Kano has *certainly* caught my eye in MKX..

Definitely a conscious effort to sex him up. NRS targeting the gaymers there I think. One or two male hotties is more than enough though. We've had 9 games of scantily clad dominatrix female ninjas, so seems fair.

Oh - and Jax has always been pretty sexy too. Cage has had his moments.

Oh boy, another excuse to have a gay character in the game.

I can't speak to what homosexuals are attracted to, but it's a scientific fact that women find different characteristics attractive than men do. (For example, they mostly don't like looking at dongs the way dudes like to look at naked chick-parts, that's why a thong on a man is considered comedy instead of titillation)

And half the males in the cast are already shirtless with 6-pack abs (Shao Kahn has always been almost completely naked and built like Fabio)...and apparently that's not doing it for people.

That's why the whole double-standard exists in comics where a chick with a perfect body dressed to show it off is called "sexist" but a man with a perfect body dressed to show it off is called a "male power fantasy". Because women usually don't care to look at drawings of muscles the way men will enjoy fanservice-y art, and on the flip side, when a man sees a good looking dude, he sees a role model, but when a woman sees a good looking chick, she sees competition and gets jealous. And thus whiny blogs about representation in the media are born.

(Generalizing and speaking of averages, of course.)
Also note that Boon is on record as recognizing that they took the skimpy outfits too far in MK9 and are toning the chick-skin back in X (probably due to all the complaints that Sonya and Kitana's costumes didn't match their personalities/storylines). So now is hardly the time for unnecessary and out-of-character sexualized portrayals of either gender.

^This



^And this.
That's what I have to say.

Ladies and gentleman allow me to introduce the ever so fabulous villains of jojo's bizarre adventure. . . . . . The Pillar Men

Because there is no point, especially just for the sake of having one.

The only one I can see "scantily clad" in the game is Rain, but even then that's a stretch. I always thought of him to be super handsome and arrogant, so I'd suspect him kinda showing a bit of flesh here and there , but again nothing over the top like a thong.

I kinda didn't like his MK9 costume, he felt waaayy to covered up. He seems like a show my awesome chest and arms kinda guy. Something like Vega from SF

This. The female characters are sexualized because the main target demographic is: Straight males. Over-sexualized male characters is not a cute look to the target demographic. Muscular, shirtless guys may be empowering to the typical MK fan, and skimpy outfits for the females serve as eye candy, over-sexualized males is neither.

The overly sexualized look/attitude of the MK9 females was just silly, I don't want any character to suffer that treatment unless is consistent with his/her personality.

It's not double standard. The skimpy-looking females are there to serve as eye candy to the straight male, the main target demographic, they were not created to empower female readers/gamers because they are not the main demographic of superhero comics/videogames. The shirtless, six-pack male characters were created with the male players/fans in mind, to serve as empowering tools.

Sonya and Kitana are oversexualized characters because they were created with straight males in mind, to serve as sexual objects and eye candy. This is why they are considered over sexualized characters. Shao Kahn and Liu Kang are not sexualized characters because they were created with male gamers in mind, despite being shirtless, they are not going to be found attractive to their main demographic, thus, they are not over-sexualized characters.

If NRS keeps it up, the over-sexualized attitude of all of the female characters will be seen as befitting to them eventually. In recent times, Mileena's "provocative" attitude and look have been aproved by fans and players in general, because it's "befetting" to her, yet they were quick to forget that, before MKD, Mileena never showed any sign of her personality being like that, not in her endings, poses, etc. 10 years later, it's OK and a good fit. I wonder if by 2020, Jade pole-dancing and Sonya wearing no shirt will be acceptable?

Let me explain the flaw in your logic in four words:

ROMANCE

NOVEL

COVER

ART

Those beefy dudes with with their shirts either off or unbuttoned just enough to show off male cleavage look EXACTLY THE SAME as comic book strongmen and Mortal Kombat characters.

But they are meant to appeal to FEMALE readers.

So the difference that defines the concept of the "male power fantasy" is ENTIRELY artificial and imagined by people who are LOOKING for something to be upset about.

And it's all because, again, the kind of women who get mad at art of a woman with an appealing body and don't think it's the same thing as art of a man with an appealing body, they do so because they don't like the concept of having role models or being challenged to improve themselves, they don't want to climb a mountain, they want someone to cut off the top of the mountain for them so they can declare where they're already standing is the mountain top.

These are the same people who invented the phrase "fat shaming", because they'd rather force the world to stop calling being out of shape "unhealthy" even though it scientifically IS, so they don't have to do the hard work of having willpower and changing their poor lifestyles or have to feel bad about how lazy they are anymore.

These are the people who insisted when we were kids that Barbie was too skinny and her tits were too big and she gave little kids an "unrealistic image of beauty"...not because they actually cared about children trying to emulate the way a fucking plastic toy looks, but because Barbie made GROWN-ASS ADULTS feel bad about themselves.

Frankly, I consider the whole argument intellectually dishonest and even outright immoral.
The part that bothers me most is the women who argue this stuff would not become customers of the medium they want to change even if it WAS changed to their liking, because they don't actually read/play comics or video games in the first place and have never really wanted to partake in the hobby (outside perhaps of facebook and phone games), they just want the media to listen to them...and comics and video games are smalltime enough that their voices aren't being ignored like they would be if they were complaining about TV and movies. (Did you know that there's footage of Anita Sarkeesian, before she ever started doing her videos, saying that she doesn't play or like video games because she thinks they're all violent shooters?)
Real fangirls aren't the type to get mad that a female character is dressed skimpy or "objectified", many of them fucking COSPLAY as those characters.

Most of the Mortal Kombat cast has no personality in MK1 thru 4.

The ones who do got theirs from the first movie. Mileena wasn't in the first movie.

Speaking of Ms. Sarkeesian...

Some group of people sent her an email threatening to shoot up Utah state university because they found out that She was going to speak there; basically forcing her to cancel the trip...

I'm sure she and her Twitter friends will blame the actions of whatever loony called that threat in on all the gamers in the entire world as if we're a hivemind, and use it as further proof of how widespread the alleged misogyny in the industry is.
What a wonderful time we live in. I remember about a month ago I read a tweet by some so-called "games journalist" saying that #GamerGate was "setting the industry back ten years" and all I could think was how great all the games that came out in 2004 were and how disappointing 2014 has been...'course, the first year with new consoles always sucks, but still.

And what are you trying to prove? What i said is factual, Mileena started to be a sexual character in MKD, 12 years after her debut, and people are fine with her being like that now, even though there were a lot of complaints at the time of MKD release. I'm wondering if gamers will warm up to Kitana's, Sonya's and Jade's over-sexualized images if the team continues with them.

Where?

Not on MKO. I was here, I'd remember.

The majority consensus on MKO has for as long as I can recall been that it was a good addition because it was justifiable by her (pre-reboot) origin where she was considered a failure as a clone and Kitana was treated as the favorite "sister", so the idea that she'd show off her good assets while hiding her ugly face she should be ashamed of made sense to everybody.

What I'm "trying to prove" is that giving a character a personality when they didn't have one before is not a problem, if that personality is a natural fit with their established background. Adding personality traits is only bad if the new ones CONTRADICT pre-existing ones, which Mileena in Deception did not do.

On the other hand, people might get used to the idea of Sonya looking slutty if they keep doing it, but it'll always be in a cynical, disappointed way. They'll never really grow to *like* it if they're a generally logical person, because dressing like a stripper doesn't make sense for Sonya's STORY of being a lieutenant in the Army. Her outfit should look like a valid uniform, not high heels and a wide-open vest with no undershirt or bra. That makes her look more like a "sexy soldier" Halloween costume instead of field gear that even a cartoon soldier from G.I. Joe would wear.
As for Kitana...well, consider that in MK9 Story Mode, she begins wearing her alternate costume, which shows even more skin than her primary, IN BETWEEN two scenes where she's being held prisoner, as if someone forced her to wear it (Which first of all begs the question why would Kahn make her change into that? Especially since she's only being held prisoner temporarily because she's meant to be executed)...but she KEEPS wearing it long after she's freed all the way to the end of the game. Does that make sense to you?
That's the only question that matters when it comes to a costume. "Does it make sense for the character?"

Every year, or at least every six months, this topic comes to life. And every time it does, it gets the same exact responses. "No, because I don't want to see it for the sake of having one in." Or at least similar responses.

It never goddamn changes.

I like NRS's idea better; un-sexualize the female characters rather than sexualize the male ones. Cassie Cage in full military gear? D'Vora with the insect exoskeleton? Yessss!

Also, people are totally gawking over Kano, so apparently they did a good job on him, plus he's more in-character than I think he' s ever been with his look. I think it's awesome. And they did that without putting him in drag.

And, um, what do you mean "we" gawk over bouncing video game "assets", OP? Speak for yourself. Maybe some guys do, but do you realize what a huge portion of the people who spoke out against the outfits in MK9 were male?

Is he smuggling tennis balls?

Your opinion is stupid. Just thought you should know.

^ His opinion is not stupid at all, I think he is spot on and that it is a pretty dumb fucking idea. Only on MKO can you find threads not only this stupid but get more attention than threads that actually deserve the attention

Two wrongs don't make a right.

I'm gonna copy what I posted on the Brazilian character thread.

Having a character be a certain gender/race/species/nationality just for the sake of having a character of that gender/race/species/nationality is not something good. It tends to leave to really bad stereotypes.

While we are talking sexualization here, it still applies.

I'm happy to see NRS de-seaxualizing women characters, I think that is the way to go.