I recently got a female friend of mine into World of Warcraft (sorry), and as we sat there, playing together, she turned to me and asked "what's with all the gigantic boobs?" Having been gaming regularly for as long as I can remember, it's gotten to the point where I take certain things for granted. If I'm playing a Japanese RPG then the end boss will probably turn into a monster, a bigger monster, or an angel-monster during the final battle. If there are alien eggs on the ground, they will hatch or explode in your face (or both!) in just a few moments. If there is a girl, she will have unnecessarily large cans.

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But it's far worse than that. Women in games are usually treated as little more than eye-candy, and frequently, developers will give you a "sassy" female sidekick so annoying that, when given the option, you'd rather shoot her and fail the mission than spend another minute with her whining and yelling for you to save her. When they're not vapid scenery-with-a-mouth, they're helpless objects that need saving. Games are obviously not the only offending medium, but as one of the few popular mediums that has a chance to really develop a character with some depth, games are one of the biggest and most avoidable repeat offenders.I was in denial at first. My friend said I probably couldn't even name ten strong female characters who weren't completely over-sexualized, and I was positive I could. I got to five off the top of my head, two of whom were disembodied artificial intelligences -- I'll get to them shortly. We debated whether the AIs should even count, finding myself truly grasping at straws. Five characters out of hundreds and hundreds of character-driven games. Meanwhile, interesting male characters are a dime a dozen.That outfit does not look battle-ready. Why should this be? I tried to justify it by saying that developers know their market -- males -- and that their market, whether we like it or not, likes boobs and little else. That's not true, though. In gaming, the product defines the market. The Sims had a player base split down the middle because it offered something appealing regardless of gender. On top of that, I'm a heterosexual male, and while I guess I don't actively dislike boobs in games, I like great characters in games far more. The compulsive need for developers to make their female characters overly sexy tends to detract from my immersion, especially when they're wearing what amounts to a metal bikini to a freakin' swordfight. Oh good, at least she's got the important part protected, right? In other cases the female character is meant to serve as a traditional love interest for the protagonist. Love stories are popular, but if they're mishandled -- as they so often are -- I find myself liking neither the female nor the protagonist.This was especially true in Mass Effect 2 with Miranda. If she had been a little less overtly sexualized I may have been more likely to actually pay any attention to what she had to say. Instead I found myself instinctually half-listening whenever she began talking. Which brings me back to the Why. Because sex sells, and therefore boobs are a sure bet?Perhaps you are asking yourself why having a billion busty babes in games is a bad thing. There are the moral reasons; it portrays and perpetuates unrealistic and frankly unhealthy body images, and regularly paints women as little more than something to save and/or bang. You can see the symptoms of this mentality whenever a girl speaks over voice-chat. I knew someone who once said that women should never talk in online games because of this phenomenon. Invariably the male audience is split into those who instantly assume she is/will be useless at the game, or is dying for some disgusting nerd lovin'.There are the business reasons; a game with a scantily-clad woman on the cover automatically tells potential female customers that the game is intended for guys, and the developer immediately loses half the consumer base. Then there are the immersion reasons; playing as a guy trying to save and woo the princess might be fine if you're a straight male, but if you're a straight female (or a gay male for that matter), what incentive is there to keep playing?I'm sorry, what were you saying? There are a few beams of light that shine through the cave of round butts and big boobs, though, that prove that creating a truly interesting lady-character isn't impossible. Let's take a look at some sterling examples of strong female characters and see if we can find a common theme.Alyx Vance, introduced early in Half-Life 2 , is arguably my favorite female character in gaming. She's pretty, yes, but not distractingly so. She's wearing full-length jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather or sheepskin jacket, patched together with duct-tape. She doesn't have long, flowing hair -- her medium-length hair is pushed back with a hair band. She's far flung from your standard drop-dead gorgeous lady, and yet she is the closest I have come to truly caring about a completely fictional batch of polygons the way I might a close friend. The reason for this is simple -- she's realistic. She talks to you, she jokes, she fights, and she's appropriately emotional.IGN PC Exec Editor Charles Onyett tried to argue that Alyx Vance is supposed to be Gordon Freeman's love interest and is therefore flirty, which is what makes her so great: at no point in any Half-Life game does Alyx ever do any of the flirting. Neither does the perpetually mute Gordon. The only time anything overtly romantic occurs regarding the two of you is when her father suggests you two help "repopulate the planet". The reason Alyx struck Charles as the love interest was because she was so loveable that the player is naturally drawn to her.