It's not a game, but has anyone here seen the netflix movie "I am Not an Easy Man"? It sexualizes and objectifies men in uncomfortable ways.
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Why women criticise sexualised character designs (READ OP)
- Thread starter Persephone
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Thanks, that TR thread reminded me how uncommon it was and it's something you almost never see in games. Even most games with character creators tend to not have them, or only allow male characters to even have some sort of muscle tone.
Heh ^^;
I had not thought of that. Anyway, edited for posterity and clarity.
I mean, there are plenty of indie games that do (VA-11 Hall-A, Cosmic Star Heroine - recent favorites), but if you're talking about big publishers...
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I'm playing Tales of Berseria and while I enjoy it Velvet outfit makes no sense
I love how people keep pointing out how ridiculous her outfit is because how cold it is and is justified that she doesn't feel cold and she is broken and she scrounged from a dungeon
I love how people keep pointing out how ridiculous her outfit is because how cold it is and is justified that she doesn't feel cold and she is broken and she scrounged from a dungeon
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I remember watching the Youtube short years ago
Thanks for the recommendation, I enjoyed watching it. Someone want to make a discussion thread in EtcetEra? lol
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I'm playing Tales of Berseria and while I enjoy it Velvet outfit makes no sense
I love how people keep pointing out how ridiculous her outfit is because how cold it is and is justified that she doesn't feel cold and she is broken and she scrounged from a dungeon
This is what I meant a few pages ago by preferring sexy outfits to look like real clothes and to also be fashionable. Her outfit here is so overdesigned and terrible and impractical and ugh. Thank god there's the immediate option to put real clothes on her, and I didn't have to earn more outfits.
Yah, even if we took that explanation at face value and conceded that she's already cast away concerns for appearance, you'd think she'd procure a simple shirt the first chance she'd get rather than having to meticulously put those on every day.I'm playing Tales of Berseria and while I enjoy it Velvet outfit makes no sense
I love how people keep pointing out how ridiculous her outfit is because how cold it is and is justified that she doesn't feel cold and she is broken and she scrounged from a dungeon
This is one huge thread lol.
I just want to say that discussions like these really do make a difference and you can clearly see how AAA devs approach character design/writing differnetly now that they are aware, God of War being the most recent example.
I just want to say that discussions like these really do make a difference and you can clearly see how AAA devs approach character design/writing differnetly now that they are aware, God of War being the most recent example.
Oh god, I don't even what to know how terrible it is to put on those shredded thigh-highs every day without them just falling apart. Putting on regular stockings is pain enough. If she cared enough to scavenge for clothes while she was imprisoned, there's no reason she wouldn't get something more practical and less fragile after she's free.
I have to admit, a selection of belts and skimpy stockings are probably exactly what I wouldn't expect to find when scrounging for something to wear in a dungeon. Also, all these belts, where are the bloody trousers that go with them, eh? :D
One of the criminals confined there is a... belt smuggler and these are confiscated contraband.
Obviously she tried to cover her entire legs with belts but gave up halfway.
(belgian dude here. Sorry for my bad english) I think that movie has a ton of wasted potential.
The dude goes to world where all gender roles are reversed but never seems to be really bothered by the sexualization of males, and his adventure fails to really open his eyes on how the over-sexualization of women back in the real work was a bad thing. Basically, he finds himself in a world where he's perceived as the "weak" gender, and all the movie is him wanting to go back to the position of power.
I would have liked the main character to have a kind of epiphany, where he realizes that no, women over-sexualizing men is not ok, so he could bring back that knowledge back in his world and stop being a jerkass with women, but that didn't happen, or just really too subtly...
Now, even if the main character is a douchebag from the beginning to the end, I think the message of the movie ("women are over-sexualized") still is understandable to the viewers, which is a good thing.
I would have liked the main character to have a kind of epiphany, where he realizes that no, women over-sexualizing men is not ok, so he could bring back that knowledge back in his world and stop being a jerkass with women, but that didn't happen, or just really too subtly...
Now, even if the main character is a douchebag from the beginning to the end, I think the message of the movie ("women are over-sexualized") still is understandable to the viewers, which is a good thing.
Anyway, back to being a lurker. Keep fighting the good fight ! o/
It just makes no sense. The only belt attempting to hold anything up is the one acting as a clasp for her cloak, and even then it seems to be taking the weight of it acorss the top of her breasts rather than bare shoulders. Both looking supremely uncomfortable and not even meeting the purpose of either a belt or a cloak. The rest of them just seem to be strapped on at random. Even since noticing Rogue (X-men) wearing her belt at a jaunty angle in the early 90s, I've often wondered why character designers think that a belt worn as loose as a hula hoop or strapped around the thigh is good for anything.
Yar, they're basically accessories and not meant to be functional. Honestly, I don't generally have any problem with nonsensical items or overwrought designs in cartoon costumes, but when practicality is expressly stated to be the reason why she wears what she wears, it's just laughable.
Inomata just does weird designs. Milla is another character that is massively overdesigned (hair, belts, straps and stuff) and if you go to the older games you'll definitely see that the titles where she's been the main character designer tend to look like that. Before Tales of Xillia there were two Tales team, one whose characters were designed by her and other where they were designed by Fujishima, which tends to have a more grounded style that I prefer.
Since the teams were merged for Xillia each has been in charge of designing half the crew. I honestly don't like it, I'd rather have them alternate even if I have to take a group of 6 Disco Stus every once in a while.
PS: Now I'm not sure if you were the best person to quote for this post.
I've been playing Rune Factory, and I'm just shocked how good the character design is. Almost none of the character design is overtly sexual and the ones that are still look like normal clothing. The only weird character design is, ironically, the female main character's design.
Soda can tabs on her nipples....wat? It's weird but she has the worse clothing design
Soda can tabs on her nipples....wat? It's weird but she has the worse clothing design
'Disco Stu' made me laugh :D. When I played Tales of Hearts R, at one point there was a shot of the cast and it did look like they were going clubbing in the 1970s...
The Xenoblade 2 video was pretty good, but Nia's panty outfit denoting freedom is something I'll never buy. The game kept hammering the ~Morag dresses like a guy~ thing so hard that it was rather obvious that if anything in the game was liberating, it was not adhering to the blade outfit norm.
Early metroid for sure, which made her later derailment so notable. She went from being a towering amazon to the smallest soldier in the squad O.o
Early metroid for sure, which made her later derailment so notable. She went from being a towering amazon to the smallest soldier in the squad O.o
Just saw this on Reddit....
Where the hell did this come from? Who are these people? JFC just burn it all down.
I'm okay with this sometimes too lol. I don't mind the stray decorative zipper either.
Everything makes more sense now...
I'm playing Tales of Berseria and while I enjoy it Velvet outfit makes no sense
I love how people keep pointing out how ridiculous her outfit is because how cold it is and is justified that she doesn't feel cold and she is broken and she scrounged from a dungeon
If you're playing on Steam there's a cool patch:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=885910653
I like how they affectionately wrote "Pants that don't scream you were a rape victim"
AND LOOK AT HOW MUCH BETTER IT LOOKS.... well she basically looks long-haired Rutee, but still a huge improvement.
SFV is the king of giving female characters appropriate muscle tone. I don't understand why other fighting games don't do this.
YikesJust saw this on Reddit....
Rowan is the hottest professor anyway
They gave her the zero suit in prime 2 (she looks like a creepy android in that) and prime 3...the brawl look, and hunters. In hindsight I guess the prime 3/brawl look is okay-ish with no heels, and doesn't have the face or body of a pornstar unlike smash 4 and other m. She looks slightly toned and has more of that iconic hair look. I would have been fine with that being the constant one.
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It still looks absurd. I think this "restoration" patch just proves how ridiculous the design always was. At the very least, it shows how impractical it would be for anyone in a dungeon to wear it. Also, where in the world would a person even find something like that? There's no indication that in a game world like Berseria's that those clothes are what people wear.
I think the idea is she took bits and pieces of different clothes that was confiscated in the dungeon to make something that resembles an outfit
Still doesn't explain the belts or why even bother with the cape
I don't use the word cringe easily, but this...this is a cringefest of the worst kind possible. Some creepy assholes here.Just saw this on Reddit....
i kinda like it even though it's stupid. i don't find it sexy but more edgyI'm playing Tales of Berseria and while I enjoy it Velvet outfit makes no sense
I love how people keep pointing out how ridiculous her outfit is because how cold it is and is justified that she doesn't feel cold and she is broken and she scrounged from a dungeon
It still begs the question. What dungeon in the world of Berseria was this scrounged up from? (Hell, what dungeon in any game world would this be scrounged up from?) It's ridiculous even by belt-lord Nomura's standards.
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I remember something that came up in the XC2 discussion: say in another timeline Pyra was designed in a completely reasonable way, not sexualised at all. Would the people that defend her sexualisation so adamantly in this timeline even notice? Would they not buy the game due to the lack of boob?
Like are there people out there not playing the new God of War cause there's no QTE sex scenes?
Like are there people out there not playing the new God of War cause there's no QTE sex scenes?
I doubt it. Or at the very least they're probably not a significant number of people.
I asked a similar question in a thread a while back (don't remember which one but it was an XC2 thread), about whether scaling back sexualised designs would actually prevent any of its fans buying it. Naturally no one replied to say that they wouldn't buy it, but a few replied to say that while they treated sexualisation as something that they could either ignore or as a 'bonus', removing it wouldn't affect their purchasing decisions.
Yeah, but it's "iconic", y'know? Main characters have to wear completely unique clothing to make them stand out!
...it's Saturday Morning Cartoon mentality, isn't it? They've got to design them like that because it's meant to sell merchandise, or something.
I mean, that image doing the rounds on this page should answer that question: yeah, those people are real.
The question I'd like to ask about this alternative reality, however, is would better designs have affected the overall sales figures? Would a more...mature aesthetic hurt the sales figures, or improve them? Is there a peak weeb audience, a figure a game can't sell beyond until it stops being so "anime"? And is it better to cater to that loyal, but narrow audience, or try to reach beyond it?
That would fit in with this research https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/522402
That sex in ads at best has a neutral effect, as while there will be people that like it, it won't help sell the brand/product, and it can actually have a negative impact as those who are ofput by the sex, will deliberately not buy the brand/product. It kinda wouldn't surprise me if there was a similar effect in games.
That's certainly part of why I'm holding off until it's cheaper, or rather it contributing to the overall tone being a far cry from the original trilogy. Over the top hypermasculinity is exactly what I want out of GoW starring an unapologetic asshole that will kill innocent people to solve puzzles. It's just ridiculous fun that's impossible to take seriously and I've grown fond of it over the last decade. Like for me, it worked extremely well as a parody of "look at me, I'm a brooding MANLY man!" narratives. The ridiculous nature of sex mini-games in something like that certainly contributed, though it's nowhere near the most missed aspect of the (imo) snoozefest that is new GoW.
It's pretty rare even in Saturday Morning Cartoons. Drawing something like that on a character for 24 frames would be nightmarish. Way too many moving parts.
Better designs would at least provide the opportunity for the game to sell beyond the anime crowd. And here's the thing - the loyal, narrow audience, especially if it's an already well-known franchise? They're going to buy it anyway. And regardless of their complaining (and they will complain, no matter how much the design meets their fetish, it's never enough), will likely still do promotion for you and be happy with whatever the product is, no matter its alignment with their tastes.
The idea that the super fandom is going to disappear because you changed character designs is patently absurd. That audience is going to be there for that product until it dies. Hell, if most franchises are any indication, they'll be around long after its death (and presumably into its unlife, if ever it is resurrected).
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