Erotic or offensive art question

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AuthorTopic: Erotic or offensive art question
Master Jeweller
Member # 409
Profile Homepage #0
Hi there,

Something came up during beta-testing of Leylines (a strategy game written by
Crystal Shard). The question is whether some of the artwork used in the game
is really appropriate, or maybe that it could offend some people. I would
appreciate some people's feedback on this.

The image we're talking about is
http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~psimoons/lmagic.jpg

and it's basically an enchantress wearing a bikini (no it's not made of
chainmail).

Edit: two more images have come into the discussion, these are
www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=107241&Start=49&Artist=Xurge&ByArtist=Yes
64.198.60.83/baument/Galleria/unseen.htm
And are slightly worse. Tell me what you think please.

[ Monday, September 22, 2003 01:37: Message edited by: Radiant ]

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Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heilighthum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng getheilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Pieter Simoons aka Radiant

Official Crystal Shard and SubTerra webpage
Posts: 798 | Registered: Monday, December 17 2001 08:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 3310
Profile #1
Well, I´ve seen worse.
Posts: 756 | Registered: Monday, August 4 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 517
Profile #2
Sorry, this is me doing the whingeing. I'm simply of the opinion that this image, and a couple of others like it, add nothing to the game while making it potentially offensive.

-E-

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Let them eat cake!

Polaris Boards: The System is Up. Perennially.
Posts: 2314 | Registered: Tuesday, January 15 2002 08:00
Master Jeweller
Member # 409
Profile Homepage #3
Omlette, you certainly have a point, but I wanted to get some more peoples'
opinions to see if something needs to be done.
(the reason being, good art is hard to find these days)

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Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heilighthum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng getheilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Pieter Simoons aka Radiant

Official Crystal Shard and SubTerra webpage
Posts: 798 | Registered: Monday, December 17 2001 08:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #4
If the owner of the site will allow you, check http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/ , it has some absolutely stunning magi casting spells images.

--------------------
We're all amazed but not amused
By all the things that you said you'd do.
You're much concerned but not involved by
Decisions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song,
Telling us how you are going to change right from wrong,
'Cause if you really want to hear our views,
You haven't done nothin'.

Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Master Jeweller
Member # 409
Profile Homepage #5
Unfortunately, (from their info page),

The images in my galleries are protected by international copyright law. By visiting my public gallery you are granted a personal liscense to download and use the images as wallpaper on your personal computer and to share a few of them with your friends and family through email.

No image in any of my galleries, hi-res or thumbnail, may be used in any way other than as personal wallpaper. You may print them out for personal use but not for distribution (commercial or non-profit).

--------------------
Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heilighthum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder, was die Mode streng getheilt,
Alle Menschen werden Brüder, wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Pieter Simoons aka Radiant

Official Crystal Shard and SubTerra webpage
Posts: 798 | Registered: Monday, December 17 2001 08:00
Senile Reptile
Member # 547
Profile #6
I've got no problem with the picture. But it really depends on who you want to market the game to. PG-13 movies have much more revealing scenes. If it's just teenagers and older who buy the game, there shouldn't be any problem at all.

Or you could just slap a clunky disclaimer on somewhere.

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Polaris
Posts: 1614 | Registered: Wednesday, January 23 2002 08:00
Shaper
Member # 22
Profile #7
I don't think that's offensive in any way. It doesn't appear in a sexual way - and people who find it sexually offensive, well, that's there problem for reading too much into it.

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KazeArctica: "Imagine...wangs everywhere...and tentacles. Nothing but wangs and tentacles! And no pants!"
Posts: 2862 | Registered: Tuesday, October 2 2001 07:00
Guardian
Member # 2476
Profile #8
Why do you think the image offensive, Omlette? It can be seen as a woman enjoying her power. Does she have to be unattractive to be permitted to do that?

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Polaris
Posts: 1828 | Registered: Saturday, January 11 2003 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #9
There're not any breasts or other, well, offensive, stuff there as far as I can see. Besides the picture is rather pixxelated (that might be just an effect of the screenshot, dunno what the original quality is). I have seen worse even in games not marked PG or anything. Compared to what other people see when they picture a sorceress casting a spell, this is actually rather tame. IMAGE(Erotic or offensive art question_files/tongue.gif)

[ Thursday, September 18, 2003 07:09: Message edited by: Arancaytar ]

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"And all should cry, Beware, Beware!
His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge
---
"It is as if everyone had lost their sense
Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence
And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey.
---
Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
BANNED
Member # 3121
Profile Homepage #10
Yeah, nothing offensive with the pic(s).

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- WITH LOVE, THE OL' RELIABLE BOYLOVE, TO BE EXACT
Posts: 761 | Registered: Thursday, June 19 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #11
I don't think it's offensive, but I can see how others would be offended by it. On the other hand, it's tamer than what you can find in many fantasy games now. Unless you can find other art and you're very worried about that small group, you can leave the image in.

—Alorael, who would like everyone to take a moment to look at the boxes for EverQuest, Neverwinter Nights, and a number of other major fantasy games. See what they have in common. Then consider how well they sell and decide where the demographics are.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 2421
Profile #12
I have seen worse on primetime tv never mind other pc games IMAGE(Erotic or offensive art question_files/cool.gif)
Posts: 11 | Registered: Sunday, December 29 2002 08:00
Agent
Member # 366
Profile #13
I don't see the problem. One of the Exile characters looks just like that.

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I say never be complete. I say stop being perfect. I say let's evolve. Let the chips fall where they may.
Posts: 1277 | Registered: Sunday, December 9 2001 08:00
Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
Profile Homepage #14
I'm not offended, but then I wouldn't be offended if she wasn't wearing the bikini, so I'm probably not too good a judge.

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Grammar wenches beware:
This is the house that the malt that the rat that the cat that the dog that the cow that the maiden that the man that the priest that the cock that the farmer kept waked married kissed milked tossed worried killed ate lay in.

My Website
desperance.net - Leave your sanity at the door
Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 496
Profile #15
If anything, I suspect the pic will add to the game. Since Xena, the radfems are pro these images, not anti.
Posts: 2333 | Registered: Monday, January 7 2002 08:00
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #16
Uh, I don't remember a character in Exile who looked like that, although Luz made a BoE graphic like it. But there is graphic number 1802 in A3 (don't know about the other Avernums), which is just as revealing. I say leave it.

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My BoE graphics archive is finally getting started! Yay! I hope you like my graphics.My BoE Graphics
An absurdly fun Flash game- Refridgerator Raid!
---------
The Lyceum- A board for BoE. Yes it is. Really. Stop staring at me! Stop it, I say! Oh, sorry...
Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 517
Profile #17
It seems I'm massively outnumbered, so I'll concede the point. I had some kind of logical argument as to why they added nothing to the game, but it seems that for the majority of people, they do, so I'll just leave it.

I still object to the picture on the sidepanel for building cities in the map-editor, because the woman in that one is actually naked.

-E-

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Let them eat cake!

Polaris Boards: The System is Up. Perennially.
Posts: 2314 | Registered: Tuesday, January 15 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #18
I get the idea. Omlette complained about several pictures, and Radiant posted the tamest one of them. IMAGE(Erotic or offensive art question_files/tongue.gif) (No offense to you, Radiant, I'd do the same; it's unconscious.)

So what are the other pictures like? IMAGE(Erotic or offensive art question_files/confused.gif)

--------------------
"And all should cry, Beware, Beware!
His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge
---
"It is as if everyone had lost their sense
Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence
And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey.
---
Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 517
Profile #19
Not at all. Radiant had some screenshots from the game already online, one of which was also one of the ones I was complaining about. He wasn't being Machiavellian, particularly as I hadn't bothered to mention exactly which ones I objected to. The reason I complained about it was the sidepanel one I mentioned; I don't have a place to upload to or anything, so I pointed out that other one.

-E-

[ Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:29: Message edited by: Omlette ]

--------------------
Let them eat cake!

Polaris Boards: The System is Up. Perennially.
Posts: 2314 | Registered: Tuesday, January 15 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #20
I wasn't saying he was being Machiavellian. IMAGE(Erotic or offensive art question_files/rolleyes.gif) Only if there are worse pictures than this one, this one is hardly suitable to judge the rest. Bring them out! IMAGE(Erotic or offensive art question_files/tongue.gif)

--------------------
"And all should cry, Beware, Beware!
His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge
---
"It is as if everyone had lost their sense
Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence
And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey.
---
Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 1169
Profile #21
I don't know that you'll find all too many people here that have a huge problem with it, inasmuch as most of us have played Avernum, and the graphics in that--I mean, look at that one character graphic of the anatomically impossible woman in the shoelace-sized leather bikini and fur-topped boots.

Speaking as a woman, I wasn't offended by the mage-in-bikini graphic (though it didn't seem very...magicky, for lack of a better word--then again, I know nothing about the game). I was mildly offended by the Avernum graphic, but this one didn't strike me as offensive.

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"Man hands down misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself."--Philip Larkin, "This Be the Verse"

Fear the wrath of the Grammar Wench, lest ye be cut down by the Glistening Scythe.
Posts: 1150 | Registered: Friday, May 17 2002 07:00
Agent
Member # 1558
Profile #22
I have no problem with it.
I'm more concerned for the men who get aroused by computer drawings.

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I'm tired of the strain and the pain, ohhh, I'm tired of the strain and the pain.

Lair of Blades
Wise Forums
Desperance
Polaris
Bash
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Friday, July 19 2002 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #23
quote:
Originally written by Commodore Mango:

I don't know that you'll find all too many people here that have a huge problem with it, inasmuch as most of us have played Avernum, and the graphics in that--I mean, look at that one character graphic of the anatomically impossible woman in the shoelace-sized leather bikini and fur-topped boots.

Speaking as a woman, I wasn't offended by the mage-in-bikini graphic (though it didn't seem very...magicky, for lack of a better word--then again, I know nothing about the game). I was mildly offended by the Avernum graphic, but this one didn't strike me as offensive.

You were mildly offended by the Avernum one? Yeah, I was too. She should have had nothing on. Nothing adds to the plot of a game more than naked women hurling about huge, phallic objects.

--------------------
We're all amazed but not amused
By all the things that you said you'd do.
You're much concerned but not involved by
Decisions that are made by you
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song,
Telling us how you are going to change right from wrong,
'Cause if you really want to hear our views,
You haven't done nothin'.

Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 3458
Profile #24
i dont really see a problem with that picture i must say i have seen much worse IMAGE(Erotic or offensive art question_files/rolleyes.gif)

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Call me the NECROMANCER!
-Bob 2000
Posts: 12 | Registered: Sunday, September 14 2003 07:00

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