@nuttynutifications submitted:

Extra Credits’ latest video is about how the player character’s appearance might affect how the player plays the said character, based on a RL experiment on how people’s mental capacities are affected by whether or not the test subjects were wearing lab coats when solving problems.

While tangential to the bikini armor thing, this video immediately provoked me to think: giving the player character an outfit that doesn’t look entirely ridiculous or immersion-breaking might actually boost the player’s performance. And now, we know that there are many, many people who find bikini armor ridiculous and immersion-breaking.

I feel it’s particularly worth noting since (intentionally or not) Extra Credits starts discussing the importance of how tropes cement our vision of a character – thus it should be obvious that if you want people to believe your character is complex and deep… best not to dress her up like a 70s pulp fantasy pinup.

Especially if you want your story to be great storytelling or represent a deep, immersive experience for the player.

– wincenworks