83 réponses à ce sujet

[Kabooooom]

Sure, but I want to see something more original, not a copy-paste of backwards religious logic from real life.

Oh, I agree. I meant - nature is more creative than any writer or artist could ever be. Bioware definitely drew inspiration from real species in their design of alien biology, and they should still do this if they are going to explore something like sexual dimorphism.

It's also worth noting that sexual dimorphism is usually extremely logical. Often, the evolutionary purpose for a given anatomical feature or phenotype, with regards to sexual dimorphism, is extremely obvious. So, I don't want them to be creative just to be creative but make a design that is completely illogical.

[Laughing_Man]

I sometimes wear my hijab similar to Tali and even her infinity scarf can be made into a hijab (which I kinda want one for Syawal... except currency rate and shipping rate is horrendous. Someone ship me one please, I wanna cosplay in rebellion among my relatives...).

 

...

 

also, what a girl looks like underneath her clothes is her own business. 

 

The contradiction between seeing the oppressive patriarchy everywhere, to the love towards oppressive religious clothing (that women are not allowed

to leave their home without in many parts of the world) will never cease to amaze and amuse me.

[animedreamer]

Many species don't have sexual dimorphism, so I don't see how it's idiotic at all.

Many species of what? Plants, Animals, Amoebas? We are talking about fictional aliens, I'm not talking about boobs and the like, we all readily know Salarians lay clutches of what I presume are eggs, and Krogans may very well do the same. No one is asking to change all that stuff, but again unless my understanding of the term is wrong, isn't limited to looking like human females.

[Kabooooom]

Many species of what? Plants, Animals, Amoebas? We are talking about fictional aliens, I'm not talking about boobs and the like, we all readily know Salarians lay clutches of what I presume are eggs, and Krogans may very well do the same. No one is asking to change all that stuff, but again unless my understanding of the term is wrong, isn't limited to looking like human females.

A) obviously I was referring to animals.

B ) nowhere did I advocate that sexual dimorphism in alien design should involve boobs "and the like", as that is, quite frankly, enormously stupid.

[DarthLaxian]

The turians seem to be the only ones out of the aliens that really seem to display just how distinct each gender is within that race. The Quarians are harder to tell because they are all covered up but the obvious shape of their bodies seem to suggest there is at least a difference between them when it comes to sexual origins and so on. Salarians well, again can't say i see much difference, and Krogan.... I don't even want to bother trying to argue that one. My point is, for races that have a male and female gender should if not in Andromeda or a later game, fully reveal the intricacies of each race?

 

This may also mean some races being slightly redesigned and for the purpose of the topic I could and would accept that as a necessity. 

 

Turians do not, they just didn't make a female Turian so they couldn't make them be seen! (so all Turians we see are male - the only female is in a DLC (Omega DLC))

 

Salarians, well we've only seen males (the females are the ones in power there, they don't fight wars etc. - unless one rebells maybe (I'd love a female Salarian who gives this system the finger and doesn't want to run stuff behind the scenes etc.)) again!

 

Same for the Krogan (EVE is a covered MALE Krogan!)

 

No, re-designs should not be just accepted -.- (and "it's the new engine" is a crappy excuse as well because you can make something very very similar in most modern engines!)

[deuce985]

Yes but you're talking about video game development here. Bioware doesn't have infinite resources and it has to end somewhere. They prioritize what gets designed in a game and what doesn't. Krogan looking like they do is probably because at some point in ME3's development they had to move on to other things if they wanted the product out the door. It's just like using the exact same animations for your male/female protagonist. It's a way to save budget and time on a game project. Time is everything.

[Bacus]

Well, this is a real good post OP, kudos.

 

 

Thing is, people will always try to relate to the most human-looking thing around. Writing about fantasy or sci-fi settings is rather tough, because you need to connect the reader/player to the different "beings" in your story, the easiest way to do it, is to just slap anthropomorphism everywhere.

 

Don't get me wrong, I TOTALLY GET YOU! as a matter of fact, as a gamedev-writer myself I am walking this path, but it's real tricky.

 

****, I have a ton of non-humanoid species written down but they are not in english,

[The Twilight God]

Base on the silhouettes within the mask, the male Quarians seem to have a more ape-like profile.

[CDR Aedan Cousland]

Base on the silhouettes within the mask, the male Quarians seem to have a more ape-like profile.

 

Pretty sure that's just really poor/lazy facial modeling (wouldn't surprise me if they just took a pre-made skull model and stuck it behind the males' masks), but yeah, I noticed that too. It'd be total BS if it was a canon feature, though, as I've always detested the "make the females of the race as close to humans as possible, while making the males ugly and ape/beast-like at the same time," crap that a lot of content creators go with. It's sexual dimorphism done incorrectly.

[nfi42]

The simple answer is it costs money to produce different models and models of different sizes ie childen. Cloth physics is also very difficult with different body sizes,  thus clipping. As technology gets better this will change.

 

As a scifi nut,  I want to see different sexualities represented,  not just male female.  It's why  I liked the Asari species even though the are just blue spaces babes. 

[Panda]

I'd rather have lack of sexual dimorphism than slapping boobs on everything and calling it woman.

 

If they want to got with alien sexes looking different they could go with different coloring/markings, different size or having different looking body parts- for example female Turians not having fringe (I think this happened in comics?) or having different shape/smaller fringe. Animal kingdom is quite good place to look for inspiration.

[Shechinah]

I'd rather have lack of sexual dimorphism than slapping boobs on everything and calling it woman.

 
I believe an especially egregious case of this is with female drells who've been shown as having breasts despite newborn drell supposedly being able to survive on solid food from birth. I keep headcanoning it as either being venom sacks or water preserves.
 
http://www.scifi4eve...comic0002-8.jpg

"Drell are omnivorous reptile-like humanoids with an average life span of 85 galactic standard years. They give live birth to their young who are capable of eating solid food from the moment they are born." - Codex: Aliens: Non-Council Races.
 
Source: http://masseffect.wi...#Drell:_Biology & Mass Effect: Foundation #12.  

[Monk]

(Elcor)Slightly annoyed: we already have space babes. We don't need boobs on all female life forms. Not logical. Also lacking plummage in obvious plumming species. What the hell.(/Elcor)

[Halfdan The Menace]

Does having a giant bosom (women) and thick beards (men) count?

[In Exile]

They specifically say in XCOM 2 that Vipers no longer have human DNA and are a purely reptilian species. And I never said it had to do with sex appeal, I think it's just a lazy shorthand to indicate the female of the species.

The weird creepy sex stuff is actually cannon in game.

[Gamesaredead]

They should have an alien species where the female is larger than the male, like with black widow spiders.

 

They have one. Rachni Queen. 

 

Don't know how anyone could complain about the Quarian's. They were as easy to tell apart as you can get. Here this might help for those looking in the wrong place.

 

[The Twilight God]

As a scifi nut,  I want to see different sexualities represented,  not just male female.  It's why  I liked the Asari species even though the are just blue spaces babes.

The asari are female.

There are only two sexes in the entire universe. Your sex can birth babies under normal circumstances? Female. You can't under normal circumstances? Male. I just wish it was pointed out that Asari are futanari, which is canon. There should have been dialog where Liara informs male Shepard that she has a larger penis than he does (although it's not a penis strictly speaking). And I'm sure everyone agrees with me on this.

[nfi42]

The asari are female.

There are only two sexes in the entire universe. Your sex can birth babies under normal circumstances? Female. You can't under normal circumstances? Male. I just wish it was pointed out that Asari are futanari, which is canon. There should have been dialog where Liara informs male Shepard that she has a larger penis than he does (although it's not a penis strictly speaking). And I'm sure everyone agrees with me on this.

 

Yes, but different.

 

amoebas?

[ModernAcademic]

I think BW tried to compensate the obvious lack of females in alien species by creating the asari, an exclusively feminine-looking species that's conveniently monogendered.

 

Liara, the bisexual option in ME. The perfect romance for the gay player, who can't have neither Ashley, nor Kaidan.

 

What's hilarious is that some people would actually prefer to romance Garrus or Tali in ME1 than Liara.

Oh, dear.

[DarthLaxian]

But this time we're going to colonize, it should be more or at least more than "normal" females and children of the species  that make the trip, for what it seems there isn't going to be Quarians, Geth and Rachni.

 

Children? Nope, they can't contribute to the expedition, so I doubt they'll take them!

 

Children happen naturally when the infrastructure is in place (and as long as you only select young, healthy people with great training and potential you will have good "breeding stock" without needing to take children from the start...I still hope they go further and take fertilized embryos (!), I mean we make those all the time for science and IVF, so selecting a few thousand of those (who'd normally be thrown away) should not be too hard...and we know that artificial wombs are a thing in Mass Effect, as it's how GRUNT was made and educated (he walked out of the tank a fully educated male Krogan after all!)))

 

Still, the Salarians would have to send females (otherwise no reproduction!), so I am hoping we'll see more because they can't hide them away on Surkesh (also: I'd love a female Salarian who's not amused with the stereotypes and rebells against being trained as basically a feudal lord and doesn't want anything to do with all of that!)

 

As for sexual dimorphism:

 

I'd like for humanity to overcome that (transcend nature) - so I've got no problem with races in Mass Effect not having that in-built inequality (IMHO that's got to go to make both sexes fully equal, same for raising boys and girls differently...no princess treatment for girls and no "soldier-boy" treatment for boys, we aren't in danger of dying out, so stereotypes like male-disposibility have no place in modern society anymore (no more: "Women and Children first" crap!))

[DarthLaxian]

The asari are female.

There are only two sexes in the entire universe. Your sex can birth babies under normal circumstances? Female. You can't under normal circumstances? Male. I just wish it was pointed out that Asari are futanari, which is canon. There should have been dialog where Liara informs male Shepard that she has a larger penis than he does (although it's not a penis strictly speaking). And I'm sure everyone agrees with me on this.

 

There are only two sexes on Earth you mean (discounting hermaphrodites!)!

 

There's even a Star Trek: Enterprise episode where they show a race with basically 3 sexes (the third is needed for conception of offspring and treated very very badly otherwise: basically a slave that's passed around from couple to couple and only used when they want a child)...so stop being so narrow minded

 

Asari aren't male or female - they are both (I mean they do the heavy lifting in their society - what women normally (still, despite being oh so emancipated and despite not needing men and being able to do anything a man can do!) think is men's work! - and they build stuff from household items to buildings and even ships!)...in a way the Asari are a (human) female power fantasy (they can do it all and they are good at it, too they are after all one of the leading species in the Milky Way!)

[nfi42]

There are only two sexes on Earth you mean (discounting hermaphrodites!)!

 

There's amoeba as well, so not even on earth.

[Spectr61]

Why even translate our species' or any species of life from our system onto aliens from another galaxy.

Our concepts of body shape, gender, locomotion, consciousness, reproduction, sexuality, etc.?

Why even carbon based?

How about truly "alien" aliens? Something beyond our realm of understanding as it is right now.

One example is the scrambler from Peter Watts' excellent "Blindsight".

Limited only by imagination; but my guess is Bioware will give us the equivalents of reptiles with boobs or rocks with dingusses.

[Oni Changas]

The Quarians were very distinct. Come on, Tali vs. Kal'Reegar? They're basically humans in suits.


One clearly female dalatrass for the Salarians...and I think I recall some Salarian Eclipse mercs seemed a bit feminine to me in ME2.

We never saw a female drell, or any gender for hanar.

Salarians and Krogan are really the only one was can say are terribly done. We've never seen a female Vorcha, Volus, Prothean, Elcor, Hanar, or Batarian (Thane's wife is seen in comics and there's a difference in body type much like humans and quarians). 

 

They don't need breasts-- look at turians-- they just need something to justify a male of that race wanting to bang a female cause to me its looking like female look exactly the same and that's a bit weird. 

[Shechinah]

They don't need breasts-- look at turians-- they just need something to justify a male of that race wanting to bang a female cause to me its looking like female look exactly the same and that's a bit weird.

 
There is sexual dimorphism in the turian race such as fringe and waist based on Garrus' comments during the ME2 romance on what he'd compliment if Shepard was a female turian. There appears to be visual evidence of this in terms of faces and fringes.
 
Consider that salarians have a very low sex drive and that the role of the male salarian in the reproduction is to fertilise eggs that may or may not already have been laid by the female. It is questionable how much they'd need to be sexually attracted to the female of their species and vice versa with this in mind.
 
This is especially in modern times since salarian reproduction is a thing of status and influence. It is likely that salarian reproduction in older times was based on a display of dominance rather than a sexual drive to breed especially given the ratio of females to males. Basically, the male salarian that would fertilise the female's eggs would be more or less the "best" of the male salarians making the attempt.