Thanks to a generous friend, I've got a weekend to try Wildstar. So far, here's what I think....
I can make male characters with long hair (and flowers in their hair)! Yay!
Humans of different races! (Though I didn't see an option to make Asian eyes, but I didn't play with the customizing face stuff and there is a lot of it)
Biggest body type (based on boobs, since I couldn't figure out how to scroll out)
Smallest body type
Notice a difference? Yeah, C cup is not what I call a small. Ever. Sigh. Boo!
Side view of smallest body type.
A female character running. Again, this is the slightest body type, and all female characters run in that RIDICULOUS fashion. BOO! SO MUCH BOO!
Same character, in close-up. I was trying to make a Ridley from Aliens type, did not succeed.
Robotic Barbie. Sigh.
What, does this entire race start wearing corsets at birth? Her waist is smaller than her head!
Pretty awesome-looking, right?
Each one of her butt cheeks is the size of her head. FRACK! That shit ain't right.
I thought I'd made an Earth Mother type. Sadly, I think this might be the closest I could get to a semi-normal body.
Look, tons of facial customization options!
And more facial optimization.
Wildstar's version of gnomes, sorta. Cute, but the females are just as sexualized as the larger races.
Human female from the back. I dunno which body type this is, but butt is ridiculous. Betty Boop has left the building, y'all.
Human male. Looks like He-man, par for the course.
The toon I liked the look of the most, except he's small (I hate playing small toons) and male.
So, you may have noticed a theme. I'm really unhappy with the female body options. I love what I've seen of the game thus far, I like the music, the gameplay, and the story. An MMO that isn't straight fantasy? GREAT! Space Western? Even better! So why am I sad?
Because every time my female toon moves, I get reminded of how ridiculously over-sexed she is. I could not make a toon (and believe me, I spent 3 hours trying) that was female and didn't look grotesque. I've got nothing against sexy toons, I like my toons pretty. But I'm not okay with hentai levels of sexualization. I know it's a cartoon style, but you can do sexy cartoons without watermelon boobs, 20 inch waists, and dislocated hips walks. Amazingly enough, I'm not comfortable following around Jessica Rabbit or Betty Boop.
Were it not for this, I'd be buying the game right now. But as it stands, I need to play for a bit and see if I can desensitize myself to this problem so I could enjoy the game. And I really shouldn't have to do that and it makes me sad. This looks like such a great game, but it's a game I may have to take a pass on because the designers took male fantasy and turned it to 11.
