The role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the highest-rated games of all time. However, for some, the excitement takes on strange forms.
Which character is it about? The sword fighter Maelle is one of the characters in the current role-playing hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Scrolling through social media, one finds numerous fan arts or cosplays of her and other characters – but this sometimes takes on strange forms.
“Stay normal. Don’t be creepy.”
What is the problem? Maelle is only 16 years old in the game, making her significantly younger than the other expedition members. But only players who have checked the official website or done the math know this.
Although Maelle’s age is directly mentioned in the game, some users seem to have missed that. Elsewhere, a character remarks that the young woman has only 9 years left to live. Anyone deriving that Maelle is 24 years old because people in Clair Obscur die at 33 overlooks the fact that the number the painter paints gets lower every year.
A simple thinking error can thus lead to some players unknowingly idolizing a 16-year-old.
This takes on a particularly unpleasant connotation because Maelle is specifically used by some players to highlight the successful character design of the role-playing game and to contrast it with the supposedly unattractive characters of other current productions.
For parts of the gaming community, the appearance of the protagonists is an important selling argument: Asmongold explains on Twitch what a heroine needs to be like for men to buy the game.
A post on X, in which Maelle is compared to Kay Vass, the protagonist from Star Wars Outlaws, was viewed by more than 3.5 million people and hotly debated. Many understand the post to suggest that the smaller studio has created a more attractive heroine and thus a better game.
They mean that a comparison could simply have used one of the other – adult – female characters like Lune. The fact that a minor character was chosen is considered inappropriate.
In another post, a user writes: “Friendly reminder: Maelle is 16. Don’t come at me with the old ‘but she looks mature’ excuse […]. Stay normal. Don’t be creepy.” (via X)
The discussion is part of a larger debate in the gaming industry. Some gamers accuse developers of failing with their games because they focus more on political correctness than on creating a good product: Why did Concord fail so badly on Steam and PS5 and burn Sony $250 million on a woke disaster?
