Stellar Blade has managed to stirred up a lot of controversy. What makes it amazing is it’s done so without even being released! The main issue has been all focused the main character, Eve. She’s part of a squad who has returned to Earth in the hopes of repelling an alien invasion that has taken over the planet. But who cares about the story? Look at how hot she is!
Yes, a lot of the controversy surrounding Stellar Blade isn’t because of the gameplay or the story or the animations or any of the important stuff that makes a video game enjoyable. No, a lot of the complaints have been that Eve is just too darned attractive! The one that garnered the most attention was a recent article from IGN France where the writer said Eve design is “bland.” Okay, fine. That can be considered to be an opinion. But the writer had to continue on by saying Eve “was a doll sexualized by someone who has never seen a woman.”
This really ruffled a lot of gamer’s feathers as, well, it’s simply not true. The CEO of ShiftUp, the developer of Stellar Blade, is married to fellow artist Jiyun Chae and is admittedly not bad on the eyes, Eve’s body design was actually based on Korean model Shin Jae-eun. So, the implication that Eve is unrealistic is just untrue… because she is based on a real person!
Of course, the editor of IGN France had to double down on the original article, which has already been edited, by saying that character designs like Eve are harmful and will lead to the effect of women being beaten or commit suicide due to men (who will supposedly do the beating) and women (who will be committing suicide) due to the high standards characters like Eve demands. The main office at IGN had to wash their hands of all of this by writing up an apology and eve re-editing the original post as mentioned.
All of this leads me to the question: when did it become bad for video games to have attractive characters? For me, the answer is it never did. But that hasn’t stopped a number of people who have voiced their opinion that video games should stop designing their characters as, for a lack of better term, hot.
You would think this is a more recent trend but, no. Even as far as a decade ago, thanks to the Internet, more and more people have started to say how video games have been designing women in video games as rather misogynistic, with vocal proponents like Anita Sarkeesian with her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series way back when. So, you see, this take isn’t new but more of a comeback and is probably why the IGN France editor had a meltdown on Twitter as mentioned before.
However, even back then, I had a huge problem with some of the arguments made by Anita Sarkeesian, which my colleague put into so many words all those years ago. So I wouldn’t be surprised is she saw a character like Eve’s Stellar Blade and say the same things she said a decade ago.
But this does lead me to look at the argument regarding attractive characters and it doesn’t work either on a business standpoint nor a consumer standpoint. For the business side of things, it’s pretty obvious. If there’s something that’s going to grab someone’s attention, it going to be something that looks good. Even when it comes to simple things like packaging, a person will be more drawn to a box with neat little designs on it nice rather than a plain old brown cardboad box. Some effort was put into even making the outer package look good! How can it not be a good product? Well, that’s what our primitive minds will tell us anyway. It’s not necessarily true all the time but that’s what our instincts tell us.
The same thing goes with video games. Graphics has always played an important role in selling a video game. Now, I do believe art direction actually plays a bigger role but I also can’t say attractive characters don’t. That’s simply because attractive characters are instantly more interesting. I’m not saying “interesting” in a deeper sense, like they have layers to their personality. That helps but you don’t get that kind of thing in, say, a one minute teaser trailer. No, I’m talking about “interesting” as it holds your interest. We all instinctively want to look at prettier things, don’t we? This goes with characters in video games as well. And the guys over at ShiftUp know this all too well, which is precisely why they got a model as the basis for Eve in the first place!
I am also saying the consumer is hurt when we limit video games to just having “normal” video game characters. Why? Like I said earlier, we all like looking at pretty things! We’re all hard wired to be this way! Now, I’m not saying all video game characters should be attractive as all heck. No, but with what the IGN France guy was saying about Eve was just dumb by saying that, just because someone designed her to look extremely hot, it shows that the person didn’t know what a woman looks like in real life. The thing is, Eve is based on a real live person! Did Shin Jae-eun have to work hard to get her body to look as good as it does? Yeah, probably so. And I also have to say it’s not for everyone! Instead of saying that video game characters have to look like “normal” people, these same people should be trying to teach “normal” people that it takes a lot of time and effort to look like that!
Also, if you really think about it, video games have gone a long way to be much more inclusive to all body types in their own way. For me, the most recent example would be Marisa, one of Street Fighter 6’s new characters. Although the Street Fighter series has had a slew of attractive female fighters like Chun-Li and Cammy, Capcom was willing to go a different direction with Marisa. Instead of the typical slender but fit body type more female characters have, Marisa is a towering woman with huge muscles and a taste for gladiatorial combat. Despite her brutish look, she’s actually a very cheerful woman who loves combat and jewelry making.
And I believe she’s not the only character who eschews the typical direction of attractive female characters in video games. There are supporting characters like Ellie the mechanic from Borderlands and Billie Lurk from Dishonored. They’re still popular characters despite not exactly being typically associated as good looking in the traditional sense. They are, however, interesting characters who grab your attention because of how well designed they are. So, video games have been making small steps and the people decrying that video games should stop making attractive video game characters should also try to focus on the examples of when they do make “normal” characters to great success.
Am I saying the video game industry should not try to add more “realistic” characters? I’m not saying that either. What I’m saying is that there should be room for both attractive and non-attractive video game characters. With a high fantasy game like Stellar Blade, having a super attractive protagonist like Eve works. Why deduct it points for doing something that works?
What’s your take on the entire “hot video game characters” debate? Let me know in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 