Everyone knows how to sexualize female characters in video games.
But how to sexualize male characters and do “fan service” for the female audience?

  • DrPop@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    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.

  • Bluedragon012@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Oh that’s easy, make them vaugly gay and twinky. Now if you are trying to arouse… Make them REALLY gay.

  • agent_nycto@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    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.

  • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
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    10 hours ago

    I like feminine/twink guys, so everyone recommending bug 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 💀

  • Hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    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.

    • bampop@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      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.

    • Simulation6@sopuli.xyz
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      10 hours ago

      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.

      • NannerBanner@literature.cafe
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        6 hours ago

        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.

        • BranBucket@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          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.

    • NIB@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      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.

    • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      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.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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.

  • Aganim@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    But how to sexualize male characters and do “fan service” for the female audience?

    Easy, just add Caius Cosades to your game:

  • eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    22 hours ago

    Watch some episodes of Charmed and look at the characters the sisters are flirting with, they are all different kinds of straight woman wish fulfillment.

    Ofc women also sometimes are in the mood to get railed and knocked up, then a big hairy muscular guy is often the thing. But that mood comes upon most women relatively rarely. It’s a kind of comfort and trust that makes you want to melt into a guy.

  • jellyfishhunter@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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.