Also, stop saying "comics" to mean Superhero comics, thank you.
Superhero comics are pretty unsexy in the large scheme of things, to be honest.
Also, stop saying "comics" to mean Superhero comics, thank you.
If you think that's bad, have a look at this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/02/cdp-on-cyberpunks-trailer-social-commentary-in-games/
You can't apply the same line of thinking to both genders. Women have endured centuries of objectification. Men have always been the ones in the position of power and privilege.
There's a difference.
I'm pretty sure LoL has that but they all combine it with male power fantasy archetypes so they dont alienate either gender. Most lol characters are sexy female with huge boobs, good looking badass males or cute midgets with a few monstorous characters sprinkled in.
I think that when it comes to attraction, especially what women are attracted to, they tend to have more varied tastes than what (in the abstract) men are attracted to. My wife, would not find any of the JRPG/Japanese male designed characters attractive. She isn't attractive to that. She is attracted to Nathan Drake on the other hand.
couldnt we also sexualized dudes instead to balance things out? i feel like that option is never mentioned.
couldnt we also sexualized dudes instead to balance things out? i feel like that option is never mentioned.
Who's the target audience if not everyone? Are you saying Blizzard is targeting gross sexists?
couldnt we also sexualized dudes instead to balance things out? i feel like that option is never mentioned.
I really liked this article. Especially this bit:
Maybe hypocrisy is a strong word, but this is something that has been bothering me for a long time. How games are obviously art, but when something negative appears, the same people come out and say "it's just a game!".
Nope, the message I get from Call of Duty that I'm a hero for killing men (and women if we're counting Ghosts) who probably had loved ones and I'm actively rewarded for doing so. That's far more disturbing and chilling to me than any skimpy outfits.
Who's the target audience if not everyone? Are you saying Blizzard is targeting gross sexists?
Not sure how a video game journalist actually asking legitimate questions qualifies as an ambushing.
What a waste of Dustin Browder's time.
I really liked this article. Especially this bit:
Maybe hypocrisy is a strong word, but this is something that has been bothering me for a long time. How games are obviously art, but when something negative appears, the same people come out and say "it's just a game!".
couldnt we also sexualized dudes instead to balance things out? i feel like that option is never mentioned.
Unrealistic fetishization of the male body
Blizzard is free to do whatever they like. RPS is free to say whatever they like and ask whatever questions they want. That's how criticism works
Every other artistic medium has come to terms with this.
It's mentioned every single time. Multiple times already in this thread.couldnt we also sexualized dudes instead to balance things out? i feel like that option is never mentioned.
Hi. The questions was unexpected and somewhat hostile. I don't mean to make a value judgment about it, that's just what it seemed like to me. I mean, it's gaming journalism. How often do they ask real questions like that?Not sure how a video game journalist actually asking legitimate questions qualifies as an ambushing.
Maybe hypocrisy is a strong word, but this is something that has been bothering me for a long time. How games are obviously art, but when something negative appears, the same people come out and say "it's just a game!".
couldnt we also sexualize dudes instead to balance things out? i feel like that option is never mentioned.
Again, you are falling into the fallacy of false equivalency on this. Heroes of the Storm is also a game in which you're constantly killing things. This is not about whether or not violence or sex in media are appropriate or dangerous, it never was. This is about whether or not the depictions of characters intended to be used as player avatars within the context of that media are sending poor or mixed messages to the players.
RPS was not trying to say that games should be moralistic exercises on the betterment of mankind. They were not saying that games cannot contain depictions of things that are considered socially unacceptable. They were saying, quite specifically, that having all the female characters in a game where you are playing Heroes have skimpy alt-costumes (intentionally or not) sends the message that a woman cannot be "heroic" without being sexualized. Again, I am not saying this is actually the case of HotS - I haven't seen much of the art - but for pete's sake, if we're going to have this already needlessly reductive and emotionally charged debate, let it be about what was actually being quibbled over, and not this completely different tangent you've gone off on.
While it's admirable that RPS are willing to ask tough questions, I'm not sure what it really achieved here. Blizzard know their market very well by this point, and you can bet they're going to keep making the kind of content that brings in the cash regardless of how sexist it might be.
If they really wanted to bombard someone about this point in an interview, they could've actually picked a game that is blatantly sexing up their female characters. Accusing HOTS about this really seems like a reach when you have MOBAs with stuff like this:
Superhero comics are pretty unsexy in the large scheme of things, to be honest.
Out of context it's fine. But games exist in context. The amount of objectification of women that goes on causes real harm. And Blizzard is particularly guilty, doing it non-stop with almost every female character.
Maybe its just me but those questions didn't sound overly aggressive. If thats what qualifies as aggressive then journalists really can't talk about anythingI agree. And I understand the point RPS is trying to make, but damn the method is stupid. How can't they see that being so overtly aggressive will only polarize the opinions even more?
On one side, people sweeping the issue aside without even taking the time to think about it, and on the other side, people ambushing devs they see as guilty on every occasion they get.
Rock Paper Shotgun always writes with that pretentious tone of someone smug in their self-belief that their opinion is fact. It's detrimental to this crusade it's on because it comes across as condescending zealotry.
Maybe its just me but those questions didn't sound overly aggressive. If thats what qualifies as aggressive then journalists really can't talk about anything
If you showed me roller derby nova and asked me to tell you who that was I'd have no fucking clue. At the very least the alt costumes should not make it so that at a glance I can't tell who a character is.
Similarly at first glace mecha Tassadar is just wtf.
Several heroes had alt skins that just feel a bit too out there due to how much they change how a character looks.
http://www.gameskinny.com/zytoh/heroes-of-the-storm-hero-and-skin-list-that-we-know-so-far
I do like like the alt costume for the demon hunter from diablo 3 though.
I don't think this was the right time or way to bring up issues with how blizzard ( among many others) costumes women. As a female myself I have a lot of issues with this sort of thing and how god damn pervasive it is but I don't like how this interview was handled.
Is there even any real stone cold proof that this is actually the case? I mean I'm all for accepting this if you can prove it, but I really don't understand how a fictional character can objectify a woman. Especially when said fictional character isn't even human.
Nobody's playing SMITE
no Clickz to be gained
Maybe its just me but those questions didn't sound overly aggressive. If thats what qualifies as aggressive then journalists really can't talk about anything
Read their X-Com: Declassified preview. Or actually, don't. I don't think the game is particularly good, but the way they wrote it is the snarkiest, 'having a giggle', I'm working on my college newspaper's humor column writing I've ever seen. It is awful.This is the first time I have read anything from them that was this eyeroll worthy. They have a point about objectification, but way to be a douche about it. The entire interview was awful.
Yeah buddy its definitely just you. If you didnt read that and feel the aggressive tone from the start I dont know what to say. I love RPS, but it was very obvious what they were out for in this one.
Hyper-sexualised? Wha?
You're kind of agreeing with him. He said she's a one-off so far and fine by herself. He then asked how they planned to approach it with the rest of the cast, considering the context of the sexualization going on in the genre's other games.That talking point seems quite forced considering how unoffensive the outfit actually is. The cinematic trailer made quite clear that Nova is supposed to the "sexy badass" of the roster, but I also don't see why that is so problematic.
If this backfires I wonder if they will look up tacts. Aiming at Blizzard.... They could have picked a harder target (Maybe not since most NA devs have ass art departments IMO)