Holy Order Sol
Member
Do you have a small child?
You're saying you'll let a child watch something based solely on the fact that it's a cartoon?
More kids need to watch The Boondocks.
Do you have a small child?
You're saying you'll let a child watch something based solely on the fact that it's a cartoon?
I feel like folks should procreate and actually hold their newborn in the arms before commenting. It's life changing.
I completely understand what this dad is doing. Good for him.
No , but she should have been introduced to both before buying FIFA. Her favorite soccer players were female, introduced in an all-female squad. It probably wasn't a matter of sex, rather a matter of there were none of her favorite players (sports teams are homogeneous with sex).
Female Link doesn't actually exist. If the message is that everyone can be heroes, why not show that in lieu of modding games? Let her play games with male and female leads. I did (and, again, as the privileged sex I should be more adverse to it).
In the soccer story, she wasn't interested until she learned there were women's teams.
I think your mistake is to assume that the daughters were somehow introduced to only female soccer players, or only female heroes. It's pretty much a certainty that the one girl is aware of male soccer players, and the other girl has heard stories with male heroes.
Having Link be a 'link" might have been the idea at the very beginning of the series, but in the 3D games, he's pretty much a character, not just a blank slate. Especially in Skyward Sword, where he has relationships with other people and a romance with Zelda. And if I remember the ending of that game correctly, Link and Zelda are supposed to have started the Hylian race together, Adam and Eve style. That would be quite a challenge if they had the same gender. ;-)
And he's male because his creator designed him as a male, that's really all the reason he needs.
Well that's sad as well. I suppose I can't criticize a child, but sex really shouldn't matter except in terms of reaching equality (as in, just because sex shouldn't matter doesn't mean that we should just keep making male heroes or ignoring the injustices women face). Perfect world and all that.
Yeah, devastating. She will probably hate her father for the years to come.i imagine the shock when the girl will realize that link is not female.
Yeah, devastating. She will probably hate her father for the years to come.
...Are you serious?
There's nothing sad or un-perfect-worldly* about preferring role models who are similar to oneself.
*I can't think of a word here
Play Beyond Good and Evil.
Shit, lots of people have already said that. lol
But, why not just fire up RPG maker and make your own game at that point? Presumably if you're hacking up a ROM and playing it on an emulator, you have some idea of how to do these things.
Or if that's too high tech, make a LBP level using those tools. There's got to be a way to make games that can provide positive role models than to take an existing game and superficially changing the words in that game.
I think it would have been better if her dad would have chosen any of the real games with good heroines (sadly not lots, but they exist), than changing a character than when she is older will discover that was a boy (also Tetra/Zelda).
This seems like a good idea at first, but then I remember that there are good games with strong female protagonists already.
Beyond Good and Evil Rated T for Teen
Any Metroid game that isn't Other M Rated T for Teen
Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones Rated T or E10+
Mirror's Edge Rated T for Teen
Even any Pokémon game from Crystal onwards (except don't actually pick Crystal, because it sucks) Actual good suggestion
And I'm sure there's a whole bunch more that I'm forgetting or have never heard of. Needing to edit Wind Waker is more a failure on the father's end than anything.
Preferring? Nah. Ignoring every other non-similar role model? Yup.
I could look for black role models in life and video games, and eventually I'd quit the latter if I ignored non-black characters. As for role models in life? Sure, I could prefer a black male to be a role model, but that doesn't say that other people don't act as good role models. Wisdom comes from everywhere, and I'd be remiss to ignore that because people don't look like me.
Like this perosn:
I don't think lying to his daughter is a good solution. What if she wants to go back to play this game later and discovers it was all a lie?
Err, I think you're inflating things again. Soccer players aren't really the type of role models we draw wisdom from, like say, Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi. If someone ignores a subset of soccer players, really, how is that sad?
If I felt that my (hypothetical) child didn't have enough black role models, I wouldn't invent one by changing the skin tone on a white character. I actually go out and find media with strong black characters. Changing a few lines of text is just lazy.
No, lazy would be doing nothing and just sitting back and letting things lie how they are.
If you can't find good characters that represent your values that you want to teach than why NOT invent them? Someone has to at some point. You say "go find one" well, someone at some point and some time has to do it, and if it means simply just altering an existing character... why not? It doesn't harm anyone... he's not selling his "mod" for profit or anything like that.
In that case, you should talk to your child instead. Changing "he" into "she" and dusting your hands is lazy.
In that case, you should talk to your child instead. Changing "he" into "she" and dusting your hands is lazy.
In that case, you should talk to your child instead. Changing "he" into "she" and dusting your hands is lazy.
Just tell her the dude is a girl named Zelda.
lol, nice oneI'm not sure talking to her about the current plight of under represented female heroines in gaming is a suitable subject for a 3 year old. Perhaps later when she's aware enough to notice it and asks dad why that is he could explain it to her. Until then a female link saving the world would seem to be a fine heroine.
So, he's basically teaching her how other people's intellectual property is worthless, or not worth considering. Nice lesson Dad.
You can't be serious. A 3 year old is a rapidly-learning and highly impressionable little person, not a newborn baby.She's 3 years old, why bother?
Those too have "The Legend of Zelda" name, with Zelda way bigger than the rest in the covers I've seen. Almost every Zelda has a subtitle anyway (quite often with Link in there), but Zelda has been a constant.Also for the 2 dudes telling how zelda is important because the game title is on her, Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask for you =P
What if Zelda was a girl?
Those too have "The Legend of Zelda" name, with Zelda way bigger than the rest in the covers I've seen. Almost every Zelda has a subtitle anyway (quite often with Link in there), but Zelda has been a constant.
Your first 2 points may have some merit, but the 3rd really doesn't. It's not about "caring about gender issues", it's about the very real and well-documented impact of the formation of early cultural connections.Knowing three year olds;
assuming the three year old pays attention to the game longer than 20 seconds
assuming the three year old can read at a high enough level to make sense of the text changes
assuming the three year old cares about gender issues
Assuming all that? The three year old will probably want to watch him play a decent zelda game instead anyway.
Wait, what? Tetra is the captain of a pirate ship. She leads a crew of fierce huge dudes who are loyal to her. She is almost kidnapped by a giant bird which she was leading her ship in fighting. Link's sister is the one that is actually kidnapped - without Tetra, Link wouldn't be able to try to rescue her. Tetra actually helps rescue all the other young girls. Ganon is able to defeat Tetra twice - at the same time he is also able to defeat Link. He is after all a powerful wizard-god who has the triforce of power.Actualy ... Wind Waker representation of women is actualy REALLY bad.
People only remember how Tetra is awesome and stuffs like that ... but she is kidnaped in the first 5 minutes of gameplay and people forget that whenwich is basicaly a way of saying "Do you think you are cool ? Yeah I was joking ... go be defenseless"she changes into princess zelda she is basicaly locked in the castle underwater for half of the game
Is he going to keep doing this for every game she plays? Kind of has to now.
So he is implanting some gender issues on a 3-year old daughter already? Why can't he let her watch other games wih strong female protaganist? Beyond Good and Evil for instance.
Is he going to keep doing this for every game she plays? Kind of has to now.