Jingus said:
You're both getting too hung up on just the bodily proportions aspect, it's more than that. It's also how they dress, how old they are, and various other things which lead into their overall look.
So its also how they act and their age, and everything about them. Good, I'm glad to hear that.
Just take this game for an example: all three of the female characters are hot young skinny chicks, with two out of three having giant boobs hanging out of their skimpy clothes.
Oh wow... You've already killed it. You just totally went on with how they look only.
You know I love how you say its 3 young female characters. Could I just point out that being a Elf means that she has a longer life span than you or I and its probably many centuries old? Also, depending on the mythology that is used, Elves may just look young.
In her introductory picture, she's carrying a skull and raises the freaking dead in her actual gameplay, the Sorceress (I incorrectly called Mage) probably has powers over life and death itself and therefore is probably just as old as the Wizard (more on Wizard next quote). Also its the breasts themselves spilling out (the animation on them too) and not actually what she's wearing that's the problem.
As for the Amazon: I'll say it once, I'll say it again; totally right.
Meanwhile, the male characters? An ugly hairy viking, an old gray-haired dude, and a guy covered head to toe in armor. How often do we get ugly hairy women, old gray-haired women, or women covered head to toe in armor? And yeah, I'm sure there's a few examples out there, but they'd be a tiny minority.
I'll give you the Dwarf because I really don't understand that one. Just how anyone would find that attractive is beyond me. But there are woman who love a burly bear and want to be with their teddy bear. Otherwise how else does Zangief get all the women? ...okay, bad Zangief joke.
Though, you have heard the term "Knight In Shining Armor", right? That's what Fighter is and there are still woman who like this, as old fashioned as it is. The Knight must remain concealed so that when he is revealed, he can be exactly how the woman wants him to be. Its the mysterious factor, but he'll eventually turn out to be a good looking guy for the girl.
And I love how you say we should judge everything about a character, when you've declared that the Wizard is an old man. He's got gray hair, but everything else about him doesn't suggest he's old. Nearly everything on him suggests he's actually young. Did you even notice his eyebrows are brown, not white like his hair? Also, there's no indication on his face of aging of any sort.
He's not wearing a robe, but something more akin to a combination of a robe / coat. I say this because its of fine cloth and sharply cut, not woolen and drab like others. The pants are pure white and has no tears on it, indicating that they are either brand new or well kept, same with the boots. People who have more maturity and wisdom just get the inexpensive stuff, especially for a journey.
Yes. Lots! Just google around, and you'll never run out of blogs and vlogs where girl gamers complain about this stuff. And hell yeah I've heard it in person from female friends, more times than I can even guess at. Lots of people really are bothered by this stuff.
Before I made my original comment on the subject, I decided to ask seven women I know about it. Its practically the only reason I actually made that comment.
Its a small sample of them. But here are there results:
1) All the girls I talked to indicated that proportions were terrible and the very first thing that would bother them if asked about the game.
2) The Amazon. Its been said before, we all are in agreement, no need to dwell here.
3) With the Sorceress the only issue they had was that her breasts were spilling out. They would not have any issue with her dress otherwise. They call the bouncing breasts "teenage fluff" and laughed it off.
4) Though only two were gamers, most stated they would play the Sorceress due to the fact bring the dead back to be their personal army was a pretty nifty idea.
5) Not a damn one mentioned anything about the Elf other than they thought it might be fun to play.
6) It was actually a split of 3, 2, 2 among the guy classes. Wizard was the one with three. Also remember all the stuff I mentioned about the Wizard? It was brought to my attention by one of them, and then was repeated to me six more times. Woman pay better attention to those details than I do.
Point taken, if that's all he/she did then it's just a shitty incomplete review. Still doesn't make what they said untrue.
I never said it wasn't untrue. I only state that you can't judge a piece of work by being incomplete. The reason she and the site are getting so much flak is people went looking for a review and only got an editorial that barely touches on the game itself.
I specifically choose the lowest review (which at this time was) to see exactly why the game was docked so I've got an idea of the flaws it has. I was just as upset as others who went.
1. "Every" was clearly an exaggeration, one I qualified in the later posts.
I guess I should've put a tag on there stating I was doing this because saying that is just a stupid, idiotic and dumb thing do to.
2. You're cherry-picking examples. Of course there's always exceptions. The rule is usually more like Lara Croft.
Why aren't we cherry picking these examples and celebrating them!? Isn't that the point? Shouldn't we be bringing these woman up time and time again as what the industry should be held to?
3. Half of your examples are underage girls or people from cutesy chibi universes.
So I'm not allowed to cherry pick but you are? Pot, kettle, black.
You also realize that maybe the reason why most of my selections are that way, is because there isn't that many games I could pull from that have adult casts that I choose to play. Fantasy games rarely use an adult cast. This is because most adults aren't very responsive to change.
And finally, THESE are seriously among your examples of non-sexualized, normally-clothed, realistically-built women?
So which ones did you pull out?
Aerith - I don't see a problem with the outfit. Its slender, its not emphasizing the breasts in any fashion as its a single piece and her boobs aren't hanging out. As a character and her actions in the game? Not once does she use her beauty as leverage except in a mission with a freaking sleeze bag to extract information from him at sword point (Cloud). Let's take a look at the original art.
Yeah, totally sexualized for your viewing pleasure.
Also, nice picking the one shot that actually sees downwards and into her cleavage. From an angle that would let you do so. Complain about the way this is placed, not the actual girl herself.
Alyx - I'm not sure how the stuff she is wearing makes her sexualized. I've seen and still do see girls who wear attire similar to this. The shirt is probably lower cut than it needs to be, I'll admit. Personality wise, her actions are about helping Freeman out. There's never anything indicating sexual anything.
Cheria - I mean really Jingus, this is the worst of the four you brought out. Cheria spends most of the time as you parties healer, hell its her profession, and also has a problem trying to get Abell to see she cares about him. She's as shy a girl as you can get and as far away from sexual. As for her wardrobe, if you are talking about the skirt and black spats, there are girls who like to remain cute for the guy they are trying to get interested.
Before someone goes "black spats" and is in wonder, stare long enough at a picture that you have no idea what is wrong, and you'll eventually notice things you've never paid attention to.
Samus - You ignore everything about the entire franchise and you pull out the Zero Suit? I'll give you the impracticality of the heels on it, but if you are wearing that Power Suit its either you wear something akin to the Zero Suit or your naked. Considering we're still totally immature about naked bodies, not only in games but society as a whole, I think I can safely say we're kind of stuck with the Zero Suit.
Besides, you recall the NES original game? It had her in a bikini and so she needed to at least have a good enough body to wear one of those. If you had to complain about Samus, that's the picture that would've been more appropriate.
