I only saw a small post about it so I thought I’d ask for a longer one: What do ya’ll think of Jack from Mass Effect. Compared to MOST of the females in that game is it right to say she isn’t sexualized?
Yes. No. I mean yes. Maybe.
Jack certainly is an example of a character where the core reason behind her exposure is largely explained by her desire to express non-conformity and brazen confidence. She’s consistently portrayed as someone who has a grudge against society and it’s one of many ways she expresses contempt for it. (gif source)
Ironically the more sexualizing aspect is the straps that seem to have been added after the initial design, presumably because we need to protect people from the terror of nipples (by drawing more attention to their existence and further fetishizing them, isn’t society great?).
Unfortunately, when it came time for Mass Effect 3 – her costume seems to have been re-invented with similar focus on sexuality that Ashley’s was.
Overall, Jack in Mass Effect 2 was a fairly good use of non-sexual exposure, Jack in Mass Effect 3 less so. How sexualized each was would be a complex discussion involving things like her looks, structure of Bioware’s romance system, camera angles, etc.
Not really something we can summarize in a blog post.
In comparison to other Mass Effect ladies – well she’s certainly better off (costume wise) than Samara!
– wincenworks
I only saw a small post about it so I thought I’d ask for a longer one: What do ya’ll think of Jack from Mass Effect. Compared to MOST of the females in that game is it right to say she isn’t sexualized?
Yes. No. I mean yes. Maybe.
Jack certainly is an example of a character where the core reason behind her exposure is largely explained by her desire to express non-conformity and brazen confidence. She’s consistently portrayed as someone who has a grudge against society and it’s one of many ways she expresses contempt for it. (gif source)
Ironically the more sexualizing aspect is the straps that seem to have been added after the initial design, presumably because we need to protect people from the terror of nipples (by drawing more attention to their existence and further fetishizing them, isn’t society great?).
Unfortunately, when it came time for Mass Effect 3 – her costume seems to have been re-invented with similar focus on sexuality that Ashley’s was.
Overall, Jack in Mass Effect 2 was a fairly good use of non-sexual exposure, Jack in Mass Effect 3 less so. How sexualized each was would be a complex discussion involving things like her looks, structure of Bioware’s romance system, camera angles, etc.
Not really something we can summarize in a blog post.
In comparison to other Mass Effect ladies – well she’s certainly better off (costume wise) than Samara!
– wincenworks
recklessprudence submitted:
Can we talk about The Mandate for a little bit? I mean, the concept is one of the two games that I have been dreaming of since I was about eight, of an empire in turmoil and you as a captain given a mission to reunite it – which you can choose to do, or you can decide to become a pirate, or join the rebels, or align yourself with a reformist faction, or carve out your own empire, or anything else the devs think of.
Combat is both infantry boarding teams and space fleets of about one to five ships of various sizes, with the ability to actually have a boarding action happening at the same time as the fleet engagement, on one of the ships involved, and with the boarding team’s actions affecting the ship action!
And apart from the game itself, which looks shaping up to be wonderful, the devs have built a character modeling system that can handle nearly any body type, and have taken care to model women as respectfully as they have men. I mean, look at this article – they have no Creepy Marketing Guy! That’s amazing!
And in all of it, they’re putting women in all the roles men can have – from boarding team, to engineers keeping the ship running, to captains. The leader of the empire, Empress Anastasia Romanov, who ascended to the throne just in time for the Rebels to strike, is portrayed as a stronger ruler than her father and one who realises that there will be hard work ahead of them.
The everyday uniform your captain wears is a light hardsuit, capable of keeping you alive when the bridge is holed and the atmosphere vents, and look at it! It looks like actual functional (if stylised) armour – but the male version looks near-identical, and the stylisation is to make it look like an 1800s naval uniform, not for any ‘sex appeal’!
I mean, just read this quote from the earlier-linked article:
“Perhaps there are meticulously theorized marketing implications for gender representation in games, tacitly discussed by marketers with twirly moustaches at board meetings,” he says. “With 48 percent of all gamers being women according to ESA it seems a little misguided to actively aim to please only half of your potential customer base while alienating the other half. Besides some guys prefer to roll female characters… In any conceivable version of a space-faring future for humankind, there would need to be women…”
How awesome is that?
Just thought I’d share.
I highly recommend that everyone check out the art e-book that is freely available on the web site. It’s full of awesome imagery and on par with many art books that I’ve paid for.
– wincenworks
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
So, Circe is a Wonder Woman villain who goes all the way back to 1959 and for some reason – out of all the possible outfits and designs, this is the one that DC Universe Online went with.
Of course, there’s concept art for different designs:
But of course, that’s what they used for the gritty dystopian future that only appears in the intro video. Thanks DC Universe Online.
– wincenworks