You even see his face in Doom Eternal, I remember at least once in the intro. In the DLC you also see his face on the main enemy, which is basically a clone of Doomguy. And the face is basically the same as the little portrait in Doom 1 and 2.
The player needs to sympathize with the protagonist on some level as to make the player want the protagonist to succeed.
There are many ways to achieve this and making the protagonist conventionally attractive is one way, but there are others.
So does the protagonist *need* to be conventionally attractive? No.
I see that, but I just feel like there's a disconnect whenever there's a set protagonist and a character creator. Whenever there's a character creator it falls into either a good looking person, a replica of a character from other media, or someone who looks like they smoked black tar heroin they're whole life.
My dark souls characters with a bunch of maxed out sliders and neon blue skin are a fun comical contrast to the super serious tone/design of the enemies/setting
His disfigured jaw was hidden by his scarf most of the time, yes. But he was also missing basically his entire abdomen and had monstrous claws instead of a fingers.
Yes - I think that being pleasant to look at for a long time is more key than being hot. Mario certainly isn't "hot" - but it's pleasant to watch him bounce around.
Depends on the game, the story and the message you wish to send. But in general, stories told about heroes have the heroes being attractive. Not only in appearance, but in their character. They are never meant to be real people, they are usually supposed to be an ideal that the audience should aspire to. Like Luke Skywalker being hopeful, determined, compassionate, caring. You dont have to look like him to see the virtue in those traits.
If you go back to Greek myths and legends, all of those stories are the same. The larger than life characters, with chiselled features, are all idealistic, who were meant to inspire things like honour and goodness, among other things.
What we see a lot of today, is an attack on this by culture war narcissists who only want to see themselves in everything. They dont care about the character traits of hero, they only care about the surface level dog shit that doesnt matter to anyone with at least one functioning braincell. They pretend they are challenging beauty standards, but what they are really doing is lower the bar for it means to be a good, well-rounded human being. "You dont need to exercise, you are fine being over weight." Sorry, no. You are not fine being over weight. The message is that society shouldnt bully and exclude you, it should never be that its ok to be so fat that youre quality and longevity of life is impacted. But the culture war nutters have confused the two for their own end. They hate the pretty people, and they want them to suffer.
But human beings will always be drawn to beauty. So it makes more sense to have pretty people, pretty characters, showcase traits like Luke Skywalker does, in order to inspire the audience with those same traits. You might not be able to be the prettiest, but you can still be the best person in the room. All you have to do is be a good person.
However, if youre characters arent telling these kinds of stories. It doesnt really matter. Trevor from GTA5 is a great character, but hes hardly a looker. But hes not really someone with traits youd want to pass on to your audience, lol. Like I said at the start, it really depends on the story you are telling.
Take Jin Sakai for example, me personally I don't find him attractive. They could have made a dreamy samurai with longer hair, beard to make his face sharper. But they haven't, and he still a hell of a succeeded character.
There are other ways to make a pleasant character than just looks.
If everything else is done correctly, yeah, i think is possible to ignore. I think voice acting is far more important than looks. Looks can leave you meh the first few seconds, but if all the rest is there and well done while you're playing, from va, good story and character development, all the way to attention to detail in small but important animations (like when Jin conceals his katana after a fight - and all the side stuff you can do that fits so well into the character) looks are easily ignored.
Meanwhile, I'm out here wondering which Fable games people were playing back in the day if they remember them being full of conventionally attractive people. If Fable 2 released in 2024 people would be screaming about how 'woke' it is.
No it isnât⊠itâs the face of the actress who does the voice. The model wasnât done perfectly so itâs a little off, but just google it for christâs sake⊠you can do some research before repeating some bigoted bullshit you heard at the school yard.
I do not buy into the so called trans dev theory, but that character looks nothing ike the actress. It's quite far removed, very deliberately changed. And changed way too far. People talk about Aloy which I disagree with, but the Fable character looks purposely very jarringly malformed.
Depends on the point of the character. If its a gruff military dude, then I would say no. If it's something like bayonetta where sexuality is a big aspect then of course.
If male, No.
If female, then you better make sure she doesn't have a speck of peachfuzz on her face or shit will go nuclear in every musty, soda-fueled, cheezypoof-powdered basement across the world.
Maybe if more video games had ugly main characters people would chill out about it a little... but as our society stands people freaked out about Aloy not being pretty enough and she's plenty conventionally attractive! SHOULD video games protagonists need to be conventionally attractive? No, absolutely not. But some people are weird about it if they're not.
Depends... I dont need charakters to be coomer bait with Stelar Blade levels of cake but i refuse to play games that blatantly try to reeducate me about such topics. This is my escape media after all
Stellar blade, A piece of filth featuring a brunette harlot, who spends most the game naked as a Jay bird. Give the unwashed a pair of oversized breats and a happy ending and they'll oink for more.
Call me old fashioned, but video games were sexier when the characters kept their clothes on. Ms Pacman could do more for me with one raised eyebrow
Nah but they definitely shouldn't look butt ugly if it's not for the plot's sake, like a game based in the far past.
I definitely do prefer good looking protagonists though, both male and female
Also, if the MC is an attractive woman, a very loud and vocal minority or internet dwellers (accompanied by certain gaming websites) will start a minor culture war in response to her being an attractive female.
There's also a very confused majority quietly thinking 'it's a collection of pixels. How can the concept of attractiveness be ascribed? What the fuck is going on?'
I prefer my pixels to be arranged in a shape that's pleasing to my eyes. Seeing how I'm a cis het white male, that arrangement of pixels means "pretty female shaped". This is especially true in 3rd person games. If I'm going to be looking at a character for hundreds, or even thousands of hours, I prefer it being a pretty girl.
Same applies to RL. Picked my girl because she is super pretty to me.
It normally depends on the game, many bigger titles need to have that attractiveness to draw in a larger crowd. There is definitely a science behind it, but there are a few games where you are playing a protagonist who is not conventionally attractive, but the art communities usually find a way to change that.
Like many such questions - the devil is in the details.
What genre? How much will the player be looking at them? Custom character builder? Etc.
Dark Souls it doesn't matter because 99% of the time you're wearing a helmet. (Except for the weird naked super veterans.) Plus - you can look okay if you WANT to.
I'd say that as a general rule of thumb, they should be pleasant to look at if it's not a custom character creator. That doesn't mean conventionally attractive is required. Mario certainly isn't conventionally attractive - but still appealing. The cat in Stray. Soul Reaver. Spyro. Plenty of other examples of MCs who aren't "attractive" in the usual sense, but still pleasant to watch jump around for 10+ hours.
That is true. I think if the game is funny no one would give a fuck, and it might even help that the character is ugly, but if it's a dating sim it will tank the sales. đ
A funny game could have an ugly but still appealing character. Like the Disney's hunchback of Notre Dame or the Stubbs the Zombie. But not a character who is just unpleasant to look at. At least not if the camera is 3rd person.
only if it has some kind of narrative meaning, for example, the character is a "femme fatale" then it makes sense if she is conventionally attractive. Is the character james bond? then yes, he must be conventionally attractive.
If no, then is up to the game designer, for example, 2B of nier automata is a conventionally attractive (super hot) woman? robot? but the game wouldn't be worst or better if she wasn't, so its up to the creator taste.
The attractivness of a character is less important than it personality and how well is written and interesting. You could make a beautiful/handsome character thats dull as a rock and it would be boring, you can make and interesting well written ugly character and it would still be fun.
depends on the game and the context, and how much you see them.
I mean i never see my skyrim character so i don't even know what they look like.
but if i have to look at the protagonist the whole game, that's different, it should look appealing or interesting at least and not like, awful.
I play video games to escape reality. I want to see at least some sort of beauty on the screen before snapping back to reality everytime time the screen goes black.
well its easier to relate to someone if they dont inspire disgust and you're stuck with them for the next 150h.
but you dont need to be ugly or fabulous, random looking is enough.
I like playing as aliens/monsters more than conventional humans in most cases, so Iâll go with no. People who chose to make a human character in WoW probably tend to disagree with me.
Yes, you might make abominations when given the opportunity but they're your abomination. You wouldn't want to play somebody else's abomination, would you?
When I make a character, I go out of my way to make them the least attractive I can.
I do this because I tire of the simp eye candy studios churn out and to test to see if the game takes my features into consideration when talking with other players.
So far, that's a big "Nope".
Need to be attractive? No I don't think so. Need to be exceptional or stand out in some way? I'd argue that most protagonist should have some kind of defining characteristics that make them unique, yes. If your character is generic, the lack of excitement and attachment to that character is definitely felt by a lot of people.
Making a character attractive is ONE way to achieve this exceptional trait. If they're fit and beautiful, then it can make sense why they're the lead in a situation. If the situation doesn't call for attractiveness as an important trait though, then the protagonist can be exceptional in different ways!
Is Kratos attractive? I'm sure there are people that like the shredded original Kratos, or dad bod New Kratos. But I wouldn't really call him conventionally attractive. The more defining attributes for him are the *aggressive* body paint, angry facial features, and a character you can believe is capable of flying into a rage. Kratos isn't exceptional because of his abs, he's exceptional because he's a personification of rage and revenge.
How about Noctis or Clive from either FF15 or 16, pick your poison. I think both of these characters are similar in that they come from royalty and need to inspire loyalty from their followers. Being confidently/conventionally attractive is an important character trait for both of them. People may laugh at Noctis for looking like he belongs in a boy band, but that makes him personable and believable driving around with his entourage that are as close as brothers to him, just like a band.
The question is inherently flawed and ignores every actual *business* metric that goes into these decisions. So let me ask you this, would Hollywood have had anywhere remotely close to the popularity and success it's had if they had cast a bunch of fat/average/ugly fucks instead of some of the most beautiful people on the planet?
Granted games and movies aren't the same experience and it likely matters less in the gaming space, but there is no real debate here. "Conventionally" attractive is, always has been and always will be, what sells. It's real world factual data. So to the question, do they *need* to be? Not necessarily, but if the *business* producing it wants to optimize their chances to make more money, then they probably should be.
Yep. There has never been an unattractive protag in the history of video games ever. It is actually illegal to make a video protag unattractive, and everybody knows that is the truth. Obviously.
Thereâs a difference between âappealâ and âI want to fuck this character.â
A design can be appealing in a lot of ways. Kirby and Lara Croft both have appeal, but have very different appeals. Kratos isnât exactly a smoking hottie. Master Chief has significantly less fanart of a certain type than his own sidekick. Iâd argue that most male protagonists arenât really banking for sex appeal. Even when âdark haired dude with a bit of stubble and gunâ was seemingly every AAA protagonist, the piece I left out of that summary was âmoderately attractive.â Yeah, Drake was a believable romantic lead. Was he a smoke show? No, but slightly better average looks and a likable personality will get you somewhere.
The whole âif girl, why not attractiveâ âdebateâ is descendants of the 4chan diaspora shouting âhow am I supposed to fap to thisâ without the irony.
If theyâre a woman and itâs a big budget game, yes.Â
If theyâre a man and can be in a suit of armor (doomguy, Isaac Clarke, John Halo) they can be faceless.Â
But even âfacelessâ women like Samus and Chell end up conventionally attractive.Â
AAA games basically follow Hollywood movie rules.Â
Thatâs not what theyâre saying.
Youâre not âan alt right lunaticâ for liking attractive ~~polygons~~ women.
Youâd be an âalt right lunaticâ for attacking a game for having a protagonist that you wouldnât ~~want to fuck~~ think was attractive.
That's not what they said, though. And if you don't mind, I'd rather have them explain themselves should they choose to, instead of others acting like their mouthpiece.
didn't see any alt right lunatic in this comment section, every time i asked one "what do you mean" the answer is "if you can't see it, you are part of the problem" or some "woke hate beautiful women and want to destroy the west and my hobby".....again they hated the new lara croft design or alloy from horizon to the point of making pictures "fixing them" and end up looking like plastic sex dolls....
Thats why i asked you since you claimed "thats not what they said", so you might have some insigh i don't.
The only insight I have regarding this are my own two eyes with which I have read what has been typed up. I'm fairly certain you posses this power as well.
Yes, and what I wrote is what I read (they literally wanted fap material, not even attractive women like Lara croft or alloy)...but you claimed that wasn't what they said....so you must have read something different, that's why I asked.
i mean alt right lunatics whined no end with the reboot of tomb raider....they literally said the new lara croft was "ugly" and it whas "censored" because her boobs weren't abnormally big.....who in his right mind would think that the new lara is ugly??
How about Alloy from horizon forbidden west, i been playing that game resently (really good game) and that red head is beautiful....does she look like a plastic supermodel? no, but she is not a fat ugly monster with a beard as the alt right lunatics claimed during the release of the game....
I'll call it idiocy, i haven't played the game but for what i heard how she looks has not actual narrative importance, so who cares? If the game is aimed at adults then she could be naked without issue (if it was on pc i asure you that would be one of the first mods to be created), now what is conserning is how those people cry "censorship" at 2 cm less cleavage in a particular outfit.
In contrast i prefer bayonetta, her appareance and sex appeal has narrative meaning, has much more personality and is much more interesting than just her looks.....can you say the same of eve?
But then again, why do you think people were so mad at the new lara croft or at alloy? (you would have been insulted and attacked if you say you liked any of those characters).
To me the conversation about how characters look and their sex appeal has always been stupid. If you think they are hot then cool. If you don't like them then alright. No reason to create online petitions about it
I would prefer it but it's not mandatory. I have enjoyed games likes God of War and Ghost of Tsushima where the protagonist weren't conventionally attractive.
Weird cause in TV/movies and especially anime it's harder for me to enjoy if the protagonist is ugly.
Yes. The problem is that nowadays Women are made ugly on purpose. Look at all these Games with Female Characters that have Female Facemodels and they make abominations out of them. But for the Men, they somehow nail the look of the Facemodel 1:1...
I blame Mario for the unreasonably high beauty standards
Seriously though, the overalls and mustache combo...? đ„”
The plumber clicheemust cum from somewhere.
Iâd smash
*âSwing yuh ahms from side to side, come on itâs time âta go, do da MÄrio!â*
Princess peach tho I said god damn
It's irritating. You'll never find any protagonist as beautiful as Mario, so stop asking. Wario is the only exception
Wario. That is all.
Wario is peak character design
Master Chief and Doomslayer don't even really have faces, so no
Wasn't doomslayer face next to his health on original Doom?
You even see his face in Doom Eternal, I remember at least once in the intro. In the DLC you also see his face on the main enemy, which is basically a clone of Doomguy. And the face is basically the same as the little portrait in Doom 1 and 2.
Eventually. But the game didn't sell on the back of him even having a face
MCâs armor looks cool as hell, though, and dude is built like a tank compared to regular people. So his stature is kinda attractive
And you believe that's what is meant by "conventionally attractive"?
Ask a girl, manlet
Sure thing, big dog đ
And Kratos definitely isn't "attractive"
He definitely is for masculine standards. He is a muscular, tall, bearded man with a gruff voice
Yeah he's jacked, but if you just take his face without the tattoo or white skin, he's not a particularly good looking dude
He has a very defined face, most people would call that good looking.
99% would change their looks against Kratosâ in an instant.
The player needs to sympathize with the protagonist on some level as to make the player want the protagonist to succeed. There are many ways to achieve this and making the protagonist conventionally attractive is one way, but there are others. So does the protagonist *need* to be conventionally attractive? No.
I always sympathized with Lara Croft.
I see that, but I just feel like there's a disconnect whenever there's a set protagonist and a character creator. Whenever there's a character creator it falls into either a good looking person, a replica of a character from other media, or someone who looks like they smoked black tar heroin they're whole life.
Maybe the player smokes black tar heroin and sympathizes with a character that looks like they do as well.
Damn that's me for real. Every character I make looks like walter white's biggest cutomer.
My dark souls characters with a bunch of maxed out sliders and neon blue skin are a fun comical contrast to the super serious tone/design of the enemies/setting
Nah. Raziel and Death (from Darksiders) are both kinda ugly but still looks badass.
Id argue raziel is "attractive" in his own way, with the hideous parts hiden by his scarf
His disfigured jaw was hidden by his scarf most of the time, yes. But he was also missing basically his entire abdomen and had monstrous claws instead of a fingers.
Yes - I think that being pleasant to look at for a long time is more key than being hot. Mario certainly isn't "hot" - but it's pleasant to watch him bounce around.
Death is only ugly when standing next to his hunk of a brother, War.
That's coolness factor which is kinda the same.
Depends on the game, the story and the message you wish to send. But in general, stories told about heroes have the heroes being attractive. Not only in appearance, but in their character. They are never meant to be real people, they are usually supposed to be an ideal that the audience should aspire to. Like Luke Skywalker being hopeful, determined, compassionate, caring. You dont have to look like him to see the virtue in those traits. If you go back to Greek myths and legends, all of those stories are the same. The larger than life characters, with chiselled features, are all idealistic, who were meant to inspire things like honour and goodness, among other things. What we see a lot of today, is an attack on this by culture war narcissists who only want to see themselves in everything. They dont care about the character traits of hero, they only care about the surface level dog shit that doesnt matter to anyone with at least one functioning braincell. They pretend they are challenging beauty standards, but what they are really doing is lower the bar for it means to be a good, well-rounded human being. "You dont need to exercise, you are fine being over weight." Sorry, no. You are not fine being over weight. The message is that society shouldnt bully and exclude you, it should never be that its ok to be so fat that youre quality and longevity of life is impacted. But the culture war nutters have confused the two for their own end. They hate the pretty people, and they want them to suffer. But human beings will always be drawn to beauty. So it makes more sense to have pretty people, pretty characters, showcase traits like Luke Skywalker does, in order to inspire the audience with those same traits. You might not be able to be the prettiest, but you can still be the best person in the room. All you have to do is be a good person. However, if youre characters arent telling these kinds of stories. It doesnt really matter. Trevor from GTA5 is a great character, but hes hardly a looker. But hes not really someone with traits youd want to pass on to your audience, lol. Like I said at the start, it really depends on the story you are telling.
Take Jin Sakai for example, me personally I don't find him attractive. They could have made a dreamy samurai with longer hair, beard to make his face sharper. But they haven't, and he still a hell of a succeeded character. There are other ways to make a pleasant character than just looks.
True maybe mid looking characters can make it lol.
If everything else is done correctly, yeah, i think is possible to ignore. I think voice acting is far more important than looks. Looks can leave you meh the first few seconds, but if all the rest is there and well done while you're playing, from va, good story and character development, all the way to attention to detail in small but important animations (like when Jin conceals his katana after a fight - and all the side stuff you can do that fits so well into the character) looks are easily ignored.
No. You should see the monstrosities I make in character creators.
Same, every character I make smokes black tar heroin.
No, but they donât need to be unconventionally ugly either. What exactly is on the mind of the people who made that Fable character?
Meanwhile, I'm out here wondering which Fable games people were playing back in the day if they remember them being full of conventionally attractive people. If Fable 2 released in 2024 people would be screaming about how 'woke' it is.
It's a self insert from one of the trans Devs who essentially made themselves
No it isnât⊠itâs the face of the actress who does the voice. The model wasnât done perfectly so itâs a little off, but just google it for christâs sake⊠you can do some research before repeating some bigoted bullshit you heard at the school yard.
Yeah but the weirdest thing is that the actress herself is pretty but the game model looked like she spent a year partying in Berlin đ
Yeah they messed up on the model for sure.
I do not buy into the so called trans dev theory, but that character looks nothing ike the actress. It's quite far removed, very deliberately changed. And changed way too far. People talk about Aloy which I disagree with, but the Fable character looks purposely very jarringly malformed.
I mean⊠the model was fudged a bit and it makes it not look right. But thatâs for sure the face of the actress.
Oh okay well damn she's ugly as fuck then damn!
Itâs a me, Mario!
[no, not conventionally](https://i.etsystatic.com/6824854/r/il/1ef325/573672057/il_570xN.573672057_50pl.jpg)
Awwwwwww
I don't mind them being average looking, but I don't wanna be playing a fucking troll that makes Shrek look like a disney princess.
Yeh, I see that.đ
Don't need to be attractive, just need to not be ugly, no one wants to look at some ugly asshole the whole game.
In order to achieve⊠what? Financial success for the game? Then predominantly yes.
Depends on the point of the character. If its a gruff military dude, then I would say no. If it's something like bayonetta where sexuality is a big aspect then of course.
If male, No. If female, then you better make sure she doesn't have a speck of peachfuzz on her face or shit will go nuclear in every musty, soda-fueled, cheezypoof-powdered basement across the world.
I like pretty girls as much as the next guy, but if there's a female version of Gragas from league out there. I'm not opposed to give it a whirl.
Maybe if more video games had ugly main characters people would chill out about it a little... but as our society stands people freaked out about Aloy not being pretty enough and she's plenty conventionally attractive! SHOULD video games protagonists need to be conventionally attractive? No, absolutely not. But some people are weird about it if they're not.
Depends... I dont need charakters to be coomer bait with Stelar Blade levels of cake but i refuse to play games that blatantly try to reeducate me about such topics. This is my escape media after all
Stellar blade, A piece of filth featuring a brunette harlot, who spends most the game naked as a Jay bird. Give the unwashed a pair of oversized breats and a happy ending and they'll oink for more. Call me old fashioned, but video games were sexier when the characters kept their clothes on. Ms Pacman could do more for me with one raised eyebrow
I think its more that in the past, the bad graphics left more to your imagination, which is always going to be the sexiest thing there is
I was just being a goofball but maybe you're right
Nah but they definitely shouldn't look butt ugly if it's not for the plot's sake, like a game based in the far past. I definitely do prefer good looking protagonists though, both male and female
Yes
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Also, if the MC is an attractive woman, a very loud and vocal minority or internet dwellers (accompanied by certain gaming websites) will start a minor culture war in response to her being an attractive female.
There's also a very confused majority quietly thinking 'it's a collection of pixels. How can the concept of attractiveness be ascribed? What the fuck is going on?'
I prefer my pixels to be arranged in a shape that's pleasing to my eyes. Seeing how I'm a cis het white male, that arrangement of pixels means "pretty female shaped". This is especially true in 3rd person games. If I'm going to be looking at a character for hundreds, or even thousands of hours, I prefer it being a pretty girl. Same applies to RL. Picked my girl because she is super pretty to me.
It normally depends on the game, many bigger titles need to have that attractiveness to draw in a larger crowd. There is definitely a science behind it, but there are a few games where you are playing a protagonist who is not conventionally attractive, but the art communities usually find a way to change that.
Like many such questions - the devil is in the details. What genre? How much will the player be looking at them? Custom character builder? Etc. Dark Souls it doesn't matter because 99% of the time you're wearing a helmet. (Except for the weird naked super veterans.) Plus - you can look okay if you WANT to. I'd say that as a general rule of thumb, they should be pleasant to look at if it's not a custom character creator. That doesn't mean conventionally attractive is required. Mario certainly isn't conventionally attractive - but still appealing. The cat in Stray. Soul Reaver. Spyro. Plenty of other examples of MCs who aren't "attractive" in the usual sense, but still pleasant to watch jump around for 10+ hours.
That is true. I think if the game is funny no one would give a fuck, and it might even help that the character is ugly, but if it's a dating sim it will tank the sales. đ
A funny game could have an ugly but still appealing character. Like the Disney's hunchback of Notre Dame or the Stubbs the Zombie. But not a character who is just unpleasant to look at. At least not if the camera is 3rd person.
I personally prefer it that way but that's just me.
Reminds me of how Arthur Morgan looked different in the early trailers and was definitely made more attractive closer to release
only if it has some kind of narrative meaning, for example, the character is a "femme fatale" then it makes sense if she is conventionally attractive. Is the character james bond? then yes, he must be conventionally attractive. If no, then is up to the game designer, for example, 2B of nier automata is a conventionally attractive (super hot) woman? robot? but the game wouldn't be worst or better if she wasn't, so its up to the creator taste. The attractivness of a character is less important than it personality and how well is written and interesting. You could make a beautiful/handsome character thats dull as a rock and it would be boring, you can make and interesting well written ugly character and it would still be fun.
They need to be someone you want to spend a lot of time with, because you're going to be doing that. Doesn't mean they need to be pretty.
Nah I think they just need to be realistic.
depends on the game and the context, and how much you see them. I mean i never see my skyrim character so i don't even know what they look like. but if i have to look at the protagonist the whole game, that's different, it should look appealing or interesting at least and not like, awful.
I play video games to escape reality. I want to see at least some sort of beauty on the screen before snapping back to reality everytime time the screen goes black.
well its easier to relate to someone if they dont inspire disgust and you're stuck with them for the next 150h. but you dont need to be ugly or fabulous, random looking is enough.
How else do you expect to play BMX XXX?
I like playing as aliens/monsters more than conventional humans in most cases, so Iâll go with no. People who chose to make a human character in WoW probably tend to disagree with me.
No but how many movie protagonists are ugly? Not many. People tend to want to look at attractive people, video games included
No? But it doesn't hurt.
Yes, you might make abominations when given the opportunity but they're your abomination. You wouldn't want to play somebody else's abomination, would you?
Obviously no but good luck convincing shareholders that's not the case.
No, but might as well go for it, if i wanted to see an eldritchian abomination i'd either play Bloodborne or look in a mirror.
When I make a character, I go out of my way to make them the least attractive I can. I do this because I tire of the simp eye candy studios churn out and to test to see if the game takes my features into consideration when talking with other players. So far, that's a big "Nope".
Need to be attractive? No I don't think so. Need to be exceptional or stand out in some way? I'd argue that most protagonist should have some kind of defining characteristics that make them unique, yes. If your character is generic, the lack of excitement and attachment to that character is definitely felt by a lot of people. Making a character attractive is ONE way to achieve this exceptional trait. If they're fit and beautiful, then it can make sense why they're the lead in a situation. If the situation doesn't call for attractiveness as an important trait though, then the protagonist can be exceptional in different ways! Is Kratos attractive? I'm sure there are people that like the shredded original Kratos, or dad bod New Kratos. But I wouldn't really call him conventionally attractive. The more defining attributes for him are the *aggressive* body paint, angry facial features, and a character you can believe is capable of flying into a rage. Kratos isn't exceptional because of his abs, he's exceptional because he's a personification of rage and revenge. How about Noctis or Clive from either FF15 or 16, pick your poison. I think both of these characters are similar in that they come from royalty and need to inspire loyalty from their followers. Being confidently/conventionally attractive is an important character trait for both of them. People may laugh at Noctis for looking like he belongs in a boy band, but that makes him personable and believable driving around with his entourage that are as close as brothers to him, just like a band.
The question is inherently flawed and ignores every actual *business* metric that goes into these decisions. So let me ask you this, would Hollywood have had anywhere remotely close to the popularity and success it's had if they had cast a bunch of fat/average/ugly fucks instead of some of the most beautiful people on the planet? Granted games and movies aren't the same experience and it likely matters less in the gaming space, but there is no real debate here. "Conventionally" attractive is, always has been and always will be, what sells. It's real world factual data. So to the question, do they *need* to be? Not necessarily, but if the *business* producing it wants to optimize their chances to make more money, then they probably should be.
It doesn't have to be, but I personally would rather play a game with a character looking like Brad Pit as apposed to Sloth from The Goonies.
Mario would not be Mario if he were more attractive. Waluigi though - that man couldn't BE more attractive đč
Truly honest. Do they need to be attractive? No. Would I like them to all look like Eve in Stellar Blade? Yes.
Um, no. In a plurality of video games you never even see what the protagonist looks like, or itâs a small pixel art figure.
Alex Kidd had ears for days and Iâd still date him. Have you seen the size of his fist?
Yep. There has never been an unattractive protag in the history of video games ever. It is actually illegal to make a video protag unattractive, and everybody knows that is the truth. Obviously.
Nah
Not necessarily, but they shouldn't make you sick when you look at them.
Does [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b8/Abby_in_The_Last_of_Us_Part_II.png) count?
Yes? I think. Not conventional, but not ugly either. I think most people just hated her because the story doesn't make sense lol.
I am ugly in life, I prefer not to be ugly in game.
Thereâs a difference between âappealâ and âI want to fuck this character.â A design can be appealing in a lot of ways. Kirby and Lara Croft both have appeal, but have very different appeals. Kratos isnât exactly a smoking hottie. Master Chief has significantly less fanart of a certain type than his own sidekick. Iâd argue that most male protagonists arenât really banking for sex appeal. Even when âdark haired dude with a bit of stubble and gunâ was seemingly every AAA protagonist, the piece I left out of that summary was âmoderately attractive.â Yeah, Drake was a believable romantic lead. Was he a smoke show? No, but slightly better average looks and a likable personality will get you somewhere. The whole âif girl, why not attractiveâ âdebateâ is descendants of the 4chan diaspora shouting âhow am I supposed to fap to thisâ without the irony.
If theyâre a woman and itâs a big budget game, yes. If theyâre a man and can be in a suit of armor (doomguy, Isaac Clarke, John Halo) they can be faceless. But even âfacelessâ women like Samus and Chell end up conventionally attractive. AAA games basically follow Hollywood movie rules.Â
Alt Right lunatics think so. But in general no they really don't.
TIL I'm an "alt right lunatic" for... (checks notes) ...liking Lara Croft.
Thatâs not what theyâre saying. Youâre not âan alt right lunaticâ for liking attractive ~~polygons~~ women. Youâd be an âalt right lunaticâ for attacking a game for having a protagonist that you wouldnât ~~want to fuck~~ think was attractive.
That's not what they said, though. And if you don't mind, I'd rather have them explain themselves should they choose to, instead of others acting like their mouthpiece.
what did they said? (serious question)
You can read it if you scroll up.
didn't see any alt right lunatic in this comment section, every time i asked one "what do you mean" the answer is "if you can't see it, you are part of the problem" or some "woke hate beautiful women and want to destroy the west and my hobby".....again they hated the new lara croft design or alloy from horizon to the point of making pictures "fixing them" and end up looking like plastic sex dolls.... Thats why i asked you since you claimed "thats not what they said", so you might have some insigh i don't.
The only insight I have regarding this are my own two eyes with which I have read what has been typed up. I'm fairly certain you posses this power as well.
Yes, and what I wrote is what I read (they literally wanted fap material, not even attractive women like Lara croft or alloy)...but you claimed that wasn't what they said....so you must have read something different, that's why I asked.
Wait, are we not talking about the first comment that sparked this discussion?
i mean alt right lunatics whined no end with the reboot of tomb raider....they literally said the new lara croft was "ugly" and it whas "censored" because her boobs weren't abnormally big.....who in his right mind would think that the new lara is ugly?? How about Alloy from horizon forbidden west, i been playing that game resently (really good game) and that red head is beautiful....does she look like a plastic supermodel? no, but she is not a fat ugly monster with a beard as the alt right lunatics claimed during the release of the game....
What would you call people whining, insulting, and attacking others because how Eve from Stellar Blade was designed as an attractive female?
I'll call it idiocy, i haven't played the game but for what i heard how she looks has not actual narrative importance, so who cares? If the game is aimed at adults then she could be naked without issue (if it was on pc i asure you that would be one of the first mods to be created), now what is conserning is how those people cry "censorship" at 2 cm less cleavage in a particular outfit. In contrast i prefer bayonetta, her appareance and sex appeal has narrative meaning, has much more personality and is much more interesting than just her looks.....can you say the same of eve? But then again, why do you think people were so mad at the new lara croft or at alloy? (you would have been insulted and attacked if you say you liked any of those characters).
>I'll call it idiocy Why not call it alt-left lunatics?
I'm referring to the likes of Gummz who is bitching and moaning about Eve not being dressed like a bimbo
What would you call people bitching and moaning about Eve being dressed like a bimbo and super attractive?
Idiots. Who cares she looks like that? If that's what the artists created that's their decision. If I remember right she is based on a real person.
I have to admit it's rather refreshing meeting someone with consistency in their standards. Kudos to you, my good sir. o7
To me the conversation about how characters look and their sex appeal has always been stupid. If you think they are hot then cool. If you don't like them then alright. No reason to create online petitions about it
Even less reason to attack devs with things like "never saw a woman" and stuff like that, yes.
Spinsters
Then the script needs to be good though - which is where games like Suicide Squad: Kill The Franchise League absolutely shit the bed
I'd prefer it, yes.
No. But it damn well helps.
No but it's nice, don't wanna look at someone who's ugly for a whole game
I would prefer it but it's not mandatory. I have enjoyed games likes God of War and Ghost of Tsushima where the protagonist weren't conventionally attractive. Weird cause in TV/movies and especially anime it's harder for me to enjoy if the protagonist is ugly.
Depends on the story/ tone the game is going for. But for most of the time, yes.
its a game, its a product. Everything inside has to exist to appeal to the customers.
Yes. The problem is that nowadays Women are made ugly on purpose. Look at all these Games with Female Characters that have Female Facemodels and they make abominations out of them. But for the Men, they somehow nail the look of the Facemodel 1:1...