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Ok. This sort of thing is, as far as I can tell, a problem in most games that allow gender customization for one's character, but Runescape has been pretty good about this until recently and I really don't like my last bastion of reasonable armor going the way of the boobies. Therefore, rant ahoy!
Right. So. The title. On the 6th of March this year, Jagex rolled out a massive change of all the various player-worn armors. Despite a couple hiccups in the coloring department (but my personal disgust with the new color of rune armor is not the subject of this rant) and a few other disappointments (okay so actually I think a lot of the changes were COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY) things seemed pretty ok!
(When there are two characters in one image, before's on the left and after's on the right. Also, a note: the befores here are from August 2010 because I am terribly lax in updating my outfit folder and I hadn't changed my basic outfits since then ANYWAY, so there isn't actually quite as much a difference in the character features as they look because the base character model itself got tweaked a bit between the two images. Armor's the important bit, though, and that's been pretty much the same for a long while.)
For instance, my usual close-quarters combat outfit looks pretty awesome and much more realistic:
Archer's armor for male characters also looks REALLY cool:
Unfortunately, considering that female's leather armor bared the wearer's midriff for a very, very long time, I probably shouldn't have been surprised when this happened:
Without the clunky amulet:
Okay, yes. Looking at the skin shown between the old and the new, it doesn't look that different. I'm pretty sure guys had the same neckline then though so it was at least equal-opportunity skin, and if you look at the placement of the stone in the amulet relative to the neckline said neckline definitely dipped some.
What I'm really complaining about: Guy's leather armor is unbroken coverage up to the throat. Ladies get a cleavage window. And I hate that Runescape is going that way.
I'd like to note, though, that I'm not against cleavage in general. People can wear what they want, and should have the choice to cover themselves or not cover themselves (within legal reason for the 'not' bit, of course) as much as they want. Also, I'm gay; I'm far from against looking at T&A. Heck, my character's default outfit (what she wears without any items on) involves a nearly backless halter top that shows almost as much cleavage as the armor I'm complaining about!
I just hate that the armor shows cleavage. I hate that the armor looks different on females beyond the obvious differences needed to account for the different body shape. I hate that I don't have a choice in whether my character shows cleavage if she wears that armor. Showing cleavage was a deliberate decision on the graphics designers' parts, and it's sexual objectification where there should be only joyful running around killing shit and looking awesome while doing it. I hate that.
On a related note, this is why my favorite race to play in WoW is the dwarves. Armor, at least as much as I saw of it, actually looks fairly reasonable on female dwarves.Also dwarves have guns. I like guns. Guns are cool.
So! Who else is incredibly frustrated by the tendency in games for female 'armor' to be designed to show off the wearer's body, while the exact same piece of equipment actually covers their male counterpart like armor should? Anyone else have stories of changing graphics increasing that inequality?
Right. So. The title. On the 6th of March this year, Jagex rolled out a massive change of all the various player-worn armors. Despite a couple hiccups in the coloring department (but my personal disgust with the new color of rune armor is not the subject of this rant) and a few other disappointments (okay so actually I think a lot of the changes were COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY) things seemed pretty ok!
(When there are two characters in one image, before's on the left and after's on the right. Also, a note: the befores here are from August 2010 because I am terribly lax in updating my outfit folder and I hadn't changed my basic outfits since then ANYWAY, so there isn't actually quite as much a difference in the character features as they look because the base character model itself got tweaked a bit between the two images. Armor's the important bit, though, and that's been pretty much the same for a long while.)
For instance, my usual close-quarters combat outfit looks pretty awesome and much more realistic:
Archer's armor for male characters also looks REALLY cool:
Unfortunately, considering that female's leather armor bared the wearer's midriff for a very, very long time, I probably shouldn't have been surprised when this happened:
Without the clunky amulet:
Okay, yes. Looking at the skin shown between the old and the new, it doesn't look that different. I'm pretty sure guys had the same neckline then though so it was at least equal-opportunity skin, and if you look at the placement of the stone in the amulet relative to the neckline said neckline definitely dipped some.
What I'm really complaining about: Guy's leather armor is unbroken coverage up to the throat. Ladies get a cleavage window. And I hate that Runescape is going that way.
I'd like to note, though, that I'm not against cleavage in general. People can wear what they want, and should have the choice to cover themselves or not cover themselves (within legal reason for the 'not' bit, of course) as much as they want. Also, I'm gay; I'm far from against looking at T&A. Heck, my character's default outfit (what she wears without any items on) involves a nearly backless halter top that shows almost as much cleavage as the armor I'm complaining about!
I just hate that the armor shows cleavage. I hate that the armor looks different on females beyond the obvious differences needed to account for the different body shape. I hate that I don't have a choice in whether my character shows cleavage if she wears that armor. Showing cleavage was a deliberate decision on the graphics designers' parts, and it's sexual objectification where there should be only joyful running around killing shit and looking awesome while doing it. I hate that.
On a related note, this is why my favorite race to play in WoW is the dwarves. Armor, at least as much as I saw of it, actually looks fairly reasonable on female dwarves.
So! Who else is incredibly frustrated by the tendency in games for female 'armor' to be designed to show off the wearer's body, while the exact same piece of equipment actually covers their male counterpart like armor should? Anyone else have stories of changing graphics increasing that inequality?
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Also I <3 your icon.
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