Forum - View topic

The X Button - Equal Crime

I love half-naked sexy beefcake men as much as the next person, but that doesn't mean I want to see them clearly upset and powerless after being physically beaten, waiting to effectively die. I mean, maybe it's just me, but doesn't that kind of take away the sexiness of the whole enterprise? Equating sex and powerlessness, essentially making the character an object to be ogled at by the player, is what is the problem here, and coupling that with violence is just gross.

I realize they aren't real people, but the point of an actual "character," with personality and whatnot, is to be relatable, the way an actual person would be. If the game sets up these characters to then be abused, that is propping up the player to sexual violence towards something that in some ways reflects real life. That's why it skeeves people out.

Also, if its supposed to be "parody," then why isn't the player "disrobing" ridiculous things, like taking the fur off cats or gears off robots or something? The images are there for the player to get off to. It's not a parody, its softcore rape porn.

With each new article, this "journalist" comes off more and more like someone who has recently entered a relationship with a feminist partner. This partner, as a matter of course in their relationship, educates him on the incredibly important and vital ideals inherent to feminism (or equalism, etc if you must) and the struggles and hardships that people living without the privileges of the author endure. The author, wanting to do right, wishes to instill these views in his own work. Only, as someone with only a tertiary understanding of feminist philosophy, he applies his knowledge with the sensibility and subtlety of a blindfolded teenager wielding a flamethrower and a sense of black-and-white that would put Rorschach to shame. When you apply this authoritarian machismo to a philosophy that advocates the exact opposite, you do more damage to the cause that matters to people close to you and yourself.

When I was in school conservative media made a big fuss that Doom was causing kids to kill people. Gamers of every group rallied against such nonsense. Now you have well meaning (I hope) but incompetent people who try to suggest that games (like Akiba's Trip) are encouraging assault. Unfortunately, this isn't coming from the 60 year old conservatives who have never touched a game, it's coming from young gamers, and any gamers who try to argue this nonsense like before are immediately condemned as the pedos and rapists that these gaming "journalists" and their echo chambers insist are being created.

I've seen you support censorship for the sake of inclusion in the past, but now when a Western developer alters a game for the sake of equality in a way that could open the game up for women and homosexual males (just about everyone like to see half-naked people, nothing wrong with it, stop shaming) you act as though it is an even more disgusting affront. I bet you spend a lot of time honestly wondering why people accuse people who care about social justice of moving the goal posts.

You have got to stop with this attacking of every little thing you deem to be the slightest bit slanted in a direction you don't like, and worse attacking and assassinating the character of anyone who disagrees in even the slightest way. You don't see real feminists going so far over slapstick violence in a parody game, there are much more severe problems (and yes, many within our gaming community that do need to be addressed, especially the real sexist homophobic not-so-nice-people that do need kicked out.). It's just these white male feminists who don't realize that directing this macho aggression towards any minor perceived indiscretion is harming the incredibly vital cause they're trying to support. I hate to use the obnoxious and dismissive "WK" term, but it's hard to see what else it could be. I've noticed in plenty of recent blogs and articles even feminists are starting to mention male "allies" who "just want a cookie".

That, or this is just trolling an easily exploitable issue for clicks, which would be disgusting seeing as there are real problems in the gaming community and industry that need addressed. Scantily clad men and women in a parody game is not one of them.

Quote:

This ignores the fact that such idealized Adonises are usually as much heterosexual male wish-fulfillment as the accompanying sex-object women.

Let's not forget attractive women are heterosexual female wish-fullment as well No sense in playing favorites when the street goes both ways.

Maybe I can calm down to a point where it doesn't sound like I am attacking the editor. But I am plainly upset at the notion of outright 'stopping' certain levels of expression in games. I get it. They are niche. They are risque. But that is the whole appeal of it to some people. Not to mention the implications of real world moral consequence. If that's how the editor truly feels, that's that. Stuffing meaning into what Xseed said about the game? What can I say? That is just uncalled for as I see it. If the editor doesn't want to engage with me, fine.

I am just airing my frustration and some degree of anger at the article.

if a lot of games are going to invoke violent-toned sex appeal, better that they invoke it on as many sides as possible. Yet it'd be nice if more of them tried not to invoke it at all.

I realize they aren't real people, but the point of an actual "character," with personality and whatnot, is to be relatable, the way an actual person would be. If the game sets up these characters to then be abused, that is propping up the player to sexual violence towards something that in some ways reflects real life. That's why it skeeves people out.

Also, if its supposed to be "parody," then why isn't the player "disrobing" ridiculous things, like taking the fur off cats or gears off robots or something? The images are there for the player to get off to. It's not a parody, its softcore rape porn.

And as long as it is a fantasy, there's nothing wrong with that.

"problem all too common in the entertainment industry"

A PROBLEM? Jesus. Games that are fully fanservice centric is in a small niche. One can't just aim to stamp it all out just because a certain someone has a moralistic tizzy with it. Advocating shaming, outright censorship and bans. Absolutely horrific. Absolutely shameful for a 'videogame editor'. The misinformation, the slander, the demonization. How is this even allowed?

That, as well as intellectually dishonest attempts to co-opt arguments, seems to be the most common kind of response for this situations. Even there is no real threat certain people react with remarkable anger, desperately, furiously flailing to undermine, silence or delegitimize to anything that seems to impugn their tastes, interests or desires, but scarcely defending or accounting for those while insisting that they are unperturbed. This kind of rhetorical behavior is bad because if accepted, it allows the status quo to continue without needing to justify or defend it, giving the advantaged a further advantage and impeding alternatives for reasons unrelated to their merit. I also think that the disconnect between the extent, even the reality of the threat and the reaction as well as how said reaction tends to appear as the manifestation of reflexive psychological defense mechanisms as warrants more scrutiny, especially from the responsible parties.

One of the things that really ticks me off about when people complain about games such as Akiba's Trip isn't so much the opinions behind it, but rather, how they're almost always complaining about niche games that really nobody outside of the intended audience really cares about anyways (i.e., Senran Kagura and Hyperdimension Neptunia), but almost never about mainstream games, like Watch Dogs, which contains things like sex trafficking and actual nudity, which I feel are things that would be far more offensive to these people than pretty much anything in any niche game I've played.

I love half-naked sexy beefcake men as much as the next person, but that doesn't mean I want to see them clearly upset and powerless after being physically beaten, waiting to effectively die. I mean, maybe it's just me, but doesn't that kind of take away the sexiness of the whole enterprise? Equating sex and powerlessness, essentially making the character an object to be ogled at by the player, is what is the problem here, and coupling that with violence is just gross.

I realize they aren't real people, but the point of an actual "character," with personality and whatnot, is to be relatable, the way an actual person would be. If the game sets up these characters to then be abused, that is propping up the player to sexual violence towards something that in some ways reflects real life. That's why it skeeves people out.

Also, if its supposed to be "parody," then why isn't the player "disrobing" ridiculous things, like taking the fur off cats or gears off robots or something? The images are there for the player to get off to. It's not a parody, its softcore rape porn.

False equivalence

Surrender Artist wrote:

That, as well as intellectually dishonest attempts to co-opt arguments, seems to be the most common kind of response for this situations. Even there is no real threat certain people react with remarkable anger, desperately, furiously flailing to undermine, silence or delegitimize to anything that seems to impugn their tastes, interests or desires, but scarcely defending or accounting for those while insisting that they are unperturbed. This kind of rhetorical behavior is bad because if accepted, it allows the status quo to continue without needing to justify or defend it, giving the advantaged a further advantage and impeding alternatives for reasons unrelated to their merit. I also think that the disconnect between the extent, even the reality of the threat and the reaction as well as how said reaction tends to appear as the manifestation of reflexive psychological defense mechanisms as warrants more scrutiny, especially from the responsible parties.

Ok. Stop right there. Stop with this whole 'the status quo is so evil' nonsense. Because I already don't agree with that to begin with
...

And no. you will not dictate to me that one is to be 'defensive' like I'm defending something heinous.