I'm curious as to what people who engage a lot in this debate think about the BioWare 180 between Mass Effect 3 and their recent titles. They used to introduce more and more supermodel sexy companion characters, particularly women, in their early EA days such as Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 3, and by ME3 they even took previously benign character designs of female companions and gave them these model skirt armor, more makeup and bigger boobs. However, in Dragon Age Inquisition and especially Andromeda there would even be outcry over how they deliberately made the feature cast look "ugly". Here's a few screenshots for those not in the know of the typical examples.
In some leaks and reports employees from within BioWare have said there's a culture of "corporate political correctness" when it comes to creating female characters where quote-unquote: they don't want to make them look too attractive or unrealistic.
Personally I'm okay with them being inclusive to more average looking women so it's not just an A-list cast of the biggest top models (like, if you compare it to a big budget movie or shows like LOST, it's similar), but I do think there IS a room for women that people consider to be smoking hot, like the Yvonne Strahovski design for Miranda in Mass Effect Trilogy and Uncharted 2's Chloe Frazer. I don't think being inclusive to what is currently considered the ideal photomodel look is wrong, but exclusively featuring that does have an effect on society if that's all you see. Again, I like the more average looks here in recent games but I do think it's a shame that it has to be a corporate move in most cases. Now they CAN'T do a Miranda as in ME2 because there's a corporate mandate that says "Ooh, too risky, controversial, nono!" and it shouldn't be that IMO.
