Feminism Thread

[Helm]

Sadly, people seem to have no problem paying her to do so. Ughhh.

[Rhinox]

http://kotaku.com/5991145/shes-sexy-...ium=Socialflow



oh hey another article from a male in touch with his feminine side.


this time its target is Kratos.

[GoggleHead]

All I saw was a link to Kotaku. After that my brain shut down as a safety precaution.

[Rhinox]

I'll keep you posted

[Byrthnoth]

I think he was trying to come down on the opposite side of the issue, but still selectively focused on things that didn't really make sense so that he wouldn't disagree too much with the other editorial people. He definitely spends the first half of the article pointing out how GoW's decision to include female enemies isn't sexist, but then he throws some shit in at the end to keep the peace. Like, he makes a big deal at the end about how you stab the final boss "in the breast."

Spoiler: show

If you watch the video that he apparently took, you'll notice that he splits her head in two and drags his (sword?) down, cutting a jagged path through her chest and to her heart. If I had the upper body strength to do that and was an angry demigod bent on destroying shit, that's how I would kill everything possible regardless of gender.

He's basically complaining that having to kill women(-monsters) while playing a video game makes him uncomfortable. His reason for feeling uncomfortable is that he is forced by the game to attack their breasts because unfortunately the breasts are on the chest and the chest is at sword level. I think that the Japanese will probably find a way around this problem eventually. Leg-breast monsters. Heard it here first.


That said, he makes a valid point that there isn't enough crotch kicking and slashing in violent videogames. If I was an angry god demolishing everything in my way, I would certainly sneak some cheap shots in. Slashing some dude across the dick should be damned near a 1-hit KO on anything if you can get the swing to land well. Downside is that legs deflect the blow and you're left open from above, I guess. Battle systems aren't really there yet, but maybe we'll get there at some point.

[Correction]

Rhinox tell me your name is Guillermo Pulido.

[Rhinox]

si

although she didn't take the bait. she took the compliment in stride.

[Callisto]

Stealing my moves

[hey]

Right. My point isn't that one is better than the other. It's clear that there are crowds that enjoy both types of games. My point is that if someone wants to genuinely discuss the depiction of females in video games, it seems like it would be important to make the distinction between games which by their very nature are a series of tropes and games which are meant to be something more than that. This doesn't mean that gameplay-driven games with token plot devices are immune to criticism, but if the goal is to have an unsuperficial analysis of the topic with a time constraint of about 20 minutes, why would the focus be on those games that have a limited ability to treat characters as more than tokens?

As a crude analogy, Mario games are more like Goosebumps books than literary classics. You don't go into a Mario game expecting to get Hemingway. Likewise, you're not going to analyze Goosebumps books and extrapolate their flaws to the entire literary industry.

Right, this makes sense. Mario games don't really have a story. Saving the princess is just given as a lazy excuse to do anything. In games like the final fantasy series though, for example, it's a much bigger deal, because the story is the focus.

[Ksandra]

I demand a xp bonus for shooting guys in the dick in Tomb Raider.

[Edelweiss]

shooting guys in the dick

[Kuishen]

EDIT: Got ninja'd by a couple other people, this was directed at hey. At least it sounded like she was making the argument that FFs were guilty of using the damsel in distress trope.

I'd like to point out that since FF6 pretty much every main female character has been powerful and/or a badass. (I can't comment on anything pre-6 cause I haven't played enough of them.)

Terra super powerful being.
Tifa resident kickass. Yuffi a goddamn ninja.
Rinoa sorceress, Edea too. Quistis a whip wielding school teacher.
Dagger a princess willing to get her hands dirty.
Yuna powerful summoner. Riku a punk-ass thief. Lulu powerful sorceress. Pain is self-explanatory.
Prishe an ageless spunky bitch who will beat you with her fists.
Ashe basically same as Dagger. Fran wise and can fuck you up.

The only exception I believe is Aeris. Penelo kinda useless but only because her character had no basis for being there.

[Rhyis.]

A lot of those characters were 10 times more butch than Cloud ever was.

[Ksandra]

EDIT: Got ninja'd by a couple other people, this was directed at hey. At least it sounded like she was making the argument that FFs were guilty of using the damsel in distress trope.

It doesn't sound like hey was saying that at all. FF is just an good example of stories being the major focus to the games.

[archibaldcrane]

Given how bad women are in real life at doing most anything that characters in videogames do (mainly fighting in various forms) it seems like women are extremely overrepresented as playable characters able to fight successfully.

[hey]

It doesn't sound like hey was saying that at all. FF is just an good example of stories being the major focus to the games.

Correct.

The FF series is indeed very good about this. If they weren't though, it would be a much bigger deal than it is for Mario.

[Churchill]

Given how bad women are in real life at doing most anything that characters in videogames do (mainly fighting in various forms) it seems like women are extremely overrepresented as playable characters able to fight successfully.

lol

[Kuishen]

Correct.

The FF series is indeed very good about this. If they weren't though, it would be a much bigger deal than it is for Mario.

Ah, my bad.

Also holy shit at archi's post. rofl

[AoE]

Rinoa was garbage. That's all I have to add.

Edit - In hindsight, the probably most realistic female char in an RPG video game due to her ineptitude.

[Rhinox]

Rinoa was garbage. That's all I have to add.

Edit - In hindsight, the probably most realistic female char in an RPG video game due to her ineptitude.

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