Study: Buff game characters give males negative body image

Mario Lopez is a beast...I'd kill to have his body.

Sure, the Prince's six-pack in Prince of Persia are giving body-image issues, but with the constant petting from Princess Elika, it kind of balances back out into neutrality.

staht

I find more motivation in accomplishing physical achievements than in feeling bad about my body. For instance, being able to run another mile further is more of a prompt for me than anything I've seen in a videogame, and that's good, because that means my motivation is positive, not negative.

The article speaks nothing about the effects of viewing extreme body types of the opposite sex.

How do guys feel after watching 15 minutes of Tomb Raider? How do girls feel after watching 15 minutes of God of War?

What if you went 15 rounds of SF II with a guy playing Chun Li vs a girl playing as Zangief?

BRB, I've got a research proposal to write.

Marcus Fenix has big muscles, so what? Some women prefer regular guys, like Luigi!

Sports are just a long series of QTE's.

this read kind of like a santino bit

" The men played 'WWF Wrestlemania 2000,' a professional wrestling game that included enormous muscular specimens such as The Rock, Big Boss Man and The Undertaker. "

The Big Boss Man as a muscular specimen? Really? Reeeeeeeally?

These are some of the funniest posts ive read for a long time lmao. This is great!

I like how they were playing an N64 game. Apparently 15 minutes of an old wrestling game is all it takes for men to want to look blockier.

I think this pretty much sums up on what I think about these kinds of games.

http://uploads.ungrounded.net/470000/470146_gears.swf

... yeah..

http://www.gametronik.com/site/rubriques/n64/Jeux/WWF%20WrestleMania%202000/WWF%20WrestleMania%202000.jpg

Really. Men felt bad after looking at that? Personally, I'm glad that I don't look like I was made with a double-digit number of polygons.

I have a negative body image when I play Super Mario.

Am I the only one that this strikes home with? Not just games but all media. I feel fatter every time I watch a movie. Six packs galore!

This isn't really surprising as most people are sheep and believe what ever the idiot box tells them. If it tells them to get the girls you have to be buff the believe it, if it tells them to get the guys you have to have a thin waist and giant rack they believe it. I for one don't watch much TV and so don't suffer from this problem, that and I already have a GF.

If all game characters were obese we'd get the same argument saying that fat game characters make it seem okay for kids to be large so they're eating poorly.

If you read the Kotaku article one of the source games was an N64 Wrestlemania title.

What they leave out is that in 15 minutes of game play I have eaten a bag of cheetos and a dozen cookies. So yeah, my personal image goes down the tube. Who cares what they look like on the screen - the snacks are killin me! mmmmm snacks....

You know if you do nothing but play video games all day maybe you should have a bad body image. It's called your conscience. You can lie to yourself, but if you look in the mirror and think "fat ass", perhaps your next thought should be "gym membership and less fast food".

I am honestly quite sick of all these studies about people's "feelings". We as human beings need to rise above this pettiness and start being honest with each other and ourselves. I am by no means a body builder, but it doesn't take a video game or a commercial to tell me I am not thin. I can determine that on my own.

What are we supposed to do send Master Chief to the big and tall store to get outfitted for a new Halo get up for his fatass? Will Kratos finally break free of the Blades of Athena after hitting the buffet?

Seriously, if you have a weight issue and you are not comfortable with it, it's not because of some TV show or Video Game, it's because you know you have an issue.

People need to quit making their own problems everyone elses. I am not saying there are not people that have medical issues that prevent them from being at a healthy weight. I feel the vast majority of weight issues revolve around diets and exersize.

Yah for Kansas researches contributing to trite, worthless knowledge!

Kansas ftw!

Really, I've just always wanted an excuse to say that here, not like I get to see my home state mentioned much on a gaming blog.

best.photoshop.evar!

Incidentally that's also what Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo see when they look in the mirror.

Hey, it's not self image I'm 'fraid of. I know how I look and how it relates to Ryu.

I'm glad I don't have overly glossy, greasy looking skin or unrealistic muscles (at least without steroids) as what Epic like to portray.

Well, that'd only matter if gamers were all fat. Oh wait...

I wrote about the absurdly muscular bodies of male fighters on my blog (shameless plug):

http://juleswinfield.blogspot.com/2008/11/boobs-glutes-pecs-and-quads.html

I focused my attention on Street Fighter, but it extends to many other video games as well as comic books. It especially becomes apparent when a video game becomes a live action movie and the cast fails to match the bodies of their digital counterparts.

Good thing I've got a body sculpted by years of rigorous training and endless crime fighting