Alrighty then, now that I know I have a handle on things, let me throw my two cents in:
Let me begin by stating that: Yes, I have many issues with "SJW" movements and a majority of self identified feminists. This has to do with the loudest in the group most of the time being the dumbest. I know that not all liberals, feminists, ect... are bad people or anything; the "bad ones" as it were have given a bad name to the group in my mind though. In that vain, I don't see in SJW in these threads...by definition they would be crusader like personalities simply spewing both hate and aggression <- concerned parties of a certain mindset is how I'd label Ayvah, even if his origin point does have commonalities with SJW groups and the rhetoric they spew. He's allowed to have an opinion and give his feedback; same as anyone else. An SJW would be those people who sent hate mail and threats and so on back during the original cover art reveal for D:OS.
Moving on: Yes, high fantasy gaming is commonly over sexualizing and over dramatizing females (Bikini Amror for instance and the poses). Is this wrong, though? I'd say no. The point of high fantasy characters have always been to represent ideals and and overly fantasied lives the players could live. This generally means a guy is the ideal for masculinity and a woman is similarly the one for femininity. This carries over in their representation of what people think is attractive (ie muscles, toned bellies, crurvy bodies, ect..). Added to this is the idea that femininity is linked with sensuality...thus bikini armor and certain poses. Masculinity is generally linked with being tough and strong....thus full plate male and more bulky bodies. This is easily mirrored in D:OS character models; which is as it should be given that the game is meant to go back to gaming roots. It's a game made to cater to older standards of idealism and over exaggeration....not modern culture. A game such as this (where one tip toes in barrels when you sneak and hammer potatoes to cook) is not meant to be taken seriously...over analyzing such concepts of a pose being painful in reallife or not will only lead to questions concerning elf armor and the crafting system and the fact that all the melee moves are over dramatized and so on.
This leads into the question of whether or not Divinity has been unfair in how it exaggerated females models more than guys. This again goes back, partially, to what people think of as attractive, traditionally, for the two genders. Guys like seeing a woman in bikini armor striking a sexy pose......Women like seeing the stoic strong guy twirling his massive sword impressively. Also, there's the fact attractive poses of men and women are fundamentally different: generally women contort themselves more to create curves. Context here is important.
Sexualization =/= bad in all context. High fantasy gaming meant to be over the top and fun is one such, I feel.
Now, despite all this: Yes, the amour morphing bothers me....twigs really? Maybe I want my elf in full plate. And yes, I've always had plenty of issues with bikini armor cause I prefer greater realism in my games, normally....it just makes no sense how it works; is the enemy magically enamored to only target the armoured bits?
Given all this: I don't really feel like Larian is wrong to present there characters in any way they like. They have a certain idea they want to shoot for and should be allowed to reach for it; it certainly fits the game theme and inspires some humor in how over the top it is (my mage in D:OS is the buffies bookworm in the world).
Modern RPG games generally provide a plethora of options in avatar appearance and some even include stances and poses. This is good; it's inclusive of all parties and every one can be happy. The problem is that this takes both resources and generally means less focus is given elsewhere. Everybody would be happy with more character options in this game...everybody would be happier with this in any game, I dare say.
The question is, though, if *this* game *needs* it. At the moment, I don't think so. The developers are going for certain thematic concepts and appearances that tie into the game play experience; both in lore(ie elves in twigs) and feelings that are inspired (be they humor or whatnot -> ie buff men). Whether there current character models achieve the goal(s) they set out to do should be the criteria by which the models are judged, I'd say.
- Do the current armor/poses make you feel especially like you represent a man or a woman? A certain race? A certain class? - Do they inspire idealized masculinity and/or femininity? Is it funny and/or engaging? - Does each avatar feel unique? Are they fun to watch and use?
Realism, sexism, reality, functionality, and so on don't really have a place there at the moment. If they move to give more options that'd be great but I wouldn't wanting them to focus too much on this as a main topic at the moment.
