Why women criticise sexualised character designs | OT3 | "make her look more...corpulent, more stuffed where the eyes can't escape."

[Lausebub]

I would disagree with Anita about the point of "the US bombed them back to traditional values" since that makes it sound like Japan was some Form of progressiv beacon before ww2.

But I also don't agree with the auther, that we should treat western and Japanese games differently. Especially now, it is easier then ever to educate yourself about not beeing stuck in your backwards ways. Saying they grew up with it does not fly with racism and the same is true for sexism.

And I still don't know, how that quote is relevantto anything.

 

[rras1994]

I would disagree with Anita about the point of "the US bombed them back to traditional values" since that makes it sound like Japan was some Form of progressiv beacon before ww2.

But I also don't agree with the auther, that we should treat western and Japanese games differently. Especially now, it is easier then ever to educate yourself about not beeing stuck in your backwards ways. Saying they grew up with it does not fly with racism and the same is true for sexism.

And I still don't know, how that quote is relevantto anything.

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Honestly there is something off about that piece by the writer which is just kind of bothering me. There's some red flags in there that make me question it in general tbh.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Sorry, original site does not exist anymore (Notplayed) and even worse, rest are just taking that specific sentence and out of context
It took place in Sweden
https://ause24.rssing.com/chan-12875010/article13.html


Ms. Sarkeesian not only talked about her previous work but gave us a bit of a preview on her future publications and some of the issues she will be addressing. She made an excellent point about women, or depictions of women, being used as a reward, which I felt was one of the best parts of her talk. She showed a handful of examples were games rewarded the player with obviously sexist material (concept art, outfits etc.) as either pre-order bonus material or reward for completing the game. I feel that these examples clearly highlight were developers have no regard for women at all and purely play on the objectification of women to peddle their games to an immature, male, audience. As I also mention in my open letter to her, cases of clear sexist and misogynist behavior absolutely need to be exposed and that kind of development needs to stop.


Ms. Sarkeesian also talked at length (both in her talk and as part of the panel) about online harassment and in particular the feeling of entitlement gamers and the gaming community seem to feel. I could not agree more with her on this point, as I mentioned in a previous post.


I think one issue I will always have to disagree with her, is her interpretation of some games. Today she used Dante's inferno in 2 cases, highlighting Tropes vs. Women, and (with a dismissive gesture) seemed to lay the blame on the developers. Personally I'd argue that the developers used a pre-existing story and brought that back to life in the form of a video game. But I believe these are subjective gripes and overall I felt it was good to hear her talk in person about the issues she is trying to highlight.


One thing did stick out though, which made me feel slightly uneasy. When asked by a member of the audience if she did not think it was a bit unbalanced that the majority of the games she listed came from Japan, and if indeed western developers were not getting better at portraying women in games, she did acknowledge that was the case but also stated "The US bombed them back to traditional values – feminism does not exist in Japan. While I don't like judging an entire culture… that does not excuse them." I felt that statement was quite blunt and dismissive and stuck out from an otherwise informative talk. If that is truly how she feels, I think it would be even more important to separate western games from Japanese games and fully acknowledge the difference in culture, rather than treat games from both regions in exactly the same way.

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There is no reputable source for this and looking online it mainly was used as a concern troll talking point for GG.

 

[arcadepc]

There is no reputable source for this and looking online it mainly was used as a concern troll talking point for GG.

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It is archived from a defunct gaming site (noplay) which has other articles and mentions Gamecraft game conference and names as well that spoke there (Bjorn Akelblom, Andy Walsh). Seems legit

 

[Timu]

I do like KOF but I wonder about the women in the upcoming KOF 15 which is this year.

 

[FulcrumTK]

But I also don't agree with the auther, that we should treat western and Japanese games differently. Especially now, it is easier then ever to educate yourself about not beeing stuck in your backwards ways. Saying they grew up with it does not fly with racism and the same is true for sexism.

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I'm reminded of this Tweet:

 

[Jaded Photographer]

I do like KOF but I wonder about the women in the upcoming KOF 15 which is this year.

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All of the game budget will probably go to Mai Shiranui's jiggle physics.

 

[Lycanthrope -R-]

I do like KOF but I wonder about the women in the upcoming KOF 15 which is this year.

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This game is gonna be 90% KOF XIV's assets. So, pretty much that. lol

 

[Richter1887]

I do like KOF but I wonder about the women in the upcoming KOF 15 which is this year.

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I am not expecting anything better than the last game.

While SNK wasn't perfect before, they were still better back in the late 90's. The female characters mostly looked nice. The past few years have shown that SNK is going further the sexualization hole.

 

[RecLib]

Regardless of the veracity of that Anita quote one way or the other, I am still confused as to why she is being talked about at all right now. It was a complete non sequitur.

The conversation was about sexualization in Japanese games and the general sexism prevalent in a couple beloved "auteur" developers' work. That Anita might have once said something wrong or insensitive about said issue does not change anything. You'll forgive the skepticism I might have over a dude coming into this thread out of the blue with this weird derail over a common gamergate target.

 

[arcadepc]

Regardless of the veracity of that Anita quote one way or the other, I am still confused as to why she is being talked about at all right now. It was a complete non sequitur.

The conversation was about sexualization in Japanese games and the general sexism prevalent in a couple beloved "auteur" developers' work. That Anita might have once said something wrong or insensitive about said issue does not change anything. You'll forgive the skepticism I might have over a dude coming into this thread out of the blue with this weird derail over a common gamergate target.

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I agree. With GG you could not even debate properly anymore

https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/371974561706688512

It was probably this one. A pity that many oral speeches of conferences arent archived in general, especially q&a. Usually they say more interesting things due to live presence and speech, without a schedule to keep. She also spoke about online harassment

 

[Conditional-Pancakes]

I agree. With GG you could not even debate properly anymore

https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/371974561706688512

It was probably this one. A pity that many oral speeches of conferences arent archived in general, especially q&a. Usually they say more interesting things due to live presence and speech, without a schedule to keep. She also spoke about online harassment

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You're spending a lot of energy trying to find a source for the quote you provided, but you never answered anyone about why you brought this up in the first place.

Someone said: "[...] why don't Kojima, Yoko Taro and their consorts just team up and make some Hentai, to get it out of their system?" to basically illustrate how the depictions of women in their games share a lot of things with what can be seen in porn.

And your answer to that was: "Add also Annita Sarkeesian's inflammatory comments about Japan that added fuel to the fire, I doubt Japanese developers wanted to listen to her during the femfreq days."

I agree with RecLib that it really seems to be a some kind of weird derail.

 

[Platy]

I do like KOF but I wonder about the women in the upcoming KOF 15 which is this year.

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Considering previous KOF "evolutions" i am kinda happy that they are basically reused KOF14 models with minor diferences

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I agree. With GG you could not even debate properly anymore

https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/371974561706688512

It was probably this one. A pity that many oral speeches of conferences arent archived in general, especially q&a. Usually they say more interesting things due to live presence and speech, without a schedule to keep. She also spoke about online harassment

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So you agree that you made a non sequitur about Sarkeesian that brought nothing to the discussion at hand.

 

[arcadepc]

So you agree that you made a non sequitur about Sarkeesian that brought nothing to the discussion at hand.

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I make discussions to exchange opinions and respect others opinions, not to compete.

 

[Kientin]

I do like KOF but I wonder about the women in the upcoming KOF 15 which is this year.

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It really is kinda pushing me away from KoF. SNK has always done this in a way with characters like Mai, Angel, and B. Jenet. But it's like, ok let us have our fun with our couple of characters here, and here are a bunch of other female characters that are nothing like that. For the most part, I was cool with that. Not great, but sure. At least those characters kind of had the personality to match.

I feel like that all started to go downhill at KoF XIII. Suddenly we started to have instances like where King and Yuri are getting their clothes blown off pretty much every match with an excuse to the old Art of Fighting lore and Vice undressing a bit for her Neomax. With all of their content I've been keeping track of it is just them doubling down more and more on fanservice. Like why does Leona of all characters need this?

 

[esserius]

It really is kinda pushing me away from KoF. SNK has always done this in a way with characters like Mai, Angel, and B. Jenet. But it's like, ok let us have our fun with our couple of characters here, and here are a bunch of other female characters that are nothing like that. For the most part, I was cool with that. Not great, but sure. At least those characters kind of had the personality to match.

I feel like that all started to go downhill at KoF XIII. Suddenly we started to have instances like where King and Yuri are getting their clothes blown off pretty much every match with an excuse to the old Art of Fighting lore and Vice undressing a bit for her Neomax. With all of their content I've been keeping track of it is just them doubling down more and more on fanservice. Like why does Leona of all characters need this?

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I think what you're missing is that it was always like this, and continues to become worse because doubling down on bullshit tends to be the response when Japan is met with progressive ideas.

Gender inequality in Japan - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Gender Inequality Index confirms that Japan has room for improvement. The country still lacks female voices in parliament, compared to similar Asian countries: Japan ranks as fourth lowest within the 51 highest developed countries. In terms of women in the labor force, Japan has the sixth lowest score. However, Japan ranks fairly well when it comes to adolescent birth rate and the percentage of the female population with some secondary education. Overall, the country is ranked among the countries with the lowest GII because of its high scores in reproductive healthcare and women's education levels.

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Women are still very much in a "seen, not heard" situation in Japan (worse than pretty much all other developed nations). Meaning concerns about the rampant sexism in entertainment are ignored because they have so little say at those executive levels.

 

[AdaWong]

In the original GameCube release, her role is pretty small compared to Resident Evil 2 (2019). The Ada bonus modes aren't even canon. (Not that I put RE canon on a pedestal.)

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the 4-5 hour scenario Separate Ways is 100% canon!

 

[Ego]

It really is kinda pushing me away from KoF. SNK has always done this in a way with characters like Mai, Angel, and B. Jenet. But it's like, ok let us have our fun with our couple of characters here, and here are a bunch of other female characters that are nothing like that. For the most part, I was cool with that. Not great, but sure. At least those characters kind of had the personality to match.

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I must agree. KOF always had this 'sexy but with style' kind of approach. They going for the cheap hits this time around.
I have nothing against a little fan service here and there, but it should be included in a more balanced way.

 

[Redcrayon]

I must agree. KOF always had this 'sexy but with style' kind of approach. They going for the cheap hits this time around.
I have nothing against a little fan service here and there, but it should be included in a more balanced way.

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I don't really think there is a 'balance' to be found in including a portion of shitty objectification as eye candy for the boys club. Balance would be treating all the female characters the same as the guys, and having sexy and sexuality be something that the game handles evenly and elegantly across the entire cast, rather than the female characters having to solely carry the quota of shitty sexualisation, (being the tits and ass and turning up in their underwear stuff) solely within their ranks, and often all piled on particular characters that seem to exist solely for it rather than being a character in their own right.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

the 4-5 hour scenario Separate Ways is 100% canon!

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It wasn't included in the original Gamecube release nor was it directed (or even produced) by Shinji Mikami. It was directed by Kuniomi Matsushita (Ōkamiden), who was in charge of the PS2 port.

That said, I wouldn't mind the remake team taking cues from that to create a full fledged Ada path for the remake.

 

[Ego]

I don't really think there is a 'balance' to be found in including a portion of shitty objectification as eye candy for the boys club. Balance would be treating all the female characters the same as the guys, and having sexy and sexuality be something that the game handles evenly and elegantly across the entire cast, rather than the female characters having to solely carry the quota of shitty sexualisation, (being the tits and ass and turning up in their underwear stuff) solely within their ranks, and often all piled on particular characters that seem to exist solely for it rather than being a character in their own right.

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I disagree. There must be a place for sexy looking characters as well. Having and showing off a nice pair of tits or bragging with muscles is nothing inherently bad - especially in fighting games (physical).
People do normally appreciate a good mix of overt and covert sexuality.

Personally speaking I would reduce the sizes of boobs and muscles, and replace them with tighter/sexy outfits. But that's just my personal preference.

 

[Malakym]

I disagree. There must be a place for sexy looking characters as well.
People do normally appreciate a good mix of overt and covert sexuality.

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If almost every fucking example of this in video games as a whole (but *particularly* in fighting games) wasn't aimed at cisgender heteronormative dudes, I might agree with you. Too bad the only way these designers seem to be able to express "sexy" is very specific body proportions (complete with jiggle on boobs that's practically mandatory at this point) or skimpy / fetishized outfits.

Honestly I think I'm done for a while with needing any sort of sexuality being expressed in fighting games until they actually have something fresh to show. Acting like this nonsense is somehow "necessary" in fighting games is ludicrous.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I disagree. There must be a place for sexy looking characters as well. Having and showing off a nice pair of tits or bragging with muscles is nothing inherently bad - especially in fighting games (physical).
People do normally appreciate a good mix of overt and covert sexuality.

Personally speaking I would reduce the sizes of boobs and muscles, and replace them with tighter/sexy outfits. But that's just my personal preference.

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A defensive, "But my titties!" is all I'm getting from this post. Bruh, did you even read his post? He's not opposed, per se, to there being sexiness in games like KoF but his point is that shit's broken beyond repair. (My own opinion is seeping in as I feel similarly.) If fighting game developers want to be horny on main they need to stop going about it in such a juvenile manner where (all or select) women characters are the only ones hit with the horny stick. Red's saying that if they want there to be a sex appeal element to the game, it needs to be deftly interwoven into the fabric of all characters and not just the women. Also sexuality as well so they feel like real people, though that's a much bigger problem across a lot of video games and media.

 

[Messofanego]

You're gonna find very few examples of sexy for all, and recently Hades was that but it was calculated by the art director (Jen Zee) and writer (Greg Kasavin) so that everyone has agency along with their sex appeal, which has to have purpose in of itself. Barely any fighting game fits that bill atm. They're nearly all sexist.

 

[caff!!!]

Reading about all the MGS and Nier stuff again, why don't Kojima, Yoko Taro and their consorts just team up and make some Hentai,
to get it out of their system?

Also the clearly better ingame explanation for the android designs in Nier would have been them playing Anime games and thinking this is
how all women look/dress.

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I don't really see it getting out of the system when all their risque content is accepted as is. As to the anime thing, I think that's where the designers usually pull their sexy outfits from because they are all equally awful hole filled affairs worn by cardboard cutouts.

 

[esserius]

If anything, Japanese fighting games have actually been getting worse with regards to objectifying women. It has reached gacha levels of grossness.

 

[Redcrayon]

You're gonna find very few examples of sexy for all, and recently Hades was that but it was calculated by the art director (Jen Zee) and writer (Greg Kasavin) so that everyone has agency along with their sex appeal, which has to have purpose in of itself. Barely any fighting game fits that bill atm. They're nearly all sexist.

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Yeah Hades is a good example of where sexuality and sexiness and charisma are all tied up into good character design across the cast, both appropriately so for the Greek pantheon and with some great new diverse takes on the archetypes.

As opposed to the schoolboy-level templated design theory of fighting games, where the main 'sexy' design element conveniently manifests mostly in young women needing to be in combat lingerie with their chest animated. As token, tired T&A fanservice for the boys club is apparently a must-have inclusion and seemingly the only thing justifying playable female characters to the designers in much of the genre. Rather than thinking about sexiness in a more holistic way, like coming up with characters first and then deciding how to depict their traits.

 

[rras1994]

Yeah Hades is a good example of where sexuality and sexiness and charisma are all tied up into good character design across the cast.

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Pretty much love all the designs of Hades, they don't feel objectified and I think that's what makes the difference. Only one nitpick is that the Aphrodite design is a bit much but it is Aphrodite so 🤷‍♀️

 

[Redcrayon]

Pretty much love all the designs of Hades, they don't feel objectified and I think that's what makes the difference. Only one nitpick is that the Aphrodite design is a bit much but it is Aphrodite so 🤷‍♀️

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Hah, yeah. Eurydice is a particularly cool interpretation I think

 

[rras1994]

Hah, yeah. Eurydice is a particularly cool interpretation I think

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Yeah definitely , I think she might be my favourite design, I love how they did her hair and incorporated the tree in to her design, it looks so good. Love Dusa as well. She's somehow designed as really adorable but still looks like she belongs in the game and not out of place.

 

[Redcrayon]

Yeah definitely , I think she might be my favourite design, I love how they did her hair and incorporated the tree in to her design, it looks so good. Love Dusa as well. She's somehow designed as really adorable but still looks like she belongs in the game and not out of place.

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The whole cast is a masterclass in taking mythological figures that have had their traits and visuals described and depicted across thousands of years, and finding something new for each of them in their themes. Just really strong art direction in a way that adding in a scantily clad young female ninja for the boys isnt.

 

[Richter1887]

Hades is what you get when you want to make sexy designs without being sexist.

I wish more devs would learn. Sexy people are not an issue. What is an issue is sexist and objectification depictions of women in games.

I hope the game being popular inspires more devs to fix their issues.

 

[rras1994]

The whole cast is a masterclass in taking mythological figures that have had their traits and visuals described and depicted across thousands of years, and finding something new for each of them in their themes. Just really strong art direction in a way that adding in a scantily clad young female ninja for the boys isnt.

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Yes, I really hope that devs use it as an example going forward. It feels so hard to find a game that does sexy well. But then Hades feels so thoughtful with every part.

 

[Kientin]

I must agree. KOF always had this 'sexy but with style' kind of approach. They going for the cheap hits this time around.
I have nothing against a little fan service here and there, but it should be included in a more balanced way.

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Thanks for replying. I might have been a little unclear though. My being cool with the designs was me saying that I just tolerated them. I never liked them, but I just really liked some of their other character designs and game mechanics to the point that I was trying to turn a blind eye to them. And that's probably not good of me. I don't think characters designed for the sake of fanservice is great design and feels real shallow. Characters like King do a great job of being 'sexy' without having to resort to what they did to the fanservicey characters and have a cool personality to boot.

Though outside of them being in your face with the fanservice, I just... don't like their designs for their new characters in KoF anymore. I don't really see a newcomer that I like anywhere in XIV. While I own XIV, I just never have been in the mood to install it even though I'm sure I'd like the gameplay.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Pretty much love all the designs of Hades, they don't feel objectified and I think that's what makes the difference. Only one nitpick is that the Aphrodite design is a bit much but it is Aphrodite so 🤷‍♀️

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Just because she's the Greek goddess of sexuality doesn't mean she has to be sexualized to such a degree. To be clear, not criticising the design but I don't get this logic. Seems pretty circular to me.

 

[esserius]

Honestly, I really like King's design:

But it doesn't excuse all the grossness in designs like Mai's and it certainly doesn't excuse all the times they objectify characters like King in other ways.

 

[rras1994]

Just because she's the Greek goddess of sexuality doesn't mean she has to be sexualized to such a degree. To be clear, not criticising the design but I don't get this logic. Seems pretty circular to me.

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More that they made her as sorta of using her sexuality as her character? At least that's how I interpreted so I can see why it kind of works to make her a bit more sexual as a design than other characters. Like I don't know how well it would work to tone her design down if they kept the same acting and writing. It works as a whole.

 

[esserius]

Just because she's the Greek goddess of sexuality doesn't mean she has to be sexualized to such a degree. To be clear, not criticising the design but I don't get this logic. Seems pretty circular to me.

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I'm pretty willing to criticize the design, even from a historical perspective. If you're trying to do retakes on historical characters and not simply rehash designs, flipping Aphrodite to be a smooth operator rather than just overtly sexual would be a way more interesting take. "Naked woman" isn't doing much to re-contextualize the character.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

More that they made her as sorta of using her sexuality as her character? At least that's how I interpreted so I can see why it kind of works to make her a bit more sexual as a design than other characters. Like I don't know how well it would work to tone her design down if they kept the same acting and writing. It works as a whole.

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Hrmm. I have yet to play the game but I would scrutinize it more, since the game's directed and written by men.

 

[esserius]

The more I think about it, the more I find myself asking, "Is conveniently placed hair something we should consider as design?" Because it kinda seems antithetical. And, you know, said "designs" only seem to happen to women in video games.

Aphrodite in Hades reminds me of characters like Quinella from SAO (visually).

 

[Choppasmith]

About Leona, it should be noted that gave Leona more muscle tone which seems to be the result of her look in the manga that's gone over really well with fans.



And a comparison



Not quite day and night, but Ogura who is XV's art director now has been pretty hesitant on drawing his woman with muscle (just look at a lot of his XIII and XIV art) so I can appreciate the improvement even if it's rather miniscule.

 

[Redcrayon]

The more I think about it, the more I find myself asking, "Is conveniently placed hair something we should consider as design?" Because it kinda seems antithetical. And, you know, said "designs" only seem to happen to women in video games.

Aphrodite in Hades reminds me of characters like Quinella from SAO (visually).

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Reminds me of Anita's video about Batman's arse and how his cloak and the camera conveniently move to cover his, while female characters have costume elements/hair, a camera and animation designed to show stuff off for the player all the time. Like Shanoa in Order of Ecclesia with her dress designed to somehow look a bit like an Edwardian dress from the front (its set in the late 1800s, I think) while conveniently showing off her thighs and also revealed as completely backless and shoulderless as you jump around :D

 

[rras1994]

Honestly a large part of why I don't mind Aphrodite's design too much as it's written as a female character that has sex and uses their sexuality and I guess that's so rare that I'm okay with it being a bit rough round the edges. Only improvement is maybe do like the Dionysus design were the toga seems half falling off instead of naked with hair

 

[RM8]

I disagree. There must be a place for sexy looking characters as well. Having and showing off a nice pair of tits or bragging with muscles is nothing inherently bad - especially in fighting games (physical).
People do normally appreciate a good mix of overt and covert sexuality.

Personally speaking I would reduce the sizes of boobs and muscles, and replace them with tighter/sexy outfits. But that's just my personal preference.

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You know, I don't mind Mai existing (and I actually like her) when we have quite a lot of SNK designs like Whip, Kasumi, Xiangfei, May Lee, Mian, Elisabeth, etc.

But what's the male Mai? There's no male Mai. It'd feel weird to have the camera focusing on a barely clothed guy's butt, or pecs, or crotch - because it simply never happens. Same with jiggle physics. Who's a very "skimpy" male fighter, Joe? He even flashed his butt as a taunt when he was a tiny 2D sprite, wonder why he never does it in 3D. Wonder why we'll never see him like this:



Plus Joe is wearing realistic gear that fighters actually wear. In the end, I don't want a male Mai, lol. I don't want a male SNK Heroines where everyone is forced to wear speedos against their will. Let's just not pretend there's any "balance" when it comes to pandering in fighting games.

 

[Vee]

About Leona, it should be noted that gave Leona more muscle tone which seems to be the result of her look in the manga that's gone over really well with fans.



And a comparison



Not quite day and night, but Ogura who is XV's art director now has been pretty hesitant on drawing his woman with muscle (just look at a lot of his XIII and XIV art) so I can appreciate the improvement even if it's rather miniscule.

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Man they straight up ruined leona, but looking back her old design wasnt all that either with the random midriff and her chest size varied wildly depending on the artist:

And i actually like her XIII design and how it matches with ralf and clark but that seemed to be the start of really putting all the focus on her breasts, and the lack of muscle in XIII absolutely doesnt help

 

[Ego]

But what's the male Mai? There's no male Mai. It'd feel weird to have the camera focusing on a barely clothed guy's butt, or pecs, or crotch - because it simply never happens.

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It never happens for a good reason. Most consumers and artists don't value a man's butt as high as woman's butt. They rather value traditional attributes: strength, muscles, aggressiveness, dominance, etc.
These values are perfectly represented within fighting games (objectified).
Naturally woman and man who fail to meet these standards are considered 'not so attractive' and don't appear in many games (especially fighting games).

In my youth I preferred overt sexuality in regards to woman, while I now prefer covert sexuality. That's one of the *many* reasons I don't like the newer KOF designs.

I don't want a male SNK Heroines where everyone is forced to wear speedos against their will.

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It's not against their will, we talk about fictional characters here.

 

[ShyMel]

And i actually like her XIII design and how it matches with ralf and clark but that seemed to be the start of really putting all the focus on her breasts, and the lack of muscle in XIII absolutely doesnt help

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It is always sad to see how many female characters in fighting games barely have visible muscle mass.

 

[Conditional-Pancakes]

nm

 

[RM8]

It never happens for a good reason. Most consumers and artists don't value a man's butt as high as woman's butt.

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Sure thing, lol.

They rather value traditional attributes: strength, muscles, aggressiveness, dominance, etc.

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Think of 5 famous men who are popular with women. How many of them are Zangief lookalikes? Even easier - go to google images and search for "hot guys". I just did, I see a sea of fit, handsome men showing their abs, lots of partial nudity too. Even SNK disagrees with you, they designed Shun'ei to be popular with female characters, and he's the exact opposite of your idea that Kratos is what women are attracted to.

It's not against their will, we talk about fictional characters here.

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The fictional characters we're talking about are depicted as being embarrassed by the costumes they're wearing. No one is saying game characters are real but you know that.