@yinstarrunner: While a lot of the points that you are making are worth considering, I think that some of what you have written is not entirely true. For instance, many people who wish to discuss gender and sexism in video games are not simply doing so because they believe it will make them look trendy and progressive; some of us have legitimate opinions and criticisms regarding how gender is presented and conceived of in video games. I wouldn't generalize the discussion on sexism in such a way that suggests that it exists solely because it's "easy." Just like your argument in which you note that tropes exist for a reason, so to do social movements that reject these tropes or stereotypes. Also, I understand that it's frustrating when someone makes a blind judgement about a video game character without having looked into the context in which that character is written (like Quiet), but it's not always the case that a female character design has been poorly understood and unfairly criticized - there are legitimate cases to be argued against.
@scarycrayons: You have also made some arguments that are interesting, but I don't agree entirely with all of them. In terms of traditionally sexy and empowering females, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Final Fantasy have some excellent examples, such as Morrigan, Miranda and Lulu. These types of female characters are written in such a way that their design is legitimised and respected (i.e. Morrigan growing up alone with her mother in an environment where there is no need to worry about peoples' impressions of your sexuality based on your clothing, and where sexuality is a tool for survival), and furthermore, they are incorporated into a cast of diverse female characters that are designed in other ways, such as Yuna in the case of Final Fantasy X. Additionally, if a game wants to use the hypersexualized female stereotype in a way that's humorous because it suits the rest of the game, such as Conker's Bad Fur Day, that's fine as well. Or, if someone just wants to make a video game that's essentially just porn, go ahead. So yes, females can be sexy and that doesn't necessarily mean that it's sexism, or that it shouldn't be included in a game ever. I agree with that.
Where many people have a problem with sexualization and females in video games is that, regardless of whether it would make sense for the character to dress that way or not, female bodies have often been manipulated and used as a marketing tool to try and lure men into buying the product (which seems ridiculous to me, because I can't imagine that most men would refuse to buy a game if there weren't tits to look at). It doesn't matter if the female's purpose isn't solely to be eye candy, which as you pointed out, is becoming less common; if the character that you are writing would not have gigantic breasts that she would want to expose to the world (such as female soldiers in combat), then she probably shouldn't be designed that way.
Now, I have heard some arguments that suggest marketing is marketing and sex sells, and from that perspective, I understand the point that is being made. However, it's increasingly the case that sexualized women (and rigidly masculine dudes for that matter) are not what a lot of consumers want, and those are the ones who are speaking up. Again, I am not against female characters being "sexy" or revealing their bodies, if that's what makes sense given the character and the atmosphere; however, I do want to reject the notion that a heterogeneous and diverse group of people (women, men, black people, schizophrenics, etc.) should be stereotyped and limited in their presentation because that is what someone thinks will sell. You are absolutely free to disagree with me (obviously), but I thought I would share my opinion, and clarify the position that some of us have in approaching sexism and video games.
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