Back in March 2024, we generated thousands of Rule 34 images of different video game heroines in various situations with different facial expressions. We published theses images on Erorate.com for the users to rank. Our goal was not only determine the hottest character but also understand which actions and expressions scored the highest. This article is the first in a series that will analyze the data from this experiment.
The average Elo score across all characters is 1154, with a standard deviation of 144. Every image uploaded to the site starts with an Elo score of 1200, so it seems like as a whole, the characters are rated very slightly below average. In total, these images won 118 628 duels and lost 131 579 duels, so the rankings are based on over a quarter million comparisons!
Rule 34
In the previous article about human sexuality and the internet I claimed that sexuality is a fundamental part of the human experience, historically central to art, and that it’s natural for people to use new technologies, like AI, to explore and express this aspect of humanity.
Rule 34 is a perfect example of this. It’s a meme that states that “if it exists, there’s porn of it.” Its origins are in the cringe-inducing “Rules of the Internet” list posted on 4chan. Rule 34 is by far the most popular of these rules, with the others being mostly forgotten. Video game characters are a common target for Rule 34, as they’re often designed to be attractive and have a large fanbase. These characters are so popular that even Pornhub includes them in their yearly statistics.
Character Rankings and Observations (from worst to best)
Here’s how to interpret the rankings:
N. Character [Game] - 🏆 Elo Score | σ Standard Deviation
17. Ruby [Fortnite] - 🏆 1028 | σ 136
Ruby might be Fortnite’s rising star, but here, she’s still finding her footing. I’m unsure how frequently she appears in the training set, but most of her images fall into a pseudo-3D uncanny valley, which tends to be less appealing.
16. Chun Li [Street Fighter] - 🏆 1090 | σ 134
Chun Li, the original queen of fighting games, still commands respect with her thunderous thighs and iconic moves. Chun Li was actually the most searched-for video game character on Pornhub in 2023, a fact attributed to her appearance in Fortnite. Her ranking so low here is a bit of a surprise, but then again, her design is quite muscular, and muscular women tend not to score that high on this site. 🤷
15. Alexstrasza [World of Warcraft] - 🏆 1090 | σ 130
Tied with Chun Li, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder is easily the most powerful individual on Azeroth in the World of Warcraft universe. Perhaps she’s not that well known outside of the game, but the images portray her design quite well, so there must be quite a bit of her images in the training set. Like muscular women, demons also don’t do that well on this site. I know she’s not a demon, but a dragon, but the horns and yellow eyes might be enough to trigger the demon detector.
14. Morrigan Aensland [Darkstalkers] - 🏆 1104 | σ 120
Speaking of demons, Morrigan Aensland is a succubus from the Darkstalkers series. She’s a bit of a fan favorite, at least among the boomers who played the game in the 90s. Perhaps she’s not as well known among the younger generation, but she’s still a classic character. Her design is quite revealing, so it’s a bit surprising that she’s not higher up in the rankings.
13. Mercy [Overwatch] - 🏆 1110 | σ 105
Mercy, Overwatch’s angelic healer, floats just above the middle with a serene grace that’s hard to overlook. Her standard deviation is the lowest of all characters, which means that she’s consistently rated around the same level. That might be because most of her images feature her wings, which forces her to be in a similar pose in most images, hence the low standard deviation.
12. Jinx [League of Legends] - 🏆 1128 | σ 113
Jinx, the anarchic darling of League of Legends, is as unpredictable in the rankings as she is on the battlefield. In contrast to Mercy, Jinx’s poses and expressions are all over the place. She’s a bit of a wildcard.
11. Sylvanas Windrunner [World of Warcraft] - 🏆 1129 | σ 108
Sylvanas Windrunner, the Banshee Queen, commands attention with her dark allure and tragic backstory. Unfortunately, the model had a hard time keeping her skin color consistent. Might actually be interesting to look into how much the different shades affected her ranking.
10. Cammy [Street Fighter] - 🏆 1133 | σ 132
Cammy, with her striking blonde braids and military precision, kicks her way into the top ten. She’s a study in contrasts—both fierce and feminine, tough and tantalizing. Compared to Chun Li, Cammy’s design might be a bit more feminine? Or at least her proportions are a bit less exaggerated than Chun Li’s. She’s also blonde, which is a good contrasting color to the rest of her design, which might make the stable diffusion model work better.
9. Widowmaker [Overwatch] - 🏆 1137 | σ 133
Widowmaker, the cold-blooded sniper, is as deadly as she is beautiful. She suffers from the same problem as Sylvanas, with her skin color changing quite a bit between images. Widowmaker seems designed for more sensual appeal than Mercy, which could explain her higher rating. Overall, her images seem quite consistent.
8. D.Va [Overwatch] - 🏆 1144 | σ 127
D.Va, the pro gamer turned mech pilot, continues to impress with her blend of skill and style. Her face responded well to the different expressions, which might mean that there’s more variance of expressions of her in the training set.
7. Ada Wong [Resident Evil] - 🏆 1153 | σ 127
Ada Wong’s mysterious allure and deadly competence make her a standout in any setting. Very consistent generations, thanks to her signature red dress. From what I remember from the games, she’s quite a strong character intent on fulfilling her own goals with little regard to morality. Perhaps that has left a mark on her fans.
6. Samus Aran [Metroid] - 🏆 1169 | σ 141
Samus Aran, the legendary bounty hunter, is hugely popular. Although I haven’t played the Metroid games, I’m well aware of her reputation. All of her images feature her in the zero suit, which is a bit of a surprise since the power suit is the iconic look for her. Perhaps the zero suit makes more sense for sex. I also find it funny that most of her images also feature some Metroids, the gooey alien parasites that are the namesake of the series. Apparently, they don’t affect her ranking that much.
5. Lara Croft [Tomb Raider] - 🏆 1183 | σ 125
Lara Croft, the trailblazing adventurer, secures her spot in the top five with ease. I guess she’s the original video game sex symbol, so it’s no surprise that she’s rated so high. Most of her images seem to feature her in consistent 2D style, which I’m unfamiliar with. I was expecting either more of the classic look or something from the CGI-ish 3D of the new games.
4. Aerith Gainsborough [Final Fantasy VII] - 🏆 1191 | σ 131
Aerith Gainsborough, with her pure heart and gentle spirit, rises to near the top with grace. I guess we can finally put the “Aerith vs. Tifa” debate to rest, right? She responded well to the different expressions, which makes sense since she’s depicted with quite a range of emotions in the game. Those expressions might have made their way to the training set.
3. Ahri [League of Legends] - 🏆 1206 | σ 111
Ahri, the enchanting nine-tailed fox, captivates with her mystical allure and seductive grace. As the first to surpass the starting Elo score, Ahri’s consistent charm makes her a standout in the rankings. She has a strong design and good performance in this test, which is why I’ve been generating a lot of images of her for the site lately.
2. 2B [NieR: Automata] - 🏆 1296 | σ 132
2B’s sleek, futuristic design and enigmatic presence nearly take her to the top. Her high ranking reflects the strong impact she’s had on fans, who are drawn to her blend of strength, elegance, and mystery.
Her images have done well on Reddit, which might have pulled more of her fans to the site. There’s something in that blindfold and black dress that just works. Even the images without the blindfold (or even with a blindfold with eyeholes) seem to do well.
1. Tifa Lockhart [Final Fantasy VII] - 🏆 1322 | σ 131
Tifa Lockhart reigns supreme, balancing strength and compassion with unmatched grace. Quite literally a kick ass woman and a long standing fan favorite. Tifa is going through a sort of a revival since the Final Fantasy 7 remake. I guess one could even say that she has appealed to multiple generations by now. And I guess it’s not only just her visual design, but there’s also quite a lot of depth to her character that fans can get attached to.
Closing words
I guess I should mention the biases. Generative AI will always have some bias in them. For example, I can bet there’s way more images of Tifa in the dataset, in both the general data that SDXL was trained on and the dataset that PonyXL uses, than there are of Ruby. In theory, the more varied the images of the subject is in the dataset, the better the output of the model for the subject is going to be.
Then there’s also the bias of the people ranking the images on this site. I’ve posted some images from the set to Reddit and Twitter and the top characters seem to perform much better there. This though creates a bit of a loop, since people who like 2B, might see the image, come to the site and vote for 2B. Then again, fans of a character are much more likely to spot issues in the generated images, so they might be more likely to vote against them.
If you disagree with there ratings or they don’t match your personal taste, I’d recommend you go and rate some images on the front page. That will add your own unique taste into the mix. If you think that a character is missing from the list, you can reach out to me and I can include them in the next batch of images.
If you’re interested in the data for doing your own analysis feel to contact me. I can provide you with the raw data along with the images and the scores.
This article is the first in a series that will analyze the data from this experiment. In the next article, we’ll look at the different actions and expressions that scored the highest.
Stay tuned!