Great article and excellent site by the way

you are completely right that games like wii fit and horses on the ds and things are far more insulting to women who play games than half naked characters, I am californian and I remember the debate when final fantasy X-2 (which is one of may favourite games by the way) came out about the characters outfits and I couldnt figure it out because I dress like that all the time and looking around the public here at least, there are many others that do too, even the wow charcter above is similar to how one might dress when going to the beach, agreed its a tad revealing but not shocking at all, I’ve seen (and probably worn) worse.

By comparison having mindless games like the wii fit, nintendogs etc etc, ad nauseum is far more insulting and i’m glad you called them shallow on here because that is exactly what they are, they are mindless, degrading and a waste of time. I would much rather play tomb raider, final fantasy, soul reaver, Demons souls or Bayonetta than groom my horse on the ds or keep fit on the wii (though i must admit wii cheer looks mildly interesting but I refuse to buy the system because it is so stereotypical for girls to own) of the other girls in my cheer squad I know that play games none play those games either, one is a massive grand theft auto fan while another is unbeatable at any tekken game

also we are all very “girly” girls, we love beauty and fashion, but we don’t want to play games about them!!!!!!, the sooner developers figure this out the better.

now I am not what many would consider a “hardcore” gamer, I only buy around 5 new games a year and gaming would only just make it into my top 5 hobbies. In saying that I own all the sony consoles (ps1,2,3 and psp, I had a nintendo ds lite but it broke down outside of warranty) and have a platinum trophy on demons souls and have beaten Yiazmat in final fantasy 12. If I like a game I play it till the end. Though I have to use a male alias on line due to previous stalking issues.

as an aside I would love an avatar that looked like me, I am pretty,blonde & small waisted with the chest of pamela anderson and a rear as sahpely as Kim Kardashian. Its not very modest to say I know but you dont spend as much as I have at the plastic surgeons to be modest.

as for female developers that story is very sad, it would appear that Amy Hennig is the champion of females in game development at the moment, I have eternal respect for her genius in the soul reaver series but uncharted is a horror, its my second least favorite series of all time after the halo series (though the type of guys i date (I only date footballers but my percentage hit rate is excellent ) always seem to adore both series’ sheer violence and mindlessness, I guess this is the equivilent of Ds beauty parlor for males) its like maing donnie darko then going to making a rambo/third rate indiana jones crossover, But I will always stick by her as a shining example of what can be done, there is story written by a western developer that can hold a candle to soul reaver. Hennig is top of the tree.

The woman in the 2nd picture actually gets me aroused because of the position she’s in, but I still see her as a cool, bad-ass, semi-naked female, the 3rd picture is kind of funny as she looks like shes scratching her knee and they both still hold weapons.
Also Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie & the VG character); is very sexy in her appearance but I also like the fact she is a strong, brave & independant. She is the female equivalent of Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, whom a lot of women have liked both his physical appearance as well as the general nature of his character.

These pictures show women with perfect figures and its not so much the women are “ready for sex” but they are sending out artificial sex signals (by being provacatively dressed & posed) and a lot of men who see the picture will get aroused and want to have sex. This is a natural chemical reaction that occurs in mens minds.

A hypothetical scientific scenario just to give you an something to think about; In neanderthal times when people were more animalistic in nature, when a woman wanted to attract a mate one of the things she would do is pump blood into areas of her face – the cheeks and lips would become redder and fuller.
In todays society when a woman wears make-up, coloured lipstick, blush(?) on her cheeks – and a man sees this, she is in fact sending out artificial sex signals. The natural way is when she intentionally fancies someone and without wearing make-up does the blood-pump thing.

How men affect women, I don’t really know as only a woman can truly answer this question. But I’ve been told women like big arms, tight abs & buns – a strong male is what appeals to a lot of females. So the “Conan” depiction of a man is fair and the more I look at that picture of the ‘underwear-ripping guy’ the more I feel he (is gay &) would appeal to gay men. If I was to do a sexy pose it’d be in boxers, fists slightly clenched, biceps and triceps flexed and looking straight ahead with either a small cheeky grin or bad boy moody look.

No offence or disrespect intended to anyone or group, just SMO.

And yes, a women-only company would probably be over-doing it. We’d be doing the same thing, just the other way around. Making a “Talent and passion only” company would be better, where gender wouldn’t matter, but talent, attitude and passion for the work does.

Much like everything that frustrates us in our societys, all we need to do is wait for the next generation to take over our jobs with a more sex/race/world-friendly attitude. This will all pass in time, unfortunatley for Snezana here, time on these matters moves very slowly.