cgrimm54 wrote...
yukidama wrote...
The problem isn't attractiveness. I really hate the whole counterpoint that if people find the designs problematic they must hate attractive people. Read what people are saying. The issue is when it is this pervasive and the devs themselves essentially say "Well, of course we had to make her sexy". Why, though? Why does she have to be sexy? There isn't anything wrong with sexiness, what bothers people is the way it is being done and the reasons for it.
I see the point there. The 'sexiness' is apparently due to the intended use of the body, meaning as TIM's sexbot/infiltrator. Aside from that, their reasoning for all the character changes being 'sexy' is something that grates with me.
I love unique looks. Love them. I would rather die than go back to the one-size-fits-all of ME1 or DAO. But there's unique looks and then there's... what they're doing. There is a middle ground between the generic armor and sexualized unique looks for everyone. It's a false dichotomy. It doesn't have to be either/or, look at DA2.
I do agree that the outfits don't need to be sexy, and that ties back to the previous point. They don't need to. But they are. What I don't get is the group of people who refer to (example) Ashley's non-combat clothing as a 'stripper' outfit. Which simply isn't true. Sure, she could be wearing the generic jumpsuit thing that the rest of the ship wears, but does the sexiness, warranted or no, detract from the character underneath? I try to look beyond design choices and instead look at the changes they make to actual characterization. It's a coping mechanism.
And I am giving them my money. I am not asking them to change anything as much as to take a step back and realize that their entire consumer base isn't made up of people who want to see ONLY conventionally sexy women and gruff dudes. It is the norm in so many other forms of media, I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for something different just once, or to be disappointed when a company you love to pieces that makes games you love to pieces insults parts of their customer and fan base in so many ways.
I'm not sure if that's the only reason they chose to do this sort of thing. The whole retex issue from ME1 was because they lacked the tech for multiple looks, and now they can give each squaddie their own design. From the amount of posting they do (or used to do) on these boards, they know what the BSN wants. But they also have to pull in new fans. I agree that they appear to view these new fans as the CoD type, and that that view is misplaced, but I choose to believe that the intent also wasn't to insult the huge fans like us on the BSN.
tl;dr I agree, but the sexiness can be offset by real character growth, which is what I hope to see.
See, the thing is I LOVE all these characters. My criticism isn't really lobbied at them as much as at the designers and marketers. I still enjoy these characters, I still enjoy this series. But as much as I can look past a design that is gratuitous, it does still bother me because it speaks to a much larger trend in media and society. These games don't exist in a vacuum. I don't buy for a second that practically every woman is conventionally attractive (compare the female aliens that are allowed to be onscreen vs the male aliens) isn't done for marketing purposes and to pander to the least common denominator. They are perpetuating these shallow heteronormative standards when it comes to appearances because it WILL sell. Women will just have to deal with objectification because hey, at least their personalities are well developed (and sadly that is more than can be said for most media). Those in the majority will never be asked to "deal with it" the way those in minority groups have to when it comes to, well, almost anything. BioWare is a lot better in this regard than most game companies, but it is still disappointing.
That being said, I do love EDI and I am really damn interested in what they do with her but sometimes the choices BioWare makes and their reasoning for it makes me facepalm. There pretty much isn't a single thing I have heard of when it comes to gameplay or writing that I have been angry about (okay, except the preponderance of husks of all sorts because they freak me out).
Retour en haut
![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
