It's funny, but I started writing this blog thinking that creating a sexy female character game seems easy... giant boobs and partial nudity seems to please most men (gauging by the blogs on characters like Bayonetta), however I was specifically thinking about male characters. This just seems more difficult. In the past we've had our pretty boys:


... a big no for any guy with longer hair than me, or that looks prettier than me, or that looks like he's 15

We' ve also had those "over the top" manly men with gargantuan muscles like most any guy created by Epic, and of course Kratos, Matt Hazard and Duke Nukem:


... another big no for any guy that looks like he uses steroids and probably has a teenie weenie.

Recently though, we're starting to see some sexy guys in video games. These are kind of average guys with realistic body types. They are "manly" men consistent with western concepts of attractive. They are also older, more mature men. They are men like:


Chris Redfield... a bit young, but yummy.


Altair... mostly hidden adding a bit of mystery, but a strong manly face.


Nathan Drake... Physically he's an average guy... a guy you might actually want to take home to meet the parents


Sam Fisher.... mmmmmm.... love that rough look and that he's been married. There something very sexy about a guy who knows commitment and had a daughter.


... my personal favorite - Old Snake. Yeah, I'm biased because my husband is over 50 and has a gray mustache - but for an old guy, Snake still has buns of steel!


Now of course I have my own tastes in what is "sexy" and I'm sure other ladies will have different tastes... but I do think that developers are getting closer in creating some attractive male characters - but who do you think is sexy? Why do you think they are sexy? What would be your ideal sexy game character? If you like women, do you like the current trend in unrealistic females with massive boobs, tiny waists, long legs and practically no clothes? Many women seem to find "realistic" males more attractive - would men find a more realistically rendered female more attractive, more sexy?

Men are very visual in their sexual response (which accounts for the huge sale of women's lingerie), while I think that women tend to be more emotional in their sexual response. I think this makes it more difficult to create a sexy male character because you have to give him an appealing character and history. Sam Fisher being married makes him a more attractive character to me. What about the men on this site - is there some type of personality, background, history that makes a female character more appealing?

... and I'd love to see this as a monthly musing at some future point if they are looking for ideas. I think it's good for developers to get a better idea of what contributes to creating an "attractive" video game character.

So my own qualifications for a "sexy" video game character are roughly the following:
* a rough and tumble manly look (like Sam) that is realistic
* mature... in that vague age range between 35 and 50
* he's been in a committed relationship, either married or has been married (because commitment is sexy, being a male slut isn't sexy)
* he's had kids (cause being a dad is sexy)
* a sense of humour! (yes, those Battlefield Bad Company guys were smokin hot sexy)
* he has a reason to kill (and isn't just blindly killing so called "bad guys")
* he has a nice butt! (yeah, I'm a a butt-gal. A nice tight set of buns you could bounce a quarter off of is sexy!)

What's your list?