[A-Aie]

Okay, after spending hours and hours creating that poll, I'm kinda exhausted. Nonetheless, I came here with a mission >O
Hyung Tae Kim is such an awesome person *showers with hearts* <33333333333
Not only is he an awesome artist that I admire, but he also puts a lot of thought into doing things for his fans and other people who will play the game.
On B&S I saw an interview with Hyung Tae Kim. This is what got me to make this thread.

Quote

Speaking of feedback, it looks like love towards male characters will be lower than female characters.
That is true. I am saying this now but I hope the users will give more feedback on the male characters. The developer Team thinks they are designing cool looking male characters, but since the feedback is significantly lower than females, they are considering making the males sexier.

Isn’t it because the female characters are too beautiful?
Something we are regretting. A male user should pick a male character, we are trying hard to fix this problem! =)

How do you plan to change the male characters?
Nothing special. Just changing the hair style, facial shape, and animations. We think the main problem with the male characters is that they are too plain and simple. In short, we think they lack charisma and appeal. It is hard to add different characteristics visually to male characters in online game, such as a thuggish look, reckless/brash look, bad boy look, etc.

This is easy in console games, however. Hence we altered some things, but it looks like we need to change more. Therefore we need more feedback.

The same way Hyung Tae Kim put a lot of effort into his female creations, he wants to share some of that effort with the male creations.
This is magnificent news for both female and male players.

BENEFITS FOR MALES
- When you play video games, one of the first things you judge is the look and personality of the character you're playing as. If you're a gamer, then surely you must've found some game character you've played as that you really admire and think is really cool. Whether it be Snake from Metal Gear or Link from Legend of Zelda. When you play a game it's safe to say that you get attached to your character.

- Wouldn't you like to play a game where you can admire the character you're playing as?
Where it's not just in console games that the hero you play as saves damsels in distress or gets the girl in the end.
But that all this can happen for a character you've actually made yourself?
Wouldn't you like to have a character that you can look forward to playing as and be confident in the way you look?

- Aren't you sick and tired of mmo's that gives female players and characters tons of outfits to wear? All stylized and attractive.
While your level 10 armor doesn't look that much different from your level 20 armor which again won't look different from your level 40 armor?
And on top of that, women get a multitude of more outfits than their male counterparts anyway?
Doesn't that bother you at all?

- Is it not true, that not just as a man but as a "person", you want to have the ability to look good and to look different from other male characters?
Why is it that only female players can dress themselves and manage their appearance to suit their tastes, yet you can't because you're so limited?

Hyung Tae Kim and the B&S Team are trying to SOLVE all of these problems and take all of your worries away.
All for the purpose of getting you to feel confident in yourself and your character and live out your dream life in this eastern fantasy world.
So now it's time for the male audience to speak up and say something while Hyung is being considerate and actually asking and looking for feedback from you.

BENEFITS FOR FEMALES
- To our female audience and gamers, don't you enjoy seeing male game characters from your favorite console games? Even if you're surrounded by ghouls and zombies, as long as you're looking at this




you'll be more than okay <3
When it comes to playing video games, appearance (in fact) does say a lot.
While we enjoy the game for the game itself like most gamers do, and even though we don't initially play as male characters ourselves, we still want something to look at and fangirl over. .-. (how do you think mabinogi got so popular..)

- Girls, gals, ladies! Do you not want to have eye candy too? TAT )7
Do you not want to play a video game for once and actually have male characters worth staring at?
Would you not be fangirling and all happy and glad if you did?
Don't you think it would be better to have attractive male characters in an mmo that you spend hours in instead of resorting to your console games

Juto (Magna Carta 2)


Juto (Magna Carta 2)


Count Waltz (Eternal Sonata)


From Left to Right - Beat, Allegretto, and Frederick ( Male Cast of Eternal Sonata )

and your shoujo manga and anime


Raven (Earl and Fairy)


(Kuroshitsuji)


(Aishiteruze Baby)

just to find male characters to please your eye for a while? TAT
Hyung Tae Kim is doing us a big favor. Most mmo's would spend time making female characters beautiful and completely avoid the male characters' sense of attractiveness and sex appeal.

You know what ignoring this does? It makes female gamers quit the game for another one with more attractive male cast after a certain amount of time TAT;

Hyung Tae Kim's art style is amazing. I don't really have any complaints at all for his male character designs.
But looking at the feedback of players who actually played the game, they somehow came up with the idea that male characters are not getting a lot of attention.
Actually, I guess I can make an assumption that (just like Vindictus) most of the characters on the server are female. Not even lyn but female.

So the plot of all this is,
HOW can the male renders for lyn, jin, and gon stand out and be more attractive????
Any ideas?

I would point things out, but to be honest, most of the CBT videos (if not all) uses a FEMALE character. So I wouldn't know where to begin with the male characters. Because I can't criticize something I've never seen.

Also, I've seen a lot of designs and outfits for female cast. It would be nice to see more of what the male characters would wear and more designs of them.

I don't think male lyn need any improvements, they're cute and adorable enough. So there should be equal amount of male lyn as there are female.

Jin and Gon however, I don't know about them. Gons seem pretty bulky, but have lots of height.
Hmm.. maybe instead of making Gons look a little too ruthless and ogre or monster-like, maybe it'd be better to keep them tall and muscular, but a little more lean and attractive?

Bah, I really don't know. I haven't seen all too many pics of male gons.

Male jins should put a lot of emphasis on the "boy" look. Lyns are cute and gons can be sexy with their fit bodies.
I guess jins need to be something that's in between the two???
Half sexy and half cute??? Or something like that. Or the potential at least to lean towards either side.

My suggestion is to look at the most popular male game characters. Not really the artistic design, because Hyung Tae Kim's male designs and artwork are already plenty sexy >v< ) <3333333333333333333333
Instead of looking at artwork, look at the actual rendering.
Look at renders of game characters. Look at ones that are popular specifically with men.
And look at renders of game characters that women love and find attractive.
Once you look at them, see what you can fix or apply to your own rendering. NOT to change your artwork. But just to make it more accurate and well built.
Because again, Hyung Tae Kim's designs are just too lovely <3333

If I could name a few game renders of male characters that I really find attractive.
I would say...
Eternal Sonata
Dante from Devil May Cry is attractive. So is Nero.
Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 4
Leon S. Kennedy from Resident Evil 4. I dislike the Raccoon City remake. Why they ruin him? TAT
Harry Mason from Silent Hill 1 was REALLY handsome <3 But they screwed up his appearance in the remake.
Xenosaga volume 3 had beautiful renders of both the female AND the male cast. Junior, Chaos, Albedo <3333
Noctis from Final Fantasy versus 13.,
And last but not least the Star Ocean series. Specifically Star Ocean the Last Hope.

As you can see, I favor most of the characters from the poll list. .-. ) tee hee...

But it';s not just me. These characters are popular among many female gamers as well.
Not the artwork, but the renders.

If you can spot what's common in all the renders of these games, you might find the key that you need to add to your own render.
So Hyung Tae Kim I hope this helps you out! <3
And for everyone else, please leave your own suggestions as well.

Maybe any of you who have actually seen more male renders than I have of B&S might know what he needs to fix?
So go for it. :3 Any and all suggestions would be most helpful <333333333333333333

MAJOR EDIT:





Please visit page 2 for more information.
The bodies of the male renders are not the same as Hyung Tae Kim's artwork.
That could be why they're not popular in comparison to the female renders. :3

Also, please help Hyung Tae Kim to see this.
Display the picture on other sites as well so maybe he can notice?

This post has been edited by A-Aie: Sep 19, 2011 - 7:41 AM

[Sayane]

I personally think that the male characters should have as much variety as the females: whereas they don't look too generic.

[Lyndis]

That post took way too long to read. That being said, lets clear something up before we jump knee-deep into the opinions.

Games/Movies/Books/Anime/Comics/and more exist to take us AWAY from the reality based world we live in and let us experience a new world where "normality" is anything but.

That is why characters (whether they are human or not) are always attractive. Lets be honest. No one wants to date, be social with, have a relationship, and "more" with someone who looks like Golem from Lord of the Rings or the disfigured guy from the movie 300. It's just in our "human" nature to push away from that.

That being said, I find most males in video games to be a little misrepresented. And females even more so. From your list you posted, the most NORMAL out of all of those would be Chopin from Eternal Sonata minus the fantasy get-up. If you needed a second choice, Leon Kennedy is pretty darn close to what a "NORMAL" attractive male should be. Although they did give him a slightly feminine face, his body is built like a normal mans should be. Strong enough to hold a weapon and not so beef that hes sporting a 10 pack on his chest.

End opinion.

[~*~ Houki ~*~]

So long as I may create my male Blademaster to resemble this wonderful gentleman,
I shall be a lady that is happy beyond words. ^-^

In addition, this was a splendid topic Miss A-Aie. I enjoyed reading and choosing the
options in the poll. *smiles softly*

Attached File(s)

•  Mylove.PNG (312.65K)
  Number of downloads: 5

This post has been edited by ~*~ Houki ~*~: Sep 18, 2011 - 12:58 AM

[soknife]

ryu. because most of the times you cant actually see his face.........



and i nominate this dude

[A-Aie]

@ Sayane Agreed.


@ Lyndis
WOAH I 100% agree with you, buddy >D
And don't forget to include Harry Mason ;D

Wait.. did I include Harry in the list?

But you do bring up a strong point. As an artist myself, ahem cough cough..
I have taken notice that I find myself more attracted to characters that resemble people more.
Why? Because people are attractive >O
*celebrity people. ok just kidding..*

But because art is in relation to this and not just people, characters will tend to be more unrealistic. Especially if they are leaning to the artist's art style.
Just like how in B&S, though Hyung Tae Kim's artwork has a sense of realism to it, you can tell (because of exaggerated features & proportions) that it's also unrealistic.
Thus, his work is referred to as "semi-realism". Both realistic and stylized.
Sure it's not how normal people look really. But it makes the game visually artistic and something worth staring at because it's not common. It's not something that you see everyday. The look of the characters is genuine. And that in itself can help you, as a player, stand out more and be recognized in the game world.

But sticking to my point here of "Semi-realism" all artwork stems from the same thing.
Real Life.
No matter how exaggerated and cartoony. No matter how deformed. No matter how accurate. All anime, manga, game, art styles stem from what people see in the real world.

So, you gave me an idea. Instead of just including attractive game renders.
Why not include attractive males in general? (Of course I mean "REAL" living, breathing, males.)



I remember seeing in my special two-disk dvd of FF7 Advent Children that Cloud Strife's initial character development came from the fashion and appearance of a band member that one of the development team (or artists) found at a bar... of some sort.
Basically, proving my past points right, they were inspired to create Cloud from a real, living, breathing person's appearance. A real man.

So who knows, maybe posting pictures of real males that we find cool and / or attractive will work?
Maybe, just like how it worked for Cloud Strife's creation, Hyung Tae Kim will find some inspiration or motivation of how to go about rendering the characters???
And since this is a korean game (you don't have to, but I will)
I'll post pictures of korean celebrities I find attractive, cute, and handsome +A+ *drool*
k so here I go.
This is just the first batch. X3

1st one is Jang Geun Suk



Next is Lee Hong Ki (He's so adorable I could put pictures of him all day XD )



And uhhhh okay. For the sake of not spamming the thread with the thousands of images I have on my pc of various other korean actors and singers, I'll stop here. LOL But to name names, I also like Lee Min Ho, Kim Bum, G-Dragon, Super Junior M, etc. XD
LOLOLOLOLOL I'm blushing like an idiot. Pardon me. >///v///< ); Apologies if I made a fool of myself lol. But if it worked for Cloud..
well.. who knows. I just hope any of this useful in some way. Even though I'm not korean and I live in New York, I still find them attractive.
So if you're questioning what looks will "appeal" to foreigners.. well... these people are pretty popular with girls overseas.
Just make sure the bodies keep a muscular build. We like muscles. Not HULK muscles. No... .-. Definitely no.
Actually, please keep the gon from looking like the Hulk....

@ ~*~ Houki ~*~
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Miss Houki-sama ( ^__^ )7 ~<3
And thanks so much for the feedback. Ohhh that character looks familiar! <3 So handsome <3
What anime is he from??? +v+

@ soknife
LOLZ. Thanks so much for the feedback XD If you ever have anything more to add, post again kay? ;D You play lots of games and you know a lot of anime so surely you have some ideas. Are there any male characters you favor in Disgaea or Blaz Blue?

This post has been edited by A-Aie: Sep 18, 2011 - 1:41 AM

[Erehinater]

Shimon, Kamina, Arago, and Zengar Zanbolt for manliness

[soknife]

i figured out the solution, make females unattractive. im telling you, its never gonna happen otherwise

[CrimsonNeko]

I don't think males necessarily need to be made more "attractive" in order to get more male gamers to want to play male characters. However, I do think that making male characters appear more interesting or bad-ass. We don't need all male characters to look like bodybuilders or wispy girly-men. As a male gamer, it would be nice to get a decent variety of character types in between the two.

That said, making male characters more "attractive" would probably increase the interest of female gamers in male characters.

Of course, I'm not quite sure how to make Lyn more interesting without making massive changes to their fundamental design, not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

[A-Aie]

soknife, on Sep 18, 2011 - 7:16 AM, said:

i figured out the solution, make females unattractive. im telling you, its never gonna happen otherwise

LOLZ XD That's unfair. I like the idea of being amazingly beautiful in a mmo. That's what most female players aim for anyway. Buying tons of in-game outfits and hair styles, etc.
To keep up with the women's beauty, the idea is simple. Just make men more handsome. The more cool-looking and handsome they are, the more people will notice them and give them a chance. Otherwise, when you put a female character standing next to a male character, the male will be outdone by the beautiful female.

So you do bring up a good point. Try to make them have an equal standing of attractiveness and beauty. Or else this isn't gonna work well and it'll become another Vindictus where the server is run by a plague of Evie.....

Vindictus is a nice game, but I got tired of seeing nothing but Evie. And because most of the players are Evie, the developers give Evie all the good stuff. Makes me regret spending money on my Fiona. :c And if you want me to offer my two cents, the Laan are only attractive when they're wearing a mask on their head. Their bodies are perfect but their face is..... sigh.. :c *is sad* All of them look like that game "The Witcher".
Nexon, why u do this? :c

This post has been edited by A-Aie: Sep 18, 2011 - 1:02 PM

[Ocean]

All i have to say is that you should be able to change the size and build of your char...i want mine to be NOT so tall and kinda buffed jin...something similar to myself in real life

[RamenNoodles452]

They need to look no further than Kpop dudes to draw enough inspiration... xD

There's quite a variety from the cutsy, pretty body type to the move cooler, suave type of guy too.

TOP is a good example of a really cool looking guy.


Personal big fan of Ousider. I'd love to make a character in BnS that looks like him lol

Ocean, on Sep 18, 2011 - 1:47 PM, said:

All i have to say is that you should be able to change the size and build of your char...i want mine to be NOT so tall and kinda buffed jin...something similar to myself in real life

While I believe you should be able to change your character's physique, I don't think it should be too much, since Gon, Kun, and Jin are all very human like with subtle differences that make them different races (more subtle than most MMOs) So like while you can make a larger and buffer than average Jin, he shouldn't be comparable to a Gon. It's already hard enough to tell some the races apart for some people.

This post has been edited by RamenNoodles452: Sep 18, 2011 - 1:58 PM

[Daire Winterblood]

Well, I've always been a feminine-dude sort of gal. BUT, only in certain aspects. I feel that there should be an equilibrium between burly and feminine. You know, the fantasy-esque brooding, alpha-male type with a killer edge despite his softer features (I love you Vincent Valentine!) This is from a female point of view anyway. However, as a general gamer's point of view... the more options the better.


I want guys to have the freedom that us female gamers have when it comes to characters. If you want burly, you can get burly, if you want feminine, you can get feminine. Sharp eyes/soft eyes, lean bodies/hardcore muscle bods, revealing clothing/head-to-toe coverage.... whatever the heck rocks your boat.

This post has been edited by Daire Winterblood: Sep 18, 2011 - 2:36 PM

[RamenNoodles452]

Daire Winterblood, on Sep 18, 2011 - 2:31 PM, said:

Well, I've always been a feminine-dude sort of gal. BUT, only in certain aspects. I feel that there should be an equilibrium between burly and feminine. You know, the fantasy-esque brooding, alpha-male type with a killer edge despite his softer features (I love you Vincent Valentine!) This is from a female point of view anyway. However, as a general gamer's point of view... the more options the better.


I want guys to have the freedom that us female gamers have when it comes to characters. If you want burly, you can get burly, if you want feminine, you can get feminine. Sharp eyes/soft eyes, lean bodies/hardcore muscle bods, revealing clothing/head-to-toe coverage.... whatever the heck rocks your boat.

Yeah, they shouldn't worry about coming up with the "best" look for a dude, but focus on giving the guys as much customization options that don't suck as much as the females.

Like for hair styles especially, there are SOOOO many cool hair styles that I see females having that the guys only have a handful to choose from. NO ONE's gonna pick that middle aged balding hair style unless for comedic purposes.

@A-Aie: the REAL problem eith everyone playing Evie is not because of character look, though that does have a factor, but it's just that Evie is so completely broken xD

This post has been edited by RamenNoodles452: Sep 18, 2011 - 3:25 PM

[A-Aie]

@ Daire Winterblood
Another Chuck Norris Approval from me >D (we have similar tastes lol)
<- Thumbnail because pic is kinda large.

@ RamenNoodles452
Perfect deduction. ;D
I totally agree with you and I LUV TOP <3
I also <3 G-DRAGON KYaaaaaaaaaaa *turns rabid*

And Evie is so rigged. I heard they have a nudity patch or something for her. .-. sigh......

XD LOL Anyway, this is G-D (for other people who don't know him)<3333333




And this is a video of him, if anyone hasn't seen him before. XD
This first one is a short interview. It talks about his fashion line. And has scenes of him modeling some outfits.


And this is the music video of his fashion line: G-Market. I posted this up in two other places on this forum. LOL


P.S. - who is this?

He's so cute +A+ !!!!!!!!!!! <33333 *clings to laptop screen* <3333333333333333

This post has been edited by A-Aie: Sep 18, 2011 - 3:49 PM

[Wraithos]

Just throwing in my two cents!


As a guy myself, a male character needs to be physically appealing, but not in the sense where you could easily confuse the facial construction and features of a character of either gender. Male characters with feminine features and no sense of ruggedness are only going to be eclipsed when put against incredibly beautiful female concepts, and I think this is one of the reasons why female characters are that much more popular at the moment within blade and soul.

However, Blade and soul isn't without rugged male characters, such as the Gon race. The only problem however is that there is little that is actually appealing about Large Gon males, they look very monstrous and it's possible to create a character that looks like jesus on horse steroids. That's really not appealing to me as a concept, even though I like hard-edged characters. Too much of one thing is no good- Jin and Gon males suffer from this in both extremes.


Now have a look at this character.



The protaganist of Dues Ex Human revolution is definitely masculine, but he's got this degree of class to his expression and appearance. Neither overly muscled nor feeble, the features are not pretty nor strikingly handsome- Yet I personally can't help thinking that the concept is incredibly cool and very well executed. Good concepts in my opinion always evoke a feeling, and unfortunately I don't feel much for Gon males nor Jin males with how they currently appear.

This post has been edited by Wraithos: Sep 18, 2011 - 4:20 PM

[A-Aie]

@ Wraithos
True. What you say is definitely true. This character here from Deus Ex, even though I don't usually go for this type of guy, I still have to admit he's pretty darn handsome and cool. If played by the right person with the right personality, it'd be hard not to fall for such a character eventually. But compared to the women of B&S, he would seem rather.. .-. old.
Yet somehow, he still has that
SEXY look. lol

I think the Gon should be modeled after him.
Tall. Muscular. Strong. But cool.
Like you say, I don't think it's right to make the gon and jin overbearing. Like the Gon for example, being too ruthless. And the jin being too feminine but ill in comparison to the female jin.

Gons should be able to have some class too. I know in World of Warcraft, people tend to have fun rampaging as ogres, but....
I'm pretty sure that if you wanna look like a bulky monster, you can find armor for that. .-.;

EDIT: ah one more thing >o i really wanna emphasize this point that you brought up.
Though the gon and jin males are not repulsive. They are indeed pretty plain.
Like you said, I don't feel anything all too impressive or special when looking at male gons and jins.
Instead, I think the male lyns and every female character in the game are more impressive.

This post has been edited by A-Aie: Sep 18, 2011 - 4:30 PM

[RamenNoodles452]

A-Aie, on Sep 18, 2011 - 3:47 PM, said:

P.S. - who is this?

He's so cute +A+ !!!!!!!!!!! <33333 *clings to laptop screen* <3333333333333333

Korean Speedstar! Outsider!

My favorite Korean Rapper, one of the world's fastest rapper capable of 21 syllables per second.
What I love is how articulate he is with his words, cuz I can understand what he's saying (for the most part xD) while he's moving so fast.
And his songs themselves are great too.

Here's a glimpse.



Now there is a guy, not too rugged and buff, but at the same time not feminine.
He exudes cool. And I think that's how Jin males should be portrayed.

This post has been edited by RamenNoodles452: Sep 18, 2011 - 4:58 PM

[A-Aie]

D8 WOAH. That video was really cool. How can he rap so fast? @-@;
He makes good music and his video concept was really awesome too.
Consider me a new fan of Outsider from now on! >D
*faves vid on youtube*

[soknife]

A-Aie, on Sep 18, 2011 - 1:01 PM, said:

LOLZ XD That's unfair. I like the idea of being amazingly beautiful in a mmo. That's what most female players aim for anyway. Buying tons of in-game outfits and hair styles, etc.
To keep up with the women's beauty, the idea is simple. Just make men more handsome. The more cool-looking and handsome they are, the more people will notice them and give them a chance. Otherwise, when you put a female character standing next to a male character, the male will be outdone by the beautiful female.

So you do bring up a good point. Try to make them have an equal standing of attractiveness and beauty. Or else this isn't gonna work well and it'll become another Vindictus where the server is run by a plague of Evie.....

well, since most human beings are heterosexual, it wouldn't surprise me, especially for males, to choose a female character so he can stare at that ass. and this phenomenon is nowhere a problem