Female Game Characters Photoshopped to Average American Proportions

[Clive Howlitzer]

Another amazing Escapist article...

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

None of those people are so bare bones that they're showing off their rib cages.

 

[Redryhno]

First, I live in the USA and many of those images are simply not representative of what you see. At least not in the rough age range of the women depicted here. This is not at all representative of the body shape and weight of women you would find on, say, the average university campus or at a bar for upper 20's\low 30's. I would like to know how they came to their average female body. I get the feeling that they used the mean where they should be using the median.

Second, "heavy" Cortana is hot.

Yeah, that's another thing. They look more like my mother, who's nearly sixty and has been on and off fitness for the past twenty years(really shitty back problems have made it difficult for her to keep it up though, been off it for something like two years at the moment) and she considers herself horribly overweight. Not because of some kind of social pressures, but because she can't fit into the clothes she bought when she was "thin", which was still alot thinner than these shopped models.

Not to say that I don't see women my age that look like this, but they're a minority. Considering most of the characters are in their late teens to early twenties, normally the prime physical age for most people, it's honestly sorta normal once you factor in most of them rely on their bodies being in peak physical condition to SURVIVE most of the stuff they go through.

I mean, I would love most of them to have more muscle, but this is just fat that's tacked onto them...

I'd also like to add that I think it's a great idea for them to show that people can be happy at various weights, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the healthiest. I'm all for people not being suicidal or hating themselves to the core because of what they look like in comparison to others, but this isn't the way to go about it. Because these are FICTIONAL FANTASY CHARACTERS.

The better way to go about this would be to shop real models here.

Snip

None of those people are so bare bones that they're showing off their rib cages.

You sure? You can see the middle and far right girl's ribs pretty well...

 

[Ian Beattie]

Fourth. CHILL! Jesus Christ, it's people criticizing a lack of creativity in video games.

A lack of fat people isn't a lack of creativity

 

[Neverhoodian]

These comments...good God, these comments...

"Chubby"

"Thunder-thighed"

"Fat ass"

"Morbidly obese?!"

Jesus Christ, people. Society has a warped view of the human body indeed if it considers these Photoshopped pics to be "morbidly obese."

 

[Ukomba]

Terrible, I've seen cos-players look better... but I've seen them look worse too.

 

[Asclepion]

And the average American woman can't do a backflip kick into someone's face, either.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

Thank you.

I'm not sure that's how it works. And frankly I don't see how criticizing body types in media or feeling pressured to convert to the norm because of overwhelming pressure (Which is a big problem world wide). And I don't really see what "Always feel the need to be loved" has to do with this. It's more like "Not being judged for not falling in line." Hell, sometimes I'm pressured to play basketball just because I'm call. Society has a lot of uncreative and narrow minded twits who want everything to be nice and static.

I doubt most other countries have concern over the internet being slower, but when that came around in this one just about everyone else jumped on the government for it. And plenty of these things seem stupid, depression seems stupid to people who haven't gone though it. Human beings are a very un-elegant race. (That and I'm pretty sure Belemia exists in other first world countries)

Where is the shaming? All it says about developers is that "They say that they portray everything as hyper-realistic yet seem to struggle with the female body" and they say nothing about players. It's criticizing trends, don't take it so freaking personally.

That's the point me and so many others are trying to get across. When having average weight, a woman can look gorgeous. Standards of unrealistic thinness aren't needed. (Ok fair enough, the photoshops kinda fucked it up. I still think Christie was a massive step towards being realistic though. Not to mention they're chubby at worst, and I consider the way people are calling them much worse to be very telling)

Actually apparently 700,000 people in England suffer from eating disorders.

http://www.b-eat.co.uk/about-beat/media-centre/information-and-statistics-about-eating-disorders

Like I said, we are not a graceful species at all.

 

[Erttheking]

Fourth. CHILL! Jesus Christ, it's people criticizing a lack of creativity in video games.

A lack of fat people isn't a lack of creativity

Good thing I didn't say that. Only ever creating un-muscular runway models that seriously need to eat a cheeseburger on the other hand, IS a lack of creativity.

 

[ILikeEggs]

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.

I intensely dislike the defeatist attitude that "Not everyone can have a physique like a runway model, therefore they should accept whatever terrible shape they're in as some sort of normal", but at the same time I do agree with the first part of the statement.
However, just because no one can reach a certain type of bodily perfection, doesn't mean they shouldn't be concerned about their health and working towards improving it. The main problem in this whole issue is not portrayal of the human body in magazines, ads, movies, TV and video games; the big problem is the shitty advice and health propaganda spewed out by a massive amount of medical and nutrition professionals, who are backed and funded by shitty science from shady corporations.


Look at the old food pyramid, for example. 6-11 servings of carbs in a day? Whoever the hell thought that was a reasonable guideline was probably out of their tiny little mind. Hell, the FDA has no recommended upper limit for sugar consumption in a day. If only the government and medical establishments actually gave a damn about people's health, rather than the bottom line of how many sugar/carb filled processed foods they sold, people might actually have reasonable, scientifically sound nutrition and exercise guidelines to follow.

With about four hours of strength training/high intensity interval training a week, and a diet that's low in sugar, carbs, heavily processed foods and higher in fat and protein, with a good variety of nutrient sources, most people can get to a point where they have some visible musculature, and little or no flab around their thighs, stomach and arms.

Also, I love that Wonder Woman fan art. That's what I was hoping the DC cinematic universe WW would look like, and then they went and cast Gal Gadot. Sigh.

 

[Callate]

No one is going to change the standards by which people judge others to be beautiful by trying to shame artists into presenting something in line with an agenda contrary to "looking attractive to the artist and/or his/her boss" and/or "selling well".

This doesn't significantly occur in fashion magazines, television, or movies, where there's at least hypothetically a limit imposed by the actual actors/models that they can capture in their images (despite the well-documented modifications of Photoshop and the like). Why would anyone expect it to occur in a medium that isn't nearly as constrained by reality?

The good news is that the studies I've seen roundly suggest that actual people don't expect their potential mates to meet the standards supposedly set by models, actors, porn stars, and video game characters. I think we'd be far better off reminding those with a potential for self-image problems where the reality lies when it matters- in the people who actually judge you, fairly or not- than trying to make the fantasy line up with the reality when there are all sorts of forces not unreasonably aligned against that ever happening.

 

[Rastrelly]

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

*Braces for incoming hate*

People should be encouraged to lose weight if they are overweight and gain weight if they are underweight, this is more like correct approach. Though, considering modern policies I see in societal government, I'd say such politics would be hypocritical towards current approach of 'whoever you are, you are sooo beautiful and unique!!!1111'

Captcha: comfort zone. Yeas, captcha, you're right, as always.

 

[PunkRex]

Legitimate thing to ask for I think.

However, these are American average body types in real-life. Things like The Legend of Zelda, Halo and Final Fantasy don't have to have woman who look like this. Not to mention Lara Croft and fighting game characters, in which you have to be physically fit to do what they do. They gave bad examples to be honest.

Hey, HEY! Stop being so understanding and polite, we won't have none of that here.

Butt cereal, it's perfectly fine to ask for representation but this is kind of a silly way to do it. Most video games are about characters under taking high amounts of physical activity, chances are they wouldn't be anything but athletic, also 'average American' and average human are two very, VERY different things.

Granted, there are a far larger amount of over weight male characters in video games then female ones, so it's a fair complaint.

On a side note, I'm a 26 year old dude who weights 9 and a half stone, WHERE'S MY REPRESENTATION!?... I'm joking of course, I wouldn't fancy my chances in a life or death tournament or fighting some incarnation of the God of death with nothing but a sword.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

uhhh... I think whoever made these "realistic proportions" forgot that there are women out there who have incredible figures and not everyone is chubby or thunder thighed

Hush you! Fat people need to believe everyone else is fat too.
These forums don't need more reasonable people spewing facts and observations!

 

[ecoho]

so let me get this straight they took a bunch of characters who live in a world were they are constantly fighting and made them the same size as the average American woman......hers a thought how about we compare those girls to say female MMA fighters or hell half the medics in the US military(I believe they still have the largest number of female service members in there)
the only one in those pictures that seems legit is the GTA girl who could actually look like that, the rest lead too active a lifestyle to ever look like that.