His example of Prada being copied by Forever 21 is inapplicable in regards to peoples frustration with Zynga. A better analogy would be if someone at Forever 21 created piece of clothing which became popular, then Prada copied it, and if Prada is the bigger name the general public would put the credit for the idea or product to Prada.
Gamers aren't getting made at small fry places cloning a bunch of popular games, we are used to that and have the literacy to see past it. We are instead mad at the big dog cloning the independent studio. And to be clear, they are cloning, not deriving inspiration from, not integrating concepts or ideas, not fitting in similar features; they are cloning.
I got my copy the day of release and vowed to play all the way through the single player before doing co-op. In that time all my friends doubled up and were playing together every night, and I was left with no one to play with who hadn't already played it. I did eventually have a friend at work want to play it, and we set up "dates", but those kept falling through so I have yet to really experience it. :[
That's actually WayForward's own James Montagna presenting, and Jake Kaufman, AKA Virt, who did the music!
So is the Batman: Arkham City nomination a deflect, derail, or dismiss on the topic of male privelage?
I agree that the word "rape" is thrown around like it's nothing (rape against men is more often viewed as humorous, but that's for another discussion), I don't feel it is the developer's duty to leave out any threats to a female character to get women to play the game. I have personally been in a traumatic experience, and when my wife started watching a movie depicting a similar experience I was having near PTSD symptoms. Any movie you have ever seen where a character has either died or been in a frightening scenario where they fear for their life has happened to someone somewhere, and these scenes will stir up a lot of emotions with many people.
Ultimately this is a T rated game where goons are spouting off words to the point where the word's power really loses all meaning. Strangely enough it would be WORSE if this only happened once in the game in a locked room battle, because then there might be the actual fear that the motivations of these men is to literally rape this woman in this closed room. Speaking for Arkham City, this is all a reflection on how in-game dialogue is repetitive and annoying, especially when you try to use something shocking and offensive.
But I don't want you to think I am arguing for arguing's sake. I personally wouldn't have used any of this language. I don't like a lot of dialogue in games and the shocking nature of this kind of stuff. Bah, I don't even know what I am arguing anymore because I honestly feel taking all of the rape talk out would make for a better game. To me it is all just shock value and there are plenty of other examples of how to be intimidating and psychotic without being crass and offensive. I can't think of any off hand, but using horror movies as an example, when showing less can be more, or even seductive art (see Mucha) where women who show less are more mysterious versus slutty images where everything is up there and personal. But a thug enemy calling a female character a "bitch" isn't something I have a problem with.
I still have a really hard time playing Pinball FX 2 because the physics are just so floaty compared to the first one. Having worked on the pinball simulation UltraPin I got lot's of hands on experience with actual tables, and while I admire the player friendly philosophy of Mr. Sorens with respect to table layout and ball save timing, there is still something off about the overall feel of the game.
%99? I'm actually really, really curious as to how many of these characters would be undoubtedly look like porn stars. We celebrate characters like Lisbeth Salander from the Girl WIth The Dragon Tattoo, or Tina Fey, or the women of Uncharted. But it's really easy to see a good number of mostly naked characters and think it's the only thing out there, or assume that there are sexy bits then you are only trying to play off the sexiness. You would need to put Christina Hendricks in a burka for her to be a strong female character by those standards. Blanket statements are always bad.
I'd like to point out that visual aspects aren't the only things that push women away. My wife tried reading a recent Catwoman trade paperback, a character she equates as a strong and smart woman, only to find she is a lesbian and a mother trying to find her child. The same complexity that draws women to the male characters draws them to the female ones.
And what about the complex male characters? Most of the guys who think nudity=sexy for women are also in the camp that a big, buff, mostly naked dude means a strong male character, but for some reason that isn't viewed as a problem? I kind of see it as a part of the problem that the perspective of these misguided males are expected to change the way they think about one gender and not another.
Dear god I'm going to regret this post later, because I'm trying to leave to go home, and I didn't proofread. I just feel like this issue is working itself out as best it can, but it will never be perfect because there are inherent things in individuals. There's always gonna be some mouth breathing guy who's going to ruin it for everyone. But i really think its a lot better. Look at most of the indie games out there and youll see its all pretty good on this front. Ive always tried to create strong females who werent objectified, and ive been doing that in every creation of anything for like 20 years and it seems like this is never going away, but really its getting better. I dont know, its like that dolly pardon saying from the office (uk): "life is hills and valleys. You dont know when youre at the top of the hill until youre coming down, and you dont know youre done in the valley till youre coming up. and people think of her as just a set of tits" or something.
Although they never say the same kind of things to Batman, as Dr Nerdlove points out. Hmmmmmm... so confused
Arguably the behavior of the enemies in Arkham City are representative of low-level intelligence males who don't know how to talk to women, much like the behavior of trash talking dickwads on online services like Xbox Live, so therefore is it wrong that these characters we should not like, or emulate, are behaving in a way that the creators intended because they too are dickwads and its a way for the creators to support your very argument by showing how dickwads like these are horrible?!?!?!?!
Ditto! Really well put. I don't like the male privilege, but his writing makes me feel like I'm being attacked for not agreeing wholeheartedly with his specific ideas.
Only thing that sucks is the overbearing tutorials.
Only downside is you need to beat level 109 (Murals 2, stage 1, "Sneaker") before you can even take the snapshot.
I can understand the reasoning for IS/Nintendo, but it would have been better to let players take the picture and keep the level locked instead of not letting then snap the QR code.
It's in the 3ds eshop for $5.99.
In fairness I call everyone whiny jerks. But Kotaku has the best whiny jerks. :)
Fahey posted a comment with a UK code
Ha! I never said "Complaining." We just don't want to overlook our friends over the pond. ;)
Merry Switchmas!!!
It's pretty neat to see what this guy is saying. It's funny how fictional things can boil the blood of experts. Lawyers hate Law and Order, developers hate Grandma's Boy, etc.
Admittedly, without looking it up at this moment, not sure what the difference between similar and dissimilar are, but I think we are on the same page.
Everything you are saying is incredibly broad (regarding the first paragraph) so I am not sure if you are talking about how games portray women, advertise to men, how the community treats women within games, or the community's expectations of women. But regardless of which (or all) it might be, my real question is whether there is ever the possibility of abolishing this? Or is it a part of us and our every thought and something which rarely gets put into check anywhere including our industry?
In terms of how women are treated online, again it isn't isolated to games. I was reading an article a couple days ago about female bloggers who self-edit before publishing out of fear of retaliation from total fuckwads. I personally hate how women are treated online, and it's great that there are a number of guys who stand up for the women being harassed on there. But really I doubt there is much we can do without direct intervention or policing of online services like XBOX Live, until the root problem of making anonymous assholes stop doing this kind of stuff in general.
(Actually, it might be a good idea of Xbox did have "police" that could swoop into a game's match and overhear conversations if a large number of complaint votes came in quickly. Then determine if a quick ban or warning needs to happen on the spot. Swift justice)
I myself apologize for being broad, but this is probably the 5th day in a row I have seen an article about this same topic, and I probably am getting tired of typing the same introductory statements and classifiers, so I am coming off as more closed and callous than I actually am.
Man, maybe the bigger issue is that we shouldn't have 200 tiny articles about the issue every year, and then have minor conversations break out within those micro communities. Its as if we get nowhere because we are speed-dating and only touching the surface of each other little by little. By the time two people like you and I might finally come to a conclusion and want to make a difference some other person somewhere else writes an article on the issue, brings up many of the same points and we start the process over again. And then in the process they may go off base with a topic or two only giving fodder to the argument of the other side of things. It's a mess I say!
All in all I don't disagree that there is a "male privilege" in the gaming community, but is this really an issue with the gaming community as a whole or is it an intrinsic property of being a human which we need to keep in check? Looking at video games under the microscope might not show the broader picture of all the other ways sexuality is defined by society in media, in fashion, and even in discussions on what attraction means to both sexes.
And while women OBVIOUSLY have their gender put through the wringer in real life when faced with male privilege, it does not mean that men don't face similar discrimination. Men receive more jail time for the same crimes as women, maybe out of a false sense of compassion or that men are more tough or mean when committing their crimes. In divorce cases women receive custody more often than men because somehow women have more compassion and better parenting skills. Would I not get judged solely on my gender if I wanted to be a cosmetologist, and have all of my actions questioned because I am a male? Being a compassionate male who really is against the male privilege can have it's downside when you are seeing it thrown back at you (which my wife has done surprisingly often, though no more examples are coming to mind)
