Multiple video game companies are reportedly making characters androgynous to cater to transgender ideology.
Star Wars Outlaws (2024), screenshot from Ubisoft
Gamers have noticed that many of the female characters created by Western game companies look more like men than women. One example is Lara Croft. YouTuber Melony Mack has been pointing this out for quite some time. In November 2023, she commented on the character's new redesign:They have completely lost sight of the classic feminine tomboyish balance. lara croft And now that it's a completely generic lesbian design, watch the Netflix show to make it canon. That's scary. ”
They completely lost sight of the classic Lara Croft feminine tomboyish balance and went for a completely generic lesbian design. Watch the Netflix show become canon. That's horrible. pic.twitter.com/ET4oaamJqj
— Melonie Mac ✝️🎮🖤 (@MelonieMac) November 10, 2023
Just last month, she said:That means Crystal Dynamics' new integrated 'Lara Croft' Leon Kennedy is confirmed. ”
So, the new unified “Lara Croft” of Crystal Dynamics was confirmed to be Leon Kennedy pic.twitter.com/LVrOdhiVRc
— Melonie Mac ✝️🎮🖤 (@MelonieMac) February 14, 2024
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Back in 2021 Horizon Forbidden West It has also been criticized for making Aloy look more masculine. One of his X users, AscendedZen, wondered, “Why does Aloy look like Buzz from 'Home Alone' now?”
AscendedZen of X
Recently, Harley Quinn Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League It was also criticized for side-by-side comparisons that showed how the Harley's curves were removed or significantly toned down when compared to the Harley. Arkham: Knight.
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Just before the release of Naughty Dog in 2020, it was recently brought back to the public eye by YouTuber Endymion. The Last of Us Part II, the purported “experienced artist” told Sausage Roll: Just like men, women come in all shapes and sizes. It's not true to say that having big breasted women is unrealistic. ”
The official added: “This only applies to transgender people. Trans women can't grow big breasts naturally, and not all transgender people can afford implants. Women lack a bit of curvaceousness. If you see a game that does that, it's not because game designers are worried about backlash for sexualizing women, it's because they're worried about offending the trans community.”
And he revealed: “From a design perspective, this is a really difficult issue. We've had many board meetings about how to address this. We want trans people to have 'realistic' representation in our games.” but feel excluded if they are presented as too masculine or too feminine. That's why we see so many designers “de-emphasizing” the female form, so to speak, so that the differences between trans and cis women become a little less obvious. ”
In addition to this anonymous artist's comments, YouTuber Yellow Flash, speaking with former World of Warcraft team leader Mark Kahn, said: …They are intentionally trying to draw a line here so as not to offend queer people. That's what I was told. Now, take that with a grain of salt. ”
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While Khan claims he doesn't understand any of that, he says Western game studios are willing to “put their foot down for Asia because Asia really wants beautiful women in their games.” I'm shooting,” he said.
Next, he shared a story about World of Warcraft. “We had a big problem with one of the major countries. At the time, South Korea was a major gaming market, and China was still in its infancy…But in World of Warcraft, South Korea had a lot of problems with the Horde and the Alliance. There was an imbalance: no one was playing Horde, just Alliance, and the ratio was over 3:1, far worse than anywhere else in the world. is.”
“And we were scratching our heads trying to figure this out. So I said, 'Get all the Korean gaming magazines and websites.' Please give them all to me. And I'm sitting in my office, and I can't read Korean, but I'm skimming through all the popular and upcoming games, and I'm like, “Hey, all of their evil races have beautiful women in them.” said. If you look at our horde, you'll only see monster-looking women. It's a unique demographic, and I'm not denying that, but it's a minority demographic. That's why we added Blood Elves. ”
Mr. Khan concluded with this. It's like if they go overseas and the local games have beautiful women, but the imports from the US don't have beautiful women, and that's going to be a huge blow to them in Asia. ”
World of Warcraft Female Orc (2004), Blizzard Entertainment
What do you make of this reasoning as to why Western female characters seem androgynous and increasingly male-like?
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