miracide:

so i looked on the wowwiki page for female armor and it says
“Female armor tends to cover less than does male armor. Though there are many people who see this as mere fanservice, there are real, practical reasons behind it. First, females are statistically less muscular than males, and depend more on agility and cunning than raw strength in combat, thus wearing bikinis into battle makes more sense.”

yeah keep justifying that fanservice

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You don’t say!

Interesting to see how the page has “evolved” from it’s first iteration (available in the History):

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The levels of desperation and insecurity on display in this article are just amazing.

– wincenworks

I am going to play Devil’s Advocate…

blackoutkick:

and question why majority of the “Gaming Feminist” population cry and moan about “Bikini Armor” in World of Warcraft 

But when it comes to representing a male character in cosplay they decide to strip it all down into a “Bikini Armor”… Contradiction at it’s best.

You want to look sexy… Go for it, But don’t point the finger at “sexist pigs”. 

This is why I can’t take none of you social bloggers serious.

Now feel free to read between the lines and tell me about all the irrelevant crap I don’t need to read while you derail from the BASIC point I’m making here.

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So… that “basic” point is “feminist who criticize stupid armor bikinis can not EVER want to look sexy or dress scantily out of their own free will”?

That’s why I have no trust for anyone who starts their statement with “I am going to play Devil’s Advocate”.

~Ozzie

After I finished laughing… which took a while.  I decided I would go out looking for this army of social justice warriors in sexy Rule 63 Warcraft cosplay.  Surely there must have been a legion of them to inspire such vitriol.

I found: One woman doing a single sexy WarCraft crossplay… and found no references to Social Justice, social justice issues or “sexist pigs” on any of their profiles (Indeed Google returns no results for their screen name + “sexist pigs”)

So not only did they miss the point – but this argument exists only in their imagination.  That reminds me of something…

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– wincenworks

noctilucent-supercell:

Sexually provocative armor for male characters is very important.

I know it seems kind of like “but what about THE MEN” and it can definitely end up being that when a discussion about female armor gets derailed by people jumping in and going “yeah but dudes in skimpy armor!!” and discussing that at length. That’s not appropriate to do, but as its own topic it’s really important.

The one thing that made TERA playable for me (however briefly) is that whoever designed the armor made some very deliberate design decisions on several of the male pieces—especially on Castanic males—that emphasized sexual attractiveness in a way that was equivalent to the female armor. The game was not in any way “equal,” no matter what anyone might try to argue: Having ten or so armor sets for two races that show skin provocatively on male characters does not make up for nearly every single armor set on every single female character doing the same thing. But it was something, and it was the one thing that made the game feel like it might on some level be attempting to appeal to more than just straight guys.

Even the addition of *~options~* in games where there are a few or (rarely) a roughly equal number of non-sexualized female armor sets isn’t necessarily any better. Making sets intended to be sexually appealing on one character gender and not doing the same for the other still privileges the comfort level and interests of straight male players. If having *~options~* isn’t good enough to raise their comfort level, then why should it be considered good enough for everyone else?

If you’re willing to put provocative male armor in your game, you send an important message. If sexy armor is so fun and harmless and fantasy and artistic and aesthetic and ect., then stand by that statement you insist on making and design the equivalent for male characters. I’m not talking about showing a few square inches of chest, I mean clothes that are designed equivalent to female sexy armor. Cut swathes out of it to show off their thighs and hips. Make it form-fitting and flattering to the shape, regardless of how practical it is. Highlight the character’s physical vulnerabilities—and don’t balk, that’s what 90% of sexualized female armor does. There’s a reason that shit looks like lingerie, so don’t make a couple of Conan the Barbarian sets and claim you’ve done the same thing for guys. Put a freaking peekaboo window on the small of their back right above their ass, give them a crop top. You know, the usual.

And some men will protest, and they’ll get upset. You should do it anyway, because if the discomfort of one group of your players isn’t enough to stop you, it shouldn’t be enough in this case, either. Adding the occasional set of practical, non-sexualized armor for female characters doesn’t constitute equality when so many of the others are Fredrick’s of Hollywood surprise grab bags for female characters only.

Well said. Bolded for emphasis.

~Ozzie

..my move is just awful, it’s chauvinist! Every time I fall over my vagina and vulva is exposed. I might as well be an NPC that doesn’t know where to wander!

Felicia Day, playing as Tyris Flare in the original Golden Axe game, (x)

Golden Axe, the iconic side-scrolling hack’em up is also a pretty iconic example of bikini armor:

And yes, Dolph LundgrenAx Battler (that is his actual name!) is wearing a bikini too but as well as being a male power fantasy (or someone I’d expect to see featured at videogamesmademegay) he always looks badass posed like Conan the Barbarian or a classical mythological figure.  He also quickly got an unsuccessful spinoff game and you had the option to play a dwarf who at least kept his shirt on.

Tyris on the other hand, despite having a much less ridiculous name, had to wait until 2008 when she would get to be the star.  But hey, that’s like eighteen/nineteen years of social and artistic progress right?  Let’s see how they portrayed her and promoted the game!

Yeah…

– wincenworks