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On the costuming, or lack thereof, of female characters
themocaw
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I was reading this recent thread: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=42769 and reflecting on the costuming, or lack thereof, of female characters in video games.
Look, I like some cheesecake as much as anyone else, but ya know, it's getting kinda old. It's even more ridiculous on MMORPGs, where apparently "Full Plate" for guys tends to mean "80 pounds of steel," while "Full Plate" for girls translates to "Stainless Steel bra and thong, if you're lucky." Seriously, it's not that hard to design female characters who look good but don't look like they're on their way to a Girls Gone Wild shoot.
Examples:
Konoko from Oni
Skin-tight bodysuit? Check. C-cup boobs on a slim figure? Check. But what makes the outfit believable are the add-ons: assault vest with a backpack, heavy boots with greaves, pouches and so on. Her alternate outfit makes sense too: leather jacket, t-shirt, and jeans. Asskicking gear.
Ayame, Tenchu Sleeveless top, hakama, tabi and sandals with laces up the calves. All in black. Hair drawn back in a tight and high ponytail. Unlike certain other ninja girls, Ayame looks like she's ready to go slit some throats and infiltrate a castle, not lounge on the beach and play volleyball. Oh yes: and her outfit looks like she can actually do a backflip in it and not fall apart.
Her alternate armor outfit tends to look good too.
Thoughts?
Look, I like some cheesecake as much as anyone else, but ya know, it's getting kinda old. It's even more ridiculous on MMORPGs, where apparently "Full Plate" for guys tends to mean "80 pounds of steel," while "Full Plate" for girls translates to "Stainless Steel bra and thong, if you're lucky." Seriously, it's not that hard to design female characters who look good but don't look like they're on their way to a Girls Gone Wild shoot.
Examples:
Konoko from Oni
Ayame, Tenchu Sleeveless top, hakama, tabi and sandals with laces up the calves. All in black. Hair drawn back in a tight and high ponytail. Unlike certain other ninja girls, Ayame looks like she's ready to go slit some throats and infiltrate a castle, not lounge on the beach and play volleyball. Oh yes: and her outfit looks like she can actually do a backflip in it and not fall apart.
Her alternate armor outfit tends to look good too.
Thoughts?
themocaw on
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I really wouldn't mind if they had multiple costumes for characters as well. Then you can choose to be as slutastic as you want.
"That outfit seems...improbable."
Alyx Vance in Half-life 2
Miranda Keyes (as much as I hate her) in Halo 2/3
Ashley, Tali, and Liara in Mass Effect (the armor looks exactly the same on males and females, only slightly altered to fit. No skin whatsoever)
Jade in Beyond Good and Evil
Jenny in The Darkness
The intel chick from Gears of War
I'm sure if I took some time, I could list off another dozen or two. Sure, you'll still see a lot of games that try to sell purely on sex, but those characters are often forgotten quickly. I think most of the better (and story focused) developers are beginning to realize this.
A couple more examples off the top of my head:
Chell in Portal, as well.
Female costumes in Lord of the Rings Online
Now that I think of it, Bioware in general has been very tasteful with female outfits. In Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights (and Obsidian's NWN2), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and (to a slightly lesser extent) Jade Empire all have strong female characters that wear appropriate-for-ass-kicking clothes.
It IS getting better but until we have a female character in such loose fitting dumpy clothing that you can't tell how big her tits are not much will have changed.
And i'm sure that day will come as soon as the female videogame demographic is as big as the male
I thought we wanted female?
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And let's not forget this is a trend prevalent in other media. Women have to live up to a much higher body standard than men, and it really is disgusting.
True, there is that... Most characters at least (including just about ever Asari in the game) are conservatively clothed.
I think they'll have to happen at the same time. Which is not really possible.
But, my main point is why not include these as options? It's not like games these days don't have the processing power or available memory.
Because it takes time and resources that could be spent on other things. They'll start putting more options in when the demographic that would appreciate the extra choices is present. That just isn't in place yet.
Well, many games have more female gamers playing them than male gamers. But generally speaking, very few people want to play a potato sack wearing post menopausal woman. That's not just a targetting at male thing, people want there characters to be sexy and sassy. It's a fantasy, and people usually want to be buffer, leaner, taller, tougher, sexier etc.
The problem is generally when does it start becoming exploitative? I mentioned this in the other thread but costume doesn't freak me out as much as the grotesqueness of things like DOAs boob physics (or lack of physics), or Ivy's incredibly expanding cleavage. A2Ms Wet is a good example of just exploiting a character to sell a game.
But I'm right here!
One person does not a demographic make.
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Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
Classy > trashy
Oh I see. I started the Malkavian because it sounded easier from the description... Aren't the Tremere the ones that can't suck the blood of a prostitute or bum? I wasn't sure how hard the game would have been with that.
Trashy girls are better...
Also I'm all for girls getting a little fanservice with guys. Not of the thong variety because even most women find that sick/hilarious but come on, it's not like I'm going to fear for my sexuality if I see some abs or back.
That's the Ventrue.
Tremere use blood magic.
She just doesn't care.
I suck.
hoho
The guys are pretty unrealistic too. maybe the girls are more often, or to a further extreme, but it's not an issue of gender solely.
Don't you go changing my words now Rook..!
Oh wait..
Fine example. I really need to play that game.
I really need to finish it. I got to Odin, got completely devastated, and gave up. When your main character is 20 level above everyone else and still gets 1-shotted, it takes the wind out of one's sails...
Also, women in DAOC are always fully covered same as the men.
My current gf doesn't really give a damn about this sort of thing so I don't even think about it much. I used to when I was dating a wanna-be feminist (Ms. Equality damn sure never picked up a check!) but not so much anymore.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
If we're talking about Suikoden 3, then it's probably a good idea to skip it... I bought it because my friend raved about the first two, but I was really disappointed by 3. I have no idea why, it just felt incredibly tedious to me.
I dunno, it may be the gay speaking, but I don't even know how people can find it attractive.
I mean, certainly you'll concede that
is infinitely better than
and that
doesn't even make sense.
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