While the intricacy of racial interaction in the game is naturally fascinating to me, as an outsider to the Warhammer World I am currently more interested in what the inclusion of that particular interaction in the promotional video means about the culture of the intended audience. Clearly, sex sells and it would behoove the marketers to include a devotee to a sex god in the promotional material.* But it's the handling that's fascinating.
So... Rather than simply including a couple of large-breasted Elf women, we have this interesting interaction between a fully-armored, masculine-acting but obviously female High Elf, and a seductive, femme, scantily clad and clearly *evil* Dark Elf. The "bad girl" incapacitates the other, demonstrates how helpless "good girl" is by brutally murdering some interlopers, and appears ready to seduce her quarry before she is interrupted.
There are several elements at work here: femininity and sexuality as weapons; destructive nature of feminine dominance; strong females and homoeroticism**...
You should totally do a paper on ideas of femininity within the gaming culture. It would rock.
*I'll not even get into the fact that the sex cult is also apparently a femdom fetish cult. Though of course I don't know whether there is a "good" or "vanilla" sex god as well... **See also: Xena, Warrior Princess
No, the official name of the Warhammer world is "The Old World." And they certainly do subscribe to some old old-world values about those who cannot "control" themselves and resist "temptation."
While the intricacy of racial interaction in the game is naturally fascinating to me, as an outsider to the Warhammer World I am currently more interested in what the inclusion of that particular interaction in the promotional video means about the culture of the intended audience. Clearly, sex sells and it would behoove the marketers to include a devotee to a sex god in the promotional material.* But it's the handling that's fascinating.
So... Rather than simply including a couple of large-breasted Elf women, we have this interesting interaction between a fully-armored, masculine-acting but obviously female High Elf, and a seductive, femme, scantily clad and clearly *evil* Dark Elf. The "bad girl" incapacitates the other, demonstrates how helpless "good girl" is by brutally murdering some interlopers, and appears ready to seduce her quarry before she is interrupted.
There are several elements at work here: femininity and sexuality as weapons; destructive nature of feminine dominance; strong females and homoeroticism**...
You should totally do a paper on ideas of femininity within the gaming culture. It would rock.
*I'll not even get into the fact that the sex cult is also apparently a femdom fetish cult. Though of course I don't know whether there is a "good" or "vanilla" sex god as well...
**See also: Xena, Warrior Princess
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