Month: February 2017

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Okay. So a lot of people want us to talk about For Honor, specifically as a positive example (rather than it’s odd design decisions that we noticed on first announcement or that it’s a game where everyone is white, covered up but coded white by culture or Japanese).

The female designs are better than the usual we see, there are a few ongoing issues though like their determination to gender exactly ¾ of the classes as male, and ¼ as female… and their determination to make sure you notice the ladies have boobs (and are smaller).

So yes, it’s better than most, has some really cool designs, and can be counted as another game that has female combatants who grunt like they’re trying to kill someone rather than get them off – but it has it’s own issues.  If you like fantasy combat games and warrior women, it’s got definite appeal.

What I found more interesting:  after Game Theory made a video of it’s usual quality standard – a whole bunch of historical weapon/armor enthusiasts rushed out to debunk it and try to spread awareness not to believe misinformation in popular culture! (examples here)

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Meanwhile it’s hard to find any sort of video talking about female armor that isn’t grossly apologetic or rushes to stress that it’s not opposed to bikini armor in a fantasy setting etc.

If only recognizing people’s humanity and representation as as important as preventing misinformation about Vikings, Samurai and Knights.

– wincenworks

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bikiniarmorbattledamage:

Meg Foster’s costume weighed a reported 45 lbs., and the actress sustained bruises to her groin from the breastplate she wears throughout the film. Constructed of fiberglass, Foster has said the breastplate restricted her movements a great deal, which is why Evil-Lyn is never show sitting during the film. Foster as also said that the discomfort from the costume helped inform her performance, as the weight and design of the costume forced her to puff out her chest during every take, thus generating the character’s slinky posture.

But people assure us that designs like this are totally practical for real armor… 

– wincenworks

(h/t: @cubefrau – nsfw)

Today’s throwback: real-life evidence of how uncomfortable lingerie-shaped armor is.

Another amazing thing about this costume is how they went out of their way to make it look nothing like it did in the cartoon (on the right there’s redesign from 2002 reboot, for comparison). 

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So yeah, not only was the movie character redesigned from scratch*, no-one took it as an opportunity to at least make the costume wearable for a living, breathing woman.

~Ozzie  

*To be fair, basically all characters were

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ezrabridgerisahuntsman:

Was scrolling through @bikiniarmorbattledamage and was inspired to do a couple of redesigns. First is Cat from Gravity Rush (which I’ll confess I haven’t played and it seems kinda fun but how does that outfit even work) and second is Wonder Woman because I saw what she looks like in the movies and just thought ugh.

Sub list:

Keep reading

Nice job! I really like the cut of the costume you chose for Cat over the boob-swirly leotard she originally had. 

Wearable redesigns are always welcome on BABD.

~Ozzie 

see for comparison: Gravity Rush on BABD | Wonder Woman on BABD 

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But is it really porn?

So now and again we get people insist that x title shouldn’t be counted because it’s intended to be viewed as porn (especially if that product is from a country outside the English speaking world… because reasons).

Reasons for this assumption often include:

  • The presence of explicit fan service or sex scenes
  • The inclusion of ridiculous double standards
  • Fans having labelled it as an erotic product on their own wikis
  • The publisher having actual porn products in their catalog

But generally this just assumes that by shoehorning in some sexualized content a product immediately becomes excluded from criticism.  Very few products exclude all content from their own genre (plenty of action movies have a romantic subplot for example).

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Generally a lot of the cross genre trends have a pretty basic premise behind them, it helps improve the audience investment:

  • Comic relief in horror and thriller helps avoid the audience becoming desensitized or burnt out from the tension
  • Having a love interest can humanize a protagonist (or an antagonist) and increase your ability to get invested in them
  • Mixing a little mystery with your modern fantasy story reminds the audience of how little we really notice or know about the world around us and makes them more accepting to the idea of secret magic

So, what purpose does having ultrasexualized costumes for female characters and regular arbitrary fan service?  Well, mostly it’s because of the general belief that certain demographics need a lot of reassurance that some products are okay for them, and in fact made exclusively for them:

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It’s been covered before, but I really feel the need to restate that the main reason for this is a very simple reasoning: x genre is a for (straight cis) men so we need to market exclusively to them and make sure they know we’re doing it (even if they think it’s already being overdone and kind of insulting).

(Evidence suggests this works… but only in the sense that it does make a lot of people think that the product is not for them and hence don’t buy it. Or just have more fun mocking it than they’d have playing it.)

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That’s not to say that there aren’t products or stories where including sexual content gives it a boost, but generally you’ll want to do it in a way that makes sense and does actually improve the product and that still doesn’t make it porn.

You can physically eat a lot of things, but just as you wouldn’t call it food unless you buy it specifically to eat it, you shouldn’t call it porn unless you buy it specifically for sexual gratification.

– wincenworks

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@kimarous submitted (and Ozzie bingo’d):

Ai-yi-yi… found this monstrosity while exploring the Sacred 2 wiki: the High Elf’s “Frozen Gems” equipment set. Double bingo at least, maybe even a triple. Bottom two rows for sure.

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I’m only surprised her buttcheeks are covered properly. Going by the rest of this design, battle thong should be a given.

~Ozzie