Another thread about sexism in video games.

[hanselthecaretaker]

Eh, I'd say it's an uncomplicated look for the post-apocalypse. Not exactly a lot of specifically masculine or feminine looks for anybody in that game.

Would like to ask what specifically is unfeminine about Aloy though.

I only referenced her as it kinda seemed to be the crux of the thread topic based on the couple articles referenced in the OP, along with comments made by the developer that their focus was on making her appearance ordinary enough to avoid being sexualized. Which is fine as it makes sense for her character, but her features in the sequel which seemed to be doubling down on it have drawn their own criticisms. Her face was just fine in the original IMO.

What’s more surprising to me though might actually be how Sony was apparently sweating bullets over the initial reveal due largely in part to her simply being female.

E3 2015: Thank Heavens Sony Didn't Change Horizon's Protagonist

"Is it risky to do a female character?"

www.pushsquare.com

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I only referenced her as it kinda seemed to be the crux of the thread topic based on the couple articles referenced in the OP, along with comments made by the developer that their focus was on making her appearance ordinary enough to avoid being sexualized. Which is fine as it makes sense for her character, but her features in the sequel which seemed to be doubling down on it have drawn their own criticisms. Her face was just fine in the original IMO.

What’s more surprising to me though might actually be how Sony was apparently sweating bullets over the initial reveal due largely in part to her simply being female.

E3 2015: Thank Heavens Sony Didn't Change Horizon's Protagonist

"Is it risky to do a female character?"

www.pushsquare.com

I mean, considering the whole discussion over "but how feminine without sexy?", I can see why

 

[Casual Shinji]

I only referenced her as it kinda seemed to be the crux of the thread topic based on the couple articles referenced in the OP, along with comments made by the developer that their focus was on making her appearance ordinary enough to avoid being sexualized. Which is fine as it makes sense for her character, but her features in the sequel which seemed to be doubling down on it have drawn their own criticisms. Her face was just fine in the original IMO.

What exactly is different or doubled down on with her features in the sequel, apart from maybe a higher level of detail? Like, it's the exact same face and hair. I guess people like to reference that one screen shot where her face is a little scrunched, but I guess... what, she can't do that?



What am I supposed to see here that's different? Erend's face equally has added detail. I can assure you Kratos will have some minor tweeks to his face in Ragnarok.

 

[Gordon_4]

Oh also I had a phase as a kid where I would watch the dracula comedy with Leslie Nielsen all the time. Must have been like 9 or so. Fun times.

The movie you're thinking of is "Dracula: Dead and Loving It". Its a Mel Brooks movie; it is ergo hilarious. Not as good as Blazing Saddles or Men in Tights but as a send up of then popular vampire fiction - mainly Coppola's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula - its pretty dead on.

 

[Silvanus]

as a send up of then popular vampire fiction - mainly Coppola's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula - its pretty dead on.

I see what you did there.

 

[Drathnoxis]

8 pages in 3 days. The classic topic can still pull in the posts.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

What exactly is different or doubled down on with her features in the sequel, apart from maybe a higher level of detail? Like, it's the exact same face and hair. I guess people like to reference that one screen shot where her face is a little scrunched, but I guess... what, she can't do that?

View attachment 5215

What am I supposed to see here that's different? Erend's face equally has added detail. I can assure you Kratos will have some minor tweeks to his face in Ragnarok.

The internet certainly isn’t beyond extreme sarcasm of course, but they must’ve done something odd to it to garner a reaction like this -


Initial comment -
“The game looks amazing in the trailers but what did they do to Aloy's face? She looks like she's having an allergic reaction to a bee sting”

We’ve seen Kratos in GoW: Ragnarok and the reception hasn’t garnered anywhere near this kind of reaction. Hell I don’t even think the toning down of Lara Croft’s curves has been as harsh.

 

[Chimpzy]

8 pages in 3 days. The classic topic can still pull in the posts.

I expected better tho. Then again, we've had two mentions of Abby yet, so there's still hope. Oopsie, that's a third.

She's like Candyman, say her name enough times, and she comes in to murder the thread.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

8 pages in 3 days. The classic topic can still pull in the posts.

It's not much, but it's honest arguing.

 

[BrawlMan]

It's not much, but it's honest arguing.

Depends on who you are talking about. There's a couple that aren't exactly being honest. I won't need to elaborate further, the evidence speaks for itself.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The internet certainly isn’t beyond extreme sarcasm of course, but they must’ve done something odd to it to garner a reaction like this -


Initial comment -
“The game looks amazing in the trailers but what did they do to Aloy's face? She looks like she's having an allergic reaction to a bee sting”

We’ve seen Kratos in GoW: Ragnarok and the reception hasn’t garnered anywhere near this kind of reaction. Hell I don’t even think the toning down of Lara Croft’s curves has been as harsh.

It did do something odd, it made woman not look like super duper model. And ironically it started because someone pre emptively mocked the outrage Aloy's face would cause by doing a side-by-side with her regular face and then her face all made up and smiling, with the caption 'developers should hire fans'. This was then picked up by a dude who thought it was genuine criticism against "SJWs" and it spiraled from there. And because H:ZD sorta became the posterchild for realistic looking women (*hiss hiss snarl*) in games, fueled by the outrage over woman with muscles in TLoU2, this turned into a magnet for the usual crowd of idiots. All because her face looks exactly the fucking same as it did in the first game, except '*waaaah* This one screen shot gives her an expression that doesn't make her look as fuckable as she could look if she was all dolled up.'

Remember this?



Aerith in the FF7R reveal not looking quite doll-like enough for (Japanese) fans, but instead looking like a more realistic but still very beautiful girl? Fans went fucking bananas because her face was a centimeter longer and her eyes a tad smaller.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Disney used to pull similar nonsense back with their princess characters, where animators were told not to give them perfectly normal human expressions if it meant they'd look slightly less attractive.

 

[Gyrobot]

Ok if you say so, calling someone "blessed and woke" sounds just completely ironic to me though, like you're condemning em with faint praise. Like a caricature of a person.

She's still not gonna sleep with you tho, oh blessed prince of light and wokedom.

I have no interest in approval. In fact I live off flagellation as a testament of my wokeness

 

[Worgen]

Aerith in the FF7R reveal not looking quite doll-like enough for (Japanese) fans, but instead looking like a more realistic but still very beautiful girl? Fans went fucking bananas because her face was a centimeter longer and her eyes a tad smaller.

 

[Casual Shinji]

View attachment 5219

And there always is a girl wolf, isn't there. Or a girl horse, or a girl penguin, or a girl... snail. Even a car needs a girl counterpart as a love interest apparently.

 

[Worgen]

And there always is a girl wolf, isn't there. Or a girl horse, or a girl penguin, or a girl... snail. Even a car needs a girl counterpart as a love interest apparently.

Wait, are you trying to argue that women shouldn't be allowed in media?

 

[Chimpzy]

And there always is a girl wolf, isn't there. Or a girl horse, or a girl penguin, or a girl... snail. Even a car needs a girl counterpart as a love interest apparently.

Hurrah, a version of the Oglaf Dimorphism comic that isn't too nsfw. Missing the punchline, but whatever, you win some you lose some.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Wait, are you trying to argue that women shouldn't be allowed in media?

Yes.

Girl cars need to GTFO. Bring back manly cars.

Hurrah, a version of the Oglaf Dimorphism comic that isn't too nsfw. Missing the punchline, but whatever, you win some you lose some.

Honestly, I always found it highly entertaining how 90's cartoons tried to make female versions of toasters and penguins for the male anthro toaster or penguin, and tried to make them somewhat sexy but not too sexy otherwise it'd just be weird. Animators were weird and horny back then.

 

[Worgen]

Honestly, I always found it highly entertaining how 90's cartoons tried to make female versions of toasters and penguins for the male anthro toaster or penguin, and tried to make them somewhat sexy but not too sexy otherwise it'd just be weird. Animators were weird and horny back then.

People have always been weird and horny. Hell, we probably have animal domestication because of people who were a bit too into watching them fuck.

 

[McElroy]

Come to think of it, when you start designing multiple characters for games it kinda makes sense to make them close to 50/50 male and female. It simply gives more design options for action figures that the characters essentially are. Still, making female characters appealing means male gaze stuff. No matter what the game companies do, the player base for Apex Legends or Rainbow Six: Siege is 90% male, and those games have equal representation (Siege not originally but through updates).

Writing """realistic""" drama around these rosters is ridiculous. Were the Legends or Operators real, there would be no women. Like, in a recent R6:S cinematic there is this framing that it's a paintball game of sorts that's a popular sport or whatever. The unisex fantasy can be fun. It's a waste they leave the sexual tension to the fans to figure out instead of cringe "realism".