Banner Week for Video Games and Gender

This week saw two high profile video game releases: Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost and the Damned (Xbox 360) and Street Fighter 4 (PS3/Xbox 360). More importantly, both games garnered some attention for their portrayal of men in video games.

GTA4:TLTD features the first (I'm fairly sure) portrayal of polygonal male genitals in a mainstream video game. (Watch here at own risk; NSFW). Meanwhile, SF4 features Rufus, a character whose very fat body makes use of "boob physics", previously only featured on female characters. (Watch here, also at own peril, though SFW.)

For those of you not in tune, let me clue you in: The video game world is unapologetically sexist in its portrayal of both genders. The blame falls in the usual places--the market, the developers, patriarchy, the players--and these two games actually constitute progress. It is times like these that fill me with hope and hopelessness for my favorite hobby.