Why is the amazon so ungodly ugly?

Diablo II: Resurrected General Discussion
677

Haha touché. But to be fair, we’re actually quite spoiled. I mean if we wanted to do better, these are different cultures from different times. They could for all intents and purposes be like the National Geographic natives that you see covering themselves with like just a single stick and it would be more realistic, not less.

The real question is “exactly how important is it that we roleplay as someone we would also totally de-clothe if we could?”

As a gamer, I totally get it and it’s absolutely a thing, but now we’re acting on some level like that kid in the meme who reached out to the Cyberpunk 2077 devs, where we’re asking something from someone we generally wouldn’t be asking for in public. Devs are people who have day jobs, so they have to face their coworkers, who might be women who have never played D2, and say “we need her to show boobs. Not all of them, but a little.”

See if you can find one of your friends IRL who happens to be a woman who draws pictures and ask her if she could make her characters show just a little more boob. That would just be a weird conversation, unless you know for a fact she’s into that kind of thing.

678

Not sure why some people are so ficsated on boobs and butts, but:

  1. All characters are way too old. It is a direct contradiction to Diablo lore.
  2. Assa is now asian. Why? She never was asian in D2. There are tons of OG artworks.
  3. Amazon is a man now. Why? She is a woman in D2.

And so on. I don’t care about boobs/butts and other nonsense. Just don’t touch original character design. That’s all.

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679

I don’t agree with this. Because men get sexualized a lot. It’s just not something that is talked about since in gaming it’s mostly male dominating audience, so nobody really cares. The moment a woman gets to show some skin though? Everyone loses their minds. It’s the same hypocrisy that is happening in MK11 and how half the male roster is nearly naked, while the females are covered from head to toe and the face models on some of them are questionable.

https://i.imgur.com/YUUU3TJ.jpg

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681

None of what you said holds any basis simply because the game is already rated 18+. There is no reason why nudity has to be hidden just for PR sake on an already mature game with an abysmal amount of gore.

No one is saying to make the characters look like they just got out of an younkowwhattypeofgame. But at least make them attractive to the eyes. The current models are not attractive to the eyes and I am sure that they know it as well. I don’t know what they are trying to avoid with this or what demographic they are trying to reach, but I am sure it will backfire in their face if they don’t change their strategy on it.

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682

Assuming you’re correct, we now have to actually figure out the exact reason why Blizzard is doing that.

There’s a reason. It’s intentional. It’s visible. You tell me what it is. Is it just to bother you?

Why do they have to be? Most people aren’t.

It’s like when Wonder Woman 1984 featured Gal Gadot playing an extremely introverted 20-something who lives forever, wears bright red lipstick, longs for a long-dead man, and a wears dress that shows as much leg as 1984 will scientifically allow.

Nobody’s buying it. She’s cute, but for those who are examining the story for what it is, she’s way out of place.

683

Are you serious right now? Lol. I don’t even know if I should keep replying to you after this comment.

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684

Clearly you have never been to a Wal Mart.

I think you’re badly in need of some introspection. You’re under some impression that Blizzard is taking steps purely for the purpose of annoying you. You have to realize there are a lot of people who don’t live in your world.

685

You have to realize that this is a fantasy game and it’s not based on humans that visit Wal Mart. And yes, I’ve been to Wal Mart.

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686

Right, but that was an example. If I go outside right now, I can guarantee that the first person I find will not be an attractive person and your knee-jerk reaction is that this is inherently false.

We should either end the conversation, or revisit your statement:

Is it so far fetched that people aren’t 20-something bombshells? Because let’s find some other places you likely aren’t going to find dominated by cute, young, busty women who you’d be comfortable roleplaying as in a fantasy game:

  • Church
  • Your house
  • Electronics store
  • Funerals
  • Banks
  • Office buildings
  • Hospitals
  • Home Depot
  • Second hand store
  • A random elevator
  • Airport
  • Basically everywhere that’s not a beach, or a mall

Now, are you seriously going to tell me that you really do think most people are physically attractive? Keep in mind that the age range between 20 and 30 is only 10 years, which is 1/8 of a person’s lifespan. I’m not going to go below/above that since I’m going to leave that for you to decide what age ranges you find attractive and then you can do the math, but sufficed to say, the majority of people are going to mathematically fit outside of that range and we’re not even talking about people IN that range who might just not be photogenic.

This is a fantasy game, yes and you’re right, roleplaying as a young woman with a photogenic face isn’t a bad thing, but neither is not roleplaying as one and, when all is said and done, you’re going to have to convince some office people (Blizzard) that your way is the best way.

687

Preach! true q_q sigh

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688

This is a video game. Do you understand that? It’s not based on walmart, it’s not based on real humans. And even if it was, not every human is ugly as you make them to be. Not to mention someone that should be in their 20s or early 30s looking like they are in their 60s (aka the Amazon)

Convince what? How often will you be able to sell something ugly compared to something way prettier? People are not blind, there’s also the fact that this is a remaster, so it stings even more when they are trying to make changes to existing characters and do some weird uglification on them.

I don’t even know why you are trying to argue with me right now and I don’t even understand what your point is, my dude.

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689

I honestly hope your team does some SERIOUS iterations of this across ALL the characters. This isn’t about just “fap material” or “if you want sexual content, go somewhere else”, it’s about preserving the art and aesthetic of a classic.

You cannot, in good faith, say you are ressurecting something when you plan to make derivatives that fork drastically from the original. It is clear that’s not the intent of the team, given the painstaking efforts that many developers and artists have gone to keep the overall experience the same. Even down to the UI, world-space, and audio. Us fans applaud the efforts.

However, when such a striking change is made to character classes (and some notable monsters/bosses), it really begs the question – why? Despite being strict about keeping everything as close to the original as possible, did you decide this area needed sweeping changes? And who made that call for what reasons?

It would be akin to me taking a Picasso painting, going through the tireless effort of mimicking style, color choice, and medium on a larger canvas… just to finally paint something in the foreground so out of place, and then have the gall to call it a Picasso.

The fans see you the same way we see archeologists and museum workers. You are preserving a classic, something very dear and unique for the time. Your job is to revitalize that “as it were” so people can enjoy it to this day. Not to make creative interpretations as to “what should have been”.

When you do such, it asks the question why the change? And that begs the question to what agenda it serves because it does NOT serve what the fans ultimately want.

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690

Good question. How often will you keep buying their games? This has been a standard trend since WoW, which was 2004. This was one of the first games where at least some of the women weren’t designed to be fashion models. In a potentially unrelated note, that game has probably generated more revenue than any other game in history.

Right, but again, not everybody lives in your world. Your argument is basically eerily similar to where a CEO could make the case of “why would I want an ugly secretary when I could just have a hot one?”

– because it doesn’t always have to matter? Rolling the dice of life, it might just happen to be that the best person for the job is just an average person?

Why does anybody argue on the Internet? I don’t know why you’re trying to argue with me either, but you are and I’m not going to question that. That’s just an aspect of life I can tolerate. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here.

My only point is that the attractiveness of a 3D character isn’t going to make-or-break a game for me. Maybe it does for you, but you bought D2R. You’re going to have to reconcile with that in whatever way you see fit.

Cyberpunk 2077. You want it? Go do it.

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691

Are you kidding me? The majority of female characters in WoW are at least decent looking, most very pretty to the eyes. To refresh your memory:
Tyrande, Sylvanas, Jaina, Valeera, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Vereesa, Vaneesa, Azshara, Elisande, Thalyssra. I can keep going if you want.

Ok. You are just blatantly trolling now. I am done replying to you.

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692

Your point about WoW is largely moot because it was a new IP set in the Warcraft world which is entirely different than a remake of Diablo 2. Ironically enough, WoW Classic is the perfect argument against your own point – it was a remake and exactly what fans wanted for the most part.

Games are art, just like movies and music. Why is it that music videos and movies cast beautiful people and apply makeup/after effects? Why isn’t Betty White or your local Wal-Mart dweller saving the world in all these movies?

When you go and decide you “know what’s better” than the original artists, you are not faithful reproducing their work but rather your own. That’s not a remake, that’s a derivative. We don’t want that, we want a faithful remastered remake.

It would be no different than a “remastered” album changing lyrics or censoring things from a classic artist simply because those things are somehow frowned upon in modern times. If you don’t want to hear it, don’t listen to it? Same with D2 remake, if you don’t like those things from 20 years ago… don’t play it? Instead the trend seems to be that of Dr. Seuss.

And to those saying “what’s the big deal?” I would ask you the opposite… if is not a big deal then why was it changed?

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695

You’re going to need to clarify. How does WoW classic have to do with the discussion of ugly characters? The controversy in WoW Classic was actually that we wanted as few changes as possible because the whole reason why many of us wanted it to begin with was because we didn’t trust Blizzard to make changes. Today’s is objectively all fan service, with giant numbers flying all over the screen and only four buttons ever being pressed and all of the rough edges smoothed-over.

Right and there are a lot of ugly people in art. I’m no art connoisseur, but those who are seem to be absolutely fine with that.

Because people buy them, but understand my point is not “why we should have uglier characters now.” It’s “why Blizzard might have wanted to go that direction and why that’s not exactly a terrible thing.” Also, you frequently hear the argument that “today’s movies are trash.” You could say that it’s a substitution for the fact that scripts are trending toward becoming objectively mindless. In the end, the argument over which is actually better is subjective, but we’re left with an explicit reality, where a change definitely took place in a definite direction and for a definite reason. Whether or not we agree with that is irrelevant. We either buy it, or we don’t.

My point is that it’s actually not hard to see it from their perspective if you try. You don’t walk up to a woman and tell her to show more boob. It’s a weird thing to say. You also might not want to walk over to one of your 3D designers and tell them “ya know your model is great and such, but I mean if you could just show us a little more of her boobs, I’d be thrilled. You know. The teenagers want to see it.” That’s asking for workplace drama, but even beyond that, they might just want to market this game in countries that frown on such things in the future. Maybe not, but maybe, and it’s not really all that absurd of an idea.

700

WoW Classic and Diablo 2: Resurrected have very similar goals: to faithfully recreate a beloved classic to their fanbase. You’re getting into specifics, when it’s clear as day that if Blizzard would have done similar changes with WoW Classic character design it would have likely been ill-received on the same grounds (I remember the countless WoW Classic pedantic threads arguing about what’s “truly” Classic experience).

Again, designing a sequel or a derivative work is another matter. When you are painstakingly revitalizing a classic the constraints are different. You can call it “fan service” but at the end of the day… who are they selling the game to? Blizzard employees only? Kinda makes sense you’d want to stick with something your customers actually want to purchase.

As for art, there’s nothing wrong with beautiful or ugly things in art. Actually, I think that’s what makes Diablo 2 unique in its own macabre world. It isn’t a horror game, yet derives much from the “evil” and deathly aesthetic. It isn’t “scary” as much as it is “unsettling” which makes it beautiful in its own way.

Take Andariel for example. A busty female figure which at first may seem beautiful. Then take her beauty and add perversions like hooves for feet, claws for hands, and long spikes coming out of her back. It’s both beautiful and disgusting at the same time, as if she was cursed.

This aesthetic of both demonic, risque, and perverted were what pushed D2 to the forefront. It’s what gave it artistic character and uniqueness. The lack of correctness is what made it what it is today. It would be like remaking Mortal Kombat 2 and censoring it because “that’s just disgusting” and wondering why it’s not the same game.

Today’s movies, music, and games are trash because they have tossed any semblance of plot and instead focus on awful humor/quips and political messaging instead of substance. Go watch a classic movie like Office Space, Rush Hour, or various others and tell me that would dare fly today. Why not? There’s nothing inherently wrong with it but we all know.

It is the same with games. Diablo 3 was a disaster to every hardcore D2 fan. Sure, some people enjoy and play D3 but it is a hard switch from the originals. D1 and D2 are similar, D3 is way different despite appearing similar. Essentially D2:R is what fans thought D3 would have been like 10 years later.

You can say whatever you like but sales will speak for themselves. When D2:R sells more than D4 it will be obvious to most of us here why that is. Even with the awful art faux pas that will likely stay for release.

I understand corporate reasoning but that doesn’t mean it sits well with the fans. Ironic enough the same people who constantly sneer and decry “the big corporations” and what motivates them will defend Activision for corporate wokeism instead of giving fans what they actually want.

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718

Bold claim, care to back it up with some statistics? A poll maybe? Try showing the amazon from d2r website to anybody that have played d2, and see their reaction? I haven’t seen a single person that didn’t burst out laughing after seeing it.

And even if it is a “trite and shallow” matter, why can’t it still be fixed, they went out of their way to keep some garlic authentic to the original, yet aged all of the character by 2-4 decades?
Yet another example of “I don’t care about it, but you won’t get it cause you want it”

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719

Lol. I see what you have to do to become MVP in these forums. Holy… I think 456 people would disagree with you. This is the most viewed and from my knowledge, most upvoted thread in the D2:R forums. All the surveys and concerns that I’ve seen in other forums and YouTube was about the models. Are you seriously saying that the community’s concern is roughly 13 people in alt accounts reporting a very obvious troll? (Stinkyfinger)?

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720

Blizzard would be the one who handles surveys - which they are doing. At least two went out to random Bnet accounts in the past few months and there was a detailed feedback survey for those who played Alpha.

Saying that to me is kind of pointless. MVPs are other players. All we get is green text.