Bioware, Please Make A Plus-Sized Female Dragon Age Character!

[Liana Kerzner]

Bioware, Please Make A Plus-Sized Female Dragon Age Character!

I haven't done a Bioware cosplay for one simple reason: my boobs are too big.

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[CaitSeith]

This reminds me Gaijin Goomba's video about big breasted women. He pretty much talks about a double standard both in games and in real life. If a character has big breasts, it's obviously pandering. If a girl has big breast, she is obviously just looking for attention (or acting like a slut)

 

[Takwin]

No thanks. We want IDEALIZED people in these games, not realistic ones. They are all basically superheroes.

I want them exceptionally smart or strong and probably all good looking in their own way. This is my OPINION and my PREFERENCE, and there is no right answer.

I DO NOT WANT FAT CHARACTERS ANY MORE THAN I WANT FAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. It is one of the least appealing traits a human being can have and is such a chronic problem in America that the current trend is to just justify it and "feel good" about yourself while the world literally dies from the effects of obesity through diabetes and heart disease.

 

[DonTsetsi]

There already is a plus-sized Female Dragon Age character:
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Broodmother

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Wait, I thought the whole point of being athletic and constantly at war meant you were thin and fit. Like it seems unrealistic to have obese people on a war footing. Don't forget, as much as Bioware is about inclusivity in their games, their games are about WAR.
As in soldiers. Warriors. People who fight. Those people are, through dint of the physical strains of war, going to be thin and fit.

If you're "plus-sized" maybe you shouldn't cosplay as someone who is fit and athletic. Just saying, Bioware is not the one at fault.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

No thanks. We want IDEALIZED people in these games, not realistic ones. They are all basically superheroes.

I want them exceptionally smart or strong and probably all good looking in their own way. This is my OPINION and my PREFERENCE, and there is no right answer.

I DO NOT WANT FAT CHARACTERS ANY MORE THAN I WANT FAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. It is one of the least appealing traits a human being can have and is such a chronic problem in America that the current trend is to just justify it and "feel good" about yourself while the world literally dies from the effects of obesity through diabetes and heart disease.

Ah, priceless...

On topic: should devs really care what cosplayers think? That sounds like a remarkably dismissive thing to say, because it kindof is... I'm all for BioWare adding more diversity for body shapes for both/all genders, if it makes sense of the character, but I don't believe 'Hm, what would suit cosplayers... ' should ever be something a designer thinks about in terms of character creation (unless you're Kojima and that "erotic" character design is Quiet, apparently).

I'm not into cosplay at all, but I also thought it was a fairly body positive thing for anyone to cosplay any outfit, thus making the issue of suitability fairly irrelevant. Is such an emphasis on matching body types with characters really that positive? Cosplay should surely be fun for the person cosplaying, above all other concerns.

 

[Karadalis]

Im sorry but unless bioware decides to turn away from epic war stories and focus on the common day to day live of peasants in the dragon age world a "plus size" character makes no fucking sense.

Tell me.. when was the last time you saw a obese person in the army... marines... navy... airforce?

You cannot save the universe and look like you are clearly out of shape..

As for demanding characters with bigger busts:

Good luck with that.. the progressives have fought tooth and nails to banish big breasts out of video games and even games like mortal combat have DRASTICALLY reduced bust sizes.

Big boobs = mysoginistic pandering rape culture suporting nonsense.. dont you remember? Big boobs make women feel unwelcome in gaming!

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think Liana and by extension posters keep using a certain word, and I don't think it means what they think it means.
But then that's what happens when you boil down language to imprecise Orwellian nonsense such as "plus-size". The speaker's own mental print is lost. A comparison all the more appropriate because Newspeak parlance asks of speakers to affix words such as "plus" for emphasis. We can't say "buxom" or "fat" anymore, god forbid you offend anybody, we have to be ambiguous and go for "plus-sized".
THIS is Liana. She's not "plus-sized", she's buxom.

Spoiler

Try searching for images under "plus-sized" and "buxom" and tell me what results match Liana's figure the most.

She also has the same body type as 99% of every female videogame character ever conceived.
I don't know what she's getting on about.

 

[Something Amyss]

Huh. That's an angle I didn't expect when clicking on the link.

I have a kind of serious question though, and maybe it's ignorance because I don't cosplay and wouldn't even if I didn't look like the offspring of Jon Stewart and a mountain troll. I don't say this to make it sound bad, I also don't ski and wouldn't even if I had the coordination, but I hold no malice towards skiers.

What happens if Bioware adds some busty characters and you don't like them?

Like, I don't know, I'm personally more likely to like characters who are svelte, athletic, or tomboy-ish (their look, anyway). I'm pretty much screwed in the hypothetical situation that this was something that interested me, right? I mean, even though there's not particularly a shortage?

I DO NOT WANT FAT CHARACTERS ANY MORE THAN I WANT FAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

You do realise that large boobs don't automatically make someone fat, right?

Tell me.. when was the last time you saw a obese person in the army... marines... navy... airforce?

I'm sorry, but when the marines can actually literally blow things up with their mind, that example will become relevant. Not to mention she gives the example of the rather saggy Iron Bull.

Also, given that she gave a size eight as her primary example, are you perfectly clear on what a size eight represents?

That sounds like a remarkably dismissive thing to say, because it kindof is...

If you know it's dismissive, maybe don't do it? It's possible to disagree or even question someone without dismissing them or their concerns.

It seems no more trivial than other reasons people want characters to look a certain way.

 

[Worgen]

I don't get the people arguing against this, we have plenty of plus sized guys in these games, look at the dwarf with the xbow. Its one of the really weird things in games and animation that there are 3 female bodies, old (sometimes old still uses the standard body, which yields some odd results such as granny having rocking tits), really young, then the one body type everyone else has, excluding a few select cases. Even monster girls tend to have the same body-type, with just animal legs or something.

 

[Qizx]

Huh. That's an angle I didn't expect when clicking on the link.

I have a kind of serious question though, and maybe it's ignorance because I don't cosplay and wouldn't even if I didn't look like the offspring of Jon Stewart and a mountain troll. I don't say this to make it sound bad, I also don't ski and wouldn't even if I had the coordination, but I hold no malice towards skiers.

What happens if Bioware adds some busty characters and you don't like them?

Like, I don't know, I'm personally more likely to like characters who are svelte, athletic, or tomboy-ish (their look, anyway). I'm pretty much screwed in the hypothetical situation that this was something that interested me, right? I mean, even though there's not particularly a shortage?

I DO NOT WANT FAT CHARACTERS ANY MORE THAN I WANT FAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

You do realise that large boobs don't automatically make someone fat, right?

Tell me.. when was the last time you saw a obese person in the army... marines... navy... airforce?

I'm sorry, but when the marines can actually literally blow things up with their mind, that example will become relevant. Not to mention she gives the example of the rather saggy Iron Bull.

Also, given that she gave a size eight as her primary example, are you perfectly clear on what a size eight represents?

That sounds like a remarkably dismissive thing to say, because it kindof is...

If you know it's dismissive, maybe don't do it? It's possible to disagree or even question someone without dismissing them or their concerns.

It seems no more trivial than other reasons people want characters to look a certain way.

I suck at quoting so here's what I'm going to talk to:

Tell me.. when was the last time you saw a obese person in the army... marines... navy... airforce?

I'm sorry, but when the marines can actually literally blow things up with their mind, that example will become relevant. Not to mention she gives the example of the rather saggy Iron Bull.

No matter WHAT you're capable of being physically fit will make you a better fighter. What if you're on one side of a ship and there's a battle going down on the other side? Waddle on down? Being physically fit is EXTREMELY important even if you're fighting with magic space monkeys, look at the Jedi? They're space wizards and all but the most powerful need to be quite physically fit. And even the emperor has quite a few fit body guards.

Now that being said I wouldn't call size 8 "plus sized" by any means, maybe a TAD out of the perfect fighting shape but still not fat.

Aside: Haven't played too much DAI but isn't Iron Bull all muscle or something?

EDIT: Made the quoting a TINY bit better.

 

[Morti]

No thanks. We want IDEALIZED people in these games, not realistic ones. They are all basically superheroes.

I want them exceptionally smart or strong and probably all good looking in their own way. This is my OPINION and my PREFERENCE, and there is no right answer.

I DO NOT WANT FAT CHARACTERS ANY MORE THAN I WANT FAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. It is one of the least appealing traits a human being can have and is such a chronic problem in America that the current trend is to just justify it and "feel good" about yourself while the world literally dies from the effects of obesity through diabetes and heart disease.

Big does not always mean fat. Look at any strength based athlete.

 

[Maphysto]

I DO NOT WANT FAT CHARACTERS ANY MORE THAN I WANT FAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

I think I'll just emptyquote you from now on whenever people start bitching about "SJW's".

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

If you know it's dismissive, maybe don't do it? It's possible to disagree or even question someone without dismissing them or their concerns.

It seems no more trivial than other reasons people want characters to look a certain way.

You can be entirely polite when being dismissive, which is precisely what I was, and I also elaborated on my point reasonably.

I do think it's a very peculiar thing to ask of designers, and were I crafting characters for games or animations, I wouldn't consider any cosplayers preferences regardless of what they were. And, like I said, isn't the 'anyone can cosplay any character' approach just more inclusive and positive in the first place? If Liana feels she has to narrow the types of characters she can do, surely that's her choice alone, and not something any designer should feel the need to cater to. What's wrong with a bustier expression of a certain character, anyway?

If this piece was simply about wanting more diverse body types across the board, then I'd absolutely agree (as long as they suited whatever tone/context a given IP is going for).

 

[Qizx]

I DO NOT WANT FAT CHARACTERS ANY MORE THAN I WANT FAT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

I think I'll just emptyquote you from now on whenever people start bitching about "SJW's".

I mean what's exactly wrong with what he said? It's an health concern, yeah he may have meant it in a dickish way. It's like me saying "I don't want cigarette smokers in video games any more than in the real world.

Both are unhealthy lifestyles and both ideally would not exist.

 

[Areloch]

I thought having female characters that would fit Liana's build was pretty much the most sexist thing designers do these days?

I think Liana and by extension posters keep using a certain word, and I don't think it means what they think it means.
But then that's what happens when you boil down language to imprecise Orwellian nonsense such as "plus-size". The speaker's own mental print is lost. A comparison all the more appropriate because Newspeak parlance asks of speakers to affix words such as "plus" for emphasis. We can't say "buxom" or "fat" anymore, god forbid you offend anybody, we have to be ambiguous and go for "plus-sized".
THIS is Liana. She's not "plus-sized", she's buxom.

Spoiler

Try searching for images under "plus-sized" and "buxom" and tell me what results match Liana's figure the most.

She also has the same body type as 99% of every female videogame character ever conceived.
I don't know what she's getting on about.

Also, this. When I'm going through the mall and I see a store specifically for 'plus-sized women', it's for women with a lot of fat on them, not fit women with a lot of chest.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Im sorry but unless bioware decides to turn away from epic war stories and focus on the common day to day live of peasants in the dragon age world a "plus size" character makes no fucking sense.

Are you serious? How much royalty do you see in the Dragon Age games? The setting is based on the middle ages where larger women were considered more attractive. There was a lot of plus-sized people in royalty.

We've already got plenty of characters who don't make sense. We've got rake thin women with no muscle (and large breasts) decked out in armor who are portrayed as strong and competent fighters. Fun fact, for most women, the more muscle you put on, and the more weight you lose, the smaller your breasts get, since breast are mostly fat.

Look at heavyweight wrestling, mma, boxing or whatever. You've got women far bigger than anything you see in games (with the only exception I can think of being Hammer from Fable).

Beyond that, the world is full of mages and aristocrats who don't have any need to be phsyically fit, as I mentioned be, the latter of which is actually unlikely to be.

 

[Maphysto]

Im sorry but unless bioware decides to turn away from epic war stories and focus on the common day to day live of peasants in the dragon age world a "plus size" character makes no fucking sense.

Are you serious? How much royalty do you see in the Dragon Age games? The setting is based on the middle ages where larger women were considered more attractive. There was a lot of plus-sized people in royalty.

We've already got plenty of characters who don't make sense. We've got rake thin women with no muscle (and large breasts) decked out in armor who are portrayed as strong and competent fighters. Fun fact, for most women, the more muscle you put on, and the more weight you lose, the smaller your breasts get, since breast are mostly fat.

Look at heavyweight wrestling, mma, boxing or whatever. You've got women far bigger than anything you see in games (with the only exception I can think of being Hammer from Fable).

Beyond that, the world is full of mages and aristocrats who don't have any need to be phsyically fit, as I mentioned be, the latter of which is actually unlikely to be.

No but see unrealistic bodies are only acceptable when they pander to ME because

 

[josemlopes]

But big breasts are unrealistic, dont you know?

 

[RealRT]

Shale. You are welcome.

Above you see a sad result of what happens when a company starts pandering to their fanbase: the fanbase starts demanding more and more and more.
I'm one fat bastard and I sure as hell don't want to see fat people in my videogames.