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Tomb Raider represented a new style of gaming, and helped cement the 3-D revolution in home consoles. Consumers needed a mental anchor to connect us to this new form of gaming. Instead, we got two.

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I am not suprised that lara's "chesticles" has become something that perks gamers interests. I read somewhere her bust size was made by accident. The modeller was fiddling with her proportions and made them 150% bigger -done by mobile

Angelina Jolie has fantastic breast. Just had to throw that in there.... great job casting her for Tomb Raider.

Spanner:
A "meme" is an idea, thought or feeling that mutates and evolves as it passes between individuals and groups.

Indeed so. Which makes me wonder why you think Lara Croft's breasts qualify. Insofar as they are a mental construct at all they are an example of one which does not evolve. There is a canonical version of the breasts in question as originally drawn by Toby Gard. This canonical version is changed slightly by Eidos from time to time but not by the millions who view Lara-related material on their consoles and the internet. Furthermore individuals' mental versions of Lara Croft almost never transmit to other individuals. Instead, most people encounter Ms Croft in the form of material published by Eidos or via the gaming press.

Apologies - I'm in danger of raising the tone here. Here's another point though: on those occasions during Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider II (the only versions I played) when I did look at the title character I almost invariably had an unobstructed view of her bum but there were no breasts visible. Why are her breasts considered to have special relevance?

Congrats on getting the Escapist to feature an article about boobs, though!

Wow...I think "baby feeders" might have potential as a meme.

the first two paragraphs were good
after that I...just..can't..remember...

Dom Camus:
Which makes me wonder why you think Lara Croft's breasts qualify. Insofar as they are a mental construct at all they are an example of one which does not evolve.

I see what you're saying here, but it's not so much her boobs themselves but their juxtaposition in how our simple perception of games has shaped the industry. I think this line in the article best explains what I'm on about:
"Lady Croft's baby feeders demonstrate the way in which a trivial matter becomes a genuine fact of far-reaching importance."
It's my opinion that when Tathagata Buddha said, "With our thoughts, we make the world" all those centuries ago, he was talking about Lara's rack.

Dom Camus:
Congrats on getting the Escapist to feature an article about boobs, though!

You've got me there :-) It was kind of an excuse to bang on about norks, and see if The Escapist would actually publish it! Rumbled! :-D
Hopefully it'll pay off for Fletcher and the Escapists, though. The editor at EgoGamer.net, where the article about the Mammo-Ware physics engine came from told me their statistics software reports on where their hits came from. He says it's genuinely unbelievable how many people have done a search on Google for "game boobs", or some variation on that theme, and wound up at Ego Gamer.
What I find particularly funny about that is wondering what people actually expected to find? What niche content is it that they're looking for? Unless there's a porn site out there that actually features 3D rendered CGI boobs or summat (please don't send me any links - the wife is suspicious enough that I spend so much time on the computer).

Well as I see it visuals and themes are the focus of modern gaming be it setting or scantly clad ...models...

In any case gaming has went from a medium that focused on gameplay almost as much as selling a product to mainly selling a product by watering it down to rushing it and cleaning up the mess after release......

Egogamer.com is a fake gaming news satire site, like The Onion. So that linked article is not true. Don't know if you knew that or not, but the article makes it sound like you thought it was real.

Seriously, this is one of the worst features I have ever read on the Escapist. The entire article is incoherant and never really makes a point. It just comes off as the bemused ramblings of someone who just started talking about whatever came to mind.

A very well written and thought provoking essay, though I have to say I'm sad that it was all just a set up for a horrible joke... ;)

- Capt'K

"But this believable joke is just another node in the memetic pathways created by Lara's first appearance, and the importance of her boobs not only to the enjoyment and recognition of the Tomb Raider games"

- He got it was a joke...

While I welcome a discussion of Ms. Croft's endowment, I must disagree.

http://noblebearaw.livejournal.com/8096.html

"Mobile phones compress entire conversations into 160ish characters, encrypting the English language into a highly efficient phonetic syllabary. It's as though information has been decimalized"

Sounds like a description of Newspeak.

*Newbie who joined for the sole purpose of commenting on this article*

As I agree, her chest size and the the fact she's a sex symbol did some things for the gaming industry, however I hate to hear it. I've always really thought that the game series was one of the pioneers in 3d gaming and seemingly open, endless worlds to explore. Of course, the older Tomb Raider games seem narrow compared to the newer ones, but back then it was way more open then Mario

When I was a little, impressionable, ten year old girl I was into the action and adventure TV shows and games that all the boys played. I wasn't a Tom Boy, I took ballet, I still liked to wear dresses, and I didn't join any sports.

Tomb Raider sealed my gaming fate because the lead character was this strong figure of a woman, who was adventuring without any help, all alone in a dark, scary tomb, saving the world from ancient curses and monsters. I snickered at her boobs. I mean how many animals in the animal kingdom have boobs 24/7, every day of the year when they become an adult. It's a freakish mutation of nature that pleases men and any woman that swings that way.

Tomb Raider Legend however got on my bad side, because she became as strong as a pink powder puff and had two guys chatting her up in her ear, helping her along. I'm still puzzled how a nine-year-old girl survives the Himalayas all by herself (the original story had her aged at 21). It's impossible in reality for any girl at that age to survive those conditions, but since this is just a fun story, you'd think at least she'd be screwed up in the head from the experience. I'm probably the only TR fan at the moment who doesn't like the direction the game is going. For the new game, they appear to have tried to make her a bit stronger, but it seems like Crystal Dynamics is really afraid of the fate of the a game and are trying to attract their fans with her sex appeal. With that wetsuit that has her ass hanging out (I thought wetsuits typically had legs, but what do I know, I've never gone scuba diving) and camera angled screen shots looking down her shirt. I feel as though she's been dumbed down a great deal now. Crystal can't seem to attract the number of fans Eidos wants

Before I make my final decision, I'll play the demo for the next Tomb Raider, but I have this feeling I won't be buying the new one.

I mean, come on guys. A woman may be drop dead gorgeous, but if she's boring I doubt you'd stay with her no matter how large her chest is.

I've never played a Tomb Raider game and don't plan on it. The idea of an entire game series that revolves around a Barbie Doll doesn't interest me. That said, I still can't figure out who the joke is on with this article... the readers or The Escapist?

;-)

I have to be honest, I saw the picture and went to the article because of it. The article itself was amusing; not so much by what it said, but moreover the fact it took so long to say it; and the only downside I could see was that the BreastTech engine was a prank. It would be so much funnier if it actually existed, the Leasure Suit Larry developers would snap it up in a second. (If they could afford it and had a publisher.)

And Tomb Raider kicks ass. Big tit's and infinite ammo, what's not to like.

Echolocating:
I've never played a Tomb Raider game and don't plan on it. The idea of an entire game series that revolves around a Barbie Doll doesn't interest me.

That's why I don't play GTA. It's like that city rug little boys have on the floor of their rooms that they roll their cars and action figures across. Boring crap if you as me.

PirateRose:

I mean, come on guys. A woman may be drop dead gorgeous, but if she's boring I doubt you'd stay with her no matter how large her chest is.

WRONG!!

;-P I'm kidding...

Sex appeal selling games is really obvious (I mean why else would they make DOA Beach Volleyball?) but it frustrates me because it kind of ruins the game in the sense that the rest of it gets ignored. What I mean is, Underworld might in fact be a really excellent game, but people will ignore that fact and say 'you only play it because she has big boobs'. A current example is that exact situation, mates give me shit because I kick their asses at DOA4 with Kasumi.

An article soley on Lara's juicy breast. Only on the Escapist right?

wrong.

juicy breastS. Both of them.

This article was the most High-Brow discussion of boobies ever known.

My goodness, that's quite a lot of euphemisms for breasts.

Boobs, upper body, bosom, heaving cleavage, buxom, shirt baggage, cup size, statuesque polygons, chesticles, baby feeders, jubblies, and knockers.

Mystyrys:
My goodness, that's quite a lot of euphemisms for breasts.

Boobs, upper body, bosom, heaving cleavage, buxom, shirt baggage, cup size, statuesque polygons, chesticles, baby feeders, jubblies, and knockers.

And you don't get much help from a thesaurus when it comes to articles like this, either. I had to resort to Hustler, Parade and every other website on the internet to get my diction pumping on this one. The Escapist encourages such dedication from its writers, though.

Graffiti Writer:
...and every other website on the internet to get my diction pumping on this one.

*Sniggers*
When talking about Lara's safty bags, we don't need to hear about your 'research' for it.

I do not agree, Laura might be a "meme" but she is one of the less desirable ones... by that I mean that we do not want her around! she is attracting more 14 year old boys with holes in they're pockets. I do not think gaming needs any more immature kids jacking off to the pictures of a hot female character design to sell a bad game through cheap sex appeal. Seriously, i know it's a good marketing technique but it's giving games a bad rap. If people want games to develop as an art form, we need to stop with the cheap sex appeal. If a game is going to go into the dangerous territory of sex, then you need to have emotional connotation essential to the story. Like if the two main characters of a story have sex, because they genuinely care for one another, that makes a great opportunity for characterization. We don't need more Grand Theft Auto style "sex the hooker then shoot her" crap that games seem to be known for. Or the Soul Caliber style "cleavage you could hide your car in" female characters. If a main female character has big cleavage, that fine as long as it is something that effects the story, say maybe making another female character with normal sized tits jealous leading to some interesting confrontations and character and story development, or something a little more mature that drives the characters emotions. That's fine! But characters like Laura Croft and Ivy, who have large chests just for the sake of sex appeal or to sell a bad game is just sickening.

Am I the only person who thinks that only "outsiders" feel that Laura Croft has any actual relevance to the history of videogames? (Sorry Spanner, I don't mean to call you an outsider but it seems like I see her referenced more in coffee table books and on network news then by gamers.)

Tomb Raider was a mediocre title that sold well however later iterations of the title did not. Even now it is a dying franchise that seems to have delluded itself into thinking that it holds any relevence in the cannon of classic titles.

Aesthetically, the design concept for Croft is bland and uncreative. A woman in cargo hot pants and a tank top... woo.. apparently Laura Dern in Jurassic Park was ahead of the curve.

Yeah, Lara's design was not very creative, except for the fact she's one of the first female protagonists in games. This led to a division among gamers. People who played the game and people who didn't play it because of what they think the reason was for those that did to do so (and a load of people in between, but most of us have been in one camp or the other at some point).

Whether you want to call it a meme or not, anyone will have to admit that Lara's boobs have been a topic of discussion. The twenty some posts above are proof of that, surely. This is of itself a mystery, why should something like that be a topic for discussion at all? Yet it was. The writer must've wanted to figure out why.

BallPtPenTheif:
Lara was a worthy subject ten years ago, most of us have moved on since. Apart from being one of the first female protagonists she's also the origin for many of the sexualization of video games, or rather the discussion about whether games are becoming too sexual in content. A lot of people like to tout that the game itself also did something for gaming, but it really pales in that aspect next to something like Mario 64.

Mystyrys:
My goodness, that's quite a lot of euphemisms for breasts.

Boobs, upper body, bosom, heaving cleavage, buxom, shirt baggage, cup size, statuesque polygons, chesticles, baby feeders, jubblies, and knockers.

And that's a problem for me.

Either this article is a very long setup for a pretty weak joke, or it's an attempt to 'lighten up' the discussion about how specific kinds of information impacts or relates to the spread of gaming culture, or the sexualization of it (or how one impacted the other).

If it's the former, then the payoff isn't worth it. If it's the latter, then the language used is pretty disrespectful, and doesn't do much to forward the author's point. If I used those euphemisms with that kind of frequency, no woman I know would take me seriously.

Actually, Chesticles are Man-boobs. BREASTicles are girl-boobs.

Anyway I really don't think anyone in the entire world would buy a game just for some fully-clothed, pixellated, simulated boobs. In case you forgot the internet ABOUNDS with pornography of all types and you can usually find it for free. The thought that anyone would play a game just because there's breasts in it is kind of ridiculous to me. It really only serves as a topic for debate because it's possible that somewhere in the world, someone bought Tomb Raider for the jubblies. I doubt it though.

jeez... people look waaaaaay too far into some things... make them stand for more than they really do...

uppitycracker:
jeez... people look waaaaaay too far into some things... make them stand for more than they really do...

Yes, but if I read correctly the author specified how these things come by accident. Tomb Raider? Lara's boobs. fallout? Metal helmet thingamagig. Halo? The chief's ridiculous uniform. etc

I am a little confused, was the article about the evolution of thought and Mammo-Ware physics being a being a rumor turned fact in peoples minds? I am a huge fan of the ecology of thought and love fads in thinking but I had a hard time telling if that's what this was about. Sorry.

I bought Tomb Raider as a pre-teen strictly because of the box art. Because of this decision I am now a huge fan of Action/Adventure Platforming (before that I played FPSs almost exclusively or side scrollers with the generation prior). I think her breast (as well as waist and bum) were not only what made me stick to the game through the hard parts but made me love the genre and in addition purchase EVERY subsequent title in the series. I am thankful for her breast and just wish they were around to make me try more new things. Lol.

Mammo-Ware physics is a great idea and if it's not real then I hope it becomes real soon. The more realistic the better.