Big Jiggly Boobs in Games... is it really worth all the QQing?

[HyenaThePirate]

Okay, so I "get" that some game developers went through a period of shameful exploration (or is it exploitation?) of the beautiful, round, over the shoulder boulder holders that the fairer sex taunts us with incessantly. But are people making TOO much of a big deal about it? Is it REALLY that offensive?

If you've seen the pictures of the "newly designed" Lara croft (made to look more "gritty, and emotionally realistic... the new fad in Hollywood and games), then you'll understand my sort of concern that we may be taking things too far in the other direction. To me, some characters are simply meant to look a certain way. It's part of their identity. If Wonder Woman was suddenly reduced to a B-cup, she would become odd looking, not familiar or comfortable. Lara, whom I have played as and enjoyed since the very first Tomb Raider... Ok yeah, those boobs weren't always tastefully presented, but while they were definitely eye candy for some, I don't feel that they overshadowed Lara's IDENTITY as a character. She was still this super smart, super savvy, super kick ass first true super heroine of video games that could turn you on as quickly as she could snap your neck.
Does the redesign really need to turn her into an emo-looking, angsty, Twilight saga reject? Even more to the point... All of this talk of turning her into an emotional, slightly insecure, horror movie survival type girl who at first cries and shivers and acts desperately and then is stronger for it leaves me a bit concerned. I'm all for deeper characters, but is the answer to her being a "sex" symbol to take her the complete opposite direction and make her severely "vulnerable?" Lara, while buxom was always a rather strong feminine character, and while I'm sure there is some merit to the argument that she (as a role model) might have encouraged those unrealistic expectations of the female form, trying to turn her into an "every woman" type character doesn't exactly feel as if it's going to accomplish much either, other than to make a large number of insecure women who don't like being reminded of how physically inadequate they might be compared to other girls feel a bit vindicated.

So what say you, Escapist community? Is the "big boobs", "women as visual sexual objects" stuff truly as relevant as it's being made out to be, or should we stop being so sensitive about the whole issue?

 

[Netrigan]

She's only supposed to be 21 in the game, so maybe it's from before she got her boob job.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

She's only supposed to be 21 in the game, so maybe it's from before she got her boob job.

That's even WORSE!! So, at some point, she goes from vulnerable to "kick ass" because of her ordeals, and as a way to express her newfound female confidence, she gets her bodacious tatas "enlarged?" Wouldn't a tattoo that says "I survived" or something been BETTER? That makes her seem MORE superficial if you ask me.

 

[Sulgoth]

The boobs are fine, I see those daily, they aren't anything special. It's when you get into jiggle physics that I start to get annoyed. Pub's please stop this, its a pointless waste of processing power and I don't think it adds anything special to the game

 

[Ragsnstitches]

It's not just on the developers of games. Film is plagued with such depictions.

You have to realise that the games industry is still young and it's still exploring it's options. It use to be the consensus that only boys played video games, resulting in "sexploitation" whereby the opposite sex was depicted in it's physical perfection (debatable), but in this day and age that is becoming more and more false (also note that games in general are still miles behind film in terms of character development, so devs are putting emphasis on physical characteristics over more subtle ones).

Now that the bigwigs have stopped being as retarded as they once were (but still pretty retarded) they have started opening up their games to wider audiences(albeit in a very blunt way). This would explain lara's breast reduction and more natural physic.

Unfortunately now a lot of them are falling into the trappings of cultural trends, which sadly most visual mediums are always a few years behind. I can see it everywhere, the upcoming DMC and Deus Ex 3 for example both contain such things (the latter I'm still greatly anticipating).

This would explain lara's shift in personality... keeping up with the times man!

I wouldn't say any of these changes rise from offensiveness... makes me wonder what cultural impacts, or parodies of, will be visible in Duke Nukem Forever.

Fuck that nonsense I say... lazy beggars don't want to develop characters, instead they opt to copy/paste stereotypes to save effort. Stereotyping is fine for fleshing out smaller characters, but not the god damn lead people!

 

[Drakmeire]

I think its good within reason. if the character is busty as a character trait then it's fine (one storyline I wrote had a character who would always cover her breasts because they got in the way of combat but under extreme conditions would use them as a distraction. sort of my de-construction of over-sexed characters) but if EVERY girl in the game is overly busty that it becomes ridiculous and insulting (DOA extreme) then it is pointless and juvenile unless the game is self-aware.

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

What is the big (haha) deal with the whole correlating the size of a character's breasts with the developers' social conscience and the character's stereotyping? People are built different shapes and sizes. I really don't think reducing a character's breast size is going to be much use in making sure they are real characters that don't conform to stereotypes.

I would much rather people stopped focusing on those lovely large boobies, and started demanding that those boobies get a great personality to go with them.

 

[Therumancer]

Don't much care for the new politically correct Lara Croft, and that's beyond the physical apperance. It's not the same character any more, it's a new character hoping to cash in on the name recognition.

As far as the issue of idealized physical forms in video games, I have no issue with them, and never have. Women want to be like that, just as men appreciate it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves, if you've ever read many books written by women, for women, or checked out the work of female genere artists it's pretty obvious.

The constant crusade against women in various fantasy mediums, whether it be comics, RPGs, or computer games has been going on forever. In general it's fueled by a handfull of very vocal women with a political axe to grind, and embraced by nerds who seem to think that by agreeing with it they will make themselves more attractive to girls through their understanding. That and businessmen who listen to the politiclly correct rambling and think that they can draw in a larger female market by complying with the rumble, it rarely if ever works which is why things move in cycles.

As far as the various "Volleyball" games and the like, I'm not a big genere fan (though I do like the Dead Or Alive fighting game series that spawned the most infamous set of Volleyball simulations), but I do understand the appeal. Truthfully I find nothing any worse about it than women and their harliquin books with the big beefy pictures of 'roid abusing Fabios on the cover.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

What? People are quitting every game with big beasts? That's what QQing means, not crying.

Anyways, there's nothing wrong with a female character with big breasts if it's done right; real women have small, medium, and big breasts and so can female game characters. There's a wrong way and a right way to do everything, making a character big-breasted solely to sell your game is not the right way.

 

[Marik2]

I think its good within reason. if the character is busty as a character trait then it's fine (one storyline I wrote had a character who would always cover her breasts because they got in the way of combat but under extreme conditions would use them as a distraction. sort of my de-construction of over-sexed characters) but if EVERY girl in the game is overly busty that it becomes ridicules and insulting (DOA extreme) then it is pointless and juvenile unless the game is self-aware.

You know now that I think about it PSG doesnt have stupid bouncy boobs(like a bunch of anime out there), its really a nice change of pace.

The boobs look sexy but arent outrageously big or stupid.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

the beautiful, round, over the shoulder boulder holders that the fairer sex taunts us with incessantly.

They taunt us with bras?

 

[northeast rower]

Does the redesign really need to turn her into an emo-looking, angsty, Twilight saga reject? Even more to the point... All of this talk of turning her into an emotional, slightly insecure, horror movie survival type girl who at first cries and shivers and acts desperately and then is stronger for it leaves me a bit concerned. I'm all for deeper characters, but is the answer to her being a "sex" symbol to take her the complete opposite direction and make her severely "vulnerable?" Lara, while buxom was always a rather strong feminine character, and while I'm sure there is some merit to the argument that she (as a role model) might have encouraged those unrealistic expectations of the female form, trying to turn her into an "every woman" type character doesn't exactly feel as if it's going to accomplish much either, other than to make a large number of insecure women who don't like being reminded of how physically inadequate they might be compared to other girls feel a bit vindicated.

I really don't see where you got the whole "Twilight reject emo" thing. She's getting beaten up by the island she's on, you can't expect a character not to pick up some scars from falling and getting eaten by cheetas or whatever.

As for the rest of it, I think that the purpose of the game is to show how she went from "everywoman" to "super-heroine".

 

[MiracleOfSound]

You know now that I think about it PSG doesnt have stupid bouncy boobs(like a bunch of anime out there), its really a nice change of pace.

The boobs look sexy but arent outrageously big or stupid.

They appear to be older than most anime girls too. Those two look at least 14.

 

[Drakmeire]

I think its good within reason. if the character is busty as a character trait then it's fine (one storyline I wrote had a character who would always cover her breasts because they got in the way of combat but under extreme conditions would use them as a distraction. sort of my de-construction of over-sexed characters) but if EVERY girl in the game is overly busty that it becomes ridicules and insulting (DOA extreme) then it is pointless and juvenile unless the game is self-aware.

You know now that I think about it PSG doesnt have stupid bouncy boobs(like a bunch of anime out there), its really a nice change of pace.

The boobs look sexy but arent outrageously big or stupid.

you just had to play my ringtone (yes my phone screams FLY AWAY NOW! whenever I get a call) and get me started on this show again.
This show would qualify as tongue and cheek sex appeal meaning the show is self-aware and uses sex appeal as a parody of shows that rely on it.
and because I do this every time someone plays that clip. I take your Panty and Stocking and raise you Scanty and Kneesocks!
<youtube=LFv9AXfPVuE>

 

[ultrachicken]

Angsty? The opening sequence involves Lara setting herself on fire. That both proves she's still a bad ass, and that whatever "angst" she has is well deserved.

 

[Marik2]

They appear to be older than most anime girls too. Those two look at least 14.

LOL now that I think about it the show never says how old they are....

you just had to play my ringtone (yes my phone screams FLY AWAY NOW! whenever I get a call) and get me started on this show again.
This show would qualify as tongue and cheek sex appeal meaning the show is self-aware and uses sex appeal as a parody of shows that rely on it.
and because I do this every time someone plays that clip. I take your Panty and Stocking and raise you Scanty and Kneesocks!
<youtube=LFv9AXfPVuE>

LOL I know what you mean, that song is seriously stuck in my head and I have played that video so many times in one day XD

And I seriously cant wait for the soundtrack to be released, and...

I shall raise you the real life Stocking.

Spoiler

I highly doubt you can beat that since the devil sisters are very...ew with their faces.

 

[Drakmeire]

They appear to be older than most anime girls too. Those two look at least 14.

well this one is canonically 14 <spoiler=Yoko>http://thoughtscream.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/yoko.jpg
So HA! your argument... has been completely proven right, or something... I think I did something wrong there.

I shall raise you the real life Stocking.

Spoiler

I highly doubt you can beat that since the devil sisters are very...ew with their faces.

hmmm. and I will try and find a way to beat that. I guess I raise you Dieto rock!
<youtube=yRyFa6rkaQs>
this battle will not end well.

 

[Marik2]

They appear to be older than most anime girls too. Those two look at least 14.

well this one is canonically 14 <spoiler=Yoko>http://thoughtscream.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/yoko.jpg
So HA! your argument... has been completely proven right, or something... I think I did something wrong there.

I shall raise you the real life Stocking.

Spoiler

I highly doubt you can beat that since the devil sisters are very...ew with their faces.

hmmm. and I will try and find a way to beat that. I guess I raise you Dieto rock!
<youtube=yRyFa6rkaQs>
this battle will not end well.

LOL you got us backwards man XD

And ugh I hate those time loop videos they annoy me and theres no point in them.

So Im gonna counter with a really good PSG AMV.