Month: June 2015

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‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ May Be Game Of The Year – But There’s One Big Problem (contains spoilers)

While most critics are busy either wildly celebrating Batman: Arkham Knight or raging over the poor quality of the PC port, this article talks about a very important point – the inevitable diminishing of the female characters.

I feel it would be dishonest not to hold their costuming as at least partially accountable.  When developers put all their design focus on making the female characters appear sexy and exposed, then it greatly reduces the options for the kind of roles they can have in scenes.  The can either be:

  1. Vulnerable and some sort of device (decoration, instrument, prize or joke but never a person)
  2. Spectacularly over powered in a attempt to subvert the costume and play the “so badass their costume doesn’t need to make sense” card

Since Batman games always put Batman as the hero, it means there’s scant few opportunities for the second option and they usually only get one bite of the apple.  Ivy in Arkham Asylum, Catwoman in Arkham City and now in order to make Harley Quinn formidable (instead of the Joker’s puppet) they gave her what’s actually the most practical outfit in the series to date:

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(Yes it is actually an upgrade on Arkham Asylum and Arkham City)

This is why video games, comic books and video games based off comic books can’t have nice things.

– wincenworks 

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Here we go again

whereismywizardhat submitted:

Time to add to Langrisser’s sins against basic sanity in costume design

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This is Priestess Mariel Sarlus.  I mean, I know nuns are often sexualized anyways, but really?!?

One of the things I always find truly baffling about a lot of these designs is they’re not trying to find integrate the fantasy setting with the sexy design… they’re just cutting windows and adding clothes you’d find in a modern day lingerie catalog (or sex shop).

I mean… unless I’m supposed to believe that part of her role as priestess is to set some sort of example for pubis grooming.

– wincenworks

Posted on

Here we go again

whereismywizardhat submitted:

Time to add to Langrisser’s sins against basic sanity in costume design

image

This is Priestess Mariel Sarlus.  I mean, I know nuns are often sexualized anyways, but really?!?

One of the things I always find truly baffling about a lot of these designs is they’re not trying to find integrate the fantasy setting with the sexy design… they’re just cutting windows and adding clothes you’d find in a modern day lingerie catalog (or sex shop).

I mean… unless I’m supposed to believe that part of her role as priestess is to set some sort of example for pubis grooming.

– wincenworks

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shattered-earth:

As excited I was about ME:A being announced, this (i’m sure very fast) concept art put a bad taste in my mouth. Just goes to show how silly poses for women are so ingrained into artist’s heads that they probably did it without thinking, not realizing how they broke her out of perspective (check her shoulders and feet against the man) just to achieve it too. I mean they were probably drawn separately but no one was like wait a second… lol

Happy space adventuring!

Even with equal amounts of body coverage, Mass Effect characters can’t escape the double standard.

I think kaaaaaaaaaaaaaldwin puts the problem with original picture really well in here:

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~Ozzie

Personally I am hoping that the E3 demo armor was chosen for conveying more dynamic motion and this is just a side effect of marketing people going overboard with it.  

It is good though that they’re now promoting the female option right away and I do hope that the rest of the armors will be more like what we saw last year.

– wincenworks

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Women at E3 2015

Anonymous submitted:

Hey, awesome blog! You’ve already made a post about Emily Kaldwin in Dishonored 2, but I just wanted to ask your opinion on this year’s E3 in general. Not only were there more women presenters than ever, but signs of real progress when it comes to representation for women:

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As noted, Emily from Dishonored 2!

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The shieldmaiden from Eitr!

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Lara Croft from Rise of the Tomb Raider, having finally exchanged her 90s male-gaze outfit for something one would actually raid a tomb with!

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Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn! I think there’s still a discussion to be had here about cultural appropriation, but at least she was designed as a hunter rather than eye candy.

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The protagonist from Recore!

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Evie Frye from AC: Syndicate! I’m still really cynical about the fact that she’s more or less an add-on to her brother’s story and that she does the stealthy bits while her brother does the punchy bits, but her outfit is very reasonable.

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Rae from Beyond Eyes! It’s great to see more non-violent games on display too.

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The mercs from Dirty Bomb!

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And of course, Faith from Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst.

The majority of characters on display are still white and slim, but it’s a noticeable improvement from last year – and it was nice to hear cheers from the audience when it was announced that women were playable in FIFA and Fallout 4.

Thank you the line up.  While certainly are issues with each individual game and depiction it is great that this year E3′s character line up included many badass women who are dressed to get shit done.

I sincerely hope this will become an ongoing trend in video games and one that lasts a long, long time.  We shall certainly have more to say on various titles as time and further information is released.

For those interested, the Mary Sue also did a post on games with female protagonists that includes the promotional videos.

– wincenworks

Posted on

Women at E3 2015

Anonymous submitted:

Hey, awesome blog! You’ve already made a post about Emily Kaldwin in Dishonored 2, but I just wanted to ask your opinion on this year’s E3 in general. Not only were there more women presenters than ever, but signs of real progress when it comes to representation for women:

image

As noted, Emily from Dishonored 2!

image

The shieldmaiden from Eitr!

image

Lara Croft from Rise of the Tomb Raider, having finally exchanged her 90s male-gaze outfit for something one would actually raid a tomb with!

image

Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn! I think there’s still a discussion to be had here about cultural appropriation, but at least she was designed as a hunter rather than eye candy.

image

The protagonist from Recore!

image

Evie Frye from AC: Syndicate! I’m still really cynical about the fact that she’s more or less an add-on to her brother’s story and that she does the stealthy bits while her brother does the punchy bits, but her outfit is very reasonable.

image

Rae from Beyond Eyes! It’s great to see more non-violent games on display too.

image
image
image
image

The mercs from Dirty Bomb!

image

And of course, Faith from Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst.

The majority of characters on display are still white and slim, but it’s a noticeable improvement from last year – and it was nice to hear cheers from the audience when it was announced that women were playable in FIFA and Fallout 4.

Thank you the line up.  While certainly are issues with each individual game and depiction it is great that this year E3′s character line up included many badass women who are dressed to get shit done.

I sincerely hope this will become an ongoing trend in video games and one that lasts a long, long time.  We shall certainly have more to say on various titles as time and further information is released.

For those interested, the Mary Sue also did a post on games with female protagonists that includes the promotional videos.

– wincenworks