The community managers over at Bioware headquarters in the Mass Effect division have taken to asking the community how they feel about the moves the company is making. So far on their Facebook page, they have asked for everyone to vote on which female Shepard will be the default in Mass Effect 3, and to submit their best cosplays. This past Saturday, they posted a prototype of Kotobukiya‘s Bishoujo statue of Liara.
At first I was a bit confused, because all I could think was that her golf swing must be shit with breasts that big. My next thought was, “Wait… did I miss a part in the game?” In order to fix my confusion, like any reasonable person, I went searching through the comments section for some answers. And I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
And that was a barrage of fans hating the over-sexual, youthful, Bishoujo style; which is what Kotobukiya is known for. While some commenters understood that it is stylized and liked it, the rest of them agreed that they did not like what had become of the intelligent female character that they love. It’s nice to see ME fans going against the normal imagery you often see applied to women in video games.
There is hope for the future perception of video game characters, with the focus being on who they are and not how they look. It will take time for ideals of the Bioware community to become commonplace in the mass population, so it’s likely we’ll see more of this backwards type of opinion from some:
(You, sir, are what is wrong with gaming communities.)
