EQ1 cover art was far worse. Brings back memories as a kid I felt so uncomfortable while in Comp USA my eyes kept glancing at the EQ art. I felt like a pervert geek everytime I picked it up to look at it....... Memories like the corners of my mind..MEMORIES
Atleast they kept the dragon.
Worst was the box for Kunark ,with Vie in bondage with the lizard drooling all over her.
"Oh, so you like THOSE kinds of games huh"
1. I agree, the gaming industry generally was too sexist. People didn't even realize it.
2. The dragon is the best part of the new cover art!
3. "Kunark" cover art was good from a technically point of view, but freaky regarding its subtext: "Hey virgin, wanna save a willing chick? She has been alone for some time and may offer you a special quest reward..."
Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.
If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...
Just another example of the inequality towards men in our world. Whats next? Will they tell us what we can and can't do with our own bodies? When will we get equal pay for the same job? Oh the injustice of being a man in this modern world of ours, the tribulation us men have had to suffer over the millennia s is all coming back again. God help us all...
/sarcasm off
Really OP? Sex sells and in the gaming industry a bunch of half naked glistening muscle bound men isn't going to appeal to the masses. If anything this is more sexist towards women as once again they are put front and center wearing hardly anything in an attempt to sell the game to a mostly male audience.
If this really is an issue with you, then I think you have too much free time and too much of that free time is spent in front of a computer.
1. Here in Europe we are beyond a silly notion that women are the only one being discriminated. There are many occasions where men get discriminated because of being a man, there are even empirical studies confirming this. The best example is the role of fathers (discrimination by law), to find a new flat (women are seen as being more responsible and cleaner), and others. Of course over all women still have more problems than men, but the one injustice doesn't justify the other.
2. "Sex sells" is no argument for sexism.
3. I think the target audience of "EverQuest Next" is 50% female.
4. It seems that you have a lack of free time or that you waste it without educating yourself.
Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.
If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...
1, what about "Lake of the Clouds" on top of mount Washington (to name one)? There is also a lake on top of Mt. Aragat.
Thanks, interesting, but it seems to me that these lakes aren't on the very top of a mountain? Whatever, it's not so important. It just think it shows a bit the lack of love to detail by the artist because she just took the original art of Parkinson and transferred it to a different place without thinking too much about it. Of course it's a fantasy world... maybe the Kerran just made his whirlwind action move and Fiorina Vie filled the hole up with water using her rain bow. ;D
2, so you are saying that all "art" has to paint everyone equally? I can't imagine you are saying that it's the men who have to be in front. As per usual as it seems that most game art until recently was ruled by "big burly men being all burly and manly". Someone has to be in front I don't see the issue in having women in front.
No, of course not. I just feel a lack of balance there: Every woman is beautiful and strong, there is one male human who is – hyperbolically speaking – looking like a dumb coward, and the rest is a freak show. The original art by Parkinson was some sort of balanced panopticum. This is missing here. I admit that Parkinson was focusing more on the woman too, for obvious reasons, but it felt more respectful to both genders.
Regarding sexist stereotypes in game:
Of course it's "just" the cover art. But it would be problematic if it would translate into sexist stereotypes in game. I think the in game style is really good and way better than the cover and concept art! The male human face looked even better than the female. I was a little bit bothered by the class panel video, where the male characters had a tendency to small heads and big arms, hands... but it's too early to tell.
On a base note: I think these topics are important. It's a fantasy game, so let's build a virtual world without patriarchal / matriarchal constraints, with many different gender roles to choose from, from strong women to skinny mages.
Amylion.
You realize this wan't done by EQN's lead artist right? This was done by a guy who did WOW and MagicTG art.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
In my honest opinion the cover art is really bad, and even politically incorrect: It shows a sexist notion hostile towards men.
Yes, many things in our society are hostile towards men, and yes feminism is largely a vicious sexist movement.
But this picture is ok. Who are you, one of these crackbrained hypersensitive donglegate-feminists who complain about everything? You only discredit the men's rights movement.
And I would probably not hang this picture in my living room, but its still a good painting, at least from a technical viewpoint.
Faces are painted in a dilletante way: Blonde elf, ork, dwarf, kobold are failures.
Scene doesn't make sense regarding physical logic:
The original scene painted by Keith Parkinson was set down in a valley. This scene now is on a peak, but without paying attention to it: There are no such small ponds on a peak like seen on the right of the painting.
Shadows are not coherent.
The dragon would not be able to sit there on the edge of the peak, he would fall down.
The composition, the positioning of the characters relative to each other, is crap. Kobold, dwarf, ork and Kerran don't seem to correspond to each other, they are single elements looking as if they were added as an afterthought. Very bad!
Problems with feet / boots: Kerran, dwarf
Blonde elf (Fiorina Vie?): "sword" (no comment), bowstring is on the wrong side of the hand, the quiver can not be worn like this by a female.
- Sexism:
There is no equality regarding gender!
The front row is occupied by females. The only male humanlike is hiding behind another female. Other males are poorly painted animal races. The subtext is obvious: Women rule this peak, the only man is only a side-note (tolerated as someone standing behind a woman, looking into the distance without interfering with the scene), and the other maleness is depicted as rude, brainless savagery.
There is a clear focus on the female characters which are painted with much more love to detail, combining the grace of female "tenderness" with virile power (note the male leg of the female fighter to the right!).
I admit that the fantasy genre has been very patriarchal, but that was reflecting the medieval society and the target group. Things have changed and this is good, but that styl is not only going over the top, but much worse than any art produced in the past.
It is bad art.
Amylion.
Those women do look pretty good.
I thought for sure you was going to say the chick in the bikini outfit was the sexist part.
Needless to say I was shocked you said the opposite! I agree our society is anti-masculine, but this picture doesn't seem to be an issue.
Nice find but I fully disagree with OP, mainly because most likely we can make such detailed screenshots ingame as seen on that pic op posted. EQ2 or 1 are far from looking like the Original covert art shows.
If you compare the orginal with the current you'll notice that it has simply been a updated version, atleast allot more detail to it compared to the old. And even more important what you see is what you get. Of course you don't have to like it but that's another (one of the thousands) topic to discuss.
The sexism comments can only come from people who are brand new to games and advertising.
And how much sense can something make that is fantasy based? As we all clearly can see they took a more cartoony artstyle, this way allot more is possible because if it was more realistic then of course OP could have made a point. But since it isn't this topic doesn't really make a lot of sense unless as I said you're complety new to gaming.
1, what about "Lake of the Clouds" on top of mount Washington (to name one)? There is also a lake on top of Mt. Aragat.
Thanks, interesting, but it seems to me that these lakes aren't on the very top of a mountain? Whatever, it's not so important. It just think it shows a bit the lack of love to detail by the artist because she just took the original art of Parkinson and transferred it to a different place without thinking too much about it. Of course it's a fantasy world... maybe the Kerran just made his whirlwind action move and Fiorina Vie filled the hole up with water using her rain bow. ;D
2, so you are saying that all "art" has to paint everyone equally? I can't imagine you are saying that it's the men who have to be in front. As per usual as it seems that most game art until recently was ruled by "big burly men being all burly and manly". Someone has to be in front I don't see the issue in having women in front.
No, of course not. I just feel a lack of balance there: Every woman is beautiful and strong, there is one male human who is – hyperbolically speaking – looking like a dumb coward, and the rest is a freak show. The original art by Parkinson was some sort of balanced panopticum. This is missing here. I admit that Parkinson was focusing more on the woman too, for obvious reasons, but it felt more respectful to both genders.
Lake of the Clouds is very close to the top of the mountain. You can essentially see the peak and weather stations which are probably only a 15 20 minute hike up. the painting you reference doesn't really show that it's at "the top" (meaning peak) of the mountain so I don't think that's a decent argument.
Also, Washington state boasts many "high lakes" in the mountains, some above 3,500 feet. Some are stocked with fish and some are too high to support fish.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Yesterday i read an article in a newspaper about the problems women face in many islamic(or maybe just male dominated) countries, i kinda wonder how they would feel about us pointing the finger at some pixelart for a videogame and saying "thats sexism!".
I mean really, think about it. They are getting internet over there slowly, not everyone, but the "i know someone that knows someone ..." kind of internet access, so its actually possible for them to get aware of stuff like this(not MMORPG.com comments specifically, but our attitude).
So no, thats not sexism. Sexism is when women are not allowed to go to school, never get "adult" status(being legally ruled first by father/brothers later by husband), don't get to chose whom to marry and can get executed by stoning for being raped(cause its their fault you know?).
This art ... its tame, really tame by any reference to true Sexism you may name. The kind of stuff an artist might draw without even having an opinion regarding gender equality at all. Maybe those are likenesses of his ex-wives and we are just reading a crapton into it because we like/dislike it?
Besides what is wrong with enjoying drawing/looking at sexy women/men? If you like it look, if you don't then don't. I think its great that we have the freedom to decide that for ourselfs and do not get forced one way or the other due to morals of other people. If we start forcing our own moral mores down the throats of others, then how are we different from the people we consider evil?
I understand some people get offended by partial nudity(especially female partial nudity), but really, if its not your body than its none of your business what the person is wearing.
There are three reasons we see more scantily clad females than males in this MMORPG genre:
1. Main target audience is male.
2. More artists/project leads that are male.
3. Homophobia is more common among males than females(infact its the social norm in western countries, men don't hold hands or compliment each others looks etc).
Given these reasons i think its pointless to argue for change, society has to change first, which it does, ask anyone over 30 how much it already did.
Every woman is beautiful and strong, there is one male human who is – hyperbolically speaking – looking like a dumb coward, and the rest is a freak show.
Funny. Looking at that human male, he doesn't look like a coward to me. He's standing proudly and has got his sword up and ready. Following his line of sight, he seems to be looking at Firiona, either ready to protect her or follow her lead. My guess is that he's supposed to be a Paladin, given the mix of armor and vestments he's wearing. It stands to reason he'd be in a protector type role.
The female Cleric next to him (i.e., the chick with the hammer) is looking at the Dark Elf and Barbarian (?) women fighting as if she's gearing up to intervene. That could prove interesting in a gameplay fashion, especially if Clerics are going to have some actual offensive skills to bring to the table too.
OP seems way off with the sexist stuff, but i agree that this was a poorly done, and maybe rushed, attempt to recreate the original cover art. This original was way more pleasing to the eye and technically applied. The weapons and armor look ridiculous (might not be artist fault if SOE instructed him to make them this way), but the overall composition is just bad. I really dislike the overall art style of the toons/armor/weapons, but the backgrounds look alright.
Faces are painted in a dilletante way: Blonde elf, ork, dwarf, kobold are failures.
Scene doesn't make sense regarding physical logic:
The original scene painted by Keith Parkinson was set down in a valley. This scene now is on a peak, but without paying attention to it: There are no such small ponds on a peak like seen on the right of the painting.
Shadows are not coherent.
The dragon would not be able to sit there on the edge of the peak, he would fall down.
The composition, the positioning of the characters relative to each other, is crap. Kobold, dwarf, ork and Kerran don't seem to correspond to each other, they are single elements looking as if they were added as an afterthought. Very bad!
Problems with feet / boots: Kerran, dwarf
Blonde elf (Fiorina Vie?): "sword" (no comment), bowstring is on the wrong side of the hand, the quiver can not be worn like this by a female.
- Sexism:
There is no equality regarding gender!
The front row is occupied by females. The only male humanlike is hiding behind another female. Other males are poorly painted animal races. The subtext is obvious: Women rule this peak, the only man is only a side-note (tolerated as someone standing behind a woman, looking into the distance without interfering with the scene), and the other maleness is depicted as rude, brainless savagery.
There is a clear focus on the female characters which are painted with much more love to detail, combining the grace of female "tenderness" with virile power (note the male leg of the female fighter to the right!).
I admit that the fantasy genre has been very patriarchal, but that was reflecting the medieval society and the target group. Things have changed and this is good, but that styl is not only going over the top, but much worse than any art produced in the past.
It is bad art.
Amylion.
Silly....flat out silly...
Incognito www.incognito-gaming.us "You're either with us or against us"
Okay, so clearly, this artistic sexism is a MAJOR issue and we need to address this right away. Now, I thought of a few ways to do this. Maybe put the man in the front? No, can't do that, sexist against women. Maybe dress the women in more conservative clothing? No, can't do that, then we fail to show her strong feminine nature.
And then...I thought of the solution.
Hermaphrodites.
Yep, you heard it here first. Hermaphrodites. They are the only way to avoid being sexist in art. You simply just make every single character you paint a hermaphrodite.
BUT of course you must consider that your audience may not REALIZE that you are painting hermaphrodites and still think you are sexist. So in order to nip this in the bud, you will need to prominently display both the girl AND boy parts of every character to make it crystal clear that you are NOT sexist whatsoever.
Of course, you can't stop here though. People could still think your painting is racist! Like, what if all your hermaphrodites are white? Or what if you put the black hermaphrodite behind the white one or something? No sir, that could be racist, we can't have that at all!
So what's the solution to this quandry? Why make all your characters non-existent skin colors of course! Just think of it...neon green and hot pink hermaphrodites bearing it all to the world in a bold display of non-sexist, non-racist, and most of all, non-offensive artistic wonder!
....
This is where your whining leads. Stop now or get ready for nothing but hot pink hermaphrodites from here on out.
Faces are painted in a dilletante way: Blonde elf, ork, dwarf, kobold are failures.
Scene doesn't make sense regarding physical logic:
The original scene painted by Keith Parkinson was set down in a valley. This scene now is on a peak, but without paying attention to it: There are no such small ponds on a peak like seen on the right of the painting.
Shadows are not coherent.
The dragon would not be able to sit there on the edge of the peak, he would fall down.
The composition, the positioning of the characters relative to each other, is crap. Kobold, dwarf, ork and Kerran don't seem to correspond to each other, they are single elements looking as if they were added as an afterthought. Very bad!
Problems with feet / boots: Kerran, dwarf
Blonde elf (Fiorina Vie?): "sword" (no comment), bowstring is on the wrong side of the hand, the quiver can not be worn like this by a female.
- Sexism:
There is no equality regarding gender!
The front row is occupied by females. The only male humanlike is hiding behind another female. Other males are poorly painted animal races. The subtext is obvious: Women rule this peak, the only man is only a side-note (tolerated as someone standing behind a woman, looking into the distance without interfering with the scene), and the other maleness is depicted as rude, brainless savagery.
There is a clear focus on the female characters which are painted with much more love to detail, combining the grace of female "tenderness" with virile power (note the male leg of the female fighter to the right!).
I admit that the fantasy genre has been very patriarchal, but that was reflecting the medieval society and the target group. Things have changed and this is good, but that styl is not only going over the top, but much worse than any art produced in the past.
It is bad art.
Amylion.
Well someone could just as easily argue that it's sexist against women since the men are covered up and all the women are half naked eye candy. It doesn't matter though. As for you saying it lacks talent you better show us some of your own art or shut up. It's like when non-guitar players try to tell me how to play guitar when they can't even tell you the difference between the major and minor modes.
So no, thats not sexism. Sexism is when women are not allowed to go to school, never get "adult" status(being legally ruled first by father/brothers later by husband), don't get to chose whom to marry and can get executed by stoning for being raped(cause its their fault you know?).
[...]
I agree with most of you, of course except of those who don't even understand the question. And yes, the title had a question mark in it, so it's far from whining.
Then I have to add, and I will edit it into the first post, that of course the depiction of half-nude women is sexist, too. That's obvious, and I tend to avoid to state the obvious.
Regarding the quote, the suppression of women in Islamic states: Sorry, I will call that what it is: suppression, and suppression beyond sexism. Sexism is not equal to misogyny. Sexism means discrimination because of sex / gender. Stereotype depiction of men: muscle, forceful, testeron-driven to name some examples from the 1980s, doesn't only hurt women but is discriminating most men, too.
I understand though that you are talking about sexism as a tool of patriarchy to suppress women and to hold them like "slaves" (unpaid workforce with limited personal freedom, tied to a man). Let me state it clearly: Such a patriarchal system is totally wrong.
To the cover art: As a male I wouldn't bother that much to see half-naked men with trained abs. That's my subjective opinion. E. g. the super hero comics actually are showing very much of the male physique. Another example: Depicting a household wife making laundry while the man is sitting in front of the tv is slightly more sexist than women in bikinis.
The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that it's just some sort of "Lost in translation" of the original art into our time. Sorry, it's a total failure in my eyes, I made my points already, and noone seems to disagree. I can understand that people find the picture nice to look at, granted. But the details are executed poorly. Just another example, zoom into the kobold / rat thing: I think I can see artifacts at the outline, so the parts were probably drawn separately and then mixed together... no comment.
Some asked for a solution.
The answer with hermaphrodites was not so far from reality! Actually there are many girly boys, emo boys or how they call themselves, and many other "in betweens".
Maybe the problem indeed was, that the artist just draw the single pieces (without concept) and puzzled them together afterwards. I think it was a female name... sorry, I can't remember... well she / he then seems to forget that she / he cut out almost all the male characters from the original art. I would have changed the gender of at least one female. The goal is (or should be) to give points of identification to as many people as possible from the target audience (which is 50% male / female). I now find myself connecting only to the dragon... well, could be worse! ;D
To conclude I wanna hint at another MMORPG using the VoxelFarm technology: TUG.
They explicitely plan to develop a non-sexist game!
"So, what are some things we'll do our best to make sure you won't see in TUG?
So no, thats not sexism. Sexism is when women are not allowed to go to school, never get "adult" status(being legally ruled first by father/brothers later by husband), don't get to chose whom to marry and can get executed by stoning for being raped(cause its their fault you know?).
[...]
I agree with most of you, except of course those who don't even understand the question. And yes, the title had a question mark in it, so it's far from whining.
Then I have to add, and I will edit it into the first post, that of course the depiction of half-nude women is sexist, too. That's obvious, and I tend to avoid to state the obvious.
Regarding the quote, the suppression of women in Islamic states: Sorry, I will call that what it is: suppression, and suppression beyond sexism. Sexism is not equal to misogyny. Sexism means discrimination because of sex / gender. Stereotype depiction of men: muscle, forceful, testeron-driven to name some examples from the 1980s, doesn't only hurt women but is discriminating most men, too.
I understand though that you are talking about sexism as a tool of patriarchy to suppress women and to hold them like "slaves" (unpaid workforce with limited personal freedom, tied to a man). Let me state it clearly: Such a patriarchal system is totally wrong.
To the cover art: As a male I wouldn't bother that much to see half-naked men with trained abs. That's my subjective opinion. E. g. the super hero comics actually are showing very much of the male physique. Another example: Depicting a household wife making laundry while the man is sitting in front of the tv is slightly more sexist than women in bikinis.
The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that it's just some sort of "Lost in translation" of the original art into our time. Sorry, it's a total failure in my eyes, I made my points already, and noone seems to disagree. I can understand that people find the picture nice to look at, granted. But the details are executed poorly. Just another example, zoom into the kobold / rat thing: I think I can see artifacts at the outline, so the parts were probably drawn separately and then mixed together... no comment.
Some asked for a solution.
The answer with hermaphrodites was not so far from reality! Actually there are many girly boys, emo boys or how they call themselves, and many other "in betweens".
Maybe the problem indeed was, that the artist just draw the single pieces (without concept) and puzzled them together afterwards. I think it was a female name... sorry, I can't remember... well she / he then seems to forget that she / he cut out almost all the male characters from the original art. I would have changed the gender of at least one female. The goal is (or should be) to give points of identification to as many people as possible from the target audience (which is 50% male / female). I now find myself connecting only to the dragon... well, could be worse! ;D
To conclude I wanna hint at another MMORPG using the VoxelFarm technology: TUG.
They explicitely plan to develop a non-sexist game!
"So, what are some things we'll do our best to make sure you won't see in TUG?
Comments
1. I agree, the gaming industry generally was too sexist. People didn't even realize it.
2. The dragon is the best part of the new cover art!
3. "Kunark" cover art was good from a technically point of view, but freaky regarding its subtext: "Hey virgin, wanna save a willing chick? She has been alone for some time and may offer you a special quest reward..."
Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.
If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...
1. Here in Europe we are beyond a silly notion that women are the only one being discriminated. There are many occasions where men get discriminated because of being a man, there are even empirical studies confirming this. The best example is the role of fathers (discrimination by law), to find a new flat (women are seen as being more responsible and cleaner), and others. Of course over all women still have more problems than men, but the one injustice doesn't justify the other.
2. "Sex sells" is no argument for sexism.
3. I think the target audience of "EverQuest Next" is 50% female.
4. It seems that you have a lack of free time or that you waste it without educating yourself.
Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.
If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...
You realize this wan't done by EQN's lead artist right? This was done by a guy who did WOW and MagicTG art.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Yes, many things in our society are hostile towards men, and yes feminism is largely a vicious sexist movement.
But this picture is ok. Who are you, one of these crackbrained hypersensitive donglegate-feminists who complain about everything? You only discredit the men's rights movement.
And I would probably not hang this picture in my living room, but its still a good painting, at least from a technical viewpoint.
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
Those women do look pretty good.
I thought for sure you was going to say the chick in the bikini outfit was the sexist part.
Needless to say I was shocked you said the opposite! I agree our society is anti-masculine, but this picture doesn't seem to be an issue.
Nice find but I fully disagree with OP, mainly because most likely we can make such detailed screenshots ingame as seen on that pic op posted. EQ2 or 1 are far from looking like the Original covert art shows.
If you compare the orginal with the current you'll notice that it has simply been a updated version, atleast allot more detail to it compared to the old. And even more important what you see is what you get. Of course you don't have to like it but that's another (one of the thousands) topic to discuss.
The sexism comments can only come from people who are brand new to games and advertising.
And how much sense can something make that is fantasy based? As we all clearly can see they took a more cartoony artstyle, this way allot more is possible because if it was more realistic then of course OP could have made a point. But since it isn't this topic doesn't really make a lot of sense unless as I said you're complety new to gaming.
Lake of the Clouds is very close to the top of the mountain. You can essentially see the peak and weather stations which are probably only a 15 20 minute hike up. the painting you reference doesn't really show that it's at "the top" (meaning peak) of the mountain so I don't think that's a decent argument.
Also, Washington state boasts many "high lakes" in the mountains, some above 3,500 feet. Some are stocked with fish and some are too high to support fish.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Yesterday i read an article in a newspaper about the problems women face in many islamic(or maybe just male dominated) countries, i kinda wonder how they would feel about us pointing the finger at some pixelart for a videogame and saying "thats sexism!".
I mean really, think about it. They are getting internet over there slowly, not everyone, but the "i know someone that knows someone ..." kind of internet access, so its actually possible for them to get aware of stuff like this(not MMORPG.com comments specifically, but our attitude).
So no, thats not sexism. Sexism is when women are not allowed to go to school, never get "adult" status(being legally ruled first by father/brothers later by husband), don't get to chose whom to marry and can get executed by stoning for being raped(cause its their fault you know?).
This art ... its tame, really tame by any reference to true Sexism you may name. The kind of stuff an artist might draw without even having an opinion regarding gender equality at all. Maybe those are likenesses of his ex-wives and we are just reading a crapton into it because we like/dislike it?
Besides what is wrong with enjoying drawing/looking at sexy women/men? If you like it look, if you don't then don't. I think its great that we have the freedom to decide that for ourselfs and do not get forced one way or the other due to morals of other people. If we start forcing our own moral mores down the throats of others, then how are we different from the people we consider evil?
I understand some people get offended by partial nudity(especially female partial nudity), but really, if its not your body than its none of your business what the person is wearing.
There are three reasons we see more scantily clad females than males in this MMORPG genre:
1. Main target audience is male.
2. More artists/project leads that are male.
3. Homophobia is more common among males than females(infact its the social norm in western countries, men don't hold hands or compliment each others looks etc).
Given these reasons i think its pointless to argue for change, society has to change first, which it does, ask anyone over 30 how much it already did.
Funny. Looking at that human male, he doesn't look like a coward to me. He's standing proudly and has got his sword up and ready. Following his line of sight, he seems to be looking at Firiona, either ready to protect her or follow her lead. My guess is that he's supposed to be a Paladin, given the mix of armor and vestments he's wearing. It stands to reason he'd be in a protector type role.
The female Cleric next to him (i.e., the chick with the hammer) is looking at the Dark Elf and Barbarian (?) women fighting as if she's gearing up to intervene. That could prove interesting in a gameplay fashion, especially if Clerics are going to have some actual offensive skills to bring to the table too.
Silly....flat out silly...
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
Frankly, I don't see how the new picture is more sexist.
We can discuss if the art fits the world though, I am not happy with it but it isn't more sexist than the original game at least.
Okay, so clearly, this artistic sexism is a MAJOR issue and we need to address this right away. Now, I thought of a few ways to do this. Maybe put the man in the front? No, can't do that, sexist against women. Maybe dress the women in more conservative clothing? No, can't do that, then we fail to show her strong feminine nature.
And then...I thought of the solution.
Hermaphrodites.
Yep, you heard it here first. Hermaphrodites. They are the only way to avoid being sexist in art. You simply just make every single character you paint a hermaphrodite.
BUT of course you must consider that your audience may not REALIZE that you are painting hermaphrodites and still think you are sexist. So in order to nip this in the bud, you will need to prominently display both the girl AND boy parts of every character to make it crystal clear that you are NOT sexist whatsoever.
Of course, you can't stop here though. People could still think your painting is racist! Like, what if all your hermaphrodites are white? Or what if you put the black hermaphrodite behind the white one or something? No sir, that could be racist, we can't have that at all!
So what's the solution to this quandry? Why make all your characters non-existent skin colors of course! Just think of it...neon green and hot pink hermaphrodites bearing it all to the world in a bold display of non-sexist, non-racist, and most of all, non-offensive artistic wonder!
....
This is where your whining leads. Stop now or get ready for nothing but hot pink hermaphrodites from here on out.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Totally sexist.
That dragon is totally flashing her scales.
EDIT: I edited the art to be more in line with current political trends in two key areas.
1. The dragon is no longer showing her scales in a provacative manner.
2. The Dwarf's beard was to beardly and might offend clean shaven people.
all i can say op is if you are such an expert, which i highly doubt, then make a better rendition of the origional and let us critique it.
like thats ever gonna happen.
over 20 years of mmorpg's and counting...
Well someone could just as easily argue that it's sexist against women since the men are covered up and all the women are half naked eye candy. It doesn't matter though. As for you saying it lacks talent you better show us some of your own art or shut up. It's like when non-guitar players try to tell me how to play guitar when they can't even tell you the difference between the major and minor modes.
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I agree with most of you, of course except of those who don't even understand the question. And yes, the title had a question mark in it, so it's far from whining.
Then I have to add, and I will edit it into the first post, that of course the depiction of half-nude women is sexist, too. That's obvious, and I tend to avoid to state the obvious.
Regarding the quote, the suppression of women in Islamic states: Sorry, I will call that what it is: suppression, and suppression beyond sexism. Sexism is not equal to misogyny. Sexism means discrimination because of sex / gender. Stereotype depiction of men: muscle, forceful, testeron-driven to name some examples from the 1980s, doesn't only hurt women but is discriminating most men, too.
I understand though that you are talking about sexism as a tool of patriarchy to suppress women and to hold them like "slaves" (unpaid workforce with limited personal freedom, tied to a man). Let me state it clearly: Such a patriarchal system is totally wrong.
To the cover art: As a male I wouldn't bother that much to see half-naked men with trained abs. That's my subjective opinion. E. g. the super hero comics actually are showing very much of the male physique. Another example: Depicting a household wife making laundry while the man is sitting in front of the tv is slightly more sexist than women in bikinis.
The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that it's just some sort of "Lost in translation" of the original art into our time. Sorry, it's a total failure in my eyes, I made my points already, and noone seems to disagree. I can understand that people find the picture nice to look at, granted. But the details are executed poorly. Just another example, zoom into the kobold / rat thing: I think I can see artifacts at the outline, so the parts were probably drawn separately and then mixed together... no comment.
Some asked for a solution.
The answer with hermaphrodites was not so far from reality! Actually there are many girly boys, emo boys or how they call themselves, and many other "in betweens".
Maybe the problem indeed was, that the artist just draw the single pieces (without concept) and puzzled them together afterwards. I think it was a female name... sorry, I can't remember... well she / he then seems to forget that she / he cut out almost all the male characters from the original art. I would have changed the gender of at least one female. The goal is (or should be) to give points of identification to as many people as possible from the target audience (which is 50% male / female). I now find myself connecting only to the dragon... well, could be worse! ;D
To conclude I wanna hint at another MMORPG using the VoxelFarm technology: TUG.
They explicitely plan to develop a non-sexist game!
"So, what are some things we'll do our best to make sure you won't see in TUG?
What you CAN expect to see:
Others just shoot the zombies which are chasing us. Whereas I try to talk to them.
If the brainless realized that it is dead, maybe, just maybe, it would lay itself down to rest...
I bet Ms. Rosie wishes she had never opened the door to fan input and feedback...