Eva Destruction

"Hey, Mr. Big Bad Demon Hunter, I have news for you: I'm not a demon!" *Blam* *Smash* *Kapow*

The only aspects we've met are Ruladak, who is in charge of the Brutes and therefore has their aspects, Lanaruu, who is in charge of Storm Elementals and has storm powers, and Faathim who is in charge of nothing. We haven't met the aspect in charge of the eyeballs.

The Brutes are essentially the muscle so it would make no sense for them to be in charge, but I would expect the Wisps to have some authority. I suppose they could be like the bureaucrats of the Rularuu though. You have to admit, the eyeballs are very cool and putting blinking eyeballs on stuff definitely evokes Rularuu.

Overall this arc was very pretty but otherwise meh. The use of the Abyss map made no sense. The splash screen was nice too, and shows that it is actually possible to have a picture of a female character that doesn't focus on her boobs. So of course Numina will be the one to die.

And judging from the comments some people have gotten, if those players do end up playing story arcs they expect them to have farm-level rewards, and judge them negatively when they don't measure up.

They would be spent on something far more productive than slowing down farming and incidentally causing collateral damage to arcs that aren't farms, driving even more people away from AE because the rewards become negligible. Ally XP nerf anyone?

Bolded for emphasis. Your farm is not special nor is it any better than the 23,344 identical farms in the system.

They are far more available and far "cheaper" if your goal is to metaphorically scarf down some food so you won't be hungry anymore. If you're actually looking to sit down and enjoy a good burger, you have to go out of your way to find a good restaurant, just like you have to go out of your way to find a good story arc. But if you want something cheap, fast, and with little nutritional value it's almost as easy to get a fast food burger as it is to find a fire ambush farm.

The odds of any story that needs to hype the death of a major character to get people interested being fantastically brilliant are so abysmally low that it's more likely we'll get a fantastically brilliant story starring Fusionette.

Anything over four, maybe four and a half inches is usually more the province of the "specialty shop" than high fashion.
When the primary priority is fashion, there is no such thing as going too far. Lead-based face paint, mercury in the eyeballs, cast-iron corsets, etc etc.

Now how relevant is this to a superhero game? Probably not at all. My characters superjump in stilettos, throw fire around while wearing a cape, and kick people in the head in painted-on jeans, just as easily as they would in tights and sensible shoes. But it's also impractical in another sense, in that it may be difficult to take them seriously as heroes. In an emergency situation, who is the average civilian more likely to trust with their life, Ellen Ripley or Marilyn Monroe? If the aliens are invading, who do you want watching your back, the chick who shows off her massive cleavage or the chick who shows off her Rikti-throwing arm? And if people are too busy wondering how many ribs you had removed to make that cheesecake pose possible to pay attention to your demands, what's the point of building that death ray?

Risk/reward ratio. If you're used to walking in heels, your chances of falling are pretty slim. On the other hand, your chances of being called "frumpy" or "unsexy" or making it onto a worst-dressed list if you wear flats are pretty high.

Yeah, I get that, but why did they make him worse before he was allowed to get better?

Anyway, the problem I have with Desdemona in the Underground Trial is that she started out as "one of us" as it were (which is essentially what the Rogues Gallery, and the Paragon heroes and Rogue Isles Villains before them are; NPC equivalents of player characters) and suddenly she's more important than a whole group of us. It's such an obviously contrived attempt to promote a signature character, made worse by the fact that said character's most notable personality trait so far is a pair of hotpants.

The AE search interface maintains such a list, far more AE users see it than the forums, and everyone and his dog still feels the need to build their own.

Remember, you are a special and unique snowflake, and everyone will acknowledge that the farm you built is a hundred times better than every single other identical farm out there.

Rogue punching a semi across town isn't really any less realistic than Superman doing the same thing. You know their strength isn't natural, so it doesn't really matter how big they are. Nobody can actually do anything remotely approaching that in real life. Whereas the agile fighter is more of an exaggeration of what can actually be done by real life gymnasts and martial artists (filtered through a lens of cinema stunts, of course), who tend to be more lightly built.

There is also the perception that excess bulk would only get in the way of agile movement, which may or may not be true, I don't know. Whereas a small build won't get in the way of a feat of extreme strength unless comic books start respecting the laws of physics.

They would, since we can't make a butt to match.

The arms are still too puny though. No matter how much of a muscular texture you put on them, they still can't be anything more than "wiry." While this would be better than what we have now, it's much prefer the ability to thicken them up a bit....or in the case of male avatars, thin them out.

It entirely depends on the context. Are you talking about a walking blow-up doll, or are you talking about a person who also happens to be sexually appealing? In other words, are you saying "she's competent and smart and sexy" or are you just saying "she's got a great body?" In certain contexts the second is acceptable. But we are playing a teen-rated game and most of those contexts have no place here. We are here to punch bad guys or good guys in the face. If we want to look good while doing it, great, but the primary concern here should still be the face-punching.

That is my objection to Sister Psyche's portrayal, especially as it contrasts with BAB on the tutorial splash page and pretty much everyone else on the SSA splash page. If I'm a civilian having my purse stolen, I wouldn't expect her to save me. I wouldn't expect her to do much of anything teen-rated. BAB can save me, she can go stand over there and look pretty. That is objectification, and no, it is never a good thing.

Slight tangent, but how many Hollywood movies are there starring Asian men who aren't martial artists?

And no, it isn't empowering, I don't think anyone would imply that. People have sex. If they didn't there would be no people. The point is that people do a lot of other things too, some of which are actually accomplishments that they should be proud of. Being sexually desirable isn't anywhere near the same level as, say, brain surgery, or writing a (good) novel, or fighting off an alien invasion. But for women, it's often treated as though it should overshadow all those accomplishments.

Because they aren't. They are restricted by traditional gender roles, in some ways more than women are (people are jumping on the "Baron coat for women!" issue but if you attempted to start a "Steampunk skirt for men!" lobby would you get nearly as much support for it? Or would some people object to the idea on principle?) but those roles aren't inherently that of a sex object.

Yes, they do, but the point was about peer pressure. Do straight men really strike sexy poses in their underwear for their straight male friends and ask "how do I look?" Whereas straight women most certainly do adjust their push-up bra and ask each other "how do I look?"

The sexualization of men is the least of Twilight's problems, but yes, from what I've heard there was some kind of "no shirts" rule in effect.

It isn't the same thing because men are put in different boxes. Yes, it's a problem, but it isn't the same problem. You want to complain that it's difficult to make a male character who doesn't cling to an unrealistic and possibly personally unappealing ideal of physical strength and aggression, and who doesn't stick to traditionally "masculine" clothing, fine. I'm right there with you. But to claim that men are by default overly sexualized in this game?

This is what you're doing:

Exactly this.

Um, yeah. They're advertisers. They're supposed to try to make you feel insecure so you'll buy their crap. In real life, men who go to too much effort to make themselves attractive are disparaged as effeminate, unless of course said effort includes working out or buying visibly expensive clothes. Then it becomes about showing your friends how strong you are, not how sexy you are, and how much money you can spend, not how well you dress.

Right. Businesses don't have to be responsible, because they have to make money. Individuals don't have to be responsible, because they're just one person, they don't make that much of a difference. So who exactly is supposed to be responsible?

Yeah, this actually had nothing to do with the roving ratings cabals.

That is a much better question.

Yes, it is a special problem, because it's a societal problem, not just a question of aesthetics. If you think the game is too cartoony you can go play something that isn't. If you want to play something in the action, RPG or MMO genres where female characters exist and aren't overly and unevenly sexualized.....good luck with that.

Then the next question would have to be "why don't we do that," or the much simpler "why can't we have the stupid coat?"

Edit: Third time's a charm. I am beginning to loathe the forum.

I think the better question is "how much diversity should there be in our unrealistic fantasies?" Because the fantasy thing is a staple of the genre. But if you said "design your ideal superhero" you'd get as many responses as you have respondents, and both the costume options and promo art need to reflect that.

I thought you were joking but then I Googled it. That name...can't be a coincidence.