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

[balladbird]

Gotta love how judgmental some gamers get when it comes to weight, especially given the stereotype the rest of the human race has of us. To hear some people talk, fat folk are just the absolute worst! Zero impulse control failures of human beings.

Simple truth of the matter, though, is that there are exactly two kinds of people in this world: People who have at least one indulgence that compromises their health and longevity, and bald-faced liars. The overweight have the sad curse of having the mark of their indulgence be more visible than others, so it gives people a perfect excuse to pretend they're perfect and join together in mocking someone else as if they're unassailable.

Ah well, I'm not fat, so it doesn't affect me at all. I'm clearly not of an inferior clout... now off to pop more hydrocodone so I can suppress my depression for a few hours...


To be more on topic, though, I can't really say that I disagree with the OP. It's a good challenge for artists and designers, and it doesn't even need to change the status quo, just add more detail to characters in the background.

Granted, what the OP was talking about, and what some of the posts in this thread decided they were talking about, are pretty markedly different.

 

[Yan007]

The overweight have the sad curse of having the mark of their indulgence be more visible than others, so it gives people a perfect excuse to pretend they're perfect and join together in mocking someone else as if they're unassailable.

Old argument but still: very few smokers nowadays advertise their lifestyle choice as being caused by genetics or that it's healthy and beautiful and it's ok if their kids indulge too.

 

[Sansha]

I frankly wouldn't trust an overweight superhero. The idea behind being physically superhuman is that you're way above the peak of human physical fitness and strength. It wouldn't make sense to be lugging around an unhealthy figure to go with your limitless stamina and power.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

I like looking at attractive people in video games. That's all I care about. Attractive, aesthetically pleasing people. I don't care if their costumes are ridiculous so long as they look cool. I don't care if boob armor is impractical so long as it looks sexy. I want my heroes to be buff and my heroines to be babes. Bring on the stupid hair cuts, the improbably big weapons, the gratuitous skin, the bad ass "armor" that looks like fetish gear. I love it all.

So long as people keep making some games like that, I'm happy. It's fantasy after all. Personally I feel that people who demand realism in their fantasy are sad and lacking in imagination and fun. That's probably why there aren't many games made to cater to them.

What exactly is so imaginative about adhering to a list of the most cliched design choices fantasy has to offer? It seems rather strange that you claim there aren't many fantasy games with realistic designs (a claim that seems rather odd in and of itself) yet also claim that those who perpetuate the status-quo are the imaginative ones.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Whelp, now this is a weird thread.

Going for diversity but apparently not the right kind of diversity. Can't have anyone saying big tits are anything but a blessing or video game characters aren't absolutely perfectly fine just the way they've always been.

It's just that none of it makes sense. Liana confuses "plus-sized" (fat) with "buxom", then complains she can't cosplay as videogame characters because her breasts are too big, as if female VG characters had anything but.

It's a big non-issue within an even bigger non-issue.

 

[Malpraxis]

Well. Its a videogame, and they're not discriminating against you (unless in the 80's carpenters were all the rage). I made my inquisitor to fit his background, a silver eyed, blonde, highborne prick. Doesn't look like me at all, but I'm having fun.

Open your eyes before closing your mind. The world is a beautiful place.

 

[Hagi]

Whelp, now this is a weird thread.

Going for diversity but apparently not the right kind of diversity. Can't have anyone saying big tits are anything but a blessing or video game characters aren't absolutely perfectly fine just the way they've always been.

It's just that none of it makes sense. Liana confuses "plus-sized" (fat) with "buxom", then complains she can't cosplay as videogame characters because her breasts are too big, as if female VG characters had anything but.

It's a big non-issue within an even bigger non-issue.

So what? People complaining about things you personally deem non-issues on the internet!

I don't really see how that justifies some of the responses we're seeing here.

And I don't really think the complaint is simply about a lack of VG characters with large breasts, rather VG characters with large breasts wearing outfits you'd both want to cosplay in as well as actually being comfortable to wear considering real physics. Which doesn't sound that odd to me, games don't really have the very best track record when it comes to combining large breasts, realistic physics and outfits both practical and awesome.

 

[BarrelsOfDouche]

I have no problem with the concept or the request...

I only have a problem when 'asking' becomes 'asserting' or sanctioned pandering.

Then again, if the game was fun enough I wouldn't really mind playing as an anthropomorphic scrotum with hands and a flamethrower...so maybe I'm the wrong guy sharing my opinion.

 

[Samsont]

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.

The thing is though, plus sized doesn't necessarily mean unfit, just take a look at a lot of female olympic athletes! Many would be considered unfit upon first glance, until you realize that most of what they've got on their body is packed in muscle. Not to mention the fact that because of the twisted standards of women's clothing sizes, if we had a woman who matched Shepherd's muscle mass, they'd be considered plus-sized.
Examples:
https://fiercefatties.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/lemos-sandra.jpg?w=454&h=512
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44926000/jpg/_44926437_19abb610-e4a9-4f8f-a25f-675d38e3abd3.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads14/female+weightlifter1228845702.jpg
http://americaninlima.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/081708-0358-thebuzzonpe1.jpg
Note on this one, this is Amanda Bingson, she broke the world record last time she competed: http://www.takepart.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/AmandaBingson-MAIN.jpg?itok=gnd6uf1i

Just keep in mind that there are many different types of bodies, and large doesn't necessarily mean unfit

 

[happyninja42]

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.

The thing is though, plus sized doesn't necessarily mean unfit, just take a look at a lot of female olympic athletes! Many would be considered unfit upon first glance, until you realize that most of what they've got on their body is packed in muscle. Not to mention the fact that because of the twisted standards of women's clothing sizes, if we had a woman who matched Shepherd's muscle mass, they'd be considered plus-sized.
Examples:
https://fiercefatties.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/lemos-sandra.jpg?w=454&h=512
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44926000/jpg/_44926437_19abb610-e4a9-4f8f-a25f-675d38e3abd3.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads14/female+weightlifter1228845702.jpg
http://americaninlima.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/081708-0358-thebuzzonpe1.jpg
Note on this one, this is Amanda Bingson, she broke the world record last time she competed: http://www.takepart.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/AmandaBingson-MAIN.jpg?itok=gnd6uf1i

Just keep in mind that there are many different types of bodies, and large doesn't necessarily mean unfit

Not to mention that stating a female warrior would be "unrealistic" if they weren't slim and athletic is at the bottom of the list of unrealistic things that happen in Mass Effect. Seriously it's all "unrealistic", so who cares if the player's avatar doesn't exactly fit a preconceived body model for a 'warrior'? We have aliens and hyperdrives, and tossing people around with brain powers, NONE of which is at all realistic (though I personally would say aliens is likely, but that's me), but we draw the line at plus size heroes? THAT is the line in the sand we're going to hold true to about our "realism"? But all the other entirely fanciful stuff is just fine to let slide past the realism scale? Let the character play a body type they want, it's hardly a game breaking detail compared to everything else.