Originally posted by Bubbaganoosh

Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?

Unfortunatley, this is what we have in todays time. Women are treated as objects, toys for males. Most guys play female avatars and game companies know this so we get female avatars in lingerie.

Originally posted by Bubbaganoosh

Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?

I like the attitude. A man wearing whatever he wants (I, for example, fond of a thong. I think I look sexy in a thong.) is just excercising his freedom to be himself. A woman wearing something that makes her desirable is a prostitute.

The feminism has truly won. Hurray.

Originally posted by LadyPvP

Originally posted by Bubbaganoosh

Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?

Unfortunatley, this is what we have in todays time. Women are treated as objects, toys for males. Most guys play female avatars and game companies know this so we get female avatars in lingerie.

Yes. All women are my toys. mindless plastic playthings I can use for my gratification. Blah blah blah....

Funny story. My girlfriend plays MMOs. She plays female characters, and always tries to make them pretty or sexy. Does that make her a closet lesbian who is obsessed with turning female characters into sex objects?

It's pixels. Seriously. Get over it. Playing a character with big boobs and a bikini in some game isn't going to make me any more likely to treat women poorly. By that right,  playing "Cowboys and Indians" as a child makes me likely to go run to the nearest reservation and start a shooting spree.

[mod edit]

Originally posted by LadyPvP

Unfortunatley, this is what we have in todays time. Women are treated as objects, toys for males. Most guys play female avatars and game companies know this so we get female avatars in lingerie.

As opposed to goode olde times, when women were treated like a livestock.

May be it's time to stop seeing everything in terms of "treating" and just live our lives how we enjoy them? Me, I like to see sexie boobies and am not ashamed of it. If a woman wants to see a ten-foot c..k on her male avatar, I don't see how it is my business.

Originally posted by Grahor

Originally posted by Bubbaganoosh

Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?

I like the attitude. A man wearing whatever he wants (I, for example, fond of a thong. I think I look sexy in a thong.) is just excercising his freedom to be himself. A woman wearing something that makes her desirable is a prostitute.

 

The feminism has truly won. Hurray.

EXACTLY.

Arguments like that tend to try to speak for everyone when it's solely about personal agenda. Imagine the argument I could (and likely will right now) spark if I brought up how X amount of women see exotic dancing (read: stripping) as something chauvanistic and self-demoralizing, then another X amount of women find it self-empowering and that whole "I am woman" jazz. I could easily say that the former camp feels that way simply because they can't pull it off, but either way, both sides would argue about it as long as it takes for hair to end up getting pulled.

So the question is - which side is right?

~and if you are unwilling to take that stance, then you have to agree that posing the question in the first place is what was wrong to being with.

/smug_sense_of_self_satisfaction

Oversexualized?  Not from what I've seen.  Artwork is rather mild compared to some.

Also, the game is a fantasy setting.  It's not abnormal to have fantasy artwork in a fantasy game.

Prepare for a lot of angry replies from people deluded into thinking sexualization and sexual liberation are the same thing. I voted "Yes."

It's entertainment. Just like in most films, people expect males to look masculine and muscle bound and females to look feminine and (dare I say it) cute. 

GW2 gives you plenty of options for covering up if you fell it necessary but you won't get to force others to submit to your preferences...but like real life really...

Kind of surprised that someone has only just realised that in MMO's and probably a fair number of SPRPG's females are in fact, oversexualised with their clothing etc.  Its been like that for so long that the only time i'm ever surprised, is when i come across a game where its not the case..  and i havent been surprised in a good long while

I couldn't find the original example, but there used to be a saying that as a rule D&D fantasy armor class for females was inversely proportionate to what it covered. :)

Anyway, that aside, its pretty common across the fantasy genre to have armor that is ridiculously non-functional for both male and females.  If you look at realistic art depicting medieval or renaissance soldiers, they are pretty well covered up.  Of course it depends if they are heavy or light armor wearers, but generally they end up looking pretty boring and functional.  In real life medieval combat, the idea was to leave as little exposed and vulnerable as possible.

Boring was not a great marketing tool.  Hence, fantasy armor graphics designers took the rarest and most flamboyant looking historical armor examples as a starting point and went crazy from there.  These armors tended to be "show pieces" used by kings and nobility for special occasions, not for actual fighting.  The high renaissance armors especially.

Designers then had to account for the fact that, unlike real history, modern fantasy video game players wanted complete freedom in choosing the gender of their characters.  Modern feminist attitudes, and examples like Joan of Arc and Boudicca aside, women did not historically pick up axes and swords and go to battle like men.  So there was really little to go by in terms of what "female" armor would look like.  Chances are, whether it was Joan of Arc or anyone else, those rare women who did fight did so wearing the same armor as men.  Females don't need elaborate Madonna-style "cones" on their chest-piece, for example - that is artistic license, not functional or neccessary.

Realistic and functional looking armor for both men and women would be decidely un-flashy.  No pink-colored full plate, no massive winged crests, no incredibly detailed engravings on each thing that is worn.  Yes, again, such armor did exist historically, but they were generally not what was worn in battle.

The trend for what is ridiculous but fun is too far gone now.  Characters are also given weapons that are 2-3 times the size that any human could heft or use.  If you tried to walk things back and dress people the way a real warrior would look, they would rebel.  They want armor all the colors of the rainbow, inlaid pieces from head to foot, etc.  For women, the Victoria's Secret catalogue seems to be the starting point.  Best to just get used to it.

Originally posted by colddog04

Originally posted by Cromica

The clothing for the femaies was actually designed by females  so I don't see an issue

lol...

 

Anyway, here's a nice sexy pic for reference...

That looks awesome. I hate games that actually try to under-sexualize armor, I'm a girl, I don't dress drab and covered up IRL so why would I want to look boring and plain in a video game? I think they've sparked a nice balance in GW2.

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by botrytis

Actually GW2 and GW1 are not bad compared to Tera, Rift, etc.

Why is it that AoC managed to avoid a lot of the "my inner feminist is offended" posts and it has full frontal? It really seems that people see oversexualization when there is the least bit left to the imagination, but when it's all out there, it's almost refreshingly 'honest'. Very, very strange stuff people.

I voted boobies, btw.

AoC Lore has the way women are treated and objectified built into the lore. So it's not like they added it in the game just because they can for no apparent reason.

Unlike other games, yeah looking at you TERA and GW2:

Retarded big swords and Amazon women in mini skirts & thigh high boots seem to be the norm. In the end it's just a game, who cares.

Sex sells and they know this.

Originally posted by Remains

Some examples of female armor that arent very skimpy:

I like that one on the right, but it does look like something from Victoria's Secret. I saw this other pic of that outfit on the right while surfing around at GW2 female pics and I saw how different the dyes can make you look. Here is another example of the girl on the right in a different color. (This actually shows a comparison in character models between GW1 and GW2).

The posts on this thread just scream "uninformed", "hasn't explored the game much", "kneejerk defending the game", and "lack of perspective". On both sides.

Originally posted by Grahor

Originally posted by Bubbaganoosh

Not that I'm complaining but I imagine some players want to play a female character that isn't running around dressed like a prostitute. So what do you think? Are female character's oversexualized?

I like the attitude. A man wearing whatever he wants (I, for example, fond of a thong. I think I look sexy in a thong.) is just excercising his freedom to be himself. A woman wearing something that makes her desirable is a prostitute.

 

The feminism has truly won. Hurray.

No dude in the history of dudes has ever looked good in a thong, the rest of the species should be spared the mental image let alone the reality of this.

Originally posted by colddog04

Originally posted by Cromica

The clothing for the femaies was actually designed by females  so I don't see an issue

lol...

 

Anyway, here's a nice sexy pic for reference...

My first thought upon seeing that was, "She looks like an elementalist."  So which poll option do I choose?

Originally posted by Quizzical

My first thought upon seeing that was, "She looks like an elementalist."  So which poll option do I choose?

That all depends on how much you like boobies.

Originally posted by colddog04

Originally posted by Quizzical

My first thought upon seeing that was, "She looks like an elementalist."  So which poll option do I choose?

That all depends on how much you like boobies.

You know you like boobies.

Just do it.

[mod note - resized pic]

Giant picture warning!

Here's the only picture I have of the armor my friends were wearing. They were actively searching for armor that were respectable. At this point - I was wearing the same set (although male). The differences between the male and the female set was extremely small. The medium set of the same type of armor is also respectable. Sorry I don't have a better picture of what I'm trying to describe. Some armor sets are tasteless but there are just as many options for the other side of the spectrum.