The last time I started a thread on here relating specifically to something I myself had done was in late 2008 in promotion of the Persona 4 cover story I did for Play. I try to very rarely do such things, but I hope the powers that be around here (and all members in general) will excuse my doing it here today.
The reason is that, at Tokyo Game Show 2011, I had the chance to sit down with Capcom's Yoshinori Ono. Instead of asking him the typical stuff about the game he was there pimping Street Fighter X TekkenI went in determined to spend the brief time I had with him conversing about only one subject: Poison. With the announcement of her being in SFxT, the war of words over who and what she is has had more fuel added to its fire.
No matter which side of the question you're onor if you even have a sideI think it's a very important topic that the games industry, and us as gamers, need to deal with more. Video games still have a long way to go in how they present and include people of different races, sexes, and sexual orientations, and Poison is an immensely interesting look at one segment of that conversation.
The question of "should Poison be transgender" or "should Poison be a 'real' woman" certainly is at the heart of the topic (and my interview with Ono), but I think what's more important is that we're having those conversations period. With Poison's announcement as part of the cast, I've seen a lot of the "so is she a dude or a chick?" kind of stuff brought up, but very little real discussion on the situation (in terms of from gaming media). So, that's why I wanted to do this interview with him, even if I didn't get nearly the time or question depth I would have liked to have.
It really meant a lot to me to get the chance to do this interview, and no matter which side of the fence you sit on, I hope that it'll at least make people consider the conversation instead of just writing off Poison as a "trap", or simply saying that it was a mistake Capcom made 20 years ago without looking at the good that can now come from that potentially misguided decision. So, for that reason, I hope you can all excuse this moment of shameless promotion.
EGM Interview: Yoshinori Ono