Female Game Characters Photoshopped to Average American Proportions

[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.

 

[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.)