Dissecting Smite #1: Oversexualization, Stereotyping, Double-Standards, and Other Misogyny in Smite

Haters gotta hate!

"In a misconstrued context."

We're talking about whether things exist or not. There is no way to misconstrue that. It's nothing like WebMD, because diagnosing someone is one of the crucial steps between talking to the doctor and getting help - taking information and applying it. We are, again, talking about whether or not something exists.

IMO, this whole debate really got shut down. I'd like to restart it, but it seems that some people aren't giving their opinion on the matter.

As for the whole armor thing.

Gods die. In Smite. Or at least, they get horribly butchered, hurt, and eventually enter a phase of existence similar to death, where their body fades away, they let out death rattles, the screen turns grey, etc.

And apparently, you can mitigate that sort of thing by wearing armor! Which is why tanks and bruisers wear armor and have better tank stats.

So, even if you can't "die," armor would still be helpful and stuff.

As for fashion choice...Athena's boob plate, even outside my other complaints about it, is one of the most ugly-looking things I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, one of the problems I have with the art design is just how I think things are ugly.

Like, Chang'e's headdress. Like, seriously, WTF. It seems so...out-of-place. So...not subtle. And Awilix' headdress, and Guan's crown thing...



Isn't most armor aesthetically pleasing already? That's not even getting into the tons of ornamental armor out there, either. Maybe that's just me.

Edit: @Zanestorm: Blah blah, ignoring.

That wasn't the point of contention. But w/e, I'll drop it.



They aren't humans, even if they look like them. The lore of almost every single deity IRL gives them shape-shifting capabilities [which is why so many represent animals too.] Most deities true forms are probably unknown. Also, they aren't risking their lives and their armour before the fight doesn't actually do anything, within the lore. There is then no reason why Athena wouldn't be wearing a skimpy outfit, as she has nothing at all to lose by doing so and in the lore IRL she is very competitive.



Because the actual armour - pre fight - gives them no protection on the battle-field, regardless of how valid it would be in a normal battle against humans. Therefore its unnecessary. Their natural defenses are balanced by class and measured to ensure each deity isn't too potent, it has nothing to do with the armour the deity is or isn't wearing.



Each deity is unique. Some do care about fashion. For some, they are competitive and want to remain that way. I'm sure others don't care at all. But we don't know if dying actually hurts them - they're deities, not humans and regenerate almost immediately - and as their pre-game armour doesn't help them at all, it wouldn't prevent them from dying. Only the imbued items - in the game - can do that.



The Gods aren't bickering over fashion. They have no reason to wear armour, so choose to wear whatever they want as it has no consequence. They may well be competing - Athena absolutely does so in multiple events within her lore. Heck, she ascended Arachne to God-hood accidentally out of spite in some stories. That is the level of competitiveness and spite we're dealing with, when discussing Athena.



Agreed on the idiots point [generally.] This isn't a life or death situation, and their pre-game armour has no bearing on their successfulness against other Gods. They aren't risking anything to look fashionable - there is literally no down side to it.

deities IN smite are as much human as humans, in the original lore they weren't but they should be looked at as humans in smite for the very simple reason that they are effectively humans. in the original lore they have shapeshifting abilities but in smite only sun has, pick one lore or the other, can't have both becaus they dont intertwine and smite is as far from the original mythos as you can probebly get.

"there is no reason why Athena wouldn't be wearing a skimpy outfit, as she has nothing at all to lose by doing so and in the lore IRL she is very competitive." yeah i can turn that same argument around, athena isn't a ****, there is no reason why athena would be wearing a skimpy outfit, as she does actually have things to lose and in the lore she is competitive and she is in a war. she got her pride to lose and the war to lose... one of the only things smite did actually tell us about its lore is that they are at war and all the gods have to pick a side.

if athena picks a side she has something to lose that is more important then a fashion contest.

"the gods aren't bickering over fasion" then why did you bring up that athena would be in a competition over it with aphro? like i said they are in a war against people with equal power and they could lose the war, this means they have a reason to trow everything they have at it including reasons to wear armor.

also arachne didn't get ascended arachne, it was always a curse that just so ended up giving making her the mother of spiders. she does not punish people by making them gods. (welcome to mythology where 9000 stories walk around and clash with others).

"they aren't risking anything to look ----" yes they are, they lose risking their pride and the war. they can die and armor prevents that, less death=less losing war= no pride loss.

smite has made one part of their lore clear, that part is that they are at war and deities choose sides. that means that they can lose and deities esspecially gods like athena do not like loosing because they are so pridefull.

@sub, fight over. pm if you want to continue.

Smite is far from the original lore in many ways [like why would there be a battleground of deities in the first place] but in others it isn't [personal lore of deities are based on real interpretations therein.] Obviously some things make no sense from a rational perspective but do from a gameplay perspective - I.E Armour.

If Gods that wore armour naturally had more defense in the game, that would be insane to balance. Ymir would be pretty much immortal unless vs a flame God, in which case he'd die immediately - Deities like Ares would have hundreds of armour at the start of the match, whereas deities like Aphrodite would get none. From a gameplay perspective, it makes sense that a deities aesthetic doesn't actually contribute to their defense or offense.

On that basis - in the context of the video-game itself - there is no reason for a deity to dress in any particular way. They can't die in the game, nor would their clothes help them either way. If some then choose to dress in a sexual way, that is permissible within the context of the game itself - immortal, clothes don't matter, neither do weapons.

I said the gods aren't bickering over fashion because they're fighting in a war. That doesn't mean they aren't in competition, it just means that there is no point in-game in which two deities stop fighting to bicker over their fashion sense.

Agreed that mythology stories clash with others. In some interpretations Athena takes pity on Arachne, in others she punishes her for representing the sins and the secrets of the Gods.

Their armour has no effect - at all - on their defensive capacity. Their class does. The armour they can buy does. We have no way of knowing whether deities like Neith would take pride in dressing sexually or be embarrassed, because they aren't sentient beings in the game and aren't known to be wandering about IRL.

I agree that they don't like losing. But their pre-game armour and weapons literally do nothing to give them benefits or downsides, so it isn't relevant. I think this entire problem wouldn't exist if Hi-rez had coded it so deities physically equip the items you buy in the shop that DO help them, but sadly they didn't do that [it'd be a nightmare to do, but cool as heck!]

Actually, they die all the time. They even say lines like "ow". This could lead us to believe that gods die and are hurt in Smite, even though they come back to life. So armor seems like it would make sense.

@Chiulin

The current clothes they are wearing don't contribute to their actual armour values as I've pointed out, so there's no reason for them to dress defensively as it would have no bearing on the outcome [it would add no defensive capacity in context of the game.] They aren't sentient, so don't feel pain. If they die *all the time* yet can still be played, it can be assumed they aren't truly dying at all.

If the current clothes they are wearing SHOULD contribute to their actual in-game defense, it would flat out break the game. Gods like Ymir and Ares would have hundreds of protections before the game even started. Gods like Neith would have none.

maybe they are getting resurrected

I wouldn't really count that as death, as they're guaranteed resurrection. Death is more final, really. It could be any number of things:
- These are spiritual forms. The physical Deity is elsewhere, so they can simply reform themselves. They expend power to do so, which is why the delay increases as they weaken. After each match they re-coup their losses and regenerate
- They're reincarnating continually as themselves
- They cannot truly be killed
- They haven't actually been killed on the battlefield - but can be killed
- They're resurrecting either from death or other means
- The Deities themselves *CAN* die, but the battlefield itself is resurrecting them eternally
- The Deities in this game are flat out immortal and impervious to death itself. [In some pantheons used this is true, others it isn't, most pantheons have this to a limited extent.]

But ultimately it could be any, a multiple or none of those theories. Unless Hi-rez comes out and flat-out states why the deities can appear to die yet continually come back, even when they lose a game or die 20+ times, we'll never know. The fact that they do come back however, is the main point. It means death isn't an issue for these Deities, beyond a minor time penalty.

Devampi, please ****ing ignore him.