The Hypocrisy Surrounding Bewbs
by Dan Landis on June 18, 2008 at 2:34 pm
This is apparently not an encounter most people would enjoy.
There has been a lot of hubbub recently concerning the depiction of naked female boobage in the recently released MMO Age of Conan. U.S. gamers fought to keep the nipples in the game, but now it appears they don’t want to actually see them. What gives?
I recently received a copy of Age of Conan (thanks Zungre!) and immediately made a female character to check out what the big deal is. In respectable fashion, I named my avatar Bewbs. The character starts the game in essentially a swimsuit, and that’s just not my style so I took it off.
I ran through the little starter area topless, picking up loin cloths, weapons, gold teeth, and a few chest pieces which I refused to wear. That’s just not how Bewbs rolls. I finally make it to the first little multiplayer hub, the city of Tortage, and find myself assaulted by a good number of people who are apparently not happy to see Bewbs.
The first player to talk to me in the game called me a dumbass. I asked him why I was a dumbass and he said it was because I was topless. See the following screenshot for a brief snippet of our conversation:
I obviously blurred out the irrelevant “New Player” chat channel, and I thought about blurring out this dude’s name to protect the stupid, but you know what? Fuck that guy.
I asked him if he knew anything about the Conan universe and he didn’t respond. I asked him how old he was and he didn’t respond. I asked him why he was playing an M-rated game if he didn’t want to see boobs. He responded, finally, and said that he likes M-rated games for the violence, and he prefers this game over World of Warcraft because of the blood and dismemberment.
Here we go again… Why is it that people are okay with chopping off heads, but seeing some titties bothers them? Doesn’t that seem backwards? After the nerd outcry on the AoC forums at the thought of removing boobs from the U.S. version, we Freedom Fries-eating gamers got our way. After all of that, however, we are apparently not happy to see the nipples we fought so hard to keep.
After I thought about this, I began to wonder why this is occurring. Why do WoW gamers get upset when they see an elf dancing on a mailbox in her underwear? Why now do people yell at me for having my fun-bags out? To be honest, I have no answer to these questions.
It’s obvious that the women of AoC go topless quite often, or at the very least they don’t wear bras. You can see evidence of this in the lack of tanlines and the overall low-set positioning of their boobs. Those puppies are apparently not very often supported.
After running around the town for a little while, I noticed something else: I was the only female player character. I sat at the entrance to the town for a good 15 minutes, watching as people came in and left, waiting for another pair of boobs. I never saw them. Every other player character that I noticed during my playtime so far has been male.
So what’s the deal here? What is going on with this community of gamers? I read recently that the character animations for females supposedly take 25% longer, which means they attack 25% slower and do 25% less damage in the same amount of time compared to the men. This has yet to be officially confirmed, but FunCom is “looking into it”.
Could this be the reason there are no females, or is there something decidedly more sexist going on? Do people not want to roll a chick because they are “inferior”, because they don’t want people to ask to see their boobs, or is it because they want to roleplay as a man and get the chicks as opposed to playing as one?
My character doesn’t wear a top because I choose not to, not that it would do much good anyways since I’m a magic-user that can only equip cloth armor. I would much rather just distract my enemies with my awesome tits. This is an option, by design, that FunCom put in the game, so why does anyone care if I’m exposed, and why the fuck are these people playing a Conan game if they don’t want to see naked breasts!? Conan, by definition, means “topless”, both men and women. Conan without boobs is like Batman without a batsuit.
What do you think about Age of Conan’s boobs? What about sex in games in general? Do you think Microsoft will allow boobs in the Xbox 360 version of the game, and given this experience, do you think it even matters?
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on June 18, 2008 2:51 pm
Sorry to say “author”, but the guy’s opinion is mine as well. First of all, Breasts, Vagina’s and the Penis are all “PRIVATE PARTS” its an inherent thing that something called (Sin) introduced. You can believe what you want but lets not get into beliefs.
People dont feel comfortable naked. because in reality there is a certain “Shame” involved. Once again, think hard and long “WHY”.
On a more Game-centric point, it really just takes the “realness” of the game out. It makes it like 1 person is ruining the overall “experience” that this game offers. Even If your not being annoying, its is really just “dis-tasteful” and its odd that playing a Naked character would satisfy you at all. I think most can agree, its much sexier in-general with clothing on that “HINTS” at things then to just start at a straight up naked woman. True its a game, but to me if i choose to make a female character I want her to be Hot and bad ass. Not a straight up Nudist..
Well its proably a bit too much of a rant but i attempted to get my points across. :-P Cheers
on June 18, 2008 7:03 pm
“John Doe”: So, carrying on the “sinning” theme (something which I don’t believe in), wouldn’t it be a sin to kill someone? In fact the “sin” of killing someone would be much higher on the list of sins than being bare naked as “God made us”.
What’s lucid is that the “shame” you talk about is not created from a God, but from society itself…in this case American society - a society built on Christian values (sorry not built, since it started out as completely a-religious…this came much later) and influencing society by making them feel shameful about their private parts. The “sin” is not inherent…it’s embedded into us in our upbringing.
“its odd that playing a Naked character would satisfy you at all. I think most can agree, its much sexier in-general with clothing on that “HINTS” at things then to just start at a straight up naked woman.”
Why Dan has to be thinking about “Sex” to have a naked female character is also worrying - another sign that to some Westerners “nakedness = sex”.
Why male players don’t want to be a female is simply because this has been their social upbringing - I must be manly, I must like action man, I must think guns are cool, I must have big muscles, I mustn’t have emotions or be feminine.
Moreover, I expect even female players would be male players so as to not be picked on…”Wow you’re a girl, give me your number” etc.
Yes, running around naked in a game might look ridiculous, but it looks ridiculous because it’s uncommon. If you lived in Europe, I doubt it would be as shocking or a “sin”…we have breasts in our daytime ads.
on June 18, 2008 7:52 pm
“You can believe what you want but lets not get into beliefs.”
Right, let’s not. You shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place.
“People dont feel comfortable naked. because in reality there is a certain “Shame” involved. Once again, think hard and long “WHY”. ”
Not all people feel the same way. It varies per person. Useless argument.
This seems to fit the theme of the game so.. whoever called you a dumbass is… a dumbass. I’m glad you didn’t hide his name, I agree, fuck that guy.
on June 18, 2008 8:04 pm
Yes, I lived in Germany for a few years, and nudity is quite common. I watched X-Men 2 in the theater and an ad for a gym ran during the previews that showcased a topless woman cracking walnuts between her muscular asscheeks. It’s not a big deal.
You have actually proven my point that we, as crazy Americans, have no problems with the violence and gore as long as a nipple or wang doesn’t slip out. I find nudity to be a very natural part of life. I see myself naked when I get out of the shower and I see my son’s wiener when I change his diaper. I don’t think either of those things are sinful, and I don’t think having sex with my wife is sinful either. I don’t know what kind of religious or moral standard you are following that makes it okay in your eyes to chop off peoples’ heads but not okay to show some boobs.
Another thing which people fail to take into account, for some reason, is that we are talking about Conan. It’s fucking CONAN!!! If you, or any of the uptight pricks that bitched at me in the game, knew anything about the Conan universe, you would know that nudity is very common and expected. FunCom stayed true to the lore of Conan when they decided to allow nudity. Would you go play a Playboy videogame and then complain that there are boobs in it? It’s just as ridiculous.
Furthermore, America was not founded on good Christian morals, it was actually founded by the Puritans, a bunch of religious wackos that were actually banished from their home countries in Europe for being so fucked up. It’s their principles, that violence is okay and sex and nudity are sinful, that America continues to adhere to, and quite frankly I find it archaic and disturbing.
The bottom line here is that you shouldn’t play a game that features boobs in it if you don’t like boobs, and more importantly, you shouldn’t attack people that are enjoying said boobs because those boobs are there for a reason that you seem unable to grasp. I honestly feel sorry for you.
on June 19, 2008 12:35 am
If I recall, before the game launched there was some hoopla in the AoC forums about some people wanting a nudity toggle of some sort. Of course this led into a huge discussion as to why extreme violence is perfectly acceptable but naked breasts aren’t.
I still remember one poster saying something like, “Well, violence is ok because it’s in the Bible.” Uhhh what??
on June 19, 2008 2:07 am
Boobs and violence. Sounds like a platinum best seller to me.
on June 19, 2008 4:48 am
On a similar note…if you shake your controller while speaking to Rosemary in MGS4…her “bewbs” will jiggle. Who said Sixaxis was useless ;)
on June 19, 2008 8:20 am
ROFL - This is quite possibly the best article I’ve ever seen :o)
I was going to respond to john doe, but all has been addressed. Everyone’s obviously entitled to their beliefs and stuff, but I can’t see why anyone who would object to it would even buy the game. Would they go to a nudist beach and complain that they had no swimsuits on, but that they went there cos they enjoyed beach volleyball? Strange indeed.
on June 19, 2008 9:18 am
@Patrick Steen… I never knew that, I’m may have to give it a shake tonight when I play MGS.
Thanks
on June 19, 2008 9:29 am
Mykul: lol There are about 15 pages of MGS4 secrets…some rude, some not so rude.
on June 19, 2008 9:30 am
“Boobs and violence. Sounds like a platinum best seller to me.”
Quoted for Truth
on June 19, 2008 3:42 pm
The simple trick here is that people are idiots. Little kids playing M rated games who don’t want their mothers seeing the boobies or they’ll ban them from the game sounds about right. I’m not one for gratuitous sex but boobs are one of the things that Conan is about. The recently released Conan game has topless “maidens” everywhere. If AoC didn’t have breasts it wouldn’t be goddamn Conan. I’m with you here Dan.
See I’m not big on seeing nudity everywhere, I think some things are personal. I don’t necessarily disagree with a certain amount of it but there’s no need to be over the top about it (like that ad you mentioned).
However I honestly don’t think boobs are that big a deal especially in an M rated game. While it doesn’t need to be glorified, and it’s silly for people to run around topless, it should be there depending on the sort of game. For example in GTA games why can I get a stripper to dance for me after hours of slaughtering innocent bystanders but the stripper isn’t even topless? Urk…
on June 20, 2008 7:47 am
This whole “boob and private parts not being OK” OK thing is just another example of how shallow American society is. All that(and sex in general) is just natural, what the fuck ever. I’m with the author of the article. Conan = boobs, sex, nakedness, and overthetop violence.
on June 20, 2008 3:53 pm
Ridiculous that folk are prepared to behead someone yet get upset at nudity. If your foes get distracted by the titties - good for you and good for them too - our eyes evolved to capture movement and its good to see this being used on the only possible, rational example of intelligent design, the female form (not that I beleive that gubbins but its the only agruement they could have imo)