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Bikini Armor Battle Damage: Sexy Armor Hypocrisy (?) featuring (some of) NeoGAF™

fernoca

Member
I liked the look. Reminded me of Vagrant Story. Loved how the main main character is showing his buttcheeks through the entire game. XD
 
somebody should cross-reference that original Mevius thread with that thread where people talked about how proud they were to be perverts in games

fine in theory but that post is in no way pointing out anybody who has said both of those things. It's making assumptions based on... what, exactly?

Of course, the research should have been deeper. I think that the post comes from the fact that this design suddenly raised a lot of criticism, while comparable (bad & sexualized) female design didn't (at least, not as much).
 
I was never bothered by this, but I've always been open to male sexualization in character design. One of my favorite anime is JoJos, where every single male character is this beautiful adonis of man, and near nude pose-offs are nothing unusual, whereas the female characters are fairly tame in comparison.

Nope, the argument is more like to expose people that think it's fine to have overly-sexualized (and bad) female designs and, at the same time, think it's not fine if a male character has a comparable design.

They should probably call those individuals out then. Making assumptions and blanket statements is disingenuous.
 
Of course, the research should have been deeper. I think that the post comes from the fact that this design suddenly raised a lot of criticism, while comparable (bad & sexualized) female design didn't (at least, not as much).

I'll just point at the Tekken thread for the catgirl chracter as a counterpoint then, because way more people lost way more shit at that one.
 
They should probably call those individuals out then. Making assumptions and blanket statements is disingenuous.

Of course it is. The post still raised a valid point, and the fact that even in this thread there are people that think overly-sexualized women in video games are not an issue at all (by justifying / minimizing / comparing, etc.) speaks in favour of the author.

I'll just point at the Tekken thread for the catgirl chracter as a counterpoint then, because way more people lost way more shit at that one.

That characters wasn't criticized because overly-sexualized, but because it was too much stereotypical, like the typical anime waifu girl (to give the idea; I don't know how to define it). I also say that I did not agree with the issue there, because Tekken had far worser characters, and a fan-favourite like Xiaoyu was not that different from the cat-girl in the design and what it represented.
 

Scrabble

Member
I don't see the problem that straight males find sexualized male designs off putting, just like I don't see the issue if women find sexualized women off putting. Neither make you an awful person my god.
 
I really don't mind male sexualization, but that costume looks stupid, but I think a lot of costumes look stupid, like the fashion models who decide to slay monsters on a road trip, ie FFXV
 
"The thing is, we’re waaaaay past the “badly designed sexy female armor” quota, so there’s lots of “badly designed sexy male armor” quota to meet. And until balance of the two is restored, I don’t really think anyone is in the position to request male sexyness to be up to some arbitrary design quality standard."

Huh, I disagree here. We want better standards for both, not lowering one because the other is bad. How are we getting better otherwise?

Pretty much. What an awful argument.

(not you, the quote in the OP).
 
I don't see the problem that straight males find sexualized male designs off putting, just like I don't see the issue if women find sexualized women off putting. Neither make you an awful person my god.

You're combining two different arguments. What we're looking at here is "eww, gay" vs "there are other ways to portray women."

Completely different responses.

That characters wasn't criticized because overly-sexualized, but because it was too much stereotypical, like the typical anime waifu girl (to give the idea; I don't know how to define it). I also say that I did not agree with the issue there, because Tekken had far worser characters, and a fan-favourite like Xiaoyu was not that different from the cat-girl in the design and what it represented.

I agree with your opinion of her, but that thread did pretty quickly devolve into people calling other people pedophiles (yeah, I don't know either) for defending her place in the game.
 

sensui-tomo

Member
On the premise that I may sound like a jackass or something(I think i'm going to be in the minority on this one) whats wrong with showing some skin even if it doesn't make sense? Final "FANTASY" kinda always does that (even with 15 being a fantasy based on reality) but eh I know we have the side of people heavily against that type of fan service and those who want stuff to stay the same. and is there anything coherently wrong with sexiness or should we just shun it nowadays? (for male and female and anything else) BTW this doesnt discount saying that designs = shit because people have opinions all the time on art, doesnt mean they should change because someone doesnt like it
 

Faustek

Member
I replied in that thread........

heh good for you....I think?

Anyway the only bad critic of that getup I've seen is that some people called it "gay". Like that was a bad thing smh. Attacking the armour? Yeah those thigh, hip thingamajigs are...weird as fuck. That low riding but holder? We'll I 'll say it again. It just looks weird. The rest I kinda like. Just feels stupid to don that plate armour when the rest looks like it's there for speed.
 
You're combining two different arguments. What we're looking at here is "eww, gay" vs "there are other ways to portray women."

Completely different responses.

You can not be homophobic and still dislike the design....you can also be straight and hate female oversexualzation. No need for the "eww, gay," comment.
 
You're combining two different arguments. What we're looking at here is "eww, gay" vs "there are other ways to portray women."

Completely different responses.

That's what I think.

Still, a lot of people in that thread, including me, just wanted the sexualization to be better, rather than him be covered up.
 
I'll just point at the Tekken thread for the catgirl chracter as a counterpoint then, because way more people lost way more shit at that one.

More people didn't like Lucky Chloe for the fact that she resembled a super Kawaii japanese diva girl then her outfit being sexual. A better arguments would have been when they showed off Katarina but every character in tekken can be customized to wear different outfits so there isn't that much anger towards the designs.
 
You can not be homophobic and still dislike the design....you can also be straight and hate female oversexualzation. No need for the "eww, gay," comment.

Those were the comments pointed out in the OP. Read my comments earlier and see that I agree with you.
 

Clinton514

Member
meh. The majority of JRPG male character design always annoyed me.

Took me a little while to realize that this was a male in the previous thread.
 
I agree with your opinion of her, but that thread did pretty quickly devolve into people calling other people pedophiles (yeah, I don't know either) for defending her place in the game.

This is a completely different issue, that is sexualization of young girls. Hence, the debate started from the presence of a highly stereotypical character, no matter how sexual was.
 

Scrabble

Member
You're combining two different arguments. What we're looking at here is "eww, gay" vs "there are other ways to portray women."

Completely different responses.

No I'm not, the op is directly calling people out for taking issue with the character design on the sole basis it's a sexualized male which somehow isn't deserving of criticism. If men take issue with the character design for no other reason than "eww gross" I don't see why that's a problem. There are quotes in the op that are none other than "horrible" and "yikes", how is that an issue? So people don't like the character design....so what? Let them not like it for whatever particular reasons they may not like it. I don't even see "gay" mentioned anywhere, so don't turn this into an argument it so clearly isn't.
 
But why was mine in there? I praised FFXV's male sexualization in the line right under it.

Right, and the dude I quoted said he didn't think there was anything wrong with being put off by male sexuality. I was trying to say that the guys who are weirded out by the character's sexualization are not coming from the same philosophical standpoint as women who are put off by how women characters are sexualized.

I think the design is crap, but I'm 100% behind more male sexualization in games.
 

Octavia

Unconfirmed Member
This was always a better design for Vaan.

Dissidia_012_Vaan_Second_Alt.png


The weird thing is the 2d (granted by a different artist / his appearance in a diff game) his original outfit does not look that bad in this design. Since the clothing has been adjusted a bit from the original designs.

Jesus, that top one is so much better it's not even funny. The bottom one isn't bad either. The problem is the texturing for the ribs or 'abs' in game is absolutely fucktasticly awful. It looks so bad, like someone took one of those 'abs in a day' as seen on tv products and vaan still has red marks from it.

I adore FF12 to death but I still cannot believe a designer zoomed out the finished character, looked at their supervisor, and gave a thumbs up.
 
If men take issue with the character design for no other reason than "eww gross" I don't see why that's a problem.

Depends on where that "eww gross" is coming from, and I don't want to put words in anybody's mouths (and I apologize for basically doing that earlier), so I'll give those who said that the benefit of the doubt on this one. But seeing a wall of comments along the lines of "ewwww" "absolutely disgusting" "put on some clothes" doesn't paint the nicest picture.
 

Bazztek

Banned
My first point is, Cidney and those girls are not dressed the same. You have a point in saying that some female mechanic might dress as lightly because of the climate and whatever other reason; on the other hand, though, Cidney's design is ridiculous because it doesn't mimic real-life people, but takes them to the extreme: those mechanics dress lightly because it's hot working there; if it's hot, you don't wear a leather jacket, period. SQEX could have decide to put the logo of the team on her top, or on the hat only. They decided to put a jacket on her, to unzip it and show the cleavage. That's ridiculous and nonsense. The design is not clever enough to be a good one, nor it's realistic enough to be justified by the fact that real people wear the same in similar situations.

The second point is, the fact that SQEX consciously decided to dress Cidney as such already calls to a clear intention: attract male gamers with a sexualized character... which is fine, I mean, this always happens. The fact that real people wear the same (which is not true, btw, since a leather jacket if it's hot is by no means a realistic outfit) doesn't justifiy the use of sexualization of the character; it's like justifying having always prostitutes in video games using the fact that prostitutes exist... Yeah, ok, but why should every software house put prostitutes in every game?

Cidney is clearly based on southern American mechanic women, her outfit too is nothing that someone in real life wouldn't wear were they a mechanic, as the images above already show very lightly dressed female mechanics, why are you arguing semantics over a jacket which as I already explained is her work uniform?

If she wasn't wearing the jacket she'd be just wearing a bra on her top, which would trigger your insecurities even more, it's not nonsense because it's clearly her work uniform which she is wearing but because it's hot she unzips it, there is nothing "nonsense" about this in the slightest, not only that but her jacket has pockets in it which she'd obviously use for holding various things in it, it's perfectly logical reasoning for why she's wearing it the way she is, and it does mimic something that can and does happen in real life.

Obviously she is wearing the jacket because it is her uniform, the same reason she is wearing her hat, it's obviously taking basis from the very fact that it does get hot in southern America and girls do dress like that, and I'm failing to see how it's not something someone would wear given the logical reasoning present, you sound extremely sheltered which is why your entire post reads with nothing but ignorance.

And the reason they dressed her as such in the first place again is because the game itself is taking elements from southern America for certain design aspects, you can already see traits of this in Prompto's design with his biker patch jacket and flannel vest, him being a gunslinger, he gives off a hillbilly bikey vibe, you can see this in the 70s style gas stations typically associated with southern American visage, the cars themselves seen around Duscae and even in Lestallum too, so Cidney fits right in place with this and her basis being of a southern mechanic woman also fits right in with that.

She feels hot so she unzips it but because it's her work uniform she keeps it on, unzipping it allows her to still cool off, there is absolutely nothing unrealistic or unreasonable about this.

And fuck right off with that prostitution trash, it's completely irrelevant to the subject at hand and you are also ignoring the very point being made, first you assert no real female mechanic would dress in a revealing outfit because it's "stupid", then visual proof was handed to you proving you wrong because female mechanics can and do dress in revealing outfits, now you are moving your goalposts by trying to act as if it's now a bad thing that the game's basis for Cidney's clothes have a very real basis on how real female mechanics dress, and then you make this false equivalence to prostitutes being real and some games having them too as if it somehow helps your argument when it's completely non sequitur to anything you are even trying to argue and if anything only discredits your line of reasoning more so.

You have failed on multiple occasion now to make a valid argument, and you are also acting as if sex itself is some demonic entity that should be shamed, you sound extremely childish and ignorant to the subject at hand, and I were you I wouldn't be trying to spout off about bullshit that you clearly have no understanding over.
 

RawNuts

Member
Put that on a girl and people will suddenly start defending it.
I believe that most people don't like the armor itself. I'm interested in testing this, but I don't feel like putting in the time to photoshop that character to look female, so I instead searched for armor that is at least slightly similar to the armor that OP posted.

While I can't find anything that looks exactly like that, I think these are close enough.


and... they look like shit.


For comparisons sake, here is a somewhat sexualized set of male armor that is similar to the one in OP:
I would be willing to bet that people would much prefer this.
 

UrbanRats

Member
I'd make the argument that batman has to look intimidating when he lives in the most dangerous city filled with mass murderers and psychos. When he's not wearing the suit you see more of a light almost feminine side to him.

It obviously depends on who draws him, but taking Arkham Games as an example (just because they're the most extreme i can think of):

Batman-Arkham-Origins-Bruce-Wayne-DLC-Takes-Place-in-Asia-387118-2.jpg


Even Bruce Wayne doesn't look very feminine to me.
And it shouldn't be, i'm not saying hyper masculine design is bad or anything of the sort, just expressing a personal preference and pointing out how a "feminine" male figure is not gonna make me uncomfortable at all, infact, i'll most likely like it more.

Even if i think about muscly characters, i'd take something that looks nimble and agile like Disney's Tarzan:
Tarzan4.jpg


Over Rocksteady's Batman, which looks like it can barely tie his own shoes without Alfred helping him out.
 

StayDead

Member
Maybe, these type of dudes are the unrealistic ideal men girls want, we've achieved parity.

2795611-tumblr_lvk8rsh4ec1qkinreo1_500.png

Every single time this image is posted I feel the need to post the other version.

p8ZWvBI.jpg


It really is entirely context based and if there's equal service for both sides it shouldn't really matter. Do I see romance novel covers and feel offended as I'm a weak male who doesn't have the body they do? No, I just accept that it's what some women like and want to look at and I don't really mind. If there are vocal men who then sit there after looking at a woman in skimpy clothes and expect that all women dress like that, they're the problem, not the designs in the first place.

Don't limit what can appear in media because some vocal idiots can't understand the difference between fiction and reality. We should be teaching those people to change their opinions.
 
For comparisons sake, here is a somewhat sexualized set of male armor that is similar to the one in OP:

I would be willing to bet that people would much prefer this.

We've still got a little bit of BELTS EVERYWHERE going on, but yes, absolutely this is better.

Nothing against your argument,

but you just essentially posted a picture that clearly contains an enormous fucking penis in your gaf post.

...white might not be the most ideal color for that loincloth...

Over Rocksteady's Batman, which looks like it can barely tie his own shoes without Alfred helping him out.

yeah if you want to talk about bad body types, I can do without dudes shaped like giant rectangles
 
Honestly, I really like the lower half of that armor. Really gives him sexy dragoon vibes. Mevius' design bugs me a lot less than Cidney. One is clearly outrageous (in a good way) and the other is trying to be realistic and then slaps on some titties that are a second away from bursting.
 

UrbanRats

Member
Every single time this image is posted I feel the need to post the other version.

p8ZWvBI.jpg


It really is entirely context based and if there's equal service for both sides it shouldn't really matter. Do I see romance novel covers and feel offended as I'm a weak male who doesn't have the body they do? No, I just accept that it's what some women like and want to look at and I don't really mind. If there are vocal men who then sit there after looking at a woman in skimpy clothes and expect that all women dress like that, they're the problem, not the designs in the first place.

Don't limit what can appear in media because some vocal idiots can't understand the difference between fiction and reality. We should be teaching those people to change their opinions.
That sort of romance novels are basically one step removed (or none at all) from erotic narrative (aimed at women).
I don't see how the comparison is really working at all.

Now if people were complaining about sexualization in porn, i'd understand your argument.
 

Annubis

Member
I'd be OK with the armor/guy in the OP if everyone else in the game looks wonky like that.

Maybe the game takes place in some weird universe where fashion doesn't exist and the temperature never dips below 35°C and religion is a big thing so people all have tattoos for that and through some weird evolution, everyone has double or triple the organs in their torso for contingency (and nobody really cares about getting maimed there anymore because of it) and men's balls have moved down to the front of the hips.
 

docbon

Member
I believe that most people don't like the armor itself. I'm interested in testing this, but I don't feel like putting in the time to photoshop that character to look female, so I instead searched for armor that is at least slightly similar to the armor that OP posted.

While I can't find anything that looks exactly like that, I think these are close enough.




and... they look like shit.


For comparisons sake, here is a somewhat sexualized set of male armor that is similar to the one in OP:

I would be willing to bet that people would much prefer this.

The best part of the Torbel image is that you can clearly see his penis.

edit: oh no i am beat
 

AlucardGV

Banned
Yeah that Cidney design is whacky. Just google female mechanic. They dress nothing like her.
it will be a sad world when final fantasy mechanics match google search

somebody should cross-reference that original Mevius thread with that thread where people talked about how proud they were to be perverts in games

and that thread about gay people saying they'll bone Dante and Christ redfield till the end of time
 

Steel

Banned
I don't see how that armor design is that bad or out of the ordinary for Final Fantasy(Which generally has outfits for both sexes that you just don't want to pay attention to). Just look at Tidus. Honestly I don't see why people would make a fuss about this at all, this is the type of design FInal Fantasy goes for.
 

Kinyou

Member
Imagine if all character design was done like that.
Amazing.

Then again, that's how Slaughtering Grounds was developed.
The Idle thumbs guys had that great idea for a game jam where people have to build a game which includes randomly picked stuff from the Unity Engine store. I hope they do that one day.
 
I don't get the controversy...

It looks fine to me.

I don't think it looks sexualized at all.

Sounds like the blogger is just making up garbage to keep Gamergate relevant.

There is nothing wrong with that style. I appreciate that someone is trying something different than the same old gothic or medieval stuff that's been played out for decades.

Open your mind people. Stop making everything into a meaningless cause.
 
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