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Is one person in here seriously expecting an in-depth and realistic depiction of gods in a MOBA video game?

 Sigvatr wrote:
Is one person in here seriously expecting an in-depth and realistic depiction of gods in a MOBA video game?

I demand all my games be historically and culturally accurate to reality

 LordofHats wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
Is one person in here seriously expecting an in-depth and realistic depiction of gods in a MOBA video game?

I demand all my games be historically and culturally accurate to reality

Well, there goes the industry

 LordofHats wrote:

I mean, whose the must ungeneric female character in LoL? All the Yordles are at least a little bit off the mainstream, male and female alike but beyond them its what?

If by "generic" you mean showing lots of skin, then Kayle completely subverts it. Her generic avatar is encased from head to toe in an unfeminine suit of armor. Yes, there are bumps on her chest. But it's done in a way that doesn't emphasize her breasts, and that can cause people who are unfamiliar with her to assume that she's actually male. Most of her other outfits put a bit more emphasis on the chest bumps. But the only area that's uncovered on her alternate skins is her head.

She's quite literally the poster girl for non-exploitative representation of females in video games.

This reminds me of that whole game theory vid on the same subject.

Eumerin wrote:
She's quite literally the poster girl for non-exploitative representation of females in video games.

Eh. Kayle is just a less cool Samus Aran with wings and no bad ass arm cannon

EDIT: What I was really thinking of us unconventional design I guess. Kayle isn't sexed up like her sister, but she is a fairly conventional character design. In the end Anivia I guess is the most unusual of the female cast, and virtually the only non-humanesque female champion in the game (Cassiopia and Nami have their 'assets' where it counts). Annie probably deserves a shout out for being a little girl and being adorable for it, but I've been dreaming of a Teenager Annie legendary skin for years*.

*Don't look at me like that LoL released in 2007. Annie must be at least fifteen by now

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:
Let me ask this, if those where they originated from had different thoughts on what deities look like or should look like, is it really your place to tell them that "They should look more like what I feel they should look like."

I do not understand why you are asking this question. I am not talking to Chinese or Mayans or Ancient Greeks or Indian people and asking them to change their traditional representations of their Gods, I am talking about one video game by developers that are none of those things, and what I would to have in this video game. Those developers are in majority western people. The game is marketed mostly toward western people.
I know what you are referring to: Chinese people supposedly wanting Chinese goddess having sexy cloths, no Asian eyes and very pale skin. I do not agree with the idea that this would be representative of Chinese people, because it is change supposedly requested by some Chinese company. Even considering that this company know its market well enough, I highly doubt Chinese MOBA players are representative of the Chinese people as a whole. I also see how that is part of a bigger phenomenon happening in Asia that I already described in this thread and that I think is not a good thing.
You seem oblivious of how apparently quite a bunch of Indians were VERY unhappy with the way the Indian gods were portrayed, though.

I assume the answer to my question was “No, the gods' physical type in Smite does not match with the type of actual people originating from those areas”.

Eumerin wrote:
If by "generic" you mean showing lots of skin, then Kayle completely subverts it.

Oh, I forgot that one on my list!

 Desubot wrote:
This reminds me of that whole game theory vid on the same subject.

It was listed very early, when the original thread was derailed. That video is so full of logical and/or factual errors that it is painful!

I also completely forgot about Kayle. Made me go back through the Champion list XD I give you Sejuani, not as a positive example per se, but who remembers what she looked like when she released At least Ashe is wearing a cloak over that outfit

 LordofHats wrote:
I give you Sejuani, not as a positive example per se, but who remembers what she looked like when she released

Posted about it already. In that message that Slarg232 refused to read.
If that part about the artist willing to give to give her armor, and Riot actually telling him or her that no, they wanted her in a bikini is true, it is pretty sad…

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
I give you Sejuani, not as a positive example per se, but who remembers what she looked like when she released

Posted about it already. In that message that Slarg232 refused to read.
If that part about the artist willing to give to give her armor, and Riot actually telling him or her that no, they wanted her in a bikini is true, it is pretty sad…

Really I see it as pretty happy. A game developer did what they always did and the players made such a ruckus about it that the developer changed their mind. That my friend is progress

People might be cool with biki armor, but at least we draw the line at bikini armor in winter XD

The part where the player get the bikini changed for an armor is happy, but the part where the company say no to the artist when he wants to add armor is sad.

 LordofHats wrote:

People might be cool with biki armor, but at least we draw the line at bikini armor in winter XD

But, ironically, still allow shorts on the guys in winter.

Sigvatr wrote:Is one person in here seriously expecting an in-depth and realistic depiction of gods in a MOBA video game?

I suppose it's more a matter of "why did they change X" and "ah, yet another good example of Y".

Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:The part where the player get the bikini changed for an armor is happy, but the part where the company say no to the artist when he wants to add armor is sad.

sexboobs sell.

The problem is how often you hear about stuff like that these days. On the other hand, we hear about it, which is an important step already.

Eumerin wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:

People might be cool with biki armor, but at least we draw the line at bikini armor in winter XD

But, ironically, still allow shorts on the guys in winter.

Their manliness keeps them warm

They have balls of steel. I mean, if steel was blue, their balls would look like steel!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lynata wrote:
sexboobs sell.

So much that the player base insisted enough to have her in armor. So, maybe it is just a legend that video game makers are unable to get over?
Well, I do not know about other, but boobs really do not sell to me.

On the other hand, we have stuff like this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2144975/Age-of-Conan-Gamer-fury-as-breasts-reduced.html

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
They have balls of steel. I mean, if steel was blue, their balls would look like steel!

Balls of Damascus steel?

So, I guess that original jape was directed toward Tryndamere, and maybe Braum, but it reminded me of that:
http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20140808


I guess you can be excused for not wearing a lot in winter if part of your body is made of ice.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
On the other hand, we have stuff like this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2144975/Age-of-Conan-Gamer-fury-as-breasts-reduced.html

Sounds like a publicity stunt to draw attention to a game that not that many people play...

And yes, there are going to be people annoyed over this. Age of Conan has bare breasts on its "naked" female models, so it'd be more surprising if there *weren't* people throwing a snit over this. AoC, by virtue of that little factoid, is going to attract people who like large, naked breasts (although those breasts spend virtually the entire game covered). Not that those people would ever actually do anything besides throw an internet temper tantrum.

Ironically, despite the lack of a "default bra skin" on the women, the armor models that I recall tended to show very little skin past the early levels (when some of the armor is clearly strategically placed recycled scrap). I don't recall any Red Sonja-style chainmail bikinis.


Edit -

and maybe Braum

Braum specifically brought it to mind. This image -

http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/braum/

was, up until a few weeks ago, on the LoL login screen, completely with animated swirling snow.

Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:So much that the player base insisted enough to have her in armor. So, maybe it is just a legend that video game makers are unable to get over?

It could certainly fit into David Gaider's claims about accepted industry wisdom. I'm not surprised that some studios, and even more publishers, may simply be out of touch with their own playerbase, operating largely on tradition and false assumptions.

But as you've kind of proven yourself, expectations can vary a lot between target audiences, all depending on what game we're talking about.
MOBAs are generally not advertised with a focus on sexual objectification, even though some "eye candy" should probably be expected. Age of Conan on the other hand explicitly advertised with naked virtual boobs, and I'm not surprised that this draws in a different crowd.

I mean, how do you think the players of Scarlet Blade would react if the studio would suddenly decide to *gasp* add clothes to the characters?


Found another gem, by the way.

Eumerin wrote:Ironically, despite the lack of a "default bra skin" on the women, the armor models that I recall tended to show very little skin past the early levels (when some of the armor is clearly strategically placed recycled scrap). I don't recall any Red Sonja-style chainmail bikinis.

This is true. There was some fairly skimpy stuff, but nothing on that level. At least as far as I have seen - it's been some time. I only remember my barbarian was wearing a sort of leather vest that basically amounted to a square strapped to her chest, providing ample sideboobs. It still looked like something those people would actually wear, though. Gotta give the designers credit for that.

Speaking of Scarlet Blade and it's... "armor"..

I mean, how do you think the players of Scarlet Blade would react if the studio would suddenly decide to *gasp* add clothes to the characters?

Is it wrong of me to want to play it just to see if its as outrageous as the screen shots seem to suggest @_@

 LordofHats wrote:

I mean, how do you think the players of Scarlet Blade would react if the studio would suddenly decide to *gasp* add clothes to the characters?

Is it wrong of me to want to play it just to see if its as outrageous as the screen shots seem to suggest @_@

It's actually worse than just the outfits. According to the lore, the female avatars are slaves directed by a remote operator (i.e. the player).

Think about that for a bit...


On another note, I heard a while back that the Korean version of the game spontaneously introduced a male character class. I'm not sure if the North American version of the game ended up doing the same.

 LordofHats wrote:

I mean, how do you think the players of Scarlet Blade would react if the studio would suddenly decide to *gasp* add clothes to the characters?

Is it wrong of me to want to play it just to see if its as outrageous as the screen shots seem to suggest @_@

I tried. It is.

 Lynata wrote:
It could certainly fit into David Gaider's claims about accepted industry wisdom. I'm not surprised that some studios, and even more publishers, may simply be out of touch with their own playerbase, operating largely on tradition and false assumptions.

Yeah, it is a theory that is also displayed on bikiniarmorbattledamage.
But I have suggested on Path of Exile's forum that they should remove the naked chained women from the HuD because they have absolutely no thematic link with the universe of the game, and the reactions were pretty extreme in term of negativity. Really. Never again. See here: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/654572 .

 Lynata wrote:
Age of Conan on the other hand explicitly advertised with naked virtual boobs

Did they really use that in official advertisement?


Also, apart from those chained ladies on the HUD and one or two NPC, Path of Exile is very well in that regard, so you could be surprised by which audience cares about having their share of sexualization.

 thenoobbomb wrote:

I tried. It is.

I'll have to say I respect them just for saying "We're going to make a game all about extremely skimpily dressed women" and going through with it

 LordofHats wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:

I tried. It is.

I'll have to say I respect them just for saying "We're going to make a game all about extremely skimpily dressed women" and going through with it

Worst is, is that they actually spent time on it.

The video I posted is a pretty accurate and funny summary, too.

 LordofHats wrote:

Eumerin wrote:
She's quite literally the poster girl for non-exploitative representation of females in video games.

Eh. Kayle is just a less cool Samus Aran with wings and no bad ass arm cannon

No, that's Ezreal. She's a bit younger than Samus but still, same general archetype.

 Melissia wrote:
She's a bit younger than Samus but still, same general archetype.

I'm not sure if you're making a Femzreal joke or not



I'm posting this anyway

Ezreal is a he, not a she.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Ezreal is a he, not a she.

Yup.

Maybe the anti-Samus?