Holy cow, that is bad. The multiplayer mode is "extremely limited," at least in comparison to what he "read" about Black Ops 2. Wow.
Also several comments about the "gratuitous cussing" and how Claptrap is so "profane." This guy's head would explode if he actually tried playing COD and Medal of Honor instead of just reading about how many teams they have in multiplayer.
[quote name='leveskikesko']I honestly would've bought Bayonetta new, if the game had a much less obnoxiously designed main character.[/QUOTE]
A feminist acquaintance of mine loved Bayonetta. I did, too-- so much so that I imported the soundtrack and have the English version of the artbook on preorder.
Bayonetta is a perfect counterpart to one of the creator's previous characters (Dante from Devil May Cry), plus the game itself is oozing with fun and Sega love. On top of that, it's impossible for Bayonetta to be anything other than female (thanks to her actions, style, and personality), which can't be said for so many other women heroes in games. That in itself is really cool.
[quote name='leveskikesko']The average "hardcore" gamer is probably an adult male in his early 30s, not a teenage boy, so why shouldn't the industry reflect this?[/quote]
It does. This is why games feature a lot of military (all eras) themes, vehicle themes, complex interfaces where you can get under the hood and tinker and see how things work. This is why there is a lot of killing and mayhem. That games are marketed mostly to men does not only mean they are filled with sex appeal, but also a lot of other themes men like, like violence, political intrigue, and sometimes spreadsheets filled with numbers and statistics. Last I checked, Forza did not have any people in it so there are no women to dehumanize. Yet the demographic for that type of game is still massively disproportionately male. Is there something wrong with saying this? Is there something wrong with saying that these types of games should refrain from trying to appeal to women because it would fundamentally change what actually makes them attractive to the men who play them?
Speaking as an adult "harcore" male gamer, I don't enjoy or support games that dehumanize women.
With such hyperbole displayed here, I wonder what kind of vocabulary is left to use for when the actual dehumanizing starts.
Even if you have no concern for the self-esteem of women, the male gaze placed in so many games is patronizing and distracting to the straight and bisexual men who care mostly about gameplay.
You don't care mostly about gameplay. You paid a premium for Mirror's Edge, a first-person platformer (quite a shitty combination) because you're an activist first and a gamer second. And how can you call yourself a Cheap Ass Gamer when you pay a premium for any reason? I got that game for free when EA screwed up their Origin sale.
It's also just embarrassing to play certain games around your partner, wife, sister, female friend, mother, or other women.
This says more about your self-esteem than theirs. But then again, didn't you say you choose not to play those games? How could they embarrass you? Are you still playing Mortal Kombat 9 in front of, gasp, your mother, even though it contradicts your principles? Also, if you truly care about the gameplay, then some tits shouldn't bother you in a game that is otherwise fun to play.
[quote name='blueshinra']Bayonetta is a perfect counterpart to one of the creator's previous characters (Dante from Devil May Cry), plus the game itself is oozing with fun and Sega love. On top of that, it's impossible for Bayonetta to be anything other than female (thanks to her actions, style, and personality), which can't be said for so many other women heroes in games. That in itself is really cool.[/QUOTE]
It's not her feminine and posh style that I take issue with, but rather that everything else about her was designed completely with the male gaze in mind, to a degree that even exceeded a character like Lara Croft. If the game's team allowed for us to witness her own first-person gaze towards a certain male character and allowed that certain male character to reciprocate a decent amount of fanservice, I might have found the game much less exploitative.
[quote name='Spokker'] Is there something wrong with saying this? Is there something wrong with saying that these types of games should refrain from trying to appeal to women because it would fundamentally change what actually makes them attractive to the men who play them?[/QUOTE]
There's nothing wrong with games that happen to appeal more to a certain gender. However, I see no harm in making traditionally female games more attractive to men and traditionally male titles more attractive to women. Gears of War's inclusion of war-torn female characters and Style Savvy's inclusion of fashionable male characters did not worsen the overall direction of those series. All of this paranoia is unwarranted.
[quote name='Spokker']You don't care mostly about gameplay. You paid a premium for Mirror's Edge, a first-person platformer (quite a shitty combination) because you're an activist first and a gamer second.[/QUOTE]
I'm willing to admit that I found Half-Life 2's gameplay so incredibly boring that I would never recommend it to anyone, despite the positive female character in Alyx Vance. Would this opinion qualify me for the coveted gamer first, activist second title?
It's possible to value good gameplay and respect for women
[quote name='Spokker']And how can you call yourself a Cheap Ass Gamer when you pay a premium for any reason? I got that game for free when EA screwed up their Origin sale. [/QUOTE]
Sometimes I'm not a cheapassgamer, especially when a game's demo impresses me as much as Mirror's Edge's demo. I'm sorry?
[quote name='Spokker']This says more about your self-esteem than theirs. But then again, didn't you say you choose not to play those games? How could they embarrass you? Are you still playing Mortal Kombat 9 in front of, gasp, your mother, even though it contradicts your principles? [/QUOTE]
It did say something about my self-esteem during those moments: that I was concerned about gaming being seen as a lesser form of entertainment deserving of scorn by the rest of society. As for how these situations happened in the first place, I was once much more apathetic about social issues in gaming, particularly in my teen years. Given your confused response, it seems necessary for me to note that there were several times when a girlfriend, female friend or female family member would verbally make it known that they were uncomfortable with me playing certain fighting and open world games that had objectified female characters around them, whereas game series like Burnout, F-Zero and Virtua Fighter never bothered them.
[quote name='Spokker']Also, if you truly care about the gameplay, then some tits shouldn't bother you in a game that is otherwise fun to play.[/QUOTE]
Again, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy a game if it only had socially progressive values going for it, but does that indicate that I don't care about social progress? No, it means that I care about both social issues and gameplay. When I overhear some gamers dismiss game series like DOA and Bayonetta as little more than goofy soft porn titles, it suggests to me that the fanservice is distracting from the gameplay. That said, I'm not so rigid that I would blacklist every mainstream "hardcore" game series riddled with the sexist cliches; I still manage to enjoy the Mass Effect series for the many things it got right.
Bayonetta is an obvious parody of everything you hate, you . Go support it. Or just continue to praise the horribly written female Gears characters because they're "war torn!" Jesus.
[quote name='panzerfaust']Bayonetta is an obvious parody of everything you hate, you . Go support it. Or just continue to praise the horribly written female Gears characters because they're "war torn!" Jesus.
Anyway, derail-- I mean, back to the original topic. I remembered that I used to post bad articles concerning Final Fantasy VII on my old blog (for example, every FFVII-related piece by Ben Dutka, like this one, where he thinks an ad for the Square Enix-centric mook Cloud, vol. 2 is a hint at a new Compilation of FFVII game).
. Go support it. Or just continue to praise the horribly written female Gears characters because they're "war torn!" Jesus.
