Asmongold has once again sparked a major discussion within the gaming community. This time, the popular streamer has offered developers a rather unusual way to determine whether a female video game character has a good design: ask whether an OnlyFans creator would cosplay her.
The comment quickly spread across gaming communities and social media. While some players understood the broader point Asmongold was trying to make, others argued that reducing character design to attractiveness and cosplay potential ignores what actually makes a memorable video game character.
Asmongold Has a Simple Test for Developers
During a livestream, Asmongold discussed the appearance of female characters in modern video games and argued that developers are sometimes moving away from designs that players actually find appealing.
His proposed solution was extremely straightforward.
According to Asmongold, developers considering a female character should ask themselves whether women who have OnlyFans accounts would want to cosplay that character. If the answer is no, his advice is essentially to scrap the design.
It is certainly not the traditional approach taught in character-design classes.
However, there is a broader argument hiding underneath the provocative wording.
Asmongold believes characters should be visually appealing enough that players actually want to embody them, cosplay them and become attached to them.
Stellar Blade Is an Obvious Example
Games such as Stellar Blade have repeatedly appeared in discussions surrounding attractive video game characters.
Eve, the protagonist of Stellar Blade, became extremely recognizable before and after the game’s release. Fan art, cosplay and social media posts helped push the character well beyond the boundaries of the game itself.
NieR: Automata provides another obvious example.
2B has become one of the most recognizable female gaming characters of the modern era. Years after the game’s original release, cosplay, artwork, merchandise and collaborations featuring the character remain widespread.
From Asmongold’s perspective, that level of interest demonstrates something important: people actively want to associate themselves with these characters.
But Does Cosplay Really Equal Good Character Design?
That is where the discussion becomes considerably more complicated.
A character being attractive or popular among cosplayers does not automatically make that character well written. Likewise, a character does not necessarily need to be conventionally attractive to become memorable.
Gaming history is filled with beloved characters that became popular because of their personality, story, voice acting or role within a game rather than their appearance.
There is also an enormous difference between designing a character that fits naturally into a game’s world and deliberately creating someone primarily to generate attention online.
However, Asmongold’s argument does highlight something developers cannot completely ignore: character appeal matters.
Players spend dozens or sometimes hundreds of hours looking at protagonists and companions. A distinctive character can become the face of an entire franchise.
The OnlyFans Comment Made the Argument Explode
Asmongold could simply have said that developers should create characters people want to cosplay.
Instead, bringing OnlyFans creators into the argument immediately turned the statement into something far more controversial.
The reaction online reflected that.
Some users agreed with the basic idea that attractive and recognizable characters are easier to market. Others mocked the suggestion and argued that video games should not design every female character around sex appeal.
That disagreement also reflects a much larger debate that gaming has been dealing with for years.
Should developers prioritize realism? Should characters be idealized? Should attractiveness matter? Or should visual design simply serve the story and setting?
There is unlikely to ever be one answer.
Attractive Characters Clearly Have Marketing Power
Regardless of where players stand on Asmongold’s statement, there is little doubt that highly recognizable character designs can become powerful marketing tools.
Cosplay is part of that ecosystem.
When thousands of people recreate a character’s outfit, post photographs, create fan art and share videos across social media, they are effectively generating additional exposure for the game.
That does not require OnlyFans.
Professional cosplayers, convention attendees, Twitch streamers, TikTok creators and ordinary fans have been doing exactly that for decades.
The difference today is the enormous reach creators can have across several platforms simultaneously.
A successful character is no longer limited to appearing inside a game. That character can become a social media phenomenon.
Character Design Is More Than Sex Appeal
The danger would be assuming that sex appeal alone guarantees success.
It doesn’t.
Players still need a reason to care about the character and, more importantly, the game surrounding them.
An attractive protagonist cannot rescue poor gameplay, broken mechanics or a weak story by themselves. Likewise, some of gaming’s greatest characters became iconic without being designed primarily around sexual appeal.
That makes Asmongold’s proposed test entertaining, provocative and perhaps useful as an extremely rough measurement of visual appeal — but certainly not something developers should treat as a universal rule.
Still, he has successfully reopened an argument that isn’t disappearing anytime soon.
How important should attractiveness actually be when developers design female video game characters?
And perhaps more importantly, if nobody wants to cosplay your character, does that really mean the design failed?
