Gaming is an exceedingly popular hobby among high school students, with a Pew Research Center survey reporting that 85% of teenagers play video games. Across story games and player-versus-player games, people are drawn to art styles, competitive modes and, especially in titles like “God of War” and “Apex Legends,” character designs. Players experience games through their characters, connecting with memorable story arcs and utilizing special abilities. Yet, despite these diverse playstyles, many character rosters lack broader representation, especially in body types.
Punisher and Psylocke from “Marvel Rivals.” Notably, many characters in “Marvel Rivals” have a history of oversexualization in comics. Photo courtesy of NetEase Games.
Several prominent games, including “Marvel Rivals,” “Mortal Kombat” and “Grand Theft Auto,” contain hypermasculine male characters and oversexualized female characters. Yash Thapliyal, MVHS alum ‘23 and founding software engineer of the startup Scorecard, observed this trend in the popular hero shooter “Overwatch,” one of the earliest games he played.
“‘Overwatch’ spent a lot of time developing these internal cultural worlds, as well as connecting them to the real world,” Thapliyal said. “When it started out, ‘Overwatch’ was praised for its diversity of characters: the races, the cultures that they come from, the body type, whether they are wider, thinner or even non-human. But a lot of their recent characters have the typical slim frame and slim face, looking like standard, conventionally attractive characters. A lot of people are really upset because that’s not a direction they want the company to be going in.”
Thapliyal points to the controversy surrounding “Overwatch’s” newest character, Anran, as a prime example of this phenomenon. Recently, players discovered via face-swapping that Anran and an earlier character, Kiriko, have identical, conventionally attractive facial structures. According to Game Design Officer and game developer major at UC Irvine Zoya McDonnell, much of this homogenization is due to high demand for in-game cosmetics, with sexualized character skins selling well. Yahoo Finance estimates the overall cosmetic market in games such as “Fortnite” and “Counter-Strike” at $50 billion.
A side-by-side comparison of “Overwatch” heroes Anran, Kiriko and Juno. Photo courtesy of Overwatch Forums.
“Developers want to appeal to the players’ fantasy,” McDonnell said. “It’s very rare to play a video game where you’re not a muscular main character. And when you play as a woman, usually, they’re attractive. The way they sexualize females is more disempowering in that those designs wouldn’t be as practical. Whereas for men, when they’re sexualized, they look stronger, or they look more capable of dealing damage.”
As someone with experience building 2D platformers, Thapliyal adds that, with the rise of premade models sourced from the Unity Asset Store, it is often more cost-efficient to use premade, standardized assets. Beyond economic motives, English teacher Jessica Kaufman believes there is a larger problem: game development is a male-dominated industry, with men making up more than two-thirds of developers, leading to more characters designed for the male gaze. According to Kaufman, exaggerated character designs are problematic because they reinforce unrealistic beauty standards.
Illustration | Jonah Chang
“Everything in society and every kind of media influences what we think people should be or not be,” Kaufman said. “We look at celebrity culture, and that’s exaggerated to a degree, too. It already creates an unachievable standard. Video games are animated, so there’s even more leeway there to design characters in an over-exaggerated way. When you add the ability to mold anything, it takes that to the extreme.”
McDonnell previously conducted a study on how players interact with video game characters, from which she concluded that people enjoy playing as characters who they feel represented by. For instance, she mentions two non-binary participants gravitating toward non-binary characters in “Apex Legends.” However, participants generally reported struggling to relate to overly sexualized characters, suggesting that, while these designs may appeal to some players, they can also alienate others.
“If a lot of what people take in, since their lives are on the internet, are just women in support roles — dressed in certain ways — it’ll harm their real view of the world,” McDonnell said. “I think it’s important that these spaces reflect reality. Of course, no one wants to play a game where you pay taxes and are rejected. But it’s also about showing multiple sides of humanity and not just a fantasy that’s curated to just feel good and keep you addicted to the game.”
“Celeste” is a 2D platformer that explores mental health. Photo courtesy of Nintendo.
Thapliyal agrees with McDonnell, noting that he feels most connected with characters who are more realistic. He highlights story games, such as “Celeste,” that create diverse, memorable characters as models for how developers should approach character design.
“Not having clear skin, people having glasses on, even just having a little bit more meat on their bones, generally, are things that are relatable for somebody to have,” Thapliyal said. “I also think the story has a large part to do with relatability. I love games with stories that go introspective and explore different emotions. ‘Celeste’ does a really good job of going through the process of finding oneself and what it means to be satisfied with yourself, and does a really good job of expressing that through the character design.”
Like Thapliyal, in the story-based role-playing games she plays, Kaufman prefers characters who are more like her, even in fantasy settings. McDonnell is working on a game that equips people to deal with real life, and has applied this design philosophy to implement that realism.
“It’s important to have a diverse group of characters because real life is diverse,” McDonnell said. “It makes sense for our story and for our setting to have different characters that aren’t just written to be stereotypes.”
Illustration | Jonah Chang
Thapliyal has noticed a shift among developers toward greater consideration of diversity and representation. To further combat stereotypical character designs, he wants to see healthy competition continuing to encourage experimentation. For instance, Thapliyal notes that competition between “Marvel Rivals” and “Overwatch 2” has led to more creative characters in both hero shooters, such as Fika, a jetpack cat inspired by Rocket Raccoon.
In addition to more experimentation, Kaufman wants to see more female protagonists in story games. She notes that, while racial diversity and physical blemishes like scars are growing more popular, gender is rather binary, and there are fewer non-male lead characters. According to Kaufman, one way to bring about this change would be to advocate to game developers, pressuring them on social media to drive discourse.
However, McDonnell cautions against companies forcing diversity for the sake of profit without diligently creating a culture that explores those characters and values representation. Furthermore, she does not want companies to censor characters by removing skins or banning games, referencing that fully clothed characters are still sexualized, such as in “Dark Souls.”
Rather, McDonnell believes there should be healthier online discourse about characters. For example, she feels that sexualized fan art of video game characters not only upholds stereotypes but also stunts artists’ creativity. For now, Thapliyal believes the best approach is for players to interact with these exaggerated characters in an appropriate way, separating real life from the world of video games.
“Take it as not real,” Thapliyal said. “I’m playing ‘Call of Duty.’ I’m not going around with an AR-15, right? Pretty simple as that. My playing ‘Final Fantasy’ does not mean I have a six-pack, as much as I would love that. Take everything with a grain of salt. The way things are designed is more so from a budget perspective and an eye-catching perspective, rather than a realistic standpoint from which you should view yourself. Simply put, look around outside. You don’t see people like that.”
