Up front, she points out fashion isn\u2019t just clothes, and it\u2019s not just high-concept runway shows, either; it\u2019s the art and science of communicating information through what we wear and how we carry ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not here to talk about what good fashion is,\u201d said Tran. \u201cI want to talk more about how we\u2019ve ignored it as a serious mechanic and an information-rich piece of storytelling\u201d in game development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first reason we should care about fashion is that fashion really increases our understanding,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt can put you in a certain time or era…it can convey a certain mood without walls and walls of text, and it can say where your character came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fashion is weakest when it’s meaningless, so Tran encourages game makers to look at what characters are wearing as a vital communication channel. Players will instantly make a judgment about your characters based on their outfits, so make sure they mean something.<\/p>\n
As an example of an outfit that\u2019s \u201cinformation poor\u201d, Tran pulled up a shot of Xenoblade Chronicles 2<\/em> protagonist Rex, noting that his flashy \u201cDiver\u201d armor is striking but conveys almost nothing about what a Diver is or does.<\/p>\n Some players may feel strongly about Rex’s outfit because they have deep ties to the series, for example, or the game’s artist, but if they’re just seeing him for the first time, it’s hard to read him as a character.<\/p>\n Fashion is a useful tool for evoking strong emotions in general, said Tran, pointing out that many people pick outfits for their in-game characters (when they have the option) for the same reasons they pick their own outfits: to feel strong, or attractive, or powerful, or just comfy.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, when I was too afraid to wear sexy outfits, I would wear them in games to explore how they made me feel,” said Tran. “Did I actually like this? Did I want to dress more cute? Did i want to dress more masculine, to feel more comfortable? Fashion can give you powerful feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n Games have been using fashion to elicit powerful feelings in customers for a long time, of course, but its almost always by putting women characters in ridiculously skimpy outfits. Tran says it can be powerful to give players room to express their characters’ sexuality, but that power is quashed when devs don’t give players room to chose their own outfits.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course I have to talk about sexualized fashion. I\u2019ve come to have very complicated feelings about it right now,\u201d Tran said, recommending everyone read Maddy Myers\u2019 Kotaku article<\/a> on the fashion of Soul <\/em>Calibur<\/em>\u2019s Ivy Valentie. \u201cShe does champion reclaiming sexiness for ourselves, though I find it hard to feel empowered when [women characters don\u2019t have non-sexy clothing options].\u201d<\/p>\n She also cautions game makers about putting fashion and iconography from other countries and cultures in your game without doing serious research first. Putting every American video game character into an outfit sporting an American flag gets old fast, she argues; the same goes for characters from other parts of the world. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/boyfriend-dungeon-dev-examines-why-game-fashion-sucks-and-what-to-do-about-it.jpg\")
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