The short answer for me is yes.
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
Not sure what update you want though.You said before you train kendo in our many martial arts discussions.
Same.
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
As a woman who's favorite genre of video game is probably JRPG's the above is a large reason why I don't really tend to engage in communities for said games or avoid comment sections for articles about them as in my experience it's nothing but a bunch of men arguing over "Waifu wars" bleh... Has also lead to a rapid decrease in my interest for anime and many jrpgs as a whole these past couple years too as many Japanese games seem to be heading even deeper down that hole of making overly sexualized female characters because it sells and that culture then crosses over to characters who aren't inherently sexualized becoming sexualized in some way. Long story short the answer is yes.
Pretty much agree with this. It's not terrible in the Final Fantasy community but I always side eye guys who say they don't like Yuna in FFX-2 (who is more outspoken and confident) compared to her character in X (where she is more demure and quiet). Being a fan of Tifa Lockhart is also especially hard as a result of this.
Really ruins talking about overwatch. they have a bunch of cool characters and its really frustrating that "waifu" comes up so much :\ (especially for mei)Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
Even then, it's just the Gunner Dress Sphere that has her in that outfit.I noticed that too but it isn't just men who call Yuna nothing but a "slut" in FFX-2. I've known a few female fans who said the same thing and it's always rubbed me the wrong way because she never does anything to even remotely deserve that label besides be inspired by Rikku's fashion sense.
I noticed that too but it isn't just men who call Yuna nothing but a "slut" in FFX-2. I've known a few female fans who said the same thing and it's always rubbed me the wrong way because she never does anything to even remotely deserve that label besides be inspired by Rikku's fashion sense.
That's definitely true! I've talked to other female fans who didn't like it originally and have convinced to be more open about certain things about the game. It isn't much but it's something. Speaking of Rikku, I always hated how people labeled her as stupid in X-2 as well. I honestly wouldn't mind a sequel starring her.
It's uh, a balancing act.
On one hand, sometimes the women characters billed by guys as "waifu's" are actually really cool characters who happen to be girls.
On the other, you have situations where the creators probably didn't put too much care into the female audiences thoughts on the character deliberately made them a waifu.
So it's not always 1:1.
Like, how's your training and everything?
As a woman who's favorite genre of video game is probably JRPG's the above is a large reason why I don't really tend to engage in communities for said games or avoid comment sections for articles about them as in my experience it's nothing but a bunch of men arguing over "Waifu wars" bleh... Has also lead to a rapid decrease in my interest for anime and many jrpgs as a whole these past couple years too as many Japanese games seem to be heading even deeper down that hole of making overly sexualized female characters because it sells and that culture then crosses over to characters who aren't inherently sexualized becoming sexualized in some way. Long story short the answer is yes.
Really ruins talking about overwatch. they have a bunch of cool characters and its really frustrating that "waifu" comes up so much :\ (especially for mei)
Also for rpgs I really liked Makoto from persona 5 cause I feel like I could relate to a lot of her character development. that's not exactly the first thing people would mention when you bring her up
and just general even if you're not trying to have a conversation its offputting to hear the huge discrepancy of how male characters are seen compared to women characters. ofc it also just hurts that its mostly male spaces where you get to talk about games and the perspective is considerably skewed
Haha yes. I usually roll my eyes at my male friends or any guy who refers to women in games as "waifus". I sometimes want to talk about what I like about them as a person and their strengths etc. but their opinion on them usually is summed up with "her tits are great m8". So it's usually a pointless endeavour.Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
Yay, another Rikku fan! I recently played through FFX HD and she is one of the strongest fighters in the game once you start really levelling her up. I love mixing things with her. (Also, Tara Strong is awesome).Rikku is actually my favorite FFX series character. Outfit in the sequal aside I just loved her bubbly personality and she was a lot of fun to use with her battle mixes and stuff.
oh my gosh we're dying haha. Say what you will about Jim, but he sure knows how to be dramatic
Ohhhh, thanks for sharing! I watched the first video, can't wait to watch the rest! I love these academic approaches to gaming and gender/minority issues, we need more of them.This thread is potentially interesting to y'all (fair warning, it's lengthy, which may explain the lack of participation...)
https://www.resetera.com/threads/how-gaming-culture-maintains-male-dominance.3641/
No, waifus are usually characters that are not very deep nor offer much of character to the player (they usually have one personality trait they are limited to), which obviously is to make it less difficult to decide for which one to settle. What does annoy me are characters that are unnecessarily reduced to their display of boobs, but this usually happens by community, not developer. As a part of the gaming community I know that there are many out there who feel the need to reduce woman to their boobs. I am able to ignore such comments.Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
No, there was a panel of women who were able to answer anonymously. But someone had to collect the answers and post them, and no one had time or wanted to do it. Some people didn't want to reveal too much of themselves answering questions in the open.
It seems like every time someone comes in the thread for the first time they're surprised to realize it exists so it might be good just to have women realize it exists
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
I noticed that too but it isn't just men who call Yuna nothing but a "slut" in FFX-2. I've known a few female fans who said the same thing and it's always rubbed me the wrong way because she never does anything to even remotely deserve that label besides be inspired by Rikku's fashion sense.
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
oh my gosh we're dying haha. Say what you will about Jim, but he sure knows how to be dramatic
I know making fun r/incels is shooting fish in a barrel but this was worth it.
No, waifus are usually characters that are not very deep nor offer much of character to the player (they usually have one personality trait they are limited to), which obviously is to make it less difficult to decide for which one to settle. What does annoy me are characters that are unnecessarily reduced to their display of boobs, but this usually happens by community, not developer. As a part of the gaming community I know that there are many out there who feel the need to reduce woman to their boobs. I am able to ignore such comments.
Also most of those games (Story of Seasons, but also p3) don't offer the same variety in characters in male hubbies as waifus. I mean I get to choose between equal amount of female and male characters, but usually you have the choice between a playboy, the im too smart for you dude and some kind of workaholic. At the same time character design usually already gets you 2 excluded simply because they are not really likable designed. While all the male main character gets are at least more fully worked out personalities (for those standards) and pretty girls with different unique but likable character designs. If I could, I would go lesbian in games because the female canidates, while bad, are still better than the male.
Persona 3 psvita soullinks are a good example, you could tell it wasn't really build for you to aim for a relationship with a male npc.
I recall that some gaming side once reviewed a Visual Novel from otome (do you know those? They basically produce VN with hubbies counterparts to RPGs with waifus) and their conclusion was "Male characters are super badly written and limited in their personality, the story isn't really good either. After i decided for a husband I started to question if this game is really something woman like." — the writer was male of course. All I could think of is, that those games aren't much different from your usual rpg with love canidates of opposite gender stuff.
Thanks for the heads up! I've looked at fabfitfun in the past and generally like it, but I'm afraid of getting "big" items (like accessories or full size products) that I won't ever use. Have you had that problem?FabFitFun is having an insane add-on sale. My cart is at $380 right now, but I'm justifying it because I now have gifts for all my girlfriends, coworkers, and even my mom!
Still have to figure out what to get my husband and dad and male friends, but I'll figure that out.... eventually...
*edit: meow , in case you were interested in sub boxes.
Thanks for the heads up! I've looked at fabfitfun in the past and generally like it, but I'm afraid of getting "big" items (like accessories or full size products) that I won't ever use. Have you had that problem?
No, it doesn't bother me.Hi Ladies!
Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
I'm a gay male myself and I love talking about gender in media, especially in regards to female representation, and RPGs are usually my fav genre. I find it really grating when cool women like Lucina or Lyn from the FE series get treated like this. Half the commentary in fandoms is about their looks and the reason for their popularity is often treated as such. I find that undermines the good writing these women get and distills them into "waifus" as opposed to cool women whom can be appealing to women. Devs sometimes pander to that mindset as well and it makes things worse. I've never heard a woman's perspective about this and was wondering what some of ya'll RPG fans feel about this aspect of fandom. I hate going into a JRPG trailer that features women and have most of the comments be about "waifu wars."
Oh yeah, I agree, the men are always given far less attention than the women in dating sims, they often seem to be afterthoughts :/No, waifus are usually characters that are not very deep nor offer much of character to the player (they usually have one personality trait they are limited to), which obviously is to make it less difficult to decide for which one to settle. What does annoy me are characters that are unnecessarily reduced to their display of boobs, but this usually happens by community, not developer. As a part of the gaming community I know that there are many out there who feel the need to reduce woman to their boobs. I am able to ignore such comments.
Also most of those games (Story of Seasons, but also p3) don't offer the same variety in characters in male hubbies as waifus. I mean I get to choose between equal amount of female and male characters, but usually you have the choice between a playboy, the im too smart for you dude and some kind of workaholic. At the same time character design usually already gets you 2 excluded simply because they are not really likable designed. While all the male main character gets are at least more fully worked out personalities (for those standards) and pretty girls with different unique but likable character designs. If I could, I would go lesbian in games because the female canidates, while bad, are still better than the male.
Persona 3 psvita soullinks are a good example, you could tell it wasn't really build for you to aim for a relationship with a male npc.
I recall that some gaming side once reviewed a Visual Novel from otome (do you know those? They basically produce VN with hubbies counterparts to RPGs with waifus) and their conclusion was "Male characters are super badly written and limited in their personality, the story isn't really good either. After i decided for a husband I started to question if this game is really something woman like." — the writer was male of course. All I could think of is, that those games aren't much different from your usual rpg with love canidates of opposite gender stuff.
Short answer: YES!
It's especially distracting with games that are serious or don't focus on fanservice. You then have OTs filled with waifu wars and sharing pictures.
When I see this stuff in games and threads, I find it mostly sad and very uninviting. I also feel offended. It shows that guys are either a) completely unaware how that makes girls feel or b) they don't give a shit that these discussions are out in the open for everyone to see. I really do feel as if I'm lost and walked in a boys club by accident.
However, I DO understand that some think it's fun or harmless and it can be done more respectively. When games offer this option to both girls and guys then I can at least feel that we are not left out and we have the choice if we want to give it a try. The option needs to remain optional though and should be easy to ignore. I feel that the newer Fire Emblem games did a pretty good job of that. Also, the waifu and husbando discussions should have separate threads to make the OTs easy to navigate.
It's frustrating since it ruins a lot of general discussion on female characters and personalities for certain games like Persona. If I'd like to talk about Haru for example it'd be very difficult to get genuine views on her motivations and actions and much easier to hear about how men dislike her clothes or the size of her forehead which to me is a very strange mindset to have towards such well written characters. I'd understand if it was Senran Kagura or a dating sim where "waifus" were the primary goal but it feels inconsiderate to reduce complex characters to basic sexual objects like that and then push that as a discussion point on the game.
As much as I love Stardew Valley it does the same thing. The male characters that you can marry, for the most part, are so eh. You've got a Fabio character, a bro character, a nerd, a skater, basically no one that I want. At least Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility had Owen. Thankfully, with Stardew Valley you can be a lesbian and that's what I'm doing on my second play through. The girls are a lot nicer and just more enjoyable to "talk' too.
Personally I hate the term waifu. It's ruined the Splatoon 2 community for me. I haven't been in a thread since shortly after launch because all it was, was Pearl vs Marina and just got so disgusting.
It doesn't bother me either.
as long as you're not doing it to real women, that is
The term waifu itself just describes the cartoonish way japanese developers display one personality trait. That itself isn't really too bad, as its neccessary given the context of the games. (Easy decision etc.)It doesn't bother me either.
as long as you're not doing it to real women, that is
It's what killed Splatoon 2's Splatfestivals for me. It became more about tactical voting and who'd vote for its own opinion and who for Marina instead of the topics.
I care about a lot of stupid shit really intensely, but waifu talk and waifu wars are beyond the pale. I truly don't understand the sincerity with which people will go to bat for their favourite female character - not in the face of actual literary criticism, but just to argue that she's better than other female characters. There needs to be a study on waifu obsession. Someone fund this.Just a question for the general female RPG audience- do you guys get annoyed when a majority of the women in RPGs get referred to as "waifus", and the following, horndog dialogue that often ensues, typically by straight men.
Will you be my waifu?I care about a lot of stupid shit really intensely, but waifu talk and waifu wars are beyond the pale. I truly don't understand the sincerity with which people will go to bat for their favourite female character - not in the face of actual literary criticism, but just to argue that she's better than other female characters. There needs to be a study on waifu obsession. Someone fund this.
I never noticed this thread until now because it was different from old place.
Beep boop i am femoid give me game
femoid isn't a play on android. It's more like insectoid or humanoid or alienoid. The idea is that women are so alien in our thought patterns and behaviors and treatment of these men that we must not even be the same species as them.