What is the message here? "Hey, fanboy! You like the Dungeons & Dragons? Then check out this chick's crotch!"? I understand that gratuitous displays of flesh are part and parcel of the art direction of the hobby, but this particular example is about as vulgar as you can get without going for outright nudity. Hell, there's plenty of ways a completely nude female could be used in a more tasteful ad.
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Yeah ... That's just odd.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I'm as happy about hawt-chicks-with-swords as the next geek, but the fantasy of a beautiful ass-kicking woman in the context of high adventure is not really served by a random digital crotch-shot :/
Makes me wonder if it wasn't a creative choice made by a non-gamer, someone taking a surface-level guess at the appeal of the games without really understanding what the draw is. We get a lot of that in the paper industry, though, so I may just be projecting :)
When I started going to Anime Central (the first year of the con), I decided it would be nice to get a t-shirt each year. The second year, I declined to get a shirt.
ReplyDeleteSee, the design depicted a catgirl in a bikini leaping essentially crotch-first at the viewer. The bikini was patterned with large pawprints, one of which was squarely on the crotch. More than one person implied that there was something wrong with me for not wanting to wear this.
*sigh*
completely unrelated comment-
ReplyDeleteEncounter Critical is awesome!
I've heard Jeff talk about it from time to time, but never checked it out for some reason. Well, yesterday I finally downloaded EC and Asteroid 1618, and both are very, very cool. The game is simultaneously:
1)An extermely funny read. It brings back memories of both games from that time and my friends and my many homebrew attempts.
and
2)A game that sounds extremely fun to actually play! Asteroid 1618 is pretty much a wacked out sci-fi version of Keep on the Borderlands. You rock Jeff.
My only criticism of the game would be that the sex related humor goes a bit over the line- what with various related mutations and the omnipresence of prostitutes both as a player class and the most popular businesses on the Asteroid.
I think if that stuff was left out EC would be pretty much the PERFECT rpg for kids- ray guns, robots, warlocks, duckmen, aliens, and all over kids of assorted wackiness.
Oh well, I think it would be pretty easy to house rule that stuff out of the game, and it's free- so really not too much to complain about.
Again- S. John, Jeff, everyone else involved with EC- GREAT WORK. I really look forward to playing or running it some day and if nothing else you made my day just reading the stuff.
Now I've just got to find the EC newsletters...
Now I've just got to find the EC newsletters...
ReplyDeleteYou and me both :) Thanks for the kind words.
Asteroid 1618 is pretty much a wacked out sci-fi version of Keep on the Borderlands.
ReplyDeleteThat's EXACTLY what I was shooting for. Thanks for noticing and taking to the time to tell me!
Hey man, everyone in advertising will tell you that crotch sells. What, exactly, it sells is still kind of a mystery, so until they figure it out you can expect to see plenty more where that came from, and on all manner of ads for a variety of products and services. Personally I think this is more a case of sloppy cropping, where they've taken a longer ad and cut it down, results be damned!
ReplyDeleteKathleen - I had a similar sentiment regarding the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund at comic conventions. As a comics creator, I like the idea of supporting such an organization, but amongst the quibbles I have with the group is their seeming insistence on associating "freedom of expression" with "T&A". Most of their t-shirts and ads that I've seen have prominently figured scantily-clad women in provocative poses. Aside from not wanting to advertise myself as That Kind of Artist, I don't think that the sexual objectification of women is really the best argument (or advertisement) for free expression that I can imagine.
ReplyDeleteJeff - This sort of thing crops up often enough that there's actually a specific term for this phenomenon in feminist art jargon: the "Male Gaze."
S. John -
Makes me wonder if it wasn't a creative choice made by a non-gamer...
As much as I'd like to think that, I can also easily see the creators of the game thinking, "How do we market this to catch people's eye and make it stand out from other game ad banners? Well, the bulk of our intended market for this is horny teen boys..." As you say, we've seen this in paper RPG books since the Gygax days...
As you say, we've seen this in paper RPG books since the Gygax days...
ReplyDeleteRight, but the bit about "projecting" was in reference to the fact that, in the paper-gaming industry (as I know from long and sometimes dreary experience), these choices are very often made by non-gamers ... (if RPG fans knew just how many RPG creative decisions were made by non-gamers, they'd be ... well, as bummed out about it as I usually am, perhaps) :)
I can also easily see the creators of the game thinking,
As can I. I'm just grasping at hopeful straws :)
To be clear as can be: I love fantasy art featuring hot kick-ass girls. When it's done right it can be clever, artful, energetic, positive, affirming and energetically enjoyed by men and women alike. Even when it _is_ peurile, it can be all of those things, so I'd never diss the peurile, either. Even peurile can be done right.
But an artless crotch-shot ... that's just weak.
Basically, I don't like seeing any so-called "creative" type get away with turning in a work-day without any creativity involved or required, and that's what that ad says to me. Someone coasting by without bothering to turn on the part of their brain that does any creative work.
So, in my pollyanaverse, I like to imagine it's one of those non-gamers who make game-marketing creative decisions. In defense of this particular fantasy: I've known them by the dozens.
I'm sure it's more likely to have been one of the designers, mainly because it looks like it's from a small company, and at small companies you often have all the hats wobbling atop few heads.
I just like to think the best of people :)
Like S. John, I have no real problem with T&A. And while its not particularly bag I have no objection to scantily clad men in fantasy art. I just like the hot fantasy women to have agency, to be a complete character above and beyond their physical attributes. The whole picture that's been presumably cropped down may be great, but reduced to a vayjayjay shot it's weak sauce of the lowest variety.
ReplyDeleteit doesnt matter which way you look at it, sex sells.
ReplyDeletebut I feel more sorry for the guys than the girls, after all you are craving for something which doesnt exist, all we end up doing is dreaming about looking like that.
Yeah, I mean, my blog is in large part about fantasy art featuring scantily or un-clad chicks, and I found the ad more bizarre than attractive.
ReplyDeleteStill, I have to admit, it did catch my eye. I didn't follow the link, and I did decide that I really didn't want to play a game that had so little going for it, but if there really is no such thing as bad publicity...
- Brian
It honestly doesn't bother me. The ad is graphically stylish and the partial character image is intriguing, making one wonder who the mystery woman with a magic glow around her hand could be. I don't think I'd have looked at it and thought "crotch shot" if this blog hadn't been my introduction to the ad. Likely it was done to titillate and draw attention, but even so, I don't have the severe "OMG! That's not PC!" attitude some seem to. My overall response to the ad is only that it looks stylish and professional and the character design sexy without being lewd. Full-bodied pictures of "fantasy babes" can be far more vulgar than that crotch shot is. I find the ad artistic, so sue me. *shrug*
ReplyDeleteI'm the anonymous who posted above. I just visited the site of this game and my opinion stands. The design work is reminiscent of some of the Final Fantasy games, and quite artistically done, especially for this type of online game, which is often amateurish and uninspired design-wise. I have no problems with it at all. Perhaps the furor over fantasy also being somewhat sexy is just some kind of cultural hang-up?
ReplyDelete