Now, because this is almost certainly going to get the attention of certain people who think they’re clever – there is indeed, a reasonable reason to roll your eyes at this change – and it was covered by Joseph Knoop in PC Gamer.

(Yes, FYI, these images are paintings on the walls of buildings, in an MMORPG)

You’ll note though, that the people who are unimpressed by Blizzard trying to distract from their ongoing lawsuits don’t want the decision reversed, they’re just upset that:

  1. Blizzard is using trivial changes like this to distract from real harm they do to real women on an ongoing basis.
  2. Blizzard could actually have approved these and many meaningful changes at any time – but didn’t do so because they didn’t care about anything but feminist cookies.

The ones who are raging and want the changes reverted on the other hand, well they are worried about two other things.

  1. The sanctity of the sexuality of fictional women who just happen to be appealing to their sexuality as self-absorbed cishet men.
  2. Their validation as the only people in the world who matter, and that their whims are more important than anyone’s needs or interests.

No really:

(Not the lack of concern for people who’s sexuality is empowered men, or who prefer to play their fantasy adventure games without tits and ass in their face)

My main thoughts on this were already summarized very succinctly by Jack Saint in a single, evergreen tweet:

So, my recommended guideline for distinguishing between to two types – since the shitty ones will always claim to be the well meaning ones when called out is:

Are they disappointed that Blizzard has not yet done anything meaningful to help real people who have been suffering due to their obscene behaviour, or are they concerned the imaginary people are no longer interested in helping them fap?

Because trust me, the latter were going to have this reaction regardless.

– wincenworks

Thor in God of War: Ragnarok

So, every now and again you’ll see brodudes rushing to argue that there’s nothing wrong with bikini armor because “men are sexualized too” and that shirtless barbarians are made sexy to cater to women, etc.

However, whenever something that comes out to challenge this… its always the same cishet men who make this claim who also cry about a male character not meeting their expectations.

That’s because, unsurprisingly given that they’re usually designed by men, those supposedly exploitative images are generally made by men, for men to fulfil not just their fantasy of power but also of being some weird form of hyper masculinity.

Appealing to women is not a priority they actually care about, only the fantasy that their ideal would definitely get them laid. Many don’t allow themselves to consider if its appealing to men-loving-men… and well, they certainly don’t think about nonbinary people or anyone on the asexual spectrum.

Of course, if you read this blog, you almost certainly already knew these guys only thing about themselves – but I thought you’d enjoy the hilarity of them telling on themselves so spectacularly.

– wincenworks

Jack Saint tweet

Snake-Eyes ShotgunSnake-Eyes Matchlock RifleThe Corrupted Monk, YaoLady ButterflyEmma

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Speaking of the Sengoku period, this ultra-violent game set in that period has a variety of female warriors with different ages, backgrounds, etc and they all look amazing.in their own ways.  Their particular natures showing through.

Of course, FromSoft has an amazing history of positive examples in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, but its particularly interesting that they did it with this game given so many other creators treat the period as free license to go completely off the rails with designs and the game taking the historical context seriously.

And of course, it is particularly delightful to those of us who get people trying to tell us “well actually, its different in Asia…

– wincenworks

Mitsuki

from Samurai Warriors 5 (her mentor, Kazuuji Nakamura, in the bottom right)

After a seven year pause in games, Samurai Warriors 5 is out and it features a new kunoichi (female ninja)

character – Mitsuki.  You can tell she’s a kunoichi  because she’s dressed like she’s from a ninja gaiden game.  For those not aware, Ninja Gaiden is set in 1980s USA and Samurai Warriors is set in Sengoku Period (1467 – 1615) Japan.

Sadly this is an improvement for the series.

Now the thing with the Sengoku Period is that it is an area of history where we have some good evidence of female professional warriors (onna-musha) being around (though their role has historically been downplayed and so the specifics are unclear) and we have some artwork depicting what they might have looked like…  unsurprisingly the armour they wore was the same as the men’s.  

When not in armour, they are understood to have worn clothes typical of feudal Japan… basically the opposite of this outfit.

image

So… how can this be an improvement?  Well from Samurai Warriors 1 – 4 the equivalent character was a kunoichi who’s name is… Kunoichi and is… *checks notes* apparently fifteen years old…

image

And, again… I want to stress… there are real women from his era with artistic depictions of them available, so for a game where most of the cast are historical figures… this is um… well I don’t need to tell you.

I didn’t say it was a big improvement… or one worth congratulating them on, but it is at least a very minor improvement… very, very minor.

image

Very, very, very minor.

– wincenworks

While it may not seem like the initial bingo material – I invite you consider how the fuck she is supposed to do literally anything in this plate armor.  

  • The helmet literally covers her eyes so she can’t see anything past her toes
  • Her exposed mouth and lower face, combined with clawed gauntlets, mean any attempt to adjust it would mangle herself 
  • The armor is form fitted to her torso so she can’t bend, turn or even make big movements with her arms. I doubt she can even breathe with that boobplate.
  • Leg legs are locked into the “maximum thigh gap” pose. so she can’t even walk, let alone engage in combat footwork

This is not armor, this is some next level BDSM shit for people who find vacuum bondage too vanilla. (nsfw)

Bless Unleashed has been around since 2019 but has recently started more aggressive marketing – and um… wow… it’s… marketing… some of it really, really leans into the old myth, double standards, suspicious dimorphism and mistaking satirical parody for a style guide. 

(Honestly glad there is no mantis race… at least I think there isn’t…)

Unsurprisingly a large part of the Steam community screenshots etc is ogling even more ridiculous sets of armor. 

I don’t know which is worse, the weird horny marketing put together by the Creepy Marketing Guy or the more generic, family friendly marketing that tricks people into downloading the game and finding the options for female characters are fighting fucktoy, sexy sorcereress and bad archer..

– wincenworks

Calceme by Bryan Syme

I recently featured some of Bryan’s depictions of female characters but more recently he released this excellent artwork of his “a Bard named slickback”

And I know what you’re thinking, he’s a bard… so of course. For that reason, I must stress that we must not let the myth that bards are always the empowered men of the party – or worse, that all bards are.

(Meme art by Raymond Minnaar, meme by Alchememeist thank you to @elvashayam for identifying the signature)

Don’t let those stereotypes prevent your male characters from expressing themselves as alluring, sexual beings. Play a promiscuous warrior tank, an asexual bard, or a very super gay cleric.

It’s your game and I think we can all agree, it’s well past time that it dropped tropes and got a little spicy.

– wincenworks

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

So, what Noelle is referring to is the silver lining to various shitbags crying that an imaginary woman had bigger guns than them – their meltdown a week or so ago leading to a glorious trend for real life buff women to share photos of their beautiful physiques.  Including this viral tweet debunking the claims that a woman couldn’t get swole within a few years

Now, the Last of Us 2 is (assume spoilers in all the links)

a very contentious piece of art  – with a wide spectrum of opinions about the role of violence (1,2), depictions of a trans character (1, 2) and so much more. However, there are some parts are indisputably positive: the graphics are amazingly beautiful, the accessibility is leaps and bounds ahead of so many AAA titles, and the outfits for the female characters are excellent. 

Someone is frantically typing a comment about how “they’re just clothes” but they’re really so much more, these are outfits specifically chosen and tweaked to reflect the world the characters live in, and the demands of their lifestyles. 

image

The outfits and the way they change to reflect the changes in the mood and the characters – all without distracting from the rest of the narrative.  It’s a great example of how much story telling potential you can get out of clothes when you’re not limiting yourself to the most T&A possible. 

– wincenworks 

edit: fixed first Polygon link (right after spoiler warning)

Speaking of men who feel the need to scream, shit their pants an cry in public – its always worth remembering that the same people who insist it’s “just like that” and “people like it, get used to it” are the same ones who have a meltdown when it turns out people like literally anything other than bikini babes.

So it’s always worth restating that you can, definitely get massive sales and piles of awards for not engaging in bikini armor silliness.

It’s true! No matter what Creepy Marketing Guy or the guy who won’t leave the comic book store and hasn’t bathed this week tell you.

No I’m going to go back to staring at Abby’s arms because reasons.

– wincenworks