Controversial character design changes in game remakes

[Chrkeller]

shikamaru317 said:

Chrkeller said:

So you would be ok with Joel, Nathan and Link running around in a g-string?  Games aren't based on realism anyway, right?

If the opposite were happening you all would be crying foul.  

Female gamers do exist.  My daughters being some of them.  Developers being more inclusive simply increases potential sales.

It is pretty simple folks, it really is.  

Naughty Dog does aim for realism though with Uncharted and The Last of Us, so yes, it would be silly for Joel and Nathan to run around in a g-string climbing mountains or fighting mold zombies. Those old Tomb Raider games were never meant to be taken as seriously as Naughty Dog wants their games to be taken. They had Lara jumping around doing superhuman backflips 7 or 8 feet in the air, shooting at dinosaurs with Uzi's for goodness sake. Those games weren't meant to be taken seriously, so a fan service sexy design and outfit for Lara was perfectly fine in those older Tomb Raider games.

When Crystal Dynamics rebooted the franchise in 2013 they did want it to be taken as seriously as Naughty Dog wants their games to be taken, which is why they redesigned Lara to give her a much more common bust-waist-hip ratio, reduced her abilities down from superhuman to human, gave her more environment suited outfits, and made Lara more vulnerable and relatable. That is also ok with me personally, as they clearly stated it was a reboot, not a remake. 

Female gamers do exist, but that doesn't mean that all female gamers are ok with this recent trend of making female game characters less sexy. I follow quite a few female gamers on twitter who are unhappy with the current state of gaming and don't feel represented by most of the playable female characters we are getting these days, including Melonie, whose tweet I posted in the opening post. Especially the "traditional" female gamers who have been gaming since the 80's and 90's and early 2000's, seem to be quite unhappy with this trend of frumpy looking female characters and less sexy outfits for them. Those old Tomb Raider games were responsible for creating many thousands of female gamers. 

Have you played Uncharted?  Nathan does all kinds of crazy things.  Far, far, far, far crazier than anything Lara ever did.  Some of the action scenes are crazy over the top in Uncharted.

Melonie is also in the camp of getting paid via being popular.  I have 3 female gamers in my household.  For starters the new Lara Croft isn't unattractive.  The new Jill Valentine isn't unattractive.  They are simply dressed for their environment, literally nothing more.  

I'll leave this as my last comment in the thread, because it isn't like anybody is going to change their position, but I am baffled by people being bothered about women in gaming wearing clothes that match their environment.  I just don't get the problem.