 at 17:50
Member since: Jan 2009
Perhaps no coincidence then that Uncharted / Uncharted 2 has a female creative director.