Boo to changes to body types in video game

<em>Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky</em> <p>Just came across <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2009/04/66201871/1" target="_blank">this story</a> on new looks for players on the Madden video game for Nintendo's Wii.</p> <p>Take a look at the pictures and consider the position-by-position descriptions of body types.</p> <p>Example:</p> <blockquote> <p>Quarterback - his wide shoulders and small waist emphasize the "heroic leader" look.</p> </blockquote> <p>Maybe this is a stretch, but I was automatically struck by the picture of Madden's <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=1428" target="_new">Peyton Manning</a> under those guidelines. With wide shoulders and a small waist, he doesn't look like the Peyton Manning I know.</p> <p>Yes, it's a video game and this amounts to a caricature.</p> <p>But we live in a day and age when unrealistic body types have been broken down and assessed. I don't know if they wound up changing Barbie's proportions, but I remember it was discussed and if they weren't altered, they should have been.</p> <p>I'm no video gamer, but I know things like Madden have gotten life-like to an almost hard-to-believe degree.</p> <p>So why take a turn toward cartoonish now?</p> <p>Enough kids play enough Madden that I think it will get into their heads that if they want to be the next Peyton Manning, they need to look like that.</p> <p>And since no animator or weight room is going to make them look like that, aren't these people helping steer these wanna-be quarterbacks to methods none of us want in the picture?</p>

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