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I agree a lot with what is being said on both sides here. I’m an artist myself, and I certainly understand appreciation of artful and beautiful design, and I think that there is a lot to admire in what Anet does, and even in the design of these robots. And I’m certainly not advocating censorship, and I don’t even think that I’m ‘offended’ by them. They are figures of strength that demand a level of respect that perhaps echo that of the leader of the nation they are constructed to protect.
But that leader is represented as a strong, wilful, articulate, intelligent commanding individual who makes choices and affects the world around her. What the issue here is that a choice was made for these mindless automatons/constructs absent of this same agency (that we’ve seen yet, at least) to be modelled using culturally typical representations of the female form objectified.
It’s a question of semiotics. The symbols of strength, prowess, dominance and grace, all valuable in celebrating the in-game human race, could be just as easily articulated without the heels or alluding to nudity, or by only representing one gender with these constructs. By using these signs something is being said about gender, like it or not.
For me, it’s not about sexism, but rather representation. I think it’s not about censorship, but rather the creators of texts being mindful of the messages that are being articulated with their work, and in the case of artists, that there work seeks to subvert or destabilise culturally damaging assumptions, not reinforce them.
I’m pretty disturbed by the watchknights in this update.. I find it hard to believe that a Jenna, a confident, powerful female leader would endorse these glorified ‘fem-bots’.
I think it’s one thing for player’s avatars to be able to represent multiple facets of a particular gender (being living, sentient characters there’s an implication of personal choice, which i totally advocate), but an engineered construct that is overtly feminine (they even have high heels!) and overtly sexual (part of the art on their “anatomy” implies nudity) is worrying because they are representations of women with no agency of their own made to obey, whilst being thin, tall and busty, and worst of all silent. They are obedient, objectified women designed to serve.
I think I would less concerned if there was equal gender representation, but I’m yet to see any male watchknights, meaning that it’s a clear choice on the developers behalf. I dunno, I just don’t like it. It’s perhaps a small thing but I think it’s lazy and simplistic, particularly from a game that I think has some very compelling and engaging content that promotes collaboration, community, cooperation, compassion and a real sense of collectivity.
Interested in others thoughts.