Some of the comments in that article are pretty damn misogynistic. I hate the nerd community because every time someone even
tries to have a discussion on gender expression in video games, we get all these salty ass man-babbie neckbeards rushing in to mansplain how "this isn't a problem" and "not ALL men gamers buy into this."
Also some of the comments here on COTH are...troublesome.
(07-21-2014, 02:27 PM)FlyingSquirrel Wrote: [ -> ]... You know, I've only skim-scammed through the article, as I couldn't really care. However, what irks me is that, for the male and female Night Elf comparison, they're not even wearing the same armor. I mean, I could toss a girl in some T15 Warrior armor and a guy in the Aboriginal set, loincloth at all, and make the same counter argument.
Actually those are the same armor pieces. I can't recall the exact name, but the red piece for guys fully covers 'em up, where as when you put it on a woman it suddenly becomes boob-plated midriff. The leggings also don't fully cover up female leggings for some reason. Of course, the shoulderpads and belts are different, but that isn't the point.
The point is that there are many, many armor pieces in the game that inexplicably transform into something else depending on the gender of the wearer. Dudes get fully covered up armor that makes them look all big and buff. Gals get boob-cleavage and bare midriffs that somehow, despite being made out of metal, still provides more jiggles than a Hooters Jump Roping competition.
And that's a problem. It's objectifying and sexist and gross and we should do better.
(07-21-2014, 02:30 PM)Krilari Wrote: [ -> ]Can't recall the last time I've actually seen a gal mocked because of their gender on Retail. More often than naught the women I know kicked more ass than the men. But, I'm glad to see they are making an effort to adjust none the less. Perhaps we'll see a nice, new batch of mixed lore characters that are a bit more 3-dimensional than Varian and Garrosh.
That part of the article is focused more on how female players are treated, rather than lore. And having just gotten out of playing FFXIV for almost a year, and having many years of retail WoW under my belt, I can safely say that the article is
spot on with how many females are harassed in psychotic degrees.
I've seen it. Dudes are hella creepy. Like,
really creepy. If they're not begging for pictures, they're exploding in rage and making all sorts of psychotic misogynistic comments. It's to the point where most women I know say it's just easier and safer to pretend to be a guy.
And that's just fucking sad, people. That's a problem. A REAL problem. A problem we should be addressing and working on. C'mon, people, we can be better than that.
(07-21-2014, 06:54 PM)Krilari Wrote: [ -> ]While I can't say with good conscious that I haven't seen some examples of skimpy armor in recent expansions, I will say that Blizz is sure as hell a lot better about it than they were in Vanilla.
(07-21-2014, 07:02 PM)Roxas65 Wrote: [ -> ]I see your point Corzilla, but this is basically the first time I've seen anything even remotely like that for WoW whereas most other MMOs literally shove it down your throat no matter what equipment you're wearing. It might be there, but it's not as prominent.
Really, the only RPGs I've seen where it's basically not present at all is Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma and Dragon Age.
And that's the thing. WoW has been going strong for a decade. Back in vanilla, it
was like every MMO where skimpy Boob-Mail armor was the default, rather than the exception. Look at some of the early Tier armors and dungeon blues to see. I remember that quite well. It was until WotLK that more diversified armor became available. And that's what the article is commenting on; WoW devs are recognizing that their old approach to armor magically transforming depending on gender is gross, sexist, and archaic, and now they're working on it. And that's a good thing.
And saying "well, it isn't TERA!" is like telling someone suffering from gonorrhea "well, at least it isn't cancer!" It doesn't excuse anything.
(07-21-2014, 11:42 PM)Aisha Wrote: [ -> ]I don't get it... Mocking someone's virtual character in a virtual fantasy world for the visual representation of an armor. That's just plain childish and stupid, but what's more stupid is actually taking it to heart and causing a hysterical uproar over it.
Like, OMG, get over it, it's a game. Behavior like this and an uproar is exactly what trolls want and by causing uproars over this you are feeding the trolls. This kind of ultra-feminist stupidity is caused by weak and socially underdevelopped individuals and it is exactly the reason why a lot of men (usually boys ages 8-15, no offense as I mean not ALL) mock female gamers and question their skill.
That aside, less skimpy armor would be great.
Typed from phone, sorry. :|
Quote: This kind of ultra-feminist stupidity is caused by weak and socially underdevelopped individuals and it is exactly the reason why a lot of men (usually boys ages 8-15, no offense as I mean not ALL) mock female gamers and question their skill.
Quote: This kind of ultra-feminist stupidity is caused by weak and socially underdevelopped individuals
Quote: This kind of ultra-feminist stupidity is caused by weak and socially underdevelopped individuals
Quote: This kind of ultra-feminist stupidity is caused by weak and socially underdevelopped individuals
(07-22-2014, 05:31 AM)Alliicce Wrote: [ -> ]I honestly laughed at the stupidity of that article. It's a load of BS, trying to make WoW sound bad. Anyone who knows WoW, knows most of this junk isn't true. I'm like.. What skimpy outfits? Oh, do you mean the ones you have to scrap around for? The armor sets you have to actually look up and pursue to get? Like honestly, looking at the tier sets and everything... WoW actually has more armor that covers most of the body, but they're REALLY gaudy looking. There's not really a huge amount of super skimpy outfits.. They're trying to make it sound there's a lot more than there really is. My best guess it's made as a "point" in the article is because people "commonly" wear the skimpy sets and that's just stretching it. Plus the pictures trying to back up the article don't even help.
As for the bashing on women part, everyone targets each other. Everyone has dealt with trolls and the alike at least ONCE while playing WoW, or any MMO for that matter. I honestly would rather be reading/hearing something about how the community needs to get its act together towards each other. Why does it always have to be "women" to be in the argument? Everyone gets pushed and shoved around, not just women.. And it's not really surprising to me that some people get run off retail, like if you make yourself known, you're going to get targeted. You either deal with it or not. It's stressful, but that's only if you let it really get to you.
Because the psychotic levels of misogynistic "trolling" is a universal constant in video games. No matter the game, genre, or community, there are ALWAYS creeper neckbeard dudes asking for nudes or doing stalker shit, and the fact that we just casually accept that is bad. Saying that we should just "deal with it" and accept it is part of the problem. It's why it's so pervasive;
we accept it.
I mean, I'll just say this. I know women who have had to file restraining orders and police reports because of dudes they've met with in MMO's. Women who have been stalked and had shit mailed to their home address. Not just one woman. Or two. Or three, four, or five, but
six.
We shouldn't accept it. Not this, nor any of the racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc etc etc that is so normal in the online video gaming world. The fact that it is "normal" and par the course is disturbing in of itself.
Here's a good video that sums it up:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/v...6-Not-Okay
Anyway, all in all, this is a great article. It's good to see that Blizzard is wising up and admitting that it needs shaping up. That's great news. Hope more companies follow suit.
Seriously, the nerd community needs some real fixin'.