Wait! People are sick of me? *sticks chest out further* How about now?
Seriously, sex sells; it is a proven fact. In my advertisement school my teacher used an example that I never forgot which summed it up pretty well. Remember those old Coke commercials where you would see the soda poured into a glass and then one drop of condensation would drip down the side? That was because the advertisement was trying to make the coke 'sexy', as she worded it. The point is, like you said, the survey's will always show what they want if they are rigged.
On the topic of Sexism, yes, it exists, but it is damned marketable! No amount of bitching or whining will change that and it works both ways. Ever gone to an anime convention? If so then you've undoubtedly seen swarms of women around cosplayers for characters such as Sephiroth. Mario is a fat Italian plumber... fat and plumber are not sexy concepts to many and I have never heard once anyone state that he is sexy. Meanwhile, Nathan Drake on Sony's side I have seen fangirls swoon for. Point is, as pretentious as it sounds sometimes looks DO matter and CAN sell a product and anyone claiming otherwise is fooling no one; not even themselves. If it didn't sell people would stop doing it. twenty-plus years later I'm still in spin-off games despite my franchise having died in the 90's. Still increasing in popularity, too! If you feel brave and are curious of what I mean, do an image search of me with your safe search off on Google of Bing.
I'm sure there ARE people out there who are sick of sexual characters like those in Soul Calibur or Dead or Alive, for example, but from my experience it is usually someone who is insecure with their own looks. Most of the people I know who are bitching about sexy characters and there being 'too many' are overweight females (never once heard a guy do it, oddly) but the people I know who are fit or slender are like "I'm going to cosplay the SHIT out of them!" just upon seeing merely a preview screenshot even before a game comes out. I've admittedly done the latter with the trailer of Elder Scrolls Online.
My gripe is I find the whole "overly large breasts" thing getting out of hand. Maybe it is because I'm not into excessive bosom sizes, but I've noticed it is getting ridiculous with how many characters are getting the 'Mai Shiranui' treatment as of late. I'm all for a smoking-hot female character, but at least make them look realistic in shape, like Bayonetta or something if you are going to go for extremes. I mean, Capcom even does it with mine in every game that comes out. Don't believe me? go look at my C-cups in Darkstalkers one and then my D's in Darkstalkers 3 and then my avatar from Cross Edge I am using on this forum. At least the shape is realistic (which is why I use it, in all honesty. Too round looks fake and I hate fake chests).
