About hot characters in computer games :)

[Zardnaar]

Sort of an odd exchange, but I will bite...

We handle them the same way you handle your junk. We know what they will do under most aerodynamic situations and we move accordingly. It can't be much different than the male equipment, at least, I don't think it would be. However, I have no experience with that sort of thing from a physical "how it feels" perspective, so I could be wrong. I just find it interesting that the lot of you men don't frequently incapacitate yourselves.

We do incapacitate ourselves.

 

[red_elk]

We do incapacitate ourselves.

Voluntarily!

 

[Gorbles]

Wait. "Apparently"? Are you actually attempting to explain what another poster finds objectionable about a game you haven't even played yourself?

I'm pointing out the issue in the comparison. C'mon, you can do better than that

 

[Zardnaar]

Voluntarily!

So true. Not just booze the old push bike bar in the crouch bit is a doozie.

 

[Sofista]

Breaking immersion is a problem indeed.
Male characters are often depicted carrying huge swords or axes they would be unable to lift IRL.

Good Dr. Freud has an explanation for this.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Good Dr. Freud has an explanation for this.

Some female characters do too.
Although this is often to parody the trope.

 

[red_elk]

Didn't play Witcher 1, but the 3-rd part seemed good to me, especially story-wise.
And there were a lot of female characters which played significant part in story. They were in the book, so developers didn't even have to invent much.
Loot system and levelling could be better, but otherwise the game was excellent.

There were funny moments with balance, like right after defeating a super-tough monster you have to reload multiple times because you get beaten by two drunkards in a bar fight.
And sometimes it looked like there are too many suicidal maniacs. "There's a guy with two swords, let's attack him, should be easy target!"
Come on, witchers had their reputation and common thugs wouldn't be messing with them too often.

 

[Kyriakos]

Games can't really aim to be very realistic - unless it is a very specific genre.
In the vast majority of games, the core is lack of realism exactly so that you can play this as a game.

Style is another issue, of course. Indie games have styles all over the game. Huge company titles tend to have the same style, more or less.

 

[Birdjaguar]

POE Streamer at work:

https://www.twitch.tv/mathil1

 

[Manfred Belheim]

No-one hotter than Ms Pacman.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

No-one hotter than Ms Pacman.

Some characters are so hot they're close to untouchable.

 

[Kyriakos]

Games often go for a lazy/cheapening factor for a mix of reasons, including just not knowing or not caring about the source material. A good example:

(warning: near the very end, for a few seconds this contains gore, so don't watch that if you don't feel like it)

As with in the movie, Troy, they presented Hector as heroically trying to compete with Achilles. But in the Iliad that's not at all what happens. There Hector is so afraid that he runs around the walls of Troy, trying to avoid the fight. And when (tricked by the gods) he does stand to fight, he dies instantly.

That said, he was evenly matched with Ajax (they fight for very long, and it is a tie). But Achilles was massively stronger than Ajax. Also, Ajax already (iirc) had committed hubris, so had no god on his side - and still didn't die in Troy.

 

[Yeekim]

Its possible to have a game or story set in a world with racism, sexism, homophobia etc where characters have to deal with those issues, possibly making things more difficult for them. An example of this would be Brienne of Tarth in GoT. Witcher 1 didn't do that, it embraced sexism and encouraged players to treat female characters as sex objects.

How Witcher 1 handled sex was, for me at least, juvenile, off-putting, tasteless, and ruined the story the developers were trying to tell.
You complete a rather dark quest story about racism, abuse, poverty, and oppression, and the female elf quest giver says to Geralt "Thank you so much for your help, u want sum fuk?" and then hands you a softcore trading card.
The fact CDPR excised that completely from Witcher 2 and 3 in favor of working the romance and sex into the story in, for a video game, a mature and adult way, indicates they were sort of embarrassed about that aspect of Witcher 1.

EDIT: As far as sexiness in videogames, I mean, yeah. Nobody wants to spend hours looking at a bunch of models hit with the ugly stick. At least be equal-opportunity when it comes to the sexiness.

I must say I don't see this great qualitative difference between TW1 and TW2-3 in handling sex that @Ajidica mentions. Main romantic relationships/questlines were well integrated into the story in all three. All three also had their share of casual sex encounters with little storyline significance (although there were more of those in TW1). All three featured prostitution, implemented in an entirely similar way.
The only real difference I can see is that "trading cards" were turned into cutscenes, which I think was a decision more connected to larger budget than a change in design philosophy - although I did mention that the "collectible" nature of these cards was indeed somewhat tasteless, so this was indeed an improvement.

The "shallow" nature of these casual encounters, I think, is simply a result of general limitations/challenges of creating and populating an RPG world - they are functional equivalent of a lazily written fetch quest. Every open-world RPG I can think of has some of such. Good ones also have something more. In my opinion, all TW games were good. I don't think it is fair to focus on shallow parts while ignoring that all of TW games also feature female characters who are significant to the world in general and/or to Geralt personally.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I must say I don't see this great qualitative difference between TW1 and TW2-3 in handling sex that @Ajidica mentions. Main romantic relationships/questlines were well integrated into the story in all three. All three also had their share of casual sex encounters with little storyline significance (although there were more of those in TW1). All three featured prostitution, implemented in an entirely similar way.
The only real difference I can see is that "trading cards" were turned into cutscenes, which I think was a decision more connected to larger budget than a change in design philosophy - although I did mention that the "collectible" nature of these cards was indeed somewhat tasteless, so this was indeed an improvement.

The "shallow" nature of these casual encounters, I think, is simply a result of general limitations/challenges of creating and populating an RPG world - they are functional equivalent of a lazily written fetch quest. Every open-world RPG I can think of has some of such. Good ones also have something more. In my opinion, all TW games were good. I don't think it is fair to focus on shallow parts while ignoring that all of TW games also feature female characters who are significant to the world in general and/or to Geralt personally.

I haven't played TW2 or 3 so can't comment on them (after the ridiculous hype about 1 and how disappointing it actually was I saw no reason to) but in TW1 there were no major female characters he wasn't given the option of sleeping with and most of the other female characters existed only for him to sleep with. Geralt was a male sex fantasy (attractive to women, never has to deal with even the possibility of pregnancy or STD). If they managed to include a female character significant to the world in general and/or Geralt personally that he didn't sleep with I might think your last point had some validity.

 

[Yeekim]

in TW1 there were no major female characters he wasn't given the option of sleeping with.

That is a fair point. However, you could also play through the entire game without sleeping with anyone.

 

[Gorbles]

That is a fair point. However, you could also play through the entire game without sleeping with anyone.

So why include them at all? Why were they put into the game, if not for a specific (however optional you argue it to be) purpose?

 

[AmazonQueen]

That is a fair point. However, you could also play through the entire game without sleeping with anyone.

I'm not arguing other computer games handle sexuality and sexual roles well.
Most either ignore them completely or just make them meaningless.
TW1 tried to handle them but did it badly IMO.

 

[H4run]

Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile. I don't like depiction of female character in skimpy armor. It doesn't have any logic or justification to be like that, for me it's just a reflection of female objectification and a bad taste. However Lenneth here, is a great design for me, and a great taste also.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I've been thinking about it a little, and I can't even think of one video game character that I thought was hot. I guess it's just not a medium that's suited to that, for me.

 

[Yeekim]

So why include them at all? Why were they put into the game, if not for a specific (however optional you argue it to be) purpose?

Man, if you wish to judge it, maybe play the game and see for yourself? But all right, I'll humor you.
There are female characters who have game-length story arcs and considerable plot significance. And yes, you can sleep with them - although two main romance options are mutually exclusive, iirc. There are others, with arcs through just the chapter or two... and you can sleep with them also. And finally, there absolutely are characters in the game who have no other purpose or associated quest whatsoever.
You can go into a tavern, meet a guy who has no other role than to play dice with you and fleece him. You can then brawl with another one, who has no purpose except fistfighting, bet some on yourself and beat him. And then you can spend your hard-earned money on a lady who has no other role than to sleep with you and collect aforementioned "softcore trading card". Unless you had pissed them off by siding with elvish guerillas, in which case they'd turn you down. Were these mechanics indispensable to the game, or particularly inspired? No, but I don't think they made the game bad/worse either.