I'm not even sure how much porn has to do with it. I'd bet anything that 90% of these people would not care about plain-looking female characters if they hadn't been marinating in a massively funded, far-reaching right-wing media sphere that's constantly telling them that the scary minorities and woke DEI conspiracy are out to destroy their precious video games.
Yeah porn is a different issue, like the chuds losing their shit over the protagonist having slightly less sexualized outfits than advertised in stellar blade
marinating in a massively funded, far-reaching right-wing media sphere that's constantly telling them that the scary minorities and woke DEI conspiracy are out to destroy their precious video games.
Yeah I think that's probably a big part of it. Like with the whole recent Sidney Sweeney thing were some paparazzi got pics of her at the pool where she still looked hot by the standards of 99% of hetero men but still not as hypersexualized as in her modeling pics and so Incel creeps freaked out over it. Or people getting angry about how Ciri looked in the Witcher 4 trailer. I'm convinced they're sort of "doing a bit", or maybe not a "bit" per-say but that a lot of their reaction is performative, that they're reacting this way because they feel they're supposed to as "part of the cause". As anti-feminist CHUDs they feel like this is how they're supposed to react, even if they don't genuinely feel that way.
True, but part of why women have an easier time identifying with male protagonists in video games is that we, especially when we're on the older side, didn't have much of a choice for most of our lifetimes. Women (and in fact all marginalized groups) are still used to not being represented, white cishet males aren't. They've been socialised in a media landscape that revolves entirely around people intended as role models or self inserts for them. This is why they're now at the point were even the option to play as something else than a stoic one liner hyperpatriarch has become triggering to them.
I think this honestly is a fairly new culture war phenomenon anyway, that only came about around the gamergate era. I don't remember anybody complaining about games with women or minority protags before that, and while scarce, they existed and many of them were hits.
Exactly, if you wanted to play video games you had to play as a dude.
Even worse, if they did include a woman character they either looked like a stripper or a pretty pink princess, which is fine if that's what you want but that's not a lot of choices. Funny how looking back as an enby I usually chose non-human characters if given the option as their gender is usually more ambiguous.
Hell, you get so used to not being catered to that you don't even think of it.
This is why whenever cis white dude complain about something the rest of us had to get used to as children I'm just like "Oh this is your first time feeling this way?"
bit idea: nofap guy who begrudgingly plays Satisfactory and Slime Rancher to heal his dopamine. Has a panic attack while playing Stardew Valley as a gorl and proposing to one of the male romanceables.
People blame porn but I'm not sure I buy it. Women in porn are actual women, hot women but real women. I encounter women who are attractive enough they could probably be porn stars almost daily. These weirdos ideal woman is so hyper sexualized it doesn't seem connected to reality at all. Honestly I think anime and hentai is more to blame.