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 (
href="http://www.gunnars.com/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results: href="http://www.gunnars.com/">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft - Dungeons
& Dragons Online - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">
-
EverQuest
2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age of
Conan
Biggest movers today:
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)
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 couldnt get into Aion. Maybe its 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 shed 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
style="font-style: italic;">voila! I had
created a girl who couldnt have been much older than 12.
Then I tried to make a young male character. This one was a bit more
challenging. Although it wasnt too hard to find youthful facial
features among the myriad options, I had a tough time toning down my
young mans body so that he didnt 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 mustve been working out.
[Check out the Loading
forum if youd like to
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47104">see
the creations I made.]
I asked my friend Danny, who tried Aion in beta but decided he didnt
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? Im willing to bet that some dont 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, Im willing to bet the reasons for their
squeamishness fall into two main categories:
First of all, theres the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley">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 weve 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. Theyre curvaceous, or muscular,
and oh so pretty. Thats why seeing a player character that looks like
a child throws us off--were not supposed to view children as sexy, and
were 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. Its 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. Its just their culture, I think.
Smart kid. I should buy him a car someday. Maybe when hes 21 and
finally looks 16.
Do I think NCSoft Korea had anything pervy in mind when it built
childlike characters into Aions 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
href="http://na.aiononline.com/characters/Lumiel/Sexdoll">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 wed probably find you
legit. But in a world where atrocities like child pornography and
pedophilia exist, Ill never be okay with a childlike character named
Sexdoll. Still, Im relieved to see the vast majority of Aion players
avoiding the easy shock factor and taking the higher road. Truth is,
its 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
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47104">Loading...
forum, or drop me an
href="mailto:email:[email protected]">email.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589">Aion
General Discussion forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=47058">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 style="font-style: italic;">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? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">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 style="font-weight: bold;">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.
-
style="font-weight: bold;">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.
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rom/guides/beginner_warrior_guide">
style="font-weight: bold;">Runes of Magic - The
Warrior: A Beginners 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 thats worth checking out. To help get you on your
journey, Dalmarus has created this handy guide for Warriors just
stepping into this dangerous land.
Hottest Content:
-
Incarna
Incarnate - An Exclusive Q&A with style="font-weight: bold;">EVE Online's Torfi
Frans Ólafsson href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/newsletter/issue36"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/editorials"> style="font-weight: bold;"> -
Can
Aion overcome
the re-subscription threshold? href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75321/"> style="font-weight: bold;"> -
style="font-weight: bold;">EVE Online Video
Q&A with GoonSwarm Spymaster 'The Mittani' -
style="font-weight: bold;">Champions Online :
B.A.S.H. Basics - Windows
7, Gaming, and Why You Should Care - Mechanics
No
MMOG Should Launch Without -
The
Rift Between Us - A Guide to Rifting in style="font-weight: bold;">Aion href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75229"> - Ease
of Access - Case Studies
in Accessibility and Popularity -
style="font-weight: bold;">Aion: First
Impressions -
Moving
the
Genre Forward - A Look at Innovative Game Mechanics href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/75294">
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg and the Ten Ton Hammer
team
