When are races and characters too over sexualised?

[Deleted]

It affects everything in the way we see wow. Look at the female orcs and humans for example. The female orcs are ridiculously thin by orcish standards, because to be anything else is considered unattractive. Female humans are dangerously thin, as well as blood elves. Male humans have been joked about for the fact that they are more muscular than any normal person can realistically be without having a life dedicated to body building.

Then we come to issues like the female worgen, which was not considered sexualised enoughby players, and Blizzard decided to make them more pretty, give them bigger boobs and slimmer waists. I admit, I am happy that the pandaren are reasonably attractive, while also being almost as large as male pandaren. If the female pandaren were as thin as tauren, I would certainly be very irritated.

If you look at lore characters, such as Valeera's hearthstone image, no one can argue that she represents a real woman in any way. Massive breasts, and clothing that... emphasises them. Completely revealed legs, supermodel waist etc. This is a theme that carries through most female lore characters of races such as humans and elves. Jaina, sylvannas, etc.

The men are also extremely sexualised. Try and find me a popular male lore character that isn't ripped out of their mind. Difficult, isn't it? I have yet to see an orc that isn't like this (apart from super old ones). Even Gul'dan in the warlords wallpaper is supposed to be wasted away but he looks pretty ripped to me. Tauren, humans, trolls, worgen. Despite the fact that most people in lore aren't adventurers, they are ALL super muscular or super thin with big breasts.

Of course, you could be one of the players who considers wow to be something where this sort of fantasy is healthy, and want more of this sort of portrayal. I would like to hear your opinions.

[Wildmoon]

I don't think Valeera's breasts in the picture are massive at all... I have seen a lot bigger from porns and real life.. Also, they are all heroes. They are supposed to be fit and strong.

[Deleted]

I like the game as it is, I don't want chars to look like League of Legends champions.

[Deleted]

if the internet has taught me anything it is that boobs can always be drawn bigger.

if you want to talk about heroes, do you feel that armour that covers about 1/4 of the torso and nothing else is practical and protects the areas that need protecting? Do you think that blizzard should take more care in making armour practical and less aesthetic or do you like it the way it is? I like it the way it is, personally, but some of it is just ridiculous.

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okay, let me rephrase. The difference in the genders of races such as orcs and tauren that is done for the sake of making them more appealing to the sexual fantasy is a bad example for blizzard to set to other content producers and not a healthy image to impose on players.

[Wildmoon]

Female orcs aren't ridiculously thin, male orcs are ridiculously bulky. Thrall is a better model for an Orc than Garrosh. Look at the artwork for Warlords of Draenor. The Warlords aren't gorilla-shaped hunchbacks. Durotan looks very fit and athletic; not a hulking idiot. Same with Grom. Oversized breasts aren't really an issue in wow's female characters. They are fit and healthy looking, but not obscene, as one would expect for someone who is effectively an active duty warrior, ready to fight at a moments notice. Don't confuse being fit and in great shape with "overly sexualised."

Garrosh represents orcs better than Thrall. Thrall is not big enough imo. Grom was stated to be quite lean by orc's standard in lore.

[Wildmoon]

And Grom could take any other Orc in a fight

Well, he is fast...

[khazlol]

Google some female armor from Tera if you want to see something over sexualised.

XD

[SirPiken]

Female orcs aren't ridiculously thin, male orcs are ridiculously bulky. Thrall is a better model for an Orc than Garrosh. Look at the artwork for Warlords of Draenor. The Warlords aren't gorilla-shaped hunchbacks. Durotan looks very fit and athletic; not a hulking idiot.

The question is, why in your mind does someone being big make them an idiot? Why do you insist on the trope of intelligence is inversely proportional to body mass. Intelligent people don't need to be skinny weaklings.

[Sixteen18]

Google some female armor from Tera if you want to see something over sexualised.

XD

I think Tera actually has the best armor from all the MMOs I've played. It offers a wide range of selection from practical to sexualized.

[Sky High]

the only race I would count as super skinny is Bloodelves, and that is not limited to females. and what is it about how Valeera looks? have you seen her in the comics? way more "sexualized" in that.

in a T game like this they are never going to get super sexy outside of art, official or not. and look at games like oh IDK Dragon's Crown to get some persecutive on what "over sexualization" is.

[crakerjack]

I don't see how a fat person can logically stay in combat for more than 1 minute. Fat people are fat for the sole reason that they're lazy and don't do much exercise. That explains why there are slim to no fat people in WoW, because everyone is leveling a hero/champion, not the fat person who eats chips and drinks soda all day. I can't explain why everyone is ripped beyond belief, but i can assume it's that way because more people would rather be a muscular dude charging into battle rather than a scrawny dude who looks like he could barely carry a sword.

Bigger question, why do you have such a big issue with everyone being fit? This is a fantasy world, not Real life. People in WoW don't over eat as much as current people, probably because there isn't that many resources for people to constantly over eat. In all honesty, it just doesn't make sense to have someone be fat, it doesn't fit the character and it wouldn't seem logical for a fat person to have the endurance to stay in an 8 minute fight while constantly moving around.

[Deleted]

I think it's fine really, its not like all females are getting bikini-armor really.
And as mentioned before, your character is supposed to be fit

[Sixteen18]

If you look at lore characters, such as Valeera's hearthstone image, no one can argue that she represents a real woman in any way. Massive breasts, and clothing that... emphasises them. Completely revealed legs, supermodel waist etc. This is a theme that carries through most female lore characters of races such as humans and elves. Jaina, sylvannas, etc.

I don't usually pick on wording, but saying something like this with "no one can argue" is a very poor introduction for a topic. How does having massive breasts and revealing clothing make her NOT represent a real woman? Are women that are fighters supposed to automatically fit the look of an athletic tomboy or giant barbarian? And the sexy women should just stay in town as eye candy for the men who are the real fighters? Most MMOs break down such biased perceptions, not reinforce them.

[Confictas]

Night Elf females are way oversexed. I mean jesus christ just look at their dance.

[Koala]

This.

WoW has a specific style, cartoony, and not over-sexualized, we all like it that way.

some plate armor on females in wow is just ridiculous.. plate armor should not look like a bikini

[Wyrt]

I hear constant complaints about stick arms and not enough muscles. Well, women generally do not have big bulky muscles unless that's specifically what they're going for. Lots of complaints about breasts when most races don't have exceptionally large breasts, with exception of worgen, humans, and dwarves.

Males are much more often the ones with unrealistic proportions.

[Doomchicken]

some plate armor on females in wow is just ridiculous.. plate armor should not look like a bikini

This, a thousand times this. I don't know why, but I'm still always amazed that after all these years the gaming industry in general hasn't made much of an attempt to get out of the strange mind-frame they have where they have to do stupid shit like this. :P

[Caerule]

I don't mind the body types in WoW much. Well comparing Draenei genders becomes a bit of a freak-show.

I'm fine with characters being fit. The only thing I've got a little issue with is the armor.
Female armor is often-times revealing. Which is fine. This is Azeroth, and some of the greatest heroes, both men and women, walk around with little on. As long as it's a style choice and is kept equal, I see no problem with that.

Thing is, while lorewise and NPC-wise it's equal, and you've got a lot of bare male chests in your face in addition to plate bikinis, this isn't the same for player armor. Player armor panders to player desire, rather than to Azeroth's design. Female armor and clothing is more exposing, because people are more comfortable with that, than the teenage boys are, seeing a sparingly-dressed man as their avatar.

TL;DR: I'm fine with the models and style of Azeroth, but there's some sexualisation going on with player armor.

[Deleted]

no one can argue that she represents a real woman in any way.

Well yeah she represents a high elf.

[Drekker17]

I like cartoony much more than realistic. Females in game are much more realistic than the men, none are dangerously thin unless you've never seen a woman before...I mean seriously? I know many people think the belf females are too skinny, but humans? I truly shouldn't be shocked, people that want more realism in games repeatedly show they don't know what realism really is.