Pixels & Pinups: The Ultimate Gamer Babe Throwdown Round 5

Posted by Andrew On May - 14 - 2010

Pixels & Pinups: The Ultimate Gamer Babe Throwdown

Are you a fan of hot babes? More specifically are you a fan of hot gamer babes? If so, then have we got a competition for you! A few weeks ago, we launched our Pixels & Pinups: The Ultimate Gamer Babe competition and today it’s time for round 3 of our too hot for TV babe buffet! Here’s how this smoking hot babe-off will play out: Every Friday the MMOMFG staff (no pun intended) will seek out two hot gamer babes, be them virtual or fleshy, to duel it out battle royale style. And by battle royale, I mean you lucky dudes and dudettes will get to vote for who you think struts their stuff the best! Each week two new hotties will duke it out in the hopes of making it to the December Showdown, where the winner from each week leading up to that point will then compete to determine who is the sauciest tart of 2010!

Last week we let Dragon Age companions Leliana and Morrigan throw down. This week we take it back a bit.

[Author’s note] This competition is not meant to be degrading to women in any way shape or form. This is meant to be a good-hearted competition celebrating the beautiful ladies of the gaming industry.

Aeris vs. Rinoa

Grunge music, Lorne Michaels-produced comedies actually worth the price of admission, and great Final Fantasy games: these were the 90′s. With this week’s Gamer Babe Throwdown we look back to a decade long gone, to the time of the first PlayStation console, when Final Fantasy was gold. In one corner: from Final Fantasy VII comes Aeris, the saint-like love interest who meets an early and tragic end (OMG SPOILERS ALERT). In the opposite corner: Rinoa, an energetic and rambunctious teenage-revolutionary similarly entwined with the game’s protagonist. Which of these JRPG queens will reign supreme?

Aeris

What’s Hot

Cute is the new sexy - Aeris represents somewhat of a detour from normal stereotypes around female characters in video games, which are typically over-sexualized and objectified. Take everything bout Dead or Alive, for example. Aeris is a more realistic female character – her body is proportional and her clothes do not consist of impossibly comfortable skin-tight leather or spandex. She is more of a cutie than a babe, if you will. This same can be said about Rinoa, but Aeris gets the edge for setting the precedent.

Supply and demand – The unavoidable truth about Aeris is that she, well, dies during the narrative of FFVII. This may sound morbid, but it kind of makes her a hot commodity. It’s simple supply and demand – and Aeris is a rare element on the market. Head ups though, I’m going to completely contradict myself in the next section; consider the other side of the coin.

What’s Not

Blocky is the new Curvey – Aeris faces an inherent graphical disadvantage in this battle. Whereas some men may like their women curvey, she’s downright blocky. Rinoa’s in-game isn’t exactly life-like either, but it’s a far cry from this pile of multicolored polygons. Of course, Aeris looks much more fleshed out in Advent Children and pieces of concept art, but many gamesr’ first impression of her was on their trusty old PSOne. It’s interesting to compare our two combatants graphically, actually – that they were only two years apart and hit the same system shows the leaps and bounds visual graphics were taking back then.

Ouch –Aeris’ death scene has haunted me for some time. Am I the only one who totally didn’t see that coming? I hope not. Maybe blood grosses me out, but Sephiroth’s blade might as well have burst through my libido.

[View with PicLens]

Rinoa

What’s Hot

Positive Influence – Rinoa’s advantage over Aeris has to be her lively and spirited personality. While Aries could kinda be a bore, Rinoa was always upbeat and full of life. You know what though, I feel like contradicting myself again. Stay tuned.

Doppelganger – Have you ever noticed that Rinoa resembles screen actress Camille Bell, of 10,000 BC fame? That is all.

What’s Not

Too much of a good thing – I noted that Rinoa’s spunky attitude was a plus, but the more I think about it the more I remember how annoying her incessant giddyness got in the game. She could be like a valley girl with a million questions at times and all I could think was “Man, this chick can nag.”

Product of a broken home – Rinoa hasn’t had a good family history. To say she didn’t get along with her father is an understatement – she tried to overthrow the government he served as general for. That sort of upbringing creates issues, baggage, things of that nature. Sure today you kill the Sorceress from the future that controlled Rinoa’s body and threatened all existence, but the next day you might find yourself the bad guy because you left the toilet seat down.

[View with PicLens]

The Verdict

This week’s lineup is a bit of a curve ball. Neither of these characters are exactly eye-candy: not only are they graphically undefined compared to today’s standards, but they’re not action-star-babes as much as cute girlfriend types. I think my vote has to go to Rinoa, I just can’t deny my bias to FFVIII.

Voting

Staff will each get to cast one vote. Readers can vote as many times as they want on site. Tweet this or retweet ours to double your vote value. Or post a vote to our Facebook page to triple your vote value. If you write your vote on a the back of a fortune cookie slip, wrap it around a pigeons leg, and send it to us that way we’ll pretty much call the competition in your favor. Voting ends Wednesday 12pm EST next week.

WINNER

Ding ding ding! This round is over folks. Voting is now closed, and our winner this week is Rinoa by somewhat of a landslide. Thanks to all who voted, be sure to check back this friday for the next battle of gamer babe supremacy.

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