The importance of player choice: female clothes edition

This post could actually get quite involved, so I intend to limit it for now. Perhaps I’ll revisit the topic in the future. Apologies for the somewhat disjointed, rambling nature of the post. That is how I write by nature, but this feels a bit more so at times. I was also multi-tasking.

I was starting to read Navi’s post about more video game scaremongering (very good post, go read!) but I was more distracted by skimpy outfits.

Or at least, the discussion of said outfits.

I’ll get back to the “video games are destroying [NOUN]” at some other point, but for now let’s talk about sexy clothes vs practical clothes and player choice.

Her post seems to have been inspired by Poison Ivy in the most recent Arkham Knights game. The thing with Poison Ivy is that her sexuality is part of her weaponry. Her kiss (depending upon the writer) is literally deadly. She wants to defend plants and the Earth in general, so any weapon she has at her disposal is good to her. And she knows that since many men find her attractive, it puts her at an advantage.

Now, that does not in any way mean we can then just ignore how often this idea of the femme fatale is used. Nor should we ignore the sexism that permeates much of comics and female characters in particular. Or video games for that matter. Or everything else.

I am digressing. My point here is that while a female character can have good storyline reasons for sex appeal to be so obvious, most times it isn’t warranted. It really only serves to add sex appeal to the story and can greatly detract from your story.

In video games specifically, to have your NPCs be little more than eye-candy is one issue, but to make players also be sex-kittens with shields, when they don’t want to be, is a bigger issue.

I’m not against (or for) sexy/realistic outfits but I want to know why can’t a player make that choice themselves?

If they want to be a realistic looking tank character in full armor, they should be able to do that. If they want to look like something out of a Frank Frazetta painting, well, not my cup of tea but go for it. (Note here: Frazetta, artist of iconic Conan images, might be a poor example for WoW because his stuff would tend away from the Teen rating they have now – google “Frank Frazetta women” and check the images tab. Possibly NSFW).

I do think the “realism” angle of the argument against something like the platekini is not the strongest. When we have people throwing fireballs with their hands, making deals with demons, healing all sorts of wounds or just riding dragons, realism has long since stopped being an issue. This author has a fair rebuttal to this specific point and while I agree with it in general, I still think the large point holds. WoW has so many things that use “lol magic” as storytelling device that this one seems small. That is the problem with magic in a story, especially magic as powerful and far-reaching as that which we have in Azeroth. On the other hand, I am someone that strongly supports the idea in fiction that “I will believe the impossible, not the improbable” so I do get their point. Tell me magic exists, fine, sounds good, let your story roll. Tell me Tarzan can button a shirt without ever having worn human clothes and you break my belief. (No, it doesn’t make sense).

Also, WoW only takes itself semi-seriously, so we can’t really point to the need for high fantasy. Again, digressing. Just give it a read as they have very good points (and one of my favorite Ren & Stimpy clips). There’s also a follow-up of sorts.

Back to the point, I think the freedom of choice is a much better way to go. There are some women that want platekini and some that want realistic armor. And both should have that option. And male players too. Yes, transmogrification exists and allows you to turn that platekini into something more realistic, however that isn’t exactly the problem. The problem is that if a piece of armor is full plate for a male character, it should be full plate for a female character. If a piece of armor is skimpy for female characters, it should be so for male characters.

One of the things I never got about this is that male characters have so few “skimpy” clothing options. If a player wanted to create some Norse berserker inspired character, they don’t have that option (See also Frazetta above). None of my characters fit that bill, but I have little doubt that if the option were available, many players would do that or something similar.

While it wasn’t perfect, City of Heroes had a pretty great character creator that allowed you to create as modest or sexy of an outfit as your character needed (within limits). It had problems of its own of course, but overall it allowed players to create characters that they could identify with and enjoy.

Now, obviously, this is where things can get a bit complex. Developers can’t code for everything. Players will want a near infinite amount of choice and it is programmatically impossible to be able to do literally anything. However, when we are discussing player clothing choice, this shouldn’t be that hard. Just use the same model for the female character as the male. If you have sexual dimorphism between your male and female characters, adjust the size but don’t make something that is full, solid armor on a male character expose the stomach and cleavage on the female characters. It doesn’t seem like it should be that hard.

One thing I didn’t hit this time that will perhaps be saved for next time is: fine I get to dress how I like and you get to dress how you like. But should anyone be forced to see you bare* ass tanking Iron Reaver if that isn’t what they want to see in game?

* (Bear butts are fine. Objectify druids all you like.)