Thursday, August 21, 2014

Rift of Representation?




By Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis 


League of Legends is home to a diverse set of creatures. There’s normal run of the mill human warriors, sure. But there’s also yordles, who differ greatly from male to female. Then you’ve got people who were regular humans that obtained amazing abilities, like Annie or Brand. Finally, there’s a lot of champions who are the only one of their kind that are in the League (Here’s looking at you Skarner). One thing that pops into my head every now and again though, is how under-represented a lot of real-world groups of people are, or maybe even worse, how some are stereotyped and myths are perpetuated. Maybe this is just because of my great exposure to how these groups have fought for their rights, but there’s some obvious and some less than obvious stereotypes and media perpetuation going on in League.

First off, let me preface everything here with this. I’m not saying we have to or should go back to change anything about these champs design wise or lore wise. I just am trying to point out some patterns I’ve seen in Riot’s design strategy. I love most of Riot’s ideas for champions, and they have put out some really unique characters. I feel that Riot could really be the company to break some molds that gaming has been keeping set in stone though. They have the talent and the willingness to take those kinds of risks, and they've proven before that they want to break though a lot of previous barriers that have been held by the gaming market as a whole. This is not a bashing on Riot, every media outlet is guilty of a lot of these issues, it’s a request more than anything.

I guess the first thing we could look at is one that is pretty easily agreed upon by most people. There are almost no black champions in the game. Of the 65 or so human(depending on how determine human) champions, we have a total of 2 distinctive black champions, about 3%. To be honest, this is pretty humbling when you look at the numbers. Compare this to world numbers which are about 15%. To get that same number in League champs, you’d have to change eight champions from whatever they identify as to black. What’s even funnier is that Karma’s ethnicity was argued about for a long time until Riot officially came out and said she was black.  And remember, that is before we even look at other identities, like Asian, Indian, etc. Plus the entirety of the LGBT community and their representation that they deserve, which is a whole other topic to cover. I’ve focused on one race, but that isn't to say that the same logic can’t be applied to all demographics. When Lucian was about to be released, everyone was rejoicing that there would finally be a black champ in LoL, but I found it was about 50-50 on who was aware of Karma’s race and who wasn't.

League is supposed to take place in a fantasy world, and I get that. However, it’s pretty apparent that in this world the dominant (in numbers) ethnicity is still caucasian, even despite all of these new species that exist like yordles. A great argument against this, I’ve heard, is that we don’t know about a lot of champs. I’ll admit that some champs that we either don’t know or can’t identify could fall into more unique racial categories, but at that point if they aren’t immediately recognizable, we fall into the same issue as Karma, but worse. At least with Karma it was somewhat noticeable that her skin was darker, not to say that dark skin is the end all-be all for identifying as black. If, for some reason, there is no way, besides Riot coming out and stating that we have a champion from a non-caucasian race, it almost seems like it’s being hidden from us. I think Karma and Lucian are awesome steps, but if/when a new champ is announced and the biggest impact that it has on the player base is the fact that they’re black, there’s a bigger core issue to address.

While identity is an issue that was surprisingly pretty well agreed upon, I want to move on to a topic that I’m sure I’ll get a lot of flak for. Oversexualization of the women in the game. Look, I get it, I’m a guy, beautiful women are great! But if every female champion that comes out has to be gorgeous, do you really think there isn't a problem? There’s definite tropes to be filled here. Ahri is a good example of one that I am 100% perfectly okay with. Her lore is that she charms men and lures them. She is “supposed” to be attractive and sexy. If she didn't have revealing clothing and stereotypical attractive traits, there’d be a big disconnect with her character. Ahri is fine to me, but then you look at a champion like Katarina or Janna. They have even MORE revealing clothing, but how does that fit their character? Maybe I’ll buy Katarina needing to be mobile, but in that case why not give her something more flexible than armor elsewhere. Of course there’s the one everyone knows and jokes about, Sona. Her breasts are huge, and because of that it’s a big point to her visual identity, but they have literally no reason to be lore-wise or for gameplay readability. Then when you put some skins on top of that, you mess with some characters that weren't sexualised, Leona and Riven are the first examples that come to mind.

Speaking of Leona, I will give Riot credit. A lot of credit actually. While they could have just gone the route any other company would and made every girl attractive and “hot,” they took time to make deep characters that didn't rely on that as an attention grabber. Leona is a strong, armored warrior that just dives deep on to you. None of her armor is overly accentuated to bring out her breasts unnecessarily. Another great example is Kayle. She’s an awesome angel that wrecks you with her sword and she’s covered in armor from head to toe. Nothing about her screams “Hey I’m a woman, look at me I’m female!” I’d really love to see Riot designers explore this idea more so we can get a more diverse champion pool in terms of female looks.

However, there’s a  bit of a back-peddle because while Leona was one of the only champs to not get sexualized, they gave her a skin that put her in a bikini. I don’t think the issue here is that they gave her a skin that is revealing, but more that she was one of the only female who they had left be as an individual strong woman with no strings attached. Compare this to the male demographic of League. You have your manly, strong, and handsome knights in Garen, J4, etc. Your scary insane people like Ziggs and Shaco. Even your ugly champs (Urgot). The body types that males have differ from big and beefy, to chubby, and everything in between. Almost all of the non-Yordle women have the same body type. Athletic to thin build and accentuated breasts. Skin showing is usually the case as well, but not necessary.

Imagine if some of the guys would have overly huge junk and it was accentuated in their armor. It’d look ridiculous. (Although a Draven skin with that would be great) It’s just a fact that almost all of the women in the game have some kind of skin, whether it’s classic or not, that makes their body and the fact that they’re women overly obvious just for eye candy. Meanwhile, there are few guys in the same situation. Varus, Lee Sin, and Tryndamere are shirtless, and there are a few skins that do this like Pool Party Graves. However, the vast majority of males are untouched as far as revealing skins. Meanwhile, some female champs only have “sexy” skins. There’s no fair representation. Sometimes, the best skins are the ones that don’t do this. One of my personal favorites is Redeemed Riven. She looks badass and ready kill and she’s completely covered in armor. I personally dislike Battle Bunny because it makes Riven into something she’s not meant to be. It takes away from her strength and resolve.


Once again, I’m not saying that we need to go back and try and “fix” champions that are overly sexy. Sometimes it’s a role that needs filling. Champs like Ahri and Miss Fortune are good examples, but they almost get washed out by the sheer amount of sexualization that is going on. I’m just asking for some even distribution. Make some “sexy” and revealing male skins and champs, and make some nasty scary looking females. Make a champion with a deep and definitive background that doesn't follow the same guidelines every other media outlet has set out. Create a multitude of genders, races, etc. The possibility is there and some champions have proven it. Leona and Kayle are great and they don’t need to have revealing skins because on their own they’re deep enough characters as is. Break the mold more Riot, because you’ve done a great job so far, but you can do so much more.


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