So, Rogue Company is the game with the most forgettable name… and the most forgettable aesthetic. At the time of this post their main video juxtaposes Ronin (above) with a male hero, Dima.
You may already have noticed some issues aside from the cringe inducing leaning into “Japanese girl with a katana” (who is also a street racing champion) archetype… in a game mostly about shooting people.
In fact, for a game about shooting people… a lot of these female characters seem determined to be shot in their sweet… sweet abs:
And/or remind you they have legs and tiddy:
So it does tend to give the impression that there is a particular design philosophy common to boys club studios…
But what can you expect from the studio that brought us Smite, Paladins and thought this was a good idea?
– wincenworks
So a lot of people are talking about many aspects of Apex Legends and there’s a lot of positives – a non-binary character, a character with a same-sex relationship in their background (mentioned immediately), not just one but two playable black women characters… but not enough people are talking about how awesome Bangalore’s outfit is.
This is the default outfit, and it looks every inch her description according to the background fluff the official site provides.
Interestingly it appears the Bangalore has the opposite of the Creepy Marketing Guy syndrome… the concept art displayed is much more… regular video game.
This is a trend I would very much like to take off like wildfire.
– wincenworks
Gotta love the “creativity” of web ads presenting just another grizzled military dude as an equivalent to a generic pretty girl with long flowing hair, cleavage and belly out. Totally legit and “equal” soldier designs! Especially for a game that apparently takes place during WW2?
Um, is that supposed to be some sort of parallel universe? Because other than USSR imagery slapped on like an afterthought, even the guy doesn’t look anything close to a soldier from the 1940s…
~Ozzie
There seems to be something with the Call of Duty: Black Ops games that they feel they need to 1) include a zombie mode and 2) use that zombie mode as an excuse to have female characters in ridiculous costumes.
The upcoming game seems to incorporate time travel so they can have massive, carefully crafted settings with nonsensical outfits. Honestly, it makes no sense, since the same press footage they’re releasing confirms… they know how to make sexy badass ladies. I mean, look at this babe:
If you’re not in lustlove you’re just not paying attention.
Of course, most of the current fuss is not over the zombie mode but rather over the lack of a single player campaign. Though personally, I’m glad we get this moment that I’m choosing to believe depicts a female character getting to meet the Creepy Marketing Guy responsible for this.
– wincenworks
Screencaps and gifs made from Outside X-Box: Black Ops 4: 7 Things That Made Us Go Wait What (warning for body horror and gore)
Apparently at some stage Valve was pitched these amazing designs by Drew Wolf and considered adding female variations of the Team Fortress 2 characters. For some reason failed to recognize how awesome this would be.
A shame because many of these would have really elevated the standards of video games and perhaps inspired certain other titles to work harder.
– wincenworks
Why is “no helmet” in the bingo, I fo mock battles all the time and have little need of a helmet even though I own 3.
There is an extremely critical difference that you need to remember between mock battles and real battles.
People in mock battles are not only not trying to kill you, they’re actually take deliberate steps to make sure you aren’t injured!
In a real battle your head is particularly vulnerable and a high priority to protect for a variety of reasons:
- Head wounds bleed really strongly, between blood in your eyes and problems from blood loss – a relatively light cut can be a death sentence
- Your head is relatively unprotected compared to your other vital regions. Even a glancing blow can do serious damage to organs like your eyes, nose, etc
- Because it is on top of your body, your head is vulnerable to attacks from pretty much every angle except directly below it so it has more ways to get hurt
- As well as being the end point for the common carotid arteries, your head also contains a vital organ known as the brain. Serious harm to this organ can result in life long crippling and/or death.
Not wearing a helmet as part of artistic license is often employed with characters who are either not normally in armor, or who need to be recognizable as unique among many armored figures.
However it is also often employed with female characters because of the idea that unless a character has long flowing locks, warm kissable lips and a dainty little nose clearly on display – men won’t be able to tell the character is female (and hence they’re supposed to be attracted to her).
Basically prioritizing the sexualization and objectification of female characters over portraying them as competent, interesting people, etc.
– wincenworks
So there’s been a few more people asking why we would include no head protection on the bingo card…
I know, I know…
But it probably also bears repeating that generally speaking, that part of the reason it’s a bingo card is because is that singular elements (even completely nonsensical) rarely ruin a design (most people don’t even notice Pharah’s battle thong).
So if a something tends to skip on helmets for men and women alike for the purposes of giving character’s distinctive appearances and expressions it’s unlikely anyone is going to take issue. It’s more about stuff like this:
Or this
– wincenworks