Yesterday – while looking with Icy through Heroes of Newerth’s art page, the endless depository of painfully generic, often plagiarized, and even more often super sexist and racist artwork – we found this fairy… thing and agreed she’s a perfect bingo material. And boy is she! 

If not for her weird furry feet, she’d very likely get a bingo with high heels.

~Ozzie

Royal Trooper Bingo

dimestoretajic submitted:

*sigh*

I stump for Magic the Gathering hard. I often feel like, in a sea of boring design and policies written by the Creepy Marketing Guy, Magic stands out as really trying to do better for inclusivity and diversity, even if it does stumble from time to time.

But this time, they REALLY stumbled.

Behold, from the recent Battlebond set… Royal Trooper! 

… like… what the hell.

This is my first time doing one of these bingo cards, so if I missed one or didn’t interpret one properly, let me have it:

image

Now, the hilarious thing is, I passed this by my fiancee in case I missed one, and she said that the male version of this card was probably better. That sparked an idea, and lo and behold, there was an earlier version of this card: 

image

…it’s also a woman, in MUCH BETTER ARMOUR… FORWARD, Wizards of the Coast. We’re supposed to go FORWARD. Yeesh… 

Thanks for subsmission and the commentary! We learned not to have high expectations of Magic and Gathering’s illustrations. At best, they’re a mixed bag. 

Occasional positive female example or sexy man doesn’t justify the fact that Wizards of the Coast aren’t all that bothered with keeping their card artist guidelines more than a little vague about what’s encouraged in depictions of women. So we end up with whole variety of generic sexy fantasy chicks with bared skin and boobplates galore. 

Just the fact that every version of Chandra Nalaar sports prominent boobplate says a lot about their dedication to never strive for actual change. 

So yeah, WotC, you’re supposed to go forward, not… sideways?

~Ozzie

artoffreddieniem-blog:

【男神九勇士】「第一代原版组图:各有二幅全身照的」

今年泰国最大同志泼水节派对「SongKran泼水节派对」官方宣传海报:@SongKran泼水节派对

男模·GOGO-Boy 花名册 ins 依次: runssm、samuruma、 yoshihiroyr、naottica、  go_kenta、 kenshirotricomi、marujin25、yutobrave、alex_v90  。

摄影师 Uto Zawao  IG: richman625 | Costume by GX3 Underwear

我在微博:@森林画册  

Look, I think its safe to say we are all tired of the same old fantasy hero designs: hidden away in layers of protective steel, scruffy and unkept looking in leather or just walking around with a tattered rag.

What the genre needs is more men like this: immaculately groomed in stylish, empowering outfits that let you know they’re both physically powerful, but also emotionally powerful due to their strong connection with their sexuality.

The kinds of men that men really want to be (even if they don’t admit to it).

– wincenworks

(h/t @bagarete)

5th edition Dungeons and Dragons’ human outlander is one painfully generic archer design, scoring low on bingo mostly due to sheer lack of inventiveness. 

Nonetheless, like quite a few official female warrior illustrations from that edition of D&D, biggest problem with her is that she looks almost legit, with some practical-looking shoes, pants and costume made of plausible materials… only to be ruined by nonsensical top, adorned with a pauldron, just as an added insult to the simulated practicality.

~Ozzie

The second most ridiculous thing about this pic is that its followed almost immediately by the rather awesome “Soldier” background’s illustration:

image

The most ridiculous thing about it is that it represents the “Outlander” background, which is supposed to represent an individual who has lived isolated from society out in the wilderness.

In a weird designer leather bra thing… apparently…

– wincenworks

caitlynkurilich:

A collection of Ladyknights, for anyone feeling particularly chivalrous.

Now this is an awesome range of designs and concepts to showcase all kinds of approaches and personalities.

I also particularly like how every one of them has a weapon that matches to the kinds of armor they’re wearing.

– wincenworks

More Positive Examples on BABD

So Lady Kagami was the main antagonist of Tenchu 2… which was supposed to be an epic battle between ninja clans and rulers in Feudal Japan but somehow ended up with this as the major villain.

How seriously can you expect to take people take this kind of villain when facing off against a protagonist like this:

image

For those rushing to type that it’s an old game and doesn’t matter – it’s worth remembering what the final installment in core series was.   Design aspects like this left unaddressed can kill otherwise unique and engaging properties.

– wincenworks

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:

image

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.

image

– 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)

Ironically, despite this armor being the first “screenshot” image on Conan Exiles’ Steam page – I can’t find any evidence that it is or has ever actually been in the game.  The reason why is not particularly clear.  After all, this is “heavy armor”:

image

The part that is most amazing about it is that the lower half is covered in pants that seem far beyond the heavy armor but then have a nightmarish boobplate that seems to have been designed with zero considerations for protection.

It gets chafing nightmare because it seems that after adding a layer of padding under the metal… they decided that a bare steel chain strap will be fine.

image

This is doubly a shame because not only does a certain marketing strategy seem to impeding them giving a solid representation of the game but they’re also missing the opportunity to show the real empowerment in the game:

image

– wincenworks

Update: Apparently it is possible to recreate the outfit, but requires mixing and matching bits, @p75369 created the female version here and… well I’m sure you’ll be shocked the male version is different.