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

  • CommanderCloon@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    4 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.zoneEnglish
    32·
    22 hours 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.worldEnglish
      3·
      4 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.xyzEnglish
      2·
      5 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.cafeEnglish
        1·
        19 minutes 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.

    • NIB@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 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.worksEnglish
      5·
      17 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.worldEnglish
      12·
      21 hours 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.worldEnglish
    15·
    24 hours 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.zoneEnglish
    3·
    17 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.worldEnglish
    11·
    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.

  • LwL@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    Seconding the otome comment, and a link to a relevant tag on vndb - you can probably find anything from not very sexualized to pure smut on that list, and there’s often screenshots. https://vndb.org/g542

    • GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6·
      24 hours ago

      I’ve tried to get into Jojo so many times for the beautiful men, but I kinda get bored.

      Regardless ,thanks Araki. I still love the art.

      • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.todayEnglish
        2·
        22 hours ago

        Strange, cause I’m a straight(ish) dude and it hooked me in season 2. Season 1 was cool, but the hyper batshit insanity of the following seasons hits.

        • GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          20 hours ago

          I think I never finished season 1… I don’t remember exactly but I felt it had a lot of filler. Might give it a chance again if season 2 is where it ramps up.

    • Holytimes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      That’s sexualizing men for everybody. He’s asking how to do it specifically for women! It may seem like the same thing but it is different.