OK, my contribution to this topic was probably silly. This is why I sometimes get labelled sexist. :>

Is this picture really that offensive? Since it is non-nude, and kinda funny how game controllers cover up the naughty parts, I thought the picture was amusing.

Of course, the whole discussion of boobs in games seems to be a topic for a whole new blog post. Especially after I found a few interesting links.

Threshold has long been a female friendly game which has very strong traditions and rules against harassment and sexist behavior. The fact that women can log onto this game and feel confident that they will be treated with respect and given the room and ability to explore a far wider range of role play options than most games offer is what continues to draw them to the player base.

What WONT draw them to the game is pictures that dredge up images of 15 year old basement dwellers jacking off into dirty socks. This is the sort of picture that would make me question whether I wanted to log onto the game associated with it.

Again, I have to say the community and society on Threshold (and Primordiax) is different. People do search for hot naked guys and it is almost as often a topic of discussion. “Wangs” get discussed almost as often as “boobs.” There was a really famous picture of a buff dude dressed like a pirate, with clearly visable manhood in his tights, that used to be shared often online. I wish I still had a link to the picture to share here.

But I gotta say, there is something special about boobs that goes beyond simple sexuality. Even a lot of gay men I know think boobs are pretty awesome. But I guess that is an entirely different issue.

Your search – “hottest naked guy on the internet” – did not match any documents.

Really? When I googled that I got 1,780,000 results.

The lame part though is here is image result #1:

http://www.twinsoup.com/uploaded_images/122055241815161-770215.jpg

In my years of playing Threshold, two VERY strong willed women really stick out in my memory(note their are plenty of strong willed women in Threshold, these are just the ones that stick out in my mind). If you said something they thought was innappropriate, you’d know how they felt about it pretty quick. One typically had no problem with “boob jokes”, the other often did have a problem with them. Either way, they made their opinions known, and didn’t have to hide them to “blend in”.

Your search – “hottest naked guy on the internet” – did not match any documents.

Which begs the question, are all these female players really comfortable with all of this or do they put up with it simply as a way to blend in?

Mind you, the question is meant to be generic, not picking on Threshold, I really doubt Threshold stands out in the overall gaming culture in this respect.

Threshold’s player base is about 50% female. I have found that in a community where female gamers know they are not in some insane minority, they are able to express themselves more freely without being teased or ridiculed.

As a result, our female players often joke about boobs or funny things related to the female side of sexuality.

It’s also definitely one of the most sexist ways to garner votes and doesn’t exactly contribute to increasing the amount of female gamers in online games. It rather reinforces the stereotype of the overweight geek playing alone in his parent’s basement whose only contact with a female not directly related to him is limited to the possibly female voice presenting the options on his ISP’s support phone line’s voice menu.

Hope I’ll have at least kicked off a serious conversation here.