Wrestling with TERA’s anti-fashion Part 1

It’s no secret that TERA Online is the quintessential of gratuitous skimpyness and double standard in character and costume design in video games. As Icy pointed out before, some of the costumes would work fine as pieces of high fashion, but definitely not a believable wear for a fantasy warrior. So we devoted a livestream to maybe try fixing that. 

Not my most inspired of redesigns, though I concluded that it’s a win as long as I make it wearable. Maybe with more time to think it through I’d give her a different colored second pant leg, but she had to do with just symmetrical jeans this time. 

As usual, one of the most important things to do was getting rid of this absurd cleavage that clings to her boobs. I shamelessly copypasted her metal (?) back piece and adjusted it slightly to now be a matching front collar. then just painted over the excessive fleshy parts. 
Copypasting pant leg also required adjusting the hem of her top, so I gave it a slightly different shape, with white trim to make it stand out better. Also, spikes on her gloves aren’t as ridiculously spiky anymore.

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The part I’m actually pretty satisfied with are the shoes, which I managed to turn into a lot flatter heels, without making the design completely unfamiliar. Also got rid of completely pointless (ha!) spikes at the sides. Now that’s wearable and can fit a human foot inside without liquefying it. 

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I admit, overall that’s far from my best, but with TERA you can’t go any more wrong than the original.

~Ozzie

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

(submitted by Jury) 

Whoah. The absurd of Tera, the universal example of logic-defying female battle outfits, advertising itself to have “practical armor”… that is skin-tight and boobsock-y on women leaves me astonished. 

This armor is so totally practical that even Erik Larsen, the devoted anti-practicality in women’s costumes guy, probably wouldn’t mind it. 

Dear Tera’s Creepy Maketing Guy: Just because boobplate and figure-hugging metal cover more than what you usually call “armor”, it doesn’t mean you should label it as “practical”. 

~Ozzie

I feel it’s time to bring this back, not just because laughing at Tera’s idea of quality armor never gets old, there’s a funny thing I noticed.  I feel like I’ve seen this… somewhere recently… 

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Yes to everyone assuring us that Blizzard is really trying… we have confirmation they are trying about as hard as Tera was last year.

Hooray.

– wincenworks

More on Overwatch on BABD | More on Tera on BABD

(submitted by Jury) 

Whoah. The absurd of Tera, the universal example of logic-defying female battle outfits, advertising itself to have “practical armor”… that is skin-tight and boobsock-y on women leaves me astonished. 

This armor is so totally practical that even Erik Larsen, the devoted anti-practicality in women’s costumes guy, probably wouldn’t mind it. 

Dear Tera’s Creepy Maketing Guy: Just because boobplate and figure-hugging metal cover more than what you usually call “armor”, it doesn’t mean you should label it as “practical”. 

~Ozzie

avatar-dacia:

dreamersollux:

xylophil:

welcome to video game!!!!!! customize your character; but first, choose your gender:

in case anyone thought this was an exaggeration

TERA is such a bad joke of a game.  And not only that, but female characters all wear super-skimpy outfits and lean way the hell over so that you can see their panties when they run.

I mean, nothing against fanservice (although I prefer mine a bit more equal-opportunity).  This game, however, is just…tawdry.  Like something out of a particularly bad adult manhwa.

Also, I remember a discussion in which the scummy fanboys broke out literally every scummy fanboy derailing tactic in the book (plus a Godwin or two and an accusation of “shaming” the characters).  So…there’s also the matter of the brand of fan it attracts.

@eschergirls, @bikiniarmorbattledamage

Ah, TERA Online. Once upon a time, I played (and enjoyed) the closed Beta, up to the point where I had to interact with a female NPC who literally wore a metal bikini (not chainmail, actual solid metal) whose breasts still swayed–with the armor.

I actually have a mixed attitude toward the designs in the game. On the one hand, it’s all very Male Gaze, creepy, and completely impractical or physically impossible to wear into battle. On the other hand, some of their stuff is actually well-designed (i.e. actually makes use of design principles) and is nice to look at. It’s the kind of stuff I wouldn’t mind seeing at a Haute couture fashion show (though they can’t seem to design shoes for shit).

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[full pic]

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[full pic]

And this swanky mofo, who’s wearing the male version of the above dress (imagine going to a party in these coordinated outfits, hot damn):

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[full pic]

But the game isn’t Project Runway: TERA, unfortunately.

-Icy

I love how not only is @xylophil’s satire spot-on,  but also that @dreamersollux easily found an official game promo pic of exactly what it’s making fun of. 

Fits perfectly with all the other examples of suspicious dimorphism and its parodies we had on BABD so far.

~Ozzie