I figure I'll give posting in here a try, since it's such an active thread I always see on the front page. I had figured I wouldn't, since the OP makes it seem really tough for discussion from all points of view, with so many disclaimers and specific ways of wanting the discussion. Which makes me think maybe this would make more sense in the Hangouts forum, instead of the general games forum? Since it feels more like a clubhouse hangout type of thing. Not to backseat mod, just thinking out loud. And I did like the Labyrinth talk, what a fun movie.
I have an opinion that is always controversial to talk about, but not intended to offend here. Anyways, talking about the human body depicted in art/entertainment, games in this case. I think all shapes and sizes of people should be able to be portrayed in games. That seems positive and good.
So, why is it that very busty characters are often frowned upon in games? And people even say characters have unrealistically large breasts, I've read that, but in every case I've seen it's not true. Even the most buxom character in Street Fighter V, DOA5, or Soul Calibur 5 is much much less busty than you can find naturally in real life, since people come in all shapes and sizes. I know a slim girl with a GGG cup bra. I know that's quite rare, but even a character that looks to have say a 36F or something in a game is always always considered controversial and gets flack.
Long story short, isn't that strange? We shouldn't have uniformly very busty characters for example, I can see why that would bother people, but likewise if we don't have any very busty characters, isn't that bad as well? Since it'd be a real body type being discriminated against in games for no particularly good reason?
This comes to mind for one because they keep making Lara Croft less busty, in the 2018 game she's actually a touch less curvy than in the 2013 game in the reboot series even. And those developers have made light of how Lara used to be known for "big boobs" in interviews, like this is a to me kind of cynical marketing move, where they don't think the character could be taken seriously if very busty. But it would be positive to prove otherwise.
And here's an optional kind of off topic paragraph, you often see articles saying studies show the butt is more popular than boobs today. As silly as that may be, it does again make it seem odd that boobs are always what are criticized, in the OP of this topic for example, and nobody mentions the butt as much critically. I even saw some women's health magazine on the stands recently that said something about booty on the cover, but I've never seen boobs mentioned on such a magazine. I guess for some reason the butt is considered less taboo? I find this so weird, everything should be equally non-taboo, it's the human body.
I know this is a long post about what most consider a silly topic, but I think it's important because we're talking about representing people in art, and it is of course a bad thing for the human body in a variety that is not entirely uncommon to be frowned upon in games. And I hope this post was not offensive, and if it was, well, why is talking about the human body thoughtfully and politely offensive, I don't know, I hope it isn't.
I'm going to assume you're being genuine here and are not here just to waste my time.
First things first: most female video game characters (ESPECIALLY for Japanese games)
do not actually have bodies based on real women. By and large they are idealized and/or fetishized forms. This is especially noticeable when, for example, you get a skinny woman who inexplicably has huge breasts. Again, Japanese games are most guilty of this one in particular.
Secondly, most of these enormously-endowed female characters
are not fit for the tasks they are performing. If you ask real large-breasted women you'll frequently hear complaints of back problems even without physical activity - add physical activity on top of that and many will complain that simply attempting to run without a very competent sports bra is
literal torture. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of these stupidly top-heavy characters aren't even given the basic courtesy of a functional bra - just look at Street Fighter V for cryin' out loud! Laura in particular gets my goat as there is
no way she's going to be performing those kicks without any kind of support.
Thirdly, let's highlight this phrase:
We shouldn't have uniformly very busty characters for example
An absurd number of games have
exactly this problem, with one or two "normal" characters, a token flat-chested chick (who will
invariably have a complex about it, because tropes are apparently meant to be regurgitated uncritically), and the vast majority of the cast being bizarrely and inexplicably top-heavy. Oh, right, can't forget about the prerequisite "little girl" character, because that's a demographic they want to court...
But the thing is, all this emphasis on boobs & butts ignores
the very real variety that exists among women's bodies. When was the last time you saw a female character with an actual runner's physique? Or what about an assassin who actually looks built like a gymnast, with those solid core muscles? Or, hell, how about one based on a boxer, who actually looks like she can punch as hard as the men in the same game?
Ultimately, the male gaze is
all over these designs - it's extremely obvious when a character's body was designed not in reference to a real person, but because the artist(s) just found that particular body type attractive. This becomes a problem because you get all of the above issues,
plus the additional baggage of annoyingly skeevy camera angles, poses, and animations, which leaves women with very little space to interact with a game without feeling objectified all the fuckin' time. Our complaints about same-y body types take all of the above into account. Ultimately we just want to see more variety, and
especially want to see more bodies that we would actually like to dream of inhabiting, as opposed to bodies that men want to fuck. That'd be a great change of pace, I think.
