thread: 2006-08-16 : GenCon 06 observations 1-4
On 2006-08-17, wundergeek wrote:
Fantasy art does not have to be chainmail bikini porn in order to sell. Case in point, I was delighted to find one of my favorite artists, Stephanie Pui Mun Law, there and was amused to note that seemingly all the women at the con had flocked to her booth because her art didn't feature the stupid pinups that most other booths did.
That being said, I was equally delighted to pass a booth that featured beefcake barbarian MEN right next to the cheesecake barbarian women. Equal opportunity objectivication! Chainmail bikini porn wouldn't bother me nearly so much if beefcake barbarians were equally prevalent. It's the disparity that bothers me, the cognitive divide between women as sexual objects and women as heroes in their own right.
It would be nice to have sexuality treated in an adult manner in games, but gaming as a whole hasn't really come to terms with the fact that it's core audience has grown past teenaged males. So for now, it doesn't really surprise me that the only games trying to treat sexuality seriously are indie games.
