9 Insane Origins Of Gaming's Most Over-Sexualised Female Characters
Get as angry as you like, just make sure you know the facts.
There's a war currently being waged on all fronts; one of over-sexualisation and objectification, a huge focal point being how these frameworks apply to female representation in gaming.
You've heard the cries, you've seen the likes of Anita Sarkeesian making a name for herself by pointing out all sorts of negative stereotypes and connotations that have dogged the industry for decades, and you've probably heard the travesties surrounding people like Brianna Wu and Alison Rapp, who've either been lambasted by hate groups or even left their jobs due to constant harassment and bullying.
All this... over some video game characters. The aforementioned Rapp was fired by Nintendo over a matter involving the removal of boob-sliders from the character creator in Fire Emblem: Fates. Yup, boob-sliders. It's as asinine as it sounds, but that's the real reason behind it.
And that's the crux of the matter, because sex appeal for sex appeal's sake isn't inherently wrong. There's nothing wrong with big-boobed, tree-trunk-armed, massive-packaged protagonists, nothing at all. Video games are an escapist medium, but we should always look to the real reasons behind any particular outcry, no matter which side you then fall on.
The following characters are more recognisable by their ample assets than anything else, but what were the intentions and rationale behind their creation?
9. Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
Lara's lady-mountains helped propel the Tomb Raider into a bonafide gaming icon - and a symbol of female empowerment for generations of gamers, regardless of what anyone says - but the origin of her sizeable chest was actually a programming mistake.
Seriously, in development, designer Toby Gard was playing around with her character model (steady), and accidentally entered typed in the wrong number for her chest, going from 50% to 150%, resulting in the massive triangular mammaries you saw in the original.
He promptly thought they should be reduced, but Gard's six-person team convinced him otherwise (most likely while batting down more tentpoles than the last day of Coachella), as the 'sex sells' marketing potential was on the wall.