by Karen Hertzberg on Oct 14, 2009
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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.
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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:shayalyn@tentonhammer.com">email.
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