An Overwhelmingly Attractive Cast of Characters - Constrains the Design of those Characters

At some level it makes a great deal of sense for a game's characters to be attractive. They'll be enjoyable to look at, and one will theoretically enjoy spending time with them. However, when a game focuses on this to such an extent that it becomes a mandate, the artists and designers become constrained in what they can create. If every character must be sexy, or attractive, or at least cute, entire ideas and visual concepts become impossible. Scarred characters, deformed characters, the infirm or the afflicted - these diverse ideas cannot be addressed by the game in any real sense. This is not to say that a physically 'unattractive' character must be completely defined by their appearance, but they can offer new avenues of gameplay, or unique additions to lore. Cutting them out will reduce the scope of the game - and if most of the characters are attractive, it reduces the value of that attractiveness. A character that uses and is defined by their sexiness or attractiveness becomes less interesting in a sea of characters whose attractiveness is tacked on to make the ads look 'better'.

LoL has an unfortunate history of limited character design. When observing the corpus of characters in the game (well over 100), it becomes obvious that the roster is dominated by traditionally attractive men and women, despite the game existing in a reality that allows for animated trees. There are notable exceptions - ugly or deformed characters like the malicious Urgot or the void-born Rek'sai and Cho'gath, but the vast majority follow the rule of either being cute, handsome, or sexy.

This trend is exemplified by the women of LoL. There are no visibly aged female members of the cast. There are no vile bog-hags, no fearsome crow-witches, no emaciated necromancers. Though amidst the men one can find Urgot, Swain, and Karthus. There are no obese women, though amidst the men there is Gragas. Though these male roles still retain some elements of attractiveness, they push much farther than the female champions. And amidst the (human) female champions, a trend of sex appeal quickly emerges, regardless of any adherence to lore or sense - as can be seen in characters such as Leona, Sejuani, and Shyvana. These are characters who, in game, rush the front line and dive headlong into the fray. They are intended to take the brunt of the enemy's damage, to weather the storm and keep the enemy in place so their allies can deal maximum damage. And yet, even though they often carry the appropriate tools for the job, the rest of their body is strangely unprotected, or outfitted in impractical skin-tight wear that would suggest they are more worried about keeping up appearances than facing down gigantic demons and thunder-throwing bears.

Often these depictions directly contradict the character's lore. On Riot Gaming's official website, Sejuani is described thus:

"Sejuani was weaned on hardship and reared on barbarity. Where others succumbed to the harshness of the Freljord, she was tempered by it until pain became power, hunger an encouragement, and frost an ally in culling the weak."

Despite describing her like Genghis Khan, Riot's original design ignored the much more appropriate wargear worn by Mongolian warriors - which lead to a confusing and illogical appearance. Though she clearly values proper equipment, as seen by her giant mace and shield, her body is protected from the blizzard and enemy blows by a fur bikini. And even when Riot updated Sejuani's art and model to something more appropriate, they still dressed her in an illogical form-fitting breastplate. This "cold and unforgiving" warlord is unable to embrace that characterization completely due a pressure to stay attractive - and thus a promising design is stunted.