That strikes me as dishonest. On a pedantic level, art has clearly changed, in the sense that the mainstream male audiences no longer goes in for Rubenesque females or naked men.CrossLOPER said:Art has not changed a bit over the millennia.
On a less pedantic level, whilst we have always had art that sexualises and exaggerates physical forms, they are far from the only kind of human depictions that exist, which isn't so much in the case with games. Game depictions of females are far less diverse than the contents of an art gallery. Had we a healthy library of alternatives to voluptuous females, then game art could be comparable. Even individual artists provide a range of depictions of women (compare Degas' sketches of dancers - in some, the emphasis is on bare backs and cleavage, in others the emphasis is on postures and gestures), which tends not to be the case in games.
Even if art has not changed, and forms have always been sexualised, that doesn't discredit the complaint being voiced by Kotaku. Historically, art has long been made by men, for men, to suit male tastes. To argue that games are a continuation of art traditions, is an argument that games are a continuation of male orientated, patriarchal conventions, with games made for the benefit of males and with neglect to the females. Supposing you can even find a woman who is attracted to the dwarf muscle men, it is largely a fluke that the woman finds it attractive, rather than a deliberate attempt to reach out to female audience members with a beefcake male character. The new DMC - now that is a rare example of female fan service.
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I'm assuming this post was inspired by one of the commentators on Kotaku, who tried to justify the depictions of women by suggesting that they are just another reference to classical art. The commentator claims that as certain art pieces in the game are clearly referencing Classical depictions - things like Thor's hammer or the Tower of Babel - the depiction of women are also similarly a benevolent reference to such artworks. I think this is bullshit too.
It would be easy to argue with the premise "all the necromancers in Atlus games are referencing this a statue of a big titted necromancer" by pointing out that they clearly aren't all necromancers, but I'll confront them on the argument's own terms. Whilst the warrior's hammer is near identical to the famous, Classical depiction of Thor's hammer, and the ruined arena looks exactly like the iconic depiction of the Tower of Babel, the women look nothing like the relatively obscure, non-Classical sculpture of a nude necromancer provided. The Atlus characters aren't bare breasted, their costumes are totally unalike, and there is literally no point of similarity between games and the statue beyond the existence of ample tits - which are hardly rare in the art world. It's a huge stretch to make that connection.
Now if Atlus really were looking for Classical art inspirations for their magically imbued female characters, then their female characters would look nothing like they do now. Magical females are traditionally depicted as hags and witches. The emphasis is on wrinkles and age, rather than sexiness, and that is fairly consistent in Medieval, Renaissance, Raphaelite and Classical artworks. There are plenty of works where magical females are shown as generic, pretty maidens, or in some cases (Medea, Cerces, Morgan Le Fay etc), as attractive, shapely women, but notably, they still wear modest outfits and they don't have absurdly oversized tits. If Atlus purposely ignored the countless depictions of crones and based their art on these sexy women, their characters would be covered up and moderately proportioned.
It seems unlikely that if they were going for art references for their females, they would ignore the ample library of magical female depictions and go for a totally obscure piece of non-Classical art. Even in their male character designs, Atlus' artwork is far more exaggerated than any notable piece of art. The references, like Thor's hammer, are clear but the warrior looks nothing like Thor, Hercules, or any traditionally muscular male. They came up with an original concept for a muscular man. Likewise, I don't see any female figure in popular art who resembles the women. Perhaps the sorceress' staff is a reference to some painting, but she isn't.
] is goddamned depressing.
