I feel like HeroWarz heard that provided they put Derrick in an almost @eschergirls “snake” pose in one wallpaper guaranteed that they couldn’t be called sexist… even when their vertical ads look like this:
– wincenworks
Gate – Thus The JSDF Fought There!
@the-hittite submitted:
I think the biggest problem I have with Gate – Thus The JSDF Fought There! is how inconsistent it is. Because the animators obviously know how to draw practical modern armor.
And they can draw practical fantasy armor based loosely on historical armor.
And they clearly know how to draw badass women in practical modern armor.
But when it comes time to draw a warrior woman in practical fantasy armor…
They just can’t do it!
(Granted, the Rose Knights’ armor isn’t entirely terrible, but it’s still not as protective as the male equivalent.)
Of course the character in the skimpiest, most blatantly sexualized armour is a brown lady (making her an elf doesn’t make it better). On top of that, this serves as a pretty good discussion piece for another common query we get:
“What about armour that’s impractical but not sexual?”
The question is, largely impossible to address specifically because of it’s open nature, but there important thing to understand with designing fictional anything is that everything that makes it stand out from “real” should stand out for a reason – or the audience will assign a meaning.
In this case, it kind of feels like the main reasons they assigned them were Creepy Marketing Guy and because everyone else in fantasy is doing it to so we may as well too – which suggests that a lot of potential was compromised for the sake of cheap, generic sexualization.
– wincenworks
Gate – Thus The JSDF Fought There!
@the-hittite submitted:
I think the biggest problem I have with Gate – Thus The JSDF Fought There! is how inconsistent it is. Because the animators obviously know how to draw practical modern armor.
And they can draw practical fantasy armor based loosely on historical armor.
And they clearly know how to draw badass women in practical modern armor.
But when it comes time to draw a warrior woman in practical fantasy armor…
They just can’t do it!
(Granted, the Rose Knights’ armor isn’t entirely terrible, but it’s still not as protective as the male equivalent.)
Of course the character in the skimpiest, most blatantly sexualized armour is a brown lady (making her an elf doesn’t make it better). On top of that, this serves as a pretty good discussion piece for another common query we get:
“What about armour that’s impractical but not sexual?”
The question is, largely impossible to address specifically because of it’s open nature, but there important thing to understand with designing fictional anything is that everything that makes it stand out from “real” should stand out for a reason – or the audience will assign a meaning.
In this case, it kind of feels like the main reasons they assigned them were Creepy Marketing Guy and because everyone else in fantasy is doing it to so we may as well too – which suggests that a lot of potential was compromised for the sake of cheap, generic sexualization.
– wincenworks
So, not only does Mila’s bikini armor one up many classic designs but it seems Massive Darkness also provides baffling flavor text.
“In order to be as strong as possible, the Shadow Tribe have moved beyond patriarchy and supports brutal warrior women like Mila.”
See they need to tell you Mila is a brutal warrior woman, because she certainly doesn’t look like it in comparison to say the male barbarian.
– wincenworks
So in total, there are six female characters in the core fantasy game Massive Darkness kickstarter pack (some more in expansion packs). Four have an aggressive focus on their boobs, all of them have some degree of bare leg on display and one of them has actual armor that protects her actual body (though as we see later, she’s a distaff version of a male character stretch goal)
What do the dudes in the stretch goals look like?
So the female High Elf gets a mask to hide her face (but still has long hair out because woman) and the male Thief gets his cleavage covered up and body bulked up. As for the barbarians… yeah.
I feel that this perfectly sums up so, so many issues that the fantasy genre has with women…. and how’d they go you ask?
These are, just the default characters but there are also characters in expansion packs that further perpetuate the double standards – though there is one which at least includes an female gendered monster that is isn’t sexualized… shame about the two female adventurers in the same pack.
Ostara would have been pretty good if they’d have avoided the showing thigh fetish, but Moira (who covers up her thighs) well….
– wincenworks
(ht: @tharook, @filipfatalattractionrblog)
Riders of Icarus
@vonboomslang submitted:
Dear BABD
Please let me share with you a tale of hopes and disappointment, starring Riders of Icarus, by our old mutual friend Nexon.
“Well, that is an interesting looking class. I wonder how it looks on females. It probably has a battle skirt or something.”
“Good lord, is that actual full plate? Armored legs and everything?”
“Oh. I don’t know what I expected.”
Yours, vonBoomslang
Nexon is such a wild ride, I mean I struggle to understand how the same people publishing Vindictus also publish Dirty Bomb!
Looking at the promotional screenshots for this game, one might easily be tricked into believing that the armor for ladies would not be terrible:
I mean it doesn’t look great, but the main issue is the stock-standard boobplate that seems to be mandatory in so many fantasy RPGs these days. Even the trailer isn’t too bad for the first sixty seconds… then:
Apparently there are still people out there who believe that the MMORPG market is not yet over saturated with this exact same style of double standard nonsense. Somehow.
– wincenworks