The third game in the BioShock series leaves the bottom of the sea behind for an entirely new setting - the floating city of Columbia, circa 1912. Come to retrieve a girl named Elizabeth, ex-detective Booker DeWitt finds more in store for him there than he could ever imagine.
@Slaker117: I compared something she did to something that I've seen in anime. That is in no way similar. And it's also funny now that you made that jump.
I'm sorry. Again, art design, yes. Giving that character massively huge fists is a choice. Giving your love interest character massively huge breasts is a choice. Bringing up art design does not explain anything other then that the character designers made a choice. The choice was to oversexualize your character by giving her massively huge breasts, in the same way the fist character is overly threatening.
Again, it is disturbing that people would support that desision because "then players will inevitably want to come to her aid when they play through the game moreso than a character that has not been sexualized," and it disturbing that people can't seem to recognize that the character's breasts are massively huge, almost as if their only acquaintance with the female body is though the heavily surgically enhanced women of porn. You and I can look at that man's proportions and see they are wrong. People aren't quite getting that the female character's proportions are wrong as well.
You and I both know this isn't an interesting character who just happens to have big tits. This is big tits that just happens to have an interesting character behind them. It's insulting and puerile. That's why.
@Ragdrazi: I'm not saying I think she looks like an anime character, but the way you describe her is exaggerated similarly.
This seems like a circular augment at this point. I've said my piece, you've said yours, and they don't line up. I feel you are being overly assuming and cynical, you probably think I'm naive or something of the like.
And dude, seriously, yes, her breasts are very big. For a woman wearing a corset in a universe with an cartoony style to it, they are not as unreasonable as you make them sound.
It's not disgusting to use physical characteristics to imply archetypes. It's a trick writers have been doing since writing has been around. It's more overt here, sure, maybe even cheap, but we don't know how things are going to play out. You are being presumptuous.
EDIT: Ok, so I removed a bit that I think went too far. I know I still said it and you probably read it, but I don't want to go there, it's not my business. This is my acknowledgement of that.
Corsets from the Edwardian era: http://www.antiquecorsetgallery.com/edwardian.php
Third one on the left looks a bit like Lizzy's corset. These corsets are circa 1920.
I searched "1920's women's fashion" and it pulled up these pictures. Some of these are pretty racy, and yes, the corset seems to make their chest look bigger.
Her character design doesn't look so unrealistic to me when you compare it to giant robot men, a city in the sky and other assorted nonsense that's going to be in this game. In fact, the exaggerated size of the eyes and face help the artists convey emotion better.
In my opinion, they've taken a very realistic look at something a young person in the time period would wear (Keep in mind, this isn't in a time period with our sensibilities on the whole gender model.)
I think it's a bit of hyperbole for you to say she's over sexualized. To me, someone who's a thirty-year-old adult, all I can see about her (from the previews) are her earnest face and innocent voice.
Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to tell you boobs are great, but sexy is more than a flash of cleavage. Sexy is sultry, sexy is alluring, sexy is more than an image, it's a state of being. You'd get the same answer from just about any man who's felt the inside of a vagina.
I say get angry if they depict her as a sexpot (which previews show they don't, and also, it's been said she's clever and useful in a fight) so you'll have to forgive me if I seem a little cynical on your view of this character, because, well, you haven't even fucking touched the game.
@Ragdrazi: The level of self-righteousness you've displayed so far is absolutely ridiculous. All I'm saying is that sometimes from a design standpoint it makes sense to sexualize your character. In a film you can have an astoundingly beautiful actress with physical characteristics hardly resembling the norm and as long as the her addition to the film isn't simply sexual pandering then I don't see a problem with that. As @Slaker117 pointed out, the design of Elizabeth could easily be for the purpose of implying an archetype. This archetype is not like Alyx Vance. She may have her strengths, but Elizabeth isn't supposed to be a strong independent woman and her character design should reflect that. The character is supposed to be young and beautiful and the players should want to save her. She is essentially a damsel in distress, it is a somewhat cliche archetype, but it has been used in many great stories.
As for Soul Calibur being a metric, I think that games like that do represent an example of absurd sexualization in the discussed medium so it makes sense to me to use it as a point of comparison. I don't know what your personal metric for breast-size is, but it clearly differs from most users who've posted in this thread.
Overall I think you're making a lot of assumptions about a character in a game that has not been released yet. I don't get all riled up when a director casts an astoundingly beautiful actress for a role in a film, as long as she is a capable performer and does her part to make the film great, however if she's purely eye-candy then I might see a problem. If Bioshock Infinite tells a great story and creates an interesting world and Elizabeth becomes an integral part of that story and world then I think the character, as a whole, is justified. You may disagree, and you're allowed to disagree, but I don't see throwing accusations at Irrational as being fair when so little is known/has been seen of this game.
I don't really find her to be overly sexualized. I think the large eyes are there to make her appear more innocent and make the player want to protect her more actively (just like the physiological response we have to babies and baby animals who also have larger eyes).
I think the cleavage is intentional though and I assume it is there to include some sexual tone between the relationship of her and the main character. Perhaps the story will flesh this out or take advantage of it later, who knows.
Either way, I don't really think she looks ridiculous and in the demo footage they put up today it seems that she is a very strong and capable character in her own right (and maybe that is something else they want to toy with, her appearance versus her personality, etc.)
this reminds me of that article where one of the producers on bulletstorm had to fight tooth and nail with one of the character designers in order to keep the female lead's bust size somewhat reasonable. the character designer's reasoning was "b..b..but i like big boobs :<"
but no, i am sure this time the designers only gave elizabeth giant titty cleavage to give her character some much need pathos and not because video games are played and designed almost exclusively by socially stunted, pasty white male virgins.
Or maybe gamers just like big tits. I think we're over-thinking this, honestly.
Seriously agree with you, that youtube video above is the perfect example of WAY over thinking something that is obviously being worked on by smarter people in the big picture RUN ON SENTENCES
I don't see what the problem is. Maybe you guys are just a bunch of pussies?
Honestly, her personality isn't lustful at all, and she isn't presented that way.
You guys can't be serious saying that her cleavage is distracting! Distracting from what? If a pair of tits hamper your ability to play video games, you should probably either find a new hobby or re-assess your priorities.
Motherfuckers. How dare they make a character look visually appealing? I'm done with CD Projekt RED, they made Triss look like a goddamn hooker. Going around displaying her cleavage and all. I am personally fucking offended. I mean, look at this. Until they change the way she looks I can never look at this game ever again. Who do they think they are? Fuck that shit.
so do a lot of other people, that doesn't mean they're sex objects
I think that gets right down to the crux of the issue and something that's really interesting. A lot of people are immediately equating big breasts or cleavage with sexual objectification, and that's completely wrong. If Elizabeth was in the game as a sex object, she would be defined solely by her appearance and her personality, intelligence and abilities would be inconsequential. it's pretty obvious that isn't the case if you've followed the game at all.
so do a lot of other people, that doesn't mean they're sex objects
I think that gets right down to the crux of the issue and something that's really interesting. A lot of people are immediately equating big breasts or cleavage with sexual objectification, and that's completely wrong. If Elizabeth was in the game as a sex object, she would be defined solely by her appearance and her personality, intelligence and abilities would be inconsequential. it's pretty obvious that isn't the case if you've followed the game at all.
When I first saw her, the first thing that struck me was how large her eyes were. She looks like a character from a Disney film, minus the large breasts. If a game has a female in it that plays even a minor role, chances are she is going to be designed disproportionate to what "real" women look like. It's a fact of the industry, and very few examples break away from this mold. (Jade from Beyond Good and Evil is a good example, but again, she is in the minority.) It's sad, but when it comes down to it games are a product, meant to sell as well as possible and we all know that sex sells.
I still wonder why Bioware has chosen to ignore the female version of Sheppard in their advertisement and game covers for Mass Effect, because if they put her on the cover it would probably sell better. Not that it needs any help selling, nor will Bioshock Infinite for that matter, most likely.
I still wonder why Bioware has chosen to ignore the female version of Sheppard in their advertisement and game covers for Mass Effect, because if they put her on the cover it would probably sell better. Not that it needs any help selling, nor will Bioshock Infinite for that matter, most likely.
@FluxWaveZ: Cool, I wasn't aware of that, glad I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition then. Don't know why it took them three entries to get to this point though.
Also, my Sheppard has always been a female. Ever since ME1. But I made mine a blonde, so it's kind of weird to see her as a brunette. Oh well, at least she is getting some attention. I swear, I can't even play ME with a male Sheppard, his voice annoys the hell out of me.
All the characters are stylized to high heaven and you people complain about a cartoony face? What? Look at every other Vox Member, those posters of Comstock, the projections of Fitzgerald, hell even Booker himself in the IGN reveal.
Where do you people get this shit? Did you think the original Bioshock had anywhere near realistic faces?
When I first saw her, the first thing that struck me was how large her eyes were. She looks like a character from a Disney film, minus the large breasts. If a game has a female in it that plays even a minor role, chances are she is going to be designed disproportionate to what "real" women look like. It's a fact of the industry, and very few examples break away from this mold. (Jade from Beyond Good and Evil is a good example, but again, she is in the minority.) It's sad, but when it comes down to it games are a product, meant to sell as well as possible and we all know that sex sells. I still wonder why Bioware has chosen to ignore the female version of Sheppard in their advertisement and game covers for Mass Effect, because if they put her on the cover it would probably sell better. Not that it needs any help selling, nor will Bioshock Infinite for that matter, most likely.
so do a lot of other people, that doesn't mean they're sex objects
I think that gets right down to the crux of the issue and something that's really interesting. A lot of people are immediately equating big breasts or cleavage with sexual objectification, and that's completely wrong. If Elizabeth was in the game as a sex object, she would be defined solely by her appearance and her personality, intelligence and abilities would be inconsequential. it's pretty obvious that isn't the case if you've followed the game at all.
All the characters are stylized to high heaven and you people complain about a cartoony face? What? Look at every other Vox Member, those posters of Comstock, the projections of Fitzgerald, hell even Booker himself in the IGN reveal.
Where do you people get this shit? Did you think the original Bioshock had anywhere near realistic faces?
Have you even heard of Norman Rockwell? Fuck.
I wish they went realistic with all the Bioshocks... this Elizabeth takes it to another level with her eyes, I can't stop thinking how absurd they are.
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