How many games have you played in the last even ten years where a woman looked like this in game?
Like fucking zero.
This isn't real life, or hell, even film. It's video games.
Generic is Anime girl with random windows in her bodysuit #50
not
blond spacesuit woman
It's a good design. And the backlash is more proof that the bar women have to clear for "acceptability" (or certainly to "not look typical") is much higher.
They can't just look normal; and if they do it isn't good enough. But it's more than that, even during the debut people were put off playing an even slightly older woman. Returnal is a good game with a great hero; part of that is her believably as one.
💯💯
Character design discourse on Era really hasn't evolved beyond the hardline anti-sexualization mindset that seemed to explode in popularity partway into the 7th console generation. Boring, artless shit.
Watching users in this thread parade around the blandest, frumpiest, most unseasoned* outfits as "GrEaT cHaRaCtER dEsIGn" at the expense of some genuinely striking (and usually Japanese) design work is painful.
*Obviously I'm being hyperbolic, but this is a thread where a middle-aged white woman in a space suit is being treated as some sort of artistic revelation, so when in Rome... 🤷🏾♂️
The hell else was she "supposed" to look like??
Angrier? Longer hair? Smooth skin? Multi-coloured hair? Giant armored space suit? Not all games need to clear the same checklist for what's good. It just needs to work in its own universe.
And the hell to the highlighted part. Given how pervasive sexualized designs ARE in this industry (even movies are getting a hint); it's sad that it's a standard we need to search for and get met with a LOT of angry nerd resistance who feel "their titties are being taken away". Does the Blizzard Activision thing set off any flags? Women are constantly harassed in the same industry that practically loves making pin-up models for heroines. We literally have a massive thread (on it's THIRD OT) of how damn often this happens and usually with absolutely zero chill (bikini outfits + pervy cameras), and it's incredibly belittling when we can't celebrate something that is
too practical when it totally fits the game. >_>
"surely that title can't be an actual quote by an actual resetera poster," i hear you say. to which i reply: oh my sweet summer child i used to give a fuck about making these ops seem professional so the Gamers wouldn't be scared away but i dont give a fuck anymore so here's the lowdown...
www.resetera.com
Japanese characters have some AMAZING designs. But let's not kid ourselves like 90% of the women in fighting games aren't absolutely paraded around for their sex appeal, whether or not the outfit makes sense, whether or not their tits wouldn't fly out of half their outfits.
NO male character gets the same amount of "ink" about their design process as women do. Where's even the male equivalent of this thread? No one cares; because it's already fine and are not the ones often marked for their over-sexuality.
It's all moot anyways. This is an opinion thread. Most designs in here are fair game and
very good and stand out in many positive ways.
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