Female Game Characters Photoshopped to Average American Proportions

[Strazdas]

Maybe people should be encouraged to lose weight rather than making their fictional characters fatter.

Well, that's kind of related to the concern that the group has, that the ever presence of this kind of body image represents an unattainable ideal for the average person, the pursuit of which could result in the development of the eating disorders they provide information about.

Except that the image is attainable as proven by live action actor alternatives looking like that.

The whole comparison here is absolutely stupid. If you want to compare a mountain climber to average body image, compare it to average mountain climber, not someone that sits in office whole day and eats chocolate. The image presented is attainable and actually exists in people with same professions as depicted in the games (fighter, soldier, climber, ect). This charity would be much more useful if it actually taught people about how to loose weight without these eating disorders instead.

Some people say that that they look that way because they leave healthy lifestyles. If that were the case, they would have muscles instead of being built like toothpicks with a pair of grapes.

Do you watch olympics? Go, look at the female athletes there. do you see bulging muscles on them? no, you dont. because muscle strenght is not the same as muscle bulging. Openly visible muscles are for body builders. it does not represent actual strenght of the muscle. Also muscle tones are much less visible on females due to sexual dimorphism. Surely you dont suggest that videogame characters be steroid junkies?

 

[Zacharious-khan]

Here's an interesting thought. Are women "on average" are more likely to develop psychological disorders because of their depictions in video games. And does this make men superior because you never see them complaining about unrealistic body type depictions in video games.

Yes/No?

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

You know, we can talk day in and day out about what's an acceptable appearance, acceptable weight, etc, etc.

Or, instead of combating symptoms, we tackle the actual problem:

Get people to stop comparing themselves and others constantly to "ideal forms."

People want to lose weight? Fine. Gain weight? Fine. But there is such a thing as a healthy weight range and it's not going to be exactly the same for every last individual. Stop comparing yourself to others who most likely don't have the same healthy weight range as you.

 

[Maphysto]

Man yall sure got mad that some people photoshopped your waifus

 

[Smoketrail]

First and foremost its worth pointing out that this is reporting on something from "Bulemia.com" so of course the images have an "Axe to Grind" on the issue of body image and the media, that's literally the point of the organisation.

And frankly the fact that a lot of posters responses are instantly about obesity, thunder-thighs and the like seem to indicate that they have a point.

finally the claims that they are realistic deceptions of women who lead active lifestyles with physical jobs? yeah that's probably going to make them pretty muscular rather than bikini model thin.

 

[beastro]

This is why we can't have nice things

She's still hot.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

Uh, I would like to point out that the main argument given in the article was "for an industry that prides itself on realism, they don't seem to have many realistic female characters" and "it's not a realistic standard to set". I'm not really sure where everyone in this thread is getting all this "eating like pigs" and "catering to every little fucking group" comes from. There's a middle ground between unrealistically skinny and fat for the love of god. "Want everyone to change except themselves" all right, point out in the article where that's even vaguely implied. They even flat said they don't condem the developers. Christ, re-reading the article it's the most lukewarm and inoffensive criticism I've seen on the subject mater. (Not sure why they bothered, people are still losing their shit over it.) You're not ranting. You're lashing out. Without any real provocation.

Oh, and creative design in mainstream gaming sucks a big fat one right now. Rant about fat acceptance all you want, that's not going away. As a rather chubby person who is trying to loose weight, the lack of variety in gaming is just booooooooooooriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.

Oh...whining. That creative little word designed to dismiss anything you don't want to hear. Dismissing someone who has an eating disorder as whining is simply saying "I don't experience your plight, therefore I dismiss it". Same thing that people say about depression or autism. You're dismissing something because you haven't experienced it. "whining."

...I despise that word. It's a word designed specifically to shut people up.

 

[beastro]

Women do not look at Tifa from FF7 and decide to become bulemic.

They look at super models.. REAL people and decide they want to be like them.

In my experience with women from, pre-teens to the elderly, any societal view of weight has little to do with it and it more or less comes down to their own self-perception than anything. They're unhappy with themselves and their weight is something they focus on.

Along with cutting, starving themselves was a way most women I know found an outlet of control over their lives when they felt none only looking to an ideal when friends ad family asked for reasons why they wanted to so thin and they wanted to avoid bringing up how they were feeling deep down (Either out of lack of trust, fear that bad things would happen, not wanting to be an object of pity, or they had deep self-loathing and didn't feel they deserved help).

Two friends I know who were 120 and 106 (5'6'' and 4'10'' respectively) both wanted to get down to 90 and it didn't matter what anyone said, they wanted to do so because they felt at that weight they'd feel better about themselves, not because of some societal ideal.

In the latter case, as soon as she faced her depressive tendencies and got her OCD under control her concern about her weight vanished.

In minor cases this is "I feel/look fat" comes from and is just female for "I'm unhappy right now" and nothing you'll say will make them feel better, indeed, they're not looking for you to say anything and boost their mood, they're just stating how they feel, but it's the nucleus and the longer they feel down the more they'll focus on weight.

I'd wager it's the way the female mind generally turns to when down while the male mind generally starts dwelling on lack of accomplishments, only focusing on physique when a romantic prospect enters their life.

 

[NPC009]

Wait, what, Christie is anorexic because her ribs are somewhat visible when she bends backwards? Oh, good lord... depending on your fat distribution that may be perfectly normal. I weigh more then her (BMI of 21 in a country that considers a BMI of less than 18.5 problematic) and you can see mine if I pose like that. It's a bit like that 'thigh gap' thing, some people have the bone structure for it, others do not.

If there's anything wrong with half the original designs, it's that the girls don't have enough muscle and/or their boobs are unrealistically big.

 

[kasperbbs]

Average American might look like this, but these characters are not average people, and a lot of them are not even Americans. The only thing thats not right about them is that they don't enough muscle.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

So I've read a few comments here and there, both from the article and this forum, and I will say that I initially agreed with what seems to be the consensus: female characters should be proportioned accordingly to fit their lifestyles, especially more acrobatic, agile, and fighting-fit characters.

However, as I finished this thought, I came to a realization: why exactly should their physical appearance reflect their prowess and capabilities?

Ladies and gentlemen, I present Exhibit A:

Spoiler: Mario from the Super Mario Bros. franchise

We all know Mario as an iconic video character. His design has been relatively consistent over the years, with minor changes here and there. But shouldn't Mario's appearance reflect his capabilities? After all, with Mario's height, weight, and built, he should not be capable to break bricks with his fists, effortlessly wield and swing a large sledgehammer, run fast enough to be aerodynamic, jump high in the air, and have amazing acrobatic capabilities.

If Mario were to be more 'accurately portrayed,' he would be taller, leaner, and have a great deal of muscle mass (specifically in his arms and legs).

As for those who feel that female fighters should have a physic that mirrors that of UFC fighters, I present Exhibit B:

Spoiler: Rufus from the Street Fighter franchise

While initially speculated to become another joke character like Dan, Rufus has come into his own as a credible and worthy addition to the Street Fighter roster. Granted, he's not the most agile fighter in the bunch, but it has been seen that he is no joke; especially since someone of his extremely exaggerated physic shouldn't be able to last two seconds in ring with other physically superior characters.

Take Dan, for example; speaking on his physic, he should be on a similar caliber as any of the other fighters with a background in martial arts. However, in the hands of unseasoned player, unfamiliar in Dan's fighting style, he quite literally is a joke.

So while I agree that the option exists to create characters in which their physic promptly reflects their capabilities and life style, it should not be the norm (especially when it comes to gender).

 

[Bat Vader]

Right. Let's cater to every fuckin' little group that doesn't want to take responsibility for themselves. "Eating disorder" my ass. Stop eating like pigs. I hate fat acceptance and other shit like that. Being fat is not healthy and I don't have to accept it. On top of that every culture has a certain beauty standard. And being fat simply isn't a beauty standard in the western world. Your precious hurt feelings are not gonna make that go away. You know what will? Physical fuckin' exercise and healthy eating habits. Why should the rest of the world have to change so that your fat ass can feel better? Get off the sofa and throw away that McDonald's for fuck sake. I'd really love to see a fat Lara Croft try to do what Lara does in the video games. What a fuckin' truckload of fat morons.

Sorry for the rant. But I've really had it with all of these idiotic groups that are too weak to take responsibility for themselves and want everybody else to change except them.

I'm fat. I know what fat looks like. Those revisions? They're fat. America, you're average is fat. You should count your calories and start doing some cardio.

Sincerely, a fat schlub trying to lose weight.

This guy gets it. He acknowledges the problem and he's working on solving it. I did so as well. I used to be an obese fuck in high school. Guess what? Now I look like Captain America. It's entirely possible. So quit whining about eating disorders. You can't use that excuse when the majority of the population look like walruses.

There are people out there who like being fat and gaining weight. Personally I find women that have some meat on their bones much more attractive than skinny women. Groups like that are going to continue to exist and getting mad about them won't solve anything. I just ignore them and go on my merry way.

 

[ServebotFrank]

I got a few issues with this. (I'm gonna get really damn offensive here so forgive me).

1. Those are the absolute wrong characters to do that to. I would concerned about Lara maintaining such a high amount of body fat when she spends most of her days doing flips, climbing mountains, and spelunking without many chances to eat. So unless Lara is just stuffing her fucking mouth with twinkies every second when we are not looking I am calling bullshit.

2. That is not average. Average is like, slim. Not skinny, thin, fit, athletic, just slim. If those body types are "average" I worry for the health of this country. Most likely this is someone attempting to feel better about their weight, much like those girls who mistake "curvy" for being 250 pounds overweight. (This is way more common than you think. Go on literally any dating site and look up "curvy" body types).

3. This kind of bullshit is the reason America has not made any progress in cutting down obesity problems. It's fine to tell women that it's totally fine to not be skinny and super athletic because it really doesn't matter. It's not okay to tell fat women that they are the "normal" body weight. Great, now you are making all of the real average women feel bad for being thin. Great, because it's not like we don't have enough problems with eating disorders.

 

[Traviltar]

"Average American body types"
Hah

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

-Snip-

Not that I don't agree with you, in fact it's much more amusing when a character has abilities that don't quite connect to the condition of his physique, but the argument of their physical appearance reflecting their prowess and capabilities came from the argument that they should be portrayed more "realistically" by making them fat Americans.

Agreed, but therein lies the issue; the premise, "female video game characters should be portrayed more 'realistically,'" is fundamentally flawed.

These characters aren't real; they are drawn together and created using several elements and inspirations from different sources. To merely judge the validity of a character's appearance based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, life style, profession, experience, timeline, etc., is nonsensical.

While I understood that the argument was made towards 'realistic' portrayals of female video characters (which let's face it, was more of an overall median than a case-by-case basis), I was voicing my opinion towards a favoring consensus that female characters should be proportioned accordingly to fit their lifestyles.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Uh, that's nice and all, but people aren't 'average' That merely describes what you get if you even out what exists.

More to the point, as a non-American, looking at a bunch of characters who are mostly also non-American, I could claim to be vaguely insulted by a standard for 'American women' being applied to people of other nationalities.

I mean, Tifa? She looks pretty Japanese. Is she skinny? Probably. But forcing the average for 'an American' onto a person like that makes no sense whatsoever.

And Lara Croft? Serioisly? She's British, but more importantly, it's pretty clear from her games that she does absurd amounts of excersise.
And guess what? I have a excersise obsessed friend in England, and she looks far more like the original, than the modified, 'more realistic' version.

This is... Dumb on so many levels.

Want more realistic women? Don't blindly apply arbitrary standards to them! If you're going to do this, use your brain, and use some actual logic! Bleh.

 

[Frankster]

This is the "average" american woman?

Jeezus and I thought I had a bit too much weight... Not anymore.
Compared to "average" americans I'm a fucking Adonis, thanks for the morale boost, it's gonna motivate me to keep hitting the gym xD


As an aside I suggest redoing this for women of other countries. I doubt the average french woman for example, with their mighty national BMI of 23 (not as good as the japs) is gonna be looking like the american version.