My Son Shouldn't See My Avatar!
People often ask me if I still play any computer games. The answer is yes. Selectively and for specific purposes. The only one I'm playing presently is Guild Wars every Sunday evening with my husband and my son who is away at college.
We use ventrillo, and play together as a group for about two hours. My son gets to coach us, as of course (proud mother that I am) I have to say he's one of the world's top video game players and no doubt will support me in grand style when I am old. But that's not really the point I'm making.
I wanted to say something about my shrinking costume. (the lump in my cheek is my tongue)
When I created my necro/elem as a red-haired female (wonder why I always do that?) she was attired in fairly conservative clothing considering how female avatars are often portrayed. I was comfortable. The pants were a bit tight, but nothing I felt too self-conscious in. Then I leveled up, and had to upgrade my outfit. There's no choice about what clothing to buy...just the next upgrade available, and you don't know what it looks like until you've already purchased it and put it on.
My breasts are now exposed. I mean, like seriously exposed. Other avatars are staring at me in the game and making lewd gestures, and I want a cloak or something to put over them, but there doesn't seem to be any option for that. I'm totally uncomfortable.
Bottom line is, HOW am I supposed to play with my son, running around with exposed breasts? How would he feel about that? There's just something so wrong about it...
Creative character customization indeed.
2 comments:
I guess it depends on how sexually conservative you are. If you make a big deal about how your son "shouldn't see" breasts, he's probably grown up with the idea, at least in the back of his mind, that sex is somehow a "forbidden mystery" instead of an every day thing. Half the population has breasts. There honestly shouldn't be such a stigma or such a weird aura about them. If your son is mature, then I don't think there will be too much discomfort on his part. I think I understand where you're coming from, but unfortunately this is one of the problems of playing female characters in online games. If you feel that strongly about having more clothing options in the game, I would strongly suggest that you write to ArenaNet and voice your opinions. Even if they don't follow your suggestions, at least they will know your point of view. I think you should do your best to get over your self-consciousness, and perhaps talk to your son about it.
Haha, good points. Actually I'm not too conservative but my necro's breasts are not "normal breasts" by any shape of the imagination. It's the stylized hyper-sexualized imagery often found in game art.
I did play with him last night, and laughingly told him I was self-conscious about the outfit. His response? "Mom, I think you need more cleavage."
Lots of interesting angles to the topic. Must say my husband is quite fascinated with wathing her run now ;-)
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