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<generator>Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/</generator><item><title><![CDATA[Fallen Earth's females get a more feminine facelift]]></title><link>http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/fallen-earths-females-get-a-more-feminine-facelift/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/fallen-earths-females-get-a-more-feminine-facelift/</guid><comments>http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/fallen-earths-females-get-a-more-feminine-facelift/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/sci-fi/" rel="tag">Sci-fi</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/fallen-earth/" rel="tag">Fallen Earth</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/interviews/" rel="tag">Interviews</a></p><div style="text-align: center;"> </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/fallen-earth"><font><img hspace="4" border="1" vspace="4" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2009/09/fallen-earth-female-01.jpg" /></font></a><br /></div>
Women of the post-apocalypse should look more feminine -- at least that's what <a href="http://www.fallenearth.com"><span style="font-style: italic;">Fallen Earth</span></a> players think.<br /><br />According to developer Fallen Earth LLC, players thought that the female characters in the post-apocalyptic MMO, which just launched yesterday, should have physiological qualities typically associated with women.<br /><br /><font style="font-family: Arial;">"<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/fallen-earth">Fallen Earth</a> <span style="font-style: italic;">has never been about the sexiness of its females</span>," </font><font style="font-family: Arial;"><font style="font-family: Arial;">said </font>product manager Jessica Orr,</font><font style="font-family: Arial;"> "<span style="font-style: italic;">but after some comments from fans and a hard look at the female faces, we decided some changes were in order.</span>"</font><br /><br />That meant having the game's artist, Chris Allen, make adjustments to the facial models in order <font style="font-family: Arial;">to differentiate the females more from the male character models.</font> The changes, implemented in a recent patch, included removing "<span style="font-style: italic;">excess skin</span>" from under the chins, raising the cheekbones, softening the jawline, thinning the bridge of the noses and tweaking the shape and placement of the eyebrows. <br /> <br /> Allen also raised the corners of the mouth to make the women have "<font style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">less of a scowl and more of a neutral expression</span>," Orr said. The result is what Fallen Earth LLC sees as "<span style="font-style: italic;">m</span></font><font style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">ore feminine models that steer clear of the characteristic 'babes</span>,'" allowing players to focus more on the game itself. </font><font style="font-family: Arial;"><br /><br />Orr also answered a few more questions regarding the look of the female models and provided us with more comparison shots below. What do you think of the changes?<br /></font></div>
</font><font size="2" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial;"><br /></font><p><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/fallen-earths-females-get-a-more-feminine-facelift/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Fallen Earth's females get a more feminine facelift</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com"><img src="http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="Massively" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/fallen-earths-females-get-a-more-feminine-facelift/">Fallen Earth's females get a more feminine facelift</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com">Massively</a> on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/fallen-earths-females-get-a-more-feminine-facelift/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/forward/19170848/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/fallen-earths-females-get-a-more-feminine-facelift/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>]]></description><category>fallen-earth</category><category>fallen-earth-llc</category><category>featured</category><category>female-characters</category><category>gender</category><category>gender-differences</category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Tracey John]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Are female characters really penalized in Age of Conan?]]></title><link>http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/06/11/are-female-characters-really-penalized-in-age-of-conan/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/06/11/are-female-characters-really-penalized-in-age-of-conan/</guid><comments>http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/06/11/are-female-characters-really-penalized-in-age-of-conan/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/fantasy/" rel="tag">Fantasy</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/age-of-conan/" rel="tag">Age of Conan</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/bugs/" rel="tag">Bugs</a>, <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/rumors/" rel="tag">Rumors</a></p><a href="http://www.funcom.com"><img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" align="right" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2008/06/flex.jpg" /></a>There's an unpleasant rumor gathering strength in the <a href="http://www.ageofconan.com"><em>Age of Conan</em></a> community. It seems to have begun with <a href="http://www.yougamers.com/reviews/19142_age_of_conan_hyborian_adventures/">this eight-page review</a>, which (despite delivering a relatively healthy overall score of 76) is uncompromising in its criticism of those parts of the game that, in the reviewer's opinion, fall very short of what was advertised. <br /><br />The bombshell <a href="http://www.yougamers.com/reviews/19142_age_of_conan_hyborian_adventures-page7/">comes on page 7</a>, where the reviewer states outright that '<em>... <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/age-of-conan">Age of Conan</a>'s weapon swing time depends on the duration of the visual swing animation, and female characters swing their weapons about 25% slower than males - so every female melee character does 25% less damage over time!</em>'<p><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/06/11/are-female-characters-really-penalized-in-age-of-conan/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Are female characters really penalized in Age of Conan?</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com"><img src="http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="Massively" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/06/11/are-female-characters-really-penalized-in-age-of-conan/">Are female characters really penalized in Age of Conan?</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com">Massively</a> on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:30:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/06/11/are-female-characters-really-penalized-in-age-of-conan/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/forward/1222056/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/06/11/are-female-characters-really-penalized-in-age-of-conan/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>]]></description><category>age-of-conan</category><category>aoc</category><category>attack-speed</category><category>bugs</category><category>featured</category><category>female-characters</category><category>funcom</category><category>issues</category><category>sexism</category><category>sexist</category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Adrian Bott]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:30:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Conan chats up the ladies]]></title><link>http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/10/19/conan-chats-up-the-ladies/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/10/19/conan-chats-up-the-ladies/</guid><comments>http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/10/19/conan-chats-up-the-ladies/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/category/age-of-conan/" rel="tag">Age of Conan</a></p><div align="center"><a href="http://www.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&amp;template=content&amp;func_id=1992&amp;sort=PRIORITY,%20RELTIME%20desc&amp;table=CONTENT"><em><img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/massively.joystiq.com/media/2007/10/conanwoman1.jpg"  alt="" /></em></a><br /></div>
<em>Age of Conan </em>spent <a href="http://www.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?func=publish.show&amp;template=content&amp;func_id=1992&amp;sort=PRIORITY,%20RELTIME%20desc&amp;table=CONTENT">today's Friday update</a> dealing with the women of Hyboria.  Honestly, the first time I saw the proposed cover art for the game, I was a little surprised it didn't include, well Conan.  Placing a female on their game is just one step toward proving that there is a place for women in this society (and not just a lusty tramps either, although they are in there as well.)<br /><br />Female characters will have the same amount of strength as male ones.  Although this deviates from the original concept of women in the works of Robert E. Howard, but I think you'll agree that the portrayal of women as weak, fainting pansies wouldn't nearly be as fun to play as say, my hero Red Sonja.  But the developers have gone to great lengths to make sure that women have their own identity in AoC, and to that end have created over 2500 unique female animations.  Each piece of armor is specifically designed for the female form rather than being a copy of the male armor, as you can see in the screenshot above.  <br /><br />It looks to be that the trend these days is to create women with equal strengths and abilities to men.  While I am all for that, I also would like to point out the obvious:  that a woman is not a man.  In the original D&amp;D female characters had a modifier -1 strength +1 charisma.  Yes, I agree that women are as strong as men, but their strengths lie in different areas.  Of course, the strengths of a woman are definitely harder to quantify, so I can see leveling the playing field for simplicity's sake.  I suppose I am simply left with the question does a woman fight and/or deal with conflict differently than a man?  Will there ever be a game that can capture this?<br /><br />Whatever the answer may be to those questions, I am suddenly very jazzed to play this game.<p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com"><img src="http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="Massively" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/10/19/conan-chats-up-the-ladies/">Conan chats up the ladies</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com">Massively</a> on Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:57:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/10/19/conan-chats-up-the-ladies/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/forward/1017577/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/10/19/conan-chats-up-the-ladies/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>]]></description><category>Age-of-Conan</category><category>female-characters</category><category>Friday-update</category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Amanda Rivera]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:57:00 EST</pubDate></item></channel></rss>
