Overly sexualised designs

When it comes to needlessly sexualised character designs, it’s something that occurs in things like video games as well as CSI and its ilk. Like how the women characters often seem to dress slutty, despite their actions to the contrary and so on. Street Fighter’s Cammy White for a long time wore a thong leotard, yet to my knowledge she’s never been romantically involved nor is she particularly flirtatious. This has been undone as of the latest Street Fighter game, but it does make one wonder why on earth would they put her in a thong leotard to begin with. Not only would it increase her chances of getting her legs chaffed, but also how and why she’s never a flirtatious character at all.

It’s even weirder still to think that another Capcom character who’s an actual seductress going by the name of Morrigan Aensland dresses more modestly than she did, in the sense of not baring bare buttocks in combat. The fact that Cammy White is something of a soldier and it could be said that she used to dress in what appears to be a sexualised military uniform in-game is kind of distasteful really, like as if they’ve undermined the ability to take her seriously without having to sexualise her that it’s belated they’re desexualising her at this point. Now let’s consider what would happen if somebody were to do something similar to a male character, in which his direction strongly mirrors that of his female counterparts.

Let’s say that Graham Knightley’s the son of a billionaire and a salesman, at first glance he wears a skintight suit. But that’s not all as his trousers have bondage straps to it, that it highly sexualises the outfit in a way that echoes the unnecessary sexualisation done to somebody like Cammy White, who’s a soldier by the way. Or Lara Croft for another matter who’s an archaeologist, yet she appears in booty shorts in most games so far. You’d say that he kind of dresses rather fruity, not just because his suit is skintight, but also because he wears bondage trousers. But it’s not uncommon for female characters to dress kind of fruity themselves, sometimes bordering on catering to certain paraphilias.

Sort of like how NCIS’s Abby Sciutto dresses as if she panders to people’s fantasies of a Goth girlfriend, that it would be harder for her to get away with dressing in Goth clothes if she’s a guy lest she’d be seen as unprofessional. But it’s also kind of telling how we’re pretty desensitised to the rampant sexualisation of women in these stories, that it feels kind of normal in an unfortunate regard. It seems even if Graham Knightley isn’t dressed so skimpily, him wearing a bondage-inspired pantsuit could be seen as too sexualised for some people. He may be hypothetical for now, but this is to give you an idea of what game developers have been doing to female characters.

You’d say that the bondage straps are impractical and could get in the way, yet Cammy’s leotard is just as impractical and unhelpful considering the risk of chaffing at any point. This is to give you an idea of how a number of female characters’ outfits aren’t just overly sexualised, but also really impractical given the risk of accidents at any point. You’d wonder why on earth would he even wear bondage trousers, but you could ask the same thing about Cammy wearing a thong in public. It may not be equivalent at first but this is to give you an idea about how unnecessarily sexualised a number of female video game characters are, that the mere presence of a man in bondage trousers would make other male characters (who wear merely tight clothing) look tame.

There might be male characters that have come close to this in a way, look at what happened to Wal from Final Fantasy. There was controversy over the way he dressed, so he was eventually redesigned. But it does speak volumes about how desensitised people are to women dressing skimpily or in a sexualised manner in some other way, that Wal as he first appeared really caused a shock. As for the other male characters like say Fabrice Tientcheu, he’s a forensic scientist and he seems to dress the part at first. But he also wears a really tight shirt and trousers that it makes you wonder why he dresses the way he does, or Colin Sallow being the son of a politician who also dresses similarly.

Both men have a habit of wearing skintight clothing to show off their physiques, despite their professions that it does parallel the way female characters are unnecessarily sexualised. Back to the Abby Sciutto example, I do recall her wearing a skimpy dress despite being a scientist herself. If you have a male character who is a scientist and yet wears a tight shirt and tight trousers to show off his physique, it’s practically no different from what’s been done to her. If you have the son of a politician wearing similarly, you’d have to wonder why Ashley from Resident Evil used to dress in a way that arouses people’s sex drives. It’s increasingly no longer the case these days, but it speaks volumes about sexist character design.

The odd fact that almost everybody in game development is straight and male kind of influences things like character design and writing, which would explain why in some early incarnations of long running games, with the possible exception of educational games, female characters were almost always either sexualised (Samus Aran, Cammy White, Sonya Blade, Kitana and Mileena) or disempowered (Zelda and Princess Peach). This is getting better at this point in time, with game developers trying to give the latter more agency than they did before, and with the former being desexualised big time. But I suspect the former isn’t done to men often because it’s weird seeing them being actually objectified, the latter because it’s emasculating to see weak men.

This may not be the case anymore, but when it comes to Wal it’s weird seeing a male character being this sexualised. And why it’s kind of rare to find dudes in distress, it’s emasculating to depict male characters this way.

She plays video games

She plays video games when she

Feels like it, often these are for

Kids but they help solve problems.

Video games for women

It’s not that they didn’t exist at all, they did exist before but they were more commonplace in Japan. Especially video games specifically made for female audiences in mind, kind of interesting to think that Japan is ahead of the west in this regard. Particularly when it comes to consistently having video games and comics specifically made for female audiences, which is something the west tries to do and has been catching up on this lately. Well I feel when it comes to the western world, until recently with the advent of casual games on both online websites and mobile devices, there weren’t a lot of video games specifically made for women and girls in mind.

So a good number of female gamers would either stick to gender-neutral games or be put up with sexist garbage for years, that it’s not surprising why the western video game industry has so much difficulty attracting a female audience until recently. I actually have thoughts of contributing characters and storylines to a video game that I’d want to work on in the future, but one that’s more in line with what more women are into narratively speaking. Something like mystery and romance when it comes to the reading side of things, these were there in video games before. But it would be nice to create a video game that leans on both to varying degrees.

Admittedly, this is based around superheroes but changed significantly to meet certain markets and demographics as well as my own changing ideas for it. Something like how many of the superheroes in this story are in fact police themselves, which is thematically similar to Alan Moore’s Top Ten. Except I think Top Ten’s too mired in superhero leitmotifs to even resemble crime fiction, which I suspect that despite his desire to present such a world he neither has much interest in crime fiction nor law enforcement and criminal cases to convey it convincingly. Not that he’s a bad writer, but that these sorts of things aren’t his strong suits.

To make it even less similar to Top Ten is to take it out of the superhero school and make more recipient to outside influences, not just more true crime and crime fiction, but also something like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, more nonfiction in general and so on, whatever they may be at present or in the future. That’s not to say I dislike superheroes as much as I feel Top Ten adheres much more to superhero school conventions, than it does to crime fiction proper which explains why it’s written the way it is. The fact that Alan Moore not only has read a lot of superheroes, but has written superhero stories for a long time that it shouldn’t be surprising why it turned out this way.

Even then this helps in establishing a strong identity for the game, as well as finding ways to make it reach out to different peoples. So I feel a superhero puzzle game would suit the theme of having superheroes as the police, it may not be the first superhero puzzle game as there were earlier ones before. Though primarily based around well-established brands like DC and Marvel at that, it could be said that there’s a precedent for this sort of thing. Not to mention, both mobile and puzzle games are popular with women, so a superhero puzzle game is just as likely to do very well with them.

As for the female character designs, sexualised female characters have fallen out of favour. No surprise why characters like Mortal Kombat’s Kitana and Mileena, as well as Street Fighter’s Cammy White dress more modestly than they used to. They have been criticised before and it’s only now that this aspect has been toned down or supplanted by something else instead, if both Capcom and Netherrealms Studio continued with the sexualised designs they’d be out of business by then. So they had to change to adapt to changing market preferences and tastes, that’s to be in step with the times.

When it comes to our own female characters, it would be nice to take cues from high fashion brands and the like to present female character designs that are more glamourous and stylish than sexualised, especially if some female gamers are uncomfortable with the latter. Sort of like how Disney Princesses are far more popular with women and girls, despite being idealised their character designs tend to be more glamourous than sexy. While the average DC/Marvel heroine is technically more agentic, this is often undermined by constant sexualisation.

Sort of like what Mileena, Cammy, Kitana and Sonya had for years, while the idea of a female martial artist is aspirational, the way they’ve been presented for a long time leaves much to be desired. Especially when it comes to women who aren’t comfortable with sexualised depictions, that it’s only now video games are beginning to pay attention to them more. This shouldn’t be surprising why the sexualised look fell out of favour in today’s gaming environment, it’s off-putting to other people and why it took time for the female gaming audience to rise in substantial numbers in the west.

Even if characters like Wonder Woman are technically/theoretically more agentic than Princess Aurora and Belle are, well at times I suppose, the way they’re presented seems more in line with popular men’s sex fantasies. This isn’t helped by that Wonder Woman sprung from the mind of somebody mired in BDSM, so it’s not hard to see why she carries such baggage like that. No surprise why more women are more comfortable identifying with Aurora and Belle than they do with Wonder Woman and Supergirl, the former two don’t appear in skimpy outfits that much. They also dress more stylishly, which’s appealing to more women.

The latter two have a history of appearing in skimpy outfits, though Supergirl now dresses more modestly these days (so far), but it’s not just that they’re skimpy they also have a lot in common with porn. It’s been long and frequently suspected that those working on superhero comics take cues from pornography, in some way or another, whether if it’s William Mouston subscribing to the softcore porn in his days, or how cartoonists do porn in their spare time. It’s no surprise why such themes and leitmotifs also occur in superhero comics, especially those coming from DC and Marvel.

This is finally getting better in today’s comics and video games, however small those steps are at times, is kind of praiseworthy. Then we get into the sort of stories women read, especially when we get to the storytelling side of things. Something like mystery and romance, since both do well with women a lot. Especially when it comes to the book side of things, that it would be nice to create a mobile game that leans into either one of these or even both. It’s already been done before to some extent, but it would be nice to inject bits and pieces of superhero storytelling to make it more distinctive. More immediately identifiable as its own.

It wouldn’t exactly attract a 100 percent female audience, but more than it would years ago (maybe except in Japan). But it should be noted that with the western video game market, it was something that catered to male customers a lot, far more than it did in Japan since the latter already had a substantial video game market for women earlier and longer, that it coloured the way video games were made and marketed to until now. It’s nearly about equal in America these days, though I think it would look different elsewhere. Maybe not exactly but you should get an idea of how far video gamers have come to near parity when it comes to gender composition, though this gets complicated by how some women don’t see themselves as gamers.

But this would mean that the number of female video gamers is larger than is officially counted, maybe not exactly near parity either, but larger than what the numbers tell. Though having more female game developers is nice, especially when it comes to creating something for other women in mind, that it would lead to something women would gravitate to and organically so. That and toning down the sexist advertising, which puts off women. I feel if there are women who are put off by idealised bodies, naked women and the like that it seems the naked female form isn’t quite as appealing to all people, especially if it risks putting them off from something.

Though this Redditor was referring to a comic book that someone gave to them, it does make sense why sexualised depictions of women are actually more off-putting than one realises or intended to. So we’re going to advertise this game, it shouldn’t have any of these portrayals because it would put off certain people and we’re trying to reach a broader audience here. Actually it shouldn’t have all of these portrayals either, so this is something video game companies are striving to do these days, the more they actively include different kinds of people in game development. It’s not perfect, but they’re getting there.

So it seems when it comes to creating something for women, we have to take their input into consideration that while I may not be able to speak for all women, common concerns include sexualisation, misogyny and the like. So we’re out to create a video game that includes/involves the things most women like, minimal or absent sexualisation of female characters, less sexualised violence against women and so on. Admittedly, humans may make mistakes so even this video game we could make wouldn’t be perfect either, but we’re getting there and we’re aiming to include women as part of our gaming audience and game development.

The video game industry has come a long way from where it was in the past, it’s still not entirely perfect but it’s something that’s doing its best to be inclusive to all walks of life as possible. This includes women and minorities.

Some more characters

Tommy Heikkinen

A murderer with the ability to cancel gravity, which he uses to harass victims with, scientifically speaking it’s the inverse of Colin Sallow’s ability to stop time in a localised area as both spacetime and gravity are related. If you increase gravity, you also slow down time. Colin stops time enough to throw something at his victim, often a knife or a bullet whilst Tommy manipulates antigravity using two centrifuges at each wrist containing small items, thus acting as bullets when killing said victim. Well, these are two Jojo references as Tommy’s based on Lang Rangler and Jumping Jack Flash, whilst there’s a bit of Dio Brando in Colin right down to his weapon of choice and fashion sense despite that he also came from one of my dreams before.

As for them being the inverse of each other, I’d say that Colin comes from a political family and is next in line to replace his father. He’s also something of an escape artist, stopping time around somebody to plot an escape almost every time. Tommy never came from a political family, he could simply come from an ordinary family and instead of doing escapology, he stands still whilst attacking victims from afar. If Colin Sallow usually keeps his shoulder length hair loose, Tommy has his tied in a braid. Colin’s kind of pretty calm, whilst Tommy’s kind of excitable though nowhere as prickly as Anatoly and Cyril are.

Oddly enough as Colin Sallow resembles a younger Liam Howlett (he from the band The Prodigy), Tommy’s like a masculinised version of a younger Nina Hagen, a German singer by the way. Both men are blue-eyed, something neither Master H nor Hagen have. Tommy also dresses what Nina Hagen herself could’ve worn, as his outfit consists of a skintight, peach-coloured short-sleeved shirt with a boobhole, matching peach leggings and red boots. This also doubles as something any Jojo character would’ve worn themselves, though this is inspired by what the late Cinamon Hadley wore.

He’s of Finnish descent, his surname’s taken from some journalist reporting on feral rabbits in Helsinki.

Ian Šorm

The late teenaged son of Richard Šorm and his ex-wife Emma Havisham, ever since his mum cheated on his dad a lot whenever he was absent and drunk he’d do anything to run away from her to live with his friends until she took him back. Ian used to do anything to keep her preoccupied, telling her a lot about his interest in hip hop and reading his dad’s poems out loud. Once Richard divorced her, Ian elected to live with one of his friends instead. Given his contentious relationship with Emma, he’d rather hang out with his friends or hunt with Jean-Louis. He even enjoys Jean-Louis’s cooking every now and then, when he has the time to.

He’s in therapy from what Emma did to him, who pretty much treated him like a stand-in for Richard despite cheating on him a lot with any man she finds. She even had an affair with Jean-Louis’s friend Akosamesew, which caused him to get fired for awhile (and temporarily worked as a trainer). Ian doesn’t trust him much for what he did to her, though he’s not as violent and aggressive as Jean-Louis is he can be rather resentful and leery. But he does treasure the company of other people, being much happier with his friends than he is with his own family. Both he and his friends are based on the characters I created in 2023.

The prototype for Ian Šorm is Mick Dalgliesh, the son of Emma Lavenham and Adam Dalgliesh. They actually first appeared in a story where these two are divorced, but they’d reappear in the story ‘Finding Adam’ which I attempted to ape PD James’s writing style (the latter two are her characters). Abe Haskins becomes Sinn Prak and Danielle Mercer becomes Morowa Owusu, who has albinism. Ian works part time as a DJ, which is where he earns his income from. He usually tends to DJ at university parties and sometimes at private homes too whenever he gets invited at all.

Ever since living on his own, he not only reconciled to his father but also befriended Fabrice Tientcheu (the resident forensic scientist with the ability to soften things), Maurice Lù and Nootaikok Alakannuark. He dresses like a modernised version of Johann Goethe’s Young Werther, the look pretty much consists of a yellow shirt, yellow trousers, black boots and a dark blue coat.

Iasonas Michaelides

A licenced therapist with the ability to manipulate pheromones, though he uses this to calm down somebody whenever they’re getting very tense or emotional or something. He is born to Greek Cypriot parents in Britain before moving to Canada, he tends to be a very kind and compassionate person. He often takes the time to understand someone, making sure they feel safe and sound in his care. Ian turns to him to talk about things that bother him like his mother for instance, how her habit of pulling him away from his friends distress him a lot and stuff.

He is actually based on Mick Karn (real name: Andonis Michaelides), who had a diploma in therapy but worked as a musician instead. It should be noted that Cyprus was a British colony, so that’s why you had Britons of Cypriot descent like George Michael and of course, Mick Karn. Though not a lot of Cypriots speak English, it was a British colony before and it’s likely there’s British residual ties there too. Cyprus is also culturally between Greece and Turkey, though Greece’s just a stone’s throw away from Turkey. Not to mention it could be said that both Greece and Cyprus were part of the Ottoman Empire.

No surprise why both of them have Middle Eastern influences at present, as Turkey was their coloniser for some amount of time that inevitably it rubbed off on both of them. It seems Greek culture(s) as presented in the world of North American comic books almost always relates to Ancient Greece, not so much modern Greece and Cyprus. It’s like this in the Wonder Woman stories, though I’m not sure about Marvel for similar matters. So you have the scion of Greek Cypriot relatives, both Cyprus and Canada being former British colonies but only Cyprus became a republic.

Redundancy in a red ocean

Somebody pointed out some of the real issues with the Concord game is that at this point, there’s a lot of competition that there’s no way for it to catch attention from people and hold onto it in any way it likes especially if it doesn’t have anything else going on for it. This is called a red ocean where there’s a lot of competition and you’d have to find a way to stand out for long to get this much attention or something, whereas a blue ocean is when there’s not much competition and you could do the first mover advantage: that is being the first to introduce something new and different to the market.

I can’t help but wonder if this is the same fate that befell Dante’s Inferno, this game was commonly considered to be a God of War ripoff in gameplay and to some extent, the theme itself. But to make matters worse, there are other games with both of them to varying degrees and then there’s Devil May Cry, which is also based on the Divine Comedy. So such a game like that already felt redundant when there are more well-established games with similar themes and gameplay for others to turn to at any point, Concord could simply be the modern version of it in some regards really.

Now supposing if I were to come up with a game that’s pretty different from the rest of the market wherein it’s a mashup between superhero and mystery, because the superheroes here are actually detectives and police officers but even then there are superpowered civilians as well. Supposing if this game is the first of its kind and a mobile one at that, it could be a first mover in a blue ocean because there’s practically nothing like it before. The first of its kind really, but similar things can be said of God of War and Overwatch when they first arrived on the scene. Or even Devil May Cry when you consider this.

They were able to cultivate and hold onto the audiences they grew and got, moreso than what Dante’s Inferno and Concord desired to. They were really playing catch-up in a more saturated market, a red ocean scenario if you will. Supposing if this hypothetical game not only attracted an audience but also held onto it for as long as it did and continues into the future, it has succeeded in doing this and prompts other games to do something similar to varying degrees of success. But this poses another problem for some of the newer games, especially once the market becomes saturated that they can’t compete any longer.

Supposing if this same hypothetical game was also the first to introduce references to certain crime fiction stories and characters, something like that one character (Jemima Szara) is based on another (Jemima Shore) that it gets publicised a lot and prompts other game publishers to pre-empt similar games, including flat-out adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple for instance. But the more other video game publishers churn out something similar like say licencing something from PD James’s estate, the more they risk running into a red ocean environment because their products could seem redundant by then.

Yep, another Concord/Dante’s Inferno. A game that can’t hold onto its audience for long, despite being rather serviceable but that’s not enough to stand out from every other game at this point. Because it’s such a competitive market that you’d have to fight hard to retain your customers/audience or else they’ll flock to something else altogether, especially a better established brand at that. Even if something is technically good and serviceable, because people develop emotional attachments to certain brands and products that it’s going to be hard adjusting to a new product in addition to all that added competition going on that it’s never going to succeed in the long run.

Supposing if somebody succeeds at creating an Adam Dalgliesh game yet does this when there’s so much competition around in a market for detective-superhero mobile games with literary references that it feels redundant, that it’s going to be stuck in a red ocean environment wouldn’t do it any favours even if the gameplay is good. Too much competition going on would be enough to render it redundant, especially if it’s not distinctive enough to stand out from its counterparts and contemporaries that it’s going to be another Concord/Dante’s Inferno. So history repeats itself with products like these.