Boards›Concepts & Creations

Champion Designs and Art: Racial Diversity and Gendered Stereotypes

imperatorFuriosa·10/1/2014, 5:13:06 AM·6 votes·1,278 views

tl;dr: I would like to see more racial diversity in our champions. The limited representation of female champions is a problem that needs to be addressed. What I mean by that is: female champions shouldn't exist just to be sexy dolls that you can manipulate, and instead be more diverse in appearance and presentation.

First of all, I'm not trying to bring negativity in this forum, just addressing an issue that seems to be overlooked by almost everyone.

**Racial diversity: **We have very few non-white champions if we're looking at the humanoid ones. We have Ahri, Akali, Irelia, Nidalee, Lucian, and Xin. I would also like to think that Shyvana and Karma are darker skinned as well. Of the existing non-white champions, a lot of the skins are either whitewashed or stereotypical in some way. Why shouldn't we have more diversity among our champions? (Hint: we totally should.) This is a fantasy game where yordles exist and little blue people have a place. I think we can make room for a few more darker skinned champions.

**Gendered stereotypes: **

Female champions seem to have been made from the same mold. As far as I can tell, we only have one female monster (Anivia) and she's not fearsome enough, to be honest (not talking about the champion abilities, just the presentation, voice, etc.) She's more gentle than anything else.
The humanoid female champions ALL. HAVE. THE. SAME. BODY. Tiny waists, big boobs, (except Jinx, bless her design team for straying from the norm) killer legs, etc. I'm not complaining about their hotness, since I'm into girls too, but I do take issue with all the panty-shots and tits-and-ass (pardon the vulgar term) poses that they are put into. Some of their costumes serve NO purpose other than to sexualize the champion. We should have some body diversity among female champions, too. We have Gragas, why can't we have a lady that looks like a drunken brawler? (Hint: we totally should.)

Unfortunately, objectifying female champions IS the norm in gaming industry, but I trust Riot to be an innovator in this area as well.

4 Comments

BigBenClockTower10/1/2014, 8:09:33 AM5 votes

This is a sticky issue, but let me play devil's advocate. If we do try and break the norms of body stereotypes, we run into a new issue that is still something that will be pointed out.

For a quick, early, example, if I create a portly female opera singer, I just broke the molds of female Champion design. No, really, I did. But, it's still a stereotype. To break the stereotypes and tropes that comprise the media of all kinds you enjoy, well, it kind of ruins the cohesiveness and strength of a design. In our opera singer example, such singers are portly for a number of perfectly viable reasons (with few exceptions). As such, you cannot avoid the stereotype, for it is super prevalent in the profession. Aside from the opera singer, let me present a non-stereotypical design along the lines of concepts surely to be raised in this topic:

Female monster Champion. Based on rabbits. Use kick-heavy Fighter playstyle, opposed to Vi's punch-heavy Fighter playstyle. Is always a rabbit at all times; NO HUMAN FORM!!!

Sounds cool, right? What could go wrong? Plenty. In fact, immediately, we run into three big issues in our non-stereotyped design here. Let me explain.

Rabbits (in most cultures) are associated with their powerful hindquarters. We know this to be part of their design, and it is essential for them to actually survive. Now, knowing this, would exemplified hindquarters (and the kick based playstyle) cause issue? We always point out exemplified thighs on female designs as being but one part indicative of "sex doll" design. So, already, that eliminates this rabbit-based design if we wanted to make a stereotype free design. Every animal or insect we know of that can have a design based on it suffers from some aspects of the base creature that define that creature, and need to be present to create a thrilling and engaging design for the larger worldwide audience, primarily so everyone knows what the Champion is supposed to be.
Rabbits often have an additional association with the concepts of "fertility", "rebirth", "innocence", and "playful sexuality" in many cultures. So what happens when these concepts are addressed in the design and placed into it? Is the mere fact that these ideas are present enough to cause issue? Will they be complained about? Chances are high that the answer to both of those questions is yes. Why? Because the tropes needed to form a good character design that will also be globally appealing will be present, and I'm quite certain that 90%+ of those tropes are responsible for what we assume is explicit "sexualization" of something or someone. If these cultural viewpoints are ignored, then the global public may lose the interest in playing a creature-based Champion, regardless of gender.
The vast majority of people around the world associate many animals and insects with certain female specific tropes and fetish outfits, which means a rabbit based design would run into even more problems. I cite Battle Bunny Riven as an example of this association in action. The bunny suit's existence alone proves that a female monster Champion (rabbit or not) would suffer from a lot of issues relating to how people perceive animals and females together.

A great example of my point here is Pokemon's Lopunny. http://38.media.tumblr.com/687ac619a4dcd419a0b4a0a59b3fe637/tumblr_n8v7pkoMSS1s5nkjqo2_1280.png It is an example of a great feminine rabbit monster design that exemplifies the hindquarters (which real rabbits have), while also referencing the "innocence" and "playful sexuality" aspects of a rabbit. Lopunny totally catches the appeal of a rabbit-based design in a great way, yet, they are criticized as being too "sexualized". Also to be covered here is Mega Lopunny. http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2014/226/e/6/mega_lopunny_by_theangryaron-d7v4bmb.png While Mega Lopunny is essentially a Vi clone personality wise (according to Gamefreak), it exemplifies the powerful kicks and hindquarters of a rabbit further (people still complain).

I hope I explained this well.

LittleBlast10/1/2014, 10:35:39 AM3 votes

For some champions it however makes sense for them to be how ther are. Ahri is a good example, as it fits into her abilities and lore. Also, dragon slayer vayne. It makes sense for her not to be in a big suit of bulky armor, and in minimal armor, if she is going ti be tumbling around. Just my thoughts, those are 2 examples I thought of.

Malecasta10/1/2014, 8:29:21 PM2 votes

Agreed. Also, most of the female champions have very similar facial features. It looks like Riot just changed the skin tone (though rarely, as you point out), hair color, and eye color on the same model---at least in the splash art. I'm also into women, but I'm tired of seeing the same face and body over and over again. Yes, I can appreciate that they're hot, but I know Riot can do more than that.

I would buy a drunken brawling lady on the chubby side in an instant just because she would break the mold. At the same time, I understand that a number of people might not buy her for that same reason. Riot is a company, after all, and I understand that they will make choices that will be lucrative for them. Even so, they have the resources to push boundaries, and I'd love to see them do that.

warpenguin55510/2/2014, 9:54:46 PM1 votes

... but ryze is blue...