Women in Videogame Promotional Art: NCsoft’s Game Girls
December 1st, 2007 at 9:03 pm (Gaming)
I’m always on the lookout for gaming art with images of women that make me want to play the game or, even better, play that particular female character. I was a kid in the era when Ms. Pac-Man and Princess Peach were about the only female characters that were terribly prominent in the video game world. This led me to believe for a long time that video games weren’t really for me. I didn’t really want to be a princess in a pink frilly dress who constantly needed rescuing (What is up with that anyway? Somebody needs to buy Peach some books on how to be self-reliant!). Anyway, we’re beyond that now. These days, women are everywhere in the world of video games. Unfortunately, they still have a ways to go when it comes to being attractive as avatar images for women.
Not too long ago I got an email from NCsoft advertising their various Massive games (I play one of their games, so I get emails from them periodically). For each game there was an accompanying piece of promotional art. The art did not please me very much. At the top of the email was an image for the game Tabula Rasa featuring a man and a woman (it’s the top image in this post). The man is fully armored, is wearing a helmet, and is holding a large weapon out in front of him. He looks ready for action, if maybe not as well protected in the facial area as one might wish. The woman, on the other hand, wears no protective gear on her head at all (except for the stylin’ shades that appear to really be goggles of some kind) and her “armor” is skin-tight leather. Skin-tight to the point where even her nipples are showing. She’s also in a really dumb pose entirely designed to throw her breasts forward. It’s actually pretty uncomfortable to stand that way in real life (I tried it before writing this post). It also looks stupid in real life. So, to recap on this image - the man is armored and looks ready to fight the ‘Bane’ while the woman is dressed and posed like a sex object. Presumably they are both in situations where bullets are flying at them. Yeah, that makes sense.
The next game in the email was Guild Wars, specifically an ad for the Eye of the North expansion. The expansion’s promo art so far has given me the impression that it has sort of a Norse theme. That’s pretty cool. I would have loved to have seen a Valkyrie or something in the ad, but instead I get this girl (see the image to the left). She’s standing in what appears to be a pretty cold place (whites and blues and frosty effects) and she’s in front of a bear-like creature. You’d think she’d be wearing armor or fur or something to protect her from the cold. She’d need protection when she goes out fighting scary ice creatures with her cool bear companion or whatever he is, right? Instead she’s dressed like a stripper in a gold bra, connected by the thinnest strip to a tiny swimsuit bottom of thin straps that seems designed to expose every bit of flesh possible. Her arms are completely covered by cool sleeves, but those sleeves connect to absolutely nothing. Nevertheless, they’re probably the only thing keeping her warm at all. Not that it would help, since she’s still going to die of frostbite long before she even finds the ice creatures, bear companion or no. This is not encouraging, and makes me wonder how that picture can represent the same game as this one. I actually really like some of the promotional art for this game, but it seems like for every empowering piece there are two like this.
Next up are the paired games City of Heroes and City of Villains. There are three people in this image - two men and a woman. This time all three are equally armed with swords of various types (see image to the right). The men, however, are fully covered. One even has serious shoulder armor to protect him, while the other sports more of a corporate-samurai look. On one of the men you can’t see a scrap of skin below the neck while on the other only the thinnest strip around the elbows is visible. The woman, on the other hand, is not so well protected. She’s in a short, pleated skirt (really practical for fighting crime, I’m sure) and a halter top. Her knee-high boots leave much of her legs exposed and her cute little wrist-length gloves aren’t really any protection for her arms. But she’s a superhero, right? Maybe she’s invulnerable. I’ll buy that. It’s that kind of game (although why girls who are invulnerable run around wearing very little and guys still cover up is a mystery to me). The problem still stands that she looks like an overdeveloped schoolgirl while the guys look like grown-men to be taken seriously. I’m not saying that overgrown schoolgirl superheroes shouldn’t exist, I’m just saying maybe this isn’t the best image for NCsoft to have chosen to represent female characters in the game. If you’re going for a bad-ass look to the image (and the weapons, poses and two of the figures’ outfits suggest you are), don’t decide to go with an infantalized image for the one woman - make her bad-ass too.
The fourth game discussed in the email is one I’d not previously heard of - Dungeon Runners. The image in the email (see left) shows a tall, thin redhead wearing a skin-tight cat suit of sorts. It’s cut out from her neck to below her navel and only held shut by a small gold clip. The cat suit is sleeveless, but the woman wears separate three-quarter sleeves, apparently for style since her shoulders are completely bare. A belt that clearly carries nothing hangs stylishly at her hips. Since the game description suggested a D&D-style dungeon-crawling game, I wondered about this outfit. It’s useless as armor, the woman bears no weapon, has no equipment or even a backpack, and generally appears more ready for an evening in a nightclub than a dungeon-crawl of any kind. The few screenshots I could find of this game suggest that the in-game characters appear nothing like this - they look more squashed, cartoony and (shocker, here) armored. So where this piece of art came from and who decided it was good promo art for the game I have no idea. I do know that this particular piece of art does not make me want to play. It makes me wonder if the game follows the classic fantasy gaming rule of inverse armor (where the higher your level, the less skin you cover if you play a female character), which definitely doesn’t make me want to play. If I’m going to be fighting someone with claws or a sword, I’m going to be doing it with a breastplate (or something, anyway) on, thank you very much!
The last game discussed in the email was Lineage II. Now, this game’s primary market is Korea and other parts of Asia and the art is very Anime-like. I realize that asking for non-striper, non-infantalized women is a stretch, but this image still bothered me (see right). The girl in this image is so stupidly dressed that it’s actually really hard for me not to laugh at her. The bodice looks just like a rubber one I saw on a booth babe at Gen Con a few years back. And what’s with the ridiculously armored panties? Seriously, armored panties are about the dumbest thing ever and these ones look like they’ll stab her with their pointy decorative bits. Of course, not as badly as her shoulder piece will if she happens to tilt her head a little too far. And again, what’s with covering up her arm completely and leaving her torso nearly naked? What, arms aren’t sexy so they can be used to kind of suggest armor, but heaven forbid we cover up anything with sex appeal to it! This outfit just doesn’t make any sense at all. I just want to wrap her in a towel and tell her it’s going to be ok.
Seriously, I like videogames. I even like NCsoft’s games. I just can’t figure out what’s up with the art that is used to promote games. I could as easily have picked just about any other major game company to pick on for this post (and the idea for the post had been in my head long before I got this particular email). NCsoft just happened to send me the perfect set of sample images all in one place. The thing is, SOE’s images are just as bad (check out any of the Everquest or EQII promo art). So are Blizzard’s (I’ve even talked about their avatars before). By and large, the art that’s out there is just awful when it comes to portraying women. I’m not saying there aren’t exceptions because there are. NCsoft has even made some of those exceptions. The problem is that if so much of it is bad, it doesn’t exactly draw women to play.
Like I said, I already like videogames. I play them. But I pick up a videogame magazine and generally find myself feeling sick. Flipping through the ads in a typical gaming magazine generally makes me not want to play anything - except maybe Viva Pinata - for several days. This is clearly a problem. And it’s not just a problem with me. There are mountains of articles out there talking about how the gaming industry isn’t reaching out to women, how it isn’t making them feel welcome, asking where all the women gamers are and how to create more of them. Maybe rather than making “girl games”, which pretty much everyone agrees generally suck, the industry could try to better brand the games they have so that women felt invited to play them like men did. I know it’s kind of a radical concept, but we know there are women who like to play these games already. Why not advertise them in such a way that is going to make them appear appealing to other women?
Hint number one: half-clothed women and chest-thrusting poses that look really dumb when tried by real women are not the way to do that.
eddie said,
December 1, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Did you know that the character “Sarah Morrison” in Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa poses naked in December’s Playboy? But she’s holding a gun…
(NSFW)
http://gaxonline.com/blogs/gary/archive/2007/11/07/41067.aspx#41157
Matt said,
December 4, 2007 at 12:46 am
It makes me wonder how much control some of the game artists have over these pictures? Are most developers/artists just ignorant about the way they are portraying women, or do the marketing people pop their heads in occasionally and say “more boobs, less clothes” ?
Rosepixie said,
December 4, 2007 at 8:33 am
They can’t all be that ignorant, given the pole dance the night elves do in WoW. That said, I think a lot of the promotional art is often worse than the in-game stuff. The women you encounter in-game in CoH, for example, really are pretty well done, as are the poses and base shapes for the avatars. The don’t stand stupidly or by default have huge chests (although you do have the huge chest option, which doesn’t bother me too much, since you also have the option to have a normal sized one - the option for small breasts would make me even happier). The promotional art, however, tends to highlight breasts and short skirts.
But I do wonder how much meddling in the actual look of a game marketing people do (I’m actually guessing that it isn’t terribly much).
Dolnor said,
December 5, 2007 at 3:55 am
Who is the target paying customers…age group and gender? Until the male/female buying customers become closer to 50/50, the promotional art will follow the money.
Many SciFi/Fantasy books have covers showing these same types of female artworks. The books are bought by all age groups. People generally ignore what is on the covers, focusing on the content inside. Perhaps the same should be considered when playing games?
Toodles,
Dolnor Numbwit
Eternal Newbie
Eva said,
December 5, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Dolnor, I’m pretty sure her point is, if you want the split to be 50/50 you need to start respecting both genders in your art. It is totally possible to make a sexy picture of a woman where she is clothed and looking competent. To say any differently is insulting to both women and artists. Yes, sex sells, but you don’t have to be an ass about how you use it to get the effect.
Also, there are a number of people who do avoid books because they have inappropriate covers. I’m one of them. There are also many people who believe girls would be more interested in sci-fi and fantasy if it had better art. Unless you have actual statistical demographics of various book sales I don’t think you get to make blatant claims like “the books are bought by all age groups” (I assume you’re implying equally here… because otherwise this point is totally useless to your overall argument).
Pete said,
December 6, 2007 at 4:44 am
The one that gets me is when promo or concept art has women with bullet nips protruding through clothing. The gipsy concept piece from Fable 2, for example. It just so juvenile and tacky. Are these artists 15 years old?
eugaet said,
December 6, 2007 at 8:58 am
Have you seen the original concept art for the Eye of the North promo art?
http://www.guildwars.com/products/eyeofthenorth/gallery/concept/concept036.php
I prefer the concept art…but then I’m a guy.
Rosepixie said,
December 6, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Sorry, in both the concept art and the final piece I just can’t help thinking that she must be really cold. Not only is she wearing next to nothing, but what she does have on is metal, which is going to be even colder than normal given the temperature of the air around her. Seems like a very bad idea.
Fangle said,
December 6, 2007 at 9:07 pm
I completely agree with your point, but I am curious about one thing:
Do you object to the overt sexualisation of female characters itself, or that it’s often done in a trashy porn-fantasy way, or that it’s usually only the *female* characters, or a mixture of the above?
For example, if a game had promo art with male and female characters who were both dressed in skimpy barely-protect-you-at-all clothing… would that be better, or even worse, or still just as ridiculous for anyone going into combat?
Personally, I’d love to see more effort to make male game characters sexy instead of just tough. But some people seem to really dislike it. My main City of Heroes avatar often gets snide comments just because his thighs are bare, even though plenty of female avatars show far more skin without a word against them.
Rosepixie said,
December 7, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Fangle, I think the primary objection is because of a combination of the factors you listed (I actually don’t necessarily see them as different factors, to be honest with you). I very much object to the fact that only female characters are highly sexualized. At the same time, I’d also object if male characters were portrayed this way. While I am offended that the industry seems to think it’s ok to do this to female images and not to male ones, I’d also find it very insulting if it was done across the board to everyone too. I don’t want to play a guy with a huge codpiece wearing practically nothing any more than a woman with giant breasts wearing practically nothing - either way a sword thrust to their completely unprotected chest is going to kill them and there’s no way you can tell me it’s not. I don’t object to having the option in the game, but I find it really frustrating that all the promotional art focuses on the sexual aspects of the female avatars and NPCs, particularly since there are no sexual aspects to the games in question (at least not officially).
I want a character who is believable, regardless of gender (I’m not really any more fond of the steroidally top-heavy male avatars found in many games than I am of the sex kitten female ones, but at least the guys get real armor). I also want to feel like the industry realizes that women are more than just sex objects and I think that until they do, they’re going to continue to have the image of an industry that has few female customers. But generally, I think these are separate issues.
K said,
February 16, 2008 at 6:25 pm
On the one hand, I totally agree with your assessment.
On the other, I’d be way fine with sexualizing both men and women equally. As long as it was equally. Pretty men on covers might sell to me. Provided they were pretty, not horrifically mutated to conform to the “ideal” that’s supposedly in my head.
However, the marketers probably believe that they’re aiming at basement-dwelling teenagers who’ve not only never seen real boobs, but will be so enamored with the image of Girl that they’ll buy anything.
It’s a load of crap, of course. Bioshock, for instance, didn’t sexualize ANYTHING in its marketing. All the images were of genetic freaks, creepy little girls, or giant things in underwater suits. None of which were sexy. And it won game of the year. Maybe it’ll make a little teeny impact on the little teeny brains of the marketers who don’t seem to be able to get past the idea that Sex Sells.
Hawk said,
March 23, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Quote [Dolnor]: “Many SciFi/Fantasy books have covers showing these same types of female artworks. The books are bought by all age groups. People generally ignore what is on the covers, focusing on the content inside. Perhaps the same should be considered when playing games?”
All age groups of guys? But anyways, yeah, people buy them, but do they like the covers? Are they put off? Do they buy it because they’re already fans of the author/series/book/whatever and not because they don’t mind the cover art?
Stuff to think about.
Back to the topic. This post made me laugh so hard (”I just want to wrap her in a towel and tell her it’s going to be ok” = choking with laughter), because everything is true. I do think that marketing people are trying to cater to only one demographic, and that’s not working.
What I think is the problem is the lack of practical imagination and the overabundance of completely impractical imagination in the marketing department of things. Surely if they can dream up an outift that looks like it “doesn’t belong anywhere outside of the bedroom”, to quote an article whose URL I’ve forgotten, and put it on a woman who’s out there fighting demons, evil knights, etc., etc., they can put together something sensible. Say, real armor made of proper metal that covers everything that would need to be covered in a situation where there are a lot of people trying to kill you, and not “armor” made of little leather bits. Sometimes it isn’t even leather; it’s some medieval version of spandex. Spandex that’s eight sizes too small.
Conclusion: Whoever puts together these stupid ads had better get wise fast. But I’m one of those girls offended by this sort of stuff; I might be biased. Cough.
Ans said,
April 19, 2008 at 12:12 am
Some good points in here. This post brings back memories of the many times I have been put off by comics, graphics, art, games or any form of media where in all notoriety, the mammaries were the intended attention draw.
As robust as City of Heroes’ character creation is, it sorely lacks the options to make androgynous characters or women with small, insignificant mammaries (no matter how small you try to make them, they are obvious protrusions complete with light effects to highlight curvature). That, along with very limited “andro” clothing and hair styles make the character options very limited in any way that would help lessen the sexuality of the character.
To your posts too about characters, this article (and the witty comments) made me chuckle. http://www.games.net/article/feature/115881/the-top-16-androgynous-game-characters-of-all-time/
Jen said,
April 29, 2008 at 1:21 am
I totally understand what you guys are saying. But seriously, they’re just games. This post makes me think of the media right now saying that video games cause teen violence. They don’t.
And just to put this out there… Video games are nothing like books. So that was a poor example to use. People play video games because a) they enjoy that style or b) they read somewhere or heard from a friend that it’s good. Gamers don’t pay attention to the covers of the games. They pay attention to the quality of them.
And just to let you all know… I’m a female and I have the promotional art shown in this post as my wallpaper.
So, you see, not every female has this point of view. And I’ve asked many of my female friends within the past hour their point of view. It was the same as mine. Its just art. The human body is a beautiful thing. Especially females. You should appreciate art like this instead of bashing it.
Now as a side note, the whole nipples showing through the clothes thing… that’s not art… its tacky. At least the DR art was tasteful.
Jen said,
April 29, 2008 at 1:39 am
Oh… Something I forgot to add. I play Dungeon Runners. And that outfit that is shown in the promo art is the base outfit that you start out with when you make your character. And I won’t swear to it (because I haven’t made a male character) but I do believe the men start out shirtless. Just throwing that out there.
Rosepixie said,
May 1, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Out of curiosity, Jen, what makes you say that videogames are nothing like books? Why do you read if not because you enjoy it or heard from somewhere that it was good?
I hear the “they’re just games” argument a lot. I’m well aware that they’re just games. That doesn’t mean that I don’t find a lot of the art ridiculous. If this stuff wasn’t typical, I wouldn’t even be talking about it, but it is. What’s on the box or on the promo art makes a difference. It influences how the game, the company and the industry as a whole is thought of, not to mention how those of us who partake of the industry are thought of. Do you honestly think that the - still very alive and kicking - perception of gamers as overgrown boys with low social skills isn’t influenced by this stuff?
I’m not saying that every girl gamer agrees with my issues with these pieces of art and with art like them. But I’m not a lone voice in the crowd either. There’s plenty of room for lots of ways of thinking. What’s at issue here is that the art is actively driving some of us away when it should be pulling us in and is helping to color the gaming population in ways that maybe we don’t want to be colored (Why do you think no presidential candidate will accept money from a gaming company right now? It’s not because they think we’re all great, wholesome, family-values-supporting, taxpaying voters.) I think it’s an important issue and I’m not the only one talking about it.
I really appreciate you responding, and I would like to hear more from you (especially on the book-videogame thing), but I also hope that you can see why I felt the need to talk about this and why it probably won’t be the last time I do so.
Jen said,
May 1, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Well, as I said before, I understand where you’re coming from. And I do believe that my post might have been a bit rash. I was thinking more about this and even had a conversation with a few people I group up with on DR. Yes, they do need to appeal to more than just overly hormonal boys. But I also think that alot of girls find it appealing. I mean think about it. The women in these video games (though scantily clad) are , for lack of a better phrase, extreme asskicking individuals. They show that you don’t have to be manly to kick some ass. For example, for those who have played Mortal Kombat. The older versions, not the newer. A large percentage of female gamers would pick either Kitana, Mileena, or Cyndel (can’t remember how to spell that one). Why? Because they are sexy asskicking women. Now, as a female, I do believe that women should be shown a little more respect and not submitted to the population as sex symbols. It’s degrading to alot of women.
Anyhow, on to the discussion of comparing video games to books. As you can see from the timestamp, it was pretty late. Apparently my brain wasn’t working. Fortunately, I’ve had plenty of caffiene tonight so I can give my real opinion on that. (actually being half asleep has nothing to do with it, but it made a nice cover for me being a bit closeminded lol) Video games and books could be a good comparison. I just realized as I was reading over what I said that all that is exactly what gets me to read books. But I think the point I was getting at is the old phrase “you can’t judge a book by its cover” only in this case ” you can’t judge a video game by its cover”. I never judge a video game by its cover. I always read the description and if I like what it says, I’ll rent it. If I like it, I’ll buy it. If not, I put it down and never look at it again. I don’t look at the cover art and go, “oh… that looks awful” or “omg put some clothes on”. Because if you have that attitude about it, you might be missing out on a great game. Get what I’m saying?
And the last thing before I end this post, I checked DR because I was making a fighter and I checked to see what the males look like. I was wrong. They start out in some kind of peasant outfit. But the game gives you an option to make them run around shirtless if you want. And the females, the thing you start out in is basic armor but once again, that outfit is the outfit the females wear under everything. So once again, you do have the option of letting her run around in it. I, personally, prefer to have armor on her. Because when you’re being attacked by Fade Lichs or, even worse, Poison Blademasters, you’d want to have at least a little bit of armor.
Anyway, enough of my rambling, I hope I answered all your questions you had for me.