An informative article about Female Boob armor...

[breakwind]

There are some who are frightened to use their imagination and need confinements to feel comfortable, they like being in a square and can't think outside of it. Whether or not female armour existed in our real world's history, should have no bearing on a imagined world. Just let it go and be imaginary...that's what escaping is all about

[bartleby1407]

Realy, this again

Edited May 27, 2013 by bartleby1407

[niceguy]

In sort of defense of bikini "armors", In the real world they would be "Clothing". Incidentally "Clothing" is what soldiers have to deal with for most of human history. Actual armor is expensive and also completely useless until you are hit by something. In ancient antiquity soldiers usually had a flimsy shield, a weapon and no armor! Once high penetrating weapons became common, it usually where better to forgo armor altogether since they where slowing you down more then worth, High powered crossbows, primitive muskets and mass conscription killed the armored knight. In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic wars, only some cavalry had armor, and that was just a breastplate.

 

So if we are fans of flimsy clothing we need to create a culture and level of technology that support them. I am strongly against giving a "bikini" and their male equivalents stats of plate armor but count them as clothing and it work. Especially in a magic world where the wearer may be part mage and simply summon protective wards.

 

In the end, armor is really only "needed" if you are doing formation fighting where dodging enemy attacks may not be feasible. If you have a mobile fighting style, and preferably at range, you have less need of armor. Besides, I guess it would be common for civilians to arm themselves against bandits but few would don actual armor. Thus the problem isn't the chainmail bikinis, it that we give the stats of actual armor. The moral issue of them however is another problem altogether.

[MarchinBunny]

I, honestly, never understood why this is ever argued about. I rather take aesthetics of my character over realism in a fantasy game. Now it would be different if the game was meant to be realistic and not fantasy based, but this isn't the case with Skyrim.

 

The funny thing is if they decided to make everything realistic, then you would have others complaining all the armors are ugly. You simply just can't win. It's impossible to please both parties. Adding both types of armor, still causes the other party to complain about the ones they don't like.

 

My thought is it's just a very silly argument in the end.

[jackowonderful]

just make the stats realistic and no one would complain. it's not like there's any logical reason to use armour in skyrim, magic is dime a dozen. a single person with enough magic scrolls could wipe out a city in it's sleep over night. if your imagination and sexuality is limited to a bit of flesh and sideboob then go right ahead, but you really need to question why you feel you're not good enough to watch your lady-sexslave-character play totally naked.

[calfurius]

I too am one who is completely frustrated with the lack of realism that exists in fantasy games and especially the fantasy game Skyrim. This anti-realism stance taken by the game developers just breaks immersion and is not lore friendly whatsoever.

 

I mean look at the glass and ebony armor. Honestly, who would want armor made out of volcanic glass? Not only is it highly doubtful it would protect someone, but even if one could make armor from volcanic glass no one would be able to stand up or move in it. Every time I see some NPC walking around in glass or ebony armor like they were wearing casual clothes, the immersion just breaks for me.

 

And can someone explain how water flows out of the top of the highest point on a mountain to create a water fall that never diminishes in volume or pressure? Have a look at Whiterun sometime and explain how that water flow is realistic. Not only completely immersion breaking because it isn't realistic, but it isn't lore friendly either.

 

I also get frustrated by the unreality of someone being able to produce fire (or frost or electricity) from nothing and throw it from their hands or a staff.

They throw fire from their hands! From! Their! Hands!

I don't find this to be realistic but, then I think maybe I'm not living on the right part of the world where it is possible to do this.

 

And what about getting married? You get married and your spouse goes off and does whatever and you never have a meaningful conversation with your spouse who loves you and who would want you to stop living dangerously and settle down on a farm someplace and raise crops and kids and be home every night or at the very least have you help out a bit at the store. So completely unrealistic and immersion breaking. Not very lore friendly either.

 

There is a lack of realism pretty much anywhere one looks in the game (see BaadKaarma's post for more on this), and I agree with the author of the article posted by the OP who made the point that, "Science says....."

This is exactly what I want from the fantasy games I buy and play. I want real world lessons on science and physics and social culture that don't break immersion and that are lore friendly.

 

The one thing I do wonder about though is why those who want realism and immersion and believable lore in their game always point out female armor as an issue and never anything else about females? Which brings me to my biggest concern of realism in a fantasy game set in a middle age or medieval time frame that is so immersion breaking and lore unfriendly. I want realistic females. Ones who know their place. And that isn't out adventuring.

I want females to be under the thumb of their father or husband or some male relative and treated like chattel. Women who do as they're told.

Female guards or soldiers, no way. Just another unrealistic immersion breaking lore unfriendly aspect that needs to be changed.

Joining a guild? Not permitted. Maybe go be a nun, but allowed to join a guild and work - no way.

See some female throwing fire around? Witch!!! Hang her, tie a big rock to her and toss her in the water and see if she floats.

The idea that any woman would buy a store or inn or own a farm or any property is also just immersion breaking and so lore unfriendly that it is ridiculous. Owning property? I don't think so. Maybe a widow if the Jarl lets her under the watchful eye of a man.

I want females sitting at home spinning and knitting and doing housework, raising the kids and working on the farm and looking after her husband or a man who will make sure she does what she is supposed to be doing. Maybe a little bit of helping out at a store.

 

Now that's realism that doesn't break immersion or lore.

This, pretty much destroys the whole boob cup argument there lol! Seriously why is that boob plate armor is unrealistic, but reality defying physics, women breaking the cultural norms, and (in skyrim at least) gay couples not only being tolerated but allowed to married! (That's to progressive even for the modern world).

 

Seriously there's the sliding scale from between the "Rule of Cool" and "Realism". Female armor just slides towards the Rule of Cool. If you feel that somehow demeans women and makes them feel like sex objects well then that's you being overly sensitive. I mean we have men buff as hell walking around. I don't feel it belittles my manhood for me to judged by fighting prowess and physique instead of my love of poetry and art. Personally I don't really have a problem with female boob cup armor, it looks nice and not overtly skimpy (I personally hate skimpy armor because it just looks dumb for a female warrior to walk around in a bikini and somehow not be dead or at the very least cold.)

[rizon72]

I actually like the boob armor in games and films, as it quickly allows me to figure out if someone is male or female. I also realize its also done for the visuals of the gamer/viewer. In real life the armor would probably be very similar.

[Nudedragon]

This is why I don't use unp, cbbe, or our latest and greatest schlongs of skyrim.

 

Or schorts of skyrim, as the case may be.

[oldspice2625]

I wonder how far you people want to go with this whole "Skyrim is not real so it is BAD" argument.

 

If you bothered to consider the absolute trivial matter of unrealistic boob plates in comparison to some fine examples of realism NOT being good for a fantasy game... you wouldn't make a female character at all, since you would not: (In a much more real Skyrim that focused on Nordic and Roman culture/political systems/and general real life demands):

 

A: own any land

B: Have no rights over your children

C: Could be beaten savagely by your husband as you are considered his property

D: Have no right to any earned income

E: Have no right over your own body

F: Have no right over your CHILDREN which you BIRTHED.

G: Give up all rights to the patriarch of the household and have an arranged marriage for economic purposes and again, be used as a bartering tool

H: Have little recourse for being raped and often times be punished for it, even in death

I: Be socially ridiculed for not being lady like, and often times ostracized from society (Brienne of Tarth from ASOIAF by Martin is an excellent example of what a more REAL Skyrim would be like considering female soldiers).

J: Have skills only related to the domestic home making and if you were a privelaged lady of the nobility, perhaps even have rudimentary writing and reading skills, more often than not learning to weave along with cooking, cleaning, and maintaining the farm depending on your social rank).

 

You want REALISM in your GAME... try THOSE on for size first before you blow your top over some boob plates.

 

Games are GAMES and not REAL LIFE for a REASON. You shouldn't be able to survive a blow to the head, or several indeed without having severe impairments or just straight up die instantly all the time... you have magicka spells...

 

You shouldn't be able to carry 500000 gold pieces on you, yet you can.

 

You shouldn't be able to drink over 10 potions in a row, yet you can

 

You shouldn't be able to walk around for over seventy two days without sleeping, eating, or relieving your bowels, yet you can.

 

You shouldn't even leave the home in blizzard conditions in the middle of nowhere, ending up swimming in the freezing water, yet you can do just that... without bringing a heat source.

 

I could go on and on but I won't. There's no point.

 

When you sink a million dollars or more into a project, you can do whatever the heck you want with it. Until then, get a realism mod, or just pipe down about it. If you think Elven and Ebony armor are skimpy and sexist (because lets not play the realism card when it's really a sexism issue. The armor is real enough, it covers the body and all the vital parts, and offers the same amount of coverage for men and women), then sister, do I have a nasty place to show you called THE REAL WORLD. It's nasty, sexist, gross, dirty, and disease ridden. It's also the best piece of real estate this side of the solar system. Get used to it. Far more nasty and brutish than anything Skyrim can come up with.

 

TL;DR: Bethesda's game, Bethesda's rules. You don't like THEIR vision for THEIR game which they spent THEIR money on? Feel free to make your own, it's a free country with a free market. No one's stopping you.

[scissorhands]

I don't like thinking about realism in games, unless a game is deliberately trying to be realistic (Skyrim is not such a game). To name but one example, I like the fact that Daedric armour looks totally badass. I don't like the fact that each one of those spikes is just a lever your opponent can use to pull you to the ground and slit your throat. Ebony armour is quite realistic in that regard (no such protrusions), but it doesn't look anywhere near as intimidating. Shame really.