What is with this game and half-naked women as bosses?

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Originally Posted by Vaer

http://i.imgur.com/wsI0a5h.png

http://i.imgur.com/Yxv2YLj.jpg

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That's all there is in this game. Xande has been posted 4x now

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

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I wasn't trying to say there was disdain for female characters. I was going against their comments but just flipped to the other side. If naked makes were disgusting then the females are too. But no one spoke of it. That was the point I was trying to make

I believe this issue (as it is in most games) is that the design is geared with a predominantly male audience in mind. Because of this females are hyper-sexualized but males are not. Instead males are hyper-masculinized. There's a difference between the two, but in this case both are intended to appeal to the hetero-male audience. It's a societal thing. It's ok, and typically expected, for men to ogle women but it's frowned upon for women to engage in the same behavior. A guy sleeps around and he's a stud, but if a girl sleeps around she's a slut. In games, which are very often designed to appeal to the male gamer, its a double appeal. Hyper-sexualization of female characters offers males eye-candy and the hyper-masculinization of male characters offers idealized wish-fulfillment of the self. The babes are buxom and the guys are bad ass. That sells to male gamers (statistically speaking).

On the flip side, game companies fear (and probably rightly so) that hyper-sexualizing male characters in the hopes of appealing to female gamers (and non-hetero male gamers) would end up alienating the hetero-male gamers that make up the bulk of their customer base. It's a risk that few mainstream game companies are willing to take.

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Originally Posted by Nicodemus_Mercy

On the flip side, game companies fear (and probably rightly so) that hyper-sexualizing male characters in the hopes of appealing to female gamers (and non-hetero male gamers) would end up alienating the hetero-male gamers that make up the bulk of their customer base. It's a risk that few mainstream game companies are willing to take.

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Can you show some proof

I would buy that from some companies but this is S-E. They have a colossal female fanbase and they're very much aware of it. Most of their games are stuffed with pretty guys (including this one, to be fair - just relatively rarely in sexy boss form). Aymeric's voice alone is worth a dozen wobbling half naked female bosses.

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Originally Posted by nekuxdesu

Can you show some proof

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There was a slight controversy in the FF Mobius male character design when it was 1st shown

I'm more depressed by the complete lack of sexy/adorable female npc's to be honest. Besides Y'Shtola, female npc s that are sexy/adorable are nonexistent.

Well if you're looking for buff studs look no further than Leviathan.

http://i64.tinypic.com/2mo5tau.png

I mean I don't know who those people are but I'm sure they're buff studs!

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Originally Posted by Leep

Well if you're looking for buff studs look no further than Leviathan.

I mean I don't know who those people are but I'm sure they're buff studs!

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I give the cat a +1 but I can't approve of an elezen with that Facial Hair, sorry.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

I think you'd be disturbingly surprised at how many find her to be pretty hot, if you can look past the fact that she has a flock of wolves for a head. XD Most of the rest are animals that just happen to be female. Igeyorhm is a good pick, much like Livia sas Junius - at least, if Igeyorhm is actually female. I'm not sure that Ascians actually have genders; while we refer to them by the genders of the host bodies they possess, it's unclear whether the Ascians themselves have genders (and even if they do, are they limited to selecting hosts that are the same gender that they are?).

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I'm not surprised people find Scylla hot, because it's almost like attraction is entirely subjective. But if Scylla counts despite the fact her head is a pack of wolf-heads, and her entire lower body is a wolf body, then every male example people have been making excuses for (sephirot etc. being too inhuman) should also be allowed, because then as long as they have apparently a humanoid torso that's semi-revealing they count because some subset of people will find it attractive.

And Ascians were still people originally, only having transcended in a sense, there's no reason to assume Igeyorhm wasn't originally a female and even then that's trying to make mental gymnastics in an attempt to disqualify them in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Parodine

We're talking about gendered bosses with vaguely humanoid features, not 'Lol this Malboro is a girl and not sexy.'

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"vaguely humanoid" then huh?

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...ll=transparent

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aVj4-IxXL5w/hqdefault.jpg
senselessly exposed midriff

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NaUe97ZgpAI/hqdefault.jpg

http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/scre...ffxiv-2210.jpg

http://blog-imgs-69.fc2.com/m/a/t/ma...412_133314.png

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160225211156

http://rpgvaliant.com/wp-content/upl...nal-Design.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lLuP6NZ69vQ/maxresdefault.jpg

http://www.crazysunshine.com/ffxiv/2...ber/titan2.png

I can probably keep going...

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Originally Posted by Nicodemus_Mercy

Hyper-sexualization of female characters offers males eye-candy and the hyper-masculinization of male characters offers idealized wish-fulfillment of the self.

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This completely falls apart because there are more than plenty of female gamers who find sexy/attractive female characters to be just as empowering to them as a buff barbarian would be to men, as well as the hyper-masculinity can (and is) just as attractive to huge swathes of women. Look at romance novels, one of the largest selling genre of books, often catered exclusively to women, you'll find their covers adorned with buff half naked men (often with a woman fawning over them), yet their demographic isn't "hetero-male gamers".