Black Desert Online
@avatarwill113 submitted:
A Dark Knight from Black Desert Online. It’s so incredible generic and dreadful.
I do get the feeling that Black Desert Online crew does more research looking through Lady Gaga’s wardrobe than any textbook. Sadly this doesn’t make them unique in the slightest, just perhaps the most blatant. (x)
Of course, Lady Gaga is trying to get attention through some combination of shock and novelty, and is hopefully not expecting to get trapped in mortal combat at any moment.
– wincenworks
Tidy Up Tuesday #57
A few things to tidy up here, a lot of them having to do with For Honor.
Since the armor is a bit complicated and there’s a lot of feedback, there will be at least one more post on the differences and design decisions. It will take a little time to assemble though.
Firstly though, thank you for the many submissions we’ve been receiving lately, with our diminished posting schedule it’s hard to keep but we have some great user-submitted posts we want to share soon.
Back to For Honor (and other games): The world presented by the game devs is at least as much a part of the game as the player customization screen.
Gender select on most of the classes does not erase how the game itself presents gender such as, for example, refers to armies as “these men” or when the game presents suspicious dismorphism as standard.
Having a skin tone slider that allows your character to be the only brown person in the world (and somehow unnoticed for it) doesn’t make a game above criticism for diversity issues.
If you believe that cultural and ethnic diversity is a relatively new thing and so it’s fine when it’s absent in fantasy, then we strongly encourage you to check out the plethora of material available on @medievalpoc ( facebook | twitter )
If you would like to learn more about issues relating to diversity we strongly recommend checking out and supporting:
For other issues relating to feedback we’ve gotten on the For Honor posts, as I said a post is coming but some related posts are:
- But MMA/Wrestlers…
- Chest armor on the busty
- How Armor Works ( mail | organic )
- Character selection in Dark Souls
- This amazing design by @frednought
- This pic featuring @sunandsword
- This video of @larplyyyyyyf putting on her armor
(And if you’re still stressing out, remember it is listed as a positive example, however we pointed out issues with it. BABD is a critic blog and no product is ever perfect. Not even our favourites.)
Some things we’ve covered before:
~Ozzie & -wincenworks
Okay. So a lot of people want us to talk about For Honor, specifically as a positive example (rather than it’s odd design decisions that we noticed on first announcement or that it’s a game where everyone is white, covered up but coded white by culture or Japanese).
The female designs are better than the usual we see, there are a few ongoing issues though like their determination to gender exactly ¾ of the classes as male, and ¼ as female… and their determination to make sure you notice the ladies have boobs (and are smaller).
So yes, it’s better than most, has some really cool designs, and can be counted as another game that has female combatants who grunt like they’re trying to kill someone rather than get them off – but it has it’s own issues. If you like fantasy combat games and warrior women, it’s got definite appeal.
What I found more interesting: after Game Theory made a video of it’s usual quality standard – a whole bunch of historical weapon/armor enthusiasts rushed out to debunk it and try to spread awareness not to believe misinformation in popular culture! (examples here)
Meanwhile it’s hard to find any sort of video talking about female armor that isn’t grossly apologetic or rushes to stress that it’s not opposed to bikini armor in a fantasy setting etc.
If only recognizing people’s humanity and representation as as important as preventing misinformation about Vikings, Samurai and Knights.
– wincenworks
Sad part is, this spandex chainmail/cleavage-y cardigan set is possibly the best (and least physics-defying) female armor we’ve seen from TERA.
~Ozzie
Was scrolling through @bikiniarmorbattledamage and was inspired to do a couple of redesigns. First is Cat from Gravity Rush (which I’ll confess I haven’t played and it seems kinda fun but how does that outfit even work) and second is Wonder Woman because I saw what she looks like in the movies and just thought ugh.
Sub list:
Nice job! I really like the cut of the costume you chose for Cat over the boob-swirly leotard she originally had.
Wearable redesigns are always welcome on BABD.
~Ozzie
see for comparison: Gravity Rush on BABD | Wonder Woman on BABD