The hilarious front line in the tragic war against ridiculous female armor
Tag: video
Posted on
Tangentially related to BABD’s subject matter, but very important point for the gender in gaming discussion.
Just as the association of colors pink and blue with femininity and masculinity, the link between certain game mechanics and gender is a result of completely arbitrary choices made fairly recently, while the mechanics were being developed.
Therefore, marketing different types of games to “opposing” gender demographics does NOT prove that men and women are inherently attracted to different facets of aesthetic or forms entertainment.
~Ozzie
I think this is also worth remembering not just in terms of game mechanics but those assigned to female characters. Limiting female characters to support roles, femme fatales or rewards means that the designs of female characters limited to just those that serve these purposes.
This also applies if your “commentary” piece requires the audience to participate in hours of extra content and then engage in a elaborate mental gymnastics in order to find the commentary. eg Metal Gear Solid or Dragon’s Dogma.
No amount of elaborate post event justification is going to undo the objectification.
Saw this ad on TV tonight and thought of you. I don’t so much mind the teasing “come and play with me” pitch – I’ve burned out my get-offended circuit for that – but walking through the battlefield in that dress? (And wouldn’t it have been more interesting if they’d put her in good armor?)
Because whether they use sexual imagery or franchise names to sell, these products are basically horrible rip offs employing graphics and game mechanics that were exciting in 2001.
This is not to say that a simple game mechanic can’t be fun and engaging, I mean look at Candy Crush Saga’s success. The main issue here is that these are basically stripped back versions that – instead using sophisticated AI and scaling difficulty – they just use other players (which means that they also want you to be both part of the product and pay for the privilege of doing so).
And this is why “sex sells“ for these games is a myth – it’s simply the company with the biggest market exposure gets the most sales. After all, they games are all more or less the same and are only playable before the volume of unbearable jerk players reaches critical mass.
– wincenworks
What I find particularly ironic about it… That’s not your typical cheap “sex sells” slap-some–generic-sexy-lady-art–and–innuendo-tagline–on-a–web-banner ad, but a TV ad! They actually invested money into shooting this at a relatively high production value… And still decided that making it all about a sexy lady selling you The Thing was the best way to market their game.
I love how even in this small sample of rhetoric comments you can see brodudes co-operating by providing completely different narratives with the same goal.
The women in League of Legends are totally not sexualized! At all!
Women are naturally sexualized so they should be depicted as sexy all the time!
Reminder: This is the same demographic that are currently rioting because they claim games journalism doesn’t have enough integrity.
– wincenworks
edit: Unfortunately, the video doesn’t exist anymore. It was a montage of “League of Legends is not sexist!” fan comments screenshots juxtaposed with boob-heavy promotional
Footage of women in proper armor in action! This video was taken at Dragon*Con 2014 ‘s Full-Contact Steel Medieval Combat panel and features combatants Sandra and Amy of the USA Knights Armored Combat League, both of whom participated in the last international tournament in Spain. The fighting obviously isn’t quite the same as an actual battle since no thrusting or stabbing moves are allowed in order to prevent actual serious injuries, but it’s clear that even with 75 lbs of armor on they are still able to move just as well as their male teammates. And not a boobplate in sight!
Bonus photo of the ladies without their helmets on:
Awesome ladies doing awesome things! Thank you for that submission, what a great contribution to positive examples tag 🙂
Plate armor isn’t exactly spandex, but it’s also not a tank you wear on your body.
And like, any male ranger/thief/whatever agility based class character is not going out in a metal speedo, so why exactly are female warrior/strength/heavy armor + weapons type characters in chainmail bikinis?
The agility defence is the official worst argument when it comes to fantasy armors.
And a little bit more on why the “women aren’t strong enough to wear armor” myth is just absurd.
Remember, in times of war they used to fit hundreds of soldiers in this stuff and expect them to fight all day with heavy weapons. Armor had to be light enough allow an “average” man with training to use it reliably, which means it’d be easily usable for the “average” woman with the same training.
