: I tend to agree with Korny, and furthermore I’m often struck by how a so
: many seem to have been indoctrinated by a new Puritanism that ignores or
: tries to sublimate certain aspects of human sexuality and differences between
: genders while elevating other aspects in order to construct a narrative.
: Humans in general like looking at attractive humans, but if you think a woman
: makes 77 cents on the dollar (a lie, BTW) because her boss spent years
: in looking at Lara Croft’s derrière, then to me you’re a citizen of Simpletonville.

Sexual objectification is not the cause of sexual inequality, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone saying it was the cause (and if you have, I'd like to know specifically where, not just "oh some person I assume uses Tumblr"). The claim is that they're connected, which I think is a claim that has merit-- the different ways women are treated versus how men are treated have something to do with each other, don't you think?
I also wouldn't jump to say it's a new Puritanical drive or whatever you want to call it-- which, let's be honest, you mean "modern feminism", and a specific brand of it at that-- rather than good old-fashioned body shame. Microsoft isn't Disney but that doesn't mean they don't have a lot of the same pressures to make everything family-friendly, or an inclination to bow to those pressures to try to make more money. Have you forgotten the arguments that were had here because someone thought nudity was bad in a very old-school way?
(oh and by the way, great job bringing up a separate issue, and one that's losing steam because it's been debunked so many times, that muddies the waters; even greater job calling people "indoctrinated", and thus basically calling them out, but not engaging them directly)

: Regarding the AI in question, and how she fits into BIG PROBLEMS IN GAMING,
: it strikes me as funny that Cortana under Bungie, who I’ve heard
: criticized as having a dude-bro development culture internally, presented
: Cortana’s sexuality with subtlety, whereas when female-led 343 took over,
: she became voluptuous (literally modeled after Playmates), became more
: explicitly nude, and adopted a Mae West sashay.

I still don't buy this. She looks more real in Halo 4, that doesn't mean she looks more nude. Anyone who draws or paints or indeed does 3D modeling can tell you a thing or a character doesn't have to look real to resemble something, and making something look more real doesn't automatically make it more closely resemble whatever it nominally looks like. (Animation is a treasure trove of things that look completely wrong if you make them look more real.) All they did was give her a new face, give her more polygons, and make her look frumpy instead of perky. If anything they were probably trying to de-sexualize her by avoiding the dominant Western male ideals of what female beauty is. (so yes, I'm going to want a citation on her being modeled after Playboy Playmates)