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The X Button - Vanishing Point

Fair enough, but I'd like to reiterate that my point was that the Chao part being in the game didn't bother me because it was optional. The Big the Cat part of the game did because it was not. I can't really speak for the popularity of the Chao raising part of either Sonic Adventure game, but I'm pretty sure at least some people would be annoyed if that, too, was a forced aspect of the game instead of an optional one. Or, on the flip side, if the Big the Cat part of the game also was optional and you only had to play the parts with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, ED-... 208? ....and the Amy stages to get to the last part with Super Sonic, I'm pretty sure people wouldn't be so volatile about Big being there.

I've played neither of those. Are you talking about Chao raising or Big the Cat?

Of course, if we're talking about Japan that's something else entirely. Japan has no issue making games for niches. Japan makes a lot of games for female audiences, but they almost never get released in America presumably due to a small market not worth the effort of localizing them. Perhaps this is one of the instances where Kickstarter could be beneficial.

-Stuart Smith

I've definitely seen criticism about Japan's mobile shift. In fact, you'll find tonnes of articles claiming their games industry is dead as a result of it. So there's definitely a sense that they're not "real games", and that's not a gender exclusive sentiment.

This is why, I believe, the Extreme Beach Volleyball sub-series is seen as sexist: Roller blading and biking are not as titillating as the existing mini-games. The decision to keep those mini-games and not add in more gameplay-oriented things as you describe, as well as the photography sessions and the just-watching-the-girls-on-the-beach aspects are pretty voyeuristic. Hence, the game's overall structure when not volleyball creates the impression that the game lives at least partially on sex appeal. There's also the lack of male characters and how the sub-series has been consistently marketed in all regions for its sex appeal rather than its gameplay.

You know, that's something I never really thought much: What I think makes some suggestive content uncomfortable and some others perfectly fine with me is agency, and I'd bet this is the same with a lot of other people. Characters like Bayonetta and Elvira I don't get bothered with at all, because they are the ones who are flaunting themselves and are in control. In other words, they chose to wear revealing clothing, speak double entendres knowing full well what they mean, and are depicted as intelligent and quick. It's where the characters are put into compromising, embarrassing situations or are subjected to the male gaze oblivious to it all is where it's uncomfortable.

Contrast this to Rumble Roses, which also has an all-female cast and is sexualized to a pretty high degree, but it doesn't get nearly as much controversy because the game is focused on the wrestling, and advertising for it focuses on the gameplay with its sexual content being secondary. (And probably because most of the characters have that agency I mentioned earlier whereas the DOA characters tend to be submissive and quiet.)

Ah, I see your point there. I'm a completionist, so to me, everything is required. (The robot's name is E-102 Gamma, by the way.)

For the record, I'm talking about Chao-raising that was reduced to a minigame in Sonic Advance and removed in Sonic Heroes

The Chao-raising, by the way, was also SEGA promoting something else, though in a less direct way than with Big: A-Life, a program meant to simulate realistic, complex behavior of childlike or pet-like creatures. It was developed for Nightopians in NiGHTS into Dreams and refined considerably for Sonic Adventure. The idea was to try to expand A-Life to other projects and, hopefully, sold to other companies to use. It didn't pan out as hoped, it seems.

The whole issue on female portrayal seemed like one of those unanswerable questions. For all the complaints you see about characters like Quiet, I notice that far more women cosplay as Quiet or other 'moe' Japanse game girls, or get a lot more fanart than female characters who get praised for being 'realistic' or 'non-sexualized'. So who knows what that tells us.
-Stuart Smith

Another problem with importing the new DoAX3 is the DLC issue. That's the main thing for me. I'm sure there's going to be a ton of DLC, but you can't buy the DLC with a US account which is easy enough to solve. The bigger pain is that you can't use US dollars to buy DLC on the Asian version. You have to buy PSN cards unless I've heard wrong. As much as I want this, it's too much of a pain to buy Asian region PSN cards whenever I want new DLC.

Contrast this to Rumble Roses, which also has an all-female cast and is sexualized to a pretty high degree, but it doesn't get nearly as much controversy because the game is focused on the wrestling, and advertising for it focuses on the gameplay with its sexual content being secondary.

The Dynasty Warriors games, which are from Koei Tecmo, don't get English dubs anymore.

Actually these do still get english dubs as awkward and ill fitting as they come off sounding like. It's the offshoots like Samurai Warriors that don't.

But I agree, and as I mentioned, I just can’t go along with certain characters playing butt battle or whatever; yeah, I could picture Tina or Honoka doing so; but a character like say, Kasumi, or even a majority of the cast? Not in a million years, and I do feel these mini games do have a bit of a sexual humiliation vibe to them. Aside from that, they’re awkward to play and quite boring.

What I’m curious to know even more specifically, are which consoles are being purchased and played more by which gender and why. Don’t get me wrong, if there’s a marginal difference between the genders on all the consoles, that’s not really something to get into a fuss about. However, if for example (I’m making this up for the sake of discussion), let’s say an overwhelming majority of male gamers choose Xbox; from there, what I want to know is why that is and why female gamers are drawn to the other consoles and reject Xbox while male gamers reject the other consoles and gravitate towards Xbox. Is it the game selection? The types of games? Perhaps the community? Is it the online service? The overall gameplay? Brand loyalty perhaps?

There are a lot of various factors that come into this and I think it would be pretty neat to get even more particular for more clarity just to get a better idea of whose buying and playing what and why.

Not entirely. Dynasty Warriors 8 only got a partial dub, but 8 Xtreme Legends and 8 Empires didn't even get that.

It's kind of funny to see people claim women are a 'vocal minority' when we make up 51% of the population. Myself and other women are against actual censorship as much as the next person. Just because we'd like the culture to be a little more inclusive doesn't mean we're gonna play big sister and take all the booby games away.

The poster who said feminists are being used as a boogyman was right on. Especially in this case. Game companies give all sorts of dumb excuses not to release games..."Americans don't like anime games", "Americans only like 3D games", "Americans don't like RPGS", etc... Blaming feminists or western attitudes is a great way for them to divert fan's rage away from them and onto other people. Let's not also forget that apparently they've added a more loli looking character... and THAT is probably going to cause more backlash than anything. The west has a much lower tolerance for anything resembling sexualizing children* than Asian countries do.

Also being alarmist about censorship is downright silly. It's not censorship, you can buy the game or watch it streamed or w/e you want. You just have to buy it online instead of walking into Wal Mart. Having to pay extra for shipping or import costs or w/e =/= censorship. It's not like Obama's going to come to your house and snap the disc in half. Criticism is not suppression or censorship. You may as well say critics are 'censoring' Adam Sandler by giving his movies bad reviews due to the immature humor

*Or prepubscent adolescents, w/e. Making a character 18 or a 1000 year old vampire/demon doesn't change the fact they look 11.