Actually GW2 and GW1 are not bad compared to Tera, Rift, etc.
Why is it that AoC managed to avoid a lot of the "my inner feminist is offended" posts and it has full frontal? It really seems that people see oversexualization when there is the least bit left to the imagination, but when it's all out there, it's almost refreshingly 'honest'. Very, very strange stuff people.
I voted boobies, btw.
Well AoC is sort of strange in that regard. Yes you have nudity but other than that there is really nothing sexual about the characters, especially in the armor. The "sexiest" armor you get is your very begginer armor. After that the armor is very austere (some of it looks very cool though).
Young-ish males are the vast majority of players in an mmorpg. Most of them have enough gender identification issues, especially the younger ones, due to emasculating of our society over the past 20 years to play a female toon. The female toons look like young men/boys want them to in most mmos, not how any real women see themselves, or want to see themselves.
Yeah, you can't compare GW2 with Tera in the sexualization of females. It's not just the clothes and armor but the mannerisms of the characters as well.
So true true like a Castanic Sorcerer rockin that fireblast spell Dispite that I've yet to see any casting or melee animations more fluid then that in asian games.
Actually GW2 and GW1 are not bad compared to Tera, Rift, etc.
Why is it that AoC managed to avoid a lot of the "my inner feminist is offended" posts and it has full frontal? It really seems that people see oversexualization when there is the least bit left to the imagination, but when it's all out there, it's almost refreshingly 'honest'. Very, very strange stuff people.
I voted boobies, btw.
Well AoC is sort of strange in that regard. Yes you have nudity but other than that there is really nothing sexual about the characters, especially in the armor. The "sexiest" armor you get is your very begginer armor. After that the armor is very austere (some of it looks very cool though).
So what you're saying is that minimal clothing arouses people more than nudity itself...
I'm sure Freud would agree to that being common in most people, actually.
~I think it's strange, but I'm admittedly a weirdo.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4 Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Both male and female characters can CHOOSE TO wear revealing armor in GW2. Just like people can choose to wear skimpy clothing in real life. There's nothing oversexualised about that and most armor sets reveal nothing or very little.
Also, as far as I know the pic someone posted is of a Mesmer armor set. Mesmers have that whole entertainer/masquerade look to them, so them wearing clothing that many would consider indecent is completely natural.
Actually GW2 and GW1 are not bad compared to Tera, Rift, etc.
Why is it that AoC managed to avoid a lot of the "my inner feminist is offended" posts and it has full frontal? It really seems that people see oversexualization when there is the least bit left to the imagination, but when it's all out there, it's almost refreshingly 'honest'. Very, very strange stuff people.
I voted boobies, btw.
Well AoC is sort of strange in that regard. Yes you have nudity but other than that there is really nothing sexual about the characters, especially in the armor. The "sexiest" armor you get is your very begginer armor. After that the armor is very austere (some of it looks very cool though).
So what you're saying is that minimal clothing arouses people more than nudity itself...
I'm sure Freud would agree to that being common in most people, actually.
~I think it's strange, but I'm admittedly a weirdo.
Personally i think espescially the female cloth stuff looks way to Asian.... but there are some pieces that save the day..
Have you ever played guild wars 1?, do you know where guild wars 1 + 2 come from... comments like this make me laugh my head off because lack of knowledge!
Starting a petition to auto-answer all threads which begin: "Is it just me......?"
with:
"Yes, it's just you."
(ANet has several female designers. Many women enjoy wearing revealing clothes in real life. If you think the armor in GW2 is like a prostitute's clothes, you've never seen a prostitute. Most MMOs have far more revealing and sexualized looks. This is clarification, not obfuscation, may want to consult a dictionary before swinging around the ol' vocab bat.)
Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?
Go and take a loot at TERA, they have girls in there with 26yo womans legs & chests like a small 8 year old boy... errr
But of COURSE there is some sexualization. Both geners are made very pretty. Let's not forget male character models in MMOs tend to be hyper muscular, on average taller than females, and facil designs are either "bishonen pretty" or "rugged manly man". Males sre sexualized nearly as much, but no one says anything because of the double standard inherent in such things.
I think overall though GW2 has a broad mix of sexy and practical outfits of all kinds. And Kristen Perry's blog directly addresses this from time to time. You want a game that's fair to women, look at how they designed the Charr!
Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?
Unfortunatley, this is what we have in todays time. Women are treated as objects, toys for males. Most guys play female avatars and game companies know this so we get female avatars in lingerie.
Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?
I like the attitude. A man wearing whatever he wants (I, for example, fond of a thong. I think I look sexy in a thong.) is just excercising his freedom to be himself. A woman wearing something that makes her desirable is a prostitute.
Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?
Unfortunatley, this is what we have in todays time. Women are treated as objects, toys for males. Most guys play female avatars and game companies know this so we get female avatars in lingerie.
Yes. All women are my toys. mindless plastic playthings I can use for my gratification. Blah blah blah....
Funny story. My girlfriend plays MMOs. She plays female characters, and always tries to make them pretty or sexy. Does that make her a closet lesbian who is obsessed with turning female characters into sex objects?
It's pixels. Seriously. Get over it. Playing a character with big boobs and a bikini in some game isn't going to make me any more likely to treat women poorly. By that right, playing "Cowboys and Indians" as a child makes me likely to go run to the nearest reservation and start a shooting spree.
Unfortunatley, this is what we have in todays time. Women are treated as objects, toys for males. Most guys play female avatars and game companies know this so we get female avatars in lingerie.
As opposed to goode olde times, when women were treated like a livestock.
May be it's time to stop seeing everything in terms of "treating" and just live our lives how we enjoy them? Me, I like to see sexie boobies and am not ashamed of it. If a woman wants to see a ten-foot c..k on her male avatar, I don't see how it is my business.
Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?
I like the attitude. A man wearing whatever he wants (I, for example, fond of a thong. I think I look sexy in a thong.) is just excercising his freedom to be himself. A woman wearing something that makes her desirable is a prostitute.
The feminism has truly won. Hurray.
EXACTLY.
Arguments like that tend to try to speak for everyone when it's solely about personal agenda. Imagine the argument I could (and likely will right now) spark if I brought up how X amount of women see exotic dancing (read: stripping) as something chauvanistic and self-demoralizing, then another X amount of women find it self-empowering and that whole "I am woman" jazz. I could easily say that the former camp feels that way simply because they can't pull it off, but either way, both sides would argue about it as long as it takes for hair to end up getting pulled.
So the question is - which side is right?
~and if you are unwilling to take that stance, then you have to agree that posing the question in the first place is what was wrong to being with.
/smug_sense_of_self_satisfaction
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4 Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Oversexualized? Not from what I've seen. Artwork is rather mild compared to some.
Also, the game is a fantasy setting. It's not abnormal to have fantasy artwork in a fantasy game.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
It's entertainment. Just like in most films, people expect males to look masculine and muscle bound and females to look feminine and (dare I say it) cute.
GW2 gives you plenty of options for covering up if you fell it necessary but you won't get to force others to submit to your preferences...but like real life really...
Kind of surprised that someone has only just realised that in MMO's and probably a fair number of SPRPG's females are in fact, oversexualised with their clothing etc. Its been like that for so long that the only time i'm ever surprised, is when i come across a game where its not the case.. and i havent been surprised in a good long while
I couldn't find the original example, but there used to be a saying that as a rule D&D fantasy armor class for females was inversely proportionate to what it covered.
Anyway, that aside, its pretty common across the fantasy genre to have armor that is ridiculously non-functional for both male and females. If you look at realistic art depicting medieval or renaissance soldiers, they are pretty well covered up. Of course it depends if they are heavy or light armor wearers, but generally they end up looking pretty boring and functional. In real life medieval combat, the idea was to leave as little exposed and vulnerable as possible.
Boring was not a great marketing tool. Hence, fantasy armor graphics designers took the rarest and most flamboyant looking historical armor examples as a starting point and went crazy from there. These armors tended to be "show pieces" used by kings and nobility for special occasions, not for actual fighting. The high renaissance armors especially.
Designers then had to account for the fact that, unlike real history, modern fantasy video game players wanted complete freedom in choosing the gender of their characters. Modern feminist attitudes, and examples like Joan of Arc and Boudicca aside, women did not historically pick up axes and swords and go to battle like men. So there was really little to go by in terms of what "female" armor would look like. Chances are, whether it was Joan of Arc or anyone else, those rare women who did fight did so wearing the same armor as men. Females don't need elaborate Madonna-style "cones" on their chest-piece, for example - that is artistic license, not functional or neccessary.
Realistic and functional looking armor for both men and women would be decidely un-flashy. No pink-colored full plate, no massive winged crests, no incredibly detailed engravings on each thing that is worn. Yes, again, such armor did exist historically, but they were generally not what was worn in battle.
The trend for what is ridiculous but fun is too far gone now. Characters are also given weapons that are 2-3 times the size that any human could heft or use. If you tried to walk things back and dress people the way a real warrior would look, they would rebel. They want armor all the colors of the rainbow, inlaid pieces from head to foot, etc. For women, the Victoria's Secret catalogue seems to be the starting point. Best to just get used to it.
The clothing for the femaies was actually designed by females so I don't see an issue
lol...
Anyway, here's a nice sexy pic for reference...
That looks awesome. I hate games that actually try to under-sexualize armor, I'm a girl, I don't dress drab and covered up IRL so why would I want to look boring and plain in a video game? I think they've sparked a nice balance in GW2.
Comments
Well AoC is sort of strange in that regard. Yes you have nudity but other than that there is really nothing sexual about the characters, especially in the armor. The "sexiest" armor you get is your very begginer armor. After that the armor is very austere (some of it looks very cool though).
Young-ish males are the vast majority of players in an mmorpg. Most of them have enough gender identification issues, especially the younger ones, due to emasculating of our society over the past 20 years to play a female toon. The female toons look like young men/boys want them to in most mmos, not how any real women see themselves, or want to see themselves.
So true true like a Castanic Sorcerer rockin that fireblast spell
Dispite that I've yet to see any casting or melee animations more fluid then that in asian games.
So what you're saying is that minimal clothing arouses people more than nudity itself...
I'm sure Freud would agree to that being common in most people, actually.
~I think it's strange, but I'm admittedly a weirdo.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Both male and female characters can CHOOSE TO wear revealing armor in GW2. Just like people can choose to wear skimpy clothing in real life. There's nothing oversexualised about that and most armor sets reveal nothing or very little.
Also, as far as I know the pic someone posted is of a Mesmer armor set. Mesmers have that whole entertainer/masquerade look to them, so them wearing clothing that many would consider indecent is completely natural.
Imagination is very powerful indeed.
Some examples of female armor that arent very skimpy:
And some skimpy as well as un-skimpy armor for both sexes =P
There should be enough variation to make most people happy, whether they prefer to go light or heavy on the clothing, imo.
Sources: http://www.arena.net/blog/designing-humans and
http://www.arena.net/blog/live-and-let-dye-kristen-perry-on-the-gw2-dye-system
Simple answer.
The game industry is dominated by men.. not just men.. but basement dwelling overweight virgin men.
Half naked anime girls make money. nough said.
The way mmo's were: Community, Exploration, Character Development, Conquest.
The way mmo's are now : Cut-Scenes,Cut-Scenes, solo Questing, Cut-Scenes...
www.CeaselessGuild.com
Have you ever played guild wars 1?, do you know where guild wars 1 + 2 come from... comments like this make me laugh my head off because lack of knowledge!
There are lots of armors that are not in any way revealing, searching the wiki I found lots of non-revealing armors.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Student.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Country.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Devout.jpg
True there are some ridiculous looking ones but overal it's not as bad as I've seen in other games
Block the trolls, don't answer them, so we can remove the garbage from these forums
Starting a petition to auto-answer all threads which begin: "Is it just me......?"
with:
"Yes, it's just you."
(ANet has several female designers. Many women enjoy wearing revealing clothes in real life. If you think the armor in GW2 is like a prostitute's clothes, you've never seen a prostitute. Most MMOs have far more revealing and sexualized looks. This is clarification, not obfuscation, may want to consult a dictionary before swinging around the ol' vocab bat.)
thanks for the armor additions, armor looks great!
Go and take a loot at TERA, they have girls in there with 26yo womans legs & chests like a small 8 year old boy... errr
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4093/userbar759160.gif
Compared to Aion or Tera, no.
But of COURSE there is some sexualization. Both geners are made very pretty. Let's not forget male character models in MMOs tend to be hyper muscular, on average taller than females, and facil designs are either "bishonen pretty" or "rugged manly man". Males sre sexualized nearly as much, but no one says anything because of the double standard inherent in such things.
I think overall though GW2 has a broad mix of sexy and practical outfits of all kinds. And Kristen Perry's blog directly addresses this from time to time. You want a game that's fair to women, look at how they designed the Charr!
Unfortunatley, this is what we have in todays time. Women are treated as objects, toys for males. Most guys play female avatars and game companies know this so we get female avatars in lingerie.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
I like the attitude. A man wearing whatever he wants (I, for example, fond of a thong. I think I look sexy in a thong.) is just excercising his freedom to be himself. A woman wearing something that makes her desirable is a prostitute.
The feminism has truly won. Hurray.
Yes. All women are my toys. mindless plastic playthings I can use for my gratification. Blah blah blah....
Funny story. My girlfriend plays MMOs. She plays female characters, and always tries to make them pretty or sexy. Does that make her a closet lesbian who is obsessed with turning female characters into sex objects?
It's pixels. Seriously. Get over it. Playing a character with big boobs and a bikini in some game isn't going to make me any more likely to treat women poorly. By that right, playing "Cowboys and Indians" as a child makes me likely to go run to the nearest reservation and start a shooting spree.
[mod edit]
As opposed to goode olde times, when women were treated like a livestock.
May be it's time to stop seeing everything in terms of "treating" and just live our lives how we enjoy them? Me, I like to see sexie boobies and am not ashamed of it. If a woman wants to see a ten-foot c..k on her male avatar, I don't see how it is my business.
EXACTLY.
Arguments like that tend to try to speak for everyone when it's solely about personal agenda. Imagine the argument I could (and likely will right now) spark if I brought up how X amount of women see exotic dancing (read: stripping) as something chauvanistic and self-demoralizing, then another X amount of women find it self-empowering and that whole "I am woman" jazz. I could easily say that the former camp feels that way simply because they can't pull it off, but either way, both sides would argue about it as long as it takes for hair to end up getting pulled.
So the question is - which side is right?
~and if you are unwilling to take that stance, then you have to agree that posing the question in the first place is what was wrong to being with.
/smug_sense_of_self_satisfaction
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Oversexualized? Not from what I've seen. Artwork is rather mild compared to some.
Also, the game is a fantasy setting. It's not abnormal to have fantasy artwork in a fantasy game.
Prepare for a lot of angry replies from people deluded into thinking sexualization and sexual liberation are the same thing. I voted "Yes."
It's entertainment. Just like in most films, people expect males to look masculine and muscle bound and females to look feminine and (dare I say it) cute.
GW2 gives you plenty of options for covering up if you fell it necessary but you won't get to force others to submit to your preferences...but like real life really...
Kind of surprised that someone has only just realised that in MMO's and probably a fair number of SPRPG's females are in fact, oversexualised with their clothing etc. Its been like that for so long that the only time i'm ever surprised, is when i come across a game where its not the case.. and i havent been surprised in a good long while
I couldn't find the original example, but there used to be a saying that as a rule D&D fantasy armor class for females was inversely proportionate to what it covered.
Anyway, that aside, its pretty common across the fantasy genre to have armor that is ridiculously non-functional for both male and females. If you look at realistic art depicting medieval or renaissance soldiers, they are pretty well covered up. Of course it depends if they are heavy or light armor wearers, but generally they end up looking pretty boring and functional. In real life medieval combat, the idea was to leave as little exposed and vulnerable as possible.
Boring was not a great marketing tool. Hence, fantasy armor graphics designers took the rarest and most flamboyant looking historical armor examples as a starting point and went crazy from there. These armors tended to be "show pieces" used by kings and nobility for special occasions, not for actual fighting. The high renaissance armors especially.
Designers then had to account for the fact that, unlike real history, modern fantasy video game players wanted complete freedom in choosing the gender of their characters. Modern feminist attitudes, and examples like Joan of Arc and Boudicca aside, women did not historically pick up axes and swords and go to battle like men. So there was really little to go by in terms of what "female" armor would look like. Chances are, whether it was Joan of Arc or anyone else, those rare women who did fight did so wearing the same armor as men. Females don't need elaborate Madonna-style "cones" on their chest-piece, for example - that is artistic license, not functional or neccessary.
Realistic and functional looking armor for both men and women would be decidely un-flashy. No pink-colored full plate, no massive winged crests, no incredibly detailed engravings on each thing that is worn. Yes, again, such armor did exist historically, but they were generally not what was worn in battle.
The trend for what is ridiculous but fun is too far gone now. Characters are also given weapons that are 2-3 times the size that any human could heft or use. If you tried to walk things back and dress people the way a real warrior would look, they would rebel. They want armor all the colors of the rainbow, inlaid pieces from head to foot, etc. For women, the Victoria's Secret catalogue seems to be the starting point. Best to just get used to it.
That looks awesome. I hate games that actually try to under-sexualize armor, I'm a girl, I don't dress drab and covered up IRL so why would I want to look boring and plain in a video game? I think they've sparked a nice balance in GW2.