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By David Futrelle
Angry gamers are somehow still up in arms about the body of the character Abby in The Last of Us 2. You may recall, back in April the angriest gamers — the perpetual Gamergaters — were outraged after a studio leak revealed that the character Abby would be returning in the sequel as a newly-buff fighter with notably jacked arms.
At first the angry gamers assumed that any woman that buff had to be trans, so they accused the game studio, Naughty Dog, of pushing an LGBT+ agenda on innocent gamers. Then, when it turned out that Abby was not trans, the angry gamers got mad at Abby for a whole other reason — declaring that her body was “unrealistic” because where would she be getting enough food to bulk up like that in a postapocalyptic world and did she even lift, bro?
The game has been out for some time now and they’re still mad.
But now the angry gamers think they have found DEFINITIVE PROOF that Abby’s body is too good to be true — in the form of a workout schedule for Abby they discovered somewhere in the games assets that reveals, well, that she doesn’t lift enough to have arms like THAT.
“[A]bby is more muscular Than 90% of the Guys in the gym where i was workout,” complains another gamer on Twitter. “No girl in the gym looks as ugly as Abby.”
Other, er, critics make much of the fact that food is rationed in the dire dystopian world of the game.
“Her food is rationed,” insists one of Abby’s critics. “They SHOW that in game. She’d never be able to get the lean protein required to get that big.”
“Abby … has a muscular physique … in an environment where proper diet is so rare that food is rationed out,” another Abby non-fan grumbles. “You can say you don’t care but you can’t claim that this all about hating women.”
Like hell I can’t.
In case you’re wondering just how jacked this woman is, here’s what she looks like.
This is the body that these guys are declaring so “unrealistic”that it destroys any feelings of immersion in the game — a game that also features, yes, ZOMBIES. You know, creatures that DON’T ACTUALLY EXIST IN REAL LIFE
Come to think of it, has anyone found the zombies’ workout schedule?
More to the point, has anyone even gone looking for the workout schedules for any of the far-more-improbably buff bodies of assorted male video game heroes — say, the top-heavy soldiers in Gears of War, Batman in the Arkham series, Zangief in Street Fighter — or any of the other imaginary video game men on this handy list?
Of course not. It’s almost as if there’s a double standard. It’s almost as if Abby’s critics just can’t stand the thought of a strong women, or something. “It’s such a weird, ultra-specific way to be misogynistic while claiming to appeal to logic,” notes podcaster Jubel Brosseau on Twitter. That it is.
Skimmingweight has words… beautiful words. They has the BEST words. And many words, the most words.
Content, not so much, or if they has content, it has yet to be revealed
> Catalpa
It is well known that increased gravity just give the women boobs of steel.
Sarcasm aside, i do not know the GoW license enough to judge (the tactical is a prequel but assume the player know the universe, which is not my case). Basically, I am not a fan of TPS/FPS, and this license give me a huge impression to be a no-brainer one, but maybe there are more than meet the eyes and someone can give a better appreciation of it.
They may have different opinions but they are way more willing to let those be for the pragmatic benefit of opposing ‘the left’.
It’s a move Karl Schmitt (interesting political theorist, also a member of the nazi party. It’s almost as if universities aren’t just left wing propaganda machines as that is where I learned about him) has described often. The best way to unite a group, according to him, is by creating a common image of an enemy.
Not sure about ‘best’, but it is definitely effective. Should the right succeed in ousting the political left they’d soon turn to finding ‘leftists’ in their own ranks. See also that cuckservative meme that popped up a while back.
Just like liberals, conservatives dont believe what they say they believe. Most of their veiws if you look closely, contradict. They say they want less government but the things they want to enforce (ban gay marriage, ban abortion, ban contraception, tax breaks for wealthy and big corporations) this all needs *more* government not less. They always desire control and narrow paths for life, which cant exist without a government or authority to enforce. They want personal freedom (to say horrible things, tell women what to do, stop LGBTQIA people from existing), but they want only personal freedom for people exacly like them (individualist, white, able, cis, het, middle class, christian/cultural christian etc). So they dont want freedom, they want supremacy.
Liberals dont believe the same things as conservatives, they just talk a lot about radical ideas but in the end if you ask them enough questions, it always become clear they want to preserve the status quo, or go back to recent times that was still okay for them, centre believing white, cis het etc people.
I think this is why liberals and conservatives struggle to understand that leftist/communist/socialist/anarchist/progressives actually believe the things that we say. Liberals and conservatives exist becuase of the ideology of individualism, which never brings any big benefit or change. Only preserves status quo or continues until fascism.
Naglfar, hoop skirts with a three metre diameter would be good for social distancing right now, as would a pet stegosaurus. I vote that we bring them back.
@Lizzie
Hoop skirts would be good for social distance, yes, but I’m not so sure about stegosauruses. If my dog is any indication, people love to meet and play with pets and a stegosaurus would be no exception. Everyone would want to pet the stegosaurus and wouldn’t stay 6 feet away.
@Naglfar, @Policy of Madness:
The implosion of Conservapedia, years ago, convinced me that the Right is as prone to in-fighting as the Left, we’re just more likely to be around to see it in the latter.
@Crip Dyke:
I have one of those games loaded for our cats; that said I once left them unattended with it and they managed to start up iTunes.
@Naglfar
Thank you. I just didn’t want anyone to misunderstand. I respect you all too much to want that.
Hopefully not, if the stegosaurus likes to wag its tail a lot.
Also, a stegosaurus is more than 6 feet long IIRC, so you can go to the unpetted end of your stego.
@Moon Custafer
Well that’s a blast from the past, I hadn’t thought about them in a while. I wonder if Schafly still thinks imaginary numbers don’t exist.
@Alan Robertshaw, Naglfar:
Toronto has several dozen ‘Little Free Library’ booths sitting around for sharing books; I’ve walked by a few of them down in the Annex. Can’t find good pictures of the local ones, but here’s the general site:
https://littlefreelibrary.org/
After a search to find that, apparently there was a bylaw complaint lodged against one of these three years ago; the ensuing backlash caused the city to back down on it.
https://www.blogto.com/arts/2017/09/toronto-cracking-down-free-little-libraries/
There is some pushback from local librarians who don’t have trouble with the concept so much as the non-profit handling the branding.
@skimmingway
So asserts the jabroni engaging in projection, pseudologic and nonsense waffling that would earn them a fail in English Class.
Also, you never addressed the counterargument I made into your waffles about the building of fortress and the need of intellectuals to help build that fort and keep in maintained and supplied logistically because there’s more to building forts than a bunch of thoughtless, uncritical beefcakes stacking sandbags and bricks along the edge of a dugout. I suspect however, this is likely a feature; not a bug on your part.
Though if your threatening to bounce instead of actually listening to actual logical people who are deconstructing your self aggrandizing delusions because the facts don’t care about your feelings that makes you more irate than a ruffled grouse: than you should know better than to threaten us with a good time.
I know lots of women who look like that. Pretty much every stay-at-home mother who doesn’t have a paid nanny ends up with arms like this because children are heavy, and you’ll be lifting them six hours a day…
I wonder if the same people desperately complaining about “unrealistic” body types said anything about the Sorceress from Dragon’s Crown? (image linking always fails for me but you can easily google examples). She has enormous breasts even by the standards of video game women. And the game designers tried to justify their design choice by saying they wanted to make her look “distinctive”. I’ll bet they never considered having her stand out by, say, making her black. Oh no, gotta be the hugenormous breasts. (Not saying that such women don’t exist, but they reason for including that design has nothing to do with representation and everything to do with, no pun intended, titillation.)
@Schnookums
Just looked up an image. I don’t even think they believe their own justification simply because in the world of gaming, having huge breasts is the opposite of distinctive. It’s like trying to make a house stand out by painting it the exact same color as the neighbors.
Plus, her breasts are quite unrealistic anyway. Sure, there are women IRL with large busts, but probably not many naturally have breasts that are both that big and don’t sag at all.
I’m not a video-game player, but from the photo of this character, her arms look very realistic to me. Those are the arms of a labourer, absolutely. I’ve got a long way to go, but after a few months of lockdown where I could do some heavy-duty gardening work (trying to build a drystone wall and outdoor oven), I’m noticing a real change in my own arms — and I’m NOT in any way a bodybuilder. But as we all know, the point of these critiques isn’t the perceived unreality of the characters; it’s the need to police women’s bodies and choices.
Does anyone know if the women in these games ate ever shown with visible body hair, like underarm hair? I just feel like if I were fighting off zombies, shaving would be the first thing I’d drop.
I think body hair in general– both for men and woman– is downplayed because it’s annoying to animate.
I don’t think that that is as big a problem as you’d imagine, considering that fur textures and dynamics simulations (for animals, etc.) already exist and can be adjusted for humans. It’s ultimately down to cultural standards on body hair.
@Nequam, @Ariblester
Yeah I’m pretty sure it’s more an aesthetic/body policing thing than a rendering limitation. No reason hairy knuckles can’t be stenciled onto a character skin as part of the bitmaps, or whatever the terminology is. (IDK I know nothing at all about 3D modeling or game engine programming.) Also it’s not like we haven’t had furry games since forever. Starfox,
Re the OP, and the entire thing where men hate physically strong women. Honestly every time I see this garbage, I remember all the times I’ve been gently held by women who could squeeze me into putty if they wanted, and think: “These guys don’t know what they’re missing.”
Culture Warriors are angry at the idea of non-conforming women existing and being valid. All this nitpicking over exercise schedules and protein is just an attempt to dress it up in fandom and pass their body policing as art criticism. See: She-Ra.