Monday, August 24, 2009

Heroes and Heroines: Assumptions in Character Design

So Jason Chan is doing a cool new series of downloadable video tutorials for Massive Black DVD. Volumes one through three are on various aspects of character concept design for games - exploring style, designing heroes and villains. I can't wait to have a chance to download the full videos (Jason's "sketches" usually look like art I'd be proud as punch to call finished pieces) but for now, we've been checking out the sneak peaks that MassiveDVD have put up on Youtube.

It's this snippet of the Heroes volume that I wanted to talk about today.



The excerpt focuses on the female character he works on in the tutorial, which is pretty cool in itself, but some of the things he talks about considering when designing a female character were...interesting. It kind of goes back to something I said in my opening post on Artemisia, about how otherwise smart and talented people can come out with some surprisingly biased comments. The video is about five minutes long, and well worth a watch because the highlight is really watching Jason sketch as he talks theory, but here are some of the quotes that struck me the most.

"The first character we did, he relates to the player because he is similar to the player in some ways. The second character relates to the player because he is what the player wishes he could be. The third character relates to the player because she is something that the player can admire."

"So, a lot of the time female characters are sexy and strong, and it's almost like trying to sell love to the player audience. You know, you want to care for this character, maybe find her attractive, but also you are playing the character so she should be strong. So it's kind of a mix between attraction and the hero badass type of character where you feel powerful."

"You can also mix the female character with the weaker character for a horror game, and instead of making her strong you can make her weak, to drive that fear. The problem with it is that there could be a disconnect for male players and male audiences, because they do not feel that they are this female character. In that instance you make it more of a voyeuristic experience where you're guiding this character or you're watching over her."

"For female audiences and female players this character represents the hero, superhero type of character we just did, you know, it's who the female audience may want to be like. You know, she's strong, she's beautiful, she can do anything."


So. A couple of things here. I actually like that Jason goes in deeper here and talks about more than just what the characters look like, because it gives me some idea of what goes into a character designer's mind and why it ends up that female characters are usually rarer, or underpowered, compared to the men. Let me run through a few of the issues I had with Jason's process for designing female characters.

One. That he automatically assumes that the player is male. He talks about female players later, and possibly in more depth in the full video, but it's clear that his primary target is a male audience and that a female character is not seen as somebody a male player can relate to, or want to be like, but an object to covet, to admire, or to protect. Jason mentions that male players may feel a disconnect when playing a female character, but does he reverse the role and consider that female players may not feel fully immersed when playing a male?

Two. That he considers physical beauty a key characteristic in designing a female character. Look at the words he uses, "sexy, beautiful, attractive". I wonder if he considers looks as much when designing the male characters? Is it just as important for them to be good looking as it is for the female?

Three. That the woman is his pick for being the weakest character, allowing players to act as rescuers or protectors. Was there any such consideration for the male character - even the one who looked like a regular guy? It's true that at a similar level of fitness and training, a man will still have a physical advantage over a woman. But put a young, everyday guy of average fitness next to a woman who works out at the gym daily, takes martial arts classes and/or has a military background and who do you think will fare better in a fight? And stand Jason's average guy in jeans next to his warrior woman - tough enough to wear heavy metal armour and carry a blade as long as her leg, but out of the two of them, she is the one who is a candidate for being a weak character?

Four. Ok, so when you're only designing three characters, there is going to be a gender imbalance (well, unless "Other" is on the menu which hey, it's fantasy right?). So having two male characters and one female isn't a big deal on its own. But I can't help feeling a little let down by the fact that you have a variety of male characters and then you have...The Female Character. Just the one, and she is supposed to be the avatar for all the women who might play that game. She can do anything, because she has to do everything!

I feel I should add that out of the eight or nine character concepts Jason has produced for this series so far, I've only seen two who are female - a hero and a villain. So when you take a bigger pool, you do get a greater imbalance of male vs female characters. Again, I feel it goes back to the assumption that most gamers are men, and so women don't need more than one or two characters to represent them, and those characters have to do all the representing. We don't get as much in the way of variety.

It's obvious that Jason puts a lot of thought into his work and considers every step of his design process carefully. I wonder how certain ideas that can feel so very flawed to one person can make perfect sense to another, so much so that he doesn't seem to think about them - it's just instinct to design a female character with this mindset and a male character with another. Maybe that's the problem with a lot of character designers out there (in game art and in illustration in general). Do some concepts and assumptions about our audiences just become so ingrained into our world view that we don't ever really stop and take a close look at whether they're still appropriate, or relevant?

What do you guys think?

8 comments:

  1. I think that the game is obviously catered to males because statistically, gamers are males. I mean... don't look at the artist girls you know, because there is a bias... but look at the game market and you will see that males are the ones that spend the money. It is like soap operas catered to females... the market dictates the marketing.
    As for more males... Girls, when there are more girls you complain, now you have more guys and you complain!! ;) Now, seriously, again, I think it is catered to the people that spend the money.

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  2. I agree with the points you made here. Obviously I cannot get into the head of all character designers and illustrators out there, but one would think guys like different types of women - not just your average half-naked, strong and pretty female character. Right? Right?! D:

    Looking back on the games I played, with females as leads or important characters, I can't say I can relate to many of them. My favourites are Jade (Beyond Good & Evil) and Kate Walker (Syberia), and neither of them fit the standard cliche.

    Thanks for making this post, it really got me thinking about the females *I* draw. I'm sure it will affect my new work in some way.

    The main problem lies in the general public, which has certain beliefs about genders, and Jason - being a commercial artist - probably just follows whatever has worked in the games/movies/etc. so far.

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  3. agree with the comment above, the way he spoke it seemed more like he was thought to think that way.

    Theres not that many female gamers cause they dont cater to us but we even out with casual games and foreign games like Ragnorak, Final Fantasy and Manjong

    though, even male games I know of laugh about the imbalace in designing the girls and I think it comes with the fact that gamers/nerds are getting more in the social stream so can notice more things. The fully armared guy VS the barely covered female is redicuoulous

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  4. “I wonder if he considers looks as much when designing the male characters? Is it just as important for them to be good looking as it is for the female?”

    No. For the same reason that we see mainly pictures and artworks of women on publications and whatever is in stores and has covers.
    When a woman sees another woman she can easily connect to her. She thinks she is like her or she wants to be as pretty, too. When a woman sees a female looking man she can connect to him for the same obvious reasons.
    BUT therefore, female models have less problems with showing different types of “sexuality! While men are always afraid that they could be perceived as gay.
    Too pretty? Gay. Too masculine? Gay, too because noone is supposed to look better than the male viewer himself. The other male, be he virtual, is seen as competitor.

    “That the woman is his pick for being the weakest character, allowing players to act as rescuers or protectors. Was there any such consideration for the male character - even the one who looked like a regular guy? “

    I haven't seen many games so far that have broken this rule, One was an older one of the Resident Evil series, but on the same hand, Resident Evil 4 and 5 show the perfect examples for protective male leads. Since I am usually connecting to the stronger character, I automatically want to play Chris (or Leon) since they are the leads, and they are the stronger ones. Yet, almost no male would allow me to pick Chris when playing Re 5 with me. The only one who can live with that is one of my male models, who is not gay, but because being a model, he can more easily connect to different genders, and he also sees Sheva as being thin and quick as advantage that saves Chris' butt often enough cause he is so tall that he gets hit quite often.
    But my model also said, that he sees Sheva as someone he would lay at once, so there is no real connection in the end after all. I am not sure if I would lay Chris, but I can say for sure that I do identify with him pretty much and think as him when I play, so I would want to lay Sheva, too. ;)

    “But I can't help feeling a little let down by the fact that you have a variety of male characters and then you have...The Female Character. “

    I am actually glad that male leads are conquering over video games again because I was not happy what happened after the Tomb Raider wave. I could not connect to this women, who couldn't even stand up on their feet if they were real because their body anatomy wouldn't allow that.

    But on the other hand it is great that the games industry is conquered over more and more by women who do a great job in leading positions, and you see it with the fantastic designs for male leads they get pulled off, which makes both, male and female connect easily. I just wouldn't want a female for certain parts. Where else can I drool on sexy men than in games when everything else is conquered over by sex sells female covers? :/

    - Azurelle

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  5. I've worked in the video games industry. Granted, I was working on the Conan MMO, but the next game Funcom is working on, The Secret World, they've paid a lot more attention to the female market. I think some consideration has to be taken in to the fact of whether these characters are created for games "as is", as in you cannot change their appearance or if they are created in an MMO environment where the characters are very customizable.

    I believe if you look at the "girl gamer" market, a vast majority of the girl gamers play games where they can customize a female avatar. When you take that away, I believe you find a lesser amount of women attracted to the games. This is just from my personal experience and my experience within the games industry. For instance, I've also worked at RedStorm Entertainment and for sure there were fewer girls interested in FPS games with only male playable characters than the MMO's, whose characters can be customized.

    As for what Jason mentions in this video- I have the full version myself. He doesn't really get into the female characters any more than this clip shows. Mostly he just talks more about the art and rendering. Also he talks a bit about the more "regular" looking guy character and how guys would relate to playing him. In general, I feel his comments about the female character are genuinely how he feels about playing woman characters as a male. People can't discredit a man's feelings about playing a woman just because they may not be able to relate. I think most men have an innate desire to protect women. That's why when a woman screams, guys turn to look to see if he needs to lay a smack down on someone. I think it's base instinct, to be honest. The psychology of men and women can't be ruled out when it comes to matters like these. I believe simple psychology dictates the market trends more than bias and sexism.

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  6. Azurelle:

    I agree that women don't seem to have as much a problem looking at another attractive (or semi-nude, or nude) woman, possibly because as Cris Griffin said in the other post, women have been a more popular subject in art for centuries, and have gradually edged out men in the last century or so. We're far more used to it.

    I disagree that women can easily connect to other women just because they are women, or because they are pretty. I mean, we can some of the time, but I personally find it hard to connect to a woman slaying zombies in a wet t-shirt and panties, or straddling a motorbike completely naked. These kinds of women aren't there because they appeal to most women - they're there because they appeal to straight men.

    I'm not sure what you mean by the "Tomb Raider wave". There was Lara Croft, yes, but she was one character in one game franchise. Were there a lot of other female leads that I missed? I did my dissertation on female characters in gaming, went back quite far and dug quite deep and I found that female characters have never been as commonplace as male characters, and they were very rarely in the lead. Even in games like Final Fantasy, where they usually have an even mix of female and male characters in the main party, the lead character has always been a man (with the exception of FFX-2 and FFXIII).

    Agreed wholeheartedly that it's great to see more women in the industry and yep, I do like sexy male characters in my games. I just don't see why we can't have as many female characters who are just as awesome and exciting to play as the male characters.


    Char:

    I work in the games industry right now and as I said above, I did my dissertation on women in games. You are spot on that a lot of women play MMOs - the percentage of women playing MMOs (at the time I wrote my thesis) was actual greater than the percentage of men, and greater than the percentage of women who play computers games in general. Those games aren't designed for men so much as they are designed for all gamers, and the characters are something you define for yourself. Of course, I'm not suggesting that all games should have a male and female character option. There's nothing off-putting about a male lead in itself. It's when almost every game out there has a male lead or mostly male characters that it sends a message that the game industry doesn't really expect many women to be playing these games, so they don't bother creating an avatar for them.

    I wasn't implying that Jason was being sexist in his remarks and I wouldn't mind at all if he were designing characters that he would personally want to play. I took issue with the fact that he was offering generalised advice on how to design characters for the industry at large and that he was taking it for granted that most players are male. Again, the last thing I believe is that he was doing it deliberately! I think it's just an assumption that too many people make when really, recent facts are proving it's no longer the case. Designing characters based on male psychology becomes a flawed approach when a large chunk of your audience isn't actually male.

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  7. Louisa:

    "I disagree that women can easily connect to other women just because they are women, or because they are pretty."

    Well it is a proven fact that woman can connect more easily to what looks "alike" themselves, e.g. female or soft then men. (Nope, I cannot link you to a written fact right now but I am sure that you can find details about it when you search a bit.)

    "I mean, we can some of the time, but I personally find it hard to connect to a woman slaying zombies in a wet t-shirt and panties, or straddling a motorbike completely naked. These kinds of women aren't there because they appeal to most women - they're there because they appeal to straight men."

    In this point I agree with you, but no woman would be ashamed holding such a magazine up that anyone could find her "gay" just because there is a sexy chick on it. XD

    "I'm not sure what you mean by the "Tomb Raider wave". There was Lara Croft, yes, but she was one character in one game franchise. Were there a lot of other female leads that I missed?"

    I cannot remember the exact time period because I was pretty young. I just know about wittnessing a "wave" that featured a lot of sexy females as leads in games and it was as Lara Croft was so popular. And with sexy I mean they were uber sexy, some even topless with only their hair to cover what was necessary (in a fantasy game). I do not remember the names of those titles. And even when in games such as Final Fantasy women aren't the lead it isn't that much of a problem to me because you play the whole party, so they are all kinda important.

    - Azurelle

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  8. I'm not a gamer, but honestly I wouldn't want to play a girl who has to save the guy. That would be to much like real life. :p
    Plus I much rather follow stories with male leads.

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