Satyricon553

I am conducting some research on gender stereotypes in video games.

I am not too familiar with the library of games currently available on the XBox360 or PS3.

I am looking for a few violent games that allow the player to be male or female. The more sexy the females the better. It would be best if I could customize the way the characters look.

Currently, I am thinking that a good thing to do would be have a violent condition with DOA4 and a non-violent condition with DOA Volleball. I don't really know how the women in DOA4 are dressed though. Can you whore them up, for lack of a better term?

Any other suggestions on games?

The Bus

It seems like you've got some kind of result or opinion in mind. Wouldn't it be more fair to ask what some of our favorite games are, and how they show women acting? Instead of just saying, "Hello, I need examples of whores in video games."

DVD Josh

Video Games aren't sexist. People are.

Numanoid

"What's wrong with being sexy?"

taffer

Sure you are...

It is okay to admit that you just want masturbation material.

radicaldeth

Yah, sounds like your results would be kind skewed. XD Unless you're just looking for women comitting fem on fem violence in the name of research. Especially since women in skimpy costumes abound in a variety of video games. Like Blood Rayne with her skimpy custom and her feeding noises. And she kills Nazis by the truckload.

Anyhoo, Rumble Roses is a fighting game with women in skimpy outfits. Not sure if can customize them or not.

Now if you will excuse I must play Soul Calibur. I have a hankering to see Kilik in 'the girl in the wind' sequence'. XD

Satyricon553

Since I'm not doing research on you, it doesn't make sense to ask about your favorite games. I don't care what your favorite games. It has been documented by myself and many others in the psych literature that video games portray women poorly. I am not familiar with the games that are currently available, so i was asking what newer games feature customizeable characters. For the purposes of my research, I need to be able to make the characters are scantily clad or as modestly dressed as I want.

It is also important to me to be able to manipulate the kind of violence that is occuring. I would like to be able to change the dress of the characters and switch between male female and female female violence.

An4h0ny

just keep jacking it to anime

VinnieStJohn

If you are doing research on whether or not video games portray women poorly, why are you trying to find the single most egregious example that supports your hypothesis instead of surveying the landscape and taking into account the many video games that also have positive female characters, including games where the main character would be a good role model for young women?

Further, if a game provides the ability to customize a character in any way, why must that be a negative?

Kuroc

If you want to see sexy video game women wait for SC4 to come out.

Supermallet

This is what first came to mind for me, too. If your hypothesis is "Video games portray women poorly," and then you only search out games that portray women poorly, it's not a very scientific study.

Satyricon553

I'm not doing research on whether or not video games portray women poorly. I have already done that research. My study found that women are rarely portrayed at all. In the event that they are portrayed, it is usually poor.

I want to use a game that has scantily clad women because I am interested in the negative influence that portrayal can have. If I wanted to examine positive effects, I would use positive portrayals. That is not my interest, so I am not focusing on it. I have surveyed the field. I know games can have both positive and negative portrayals. From my research, most of the portrayals are negative.

As a researcher, I need funding for my research. Funding is much more likely if I look at the negative influence rather than the positive influence. Mostly because there is simply less to do with the positive influence. My interest is in the realm of stereotypes and prejudice. Both of these things are negative, therefore, I am focusing on negative portrayals.

A game being customizable is a great thing. It will allow me to have many variations of the same character. It would be great to have polar opposites and a few examples in the middle.

I don't want to debate the merits of video games. I just want examples of games. So far I have gotten one suggestion. I appreciate that. I could really do without the masturbation jokes.

My hypothesis is not "do video games portray women poorly?" It is "how do negative portrayals of women in video games affect players?"

fujishig

Kinda sad if this is true, that researchers go after the negative influence because that's where the funding is. What kind of research is that?

Besides traditional fighting games like Soul Calibur, where you can create your own player, I'd suggest wrestling games where you can create a character.

Supermallet

If you've already surveyed the field, then how do you not know which games have portrayals of women?

aktick

Haha, God bless America...let's do his work for him so he can get funding for a completely biased study that will accomplish absolutely nothing.

Satyricon553

I have used wrestling games in the past, but I couldn't find one for the xbox360. I didn't look for one for the ps3 because we may not have enough funding to buy one of those yet. Is DOA4 considered to be the best fighting game on the xbox so far. We have used Soul Calibur for many studies, but since the newest version isn't out yet, we need something to fill the void for a while.

Satyricon553

I have surveyed the field of games on the ps2, xbos, and gamecube. Since there are new consoles out, I need to start using newer games. I assume the portrayal of characters in games hasn't changed too much from between generations, but I don't know specific titles of games I could use.

Supermallet

Go to a Gamestop. They will help you out. They will also offer several upcoming titles with negative portrayals of women that you can pre-order for just $5 down. You can even trade in those games you purchased for the PS2/GC/Xbox to help pay for them!

Satyricon553

God bless America. Let's all be fuckheads and not help out other people. That's the American way, right?

You have no idea what kind of study I am doing. I don't want to reveal details on a public forum because research ideas get stolen that way. Do not asssume you know my method, because I assure you that you do not. It is a sound, ethical study.

Satyricon553

Thank you. I might do that.

Supermallet

On a different topic, there was an excellent article in a recent Game Informer discussing how many of these video game studies (specifically ones that measure increase in aggression) are pretty much bunk. The measure of increase in aggression is that after playing a game, they have the person punch a punching bag or something to that effect, and then extrapolate that these people would be unreasonably violent to other human beings. Also, the games they use are older games, like Doom. Real scientific.

JasonF

Atomic Bomberman has customizable female characters (and male, too).

fujishig

It's not rocket science here, though. I have no idea what this study is about, but it's not surprising that there are a lot of sexist portrayals of women in some videogames: the main consumer for these types of games is guys. And who's going to buy something like DOA volleyball or Rumble Roses? Someone that's most likely already sexist, or at the very least wants to see that kind of thing. It's not like exposing this kind of game to the average gamer will make him any more or less sexist (though I've done no such study).

You could also do a lot of research into the sexism inherent in Japan, where a lot of these games (not taking into account stuff like the Guy Game) come from.

The Xbox360/PS3 generation doesn't have that many examples with that type of customization, at least to the point you're looking for. The 360 does have a wrestling game (WWE Raw vs. Smackdown) but it's more an extention of the PS2 games with better graphics. It also has the various DOA games, Rumble Roses, etc. You can also customize your Mii in WiiSports, but I doubt that will further your research.

Satyricon553

I have not read that article, but I might look for it. It seems worth reading.

I agree completely that many of the previous literature has used out of date games. This has been a complaint of mine. But there is some research that is using new games.

At the same time, an article in a gaming magazine will be biased as well. They could easily neglect data that does not agree with their stance. That is why you can't trust everything you read in articles like that.

I will search it out though. Do you know if it is available online? Which month is the isssue from?

Supermallet

It was most likely from the July issue. I'll have to check when I get home.

And, of course the article in a gaming magazine could have bias as well, but the fact is, video games have gotten a far more negative rap and stuff like that contributes, even if there are more fair studies being done.