Why A Lot Of RPGs Irritate Me

Remove all ads!

To be honest, I've never understood the appeal of virtual women... Laura Croft didn't even do it for me when I was younger. I often find stylized women like in anime more attractive then vitual women as there are few virtual "women" who have the proper rendering to be truly attractive, there always just seems to be something off, or unnatural about them (specifically in non-FPS).

 

So, Chev...how exactly did you discover this?

She did it for me, for exactly as long as it took me to go to school the next day and remember how much better real women look.

 

Well, Mediocre Man, I applaud you for getting beyond the 'sex sells' mind-control shtick that finds its way into PC games as well. I tend to just filter it out - I may oggle the first couple of times, but then my jaded cynicism tunes it out. The big fat grey men with cigars and $$$ that fund game development want it in there to make them sell, so in it goes; that isn't going to change until the Revolution comes and these fat cats get to stand in front of a bullet-ridden wall...

Oh...did I just say that out loud? Uh, IN MY DREAMS, yeah, yeah, that's in; we-er *I* am not planning ANYTHING!!

Oh, and Illmater's Suffering? You're right in your analysis of Full Plate Armor, but I doubt that's what Feli was talking about when he said "the heaviest armor I could find" - Full Plate is simply the plate and then padding.

FIELD Plate, or 'Plate Mail' which has main plates for larger body parts (breastplate, cod, greaves, bracers, tassets, etc) over chain mail and then the padding would be rather less inflexible, but substantially heavier due to the chain layer. I'm guessing maybe 60 to 70 pounds...or so it seemed...

I've worn actual stuff made by a smith (took a half-hour to suit up) and it wasn't something I'd go jogging in (tho I had to - I hated my SCA swordmaster ), but I still kept much of my agility, too.

 

I don't think anyone actually wears a mailshirt under plate; mostly, you have mail on your arming jacket in the places in your armour where gaps appear. Also, while armour isn't as restrictive as people tend to think, it's a damn good idea to cover as much as possible.

 

Actually, I've got an Oriental variant (or so I was told ), which makes a difference of a nice, round 43 lbs. on my scale at home. Though given that I'm only 5'7", normal-sized stuff might weigh as much as 50.

Did he at least show you how to do it first? My guy showed up wearing a suit of armor, and I have to say that's the only reason I trusted him that I might be able to do it myself. Back then, I still couldn't resolve the disparity of "geek" and "strong".

Slightly back on topic, there are three levels of plate armor in 2e:
Plate mail (AC 3) weighs 50 lbs.
Field plate (AC 2) weighs 60(?) lbs.
FULL plate (AC 1) weighs 70 lbs.
All three levels are easy enough to move in with proper strength, since to make them otherwise would only make you a sitting duck for any putz with a pike.

I'll get some fuller descriptions of the differences (and a sure number for the field plate) when I get home and have access to my PHB again.

 

thanks empath, I sometimes get careless and lump 13 and 14th century platemail in with 15th century fullplate.

Platemail is much more of a pain to wear... being it's not that almost single sheet of metal fullplate is, it doesn't sit to well on the body. Less restriction though, a lot less in the terms of hinging around the joints that only move in a single direction.

 

Not a medieval, western armor. A knight had to be lifted up onto his horse, he couldn't mount it himself. That's the reason you need to get the knight of the horse (hence, lots of nice weapons that were invented). On the other hand, lots and lots of knights could easily mount their own horses, since full plates could only be afforded by lords and such. The average knight wore chainmail. Hence the successfulness of morningstars. They were not so much used to damage the opponent, as well as to actually stick in between the chains of the chainsmail, so you could pull the knight to the ground.

Concerning removing parts from the joints of your armor, that is some of the worst ideas. The joints of the armor are the weak points of the armor. There are even defenses based on this, like in Carcaçonne, in France, where they made steep steps the attackers had to climb, but for that to be able to do, they had to lift the armor parts on their knee joins, so archers on top of the stairs could aim for said knees and stop the knights from climbing the stairs.

Full plate is NOT made for infanterist combat neither. It is meant to protect a cavalerist when he charges into the melee. That's why the legs are so heavily armored (restricting movement in the process). For fighting on foot, you wore less restrictive armor, like only a breastplate and helmet and maybe some forarm and leg protectors. It usually also included chainmail.

 

Are you talking about the 16th or 17th century ceremonial jousting armour? Young and ripe knights (perhaps not 40 years old generals) actually danced in armour and rolled in the air jumping to show off their prowess and agility.

While initially knights wore chain, later in middle ages, the average battle armour for a knight was what 2E terms field plate. A bit less than a full plate, consisting of some chain and some plates.

Heavy infantry was not terribly common but it existed and it wasn't much less heavily armoured than knights (if at all).

 

Is it just me, or has this thread been hijacked by the armour ebnthusiasts?
Because I'm pretty sure this was about how game developers are trying to make money off of spiralling moral decay.
But hey, whatever.

 

Yes, it has been highjacked.

I want a game that does the same, sexist cr*p with men that 99% of games do to women.

Since Lara Croft got mentioned, I'm pointing out the connection between her guns strapped to her thighs and a garter belt with stockings. At least, that's why I think boys/men think she's so hot. Not that I'm any better. Duke Nukem does it for me.

 

It's not hijacking. The lack of armour realism with regard to female characters is sexist. If you had your woman wear metal on bare body, snugging would be the last thing she would feel like. And if she wore a doublet or some other protective clothing under it, it couldn't possibly cling like in games. Except modelled full plate, but it would have to have slightly bigger features than the wearer, in order to leave enough room for the clothing that goes underneath.

@kuemper: Even the fact she's actually wearing guns is probably a huge factor for most guys. It probably optically underlines her angles, as well. Her big chest works on thirteen year olds, I guess.

 

What?! How come nobody told me about this mod before? Is it real? Where's the link?

 

I've always loved excessively proper women (no religious reason) so I find it hard to connect with video game women on a purely character level.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of one "proper" woman in a video game who's designed to actually have some sort of sex appeal. Games for a primarily Asian audience often play the whole innocent thing, but that just ends up feeling worse then then more immoral women.

I wish games would have more variation within the personality of female characters, maybe have the sex pot balanced out with the ice maiden.

I'm usually much happier when I can create my own female characters, my favorite two female characters in PnP exude aristocratic propriety (my two favorite male characters are very similar in regards to what is proper as well). An oversexed character I often find has a hard time developing as their personality build is overshadowed by their flesh.

[ February 22, 2006, 04:15: Message edited by: Ilmater's Suffering ]

 

This from someone who rps a succubus tiefling?

I always put my female characters in control, whenever I rp or write. The male one is always nervous and confused, and the woman takes control. Probably subconcious desire or something, but perhaps my studies of Freud are just confusing me.

 

Orianna's my one out of control character.

My two favorite female characters are Aurora and Elsa, nephilim half-sisters, I don't think Elsa even has a sex drive, she's too interested in status (Elsa's a fallen nephilim) and Aurora is the embodiment of purity. If some more RPs get going you're bound to see these two at some point, their plethra of special abilities just makes it so they aren't appropriate in all settings (when you have a an SR of 13 and a damage reduction 5/magic at level 1, you're pretty powerful).

I suppose Ulgar is more then a bit out of control if you look at it the right way, but mauling and raping helps him spread lycanthropy and slaughtering helpless villagers is how he shows his devotion to Malar (or whatever appropriate god). Because he's so morally unappealling though, he only sees RP time when he's serving Elsa and being held in check by her magic.

[ March 02, 2006, 22:32: Message edited by: Ilmater's Suffering ]

 

*bing* sex appeal!

So while the discussion is, very correctly, about the young men that play games and gaving scantily clad women in them to sell the games, here's my thing:
I'm a woman and therefore generally only play female characters. So why, oh why, do all of my female characters STILL look as if they're going to pop off at any moment to swing a pole at the local strip club? I mean, I'm certainly not going to be turned on by the IDEA that I might be able to see my elven archer's nipples if I turn the screen the right way... and yet, I still kinda like that the female characters are attractive women. Why? Because while I fall into the realm of 'cute' I'm certainly not getting a spread in Playboy anytime soon. So I like to play a character that is really hot, to pretend to be a hot chick every now and then. But I wonder (and here comes the point, coming around the home stretch) do they make the main female characters so blatantly sexual to appeal to the women that are going to play them, or to appeal to the men who happen to want to RP a female character?
I think it depends on the game personally-for instance, I doubt there's going to be that many men RPing a female character in KoTOR who are really going to attempt to get Carth to admit undying love to them-something I definitely tried to do. (Why? Cause it's FUN-it's like dating without discovering that the guy is really kinda yucky. Besides, I've already got someone who admits undying love to me in RL so RPG's are my only place to do something like that.)
So anyway, I can see the 'young teenage boy' side of things, but I wonder about the 'female gamer' side of things...

 

To me, it get's pretty annoying after a while. It gets hard to take the game seriously if a metal bra and panties is considered adequete protection from hordes of rampaging... monsters.

Done and done.
Let this be a lesson to you, searching for something too much ends up with something very different from what you were searching for.