Sexiness has never been a problem for me. I loved Sindel's sexy Deception alternate- revealing outfits is all Sindel has and it WORKS for her character.

That's what you guys are missing here. If it works for their character- I have no issue with it. Hell, some people DID rant about Sonya's thong but it was never a major deal because the designs were never crazy- MK9 made everyone look like Alien dragqueens and thus caused more people to become a little more sensitive to the way female characters are portrayed- ESPCIALLY ones who really shouldn't be showing tits and ass like Sonya, Kitana, Cassie, Jacqui, Skarlet ect.

So yes, MK9 did make this more into a bigger problem. MKX and MK11 have corrected that. Sonya still has her skin-tight sweat suits with a sexy mid-riff, Skarlet is showing off her rather juicy cleavage in one of her outfits not to mention her hot Russian outfit- I mean what more do you want?

I'm truly stumped on this, boys.

I do know my history. Implying that the people who criticize video games for designing female characters to cater to male fans in appearance are the same people who wanted to go after MK for gore in the 90's is fucking stupid and factually incorrect.

Oh nooooo, the dreaded "SJW" pejorative. Yes, there's toxicity in the world, but calling people SJWs hardly compares to some of the truly hateful shit people say on the internet. Maybe having a "mature or adult" discussion in response won't amount to anything, maybe he'll act like a total manchild and disregard what you have to say, but at least you can say you put the effort in and came out a bigger person for it. I don't agree with all of FROST's points, but to reduce his argument to "hurr durr SJWs blah blah blah" makes you look fragile and incapable of actually engaging anyone in meaningful discourse beyond EPIC CLAPBACKS and other cringeworthy shit you've been known to spew on this forum for a long time now.

Maybe you should practice what you preach, except in this case "SJWs" would be replaced with "neckbeards."

I would argue that there's more people who dislike MK11's female design than there are who approve, and its not entirely because of how covered up they are. Yes, sexuality takes on different meanings for each individual person, and taste is subjective, that's all good. If people like the MK11 designs, more power to them. If they don't, that's fine too. But you're accusing people of holding their own opinions as "superior" and that they should be catered too while you shit on everyone who dislikes Tanya and bemoan how you've had to "deal" with character designs in the past. Seems pretty hypocritical to me.

As m0s3ph mentioned, if you had even bothered to read his entire post, nobody wants NRS to go back to how they designed their female characters in MK9. Its also the lack of creativity/variety in these designs when you're given the option to customize your characters. Despite the fact that IJ2 had what was basically glorified lootboxes, it was nice being able to customize your character however you wished. Want them in a more sensible, less revealing outfit? Want them to be more revealing with greater sex appeal? You had a lot more freedom to do that in IJ2 than in MK11. Instead in MK11, we get this:

Fair point about Erron Black, after all sex appeal goes both ways. But I would also argue that his "sexy" costume didn't really fit the character established in MKX. Similar to how Sonya's design in MK9 didn't fit her character or background, at all. Funny how you talk about the lack of "man-candy" when you had characters like Liu Kang and Johnny Cage who were not only in peak physical condition, but they fought shirtless. Granted, we've been spoiled by how much technology has evolved since the 2D and 3D area, but don't say that the men didn't have sex appeal in the past with their six packs and bulging muscles.

LMAO, what did you have to deal with in terms of past character designs, exactly? You're a guy, whether or not MK's female characters have been sexualized in the past has zero effect on you. You've had shirtless, built dudes to ogle at for the last 27 years. If you didn't like the female characters' designs, fine, but get off your fucking high horse.

Huh.

The people criticizing video games over this either weren't even alive or they were were kids back during the original controversy about MK. I have not observed anyone from that crowd railing against gory violence in video games, either. It's a connection you completely pulled out of your ass to serve a narrative about both controversies being generated by liberals who just want to ruin a good time for others. I am 95% sure at this point that you're a GamerGate neckbeard.

My opinion: Jade's full body robe outfit is sexier than her MK(2011) green string.

Showing skin does not automatically mean it is sexier.

I'm not against them adding extra outfits that are more revealing, while keeping the ones we currently have. It doesn't need to be exclusively one or the other. However, there does seem to be a lot of people outraged that the women are too covered up - even going as far as comparing them to Muslims. Which is indicative of a different kind of problem. And there are a lot of vocal people flat-out wanting them too look more slutty just for the sake of it.

As an artist myself, I tend to prefer more practical character designs that fit the characters history / personality. It makes sense for young Johhny - It fit his personality to flaunt himself. Mileena in the early days... sure show that body. It makes a lot of sense. But her more mature character arc in MKX was well reflected in her more mature outfit. And it's another one of my favourite outfits, for a character I never cared about previously.

Oh, and the people saying long flowing baggy robes aren't practical in a fight... clearly don't watch Chinese martial arts films.
Long-flowy robes are a much better distraction than showing some skin, for several reasons. The only MK character I see getting distracted by the nudes would be young Johnny.

This guy literally called Ankha a fascist for simply wanting to hear perspectives from some women seeing as the conversation is about how WOMEN are portrayed in video games. The red piller's are making themselves obvious on this thread now. lmao.

@Nemesis316

Maybe you should practice what you preach, except in this case "SJWs" would be replaced with "neckbeards."

I never called anyone in this thread "neckbeards"- that was someone else. So don't associate that with me.

But you're accusing people of holding their own opinions as "superior" and that they should be catered too while you shit on everyone who dislikes Tanya and bemoan how you've had to "deal" with character designs in the past. Seems pretty hypocritical to me.

First of all, I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you talking about some argument I had years ago or something because I have no idea where you're coming from with this Tanya stuff- unless you see her in my signature and is trying to use this as a jab at me or to make me seem crazy...which...ok? I have no issue with people disliking Tanya. So there's that.

Also, I only brought up that bit about character designs to highlight the fact that those of us who like a little man-candy has gone throughout the series with very little to show for it and we never made a big stink over it- but now that there is some man candy you have certain people freaking out. Hypocrisy was my point.

As m0s3ph mentioned, if you had even bothered to read his entire post, nobody wants NRS to go back to how they designed their female characters in MK9.

Not according to how some of you guys are coming across, but OK, I'll play along.

Despite the fact that IJ2 had what was basically glorified lootboxes, it was nice being able to customize your character however you wished. Want them in a more sensible, less revealing outfit? Want them to be more revealing with greater sex appeal? You had a lot more freedom to do that in IJ2 than in MK11. Instead in MK11, we get this:

Then you proceed to post a picture of Jade, Skarlet, and Jacqui in actual battle gear they'd wear in reality. Oh my, what a tragedy. Somebody give those girls some thongs and hooker boots right now!

Fair point about Erron Black, after all sex appeal goes both ways. But I would also argue that his "sexy" costume didn't really fit the character established in MKX. Similar to how Sonya's design in MK9 didn't fit her character or background, at all.

Erron Black's actually did- he's a fucking cowboy. He's macho, wild, and ain't exactly a fashionista. Is it really that hard to imagine a rugged cowboy from the 1800s not always wearing a shirt? Come on. Sonya is a military general. Two completely different backgrounds, two completely different periods, and two completely different characters. Sexy cowboys are a lot more common than big boob'd blonde thong wearing Military officials. But nice try.

Funny how you talk about the lack of "man-candy" when you had characters like Liu Kang and Johnny Cage who were not only in peak physical condition, but they fought shirtless. Granted, we've been spoiled by how much technology has evolved since the 2D and 3D area, but don't say that the men didn't have sex appeal in the past with their six packs and bulging muscles.

Are you fucking serious? Do you really think women and gay/bi males were drooling over a shirtless Liu Kang or Johnny Cage? Are you for real? You probably don't get it as a hetero male- but no, Liu Kang wasn't man-candy unless you had a thing for Bruce Lee. The only time I found Liu Kang man-candy was in MKVSDC strangely enough, but that might have just been me. No, those two dudes were not man-candy- the closest thing we ever got was Goro's giant bulge which was just...eek. Just stop it.

And yes, I think Kano's hot. What's your point? Every thing about Kano in this game- him being shirtless, his pissing ect all suits his character. That doesn't invalidate anything I've been saying-

I'm no prude- I love sex appeal, but only when it makes sense. I LOVED Kano's look in MKX and I didn't find ANYTHING sexy about him in that game- he looked cool and that's what matters to me most. Does a character look cool. That is what should matter to you.

MK9 was overboard in the female costumes in my opinion and as a result they looked all kind of the same. MK11 has it the other way and the result is the same, the female costumes have a samey feel as well across multiple characters. I would like to see some diversity in the female costumes in MK11. Some more risque outfits would be good if they made sense. For Sonya? No. Scarlet and Jade? Yes. More risque outfits would do them good. They might be saving it for DLC like the Kold War Scarlet skin, which in my opinion is the best Skarlet skin by far, so that it is under wraps so to speak.

As for jacking off or whatever, that is disingenuous and completely beside the point. If a character is sexy and looks good, they should flaunt it in my opinion. It makes sense to me.

Like, OK, we get it dudes, we know you're mad, we've been hearing your rantings since 2011- like we get it. I'm now curious to know what another group thinks on this issue and that makes me a Fascist. Haha

Which is funny, because if some Lesbian/Bisexual women do speak out they may actually be in agreement with these same dudes who are trying to silence them haha.

Always good to have fresh perspectives!

As a practitioner of various weapons, I can confirm they do indeed catch on my clothing. Just regular shirts/tshirts catch edges around the waist, and underarms. More rarely a pantleg will catch.

Double standards? Not everything needs to be mirrored. There's a handy meme image of people standing on boxes to see over a fence that shows equality vs equity.

There is NOTHING WRONG with those 3 outfits for Jade, Skarlet, and Jaqui. They all look cool, and attractive. Jaqui's even shows off her nice legs.

Ka-Tra

And Ankha is certainly right with it. It would be nice to hear what female players have to say about it.

They have more to gain/lose from it than anyone.

And characters like young Johnny and Mileena do just that. Because they are the types of people who would do such a thing.

But I don't see characters like Sonya, FemJax, Scorpion, Raiden, etc being the type to "flaunt" anything. Well, they might flaunt their power, but it would be very out of character for them to be stripping off just to strut-their-stuff in front of others.

That is why I said if it made sense and then I said Sonya as an example that did not make sense, with Jade and Skarlet as ones that did.

Young Johnny is not character all by himself and Mileena is not even in the game. Ever since they took this tonal shift, she has been downplayed. In MKX she was one of the last characters to be revealed and she received minimal exposure in marketing. In MK11, she is gone.

As for my personal preference, Scorpion is my favourite character and I would not like him shirtless like a lot of the other male characters, although I did like the fact his ribs were heavily muscled in MK4.

I distinguised young Johnny because he's matured a lot in the 25year time skip; becoming a father and being more responsible. From the MK11 trailers you can even tell that older Johnny thinks his younger self is a moron. He matured like Mileena did - and I brought Mileena up because she's one of the few characters where it made sense the character would be hyper-sexualised and dress scantly.

@ProfesserAhnka

You don't know for sure that individuals in the LGBTQ community haven't complained about it in the past. I'm glad that people in the LGBTQ community get to experience some sexual appeal for their benefit, but it seemed like NRS made more of an effort in designing their male characters to look badass, more varied, with some added sex appeal while there was a decline in quality pertaining to how the females are designed. Especially when you know NRS is capable of much better. Again, I use MKX as an example because they were successful in giving their female fighters great, interesting attire while toning down on the sexuality. Yes, I think people shouldn't freak out over a video game series and how their characters are dressed, but you're not helping by dragging people who do hold an opinion about it just because it doesn't align with yours.

Except MK isn't known for being grounded in reality. But sure, let's go along with this argument. Skarlet's is the best looking out of the three, it fits her for her mage archetype. Jacqui's default costume, even though I'm not a fan of it, is much more realistic of an Earthrealm fighter who works for special forces. That particular costume looks like Jacqui was dressed by Kronika, who's not from Earthrealm, and therefore, not realistic. Jade is from Edenia/Outworld, so again, not realistic, because Edenia doesn't exist in the real world. And when you pair the three of them together side by side, you'll see that their outfits basically have the same design philosophy with different colors/materials. That's my main issue with those outfits, it's barely above copy and paste. Nice assumption by the way, since I'm critical of those outfits I'd prefer them wearing "thongs and hooker boots"? I've made it explicitly clear of my stance on that, so shut the fuck up.

Not hard to imagine at all, except nowhere in MKX's story did we learn about Erron's life as a cowboy wrangling up cows and bulls, baking in the hot sun, sweat rolling off his nude back. If anything, Erron was established as a mercenary who kills for money, who probably spent his time honing his skills and taking jobs, and not performing duties at Black Ranch.

...are YOU serious? I'm sorry, who died and made you Emperor/King/Queen/whatever of the LGBTQ community? Do you speak for the LGBTQ community? Did you not just say, in this very thread, that:

Maybe in your opinion, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage weren't sexy, but if you are honestly gonna sit there and tell me that there's not a single gay/bisexual man who didn't find them at all attractive in the past 27 years this franchise has existed, then you are so full of shit that I'm surprised you're not ready to burst at the seams.

I don't give a shit about Kano being shirtless, or taking a leak in his intros. It suits his character fine. My point is that you're insulting guys for wanting more sex appeal from the ladies in MK11 while proceeding to *fans self* over Kano in MK11 like some fucking horndog. You're no better than the guys who jerk off to Mileena's MK9 appearance, so quit acting like you're better than them. You want to talk about people being hypocrites? Start with yourself.

I wonder if gorostilllives is having a laugh at the total shitfest of a thread he started.

No personal attacks. Remember:

-Fatalkade

I think MK9 was the only Mortal Kombat game that really overdid it on the scantily clad costumes. Not to mention the character models in that game were pretty poor (I think it's okay to admit that now that the game has aged), so it really didn't look too good overall.

The past MK games I really had no problem with. Maybe there were a few risque looks here and there in the 3D games. Some of them made sense character-wise (Mileena with her "don't look at my teeth" look".

MK9's outfits were all on par with Mileena'a alternate costume from MK Deception; a costume that was meant to push the boundaries became a guideline for every female costume.

I would gladly take what MKX and especially MK11 are giving us. They are more on par with the earlier games. I would not mind one or two alternate skins that are a little more revealing if it makes sense for the character, but I can live with or without that.

I disagree. The outfits in MKX and MK11 are some of the best outfits in the series for both males and females, but especially for the females. Before MKX, female outfits were a bland bore-fest. They barely even had outfits.

Fair enough if you prefered the older designs, but it's objectively wrong to say any of the outfits have gone down in quality. Even more so if you consider 1/3 of the games had literal palette swaps.

They actually look like they can fight now. Costumes make a big difference. After viewing milleena half naked in mk9 for the first week the effect wore off. I liked her costume in mkx. I actually played as her in mkx.( a female? Loljk) The nakedness was honestly overdone. Im not upset that its gone. I want to play as someone that lokks like they can actually fight.

Im just mad they didnt bring back tag team... A MISTAKE.

100% agree on you with MKX, and I'm liking most of the designs for MK11's male characters. What I meant with that statement is that the outfits for the female characters in MK11 are a step downward from MKX. That being said, I'll give NRS credit here for making them more colorful. MKX's biggest design flaw was that it was too dark in terms of color palette. So MK11 is a breath of fresh air in that regard. MK9 had sick costumes for the male characters, but the female characters are pretty damn lacking (literally) compared to MKX.

I'll reserve final judgment until the game releases on the 23rd, but personally I'm not impressed with most of the female character's costumes. Jade's primary is awesome, Cassie's primary is pretty good. If the rumors are true of Frost being a cyborg, I'm excited to see how she looks. But hey, if you dig them more power to you.

She got legs, she knows how to use 'em

I mean, as a bi male myself, I had a thing for Robin Shou, but certainly not for Liu Kang in particular.

Of course I can't declare it is the same for all other gay/bi male MK fans, but I will say I've never really heard anything of it. Usually the googly eyes were reserved for Rain, Reiko, and Shao Kahn. Why these three? I have no clue, but I've come across many a gay/bi male MK fan who've mentioned having the hots for them. Liu Kang not so much.

That's fair enough. And yeah I'll agree there are character who had better outfits in MKX over MK11 - Cassie and the majority of the Special Forces being a prime example for that. But there are also MK11 outfits I prefer over MKX, Raiden being the best example. And with characters like Scorp and SZ, I'm undecided which I like best out of MKX and MK11.

But one thing is for certain.... the MKX/MK11 outfits are miles better than MK(2011) and earlier.

Gracias Riyakou. I have never seen or known anyone to lust over Liu Kang or even Johnny Cage. Mainly because they were never intended to be eye candy. A male character being shirtless doesn't make them eye candy.

Funny enough, I said earlier the only time I found Liu Kang to be hot was in MKVSDC and that was the most he ever resembled Robin Shou. So it was definitely more of a Robin thing than a Liu Kang thang. :P