frostrune:

okay

so originally i was mega excited about this whole The Elder Scrolls Online ordeal. i was already planning to buy it and play a khajiit and invite everyone i knew.

then these screenshots came out.

looks like Bethesda’s going with the “appeal to 15 year old boys with blatant sexism” approach. i am not okay with this. this game has the potential to be amazing, but i am not going to play it if they exploit women to appeal to immature men. world of warcraft exists for that. rift exists for that. all points bulletin. TERA. every free-to-play mmorpg that exists and will exist in the coming decade and most likely many more after that. 

please email Bethesda and ZeniMax Media and ask them not to exploit women for the enjoyment of men.  

here’s what i sent:

Hi,

I’ll get straight to the point: please don’t give female characters in TESO cleavage windows. Please make the coverage of our armor equal to that of the male armor. At first I was ecstatic about the announcement of TESO, but after I saw the screenshots in which every single female character was missing half of her chest armor, I’m extremely disappointed. I would love if TESO followed Skyrim’s example and provided full coverage for both male and female characters and didn’t resort to reducing female characters to sex objects to sell the game to young boys.

Sexualizing female characters and, by extension, female players, has become such a pervasive trend among video games that it is nearly impossible to find one that doesn’t do this. My interest in playing TESO is literally hinged on whether or not its female armor takes a different direction or not. You will make women feel more welcome as a group if you don’t take this sexist direction with your armor. At the same time, you will not decrease your sales among men. They will whine, but being able to see the chests of their female counterpoints will not be a selling point to them. You will lose nothing while gaining favor and support from women by making your game more friendly to us.

I am begging you, as a company, to not fall in with the likes of World of Warcraft, Rift, All Points Bulletin, TERA online, and virtually every other MMO by pandering to the sexualities of immature young men at the expense of women. Please, for us, the women of the gaming community, don’t do this.


Cori