You're entitled to your opinion, and to spend your money how you like. But your defence seems to either misunderstand what I'm saying, or to intentionally confuse the issue to deflect from the obvious point. Not about shirtless people. Not about anyone's right to an art style. Not about realism. It's about the asymmetrical hypersexualization of female characters.
And yes, this happens in games I like. I don't have to like every aspect of something I enjoy. I also don't have to think a game is "nothing more" than a conduit for the male gaze, in order to think that the sorceress model is both sexist and ridiculous.
To be clear to everyone, I'm talking about the design, not about the players. People can like things for all sorts of reasons, and I've played plenty of games that suffer from these issues. Diablo (II more than I) wasn't exactly perfect on that metric, but it's a fair sight better than most. I can actually imagine the women fighting in that costume, within the universe they've created. I'm okay with weird universes and magical powers. I'm even okay with extremely sexualized worlds - actually, I prefer them, though this isn't much explored in most games.
-Jester
And yes, this happens in games I like. I don't have to like every aspect of something I enjoy. I also don't have to think a game is "nothing more" than a conduit for the male gaze, in order to think that the sorceress model is both sexist and ridiculous.
To be clear to everyone, I'm talking about the design, not about the players. People can like things for all sorts of reasons, and I've played plenty of games that suffer from these issues. Diablo (II more than I) wasn't exactly perfect on that metric, but it's a fair sight better than most. I can actually imagine the women fighting in that costume, within the universe they've created. I'm okay with weird universes and magical powers. I'm even okay with extremely sexualized worlds - actually, I prefer them, though this isn't much explored in most games.
-Jester