First, let's talk about how video game physiques make players feel inadequate. For one thing, this phenomenon is by no means new. For years, the media has perpetuated a non-quotidian ideal by ensuring that only physically attractive actors get to be on TV and in movies, unless an actor's obesity is played for laughs (think John Candy, or Saturday Night Live's Horatio Sanz), or someone possesses a striking physicality (Don Knotts, or Marty Feldman), or the actor in question is a supporting character. Obvious exceptions aside, it's difficult to escape the notion that we, the audience, are meant to emulate the bodies we see in our entertainment.

Second, there is no more obvious example of this than in our everyday advertising. We're told that we're too fat, our teeth aren't white enough, we ought to do something about our receding hairlines, etc. An entire industry is based on getting people to feel inadequate about themselves. So why should the video game market be any different?

However, I'd have thought that the overarching concept behind video games -- that of wielding power vicariously through the game's avatar -- would mollify this inadequacy. Did you play God of War and really think to yourself "I wish I had Kratos's triceps"? More likely, you were caught up in the gameplay, and after the initial period of familiarizing yourself with the way Kratos moves, never took a second glance at his musculature -- the kind of body, by the way, that can't be had without months in the gym and a strict regimen; you can't get it just from beating up minotaurs. Believe me, I know from experience.

That's the problem with the use of the heroic ideal in videogames: there's never any acknowledgment of the growth of that build, and the steps it actually takes to get there. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas included a mechanic that altered the protagonist's physique depending on whether or not you gave him any exercise, but even that wasn't itself the focus of the game. Myself, I've joined a gym no less than three times, making it only so far before giving up. I exercise enough to remain healthy, but wasn't willing to put in the hours it takes to get the body of a Jason Statham, or a Hugh Jackman. And for what? To capitulate to an arbitrary image of what humans are meant to resemble?

I think it's more likely that these gamers only began feeling inadequate when asked the question. And even if this is so, it doesn't stop players from playing their favorite games, so in the end, what's the point?