Tag: LONG POST

Posted on

Okay, so we’ve received approximately… more requests than I can bother to count to comment on Blizzard finally announcing Brigitte Lindholm as a playable character and releasing her on the test server.

Now, initially I put off commenting on this because she had only one skin and the minimum features to allow people to play her on the test server.  This felt suspicious to me, because put simply: The default skin is, in isolation, good:

image

There are minor issues, such as her hair, waist and the weird hip cape designed to remind us she has a (presumably sexy) butt.

However, once the Legendary skins came out, the conversation became more complicated (expect more posts in the near future) because well, the come in two themes (knight and mechanic) and… let’s just look at them:

image
image

Yes, it seems that while someone at the Overwatch art team managed to get her primary look to be pretty good, the powers that be decided her Legendary Skins (ie the prestigious ones) need to have the standard sexualized nonsense.

On top of that, despite that visually she is a distaff Reinhardt (who still does not have a sculpted codpiece) and her video announcing she is not content to be a support character and wants to tank… she is Support:

image

Reminder: She maintains all Reinhardt’s gear… so there’s no in game explanation why her shield is roughly one third the strength.

Also, while there is some joking about her being a copy of a Paladins character (that would be the ultimate irony), I can’t help but think I’ve seen this shield and flail combination somewhere in a Blizzard game before…

image
image

Overwatch, supposed to be Blizzard doing women characters better.

– wincenworks

Posted on

image

Dragon Spear seems to be a new addition to the genre of generic-ass pseudo anime mobile games convinced that putting lots of boobs in them will sell better. 

image

So far its reach is limited to a couple countries in East and South Asia as well as Oceania. Wonder how far it’ll expand before the inevitable flop…

Let’s take a look at the full in-game screenshot this bingo comes from: 

image

(ಠ_ಠ)

image

(╯ಠ_ಠ)╯︵ ┻━┻ 

~Ozzie

You mock this game, Ozzie, but look at all the cool diverse and original classes it has to offer!

image

They seem to have taken artistic direction ideas from Dragon’s Crown…

Did I mention the Sorceress’ breasts move during her animations? That’s how you know this is a Serious Action Game.

-Icy

Posted on

fatherronaldknox submitted:

Statue by Sideshow Toys of Heavy Metal Taarna? I don’t know what she is but this is horrifying. 

Oh, Sideshow Toys and your intricately sculpted and painted figures of creepily sexualized women, we meet again…

Taarna is perhaps the most iconic character from the

boobalistic

cult classic 1981 Heavy Metal animated anthology. 

She’s arguably known best not for being a fierce warrior, but for having the most voyeuristic “gearing up” scene ever, complete with “romantic” music playing as she slowly and sensually dresses up from complete nudity to half nudity. 

[imagine a GIF in here, but it would be too NSFW to actually put one] 

Even her ComicVine description agrees what’s the character’s most prominent feature: 

A strong, beautiful warrior maiden who resolves to avenge a city destroyed by a horde of mutated barbarians.

Ew.

Surprisingly enough, in her final battle she does get seriously injured, so it’s safe to assume her bikini isn’t supposed to be actually protective.  

She’s just badass enough to fight while slashed across her exposed flesh. What benefit could she possibly get from wearing actual armor in the first place? NOT duelling a mutant warlord while bleeding to death, huh? Who’d want to see that? </sarcasm> 

~Ozzie

According to the statue description, this seems to be a post-Loc-Nar design, as it “includes mechanical elements and earthen details inspired by Taarna’s part in destroying the evil Loc-Nar.” So even after that fight where she dies, nobody batted an eye at giving her the exact same… “outfit.” 

Not to mention, those cuts look like something my cat might give me by accident. She has to be a beautiful warrior maiden, after all, and actual injuries are gross.

My favorite part of the description is this, however:

Although she is a silent hero, Taarna’s expression speaks volumes.  Her carefully sculpted portrait bears a look of grim determination, complete with the Taarakian mark tattooed on her neck.  Her windswept, silvery hair frames her face as she looks towards her next foe with silent fury.

Ah, yes, her expression.

image

The expression that exists entirely in her eyebrows so that her face can stay unblemished. I guess I should be thankful that her face actually looks like it belongs to an adult.

-Icy

Posted on

Battlerite is a recent addition to the growing popular genre of “just fight people in multiplayer” games that continue to come forth with no end in sight.  Given the starter line up in this game, I’m sure you’ll be shocked to discover a large portion of their tag on Tumblr is Rule34.

What’s interesting about Battlerite, though, is that it only released on 8 November 2017, it already has two characters added (both female).

The first was Destiny.

image

She was released with the first patch seemingly as some sort of afterthought that there may actually be people out there who wanted to play a female character who did not look like a child, was clearly recognizable as human, wasn’t in a hyper sexualized costume and appeared to turning up to the fight because was a warrior.

In December, they released Alysia… who looks kind of presentable from the waist up but has weird thigh highs. In her video she spends her time prancing and talking about being an artist.  I guess they’re trying to find a magic mix of objectification and actual good design.

It kind of makes you wonder whether someone in particular told them that hardly anyone wants actual badass warrior women or whether they just worried a certain demographic wouldn’t check out the game on opening day unless they were being pandered to.

tl;dr: Not only do they appear to be copying Smite’s core gameplay, they’re also copying their strategy regarding attempting to have their feminist cookie and gratuitous cheesecake too.

– wincenworks 

This game seems to go through some sort of visual identity crisis regarding female characters. A reader actually noted us that the white-haired lady, Jade, went through a “sexy” redesign some time ago: 

@emissaryofwind submitted: 

image

You already talked a bit about Battlerite’s Freya before, but I was looking at this character named Jade, and noticed this. On the left is her old design, notice how apart from her hairstyle everything is very practical. Low, chunky heels (I’ve been told 1" heels are better for your back than flat heels), a full-coverage coat and shirt, a mask to protect her from inhaling dust, etc. 

On the right is her current design, complete with useless-to-dangerous mini armor plates, stiletto heels, boob window, shoulder windows, and a big hole in the back of the coat making it essentially useless.

It’s sad to see that such a good design has been replaced with a generic “sexy” design.

What a waste of a design that was both practical AND much more interesting visually (just compare the silhouette!). The new one could easily just come from some random shovelware web ad. She sticks out like a sore thumb, even next to other sexualized ladies, due to a slightly different (generic and overly detailed) art style.

Battlerite is in a desperate need of rehashing its art direction to something more consistent and not at all dependent on the creepy marketing guy.

~Ozzie 

edit: Fixed link to Alysia’s video.

Posted on

Why Wonder Woman Deserves More

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

realms-master:

Help me out here guys….

Okay, I may not be a huge comic book buff (yet still a huge fan!), but I’m willing to learn if there’s something I’m missing. I’ve always loved the idea of Wonder Woman – a powerful female warrioress from Ancient Greece/Amazonian culture (iirc), a Xena-like character who fights for virtue, honor, truth, all those good things. She plays with the big boys, and not only keeps up, but shows them how it’s done.

If that’s so, then…whywhyWHY is she most always shown in a skintight, strapless, pantsless, thong/swimming suit/flimsy piece of spandex???? I know she’s pretty indestructible, but do you know how HARD it is to fight in a leather corset, where there’s no straps to keep that gigantic chest in place?

It makes me VERY sad that such a famous, prominent figure of feminine power is mostly seen as a sex icon, mostly featured in sexy/escher-esque poses, wearing “clothing” that looks like it was sprayed on or hanging on with a wing and a prayer (and maybe ample amounts of superglue?), or any variation thereof? I say ‘mostly’, because I have seen some versions where she’s more practical, with pants, real armor, heck I’ll even settle for the Greek/Xena-style skirt in some versions. Bravo to those people for giving our poor warrioress some semblance of dignity.

If I understand correctly, like in the Xena universe, that is the ‘style’ of the era, the leather skirt with the bodice and shoulder armor, reminiscent of Romans and Greeks from Sparta, etc. Well okay then, give WW an outfit that actually looks/works like real armor from that period, instead of the spandex thong/corset she’s most often depicted in. Also, iirc, maybe she doesn’t wear full armor because that’s the ‘Amazon way’, IE: she’s so OP that she doesn’t need full covering. But give her SOMETHING that isn’t so obviously designed to sell sex first, and practicality last!

Spandex may be all the rage for comic books (and it’s probably easier to draw), but I’d like to direct your attention to some of these wonderful blogs for many, many more reasons why our beloved Wonder Woman deserves more than a minimal-coverage, maximum-bust corset (and why practical armor can be even more BA and gorgeous):

Unless there is a practical, logical reason why WW is nearly always shown in the aforementioned ILLOGICAL ways, let’s face it: Sex sells, and too many people are buying. And that is no excuse, because women like myself want to see our gender treated with more dignity, respect, and understanding than what is given. You know what, I’ll bet Superman is chivalrous. And so is Wonder Woman.

I challenge any WW artist to design her with something more akin to Lady Sif (from the movie version), instead of just going with the flow.

TL;DR – Wonder Woman is too freaking amazing to be treated as a sex icon. She deserves a whole heck of a lot more from us, her fans. She deserves something befitting who she is, and what she represents.

My post isn’t intended to insult anyone, I know we all have different ideas and viewpoints. I’m just expressing my own views and frustrations with society :/

/end rant (btw, I have no problem with the comic book world; check my blogs, I’m a huge nerd! But I do have a problem with how prevalent the sex industry is, especially in my fandoms! Move over boys, girls are nerds too!)

Bolding mine. I share this sentiment.

We had posts regarding both on how questionable Wonder Woman’s strapless cleavage cut is and the rare (official!) alternative designs that are more practical and/or pay tribute to ancient Greek aesthetic, unlike the iconic outfit everyone remembers most.

~Ozzie

I really find it baffling that after sixty-four years and countless re-boots, re-designs, re-imaginings for different mediums, etc.  DC Comics keeps coming back to basically her original costume but with no skirt:

image

Epic creativity.

– wincenworks

Even when she gets a skirt, it’s like a swimsuit equivalent.

image

It’s shaped like a W, get it?? …For Wonder Woman!

-Icy 

This was the most appropriate throwback we could think of, with Justice League film and its degraded Amazon costumes coming so soon. Diana, as well as her people, really deserves better. 

Even the cover above, which Icy added, is a perfect  example of Wonder Woman costumes which @realms-master​ talks about! That armor is literally painted on her (impossibly narrow-waisted) torso, especially the boobplate that somehow conforms to gravity along with the breasts. No amount of intricate shading would mask that.
Also note the dissonance between Wondy’s serene expression and triumphant pose. It’s obvious that the artist, Liam Sharp, aimed to make her more “appealing” than powerful. 

~Ozzie

Posted on

New SMITE skins

Nais submitted:  

So, I was watching the Smite 4.21 patch notes, and I was really impressed by the quality of the skins. 

Nemesis’ new skin actually looks like half decent armor, minus the high heels. 

image

Discordia looked cute and mage-y. 

image

And then there was this. 

image

This is “Exterminator Kali”, who is supposed to have a “superhero feel”. She looks like one of those flag girls from car races. Had me going there for a minute with the improvement, Smite… 

Ok, that Nemesis skin looks surprisingly interesting and not particularly sexualized in SMITE’s very low standards, especially compared to her default design. It’s not perfect, of course – you mentioned high heels, but there’s also spandex chainmail on her legs and skin-tight material around waist… Though this is probably the closest they ever got to practical female breastplate. 

Dicordia could use a longer skirt, but her design at least has some personality, something nonexistent among other goddesses in this game.
As a side note, her lore starts as a coherent story (Eris flees Troy after successfully spreading chaos of war there, reinvents herself as Dicordia) and quickly spirals into something that spits into face of everyone even remotely familiar with Greco-Roman myths and history (she makes a character who is neither the ancestor of Romulus nor

and

Remus the original founder of Rome instead of the twins). 
Sometimes I feel this game exists only to troll mythology nerds with blatant disregard for everything that makes those stories and characters special.

Speaking of which, can we ALL, as the humanity, please stop sexualizing the Hindu goddess Kali FOREVER? 
What’s video games’ problem with her? There was a super-porny version (NSFW link!) in Rise of the Incarnates (the game doesn’t seem to exist anymore). Overwatch also felt justified in turning this powerful female deity of a living religion into a “sexy” skin for Symmetra, because the character is Indian.

We referenced SMITE’s disgusting treatment of Kali in this 2015 post about exotification and it’s as topical now as it was then:

image

Other than sporting four arms and blue flesh, that “Exterminator” skin doesn’t even have anything to do with Kali’s default SMITE design. And what’s “superhero” about it, too? The biggest connection I can think of is that she looks like an ultrasexualized Guardians of the Galaxy reject.

~Ozzie 

edit: A reader informed us that SMITE Wiki misspells the character’s name in Discordia’s lore: the article says Aeneus, an unrelated Greek mythology character, rather than Aeneas, the protagonist of Virgil’s Aeneid, bridge between Greek and Roman myths and ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.

Posted on

On Brigitte

So, shortly after Ozzie posted on why you shouldn’t expect people to go out of their way to do more research and consume more media in order to find a good message in a creator’s work… a bunch of people rushed in to tell us that the “unnamed redhead” in the Reinhardt animated short had a name… she was clearly Brigitte, Torbjorn’s daughter and beloved Overwatch supporting character!

But, what identified her as Brigitte, what kind of character is she?  Was this depiction of her accurate to previous material?

The woman depicted in the short is the second-most muscular woman we’ve seen in Overwatch (second only to Zarya) with a cog tattoo on her left shoulder and a t-shirt which has the sleeves torn off and reads “I like exercise because I love eating” and she has the standard issue Disney-face.

image

This is Brigitte in her only other speaking appearance, note how she started with a strong jawline, narrow lips and freckles:

image

And here she is in her other follow up appearance, arms like twigs and half-way to the final Disney-face, no more freckles or jawline:

image

So really what identified her as Brigitte were these elements:

  • Proximity to Reinhardt during his pre-game period
  • Tendency to tell Reinhardt that he shouldn’t do what the audience is specifically eager for him to do (ie, be a hero)
  • Her hair is kind of the same and she has practical pants (a rarity for women in the world of Overwatch)
  • Nobody refers to her by name while she’s around

There’s also that one in-game spray graphic where she’s shown sporting even more “prettified” face, posing for a photo with her dad (good luck knowing that relation without digging up lore): 

image

The greater irony of this is that the single exchange between Reinhardt and Mercy where Brigitte’s name is mentioned actually undermines her role in the video.  According to the in-game content she goes off with Reinhardt on his adventures… not keeping him company in the castle while he avoids risks. Note how in the short she isn’t shown to change her mind and support Reinhardt’s decision at the end.

(Also worth noting is people have been asking, by name, for her to appear more often and be shown helping Reinhardt in the game for over a year now but this is the closest Blizzard have come, that and they had to confirm her who father was in a tweet because again… zero priority elsewhere.)

At this point, if you look at what Blizzard have provided: Brigitte has no consistent look beyond pants, skin tone and hairstyle. Her only consistent behavior is telling Reinhardt not to go be a hero. In the video she isn’t even shown doing the other support aspects such as enabling travel, fixing his armor, gathering intelligence, being the social one of the pair, etc.

The point is here is Blizzard doesn’t care enough about a female character to give her a consistent appearance, have her name be used so the audience can identify her or give her any sort of motivations of her own – you shouldn’t take the time to act like she’s an important character who everyone should know.

I promise you that defending Blizzard’s failures to do the basics when it comes to their promises of better depictions of women and better diversity will not result anything good for anyone other than Blizzard’s shareholders.

– wincenworks 

@otherwindow has done a beautiful edit of what Brigitte would have looked like in the short if they stayed true to her initial comic appearance.

I said this on the Moira post, but really… what could have been.

-Icy

This is exactly what I meant by “asking us to “do our homework” before we comment will make the commentary far more critical, not more lenient.” 

image

~Ozzie 

h/t: @red-queen-on-the-heathen-throne for bringing our attention to how off-model Brigitte is between her cross-media appearances. 

Posted on

Okay, so predictably Blizzard has used Blizzcon to announce a new Overwatch character, and now Talon (the bad guys) have a support healer – and surprisingly despite them clearly having recycled a lot of Mercy’s look (with more than little bit of Zarya and a lot of David Bowie… I mean a LOT), they’ve managed to avoid the Evil is Sexy trope this time.

Honestly this design is pretty good but I get the feeling that the boobplate is literally a case of “if no boob, how woman!?” given how refreshingly androgynous Moria looks in most of her origin story and lineup pic

image

It’s also pretty cool how she fills a big hole in Overwatch lore and meets the outspoken player demand for an evil/amoral healer.

Of course Blizzard took Blizzcon as the opportunity for demonstrating how they’re doing representation of women better in their games and media.

image

They also, a few hours earlier, released what is essentially Reinhardt’s origin story, which features exactly one female character:

image
image

An unnamed* redhead with a Disney face who is there to tell him that he doesn’t need to be hero so he can tell her that he totally does. 

This is why it’s difficult to believe that, while many of their staff may be trying hard, Jeff Kaplan and Blizzard as an entity care about representation beyond marketing sound bytes and feminist cookies.

– wincenworks 

Oh, what could have been.

image

I wish they would have pushed the medical tubing further, instead of just giving her a little tube backpack. Like maybe extending the tubing down her right arm to emphasize that she deals damage with it. Overall, the design is just very…. Safe. And also not angular enough. Look at the origin story screenshot above; angles!

I’m just kind of disappointed, honestly. One more thin, young-looking white woman, and her black/purple color scheme is giving me Morgana flashbacks.

Also, her powers are very reminiscent of Hel from SMITE and Seris from Paladins. We’ve almost achieved the originality singularity!

-Icy 

I see this as a consistent problem with many female character additions to Overwatch… Individually, they’re pretty interesting designs (though it’s guaranteed that they looked better, less “safe”, in concept art), but when put together in a group, they turn into this boring blob of young-looking, thin, mostly pale ladies with a token unique feature here and there. 

As I said before, I’d take so much less issue with D.Va (cause her pretty girl design is consistent with her teenage idol persona) if she didn’t follow after introduction of Mercy, Tracer, Widowmaker etc, who all have fatal flaws dictated by “sex sells” in their designs. 

~Ozzie 

Tweet (context)

*We understand that Brigitte has a name (thanks for all the readers for informing us of it); however that actually confirms our criticism regarding the supposed need for “doing the research” – the animated short can’t even bother to put her name into dialogue. The audience has to read some auxiliary non-game material beforehand to know who she’s supposed to be.