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Here's a fun experiment to try out. Go to Google, make sure you have adjusted your filter so safe search is ON, and then click on an image search. In your search field, type in 'video game women.'

Behold. What do you see? If it's not soft core porn, it's pretty near to it! So, if we want to discuss the question of whether the portrayal of female video game characters is meant to be eye candy or good role models, it would seem that the discussion is pretty much over.

However, the issue really does run a little deeper than a Google search. There's no doubt that female video game characters, in general, are portrayed as extra busty, curvy women who don't seem to feel the cold. They are attired in skimpy clothing and are usually large of lip. It gives the observer the impression that the male developers of these games are living out their fantasies in the images of these women.

But if the fantasies are those of the developers, and these fantasies are what is determining the look of these digital women, why are these games so popular? Why don't women and enlightened men protest?

The reasons are likely myriad, but what it all comes down to is that the portrayals are probably less harmful than many extremists think. Here are some issues that come to play in this debate:

*Fantasy and Escape. People play video games to have fun. Fun, in whatever form, is often some kind of escape from the humdrum or daily duties of life. Thus, these video games are an escape from the real world into what everyone involved understands to be a fantasy world.

This is an important point. Everyone, or very nearly everyone, goes into these games fully understanding that this is fantasy and role-play. The women are busty, scantily-clad and alluring. The men, by the same token, are incredibly burly, tough, honed fighting machines. Is a guy going to come out of this game thinking he is the personification of his avatar? Probably not.

So he is also very unlikely to come out and decide to impose the video game female onto the reality around him. He will know that such an attempt would be stupid.

In this case, the portrayal of female video game characters is eye candy. And for the most part harmless. Don't worry, we'll get to potential harm in a minute here.

*Girls Play Too. If the portrayal of these female characters is so offensive and damaging, why do we see so many girls playing these games? Don't they have any self respect? Sure they do, but they also understand that they are there to have fun, not

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