MMORPG - COH profitability

[Risha]

Re: Blade and Soul holiday costumes...that second woman...her head is about as big as one of her breasts.....eeeeeewwwwwwww  (running away screaming).

[Quinch]

Re: Blade and Soul holiday costumes...that second woman...her head is about as big as one of her breasts.....eeeeeewwwwwwww  (running away screaming).

But does she giggle constantly, even while being shot by Malta gunslingers?

[antarcticaa]

On the topic of Blade and Soul... i just saw a video on female character customization and one thing popped on my mind, much more than the skimpy clothes:

The fact that they made sure boobies jiggle and wiggle but hair is stiff as plastic.

/emgag  As a woman all I could think about was good lord, get a good bra.  Sheesh.  Talk about mindless.

[FatherXmas]

On the topic of Blade and Soul... i just saw a video on female character customization and one thing popped on my mind, much more than the skimpy clothes:

The fact that they made sure boobies jiggle and wiggle but hair is stiff as plastic.

Lots of hair product.  Then again the video I remember seeing about character creation did have the hair move, at least the longer hair styles and pony tails.

[Atlantea]

But does she giggle constantly, even while being shot by Malta gunslingers?

Hey. Dockworkers need love too. :P

[healix]

"big chickenskin pimpcoats"

I haven't stopped laughing for 10 minutes now....

[Floride]

On the topic of Blade and Soul... i just saw a video on female character customization and one thing popped on my mind, much more than the skimpy clothes:

The fact that they made sure boobies jiggle and wiggle but hair is stiff as plastic.

Actually that's just realistically functional.
When wielding a sword, hair that sways back and forth will throw off your balance, unlike heavy cumbersome boobs.

[dwturducken]

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6550847/female-armor-sucks

[Starsman]

Lots of hair product.  Then again the video I remember seeing about character creation did have the hair move, at least the longer hair styles and pony tails.

Some of the hair moves, but not because the hair is animated. Seems hair moves for the same reason steel belt-buckles bend: they lazily auto-weight-painted every single mesh to the rig. You should notice it big time in the Christmas outfits for male, huge metallic belt-buckle with a demonic buck on the center, which bends and twists as if it was cloth.

So, same with hair: if the hair goes down long enough, it will sort of bend as the head turns, since the lower bit of hair is kind of weight-painted to the chest. But the breasts, those got special coding. Sudden turns make them shake like jello. Behavior that was only coded into hair. Not into coats. Not into hair. Just into female breasts.

[Starsman]

Actually that's just realistically functional.
When wielding a sword, hair that sways back and forth will throw off your balance, unlike heavy cumbersome boobs.

Realistically functional? Realistically? You really want to use that one word? How do these females realistically manage to make their hair as stiff as aluminum when they can't make a good bra to keep their breasts in place?!

[Little Green Frog]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=cdn.memegenerator.net%2Finstances%2F400x%2F25409469.jpg

[Minotaur]

Realistically functional? Realistically? You really want to use that one word? How do these females realistically manage to make their hair as stiff as aluminum when they can't make a good bra to keep their breasts in place?!

Because they all are bald and have titanium wigs while the breasts are obviously re... wait a minute

[Osborn]

Realistically functional? Realistically? You really want to use that one word? How do these females realistically manage to make their hair as stiff as aluminum when they can't make a good bra to keep their breasts in place?!

It's called sarcasm guys.

[Starsman]

It's called sarcasm guys.

I think we are stuck in a sarcasm feedback loop. I was not being very serious myself (you may notice I only disputed the word "realistc" and not the word "functional".

[TonyV]

Slightly off topic but I can't stop laughing over the absurdity of how it looks.  I present the Xmas costumes in Blade & Soul.  Note the sashaying down hill may not be safe for work.  Also the guy's expression at around 2:35 with the big fluffy feather like coat just screams "sure honey of course I love this".

You know, I really don't mind a bit of fan service in games.  And I'm usually the one who defends sexuality in games.

But the women, they just don't look like women.  Seriously, when I watch that video, I can't help but think they looks like aliens that were meant to kinda sorta look like women, but that come more like...  I dunno, like mannequins with grossly exaggerated features.  Kind of like how, have you ever seen those little ancient stone carvings of fertility goddesses?  When you did, did you think, "Oh, those...things...are supposed to be the boobs I guess"?  Did you think, "Wow, she's sexy!"  I know I didn't, because when I look at them, they're so fakely out of proportion that I don't get aroused or anything, it's more like, "Ah, it's some abstract artistic representation meant to grossly exaggerate some particular features without striving for accurate representation."

It's the same when I look at that video.  The clothes don't move right, it's like they're painted on.  And not in a good way, like body paint, but like even stuff that is supposed to be a little loose is glued on.  The hips don't move right.  There are graphics clipping issues.  The way the back stays arched frankly looks painful.  Even the "jiggle physics" that supposedly they worked hard on doesn't really look normal; it's more like a couple of water bags are strapped onto the front of her chest, not actual human breasts, even exaggerated in size.  The faces are all expressionless, neither happy nor sad nor determined nor angry nor, well, anything, which is a creepy.  And the skin, oh god, the skin.  I don't know if they were shooting for "she's got a sexy sweat thing going on" or "she's oiled up to high heaven," but it comes off more like "she's made of some kind of canned ham substance with that nasty slimy sheen on it."

Like I said, I don't mind a bit of fan service.  (I'm looking at you, Swan.)  I used to be an avid fan of The Man Show.  (During Adam's and Jimmy's years; when they left, the show REALLY sucked.)  But this game is disgusting.  Not in a pornographic kind of way, but in just an artistically messed up kind of way.  I'm sorry, but when I watch videos of it, I don't think, "Ooh!  Strippers!"  I've been to strip clubs, and that ain't a strip club.

I guess what I'm saying is that I agree that portraying the game as pornographic is probably the wrong angle.  I don't know how to say this tactfully, but saying that would be an insult to pornography.

So it's the "jiggle" that is the problem?

In the MMO world, I dont recall any with that much "jiggle", but then again I dont think I played or seen 30% of MMO games. Outside the MMO world as in games in a general sense, Dead or Alive series have jiggle, and Soul Caliber and the outrage at that type of animation seemed to be as old as those games and even prior with Tomb Raider and the size of Lara's chest and probably prior to that.

The difference between those games and Blade & Soul is that although those games exaggerated features, sometimes even skirting the edge of unrealism (in proportion; functionally in terms of what they were doing in their respective games, the characters were almost all completely unrealistic), at least the characters in them were still recognizably human.

[Starsman]

You know, I really don't mind a bit of fan service in games.  And I'm usually the one who defends sexuality in games.

But the women, they just don't look like women.  Seriously, when I watch that video, I can't help but think they looks like aliens that were meant to kinda sorta look like women, but that come more like...  I dunno, like mannequins with grossly exaggerated features.

The second girl in that video actually looked realistic to me... in the same way this girl in the photo bellow is NOT fake (no sarcasm, she is real and actually looks like the second girl in the video.)

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=forum.bodybuildingpro.com%2Fattachment.php%3Fattachmentid%3D21434%26amp%3Bstc%3D1%26amp%3Bd%3D1335213856

Her name is Valeria Lukyanova and... well she is a strange one. I'm guessing the art team in B&S are fans.  8)

[Starsman]

The difference between those games and Blade & Soul is that although those games exaggerated features, sometimes even skirting the edge of unrealism (in proportion; functionally in terms of what they were doing in their respective games, the characters were almost all completely unrealistic), at least the characters in them were still recognizably human.

The only defense I have for Dead or Alive is that they did not stop at animating the breasts. They made sure to propperly add physics cot hair and cloth alike.

[TonyV]

Her name is Valeria Lukyanova and... well she is a strange one. I'm guessing the art team in B&S are fans.  8)

I've seen pictures of her before.  To each their own, but I find the way she looks extremely creepy and physically unattractive.  If she wants to look that way, hey, more power to her, and I'll wish her nothing but good luck and happiness.  But to me, ick.

[Quinch]

Well, my theory is this.

B&S doesn't stand out. We know it. NCsoft knows it. It's a continuation of the same delusion that you don't need to change anything, you just need to find the right theme. And this time, the wheel stopped on "sexy". Offhand, I expect NCsoft to heavily market it as a "mature" MMO, confusing maturity with porn.

But I digress. With nothing substantial to differentiate the game from either its siblings or, for that matter, three out of four other MMOs out there, the decision came down that sexiness would not only be the focus of the game, but it would be dialed up to twelve. And as a result, the character design wasn't simply ordered into uncanny valley, it was ordered to dig.

Honestly, I can't even mock them. There's exaggeration, there's parody, but the best word I can use to describe them is "monstrous". They look like something you'd see in a horror movie, twisted exaggerations of sexuality stripped of all of its appeal. Everything that's considered sensual about the human form has been blown up to literally inhuman proportions, from gigantic jello breasts, six-foot legs, wide hips and tiny waists, with expressionless, doll-like faces sealing the deal, driving home the message that there is nothing contained within what you're seeing that is not a thing. Strangely, probably even intentionally, it looks like an idealized form of lust - not sensuality, not sexuality, but nothing more than a collection of sexual parts.

[Starsman]

I've seen pictures of her before.  To each their own, but I find the way she looks extremely creepy and physically unattractive.

I wont dispute that... but ... evidence of realism!!!!  8)