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If I might steelman the design of Medea, and the wider concept of 'safe-horny' for a moment:
That twitter post is standard internet hyperbole, but that doesn't mean that the Medea design isn't hot. This is clearly an attractive character, and the AI redesign makes her more titillating, not necessarily more attractive. What it also does is changes the feel of the character. I've not played Hades 2 so don't know this character's role but if I saw the latter, it would instantly strike me as temptress/romance option. The former is more neutral and doesn't set expectations of what the character should do. More widely, the AI design instantly codes as male/teenage bait, and could be off-putting for other audiences. There's a big commercial drive for horniness* to be done in a 'safe' way.
What is the purpose of sexy designs and horny material in games? Unless you're playing Sex with Futa Hitler 2:Goebbling Cock, it is generally not for players to drop their controllers and start masturbating. Sex can be an important part of romance in games. Lust more generally is an important part of the human condition. 'Safe horny' allows you to make use of this in your games and storylines without casting the game instantly into the pornography bucket.
The same exact mechanism is visible in film. There is pornography, and film, and there are plenty of films that straddle the line between the two. Long before woke there has always been criticism of films that rely on crude sexual imagery as being "literal pornography" or "material for teenage boys". At the same time, there are films that are far more explicit which are still considered high art because they are handled in a very 'adult' manner.
To be fair, 'safe horny' typically eschews the overt sexuality that films can get away with; there's still some way to go in how games can present this kind of material. But the important thing for most creators is probably getting away from that 'teenage boy' category while still presenting something that says "this is a hot character and you can have sex with them".
The first Hades did this very well. A character like Megaera is not typically attractive, with harsh facial features. She's also the ex of the main character and a lot of her dialogue is romantic in nature. So how do you get people horny when you're dealing with a character that is practically ugly to look at? Just give her the most sensual voice imaginable. Instantly, the designers have found a way to horny that doesn't rely on shoving tits in your face.
Compare that with something like the FF7 remake. Here we do have Tifa's tits shoved in your face, but as a scene it's pretty teenage**. It's like an anime beach scene, with a flustered protagonist and no actual suggestion of sex, beyond "Hey look at these fat tits and hot bodies".
Imagine a situation where you were playing one of these games in front of a wife or girlfriend. Or recommending to a colleague. I think the majority would feel more comfortable with Hades, despite the fact that the actual content of Hades is more sexual, more mature, than FF7.
i think this is the steelman, that 'safe horny' allows you to communicate and use sexuality in a game without bringing the baggage of 'teenage boys' (and I use teenage boys specifically, because it's not male sexuality that it should be blocking).
That's the steelman, but the reality is that while Hades 1 did was able to tread this fine line, Hades 2 largely fails. Medea, who isn't super hot by any means, is pretty much the only hot character. Hades 1 had hot characters where needed, unique characters where needed, and plain characters where needed. Hades 2 has a bunch of uggos and ridiculous designs like disabled gods. They went so far they completely failed to signal horniness.
*I appreciate that there a few games like Overwatch where the pornography has become an active selling point, but I don't think this is something you can aim for; lots of games have had casts of hot women without getting the impact of OW.
**which isn't a problem inherently. FF7 was a game for teenage boys and not everything needs to be super sexual. The scene is suitable in terms of the rest of the game.
You can have safe 'horny' without being 'safe horny'.
I found Hades a fine game to play, never got Hades 2. Hades 1 didn't need to be hornier, it could rely on its strong gameplay. But if it were hornier I think that would've boosted sales, ceteris paribus.
Would it really be so hard to make Medea conventionally attractive? She can keep her clothes on. It doesn't make sense for there to be a beach episode in the underworld, sure. But what is the point of the world's lamest cleavage window? About 80% of ARPG players are male so far as I can tell, may as well cater to them a bit more.
Suffice to say that I have not played FF7 Rebirth, only Remake and yet I'd still already seen that cutscene you linked. Sex sells.
Back in Halo 4, Cortana was hot and mostly nude and that worked out fine, the game sold well. Nearly all Halo 4 criticism focuses on the lore and gameplay issues. Miranda was hot in Mass Effect. Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.
Or even in films, Transformers sold well and Megan Fox was a part of that. There were plenty of trashy horny movies or movies that included some hot girls and they did fine. Horror relies a lot on a promise of breasts.
There isn't a single old-looking playable woman in Genshin Impact, which is amongst the more tasteful gacha games. None of them wear these loose form-concealing outfits like Medea. All of them get loads of fanart for their colorful and engaging designs. And that's free advertising. They make tonnes of money too. Female players get pretty-boy men too. Everyone's happy.
The taste of teenage boys is perfectly fine and indeed appropriate for video games. Teenage boys are the archetypal gamers after all. I guess it would be a little embarrassing playing Bayonetta in front of a wife or girlfriend but that's not a clinching reason. The game sold well. Men decided to just play while they're by themselves or grin and bear a little embarassment. Wives and girlfriends typically hate men playing video games anyway.
I think what you're saying is real and a lot of executives in the West believe it and it materially affects outcomes. The West ceded the 'hot girls' market to Asia and Western video games suffer for it. Hades 2. Concord. Hyenas. Ugly female protagonists that look worse than the mocapped actresses they used. All because they're afraid of a few journalists being mean to them or embarrassing an audience that doesn't care so much.
While I think it is true that Western game developers have ceded a market in terms of making gooner games for teenage boys, I'm not sure that this is that important in the grand scheme of things. Hades 2, afaict, was still extremely successful. If you look at all the examples you provide, they are all big brands like Halo or critically acclaimed like Tomb Raider or Mass Effect.
Games like Concord and Hyenas, meanwhile, were mediocre attempts to enter into dead genres. Do you think it would have made a difference if Concord had some hot women characters? Maybe it would have lasted 2 weeks instead of 1.
This is not to say that there aren't some big titles which seem to go out of their way to antagonize chuds with particularly unpleasant and ugly characters, particularly female. Sony seem to revel in this across their different developers. I would guess that this is causing long term damage to their various IP. But that doesn't mean that games like Hades won't be successful even with some dodgy character design decisions
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I don't know if there are any old characters in Genshin, but some other Asian games do the thing where a character is meant to be 50-80 and all that signifies it is 2 lines on the otherwise young face. Maybe a hunched over model if they're brave. It looks silly and lazy.
There are a bunch of old characters in Genshin that look old, there's one boss who's an old woman... But she's not playable, they don't expect people to spend money on getting old women, or old men for that matter.
90% of the women also wear heels, which is a bit ridiculous given how they're constantly fighting or climbing cliff faces. Then again, there are master chefs, delivery workers and insane children on the battlefield so it's not like realism was ever the goal. Video games are supposed to be unrealistic inasfar as that makes the game more fun.
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