Female Game Characters Photoshopped to Average American Proportions

[kyp275]

LOL no, they would not be, not unless they were giants.. ROFL.
This woman may help you visualize as a reference:

Maybe I missed something, but I can't seem to find the height that the women in your pictures are supposed to be at, without which their weight number is rather worthless in determining whether they're overweight or not. However, taking the weight information you gave:

the 200 lbs woman would have to be at 6'4, and the 176 lbs woman would have to be at 5'11 to not be considered overweight.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

LOL no, they would not be, not unless they were giants.. ROFL.
This woman may help you visualize as a reference:

Maybe I missed something, but I can't seem to find the height that the women in your pictures are supposed to be at, without which their weight number is rather worthless in determining whether they're overweight or not. However, taking the weight information you gave:

the 200 lbs woman would have to be at 6'4, and the 176 lbs woman would have to be at 5'11 to not be considered overweight.

This picture was used as a reference to " what overweight 200lbs looks like". If she was 6ft'4 she would not be overweight, and she would not look like this. When you are 6'4, 200 lbs is much more spread out. The point is this woman is 200lbs and overweight, the depictions of Rikku and Cortana are not, and it is silly to attempt to compare them to someone actually overweight and 200lbs...

 

[Grabehn]

When I read "realistic" and saw the image of two faces, I assumed it was actually making characters realistic, not just making LITERALLY all of them just thicker with smaller breasts. Except for Rikku obviously, cuz that would make her just flat-chested.

 

[BarrelsOfDouche]

Damnit...still not pear shaped enough, game devs. Start over.

Meanwhile I'm going to go harass Salvador Dali over how f***ed up his clocks look, show him a picture of a real clock, and demand he paint that instead.

You artists...I swear.

 

[Westaway]

How the mighty have fallen. The world is having a laugh at your expense, America.

Uh...wot? You're gonna have to elaborate on this.

(Christ, if anyone acted this way to any other country, people would flip)

The average American is fat. Instead of somehow facing this epidemic head on, they're making video game characters fat so the fat people don't feel bad. Besides Qatar and the UK the rest of the world is laughing at how fat America is.

 

[Erttheking]

How the mighty have fallen. The world is having a laugh at your expense, America.

Uh...wot? You're gonna have to elaborate on this.

(Christ, if anyone acted this way to any other country, people would flip)

The average American is fat. Instead of somehow facing this epidemic head on, they're making video game characters fat so the fat people don't feel bad. Besides Qatar and the UK the rest of the world is laughing at how fat America is.

*Snort*

You shouldn't point fingers

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54c127cfeab8ea447d9135d5-1128-515/screen%20shot%202015-01-22%20at%2010.27.46%20am.png

You're on the same level as us.

In fact the entire first world is getting pretty chubby.

 

[Ishal]

How the mighty have fallen. The world is having a laugh at your expense, America.

Uh...wot? You're gonna have to elaborate on this.

(Christ, if anyone acted this way to any other country, people would flip)

The average American is fat. Instead of somehow facing this epidemic head on, they're making video game characters fat so the fat people don't feel bad. Besides Qatar and the UK the rest of the world is laughing at how fat America is.

Can't tell you how many bodybuilders or people into fitness I know who used to look at DBZ characters, or other fit fictional characters and go "That looks cool. I want to be that!" Then go out and do it. They'd use it as one of many inspirations.

Here we see the opposite. Women - but moreso their male advocates - wanting fictional characters to represent them while they toss Cinnabon down their gullets.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

......................(at 12 pages)

This is going to go on forever isn't it. this will never go away, Nothing will ever be done about these issues, people will just ***** for all eternity. This is hell, a hell where people discuss gender politics to an insane degree for all eternity. I want to get off but I can't it's fucking everywhere.......

Spoiler

 

[Danny Dowling]

these illustrations have caused more scrutiny of the weight/size of women than the the pictures themselves.

Without pictures of women through the graphs that were linked by another user, we can see that the US among other countries are overweight on average. Expecting video games to make women fatter just to coincide with how human beings are becoming fatter is detrimental to us as a species. These characters are not proportionately impossible (minus possibly the DoA cast, they're ridiculous lol) and if people can't accept that then they're simply ignorant.

 

[Redryhno]

How the mighty have fallen. The world is having a laugh at your expense, America.

Uh...wot? You're gonna have to elaborate on this.

(Christ, if anyone acted this way to any other country, people would flip)

The average American is fat. Instead of somehow facing this epidemic head on, they're making video game characters fat so the fat people don't feel bad. Besides Qatar and the UK the rest of the world is laughing at how fat America is.

*Snort*

The UK shouldn't point fingers.


They're on the same level we are.

Your country too. So get off your high horse.

Yeah, but we also have like 8 times the population...so honestly that makes it all the worse if you think about it...You'd think a country as "powerful" and "progressive" as we are would have more variety, but when an average is pulled enough so that we're one of the fattest countries in the world despite being one of the more populous with access to healthy food as well as the time and capital to burn off the completely unhealthy junk we eat in addition to that in comparison to other countries, that's a bit screwy wouldn't you say?

We've got people advocating for fat people, which is fine, but it doesn't stop at toleration and acceptance and generally not being a dick to them just because of their size where I fully agree with, it keeps going to that bad place where even if they have the resources to become healthier, lighter, fitter, etc., it's not their fault or responsibility to change(though I also agree that people should be able to be that size if they wish through their lifestyle, just so long as they don't expect to be treated exactly the same as someone lighter or smaller). It is instead all placed on the world being wrong and that everyone should change to suit them. I can understand people wanting to be heavier or accepting it as a part of the lifestyle, but this is not the way to do it, because all it is is about tearing down icons, fictional I might add, not building others up to be on the same level. It is selfishness of a pretty high degree.

This is just exchanging one extreme of twiggy armed girls for proportionally the same thing, except this time with alot more fat on active lifestyles that are expected to be taken seriously.

Why couldn't they use real people here? What use is there in doing this to fictional characters with fictional bodies in fictional worlds that lead extraordinary lives? What is the point of bringing the real world to these extraordinary characters? What is the point of applying a single country's skewed average onto a character developed and thought up by a person in a different country? Again I ask, why couldn't real models have been photoshopped instead? Why are animated bodies held to a higher standard than the real world that everyone gets much more exposure to than videogames, most of which are from pretty old franchises that even people in the fandoms haven't played all of? Why is the real world being ignored for the digital with a problem that solely affects the real?

Not to mention he already mentioned the UK being just as fat in his post because you apparently failed to read that. So maybe get off whatever it is you're sitting on?

 

[Kelgair]

Can't... stop... laughing...

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Uh. How does that make any sense. Cortana is a created image of a woman...she can literally be ANYTHING! Why does she arbitrarily have to be a good looking woman? "The way most drawn/animated characters" tend to be? That's just using the status quo as a defense, it's not a justification of anything. And how does any of this excuse how Cortana was made into more of a sex doll with each game?

While I agree that there should be more muscular women out there, that doesn't have anything to do with the point they're trying to make.

For some reason people can't seem to create any women who don't have fashion model bodies. Men can be anywhere on the spectrum.

Don't get your underwear in a twist for the truth. On average, the created image of a woman is good looking. Arbitrarily? No, generally people prefer to look at attractive characters. This goes for male characters too. As for Cortana being a sex doll.

Hahahahahahaha. But ya know, i'm not even justifying it. I preferred Cortana's look in Halo 1, and dislike each new iteration of her more and more. Whatever. But your argument is weak, it's one hinging case is 'you're using the status quo', and to a point. Yes. I am, on the other hand, it doesn't mean i'm not right about it. And if you want me to go into she's more of a sex doll in every game, well. She's never sexualized, for one thing, she started out as a naked purple woman who changed colors to a naked blue lady who got more details as we went along. I mean, I guess Mystique in the X-men movies is a sex doll too, right?

And you totally missed my point. Let's take Tifa. Someone who actively trains in martial arts, punches giant robots, snakes, aliens and city sized golems to death on a daily basis, would have more muscle then they gave her after they photoshoped her. Why am I bringing it up? Because if they're gonna go on about making them more life like, don't half ass it and skimp the details. It's just lazy and to me undermines the point. Again, they also don't bring up males, so they're not going for a equal image thing here. Spoiler; they're not accurately representing what these characters would look like in realistic proportions in respect to who they are and what they do.

As an aside; why I do want larger varieties of female figures in media. (Which i've been seeing more of) I don't see why these entirely animated women in entirely different worlds should have to conform to our reality. It's certainly not what they live in. Honestly I wish we'd work more on removing pointless sexualization and all too common attempts at titillation then edit illustrations.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Question: what exactly is this trying to prove? That video games have unrealistic portrayals of the average woman? Well, guess what, these people aren't average in terms of physicality by any stretch of the definition (except the GTAV girl who isn't even a character in the game, and thus we have no insight in her lifestyle, and Cortana, who is a hologram). All of these are fighters who perform practically superhuman feats and applying realistic body standards to these characters makes no sense. This may have worked better if you were to apply what the average American is to, you know, average people.

 

[maninahat]

Question: what exactly is this trying to prove? That video games have unrealistic portrayals of the average woman? Well, guess what, these people aren't average in terms of physicality by any stretch of the definition (except the GTAV girl who isn't even a character in the game, and thus we have no insight in her lifestyle, and Cortana, who is a hologram). All of these are fighters who perform practically superhuman feats and applying realistic body standards to these characters makes no sense. This may have worked better if you were to apply what the average American is to, you know, average people.

I think the purpose is to tell people vulnerable to eating disorders that they should stop regarding idealized versions of women as a plausible standard of beauty that is worth starving yourself towards. Video games almost always show women as sexy and implausibly thin, and that might not be helpful in a society that invariably judges people (and particularly women) on appearance. By showing heavier versions of videogame characters, it kind of acts as a reality check that asserts a) it is unusual to look that thin and b) there isn't any harm in not looking that thin.

Every other argument people are making about fighting girls is kind of mute in regards to the above problem. It is insincere to claim that a fighter wouldn't be fat, seeing as how they probably wouldn't be stick thin with double Ds either (as games portray them). You don't ever see average proportioned people in games, whatever the context, and that is the bigger problem when trying to combat a negative self image; these people with eating disorders have little else to compare themselves to except for idealized fantasy women. That issue exists in most mediums beyond gaming, however within gaming it does feel exaggerated by the fact that games are often first and foremost to appeal to guys.

 

[Zontar]

Every other argument people are making about fighting girls is kind of mute in regards to the above problem.

Is that really a problem the US is going through? Because last time I checked what the real problem the US was going through was an obesity epidemic where a majority of the American people where seriously overweight or obese. For every one woman who has an eating disorder which is self imposed to try to try and look good, there's an easy hundred who are seriously overweight and need to cut back on their daily caloric intake. If anything these images are doing more damage then the thing they are claiming to be solving, since the number of people getting the very, very wrong image of what a healthy human being looks like are an easy order of magnitude greater, and is an issue which is just as serious on a per-person basis in terms of personal health as well as cost to the health care system (in fact obesity probably costs the system more per-person).

That's before we even get into the issue of both men and women preferring good looking women instead of bad looking ones, and despite claims to the contrary the women portrayed in the original images are, in fact, 'realistic' (outside of anime eyes for some of them) as I can very much attest to knowing quite a few women who have a body whose figure is more in line with the originals then the intentionally obese ones.

I also have to wonder why media created in other countries where this is not a major issue (namely any that isn't the US or UK) should care for this mostly American problem when making media. Here in Montreal the issue is very much a smaller one on both ends of the scale, especially in the people within the age range of those portrayed in these images.

 

[Redryhno]

Question: what exactly is this trying to prove? That video games have unrealistic portrayals of the average woman? Well, guess what, these people aren't average in terms of physicality by any stretch of the definition (except the GTAV girl who isn't even a character in the game, and thus we have no insight in her lifestyle, and Cortana, who is a hologram). All of these are fighters who perform practically superhuman feats and applying realistic body standards to these characters makes no sense. This may have worked better if you were to apply what the average American is to, you know, average people.

I think the purpose is to tell people vulnerable to eating disorders that they should stop regarding idealized versions of women as a plausible standard of beauty that is worth starving yourself towards. Video games almost always show women as sexy and implausibly thin, and that might not be helpful in a society that invariably judges people (and particularly women) on appearance. By showing heavier versions of videogame characters, it kind of acts as a reality check that asserts a) it is unusual to look that thin and b) there isn't any harm in not looking that thin.

Every other argument people are making about fighting girls is kind of mute in regards to the above problem. It is insincere to claim that a fighter wouldn't be fat, seeing as how they probably wouldn't be stick thin with double Ds either (as games portray them). You don't ever see average proportioned people in games, whatever the context, and that is the bigger problem when trying to combat a negative self image; these people with eating disorders have little else to compare themselves to except for idealized fantasy women. That issue exists in most mediums beyond gaming, however within gaming it does feel exaggerated by the fact that games are often first and foremost to appeal to guys.

If that's the case, then again, I've yet to get an answer to this in the ten pages I've been asking the question(like, not even an acknowledgement), why not use real models instead of game characters? Heck, even cosplayers would work.

Why characters where nothing but the vaguely humanoid shape and language that pops up on-screen parallel the real world? Why these characters where they already have similar bodies to the real world as it is with what they do? Why not add muscle instead of fat? Why not reduce their busts(something I honestly would have no problem with because I'm not a big fan of huge boobs or butts and would like something else). Why not people from the real world with healthy bodies that also have extra weight to them? Why not one of a thousand different variations other than this?

I'm going to keep asking this question until I actually get a damn answer.

And I'm going to keep saying this, all this is is trading one extreme for another without any thought to having something in the middle.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

I know. And I find that to be arbitrary. I don't know where you're getting the idea that all characters are attractive, it seems that there are no problems with there being ugly male main characters. Marcus Fenix, Kane and Lynch, Max Payne, Krieg from Borderlands 2, Wario, and that's just a few playable ones. Really, there's no real reason to have a female character that's automatically good looking. That if you're just playing follow the leader without giving any unique spins on a thing, you really aren't that creative.

I'd like to know what kind of a justification the status quo is. Because it isn't. She's never sexualized? I'm sorry, what do you consider sexualization to be? Because I consider sexualization making a female character more and more sexually appealing, despite how little sense it makes for the character. Yeah, naked isn't inherently sexual. Cortana in Combat Evolved was sexualized because there was nothing to her. With the inclusion of noticeable pronounced tits (Didn't have any tits at all in CE now that I look at it) and the inclusion of hartman hips in 4 just screams "We need more sexy" to me. What, the curvy woman with a very flexible body that at one point was reduced to being flat out naked on screen is a sex doll?...WELL KINDA!

Ok...and? I don't really know why you're getting on the photoshopped version for being inaccurate to her character when her ACTUAL design is inaccurate to her character. Not to mention the photoshopped design wasn't meant to be accurate to her character, that was never the stated end goal. Because, as I pointed out, male characters can be ugly, muscular and skinny in games. Women don't have that freedom. That's why they don't bring men up, they don't NEED to. Christ, why is it whenever someone tries to bring up a problem women face someone calls it out for not mentioning men. Whenever someone tries to talk about the problems men face in domestic abuse I don't demand that they include women in the conversation. There are problems that one gender has to face that the other doesn't. Spoiler: Neither were their actual designs, they were designed to be eye candy, not people. Don't see why you're getting on one and not the other.

"have to" no one is claiming anyone "has" to do anything, all the article said was that for an industry that prides itself on realism, they seem to struggle with making women look realistic. Which, you know, is a rather good point. So do I, but I'm not really sure how this edit is pointless. You say it's not true to their characters...well it wasn't supposed to be, it was using their bodies as a template to show the gap between video game character body sizes and real life women body sizes.

 

[Redryhno]

I just wanted to add an image of a classically beautiful woman.

Spoiler: Not A Classically Beautiful Woman

Spoiler: Anyone A Fan of Archer?

Spoiler: How About Byron?

For me, it's the poetry that does it.

Um...isn't the running joke that Pam's fat, and she knows it? And isn't there 2 episodes dedicated to her deciding to exercise because she doesn't like being fat, and she drops out of it both times? I dunno man, I don't think that's the best example to bring up...

 

[Josh123914]

I just wanted to add an image of a classically beautiful woman.

Spoiler: Not A Classically Beautiful Woman

Spoiler: Anyone A Fan of Archer?

Spoiler: How About Byron?

For me, it's the poetry that does it.

Um...isn't the running joke that Pam's fat, and she knows it? And isn't there 2 episodes dedicated to her deciding to exercise because she doesn't like being fat, and she drops out of it both times? I dunno man, I don't think that's the best example to bring up...

Archer taught me that the key to healthy weight loss is to go on a strict all-cocaine diet for several weeks.