Eve Online and other games...

Ugh she looks more like a sex doll than a real person. Even her body proportions were mangled. She is exactly the result you get when a female character design is filtered through every single cishet male employee’s opinion, without consideration for what a woman might actually look like, every time.

Also, terrible makeup. Makeup in games is a thing that needs its own advocate and/or more people yelling about it but won’t be me lol.

#imagine if we got Maya Brook’s face actress for FemShep
…yes this is a thing I want.

I am so glad Silverman is not affiliated with Bioware anymore.

That’s why I want a mod kit for Mass Effect (and DA2), or at least logical and clear organization of game files to give modders an easier time with things like texture and model replacements.

I also vehemently agree with you on the body proportions. I remember seeing a behind-the-scenes / making of for Mass Effect, and they ended up using “console hardware limitations” as an excuse for only making one body type for each alien race, sharing all animations, and sharing the bodies between Asari/female humans and Batarians/male humans, which kinda irked me at the time (and made me happy we got male Quarians). I was also kinda mad at the body diversity (though I gotta admit most of it was me being mad that Shepard’s body looked too skinny to do all the physical stuff she’s doing in the game/her backstory (I have a thing for buff women), besides sharing animations with Sheploo, some good, some bad). If I had access to the source code for the games, I’d be in heaven adding support for mods, texture / model replacements, body diversity, the whole nine yards.

psdo:

badminbadger:

talesfromtheend:

psdo:

Also sorely misunderstood is how video game developers, in spite of their mysterious shroud of secrecy, are just people, who are perfectly capable of making bad decisions and be completely oblivious to them for years because video game development is done in a…

Increased use of consultations and better research sound like a good idea. I’m tempted to suggest Agile development too with client feedback consisting of the best arguments from the general public on a discussion forum, but that seems to be too vulnerable to getting overwhelmed by dudebros.

That’s definitely a risk. See: ME3 femshep beauty contest. However, good community managers might be able to pick out the most thoughtful fans and invite them somewhere to throw ideas around with developers. I know of a company that did that; wasn’t there unfortunately but it sounded like it was very productive for everyone involved, and rewarding the fans who’ve made almost a full time job of being fans is never amiss.

Yeah, the ME3 Femshep beauty contest was kind of a fiasco from start to finish, and then we ended up with a character’s face that was hand-sculpted instead of based off a real person’s face scan or created with the in game character creator. In the right lighting and angles she looks kinda badass, but in others she looks like a potato to me.

I like your idea of the “thoughtful fans meeting with developers”, too.

talesfromtheend:

psdo:

Also sorely misunderstood is how video game developers, in spite of their mysterious shroud of secrecy, are just people, who are perfectly capable of making bad decisions and be completely oblivious to them for years because video game development is done in a…

Increased use of consultations and better research sound like a good idea. I’m tempted to suggest Agile development too with client feedback consisting of the best arguments from the general public on a discussion forum, but that seems to be too vulnerable to getting overwhelmed by dudebros.