Brothels

I do think there’s a school of thought in the game industry* that less conventionally attractive female characters = more realistic, and that female characters can’t show off too much skin or have curvaceous figures because that’s sexist.

If you want a great example of this, just look at the last four Mortal Kombat games. In MK9, the fanservice was way over the top and kind of silly, but it was reeled in with each sequel. Just look up Sonya Blade in MKX and MK1 and tell me there isn’t a noticeable downgrade.

*I should note this really only applies to the western gaming industry, as anyone who’d played Street Fighter 6 or Tekken 8 that the girls are as hot as they’ve ever been.

Huh. Maybe it's because I started properly gaming much later, but I've never understood the desire to have a game that's perfectly set like I personally want it. If I've not liked some choices, I may have grumbled to myself, but I've thought of it as more of a 'me'problem'.

Yeah Outlaws baffled me! My reaction was "oh look, for once a hot woman in a Western game" and then I see the comments... Seriously, I too thought she was sexy and I love the 70s vibe. There definitely are a lot of crybabies on the internet. Not denying that.

But then I see the Fable trailer and I'm sorry but that girl is not attractive. I see way more attractive women in the street every day. Hell, *I* look better than that! One of the worst character models I have ever seen.

I do know that men and women can have very different definitions of attractive and sexy when it comes to women. The body mods for Bethesda games are sometimes so grotesque it's really disconcerting how that's still attractive to men. I have never seen male body mods THAT exaggerated. These body mods are hideous to me, yet they are very popular. Also the way so many men dress female characters and especially the makeup they apply often looks like cheap prostitute. Very off-putting. But each to their own.

Even if a lot of the hate online is over the top there's gotta be a grain of truth in that. I mean, nobody is complaining about Stellar Blade, I would guess. Conventionally beautiful and sexy women in western games are becoming more and more rare is my impression too. And I daresay it's because women feel insecure and intimidated and we can't have that. Body image issues and whatnot. Oddly nobody worries about that with young men seeing all those jacked up superhero dudes in games. I never see any male characters hit with the "ugly stick".

None of the DAI female companions/advisors are ugly to me but they aren't conventionally beautiful except for Leliana and she's not a romance options for obvious reasons. Morrigan is also out of the picture.

So I do get it and I do see it most of the time. Ugly might be hyperbole in most cases. But the sexiness is getting noticeably toned down imo. And ONLY for female characters which makes it all so hypocritical to me.

Now of course DAI and now DAV have older dudes as romance options which is not necessarily great either. DAI had only Cullen as a pretty boy. But at least we did get Cullen.

Oh for sure. I just like analyzing and discussing stuff even if I don't even care that much. Just always curious about the why/why not of things.

DAO did have a fair bit of light-hearted humour and good outcomes too; we shouldn’t forget that. The Dog basically existed purely for comedy (as well as biting out throats).

But even though you can see naughty bits in DAI, it also feels a lot less “adult” than DAO. Outside of party members, advisors and Harding, there’s a grand total of one NPC you can flirt with or engage in a sexual encounter.

During Josephine’s quest line, if you follow her way instead of Leliana one of the steps requires getting a noblewoman’s support. You can offer a few ways the Inquisition will repay her, but one of the options is sleeping with her.

Is this for real?? Wow, just... wow. The western world has become a parody at this point.

I bet nobody actually descended from slaves thinks this way. Same with cultural appropriation. I've seen countless videos of people being PROUD others think their culture is so cool they wear their stuff.

It's unreal what's happening to society. Depicting slavery or rape as bad is a good thing, no???
Fucking hell, man. We're doomed. I really hope this is just a very long phase of insanity and we can come back from this nonsense...

Sometimes I enjoy playing lunatics who spend too much time in brothels, drinking, getting high and making the worst life choices.
Games are power fantasy, and sure saving the world is cool and all but I already do my best impression of responsible adult IRL and doing it in games too can get stale.
DA has been getting poorer and poorer RP wise, looking forward to my very polite milk drinking pirate Lord of Fortune.

Yes, it still happened in Golorion's past. But most of the PATHFINDER 2E lore material that I've seen make a point to mention that most cultures have now either abolished slavery outright, or are in the process of dismantling it. You don't think it hurts PATHFINDER's world building that even the worst of the worst no longer traffic in lives?