The reddit user Chattywindow looked at the skins Blizzard gave to McCree (Van Helsing) and Symmetra (naked dragon lady), and made footage of both of them cosplaying each other. I present you Van Helsym and Incubus McCree.
And so the trend of fans swapping gendered Ovewatch character skins continues, this time with the official Halloween 2017 costumes. Nipple rings on Incubus McCree are such a nice touch! And Van Helsym is finally a look Symmetra deserves.
It really is sad how easily modders prove to Blizzard that women do look awesome in non-sexualized outfits, yet official skins barely ever apply to that.
If fans can do women better in their spare time, Blizzard definitely can do that with their abundant resources. They just don’t want to.
~Ozzie
Is the only way for Symmetra to get real pants going to be through fanart?
This was the first image in the rotating slides for the article about Warhammer: Total War. It doesn’t get much better. Later in the article we have these two Dark Elves.
Even his frickin’ FACE is covered, but for her? Armor? NOOOOoooooo. We get… whatever those things are on her boobs that are going to gut her like a fish if she bends over and can’t possibly stay on without glue or piercings. I guess all her armor budget went into that hat.
OTOH, after showcasing the horrible, I wanted to showcase the one good female armor in there:
…but you have to scroll through tons of images (including more bikini armors) before you can find this one. And I can’t tell for sure if it’s a trick of the light or if she actually has a bare middrift because reasons. [sigh]
Personally I think the greatest display of priorities in these designs is this piece of concept art which could almost be “spot the difference” game:
(And in case there is any doubt as to whether this is the artist or the studio/Games Workshop’s decision, I invite you to compare and contrast with the other works in Evgeniya Egorova’s Artstation gallery)
Why is Symmetra sexualized even as a dragon, though? That skin really could do without reptilianboobs. They even made her dragon feet super strange-looking, because she always needs to be in high heels!
Also, why none of the characters released since last year get a spooky costume? It’s not like Orisa, Doomfist and Sombra are any less likely to celebrate Halloween than any other OW hero coming from a culture that doesn’t care about this holiday. And, most of all, where are the sexy maleOverwatch costumes? Do we always have to rely on fan-made content to provide that?
~Ozzie
*Unfortunately, as per usual, old skins are available again.
As a child of the 80s I am somewhat confused about why Zarya’s “Totally 80s” outfit is horror themed… I mean… they weren’t that bad. The fashion was that bad, but I don’t see how it counts as horror.
Also, Blizzard seems to really want to double down on new skins for Symmetra that maximize the panty flash… even if she’s a dragon monster.
Evelynn from “League of Legends” just got reworked. And it is… horrendous.
Her attire was always awful, and her splash art as well. Reworking champions should give Riot the opportunity to fix some of the generic-babe-material they started with in 2010. But here we are. 7 years later and not a thing learned. Let’s open the history book on this one…
This was her original art:
It represented so much being wrong while retaining not an ounce of appeal, at least to most male humans I know. You should get a spooky vibe, but there was just nothing there. Just spikes and leather and… not even a weapon. And those heels. The character even jokes ingame about the fact that it is hard to move in those shoes. NO KIDDING.
Then, a while ago, they updated the art. To this:
I actually like this one a tad more. The outfit is the same (because only the splash art got changed, not the ingame model) but it conveys at least something. Still not much to characterise or read into and escher-esque. But at least stuff happens and you get an idea how the character is going to play ingame. And she seems kind of lethal or at least unhinged and dangerous, which is more than you can say of most bikini-clad-“no seriously she is dangerous and can fight”-girls in video game art.
But now, they remade the character. New abilities! New story! New background! A fresh new page to change things! Aaaaand… this happened:
No. Nope. I’m done. Why? Why succubus all of a sudden? Why ditch the spikes and go just down to lingerie? Does that make it better instead of even more generic? Why not add a tattoo that says “I am a metaphor for sex, you guys” and ditch the whole effort?
There obviously was reason to change things, and good thing that they noticed that. But why did they take it in the complete opposite direction to make it just plain stupid. I am not an artist, who can point out all the little signs where this went wrong, but the moment I saw this, I was even more done with the game than I already was.
Oh and one of her new abilities is named “Lust Dust”.
What’s really amusing about the promotional video is that the opening the sinisterassassin would suggest that Evelynn is essentially defined by her power of seduction… but then it quickly becomes apparent she’s more defined by spikes:
Now, spikes honestly makes more sense since League of Legends is basically a video game that more resembles at fantasytabletop war game than a roleplaying game, but apparently someone at Riot Games just really, really wanted to pay an voice actress to record a lot of innuendo lines and pay an artist to draw boobs.
So I’ve been liking my mesmer character, figured this should be one of the two I spend my level 80 character boosts on. Those boosts come with a trial period where you get all the top-level abilities unlocked and can run around a specific area of the game to make sure you want to use this boost before you commit. It also gives you upgraded armor. And locks out your ability to spend transmutation points to change its appearance. And locks away your old gear so you can’t put it back on, even at a significant stat disadvantage. Meaning that upon deciding to try out this boost (which I could only get by pre-ordering their expansion packs or by spending lots of in-game time/real-world money to buy on their gem store), I am very suddenly, unexpectedly, and irreversibly naked. Yes, I’m saying naked, because I can see her fucking crotch.
This game falls squarely within the genre of MMORPG – massively multiplayer online role-playing game. No, I don’t fully ‘role-play’ this character like some people enjoy. But this type of game generally holds the expectation that the player puts fairly significant investment into character creation and advancement. That’s the point of the genre. After playing this game for years, I tend to make characters that reflect some aspect of myself – in this case, (if the hair didn’t clue you in), my queerness. I directed my feelings about my identity, about pride and resilience and sometimes having to redirect attention, into this character and how she looks and how she plays. It’s a game, yes, but it’s also a fun escape that I’ve poured hours into around grad school and a family that I can’t come out to yet. It still means something. So to have that character’s appearance be suddenly taken out of my control, in a way that left her fucking *naked*. Is appalling. And uncomfortable, and sick, and makes me want to scream. Especially in such a clearly objectifying way that even added tattoos that point at her crotch for good measure.
GW2 certainly doesn’t have a perfect history with this kind of stuff, most notably because their starting light armor for their humanoid female characters includes a short skirt and garter belt. But that’s pretty easy to get rid of quickly, and not still not as bad as this. Otherwise, this kind of ‘armor’ tends to be one option among many, there for those that want it and easily passed by for those who don’t. Which is how it should be. But this shit. This isn’t okay.
Guild Wars 2′s track record regarding female designs is, in the most generous words, flawed. And wow, this situation is the textbook example of everything wrong with the skimpy high level trope. The game gave you an opportunity to test all the high-tier gear… by locking the character in probably the most objectifying costume possible. How charming!
Also nice commentary on the fact that MMORPGs are the game genre where players put a lot of investment into their characters. And how making top tier armors like this directly contradicts the appeal of character customization.
Hope you still can decide not to commit to this boost.
