My gf and I recently had a conversation about this very thing. As an adult male I don’t get any “kicks” from seeing these big-breasted women. IMO they are made that way to entice younger adults or mostly those men who like to look at a good pair regardless if it’s cartoony or not. I think it sends the wrong message personally. I know it’s been said the artists are women, but it’s like really? Throughout comics and what not, women have always been shown in this light as well. I don’t have a daughter or a son, but I wouldn’t want either to grow up thinking this is what “real” women look like. The conversation is tricky because what are “real” women supposed to look like? Women come in all shapes and sizes, and all are beautiful. So where do you add more, and where do you scale back? I just think there should be a middle ground. My perspective is male, so I can’t add to the conversation like the ladies can. That’s my personal view. To play devil’s advocate a little bit, maybe the reason the artist make them like that is because it’s a game, and it doesn’t have to be based in reality. I just don’t see why they have to have balloon bazongas. I think there should be fairness for all. Give these ladies something to look at if they so desire.
I personally as a female in real life who likes artwork - would appreciate better drawn women with better looking armor. Avina almost gets close enough to the look, except her belly is unprotected!
Fel’Dras -again top of her cleavage throat and neck exposed … serious underprotected.
Mercy needs more armor
I loved Scarlett
Let’s petition for an official fork. We can call it Gems of Wardrobe: Tumblr Edition.
All female characters (even spellcasters and archers who traditionally wear extremely light armor for maximum mobility and minimal restriction of range of motion) will wear full-body outfits with complete and utter disregard for the practicality of the clothes.
In accordance with the desires of the Healthy at Any Size lobby, the female roster will include women in weight classes proportional to the world population, with complete and utter disregard for the practicality of a woman’s build for her role on the battlefield. Any morbidly obese characters must include flavor text announcing their hypothyroidism and the genetic nature of their predicament.
I think this idea would really appeal to the untapped gamer market of “unemployed tumblrinas who can’t afford games anyway,” and I’m sure the legions of outrage-addicts masquerading as feminists would stop arbitrarily criticizing any depiction of a woman in GoW as some sweeping social generalization or misogynistic propaganda.
@TaliaParks Why backlash? And why would Legend be disappointed? Surprised, yes. But disappointed? I’m confused now.
@HKdirewolf Anyone can contribute actually, it’s not simply a woman issue, otherwise people like you, Talia or Legend would not participate in the discussion. It’s degrading for women (“you’re a sexual object!”), it’s infantilizing for men (“you’re just a horny idiot!”). And the answer is honestly simple: just treat every character equally, regardless of gender. If the character has reasons to be sexualised (say, like for a Succubus for instance), then draw her as sexy as necessary. If the character is not supposed to be eye candy, then don’t add distracting sexy elements. That’s pretty basic, I’m sure we’ll get there at some point! 
@Tard_Carnival: yeah, so, as usual, trolls felt the need to come in…
I dont know what the definition is for a troll. But I just read his post as a strong opinion with a tonne of sarcasm. Not everyone is going to agree with everything and peoplw have different ways of expressing it
I didnt mean to imply that you thought they were getting a free pass. I was just pointing to what I thought were a couple thoughtful posts from Syrrian showing that the developers are not proceeding thoughtlessly on this stuff.
Accused of misleading and misrepresentation, “acting like a woman to get attention” and a whole lot of PMs about my sexuality, ethics and morals.
Fact is, my wife started to play first and my Forum name is my characters. In an attempt to avoid confusion, I created 10x more.
My question is, why do female artists like drawing females with such proportions? From a psychological standpoint i can understand the want to create an ideal self even if it means angering some and making others lose their mind to perversion. It is no small secret that some of the artists employed to make the females are infact women themselves. Even the creator of bayonetta got slammed for her character design of the protagonist.
The same reason males draw Hulk or Superman. You said it; ideal self.
Seriously? When I joined the forums, I did assume you were a female. Then after reading a couple posts where you referred to your wife, I assumed you were a lesbian, but I don’t see why anyone would be upset about your choice of name. It’s a game forum - what’s the big deal?
Welcome to the internet. Fake Outrage: The New Fad.
That would make sense, normally we talk about how women in the media, games specifiically are over sexulized but I do find the double standard humorous because no one gets normally upset about the oversexualization of men, so i wonder what makes the over sexualization a problem when it happens to both genders but only one gets more attention than the other. If it was about ideal self then why are male artists or female artists not critisized about making over sexuallized men. Even porn based around gay men has a female writer or director.
In all my years of playing games I have never felt any male was over sexualized. Women tend to be, and honestly I think that’s because for a long period of time gaming was mostly a male thing. Males spent the money and thus you have to appeal to them to getz ze money.
How about Resident Evil 5?
I’m sorry, but no, it’s all about the male gaze in both regards. Women as sexual objects (boobs and asses and flowing long hair, oh my!), and men as idealised versions of themselves.
Now, try to compare the muscled superheroes to “girls” romantic comedies love interests, and tell me if Hugh Grant and Jude Law and the likes look anywhere near these models… And then tell me how these guys can be leads in said romance movies… Because clearly, the overly masculine guys are also male fantasies above all. Not that women can’t find them sexy, bvut they’re definitely not sexualised, they’re power trips.
edit @Robert: miam! 
Yeah, if anything, it’s the opposite, actually. =) It shouldn’t matter either way, in a perfect world, but some of your recent posts come across as more mature knowing that you’re a guy (because they reflect a perspective that would come more naturally if you were a girl, that is). Anyway…
@HKdirewolf Basically what Arch said. It’s not so much about representing The Real World Woman ™ as it is about not representing patronizing clichés. There are real-world dominatrixes like The Corrupt Sorceress, real-world bimbos like Atlanta or Green Seer, and you could probably find a risqué half-melted ice sculpture that looks pretty close to the Ice Witch, even. It’s just that most women don’t define themselves as a pair of half-exposed giant boobies first and foremost (even among the presumably small part of the real-world female population that does have giant breasts).
@Atlanta’s_Cleavage: We did say no trolling, please.
This also says a lot of a large (or at least very noisy) part of the gaming community’s inherent sexism, and expectations… This is pretty sad, really. Sorry to hear that. 
Who says they do? It’s a job, and I don’t think they slap boobies on anything randomly and strictly of their own initiative.
That’s also an interesting thing: this type of clichés not only excludes a lot of women to an extent, it also antagonizes males who do not happen to have just reached puberty and… no access to actual porn, I suppose? ^^
I look at that and say, “Japanese art style.” Aside from that, Resident Evil games were not made for the ladies. Even though even the ladies had big breasts, again Japanese art style. If you’re a male, then most likely that’s your version of a perfect male body. You can’t say that these drawings are the perfect ideal woman.
You lost me. I don’t know how to respond to that.
I think by “male gaze” @Archenassa meant:
“The male consumer would mostly care for sexy ladies and badass protagonists that could represent their own ideal self and not the artist’s self ideal.”
This has been true but not entirely. Throughout the history of gaming we have had some risky things like having a female lead in the form of Samus, who until you beat the game never knew was a female unless you thought the armour looked female in shape. [quote=“LegendMaker, post:36, topic:11906”]
Who says they do? It’s a job, and I don’t think they slap boobies on anything randomly and strictly of their own initiative.
[/quote]
That would be a good argument for some games but bayonetta was wholly the idea of a female who was doing what she loved so in that instance it was not a job and all she wanted to do as with most creations that have a female person in them wanted to create a strong female lead. The games where at one point aimed at men but why were they? What in the beginning of gaming history did women say “i am not into this” and at what point did they change their mind and want to be apart of this history. Adverting to females would not have been hard unless there was no market for it in general anyway. It is not like females were not adverted to, so why did adverting to them not create a female demographic of gamers until recently.