Female Game Characters Photoshopped to Average American Proportions

[Gorrath]

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.

I'm not opposed to what the site is trying to say or encourage with regard to sparking conversation but I do take some umbrage with the claim that this sort of figure is, "unattainable for the average person." While I will agree that some likenesses are, because they are so fantastical as to be impossible for anyone, Rikku's body type is anything but "unattainable." There is a good, healthy way to go about obtaining a similar body type to those women in fiction and I like that the website wants to raise awareness of eating disorders as the wrong way, but to out and out claim that these figures are wholly fictionalized and unobtainable is nonsensical.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

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

*Braces for incoming hate*

Eh, a bit of both would be ideal really. More realistic women would be great, while at the same time encouraging people to actually get in shape would be wonderful

 

[BoogieManFL]

Wait.. So on average boobs get smaller when you have more fat on your body?

I get what they thought they were doing, but eh, it didn't quite work out in my opinion. Okay sure, give Sonya Blade smaller boobs, that's probably more realistic considering how fit she is.. But removing her muscles and six pack just to make her "fatter" - why?

And that original picture of Tifa from FF7.. Yeah that was already her with smaller boobs than normal if you compare that to her in game and in the game FMVs. lol!

 

[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.

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).

Fat in her boobs. Well got me there. Though I get the feeling that when people were talking about weight to height in BMI, I'm guessing they weren't accounting for unexpected weight located in odd areas, or sudden missing weight (such as a deformed arm for example)

Ok now I'm talking out of my ass.

 

[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.

To be fair, models of NPCs or PCs are the least of Gaming's "Creativity" problems.

Which gaming has. To a certain degree. But it aint in character designs....
*Or rather that is a smaller issue. Not something imperialists will understand though...



Also... FFS people think there is an universal beauty standard? What? Since when did human beauty become an objective thing????

There's certainly an argument to be made for that, I personally consider them to be part of a bigger problem, but they're a part a lot of people don't want to talk about.

We are very shallow creatures.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

I think they would have made a stronger message if they made Fashion models more realistically proportioned then fictional video game characters.

However some game characters are absurdly proportioned, example Femshep in Mass Effect 3. She's sparing with Vega with her tiny twig arms, bullshit, I wish I could adjust my femsheps proportions so she actually looks like she could wrestle a bear.

There's also the other thing that a lot of video game protagonists are doing very Atheltic ativities, sure if the characters not a athele and looks like a model (I'm looking at you Metal Gear Rising) , then there's more reason to point the finger.

And as others have said, the average American probably isn't the most healthiest, runway models arnt either, but there's a happy medium.

 

[AidoZonkey]

Eating disorders is an issue that needs addressing and putting more effort into supporting people to have a healthy weight is good, however this is completely the wrong way to do this. These aren't meant to be your 'every day women', these are people who are at the top of there physical peak. With the exception of the Bikini Girl from GTA (and only because there's nothing else to here then just a picture), every one of theses girls is meant to be, at least partly, aspirational. You want to be as strong as them, you want to be as fit them. They're not thin because of eating problems (I doubt any one of these characters has been said to have an eating disorder) but because they work hard and train hard.

This is the similar for male characters, as again they are physically meant to be something to aspire to. There are some exceptions to the idea of aspirational characters, like Rufus from street fighter 4, but my point is that these characters aren't meant to betray the average person or the average body, they are meant to show what we aspire to.

 

[maninahat]

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.

I'm curious how you can tell what muscle mass looks like on a fat person? Here is a picture of Holley Mangold.

She's fat. She is also a goddamn Olympic standard weightlifter. body fat and muscle mass are in no way mutually exclusive, and whilst in some athletic endeavors, slimness and high muscle mass go hand in hand, they don't in others. Fighters tend to be slim, but they also often have bigger frames and bigger waists/shoulders than in the original character designs.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

Honestly I wouldn't mind more realistically proportioned women in games. Its probably just personal taste but Bayonetta 2 left me a little bit... dissapionted? I should say in the sex appeal department(the gameplay was great though). Whereas Rift had some very nice looking ladies, and strangely enough they could probably even use a bow(something I think Tifa would have a great deal of trouble with however I can understand that's partially due to the ps1's graphical limitations.)

 

[chikusho]

I am dismissive of such disorders because the are DUUUUUUUMB.

They might be dumb, but they're at least not as DUUUUUUUMB as mocking people suffering from crippling, next to incurable diseases just because they aren't aesthetically pleasing.

Forcing yourself to think that you will look better by not eating or by throwing up is something I am yet to see in any other region of our planet.

First off, no one is forcing themselves to think anything. It's a compulsion that's constantly telling you that you look like a hideous monster, and that the only way you can ever feel at ease in your skin is if you keep losing weight.
Secondly, if by "region of our planet" you mean "the earth", then yeah you are right. Compulsively throwing up to lose weight is something that has only been seen on earth. Anorexia or bulimia has yet to be observed at any other place in the universe. Spot on.

 

[RJ 17]

If you ask me this kinda has the opposite effect as intended. "Don't want to look like these flabby abominations? Better get yourself an eating disorder!"

More to the point: I'd imagine celebrity worship/idolization is far more detrimental to the average female's self-image than female game character design.

Which of the following statements sounds like a more realistic statement coming from the average American girl:
"I want to look like Scarlett Johansson."
"I want to look like Tifa Lockhart."

 

[Westaway]

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

 

[Baresark]

I hate to be that guy, but I'm around women who are in really good shape all the time. The thing that doesn't make any sense is that they are showing characters who are always really physically active. The issue here is that a lot of people are not physically active, or at least not to the point that any of these characters are. Lara Croft would never be that heavy with what she does, but she probably would need a breast reduction, lets be honest here. As a matter of fact, the only real issue with most of them is all the women have larger busts. If you were to take any of those thinner women, put smaller breasts on the, they would probably look like totally normal people. With good eating and exercise, most people could look like these women, at least in so far as their actually skeletal structure would let them.

 

[Staskala]

Yeah, obviously making these characters more "realistic" means making them much fatter, rather than giving them muscle mass to more realistically match the kind of athletic endeavors they pull off. Don't you have your priorities wrong here?
Btw, why should the characters that aren't even designed in the US match the astonishing obesity of the average American anyway? The average Japanese female's BMI is 21.7, for crying out loud.

 

[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

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.

You can't do back flips if you have a gut.

you ***** about cristie but ignore that she has a dancers body and she needs to be flexible for her fighting style, just cause you can see her ribs dose not automatically mean shes unhealthy ether

 

[chikusho]

... every one of theses girls is meant to be, at least partly, aspirational. You want to be as strong as them, you want to be as fit them. They're not thin because of eating problems (I doubt any one of these characters has been said to have an eating disorder) but because they work hard and train hard.

You do realize that you just spelled out the actual problem that's being protested right? You don't see the issue with putting an unrealistic and impossible standard as a model for what you should make yourself? Especially when the characters aren't depicted as
- being prone to infection due to weak and easily compromised immune systems
- tending to have low muscle mass, hair loss, and disrupted hormone regulation
- suffering from osteoporosis, anemia, or hyperthyroidism
You know, some of the known side-effects for being dangerously underweight.

 

[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.

You can't do back flips if you have a gut.

you ***** about cristie but ignore that she has a dancers body and she needs to be flexible for her fighting style, just cause you can see her ribs dose not automatically mean shes unhealthy ether

I'm not sure why you bring up backflips. It's not really a staple of female video games characters...or really in video game characters period.

Actually I ran it by someone who has knowledge on the situation and he said, and I quote "A more realistic portrayal would add 10-15 pounds of muscle. She NEEDS to have that musculature in her upper body, particularly her abs. It's supposed to impart power to a strike. And her legs look like sticks. Fucking fail"

 

[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)

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

I'd just like to say God Bless America for imposing it's values on other cultures once again.

Some of the models, sure, but Final Fantasy, Dead or Alive, etc. are from a completely different culture, with completely different attitudes to fitness and sex appeal.

Why am I getting flashbacks of "why aren't there any black people in Witcher 3?"

But on the whole, I suppose it's kind of okay. The GTA V one made me giggle a bit though, since GTA V is supposed to be a pastiche of American culture, as did Cortana since she's a fucking hologram.

 

[Quellist]

Um, that isn't giving them realistic proportions, that's what happens when you let an idiot loose with Photoshop...making them smaller, thicker and deforming them to fit isn't giving them realistic proportions.

The message here isn't even laughable its just pathetic.

And Cortana, really? A character who doesn't even have a physical body so can look like what she bloody well pleases?