Even though I’m 99.9% sure they’ve never heard of or cared about this blog… it still feels like they’re trolling us.
– wincenworks
Deathstalker wins for most ridiculous female armor I’ve ever seen.
Sadly by today’s video game standards this would be average… however it’s kind of impressive that they managed to get the armor to stick on to a real person at least long enough to shoot the footage.
Of course, back when Deathstalker was made (1983) this signaled it was a ridiculous R-rated sex and violence fantasy… today it signals they want to sell the thing in Walmart.
– wincenworks
WOOO I did a redesign of this hot monstrosity. The screen shots used in this post were provided by doctorsanity, who submitted them to bikiniarmorbattledamage
Look, I’ve been employed as a designer for two years now, and maybe that’s not that long; I’m at least sure I don’t have the same kind of industry experience that the designers in charge of this train wreck probably do, but I do know one thing:
Design that fails to communicate its intended message is bad design.
It is, in my opinion, the chore element that separates what we do from Fine Art – fine art is a personal expression. Someone can argue with the conclusions that you came to in fine art but ultimately, it’s your territory, your message, your composition, your voice, your story.
When you’re a hired designer, everything changes. It’s their story, their character, their message, their voice.
Putting aside the obvious pandering and intent to profit off of misogynistic ideals in female video game characters for just an instant, let’s talk about Charlotte.
Charlotte [evidently, from what I’ve admittedly heard through the grapevine; this game is not yet out in my country] uses a masquerade of charm and innocence to seduce men for their wealth. When I heard this, I was shocked, because from the moment I saw her outfit, she never looked like someone I could trust.
If she’s supposed to look demure, make her look demure, goddammit. You shouldn’t need a greenhorn like me to tell you these things. Learn to treat your female characters with more respect.
Awesome redesign accompanied by an awesome writeup, thank you, pixelcut!
One more thing I’d add about the difference between design (hired or not) and fine art, is that design is supposed to serve the same purpose for everyone who sees it. To communicate an intended message, as pixelcut puts it.
The problem with how Charlotte looks basically boils down to the whole issue our blog concerns: that a lot of female character designs, particularly female warrior costumes, do not tell us who we’re dealing with. Lingerie models, maybe, but not warriors, especially not if male characters of the same or similar class establish a completely different aesthetic.
~Ozzie
Text post got me thinking. Now, I want a world, or whatever, where the female “bikini armor” really is as strong as normal. Protects with magic or something, I don’t much care. And pretty much every woman wears them. I mean, same protection, but loads less weight? Sign me up! And then over the bikini armor, you wear whatever you want. Cute sundress? Fully protected. Tee and jeans? Fully protected. Leather armor? Double protected? Idk.
Just a verse full of ladies in bikinis with normal clothes on top, so you never know who is a secret badass. It’d be great.
That sounds like the only acceptable reason to excuse the existence of magical bikini armor.
It’s still laughable how a simple logical question like “if the bikini gives her total protection, why wouldn’t she wear it over or under more comfortable clothes?” is always handwaved. Usually with something akin to “but she needs to wear bikini and only bikini for the magic to work”, which translates to “fanservice is mandatory!”.
Dear writers, if you can’t explain that in another way than “cause that makes me (and my presumed audience) horny” (and believe me, you can’t), please stop pretending that your story is something else than dramatized softcore porn.
~Ozzie
Text post got me thinking. Now, I want a world, or whatever, where the female “bikini armor” really is as strong as normal. Protects with magic or something, I don’t much care. And pretty much every woman wears them. I mean, same protection, but loads less weight? Sign me up! And then over the bikini armor, you wear whatever you want. Cute sundress? Fully protected. Tee and jeans? Fully protected. Leather armor? Double protected? Idk.
Just a verse full of ladies in bikinis with normal clothes on top, so you never know who is a secret badass. It’d be great.
That sounds like the only acceptable reason to excuse the existence of magical bikini armor.
It’s still laughable how a simple logical question like “if the bikini gives her total protection, why wouldn’t she wear it over or under more comfortable clothes?” is always handwaved. Usually with something akin to “but she needs to wear bikini and only bikini for the magic to work”, which translates to “fanservice is mandatory!”.
Dear writers, if you can’t explain that in another way than “cause that makes me (and my presumed audience) horny” (and believe me, you can’t), please stop pretending that your story is something else than dramatized softcore porn.
~Ozzie