Fans have asked for a werewolf Warframe for ages. Now they’re getting their wish — and possibly more than one wish at that. The new “monster” frame was announced at TennoCon 2022, developer Digital Extremes’ annual fan convention, and is designed by artist Joe Madureira. Whom you may know from his comics, the Darksiders series, or the more recent League of Legends spinoff RPG Ruined King. You can definitely see his signature style on display in the werewolf Warframe concept art, as well. This lady is large.
Warframe is no stranger to the archetype. The tank shield tank known as Hildryn already fits into a familiar mold of big-but-specifically-muscular ladies, like Zarya from Overwatch. Though the “monster girl” design is one or two degrees deeper into the fringes of internet art. Basically: people really, really want to have sex with something alien that could tear out their throat.
It makes sense in a couple of ways. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water helped bring the physical allure of something that exists outside human power dynamics — misogyny, politics, money, sex, transphobia, etc. — into the mainstream. At the very least, it brought the conversation into the mainstream.
The next logical step is a monster that isn’t a sensitive fish-man who just wants what’s best for us. The next logical step is a monster that sidesteps our human understanding to take control instead. Thus it can dominate the fantasizer freely and without pretense (and without the danger or baggage that comes with being so totally controlled by our very real, fellow humans).
Which brings us to the big titty werewolf Warframe. The game’s death machines have always been alien: chitinous and wet without faces. In some ways this likely limits its appeal to a mainstream audience. While Genshin Impact and Fate/Grand Order sell anime girls, both literally in-game and as a marketing tool, prospective players might have a tough time even understanding what they’re looking at in Warframe.
Intentional or not, one solution to this problem is appealing to the more… specific perverts out there. Those who exist, like the monsters of fantasy, not exactly outside of human desires (there is no fiction that exists outside of the people that make it) yet with a veneer of remove from it.
It’s certainly a less saturated market. New perversions always outpace the market’s ability to supply them. Not to mention the desire of the fundamentalists who largely guide that market from behind the curtain, pressuring pornography and sex work to cease in spite of profitable logic. But this is at least one sign that it’s slowly catching up.
Anyway… The big wolf lady looks hot and I can’t wait to play as her. Warframe players have been asking for a werewolf ‘frame for a good long while. Though not specifically a sexy lady one. The developer then subtly teased it here and there but only confirmed its existence this weekend at TennoCon 2o22.
This seems to be a weirdly common demand among gamers. The Sims 4 fans also requested werewolves for a good, long while until they finally got it in the form of a new expansion pack. Maybe there’s another (less obviously sexual) fantasy at play here. One about being able to tear off the rules and restrictions of society and just go full animal. We’re just getting two great tastes that taste great together!
We know very little else about the Warframe for now. Even the name “werewolf Warframe” is mostly a community term. Digital Extremes’ Rebb Ford called it more of a generalist “monster frame,” so the developer could put its own twist on the design. The creature is likely quite a ways away, too. Warframes shown in the concept art phase aren’t usually the next to be released. A lot might change between now and launch!
In the meantime, though, we can at least enjoy the very interesting sketch.
