Aesthetically pleasing female character designs.

[lord of flies]

In the long, endless stream of video game characters, there is a long, endless stream of big-breasted women with thin waists, high heels and no muscles. This is a Known Issue. Rather than simply reminding us of these lamentable elements, let us try to find some examples of positive character design for female characters which games can aspire to.

 

First off, here's three (finished) model swaps for TF2 characters: Female Heavy, Female Medic, Female Spy (by Chemical Alia).

 

Alternate character design for Sophitia from Soul Calibur, with Mediterranean features and a Hoptile-esque outfit and weapons, from the blog Go Make Me A Sandwich.

 

And finally, Kalasha Nadali, from an in-progress mod for HL2 called Tales from the Galactopticon: The Search for the Argemetis Galacticus.

 

Please, supply your own.

Edited April 5, 2011 by lord of flies

[Sannom]

Can I post SIE? She's got muscle and not too thin of a waist, but she has big airbags ?

 

EDIT : big fan of the Heavy and Medic.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Sannom

[Guest Slinky]

[C2B]

 

Uhhhhhhhh.

 

To be honest. She IS pretty much a porn archetype. Or to be more precise 2 rolled into 1.

Edited April 5, 2011 by C2B

[Kaftan Barlast]

I dont know about you but I like the big booty b*tches, bro

[HoonDing]

From Summoner:

 

 

[lord of flies]

Can I post SIE? She's got muscle and not too thin of a waist, but she has big airbags ?

 

EDIT : big fan of the Heavy and Medic.

Sure, though SIE is hardly an unknown to anyone posting here.

I said aesthetically pleasing. I don't think that character's face is even symnetrical.

Uhhhhhhhh.

 

To be honest. She IS pretty much a porn archetype. Or to be more precise 2 rolled into 1.

I'm sure there are folks who get off on older women/female doctors (of course, Male Medic is an older man/male doctor, so, you know). However, you'll notice that her proportions aren't absurd, her outfit isn't sexualized, etc. Compare it to other female designs common to gaming, like the extreme sexual dimorphism and dental floss armor of World of Warcraft, for example. There's also this great blog post that highlights the diversity of male builds. I'd say that's what I was shooting for: examples of aesthetically pleasing (if not sexually so) female characters that are not simply exemplars of modern gaming's extreme objectification of women.

I dont know about you but I like the big booty b*tches, bro

I don't play games for titillation (well, I do, but not *these kinds* of games). Until recently (when I started to realize the sheer extent to which priming can effect behavior), I felt like game designers were being stupid with this. Now, I think they're being stupid and manipulative.

[Gorgon]

I'd rather have the porn archetypes than either of those.

[C2B]

There's also this great blog post that highlights the diversity of male builds.

 

I.... don't really think that the problem is "theres more of this than that". Because.... thats not really an argument as much as a observation of a behavior. There is also more porn aimed at males than porn aimed as females and this has good reasons. Not to mention the male side of humanity is still in a phase to shift their behavior towards the female gender. And that process didn't really begin a long time ago.

 

And I don't really see whats wrong with that. Its a process. Theres already a lot more female designers joining gaming companies that will hopefully turn the trend around and give diversity to female charachters.

 

I generally find it much worse when the actual representation of the gender is misused and charachters suddenly act out of charachter just to satisfy a gender stereotype (Madison Paige for example). Or other stuff like daddy issues which "require" that strong male help to solve.

 

Edit: I'll post some too.

 

Edit2: The porn archetypes I meant were a mix of the typical teacher and nurse. Just for the info.

 

 

Edit3: Good, thread by the way. Its already well known too but I think Visas Marr also fits the thread.

Edited April 5, 2011 by C2B

[Guest Slinky]

I said aesthetically pleasing. I don't think that character's face is even symnetrical.

Oh, many apologies, my mistake entirely. Is this better?

[lord of flies]

I.... don't really think that the problem is "theres more of this than that". Because.... thats not really an argument as much as a observation of a behavior. There is also more porn aimed at males than porn aimed as females and this has good reasons.

Yes, because female sexuality is (much) more stigmatized than male sexuality.

Not to mention the male side of humanity is still in a phase to shift their behavior towards the female gender. And that process didn't really begin a long time ago.

 

And I don't really see whats wrong with that. Its a process. Theres already a lot more female designers joining gaming companies that will hopefully turn the trend around and give diversity to female charachters.

And part of that process is criticizing what already exists, and showing how it could be better. Not sure what your point is here.

I generally find it much worse when the actual representation of the gender is misused and charachters suddenly act out of charachter just to satisfy a gender stereotype (Madison Paige for example). Or other stuff like daddy issues which "require" that strong male help to solve.

Bad writing is definitely a problem too (Other M), but clothes and shape also represent a kind of forced gender stereotyping and activity. After all, people aren't (generally) forced to wear clothes, they choose to wear them, nor are body types solely the result of nature's providence (and, for a lot of character designs, couldn't occur without surgery).

Edit2: The porn archetypes I meant were a mix of the typical teacher and nurse. Just for the info.

Lots of people wear glasses who aren't teachers, way to engage in backwards stereotypes!

 

*flips table over*

[Cycloneman]

I said aesthetically pleasing. I don't think that character's face is even symnetrical.

Oh, many apologies, my mistake entirely. Is this better?

Deathdealer, I'm beginning to think you're trolling this thread.

[C2B]

I.... don't really think that the problem is "theres more of this than that". Because.... thats not really an argument as much as a observation of a behavior. There is also more porn aimed at males than porn aimed as females and this has good reasons.

Yes, because female sexuality is (much) more stigmatized than male sexuality.

Not to mention the male side of humanity is still in a phase to shift their behavior towards the female gender. And that process didn't really begin a long time ago.

 

And I don't really see whats wrong with that. Its a process. Theres already a lot more female designers joining gaming companies that will hopefully turn the trend around and give diversity to female charachters.

And part of that process is criticizing what already exists, and showing how it could be better. Not sure what your point is here.

I generally find it much worse when the actual representation of the gender is misused and charachters suddenly act out of charachter just to satisfy a gender stereotype (Madison Paige for example). Or other stuff like daddy issues which "require" that strong male help to solve.

Bad writing is definitely a problem too (Other M), but clothes and shape also represent a kind of forced gender stereotyping and activity. After all, people aren't (generally) forced to wear clothes, they choose to wear them, nor are body types solely the result of nature's providence (and, for a lot of character designs, couldn't occur without surgery).

Edit2: The porn archetypes I meant were a mix of the typical teacher and nurse. Just for the info.

Lots of people wear glasses who aren't teachers, way to engage in backwards stereotypes!

 

*flips table over*

 

1. Yeah. True and still going. Nothing like it was not even 100 years ago though as its way more open now. Progress. And this is was normal back then. The more back in time the worse it is.

2. Yeah. How could it be done better, I ask? Ban it? Critizizing is totally fine. When its actually appropriate. Shouting out in the world against EVERYTHING regarding it isn't really helping.

3. And why is the second one worse and more rooted against? I ask. What do you do? Judge people by appearance or judge them by personality?

 

Because a ****load of people do the first. Its especially evident when everyone judges a certain group of people just by appearance to be whores/sluts/emos/whatever stamp you want to give to a person. That good or progressive for you? *Personal Rant over*

 

4. I said PORN archetypes. Yeah there are backwardes stereotypes in there.

Edited April 5, 2011 by C2B

[lord of flies]

2. Yeah. How could it be done better, I ask? Ban it? Critizizing is totally fine. When its actually appropriate. Shouting out in the world against EVERYTHING regarding it isn't really helping.

When is it not appropriate, specifically?

3. And why is the second one worse and more rooted against? I ask.

It's easier to notice, since it's visual rather than narrative. While I can look at really stupid clothing/character design in games and immediately recognize it as stupid, I have to rely on either secondary sources or spend a decent amount of time actually playing/watching the game to determine how it treats sex/sexuality/etc.

What do you do? Judge people by appearance or judge them by personality?

 

Because a ****load of people do the first. Its especially evident when everyone judges a certain group of people just by appearance to be whores/sluts/emos/whatever stamp you want to give to a person. That good or progressive for you?

People's appearance is, in certain ways, a result of their personality. The two aren't completely independent, and that's understood. People who swordfight regularly aren't going to be skinny. People who are celibate or planning to go into a knock-down-drag-in fight aren't going to be wearing dental floss for clothes. I mean, this is one of the best armors in World of Warcraft. It has a giant hole for you to stab the lady in the stomach. I don't think I'm judging people on appearance too much to say that someone who would choose to wear clothes like that into a fight is a moron.

[Orogun01]

People's appearance is, in certain ways, a result of their personality. The two aren't completely independent, and that's understood. People who swordfight regularly aren't going to be skinny. People who are celibate or planning to go into a knock-down-drag-in fight aren't going to be wearing dental floss for clothes. I mean, this is one of the best armors in World of Warcraft. It has a giant hole for you to stab the lady in the stomach. I don't think I'm judging people on appearance too much to say that someone who would choose to wear clothes like that into a fight is a moron.

Consider the following; video game's target demographic is male, the majority of game developers are male (women only make 3% of the industry)

Women may be gravitating more towards video games but they are still a minority and on the developer's side there isn't enough knowledge of what a realistic representation of a strong woman is (hell they can't even do realistic men, but we don't complain) Plus I don't see them rushing over to change things since the target demography is still predominately male.

[C2B]

.

What do you do? Judge people by appearance or judge them by personality?

 

Because a ****load of people do the first. Its especially evident when everyone judges a certain group of people just by appearance to be whores/sluts/emos/whatever stamp you want to give to a person. That good or progressive for you?

People's appearance is, in certain ways, a result of their personality. The two aren't completely independent, and that's understood. People who swordfight regularly aren't going to be skinny. People who are celibate or planning to go into a knock-down-drag-in fight aren't going to be wearing dental floss for clothes. I mean, this is one of the best armors in World of Warcraft. It has a giant hole for you to stab the lady in the stomach. I don't think I'm judging people on appearance too much to say that someone who would choose to wear clothes like that into a fight is a moron.

 

Yeah, call me again when World of Warcraft aimed for an realistic artstyle. This also counts for the first argument. And no those points aren't connected. Sure people wear things/train their bodies appropriatly/benefital for certain activities. That doesn't mean they do it always or that they are incapable of executing their abilities anymore. Well, not as good and in extreme situations there are exceptions but still...

 

Gaming needs more women in actual armor though. Yes. Absolutly. Or, in general more games that go for actual realism.

 

Anyway, point still somewhat taken and I'm not speaking out against the thread. Its very good to highlight artistic achievements. (I would strongly disagree on the TF2 swaps though for different reasons.)

Edited April 5, 2011 by C2B

[Monte Carlo]

FFS this thread is dull can somebody post some hot elf chick pictures plz.

 

Tx.

[Serrano]

The female character in the cancelled

game had quite an interesting design. Edited April 5, 2011 by Serrano

[Monte Carlo]

LOL Serrano wins!

[Serrano]

I felt bad for derailing the thread so I removed the Jenna Elfman picture, sorry about that.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Serrano

[Calax]

From Infamous

[Lexx]

I always liked Heather in Silent Hill 3. :>

 

Edited April 5, 2011 by Lexx

[C2B]

I always liked Heather in Silent Hill 3. :>

 

 

Second that.

[RPGmasterBoo]

[HoonDing]