Loading... An Uncanny Resemblance

Tags: in

Posted Wed, Oct 14, 2009 by Shayalyn

Welcome to the 1,187th edition of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Asian MMOGs often employ an art style that embraces youth. Aion, created by NCSoft Korea and westernized for North America and Europe, is no exception. But when do childlike character models in a MMOG approach creepy, or even just plain wrong? Join me, Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg, on a journey through the Uncanny Valley in today's Loading... An Uncanny Resemblance.

The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is The Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest movers today:

Darkfall (UP 16 to #18)
Dragon Age Origins (UP 4 to #16)
Runes of Magic (UP 2 to #11)

Recent MMO Releases

8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date)
9/1 - Champions Online (release date)
9/9 - Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited (release date)
9/15 - Runes of Magic "The Elven Prophecy" (expansion)
9/22 - Fallen Earth (release date)
9/22 - Aion (release date)
10/8 - Cities XL (release date)

Upcoming Releases

11/3 - Dragon Age: Origins (release date)
12/1 - LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood (release date)
12/2 - DOFUS 2.0 (release date)
Early 2010 - APB

Important Dates

10/23 - 10/24 - Hero-Con

Loading... Daily

The other day, one of my Ten Ton Hammer co-workers commented that he just couldn’t get into Aion. “Maybe it’s that the characters all look like 12-year-olds,” he said. At first, I wanted to protest; after all, my own Aion character may look like a sexy young woman, but she definitely bears no resemblance to a 12-year-old. But then I recalled seeing quite a few small, childlike characters (particularly female characters) scampering around Atreia. I also remembered being greeted by an NPC child when I first entered the Elyos city of Sanctum--a daeva who had “ascended young,” as she’d informed me.

I decided to experiment a bit with the character creator. First, I attempted to make a youthful looking girl. After scanning through the dozens of premade faces I found several options that yielded a decidedly young look. I fine-tuned from there, giving my character larger eyes, a broader, button nose, a bowed mouth and other childlike features. I gave her freckles, and what I considered a youthful hairstyle. (Oddly enough, pigtails made her look older, at least to me.) Then I changed her body to make her shorter, her chest smaller (or as small as I could get it), her limbs less muscular, and…voila! I had created a girl who couldn’t have been much older than 12.

Then I tried to make a young male character. This one was a bit more challenging. Although it wasn’t too hard to find youthful facial features among the myriad options, I had a tough time toning down my young man’s body so that he didn’t look more muscular than a boy his age should. His childlike face looked incongruous on his beefy neck and shoulders. Even at the lowest settings for neck, shoulder and arm musculature, it was clear my youngster must’ve been working out. [Check out the Loading… forum if you’d like to see the creations I made.]

I asked my friend Danny, who tried Aion in beta but decided he didn’t like it enough to buy it and pay a subscription fee, whether he thought it was creepy that I could make a character resembling a 12-year-old. His response was: “Very.”

But why is it creepy? I’m willing to bet that some don’t find it unnerving at all--lots of character options are a good thing, right? And there's nothing innately wrong with playing a young-looking character. But, among those who are creeped out by these prepubescent character models, I’m willing to bet the reasons for their squeamishness fall into two main categories:

First of all, there’s the Uncanny Valley, a hypothesis that holds that “when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.” In other words, we find unreal things that look and act a little too much like us…icky. And not only do Aion characters look fairly real, in an ideal sort of way, but they can look like real children, the effect of which can be unsettling.

The second reason we might find these youthful characters creepy is that we’ve become accustomed to viewing our characters in MMOGs and other video games as sex symbols. While there are certainly folks playing characters in Aion who were built, via the robust character creator, to look like dwarves or gnomes or giants, the vast majority are, well, smoking hot. They’re curvaceous, or muscular, and oh so pretty. That’s why seeing a player character that looks like a child throws us off--we’re not supposed to view children as sexy, and we’re pretty sick individuals if we do.

When I made my test creations I asked my 15 year old son to have a look at them and tell me what he thought, and he provided some insight.

“How old do you think they are?” I asked.

“College, maybe?” he said. I smiled. I thought young people looked much older when I was his age, too. But the older I get, the more I see kids who look like 6th graders behind the wheels of cars.

“I think they look about 12 or so,” I said. He nodded and shrugged in response. “Do you find it creepy that you can run around in Aion looking like a little kid?”

“Nah,” he said. “It’s like that in most Asian games. Like, in Mabinogi you start off as a kid. And in a lot of the games the character models look really young. It’s just their culture, I think.”

Smart kid. I should buy him a car someday. Maybe when he’s 21 and finally looks 16.

Do I think NCSoft Korea had anything pervy in mind when it built childlike characters into Aion’s character creation system? Not at all. But I do feel a twinge of revulsion, and an overall sense of wrongness, when I see tiny characters running around Atreia with names like Sexdoll. I'm by no means prudish, and I'm all for politically incorrect humor, but humor that hints at lecherous intentions toward kids leaves me cold.

You see, with great character creation power comes great responsibility. Yes, you can make very youthful-looking characters in Aion. You could potentially roleplay as a child or teen who realized his or her powers as a daeva early in life, and we’d probably find you legit. But in a world where atrocities like child pornography and pedophilia exist, I’ll never be okay with a childlike character named “Sexdoll.” Still, I’m relieved to see the vast majority of Aion players avoiding the easy shock factor and taking the higher road. Truth is, it’s only as pervy as you make it.

Are young-looking character models potentially problematic, or are most MMO gamers mature enough to handle them? Am I too easily offended by the likes of Sexdoll? Have your say (and view my child character creations) in the Loading... forum, or drop me an email.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Aion General Discussion forum

Massing Bannings?

NCSoft has brought down the ban hammer on a ton of gold sellers in Aion recently, but they're also cracking down on gold buyers. Should the people buying kinah be hit just as hard as the people spamming advertisements in game and trading virtual currency for real-life cash, despite the fact that doing so is against Aion's terms of service? Are gold buyers really just as bad as gold sellers? Our members have some strong opinions. Head on over to our Aion forum to voice yours.

==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"Gold seller aren't simply profiting off of farming coin. They strive to make the most they can with the least amount of investment on their part. This means paying people next to nothing to work endless hours to farm coin. It means stealing accounts to strip characters of marketable items and coin. It means stealing credit card and Paypal accounts to pay for their costs (someone's gotta buy those accounts ya know) to keep them in business. It means driving up the cost of gaming for the average user so the company can cover the gross costs of charge backs from ID theft and fraud. It is not a faceless crime and it isn't just about silly virtual trade. There are real laws being broken."

- Savanja
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

4 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 66 in October! 2,014 in 2009!

Today's New Features & Guides

Incarna Incarnate - An Exclusive Q&A with EVE Online's Torfi Frans Ólafsson
Incarna, the project that will finally allow EVE Online players to step out of their ships, received little attention at this year's FanFest. But during the Dominion keynote, Torfi Frans Ólafsson, Senior Producer for EVE Online, offered one trailer that seemed to hint at a more achievement-oriented, gamer friendly side of the Incarna project. Intrigued, we caught up with Torfi for a few questions about Incarna, planet-sized revamps, the massive Titan nerf, and how exactly Treaties will work at EVE FanFest 2009.
Can Aion overcome the re-subscription threshold?
Aion had a very smooth launch in terms of overall gameplay. The server queues have lightened if not all but disappeared. Players are well into their 20s and 30s as they march toward the Abyss and the end game that awaits. Will it all be enough to maintain the momentum and keep Aion populated with enthusiastic players? The quest is on (pun intended) to see if Aion can overcome the hurdle of re-subscription rates.
Runes of Magic - New Player Introduction
Runes of Magic is celebrating its six month anniversary of open play and its first major content addition, but many players are just beginning to take notice of this free-to-play import from Europe. Among the most complete of all the RMT based games, Runes of Magic has gained a very loyal following and is deserving of the recognition it has garnered. Join Medawky this week in exploring the game with a guide for new players.
Runes of Magic - The Warrior: A Beginner’s Guide
Free-to-Play games are a dime a dozen these days, but there are a few that rise above the pack. Runes of Magic is one of those few to make the grade. Easy accessibility, smooth graphics, and fun gameplay combine to make this one F2P game that’s worth checking out. To help get you on your journey, Dalmarus has created this handy guide for Warriors just stepping into this dangerous land.