Market to Me: Using sex to sell
November 2007 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Gamer Soap
- Gaming in the Media: Fallen Guitar Heroes
- Market to Me: Using sex to sell
- Gamer vs Gamer: The Virtue of Reality?
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Shelly Mazzanoble [Author, Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress]
Articles
- Gender & Live-Action Role Play: Into the Tavern, Part II
Author: Samara Hayley Steele
- Sims vs. Playboy: Sex and Relationships in the Dark Ages of Video Games
Author: Cherie Thomason
- Another Rape In Cyberspace
Author: Pat Miller
- Immaculate Reception
Author: Latoya Peterson
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP Organization.
Cherie discusses the portrayal of sex in console video games.
The trauma of a sexual assault is not limited to physical hurt. Pat discusses the violation of virtual bodies as analogous to that of real bodies, and wonders how it can be stopped.
Latoya discusses the lack of sex in mainstream video games and critiques the interplay between hyper-sexualized characters and their chaste actions.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
You hear it over and over again, “Sex sells.” While I personally think that the phrase is less a truism and more a prime example of how advertising can successfully create its own hype, I figured that I would look at two advertisements (well, one ad and one ad for a contest for a game) in this installment of Market to Me. Caution: This post contains images that are not safe for work!
Tales of Pirates
I have to admit that the naked torso is what caught my eye. It’s not every day that you see a man’s chest featured as a prominent part of an advertisement. It certainly isn’t a traditional look for a pirate, although his skull-and-crossbones bandanna and the Tales of Pirates name both label him as one. But, while the ad certainly raised some questions (and my eyebrows), I’m not entirely sure that the look was done for titillation, or even with a female audience in mind. In fact, since the MMO is from a company based in Hong Kong, I think there’s a good chance that the character is supposed to be one that the guys can identify with, rather than one whose sole purpose is for the girls to drool over (although I’m not saying that it can’t be bit of both).
From a marketing perspective, it certainly caught my eye, although not for the reasons that were probably intended. The ad probably would get a lot more women looking at the page than men, since the character is not so much in line with Western ideals of masculinity, but he does kind of fit the “pretty boy” mold that has a large female following. From a feminist perspective I don’t think that this ad really says anything about gender equality in games, although it could be easily used in a comparison study between how male characters show flesh versus how female characters do.
Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
I’m not even sure where to start with this one. Perhaps by linking you to this post for a little background information, because there’s certainly nothing about the ad itself that lets you know what game the contest being advertised is for. Which is apparently a shooter game with two male protagonists and no prominent women in it.
So, really, I’m just going to jump on the bandwagon here and point out that it would have made a lot more sense if they had done a contest that had even a remote relation to the game. If I just stumbled upon the game’s page by accident I would probably think that they were looking for some new talent for their porn movie, not trying to promote a video game. And, actually, I would have significantly fewer problems with the contest if it were for porn, because at least it would make sense and not be feeding into the problem of the inappropriate sexualization of women in games.
On the plus side, it is a pretty clear illustration of why a lot of women feel that games — at least console games for consoles other than the Wii — aren’t for them, and why a lot of companies are losing out on money from those of us who actually like and respect women (or who *gasp* are women). In stark contrast to the Tales of Pirates character, the woman displayed on this page is not there for women to identify with but is, quite literally, there to represent “every man’s ultimate fantasy”. She also quite literally serves no purpose other than to be ogled by potential buyers of the game as, like I said, there’s no actual tie-in here to the game itself.
From a marketing perspective, this is a pretty blatant statement of, “We don’t have enough confidence that our game can stand on its own, so we’ll thrown in some naked women and hope people buy it because of that!” In other words, it’s a good way to sound the death knell of your product because a lot of gamers have learned, from experience, that throwing a “hot chick” in ads or on the covers when she has no relation to the actual game is a sign that the publishers think that doing so is the only way to sell it. From a feminist perspective… well, this is such a blatant and outright show of sexism, sexual objectification and the male gaze that I really don’t feel the need to go into it.
Closing Thoughts
I’ve always been a firm believer that good games are what sell games. Good games certainly are what make franchises, and slapping a scantily clad, busty lady in the promotional material is not a substitute. Sure, there are some (primarily male) gamers who will appreciate it, but there are just as many, if not more, who have gotten wise to the tactic. Once bitten, twice shy and all that jazz. Not to mention that it sends a message to the majority of the game’s potential female consumer base (even more than excluding women from being active characters) that, “This isn’t the game for you, ladies!” (imagine it said with a voice dripping condescension).
On the other hand, I think that the Tales of Pirates ad was a great example of a sexy character design that isn’t objectifying. Yes, part of that is because it’s much harder to objectify a man since there isn’t the same history of objectification and the male gaze. And, yes, another part of it is because men’s bare chests are typically seen as symbols of strength (see superhero comics for reference), not objects of titillation, like women’s are. But I think that his active pose and the clear emphasis on encouraging identification with him also did a lot to give him an interesting, and clearly positive, portrayal. While it would be impossible to do the same exact picture with a female character and not have it travel into objectification territory, I do think that the “sexy, not sexualized” look can be obtained using the same tactics of designing a female character for women to identify with, rather than to be “every man’s ultimate fantasy”.
Article © November 2007 by Andrea Rubenstein.
