BioShock Infinite not about breasts

The title says it all.  Ken Levine, Irrational Games guru, says that BioShock Infinite is not all about breasts.  What!?  Shocking, I know.  Not only is this newest BioShock title not focused on the character Elizabeth’s boobs, but he is ‘disappointed’ at the media’s coverage (or lack thereof) on her chest. 

This outrage occurred in an interview with Xbox 360 Magazine.  As we’ve previous covered, BioShock is about clashing philosophical ideologies and NOT the female anatomy.  I’m as shocked as you are.  In a nut shell, Levine is annoyed at all the attention Elizabeth’s breasts are receiving instead of other aspects of the game – or even other parts of Elizabeth.

Let’s face it, Elizabeth is NOT the most hideous character you’ve ever seen in a video game.  From what we’ve seen about her she’s intelligent, motivated, compassionate, and yes – a looker.  Levine says:

“It's disappointing when [Elizabeth's appearance] becomes a focus for conversation because that was never my intent and it's sort of a disincentive – I'd much rather talk about what she's going through as a person, but whatever, they have the right to shout out whatever they want."

Did Irrational Games create Elizabeth with the intention of her being attractive?  Of course they did.  Levine even mentions that characters are often more attractive than the average person.  On the same topic, he mentions that Booker (the male main protagonist) is also not too shabby looking either.  All is fair right?

"In terms of her body type, I think certainly people on the Internet have spent way more time thinking about Elizabeth's chest than I have. It's something I've barely thought about.”  Oh those internets.  "You know I think there's two questions there, one is 'does she need to be pretty?' and another is 'does she need to be voluptuous?' or whatever."  So whether the characters are male or female, people generally would rather play as attractive looking characters.  BioShock has never been about sex appeal, I doubt Infinite is going to start that trend.

From what Levine has said in previous interviews and from the Behind Booker and Elizabeth videos, the face of Elizabeth has always been his focus – specifically her eyes.  If you haven’t seen these video’s yet, click that link and check them out.  On Elizabeth’s eyes, Levine has stated:

To me, the most important thing with Elizabeth was just honestly her eyes because, you know, they're somewhat exaggerated and the reason for that is because there's so much expression you can do there, with her eyes, and you see her often at a great distance.

I've spent way more time thinking about her eyes than her chest because eyes show a ton of expression, and you see her at a great distance. AI characters get very, very small, very, very quickly so you need to be able to recognise her silhouette, the shape of her body. Her colour scheme's actually very simple, you know, the sort of two tone colour look – that's all to do with this sort of exaggeration.

So in conclusion, raise those eyes media attackers and at least look Elizabeth in the eyes before assaulting Irrational Games.  Does this article and even feature image help ignite this breast oppression even further… sadly yes.  Hopefully reading this will debunk future attention though towards the non-focused feature of Elizabeth.  It’s bad enough she has Songbird after her.