Chained ladies: a concern about design, objectification and equality

Although much has been discussed about the topic, I feel like I need to share this once again with you guys from GGG. I absolutely believe that there could be a better, more ethical and comfortbale way of designing the HUD

So much has been shared, exposed and learned from inequality since past years that it's unthinkable to project such a cruel, cheap and sexist graphics.

And no, switching ladies for naked chained men will not fix it. The concerns would be the same: exposing beings as objects in a cruel way.

Path Of Exile is such a creative game. I remember becoming a closed beta supporter because of how refreshing the whole experience feeled and looked. It's been a while now and I can't help but feel awkward everytime I wish to live the experience again. It's been months since I played, but I'm always checking for a change in that sense, hoping I can comfortably save the world once again.
Surely you can come up with an attractive and ethically comfortable design. Monsters? Awesome people? Symbols? You know you can, I know you can.

With love and hope,

Bootpants

I think I understand your concerns, but it seems just a little bit too far fetched for me. People have become aware of such things to an extent that's going over the top. Maybe not all, but most males and females like looking at aesthetically pleasing stuff, including sex. And GGG did a great job at character design in that regard, ethical too as far as I can tell.

Still you're right, only the HUD display seems to be way too banal compared to the rest of the game. The ladies are only nice to look at from an outside perspective. For me they have nothing in common with the aesthetic universe of PoE. Tbh I wanted the once proposed new HUD with the templars because the design was much more fitting to PoE's art style and very well executed in my opinion. Also the no-pants-templar homoeroticism was already in the game.

But what absolutely baffled me was that GGG reverted to the ladies again because of the HUGE rejection of the new art by the community. I won't post my theories about that here, but at least it was a slap in the face for the artist. That was no less than a pathetic display of the community.

So for me it's less about ethics but more about coherent design.

On another note: The game is cruel already, and the sound and animation of characters dying is most piteous, so why not display the cruelty in the HUD? I think it gives the impression of still being an exile. You have to prove again and again what you're capable of, but ultimately you might fail and the chains in the HUD remind you of that.

+1 for a change of the HUD - it's too oldschool vulgar and PoE is better than that

if you really arent trolling and you care about morality and being ethic... have you not seen the holocaust style piles of dead bodies in lunaris 3? The dead baby on the beach? The babies murdering other babies in the sculptures? how is that stuff less unethical than some half naked bimbos chained to a globe... most people dont even notice them while playing, i didnt see them until you posted about it some time ago.

if they have to remove the ladies because it offends someone then theyd have to remove half of act 3 casue its bound to offend someone else and so on.

And really with that logic you might as well call wraeclast racist because when playing as a marauder almost everything is trying to kill you...

VictorDoom there's a differenece there because it's the work of the "bad guys" when the globe girls serve no one but the player

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Onirinaute wrote:

VictorDoom there's a differenece there because it's the work of the "bad guys" when the globe girls serve no one but the player

So its morality only depends on who's doing the act?....

No, but the morality of the bad guys is known to be wrong, they acts are condemned in the game and shown as wrong. That's why there is a difference in my opinion.

Hi

Yawn more dead horses.

My questions are: Who chained the women to the orbs? Are the women considered ''good'' to you? What makes you think they didn't do something to deserve the orb entrapment?

Forum Moderators you are welcome to attempt to erase what I write as usual.

Cheers

I'm a little more concerned about the portrayal of skeletons in this game. As an actual skeleton who was resurrected through the time-honored tradition of necromancy (which gets an undeserved negative reputation by self-righteous and closed-minded individuals -- but that's a discussion for another day), I am disturbed by the game's portrayal of the skeletons -- or, as we like to describe ourselves "flesh-free humans (FFH's)" as weak, mindless cronies that are to be summoned and used like cannon fodder. There's even a keystone passive that allows us to explode when we're low on life! Come on, GGG, it's time to get with the times.

They went topless to protest against the loot filter.

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Allerdyne wrote:

I'm a little more concerned about the portrayal of skeletons in this game. As an actual skeleton who was resurrected through the time-honored tradition of necromancy (which gets an undeserved negative reputation by self-righteous and closed-minded individuals -- but that's a discussion for another day), I am disturbed by the game's portrayal of the skeletons -- or, as we like to describe ourselves "flesh-free humans (FFH's)" as weak, mindless cronies that are to be summoned and used like cannon fodder. There's even a keystone passive that allows us to explode when we're low on life! Come on, GGG, it's time to get with the times.

The spookiest part about this is that everyone has a living skeleton inside them....