Everyone knows how to sexualize female characters in video games.
But how to sexualize male characters and do “fan service” for the female audience?
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This basically is the stereotype I am coming from. So far, the answers don’t contradict it.
I saw screenshots of the new Resident Evil. Leon Scott Kennedy is definitely showing of for those that are into it. Capcom has at least figured it out.
Haven’t seen this much thirst from women since Baldur’s Gate 3 dropped Astarion on us.
Make them look like Danny DeVito or Shrek.
Last year the two sexiest guys were a dwarf who can cook and a mean zombie cowboy.
So I guess write a guy good personality, and throw in giving a shit about people around him.
Oh that’s easy, make them vaugly gay and twinky. Now if you are trying to arouse… Make them REALLY gay.
I like feminine/twink guys, so everyone recommending big buff guys 💀💀
But I’m a gay guy so not the target of OP’s question 😅 I just barged in because it’s a dry desert in terms of my preferences out there 💀
To sexualize men for women, you have to understand women.
To men, attraction is largely visual. So to sexualize a woman for a male audience means making her look attractive, and dressed in a revealing outfit. Swapping the genders doesn’t work. A visually attractive man in a revealing outfit is far more likely to appeal to either gay men sexually, or men generally as a power fantasy. To appeal to women you need a fundimentially different strategy altogether.
Consider erotic literature. Its a genre that is disproportionately popular with women. Its basically anti-porn, no visuals all story. Male characters in these stories are almost always sexualized by women for women. The attraction mostly from their choices and actions than appearance. You need a completely different approach.
Go read some smut. Talk to straight women about who and what they find attractive. You have to learn a lot about women to appeal to them. What they are looking for, and how they are looking for it is entirely different from men.
I’d also say, there’s definitely a big media push on the idea that “men are simple, and attraction is visual”. It’s not always so true as the marketing world wants, and I think a lot of men like myself have more of a “type” we’re likely to connect more with.
There’s plenty of games out there with giant-tittied, half-naked women, that I have basically no interest in because they all blend together thoughtlessly. At the very least, having an interesting character design that portrays some personality and thought pulls me in. (In gacha terms, the former might be Snowbreak Containment Zone while the latter would be Zenless Zone Zero. The latter still falls back on generous endowment sometimes, but they also have some creative designs)
I guess that’s one of the less-acknowledged reasons why you see more sexualization of women in games. It costs next to nothing in terms of game design. Take any game, slap a scantily clad woman on it and bam, you’ve significantly increased your appeal to male audiences. To do the same for female audiences you have to build the entire game around that requirement.
It is almost impossible to avoid romance novels at the library. There are always multiple men, they are always attractive and mysterious in some way, and if it gets down and dirty it gets really dirty.
Interesting. I have had a fair bit of experience with romance novels, and the ‘dirty’ part is always so bland and rehashed that you could substitute one book’s writing in for another’s with no problems.
My wife listens to audiobooks out loud when she’s alone and has left a more than few playing absent mindedly. Most of them seem to do pretty well in terms of both variety of acts and how they’re described. But there are only so many euphemisms that manage to straddle the line between overly dry and patently rediculous.
She did have one book where the author over used the word cock enough that I swear the VA reading it was pronouncing it differently each time just to keep things interesting. It was kinda like: my Cock, MY cock, my coCK, my COCK, mY Cockkkk… my? cock? for a solid five minutes.
Anecdotes aren’t data, I know. My romance novels might be just a small drop of the ocean and I’ve gotten screwed, but I just find all of the ones I’ve read to be bad reading. Plot-driven characters that lead to the same sex scenes. If your wife is getting variety, I’m jealous.
Sure, but you can say the same of porn. There’s a bunch of ways you can end up stuck in a dryer and there are any number of creative solutions to closing that deal, but the sex part gets pretty formulaic taken on its own.
One of the biggest mobile games on the planet is Love and Deepspace. It is a game that appeals to women(and gay men?) and on top of being kinda conventional videogame, it is the modern version of erotic literature.
I have only seen clips and they were much more spicy than most mobile games, even mobile games that appeal to straight men.
Consider erotic literature. Its a genre that is disproportionately popular with women. Its basically anti-porn, no visuals all story. Male characters in these stories are almost always sexualized by women for women. The attraction mostly from their choices and actions than appearance. You need a completely different approach.
Yes, its no visuals. Thats why there isnt 500,000,000 books with fabio ripped and glistening on the covers.
Hey, dont judge a book of smut by the rippling muscled hunk on its cover!
For anyone wanting to know more about these books, Reading Smut is a side-project podcast by the hosts of Reading Glasses. It’s really interesting, with lots of thoughtful guests and often odd books. One of the first episodes covered a book about a door that comes to life and lusts after the woman who lives inside.
So lots and lots of cocaine. Got it!
The movies of the 70s are more a product of LSD than cocaine. And Zardoz is definitely one of the movies worth watching.
Cocaine doesn’t even begin to cover what happened during Zardoz.
“Gee I don’t know boss, that’s a lot of hair…”
[gunshot]
“The gun shoots death…”
But how to sexualize male characters and do “fan service” for the female audience?
Easy, just add Caius Cosades to your game:
Same way. Hot bods, tight clothes, show plenty of skin.
Women enjoying the same things as men? Why, I never!
Says Velma with an oversized sweater, just look at Daphne’s outfit… Like, zoinks, Scoob!
Velma’s short skirt and knee highs though…
Velma’s short skirt and knee highs though…
On all fours… looking fo dem glasses…
She was my bisexual awakening before I ever even realized it lol
Everyone was too busy looking at Daphne to realise Velma had it going on
dorky chicks like you turn me on too!
Wait, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that one.
Testicle cleavage and beer belly shirts. What’s the sluttiest hair style a man can have?
Thinning on top with the “monk ring” style cut. Nothing gets the ladies going more.
But serious advice for guys, know when to just shave your head man. People like full heads of hair, people like bald, nobody likes thinning. Make the call and save yourself the embarrassment. Bald is beautiful.
Not cleavage. Give 'em the moose knuckle.
They should be so lucky
I think Hades is an excellent example of a game which just sexualizes everyone.
Jiggle Physics Ding Dongs
Conan Exiles has good donger physics.
God I wish I could run that game on my PC. I’m relegated to ginormous goongaboongas on console.
According to my wife…
Dress shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbow.
Kilts.
KILTS!
I think you need to check out the genre of Otome games. There’s hundreds of weird dating sim style games catered to women which feature a male cast.
It’s debatable of how sexualized these characters are. But whatever they do appeals to their female audience.
It depends on the genre of the game.
Fighting games like Mortal Kombat? Put the men in skimpy outfits that show their muscles like the women.
Survival game? I don’t need to see the characters sexualized while they’re trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. Give me character depth and growth, empathy, and strong story-telling visuals. I’ll fall in love with man or woman that way.
Ever play Days Gone? I’m a straight dude and even I fell in love with Deacon St. John. Dude is the total package.
Reliable, faithful, and rides a motorcycle… yeah I get it.
Nothing like a miniature sized trikini to survive the zombie outbreak.
