Gaming is the most popular pastime among high school students, and a Pew Research Center survey reports that 85% of youth play video games. Throughout the story games and role-playing games, people are attracted to the art styles, competitive styles, especially in titles like “God of War” and “Apex Legends,” character designs. Players play games with their characters, connect with unforgettable stories and use special abilities. However, despite these different ways of playing, many groups of players are not widely represented, especially in the body types.
Several notable games, including “Marvel Rivals,” “Mortal Kombat” and “Grand Theft Auto,” features hypermasculine male characters and hypersexualized female characters.
“‘Overwatch’ spent a lot of time developing this internal cultural world, as well as connecting it to the real world,” Thapliyal said. When it launched, ‘Overwatch’ was praised for its demographics: races, cultures, body types, whether they’re fat, thin or not.
Thapliyal notes on the controversy surrounding “Overwatch’s” new character.Anran, as a prime example of this phenomenon. Recently, players have discovered through a face swap that Anran and the previous character, Kiriko, have the same facial structure which is usually attractive. According to Zoya McDonnell, Game Design Officer and senior game designer at UC Irvine, much of this homogenization is due to the high demand for game flavors, which has sexist skins that sell well. Yahoo Finance estimates the overall cosmetic market in games like “Fortnite” and “Counter-Strike” with $50 billion.
McDonnell said: “Developers want to capture the imaginations of gamers. You rarely get to play a video game where you’re not a muscular main character.
As someone with experience building 2D platforms, Thapliyal adds that, with the rise of pre-made models available from the Unity Asset Store, it’s often more cost-effective to use original, custom assets. Beyond economic reasons, English teacher Jessica Kaufman believes there’s a bigger problem: game development is a male-dominated industry, and men are doing it for themselves. more than two-thirds of producersleading to more characters designed for male looks. According to Kaufman, excessive structural designs are problematic because they enforce unrealistic standards of beauty.
“Everything in society and every type of media influences what we think people should be or not,” Kaufman said. “We look at celebrity culture, and that’s exaggerated to a degree, too. It is already creating unattainable conditions. Video games are animated, so there is more freedom to design characters in an extreme way. When you increase the ability to create anything, it is considered excessive. “
McDonnell previously conducted a study on how players interact with video game characters, where he concluded that people enjoy playing as characters they feel represented by. For example, he talks about two non-binary characters who attract non-binary characters in “Apex Legends.” However, participants generally reported struggling to relate to overly sexualized characters, suggesting that, while these designs may appeal to some players, they may also turn others off.
“If a lot of things that people take, because their lives are on the Internet, only women have support jobs – dressed in certain ways – it will destroy their real world view,” McDonnell said. “I think it’s important that these places show the truth. It’s true that no one wants to play a game where you pay taxes and get denied. But it’s also about showing many sides of a person, not just a fiction designed to feel good and keep you addicted to the game.”
Thapliyal agrees with McDonnell, noting that he feels a real connection to the characters. He points to story games, like “Celeste,” that feature diverse, memorable characters as examples of how developers should approach character design.
“Not having clear skin, people who wear glasses, even having less flesh on their bones, in general, are things that a person can have,” Thapliyal said. “I also think this story has a big relationship component. I love games that have narratives that are self-explanatory and explore different perspectives. ‘Celeste’ does a great job of finding yourself and what it means to be content, and it does a great job of expressing that through the character design.”
Like Thapliyal, in the role-playing games he plays, Kaufman chooses characters who look like him, even in fantasy settings. McDonnell works on a game that equips people to deal with real life, and he used this design philosophy to implement that realism.
“It’s important to have a diverse group of players because real life is different,” McDonnell said. “It makes sense for our story and our setting to have different people who aren’t just written to be non-believers.”
Thapliyal has noticed a shift among producers towards greater consideration of variety and representation. To further combat stereotypical designs, he wants to see healthy competition continue to encourage experimentation. For example, Thapliyal notes that the competition between “Marvel Rivals” and “Overwatch 2” has led to many characters being created in both superheroes’ guns, such as Fika, a jetpack cat inspired by Rocket Raccoon.
In addition to a lot of experimentation, Kaufman wants to see more female protagonists in fictional games. He notes that, while racial diversity and physical defects such as scars are prominent, gender is uneven, and there are few non-male characters. According to Kaufman, one way to bring about this change will be to advocate for game developers, pressuring them on social media to drive discourse.
However, McDonnell cautions against companies pushing diversity for profit without actively creating a culture that values those characters and values. In addition, he does not want companies to screen players by removing skins or ban games, pointing out that fully clothed people are still having sex, like in “Dark Souls.”
Instead, McDonnell believes there should be a better online conversation about the players. For example, he is of the opinion that the art of sexist video game players not only supports their feelings but also admires the creativity of the artists. For now, Thapliyal believes that the best way is for players to interact with these extreme characters in the right way, separating real life from the world of video games.
“It’s unreal,” Thapliyal said. “I’m playing ‘Call of Duty.’ I’m not carrying an AR-15, am I? It’s as simple as that. My playing ‘Final Fantasy’ doesn’t mean I have a six pack, as much as I would like that. Take everything with a grain of salt. The way things are done is more like a budget view and an eye-catching view, rather than a real view that you should take yourself in. Simply put, look outside. You don’t see people like that.”
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