Female Game Characters Photoshopped to Average American Proportions

[LazyAza]

This pisses me off on so many levels. And I love the idea of encouraging more body diversity in game character design but for the love of god this is NOT how you do it. Geezus. All they've done is vandalize existing artwork, shame people who may have body shapes similar to the original character designs, promote poor health and excessive eating and generally make a whole joke out of the entire point of doing this in the first place.

I mean ffs some of these women characters have muscular definition and solid bone structure because they are super physical and strong and need to be to be good at what they do and this is a BAD thing to these people? garrhhh so infuriating. The worst one by far though is Cortana because that version of her used an actual real full body scan of the lady they based her on, and she wasn't skinny or unrealistic in her body shape at all.

 

[Fox12]

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

*Braces for incoming hate*

You most certainly didn't mean it, but you kinda pointed out the problem when you refereed to a character getting realistic proportions as "getting fatter". One of the stars of the Sopranos suffered from anorexia, and while the show was still running, she beat the problem and started eating properly and gained weight to the point where she was average for her size. People called her fat.

American views of the female body are kinda messed up right now. People think super unhealthy thin is the default for women and there's a lot of pressure to meet that unreasonable standard, the media playing a big hand in pushing it, and me and quite a few other people are starting to notice it and are being really creeped by it. I saw a mannequin in a store 6-12 months ago, then looked at my average height Mom who has been on a major exercise and healthy eating trip for awhile now. It was disturbing how much smaller it was. Reminds me of this.

Spoiler

http://i0.wp.com/media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/av1.jpg?zoom=2&resize=680%2C1019

Add to it, that Christie character from Teken 5 actually looks like she's anorexic, I can see her freaking rib cage!

In my mind, this more of a testament to how absolutely morbidly obese the average American is, more than anything.
If it's a statement about how women are portrayed in video games, that's fair enough, but I'd rather not everyone be Bob from Tekken in my fiction, thanks.

These women aren't obese. They're normal sized.

EDIT: *Sigh* once again people take criticism of video games way too personally.

Good lord, Nabooru needed to gain a little weight. You could fit a band-aid around her waist.

It's a little weird the two normal views of weight in America are morbidly obese or painfully thin. It's polarizing the image of a healthy body.

 

[Ishigami]

Yea nice...

My issue with stuff like this will always be: They (Devs) don't have to depict average, normal or realistic bodies.

Some examples are rather baffling on top of that. Cortana for example is just holographic image, it has no need to look realistic or human at all for that matter.
The GTA V cover girl was made apparently with Kate Upton in mind, she actually looks a lot like this.

The very next thing is what is an average American women? (On that note: Helena is French and Christie is from Brazil)
I mean if they took the average weight than that figure is probably distorted by a lot of overweight people. Being too slim is bad alright, being too fat however is too.
What I'm saying is that they apparently went from underweight to overweight and want to promote a healthier body image? does not compute for me...

Not to mention that a lot of these characters are supposed to be super fit and trained, the opposite of the average couch potato.

 

[EvilRoy]

I guess I'm in favour of an anti-bulimia message, but I have to say... If you're going to photoshop the characters to fall in line with average body size, maybe you shouldn't have picked the average from a country with 1/3 the population considered obese.

Because that is going to skew the average away from healthy.

 

[maninahat]

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.

A game can have whatever shape of women they like, but show me the games that experiment with having chubby (or even just "average") female protagonists. Even fighting games will have the odd fat male fighter, but in the games industry, such women practically don't exist.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

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.

I agree on the bad examples point - the women they chose are all highly active and athletic in their game-life and have every reason to be highly toned -- even Rikku plays Blitzball and has every reason to be in great shape for it. The Dead or Alive 5 chick I don't know? might be an exception, not familiar enough with the game to honestly make a judgement. Cortana - computer generated image so? yeah no reason for her to have or not have a certain shape beyond aesthetics of the designer of her program. The Bikini girl from GTA 5 is a potentially legitimate example though - but in the collection she's in there aren't many others.

If they'd chosen some less-active characters, perhaps Princess Peach, who, for most of the games she's in either sits around or drives a car. Some random eye-candy chicks in certain games whose jobs seem to be essentially to sit around some guy's house/palace/harem/bar etc. would probably be better examples, if only because they're not given any reason to be fit and active as main characters or characters in a fighting game.

 

[EvilRoy]

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.

The Dead or Alive 5 chick I don't know? might be an exception, not familiar enough with the game to honestly make a judgement.

Fighting and/or beach volleyball. Dead serious.

 

[McElroy]

why can't they accurately portray the female body?

Maybe accurate compared to the average American woman.

rather that they are unrealistic as a standard.

It's unrealistic to be healthy? This really does sound like an American problem.

Seriously though, what's next? Photoshopping gymnasts and athletes images to make them more "realistic"?

*Points at Christie from Teken 5* That woman? She isn't healthy. She is dangerously underweight. In fact, a lot of these women look dangerously underweight. 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.

Christie is 173cm tall and weighs 59kg which translates to a BMI of 19.71 - a whole 1.21 above underweight. It's still ridiculous as the other Capoeira fighter, Eddy, is 188cm tall and weighs 92kg, making him 3.6 kilos... OVERWEIGHT!? How could these two compete?! Someone already mentioned Bob, who's probably the most acrofatic person ever with a BMI "score" of over 40! (196cm, 155kg). Speed and Weight! I looked these up from Tekkenpedia.

Some of these are weird as they're not towards realism but simply adding some key area fat. Tifa for example "should" look like an actual fighter. Easy enough, just reduce a cup size or three and add muscle.

 

[chikusho]

The body types represented in most of the original images would probably be dangerously underweight and seriously unhealthy if they were real.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

The statistics that are given about her height and weight don't really reflect what's in that picture. In fact in general I don't put too much stock in out of game height and weight statistics, from what I've heard people tend to mess them up a lot.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

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.

The Dead or Alive 5 chick I don't know? might be an exception, not familiar enough with the game to honestly make a judgement.

Fighting and/or beach volleyball. Dead serious.

And that's why I'm not familiar with it? but yeah, okay Sports then.

Point was - some more sedentary female examples (standard super-hot chick who works a desk and communicates with main character over radio for mission briefings (non holographic) for a quick thought) done more realistically to reflect a non-active lifestyle and thus not so ultra slim/fit/hot physique might have been a better road to take -- although obviously, they are going for recognizable characters for a specific campaign about their cause which is only tangentially related to video game representations as a small part of greater media representations anyway.

 

[maninahat]

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.

That wouldn't be a bad idea. But then you'd have people complaining about how "butch" the women are made to look, failing to realize that professional MMA female fighters tend to have flat chests and broad shoulders and aren't, first and foremost, conventionally sexy run-away models. Some of these average versions look closer to real athletes then the originals.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I think Cortana's works. I still prefer her other design, but that one works. So does the GTA one. All the other ones...I can't help but think of what these girls do in the games they are in. Yes, they shouldn't have wispy thin arms and smooth legs, but I don't think Tina from DOA or Tifa from Final Fantasy would look like that. If anything, I think they would look morel like Korra. Muscles toned and in shape, but not sporting the super model look.

And Riku...come on. Did you guys even try on that one? Because yeah, it does look like she's just been squished.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Well now I see why the comments are filling up like my colostomy bag after curry night. This isnt an attempt to try and change everybody's favourite game characters for fat acceptance, this is aimed towards girls who have such low self esteem that they will go to drastic lengths to try and look like what they believe is the ideal woman. This is only awareness spreading, jees. More slim girls than you'd imagine have these disorders, through fear of not being as "good" as the pretty dolls they see everywhere, mocking them. Body dismorphia is an issue too, they do not see their body for what it is. I have talked to a few about it. But please calm down, it is not directed towards the guys preferences or asking for game changers, it is aimed at those suffering and those around the people suffering to show them that they dont have to chase this "ideal" form.
It is unfortunate that they only used the American average, but from what I read, the UK isnt too far behind. We got diabetes and underage drug abuse too!

 

[EvilRoy]

Fighting and/or beach volleyball. Dead serious.

And that's why I'm not familiar with it? but yeah, okay Sports then.

Point was - some more sedentary female examples (standard super-hot chick who works a desk and communicates with main character over radio for mission briefings (non holographic) for a quick thought) done more realistically to reflect a non-active lifestyle and thus not so ultra slim/fit/hot physique might have been a better road to take -- although obviously, they are going for recognizable characters for a specific campaign about their cause which is only tangentially related to video game representations as a small part of greater media representations anyway.

Yup, I feel you. Personally I don't see too much issue with promoting your cause this way, even if some of the shops look really lazy, but I do question the average they decided to use. I decided to quickly pick some stats, and its looking like the average American is pretty overweight. I don't exactly know the criteria for determining that, but I have to say that if you're trying to push people away from Bulimia you should at the same time try not overshoot. You don't want to push some kid right from one kind of unhealthy to another, their body may not be able to take it.

 

[McElroy]

Snip

The statistics that are given about her height and weight don't really reflect what's in that picture. In fact in general I don't put too much stock in out of game height and weight statistics, from what I've heard people tend to mess them up a lot.

I'm not an expert, and good pictures of people and their BMIs aren't easy to find, but I'd guess it's accurate-ish with the supposed fat in her body put into the boobs. Then again without any muscles Christie couldn't be a dancer, much less a brawler. Julia Chang looks significantly more stout - still very thin though - despite being 165cm and 54kg (BMI being the same as Christie's).

 

[ILikeEggs]

That wouldn't be a bad idea. But then you'd have people complaining about how "butch" the women are made to look, failing to realize that professional MMA female fighters tend to have flat chests and broad shoulders and aren't, first and foremost, conventionally sexy run-away models. Some of these average versions look closer to real athletes then the originals.

You're joking with that last sentence, right? Because the "average woman" versions are all skinny-fat, in that they're definitely heavier than the original versions, but have absolutely no more muscle mass. I don't understand how you can compare a person or character with little or no muscle mass to an athlete. Hell, if you look at Nabooru, the original version has well-defined, healthy looking pecs, deltoids and traps. Sure, her waist is ridiculously narrow, and her bodyfat percentage is probably at fitness model level but to me, that's really the only part that's heavily unrealistic. Sonya has pretty strong looking abs, and pretty much the only "average" version that looks ok to me is the Tifa Lockhart one.