Ugly Characters in Gaming and Fiction

[John_Owl]

the better example of objectively ugly is Aloy from Horizon.

I don't know if i'd call Aloy ugly. I mean, all things considered, she was actually quite beautiful. considering she grew up in a place/time where they didn't have the advanced personal hygiene we have. She had basics, like soap made from ash and pig fat. chewing on bark/wood was a means of brushing teeth. no skin care products, and likewise, no make-up. and she was intentionally made to look like THAT, instead that bullcrap where it's like "Hey, i know we're stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse plague, but I still found time to shower, do my hair, do my make up, and put on clean clothes that just so happened to look like clean versions of the ones i rolled around in mud yesterday in."

 

[SailusGebel]

I don't know if i'd call Aloy ugly. I mean, all things considered, she was actually quite beautiful. considering she grew up in a place/time where they didn't have the advanced personal hygiene we have. She had basics, like soap made from ash and pig fat. chewing on bark/wood was a means of brushing teeth. no skin care products, and likewise, no make-up. and she was intentionally made to look like THAT, instead that bullcrap where it's like "Hey, i know we're stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse plague, but I still found time to shower, do my hair, do my make up, and put on clean clothes that just so happened to look like clean versions of the ones i rolled around in mud yesterday in."

Bruh.

 

[TotallyHuman]

I don't know if i'd call Aloy ugly. I mean, all things considered, she was actually quite beautiful. considering she grew up in a place/time where they didn't have the advanced personal hygiene we have. She had basics, like soap made from ash and pig fat. chewing on bark/wood was a means of brushing teeth. no skin care products, and likewise, no make-up. and she was intentionally made to look like THAT, instead that bullcrap where it's like "Hey, i know we're stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse plague, but I still found time to shower, do my hair, do my make up, and put on clean clothes that just so happened to look like clean versions of the ones i rolled around in mud yesterday in."

still ugly

 

[Lostinthecause]

Spoiler

My opinion on the Aloy and the Fable character's appearances is you're being misdirected. People who hate their looks only know to use that same image over and over again.

For Aloy, it's like if you took that one bad picture and your friends jokingly called you ugly, then everyone else ran with it genuinely.

For Fable, you're going to have customizable characters. It's like if someone playing Dark Souls made the ugliest character possible (you know the looks) and pieced together a trailer. Sure, whoever made that trailer character looked like it was just randomized and they went with it, they totally could have made a better-looking character. But the gameplay was clearly the point.

I also want to stress that we shouldn't be worried about ugly characters in Fable. That's a huge distraction. What we should really be worried about is the studio behind the new game. They never made an RPG before! THEY HAVE ONLY EVER MADE FORZA GAMES! WHY?! THAT'S THE REAL PROBLEM HERE!

For Abby, if you dislike her because she isn't playboy model looking ass and is more butch than your average woman, I better not see you going on pixiv or twitter and liking big muscle mommy arts. I grew up watching WWE of muscular women like Triss and Tara knocking the shit out of people, and that's what I want to see, not some Megan Fox face on the body of Marvel's Thor though I totally wouldn't mind it either.

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This is how thor looks in mythos I guess, these sorts of people are more strong than bodybuilders, I know a few. Lol we are pushing politics on this site.

 

[Jerynboe]

I don't know if i'd call Aloy ugly. I mean, all things considered, she was actually quite beautiful. considering she grew up in a place/time where they didn't have the advanced personal hygiene we have. She had basics, like soap made from ash and pig fat. chewing on bark/wood was a means of brushing teeth. no skin care products, and likewise, no make-up. and she was intentionally made to look like THAT, instead that bullcrap where it's like "Hey, i know we're stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse plague, but I still found time to shower, do my hair, do my make up, and put on clean clothes that just so happened to look like clean versions of the ones i rolled around in mud yesterday in."

Idk. Most complaints about Aloy I’ve heard have focused on the fact that they went out of their way to make her less attractive in game 2. In particular she has a much rounder face with a wider, flatter nose. She was reasonably attractive in a “post apocalyptic girl next door” way in Zero Dawn without being super sexy, and that was fine. She was naturally attractive in a post post apocalyptic setting, as you said. In Forbidden West she could plausibly have been a slightly chubby ginger dude before they patched it. The deliberate move away from modestly attractive to clean shaved ginger Sam Tarley displeased people, even if they proceeded to walk it back.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

As an illustrator, I'd like to work with beautiful figures than depict reality, though in writing I'd always try to depict reality over the ideal.

Not that my methods are right, but yeah, I don't want to draw ugly characters, my face is enough already. Same as to why I always draw females more than males; I'd love to draw curves than men butts.

 

[SailusGebel]

I'd love to draw curves than men butts.

undeniably based TeddyBruh

 

[Deleted member 54065]

undeniably based TeddyBruh

I always remember what I want to do, and I want to entertain. Producing eye-candies is part of entertainment, so why would I create ugly stuff?

If I'd like to push politics and some agenda, I'd run for public office then create laws to force everyone to like what I prefer. It's more effective than subliminal influence, and cost-effective, too.

 

[John_Owl]

As an illustrator, I'd like to work with beautiful figures than depict reality, though in writing I'd always try to depict reality over the ideal.

Not that my methods are right, but yeah, I don't want to draw ugly characters, my face is enough already. Same as to why I always draw females more than males; I'd love to draw curves than men butts.

and that's all well and good. it's fine to depict people however the creator chooses, which is my point. Aloy is 'ugly' because she doesn't have the advantages that we have in modern times. sure, if she'd grown up with a tooth brush, a razor, skincare products, etc, she'd look better. if she had access to green eye shadow, blush, toner, etc, then she'd look better.

I'm not saying she's beautiful by our real world standards. i'm saying she's beautiful by in-universe standards, by the context provided. and even by real world standards, she's one of the better looking girls in the game. but that's all secondary, because she's a compelling character.

all that said, i do agree. I'm a guy. i have a strong aesthetic preference for women. which is why i tend to play 3rd person games as female if offered a choice. i'd rather stare at that than a guy's ass the whole game.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

and that's all well and good. it's fine to depict people however the creator chooses, which is my point. Aloy is 'ugly' because she doesn't have the advantages that we have in modern times. sure, if she'd grown up with a tooth brush, a razor, skincare products, etc, she'd look better. if she had access to green eye shadow, blush, toner, etc, then she'd look better.

I'm not saying she's beautiful by our real world standards. i'm saying she's beautiful by in-universe standards, by the context provided. and even by real world standards, she's one of the better looking girls in the game. but that's all secondary, because she's a compelling character.

all that said, i do agree. I'm a guy. i have a strong aesthetic preference for women. which is why i tend to play 3rd person games as female if offered a choice. i'd rather stare at that than a guy's ass the whole game.

I'm not pertaining to anybody's reply, save for Anon's original post, just to be clear.

I'm more on the liberal side when it comes to visual arts, just that, I lean on some preferences, and I think it's my right.

Err...long reply short, I didn't know about the issue on Aloy. I'm not one to say anything about a game I don't even play.

 

[SailusGebel]

I always remember what I want to do, and I want to entertain. Producing eye-candies is part of entertainment, so why would I create ugly stuff?

If I'd like to push politics and some agenda, I'd run for public office then create laws to force everyone to like what I prefer. It's more effective than subliminal influence, and cost-effective, too.

Supremely based TeddyBruh

 

[NotaNuffian]

The guy whom I replied worded it like China explicitly forbade gays in their media and I felt like correcting him. I will not bother examining the situation in China about it any deeper or try to pass any sort of judgement from any standpoint because judging one culture through the lense of another is either very retarded or very entitled or both. Mostly both.

I kind of ignored the guy.

This thread is about the view on ugly characters in recent media.

The shift is inevitable. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Until the companies notice that the wheel is making them lose money, maybe they will wisen up.

 

[TotallyHuman]

I kind of ignored the guy.

This thread is about the view on ugly characters in recent media.

The shift is inevitable. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Until the companies notice that the wheel is making them lose money, maybe they will wisen up.

do companies even make money off of this nowadays? I figured they are sponsored by big corpos to push their agendas.

 

[Anon2024]

Damn... topic blew up while I slept.

@Jamminrabbit - I don't find Abby attractive because of her face. Has nothing to do with how muscular she is. She looks kind of butch, and I know a lot of lesbian women in some forums found her very attractive. I didn't mention Aloy because a lot of people still do find her attractive, while I find her average, BUT... the person she was modeled after is way more attractive than she is.

Good point about Fable being a distraction though, I don't intend to skip a game because of ugly characters. I still plan on playing Forbidden West when it comes to PC, I was just pointing out that I didn't like the way developers try to shame people for finding these characters ugly.

Also... @SailusGebel Doesn't have normal beauty standards so you should probably lay off him... he likes muscular women... with large under teeth.

do companies even make money off of this nowadays? I figured they are sponsored by big corpos to push their agendas.

A lot of companies are losing money like Disney and other things. Video gaming companies are also losing sales due to some people not liking certain characters, but in all, a lot of them will still make money as long as it's a good game and people can have fun playing it.

---

Also, I started this topic because I'm kind of tired of the cliche good looking character that was like a self-insert or cardboard cutout. The point was that ugly characters can still be compelling if they're treated with due respect.

I haven't played any of the games with the ugly women. It's a huge red flag.

Incorrect. Go woke go broke. Like the media outlets. Their product quality will only continue to go downhill and competitors will be able to BG3 them.

Not exactly true.

Not all companies that go woke go broke.
It depends on what the company is selling and whether consumers can lay off of that product.
Disney loses money when people don't go to theaters to watch their movies or don't subscribe, it's easy to cancel a disney subscription.

Apple on the other hand, people have entire media liberaries and work on their computers, same with microsoft. I don't see a bunch of people switching to STEAM OS or something else.

 

[SailusGebel]

Also, I started this topic because I'm kind of tired of the cliche good looking character that was like a self-insert or cardboard cutout. The point was that ugly characters can still be compelling if they're treated with due respect.

So, you like ugly bastards, huh? Again you and your love for NTR dammit!

On a serious note, I don't think good looking characters are self-inserts. I think it's the opposite, good looking characters are a part of the escapism, eye candies. MCs are usually mediocre because the majority of people can relate to them.

Also, I have a problem with ugly characters. The problem is that they don't try to fix their appearance. It's not about plastic surgeries. It's about losing excessive weight, taking care of your face and hair, maybe even applying some light makeup. Yet none of the ugly characters do it.

 

[Civilian]

You know what, I always saw it as a fetish of sorts. Bring an attractive woman for face scan, ok good. Now deform her beyond recognition, snap her jaw sideways and fold her nose, break her teeth and push her eyes in. Perfection.
Just look at the fable 4 protag, the irl actress looks nothing like the character in the trailer. Meanwhile the guy gets to have a faithful adaption of himself.

 

[NotaNuffian]

do companies even make money off of this nowadays? I figured they are sponsored by big corpos to push their agendas.

Which is what?

Infighting in the lower caste?

 

[NineHeadHeavenDevouringSerpent]

I don't particularly give a flying fk about appearances, not in novels/games or any online entertainment for that matter (except for the obvious category)

My logic is this, if i pick a book to read 10/10 times it is for action, adventure, thrill... Which has nothing to do with "beauty", they could make a cyst faced troll marry the mc i won't even bat an eye. What I care is the story behind it.

Same with games, romance isn't really something there is in the games i play. More than that I don't like to play female fps (if there is any), while i do enjoy a good hourglass body scene but it's not something I'll curse about if it isn't there.


If you go in looking for looks and romance then yeah probably the looks of your characters would have to meet your expectations, other than that~ go buck wild

 

[TotallyHuman]

Which is what?

Infighting in the lower caste?

? ? ?

Ah, yes. Discussions of beauty standards in video games. Let's not forget the fit everyone threw about how Thor looked in GW Ragnarok. There was widespread outrage about 'pushing an agenda' and 'woke destroying masculinity'.

Spoiler

My opinion on the Aloy and the Fable character's appearances is you're being misdirected. People who hate their looks only know to use that same image over and over again.

For Aloy, it's like if you took that one bad picture and your friends jokingly called you ugly, then everyone else ran with it genuinely.

For Fable, you're going to have customizable characters. It's like if someone playing Dark Souls made the ugliest character possible (you know the looks) and pieced together a trailer. Sure, whoever made that trailer character looked like it was just randomized and they went with it, they totally could have made a better-looking character. But the gameplay was clearly the point.

I also want to stress that we shouldn't be worried about ugly characters in Fable. That's a huge distraction. What we should really be worried about is the studio behind the new game. They never made an RPG before! THEY HAVE ONLY EVER MADE FORZA GAMES! WHY?! THAT'S THE REAL PROBLEM HERE!

For Abby, if you dislike her because she isn't playboy model looking ass and is more butch than your average woman, I better not see you going on pixiv or twitter and liking big muscle mommy arts. I grew up watching WWE of muscular women like Triss and Tara knocking the shit out of people, and that's what I want to see, not some Megan Fox face on the body of Marvel's Thor though I totally wouldn't mind it either.

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[NotaNuffian]

? ? ?

Big pharma agenda. What is theirs?