Why isn't Frank West good enough for gamers?

When a guy like Frank West gets criticized for his looks, it's clear that our attitude towards male game characters needs to change.

[vilatimir]

cool

[THR1LLHOUSE]

Very interesting article. We should all be more like Frank West!

He's covered wars, you know.

[SybaRat]

Interesting, considering how many Doughnut Drakes I'm seeing in Uncharted 3 mp.

[kma2k]

What about Zeke from infamous. He is a pretty "Average" guy

[DragonKnight]

I know that this is a little off topic, but I'm sick and tired of seeing articles that b*tch and moan about "female over sexualization" and that it somehow "disempowers" women. For one, the idea that there aren't women that look like Lara Croft (minus gravity defying boobs) has been disproven by cosplay and the plastic surgery industry. Two, I think the fact that men drool over women like that shows that women in fact have MASSIVE power over men, seeing as how men would likely do anything to get with that attractive a woman. And finally, IT'S NOT FRICKIN' REAL!!

People need to start remembering that. I really want to stress the fact that it's FICTIONAL! If you really have a problem with the way a woman, or a man, looks in a video game; I'm sorry but you have some SERIOUS problems of your own to deal with. It's a GAME for goodness sake. I mean, take a look at the original Lara Croft. Yeah, she had a large chest, but you know what she also had? A Masters Degree in Archaeology. She's athletic and brave. How is that demeaning to women? What, because she apparently has unrealistic proportions? Ain't no such thing if you look in magazines and films and stuff. You think models aren't human women? There are people who look like Lara Croft for goodness sake.

And this Frank West guy. What's wrong with him? Who has a problem with the way he looks? The problem should be with people like Marcus Fenix since he looks like an over-dosed steroid mutant. But here's the thing, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO LOOK LIKE MARCUS FENIX IN REAL LIFE! You can even find them on youtube.

These are games people. If you're offended by the appearance of a FICTIONAL person, seek help. If you can't separate reality from fiction, then you have major issues. And I find that the ones that b*tch the most about this stuff are those who have serious self-esteem issues from a life time of either feeling unattractive or being called unattractive. Yeah, that sucks, but don't bring the world down with you just because you feel fat. Geez. /rant

[MrBlais]

I think you kinda missed the point, but okay..

[DragonKnight]

I didn't miss any point. I said it was kind of off topic and my post was based on his crap in the first paragraph about women being disempowered by oversexualization. He used a bad example with Lara Croft, and even if he used someone else I could still find a reason why it's not taking any power away from women, and also reiterate that it's a G.D. game for goodness sake.

The point of this article is irrelevant when you consider that it shouldn't be an issue at all since, and I'll say it again, THEY'RE GAMES!

[Bimkoblerutso]

It's really less a question of whether or not someone is going to be insulted by these characters and more about whether or not dressing females up like this is conducive to creating interesting characters.

"Seductive," is pretty much the default characterization for women in video games these days. I mean, there's really not much else you can do with a character that's dressed up like a Friday night stripper.

Which is fine. I know women like that in real life, in fact. But the characterization is painfully overused to the point that it's becoming boring and redundant. I can assume most of the time that women are going to be incorporated into the story of my games solely as eye-candy, and I'm sorry if I sound "unmanly" for saying it, but I'm really getting tired of it.

[DragonKnight]

I completely agree with you that redundant character types is tiresome of course. It's one thing to complain that women being used as nothing but eye candy in a game is counter-productive to character development and such, and yeah it gets boring. If that's really all someone wants in a girl, they have better means of getting it online.

But when you have to see people trying to say that it takes away from women in real life, that it debases them somehow, I have to throw the flag on that. It's a game, and people who make more of it than it is are seriously annoying. One shouldn't base their self-image on a fictional person, and one shouldn't be offended by said person.

Pretty soon you'll be seeing articles (unless they already exist) about how Hatsune Miku is disempowering real music artists because "she's" not real and blah blah blah. I don't have the muscles of the Incredible Hulk, and I don't care. The Hulk isn't real, I am, that's all that's important.

[multipayer]

It sucks that he not only didn't receive a true sequel, but they aged him 30 years and made him look like he really didn't have much to offer anymore. I guess it would be cool if they just continued now and in DR3 it stars an old bearded frank, chuck and a new character... A hot female should probably be thrown in there too for 4player coop... I'm not entirely sure if that would work, because not only did Frank get out of shape fighting zombies somehow, they'd have to explain that he's been taking zombrex this whole time or found a cure. I'm sure they just made Frank this way to kill him off the series, at least intended to before they get our masses of hatemail...

[gypsygib]

Hollywood, magazines and every other media tries to find the most attractive females (and males) - there's nothing wrong with sexy characters like Catwoman and Laura Croft in games.

It's actually more sexist to say that any girl with big boobs or a nice butt in a game is sexist, lots of those women exist and are discriminated against by women who automatically assume they're stupid.

Sorry avg ladies but there are A LOT of super hot girls in real life that are educated, nice and super-sexy with perfect faces, butts and breasts - my University if full of them so get over it and stop hating and calling it sexist.

[choadley]

I really want to see how good Frank is in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. A 50 hit combo that lets him level up enough to use paddle saws will make people change their minds.