Doveis facing backlash over its campaign with Unreal Engine which criticizes overly sexualized women in video games. TheUnreal Engine-powered video was released about a week ago and since then has received extensive criticism from both gamers and industry insiders.
The video depicts a heroine in full-plate armor. She defeats an alien and heads to her dressing room where she takes off her armor. As she stares into the mirror she smiles and decides to head out in her new outfit to fight once again. The clothes the heroine wears underneath, a green top with shorts, could also be said to be reminiscent ofLara Croft’s iconic outfit. At the end of the video, it shows the character was modeled after a real person who poses next to her virtual counterpart. Dove partnered with Unreal Engine, as well as Women in Games, to “make virtual beauty real,” which seems to imply wanting to change the beauty standard of women in video games.
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Shortly after the video was released, it started to receive extensive criticism. Women who are gamers spoke out against the campaign’s statement, saying they don’t play games to feel represented, but rather for escapism, not caring what the main character looks like. People have also pointed out the inconsistencies in the video itself, depicting the overly sexualized version of the character in a type ofarmor design that covers up the whole body, compared to the end product, where the heroine actually wears fewer clothes. In connection to that, gamers also questioned what Dove is trying to say by stating it’s done with sexualized depiction of women and shows a woman with a fuller body type.
Gaming insiders went on to point out that this stigma has long been lifted. Such characters were brought up as examples asEllie fromThe Last of Us, Aloy from theHorizonseries, and Ellie in theBorderlandsgames. But people also spoke out for female characters that are depicted with more idealized features. The argument was, just because a character looks a certain way it doesn’t mean they’re not fully realized with an in-depth personality.
Virtually no comment can be found on Twitter about the video that would express support towards it. The gaming community seemed to have completely rejected Dove’s message and instead chose tocelebrate the diversity of women in video games.
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