Makeover for female video game characters - good idea?

[sh3rb3t]

The charity Bulimia.com has recently given some of our (or mine at least!) favourite female video game characters a make over, to make them appear ‘realistic’. I have two points to make here:

 

1. Why is being slim not considered ‘realistic’ ? Do people not believe women with slender frames exist?

 

2. In order to do this, they have made the majority of them clearly overweight. Why is this now considered normal, implying slim people are somehow not normal?

 

The charity states: 'Every doll-like character they design is harming cultural perception of the female body, and in turn the women they care about.'

But hang on a second - at least two of those characters they have made look pregnant weren’t ‘doll-like’ to begin with (Jade from MK, and Cortana from Halo)… So why is it necessary to make them over at all? Christie from Tekken even has muscle definition in her original form - they’ve covered it with a layer of blubber, and she now looks completely unrealistic for a female fighter character!

 

Wouldn’t it be better (if we absolutely have to make these characters appear different to their originals) to make them athletic and give them some muscle tone, instead of trying to normalise being overweight?

 

The charity believes that: "Girl gamers—especially young ones—could develop a skewed image of how the female body should look”… I don’t find anything ‘skewed' in some of those character’s body shapes. In fact, I’ve seen many slimmer girls (yes, complete with a good supply of silicon up top) than the GTA bikini girl wandering around half dressed on campus at work. So clearly real people can be slim with larger chests (enhanced or not - these people exist).

 

Their only good example was Lara Croft - but notice how they have conveniently chosen her character from 2003 - she was never realistic, I agree with them there. But in the latest TR, she does indeed appear healthy.

 

Finally, these are video games - they surely aren’t supposed to be ‘real’ - isn’t that the whole reason they are so popular? To get away from real life and immerse yourself in fantasy?!

 

So should they be redesigned? Opines?

 

Story here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3173831/What-Lara-Croft-look-like-REAL-women-Bulimia-charity-reimagines-female-gaming-characters-normal-bodies.html

 

and for those who don’t like the Daily Fail, here’s the original:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/lara-croft-gets-a-realistic-makeover-from-eating-disorder-support-group

[Timeh]

Modern day arty farty PC rubbish.

 

PC meaning politically correct, not personal computer

[tzijlstra]

You mean that the Lara Croft on the left (In the vice article) is realistic and the one on the right is overweight? Have you never seen a woman without clothes?

[unbeliever]

You mean that the Lara Croft on the left (In the vice article) is realistic and the one on the right is overweight? Have you never seen a woman without clothes?

 

Try reading the OP.

It clearly states that the 2003 Lara Croft in question is not realistic.

The 2003 Lara Croft is cited in the OP as the only one that really needed modifying, and has in fact been modified for the later versions of the game in an acknowledgement that they screwed up.

 

---------- Post added 26-07-2015 at 08:29 ----------

 

The charity Bulimia.com has recently given some of our (or mine at least!) favourite female video game characters a make over, to make them appear ‘realistic’. I have two points to make here:

 

1. Why is being slim not considered ‘realistic’ ? Do people not believe women with slender frames exist?

 

2. In order to do this, they have made the majority of them clearly overweight. Why is this now considered normal, implying slim people are somehow not normal?

 

The charity states: 'Every doll-like character they design is harming cultural perception of the female body, and in turn the women they care about.'

But hang on a second - at least two of those characters they have made look pregnant weren’t ‘doll-like’ to begin with (Jade from MK, and Cortana from Halo)… So why is it necessary to make them over at all? Christie from Tekken even has muscle definition in her original form - they’ve covered it with a layer of blubber, and she now looks completely unrealistic for a female fighter character!

 

Wouldn’t it be better (if we absolutely have to make these characters appear different to their originals) to make them athletic and give them some muscle tone, instead of trying to normalise being overweight?

 

The charity believes that: "Girl gamers—especially young ones—could develop a skewed image of how the female body should look”… I don’t find anything ‘skewed' in some of those character’s body shapes. In fact, I’ve seen many slimmer girls (yes, complete with a good supply of silicon up top) than the GTA bikini girl wandering around half dressed on campus at work. So clearly real people can be slim with larger chests (enhanced or not - these people exist).

 

Their only good example was Lara Croft - but notice how they have conveniently chosen her character from 2003 - she was never realistic, I agree with them there. But in the latest TR, she does indeed appear healthy.

 

Finally, these are video games - they surely aren’t supposed to be ‘real’ - isn’t that the whole reason they are so popular? To get away from real life and immerse yourself in fantasy?!

 

So should they be redesigned? Opines?

 

Story here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3173831/What-Lara-Croft-look-like-REAL-women-Bulimia-charity-reimagines-female-gaming-characters-normal-bodies.html

 

and for those who don’t like the Daily Fail, here’s the original:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/lara-croft-gets-a-realistic-makeover-from-eating-disorder-support-group

 

It's madness that we're being presented with 2 ridiculous options. Shall women be portrayed as barbie dolls or whales. Why can't we have a sensible healthy middle-ground.

The male characters in these games tend to look like one kind of sportsman or another. Either athletic, or strong. The female characters should be the same. They are after all in action/combat roles.

Anybody think that real female soldiers look like either the 2003 Lara Croft, or the modified version? Didn't think so.