Tomb Raider Legend Update: Mammary Migrations

Last month I wrote a post on Lara Croft where I said:

"It remains to be seen how much the computer Lara Croft will be influenced by reality in the next release from the game franchise, Tomb Raider: Legend, which will be available in April."

Yesterday Wonderland ran a great post that answers my question, reporting that Lara's largess isn't so much gone, as it has rather migrated onto her new nemesis, Amanda. 

These readjustments of Lara's proportions are being mourned over at Kotaku and are even being deconstructed on MTV News.

I find it fascinating that these steps to make Lara's character more well rounded while at the same time making her proportions less exaggerated have been seen as such a newsworthy thing. Are these changes, which would appear to be moving her character development and game narrative in a more plausible direction, really going to make it so that past fans will be less interested in playing Legend?

Judging by the screenshots I have seen, Lara still sports the world's smallest pair of shorts (any smaller and they would have to be classified as panties).  Plus, she may be a little lighter on top but she is by no means lacking. It remains to be seen if this will be a good game, but I find it difficult to understand how these surface changes will be a deciding factor for some whether to play the game or not.  Is this really a cause for mourning?

 

Comments

[Brinstar]

Not really. Also, her costume is ugly. Honestly, how can anyone go digging through tombs and adventuring in shorts of all things? Why not a sensible, yet fashionable pair of cargo trousers? Functional and eye-pleasing.

[Guilded Lily]

Brinstar -

I agree, plus doesn't it look like those holster straps around her thighs would chafe?

She does, though, seem to be wearing a very sensible pair of boots. - Guilded Lily

[Ragmana]

"These readjustments of Lara's proportions are being mourned over at Kotaku and are even being deconstructed on MTV News."

Seems difficult to engage in genuine criticism of objectification of women (or skewed character design based on such objectification) when fellow critics misrepresent the situation. For example, the emphasis on the MTV piece appears to be that the developers are shifting priorities away from cheesecake and toward treating Croft as a realistic character. And far from mourning her reduced bust, Kotaku cites the decision as a reason to be optimistic about the intentions of the developers. We ought applaud the move away from selling sex, while maintaining that a fully respectful character design has yet not been reached (especially in the Amanda character--the image is so disporportinate as to be grotesque rather than appealing).

There are enough real problems of sexism in the game industry without having to lie about the situation.

[Maelstrom]

Playing most games has nothing to do with wanting things to be realistic. Gordan Freeman would have been killed in the first few minutes of Half-Life and the game would have been over.

[Guilded Lily]

Maelstrom -

If some reflection of realism isn't important to computer games, then why aren't we all still playing pong?

Good fantasy does not require stereotypes in order to function. The best science fiction is founded in believable science. Stereotypes are cardboard cut-out characters, and whether male or female these make for less realistic and thus less believable protagonists. The best games have stories that are immersive due in large part to the characters being believable.

The improvements in the tech in game design have focused on increased realism - Doom 3, and Half Life 2 for example. If we can now have games that are responsive to the laws of gravity in an interactive environment, something only dreamed about a few years ago, why can't we have game characters that reflect the same increase in realism?

Reality is not a fantasy killer, it enhances immersion. What you say about Gordon Freeman has more to do with suspension of disbelief, which is the function of good fantasy. Our willingness to believe what cannot be true in a game environment is a precarious thing. I see stereotypes, especially female stereotypes, as a major disruptor of that willingness. – Guilded Lily

[Maelstrom]

We aren't still playing pong because we have 'been there, done that' and moved on to other things.

Of course the best sci-fi is based on reality but it would never work without all of the really cool made up shit that comes with it. I think you over estimate how much believability is needed, or even desired, in fictional entertainment.

I have played many great FPS games since I first laid eyes on Doom 2. I even played Duke Nukem and the first 2 Tomb Raider games where you can argue that the character was a large focus of the game, but the innovation is what I have fond memories of, not Duke and Lara. When I'm telling my friends about a new game I like I share my excitement over features, not about how hot my character is. As far as stereotypes go, I’m not sure how many people think that the stereotypical woman is athletic with huge boobs.

Hopefully you see my point that I'm not actually sticking up for unrealistic stereotypes, I'm just saying that maybe character realism doesn’t matter so much to most gamers. Suspension of disbelief may be important to many people in television and movies, not so much in games. The Lara Croft of the game is much more acceptable than the character played by Angelina Jolie in the movie for that reason. Almost everything that makes up that character in the movie is absurd if you want to try to suspend disbelief. In a game I need to be able to continue a story without the majority of the real life limitations of a human body. Can you really suspend disbelief enough to think Lara could take more than 1 bullet and continue the story but yet decry her chafing gun holsters? If Lara were overweight, say about 220lbs, could you suspend disbelief or is the only acceptable body for a woman character in a game something that looks like a slightly smaller version of a man?

What point is there to playing a game where your character is an alien?

I hated writing this huge response here but I was unable to quickly locate an email address. Please don’t feel like I’m attacking you or your opinions. If I had no interest in trying to learn your point of view I’d have never returned to read your response.

[Guilded Lily]

Maelstrom -

In thinking about my response to your comment I have decided it would be better to address this topic in a full length post. Check back soon - Guilded Lilies

[Maelstrom]

Uh oh, am I the insensitive male who's about to get hammered?

[Lake Desire]

Maelstrom, how do you define most gamers? 43% of us are women (my reference: http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php ) and I want to be a character I can relate to, or at least one that doesn't make me feel like shit.

I hope you are being sarcastic with that last comment. -.-

[Guilded Lily]

Maelstrom -

Don't worry! You tapped into a few ideas I have wanted to write about, so I decided to make my comment into a post. - Guilded Lily

[Maelstrom]

Yes, my comment just previous to this one was joking. Lake, how many games do you play where the character actually matters? You know, maybe you're playing a completely different kind of game that I'm just not clued into where your in-game representation means something to you. I've never really paid attention to statistics so I have no idea where the 43% of females play. It sure isn't where I play but I'm also sure there are hundreds of games I've never played and have no interest in that may appeal to female gamers. Now I wouldn't be considered hard-core anymore, I maybe play a few hours a week because I just don't have as much play time as I'd like, but I normally see about a 10-1 male to female ratio. And I don't mean "see", I mean I play on servers where people talk and it's obvious who's who unless someone is really trying to hide it.

All of my statements should be taken as my opinion based upon my first hand experience in the little piece of the world that I play in. I could be missing it all, and that's why I'm here posting. You want to know WHY you think some guys "just don't get it"? Here I am to help provide insight.

Please refer me to a few characters that you feel you can relate to. It would be absurd of anyone to think you should play a character that makes you feel like shit. Can you also point out a few of those?

[Maelstrom]

Lake, I've been browsing your blog some and decided to break the response cycle here and write more before you've had a chance to answer.

Just to help me gain perspective, do you feel that your writings are representative of the typical female gamer?

If the goal is to move towards games that allow a more realistic impression of the player then is the simple solution to just provide more choices? Or a system that allows every player to fully build their character to represent any human body? I would think that this would be the only way for everyone to be able to play the character that they really want to play.

I guess I'm saying that I'm moving beyond asking "why" and now wondering what changes could make things better. How would you change things and do you think you could please everyone, a majority, or some smaller percentage?

[Guilded Lily]

Maelstrom -

The new post is up HERE. - Guilded Lily

[Lake Desire]

I'm more of a casual gamer (as far as time investment, not the genre) so my game library is not particularly diverse, but in the last year or so I've played the Katamari series, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Beyond Good and Evil, Kingdom Hearts Chains of Memory, FFX-2, and more I'm probably forgetting. I also enjoy N64 and GameCube games I can play with my friends, like Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Super Smash Brothers. I usually play the big console RPG titles (yes, I'm a rabid Squeenix fan). As someone who enjoys quality character development in fiction, I am disappointed when I spend 50 or 100 hours with people I can't really get into (Tidus or Shion, for example).

I'm not sure where the 43% of women gamers fall, but I've read that a lot are concentrated on downloadable casual games.

I really like Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, and from the FF games Lulu, Freya, and Quistis. I also related to Zindane from FFIX when I was a teen (I'm not sure if I would now) and Auron in FFX, so it isn't just female characters I can identify with. As far as ones that make me feel bad, when I play games like Dead or Alive I feel the way I usually do when I see the hyper-sexualized media female: like I'm somehow lacking for not fitting that mold of desirability.

I don't think I'm representative of women gamers because I'm not sure if there is a typical one. Even browsing through the five or six feminist gamer blogs, you'll see we're a varied lot.

I agree being given more choices--like those given in the Sims or even better Second Life--is one option. In linear games, I'd like to see more attention payed to character development so lead characters feel more like characters than flat caricatures. Including people with more fiction writing back ground to game development teams might help with this.

You ask a hard question, and one I’m still developing answers for, but it’s a good question to ask. We’ve identified a problem, so now what do we do to change for the better? I think giving players more options is a good start, and options that let them outside the few idealized norms that masquerade as choices.

[Guilded Lily]

Lake Desire -

I would add that games that offer a wider choice in character creation, like RPGs, seem to have more female players. That might not be the deciding factor, but it is certainly an element that I feel makes a game more accessible for me.

Conversely, the RPG Fable was one that I had no interest in playing, since there was only the male character option. Thanks for your insights. - Guilded Lily

[Lake Desire]

That's the same reason I've never played Fable, although it otherwise has some features I think I'd enjoy.

Good observation about games with wider character choices being more popular with women. I'll keep an eye out for that next time I come across statistics about the gender of gamers and genre popularity.

[Maelstrom]

Give a look at http://www.playfate.com You can play a demo for free.

I had forgotten I enjoyed this game for a little while and during replay went through with a female character. There are a few options to customize your character and found that I could not advance through the game as quickly because I frequently spent a lot of time staring at all of the curves on my female character from a lot of different angles.*

I don't feel I'd have enjoyed the game any less if there had been no choice in what my character looked like, but I went back and looked at the game again last night (because I had a 3 hour loss of internet access) and I guess it added a little extra fun element outside the bounds of gameplay.

I can see that if I played more of another genre of games that I might enjoy being able to pick exactly what I looked like, even if I'm the only one who would see it. It seems like such a simple thing that there is not much excuse for new games to be restrictive. PC power is enough now that even games with cutscenes could render them on the fly with a custom character model and skin.

*Just kidding on my female character mentioned above.

Back to being serious. Please, check the game out and give me a woman's perspective on the character representation.