Tag: WoW

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WoW Armor Switch

Like with Saint Seiya Online and Riders of Icarus before, we subjected some armor double standard in Blizzard’s MMORPG classic to a switch of designs between genders. 
After all, if those are supposed to be exactly equal in function, then why not make the dudes show off their flesh? 

Jade Set

This was a relatively laid-back stream. I was actually pretty surprised that we had not tackled WoW in a stream before! I ended up picking the Jade Armor just because of that underboob… it was just taunting me… I had to do it. It wasn’t my fault! Please, don’t–!

So besides switching the outfits between the 2 characters, I also switched their facial expressions! I gave the maaale an attractive, nonthreatening smile, while making the lady more intimidating. I also added the at-this-point Patented Icy Redesign Dick. I mean, if we can’t tell he has a penis, how are we supposed to know he’s a man, Blizzard?? How???

-Icy 

Glorious Set

This change was pretty basic copypasting job with adjustments according to character silhouettes. Bonus change was giving the guy’s cool braids to the lady, as she deserves an interesting haircut as well! 

~Ozzie

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Blood Elves vs. Night Elves… AND BOTH SUCK!

@thenightmarerider submitted: 

Found this on Facebook, and as far as I can tell it’s official art. May as well be, because knowing the history of WoW’s design of female armour, this just fits the bill. Multiple bingos as far as I understand it, simply because OH LIGHT WHY?! And of course, you’d never see a male character caught dead in this stuff, so pretty evident in a bizzare elven fetishisation. 

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But guuuys, Blizzard totally tries to do women better now! 

Because Overwatch does some baby steps in that direction, we should definitely ignore how art like the one above (originally promoting Burning Crusade ten years ago), or this or  this or this still gets officially used to promote World of Warcraft. 

~Ozzie

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battleteacake:

from-titan:

i’ve been meaning to do this post for YEARS and i finally managed to dig out all these sketches and put them together.

the sexual dimorphism in WoW has always been sad especially considering blizz had such good ideas at the start but the furious fan feedback always made them redesign these fascinating and monstrous females of the races into much more humanlike. i also remember the uproar of thin male blood elves and the homophobic and sexist slurs that followed which made them beef up the male model considerably.

i tried my best to give a go at redesigning them to make their body types, postures and facial features more aligned.

dwarf, undead, goblin and gnome models on the other hand are great, 5/5.

bonus, give male belves thongs too:

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

Suspicious dimorphism, probably moreso than double standard in costume design, remains one of big factors in furthering notion that female characters are inherently completely different from the male ones… but not from each other, even among different species: 

And of course then fans pretend that’s just how things are, as if those weren’t fictional worlds with arbitrary rules.

We don’t know what’s happening at Blizzard, but it’s always sad to see them actively try to do female characters better, but then deciding to go back. Should whiny dudebro fans or the Creepy Marketing Guy be blamed, we’ll probably never learn. Nevertheless it’s a shame that it happens.

~Ozzie

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World of Warcraft (the Movie)

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clearlyiwaswrong submitted:

I don’t know if you’d seen these already but my eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Thanks for the crotch shot.

And of course the male equivalent is the opposite of sexualised. 

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Those posters sum up PERFECTLY the problem with gendered double standard in depicting fictional characters and how it traverses through various media, as an MMO gets adapted into a movie.

Everything about those characters that should be equal, isn’t: makeup, costume, posing.

@nicholaskole took notice way back of how male orcs are big and unequivocally monstrous, while female ones are just conventionally pretty ladies painted green with small fangs (and that Garona’s mixed ancestry is not given justice either). Basically this:

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Also reminds me strongly of @krudman’s take on sexual dimorphism in character design.

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We assure you, WoW the Movie, designing big badass orc women (and/or sexualized orc men) isn’t that hard! We have a couple examples in our orc tag.

~Ozzie

edit: A number of people have rushed to remind us that in according to the character’s particular lore, she’s a half orc.  While correct, this doesn’t address any of the key problems such as her pose and attire, that audiences unfamiliar with the lore won’t know that or that the character is essentially promoted as a sexy orc-like lady in juxtaposition to a powerful, well protected and dangerous orc man.

Posted on

World of Warcraft (the Movie)

image

clearlyiwaswrong submitted:

I don’t know if you’d seen these already but my eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Thanks for the crotch shot.

And of course the male equivalent is the opposite of sexualised. 

image

Those posters sum up PERFECTLY the problem with gendered double standard in depicting fictional characters and how it traverses through various media, as an MMO gets adapted into a movie.

Everything about those characters that should be equal, isn’t: makeup, costume, posing.

@nicholaskole took notice way back of how male orcs are big and unequivocally monstrous, while female ones are just conventionally pretty ladies painted green with small fangs (and that Garona’s mixed ancestry is not given justice either). Basically this:

image

Also reminds me strongly of @krudman’s take on sexual dimorphism in character design.

image

We assure you, WoW the Movie, designing big badass orc women (and/or sexualized orc men) isn’t that hard! We have a couple examples in our orc tag.

~Ozzie

edit: A number of people have rushed to remind us that in according to the character’s particular lore, she’s a half orc.  While correct, this doesn’t address any of the key problems such as her pose and attire, that audiences unfamiliar with the lore won’t know that or that the character is essentially promoted as a sexy orc-like lady in juxtaposition to a powerful, well protected and dangerous orc man.