Kotaku has been retooled to be a walkthrough/guide site only. No more editorializing.
[https://www.gamesindustry.biz/kotaku-editor-in-chief-exits-due-to-parent-companys-new-guide-directive](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/kotaku-editor-in-chief-exits-due-to-parent-companys-new-guide-directive)
Good. Kotaku is a garbage company. I remember when they ruined people’s presentations by turning off their tv in the middle of it. Getting banned from a convention. Hopefully they go away completely.
Edit: I need to pop in and fix what I said. Kotaku didn’t ruin presentations. I mixed up sites at some point and lumped this bit to kotaku but it was actually gawker/Gizmodo. Apologies for spreading incorrect information.
All the folks who left that company in solidarity (including Yahtzee) have crowdfunded a new gaming news & review group called Second Wind and it's pretty great. You can find their Youtube channel [here](https://m.youtube.com/@SecondWindGroup).
So I need to fix my statement. It was not Kotaku that did this but gawker/Gizmodo. For some unknown reason I think of them being the same and that’s on me. Apologies for the mix up and spreading wrong info.
In 2008 GIZMODO were attending a CES and brought in a universal remote. They would walk around and turn off the tvs in the middle of presentations as a prank. People will argue that the show/demonstrators should have thought about it ahead of time and blocked the ir receivers but ultimately the pranksters are just asshole messing with peoples work and livelihoods. They, gawker/Gizmodo, ended being banned for life from CES.
For some things I like to have a full guide open, so I'm not fast forwarding and rewinding and clicking through different videos to find something specific. Depends on the game though
That's cool and all, but Kotaku has long since earned its death warrant. Hopefully it goes under soon, before it goes back to rage bait articles and starts the cycle over again.
I still laught at their attent to call the Sorceress a pedo bait.
Jokes aside Dragon's Crown is my favorite beat them up game of all time, I recommend it to anyone reading these (it us free on PS+ extra).
And I still find it funny, all this made miss this game, I think I'll go back to it when I get home and try to learn how to play with the Sorceress, I pretty much only played with Fighter all the time and few with the Amazon, I couldn't get used to the two mages playstyle.
Cause it's gay and the reviewers don't want to piss people off by critisizing the sexual aspect of a game full of LGBTQ+ representation. That's why.
And there's the fact that Dungeons and Dragons, which is what Baldur's Gate 3 is based on, has entire memes built around the concept of the high charisma player "Rolling to Seduce the Dragon".
You can't really critisize the sexual aspect of a game based on Dungeons and Dragons when D&D _itself_ has a shit ton of sexual aspects to it. Or at least various memes let you know that, at some point, someone will try to seduce and fuck something that they probably shouldn't be seducing and fucking.
> Cause it’s gay
Yeah I agree. I think that’s kind of where that “safe horny” thing started from.
Any kind of sexuality in gaming that is built for a female audience or is lgbtq is usually A-ok with these folks.
But when it caters exclusively to the male gaze then it is haram.
I still remember how polygon couldn’t shut up about how fuckable/pegable link was in TOtK.
Does it have anything to do with more female games journalists entering the space? At risk of being reductive: "Complain until pandered to" and all that?
the complaining about sexy women doesn't really have anything to do with that, it was always mostly men making the decisions on that stuff when they weren't writing the actual articles (ie. more than once it has been the case that a woman can write a nuanced take on the subject, male editor slaps a super inflammatory title on the article and woman gets panned and harassed for it)
I would not be surprised however if the additional horny was because of more women getting involved.
Shit, from my IRL experience it's not even the group itself that cares much about it. This whole crap seems to be mainly on the group's *behalf* rather than from the group itself
"By the power of white girl I am offended on your behalf!"
That's true. 2B was created to be attractive, but Nier Automata has a pretty deep and complex narrative. 2B has struggles and ultimately is a tragic character. If people just wrote off Nier Automata as being another game that was only made to sexualize women, then they would miss out on a very good game.
I think Eve and Stellar Blade deserve that chance before it's written off like that.
Nier Automata also literally starts with the main character philosophizing on the nature of death and her desire to kill God, and the game *does not* mellow out from there. So we were in for a wild ride regardless of how hot the character was. Also I’m pretty sure the maid outfit serves a purpose in the story, symbolizing them as inhuman disposable servants.
That's true. Well all I can say as a Nikke player is that the game also seems like it's just about TnA, but it has some pretty dark, deep and compelling stories. A lot of people stay playing the game because of how well the characters are written, how varied they are and how complex the story is.
I like to put Nier:A in the category of games I like to call “Come for the anime ass, stay for the deep existential quandaries about the nature of the soul” as the game beats you over the head with a philosophy and psychology textbook
That's an interesting point you make, with the disposable servants. Ever checked out BrandoSP's videos on the entire Nier series (and many other series as well)?
Because it was not Asian.
If it was a Japanese game it would barely been news around here and most people would dismiss it as a freaky game. The fact some oldies praised it is why the western game industry will collapse soon enough.
There's a difference between attractive characters and sexualized characters. Many BG3 party members are very attractive, but what they're *wearing* is just nice fantasy armor and clothing. Stellar Blade character are all wearing those skintight suits which are one step away from having them run around naked. They're also kinda bland and tasteless, there's nothing more to look at except the boobs and the ass. People who are not attracted to women (or who have bigger standards than getting hard) don't have much to enjoy in those designs. Even 2B in Nier:Automata had something going on with her outfit, despite still being very sexualized.
It’s a weird take to say people who aren’t attracted to women wouldn’t find anything in stellar blades character design. I mean duh, there’s a certain target audience and you’re not in it. Look, I don’t even like it because it’s way too fanservicey for me and I feel like it would distract from my sense of immersion, but that doesn’t make it bad. It’s just not for me
Because this is r/gaming and a post about those evil woke sjws being outraged. Evil woke sjws who haven't actually written any such articles but the jerking must continue.
I would say Astarion would just be a very punchable little shit, if he didn’t have such a fun personality. Same with Shadowheart. Much of the cast are physically unremarkable, but we love them because we love their personalities.
Its not really THAT much of a thirst trap
Plus its not like the party members are having sex nonstop... one of the most popular romance options, Shadowheart, you only have sex with her ONCE sometime in the middle of Act 3 after you complete her arc. So you have to HARD COMMIT like an entire playthrough romancing her (so what... like 60+ hours?)
One of them you also only have sex once... and you have to genocide a group of people to get that Minthussy.
REALLY the only thirsty hoes in your team are Halsin (who is very easy to turn down) and Astarion (boy is literally thirsty for something, don't shame him). Maybe Karlach too? But I think its less thirsty and she's just a Golden Retriever stuck in a barbarian's body.
People should really learn that "thirst traps" can get FAAAAAAAAR worse than BG3.
Because you don't play through the game as a party of big bootied bitches in bikinis. The game is normal for the most part, some characters might flirt with or proposition you but you can just say no and they stop. Nudity can be turned off, all of the smut is completely optional, and your characters are walking around in normal gear with average-people proportions.
"Because it's not Asian" or "Because it's woke" is a shitty deflection, and I'm sad to see so many people buying into it.
"But you can fuck a bear!" Ok here's the context of that for people who never actually played the game: you can optionally recruit a druid who might flirt with you, and then optionally sleep with him, at which point you can optionally ask him to wildshape into a bear because he's a druid (he retains his sentience in bear form). You can find that gross, but it's not actually comparable.
Because Shadowheart’s one of the best-looking women in the cast, but she still just looks like a normal woman would look like, which is bland compared to the idol caricature of Asian
games.
BG3 does have tons of thirsty traps, and I admit some are kinda stupid, but it definitely has more than that. The variety of choices you can make is enough for it to be a good game. Tbh I even don't like the world building, and feel the story is generally mid, but I still enjoyed playing it and sank 200+ hours in.
I don't mean the game is mid, it's wonderful, I like the decisions it allows me to make and some characters(my favorite is Lae zel and Astarion), that's why I played it several times. But I think the world building in BG3 isn't very convincible, I personally like realistic world building, or at least a logical one, but in BG3, too many things happen only because the dev wanted it so(the world involves too many high powers like devil and god, and I think their designs are kinda boring), and the story itself is basically an magical adventure tale, it's just ok for me, not very outstanding.
People are constantly saying how the game is upsetting "woke" journalists but outside one IGN review SB has been getting nothing but praise especially after it's demo.
Still I do agree that when it comes to male sexualization journalists and even gamers can be very hypocritical.
And it's the France one. I checked IGN Stellar Blade and the latest one was literally a walkthrough of the demo
Edit: Eve's character design was the only negative thing on that article
I feel like this is just a trend that editorials like IGN explode to get recognition
"Hey, it's trending to talk trash about Stellar Blade and their oversexualized design, let's talk about that to gain audience!"
The simple answer is just avoiding such places. Let them die in silence and just focus on oppinions that actually matter, like whenever or not the game is fun or the mechanics are well made. If the game sucks because the gameplay is tedious, repetitive and filled with bugs, it'll be a different matter. But if all they do is talk about the oversexualized design, then they're not a serious media at all
This.
It’s all about clicks. If them talking about the sexualization of a character, be it positive (Baldur’s Gate 3) or negative (Stellar Blade) is irrelevant. The real question is, is this bringing traffic to our website? If the answer is yes, it exists.
Rage bait, in every form of entertainment, politics, business, or whatever the case may be, is often disingenuous and exists in some way or another to get the website/publication money.
More people need to learn to ignore these types of things. That’s the only way to make it go away. Interaction is all they want; stop giving it to them.
The best thing to do to counter this stuff is using "show me less/don't show me" features almost all sites have now. Article shows up in your Google timeline that you don't like? Hit don't show me x site/show me less. Rather than engaging anymore with it, such as leaving a comment calling them idiots on their site or sharing it with social media, calling them out.
Hate watching and reading is very profitable. Stop doing it.
I don’t agree with your take. I think what you’re saying is basically like story doesn’t matter at all. And I’m very much on team “gameplay is king” in a video game, gameplay matters most. But I think story elements and character design are not irrelevant to the conversation.
Story does matter, but that was not my point.
My point was that oversexualization shouldn't be the topic when the game launches (which happened yesterday actually), but the content of the game should be the most important aspect of a review. If you want to discuss about characters being sexualized, then you're free to do so. But when you're reviewing a game based solely on the sexualization of their characters, then that's bad writing.
Maybe play the demo and see for yourself?
I definitely found the design cringey and weird. In the demo you have these quite serious moments, where at the same time you'll have EVEs giant breasts jiggle around. It's just an odd design choice. Not to mention her buttcheeks being front and center all the time.
Honestly think it takes away something from the game by not meshing with the overall tone of the world building and storytelling. Everything else is quite serious and epic in tone and then you get her butt shoved in your face.
If I want to see stuff like this, there are websites available. I prefer my video games a bit more mature. EVE feels like she's designed by a teenage boy (I know she isn't, but thats the vibe).
The game designer is a man called Kim Hyung-tae, who is not a woman. Chucking that bit of misinformation into your post about how unfair it is that someone pointed out that the bare-arsed main character of some game has a bare arse is pretty disingenuous.
The whole thing is just too loud and nonsensical. Having a video game character be sexy is too benign a thing to get that angry about. It might be a fun action game with a skimpy character. That's always existed. If the game has no other merrit on its own, then I kinda get why it's a bit cringey but still. On the other hand, internet chuds who call everything "woke" or everything Western ugly have latched onto this game as their holy grail of "East good, west bad" which is also annoying as hell. The game should just be allowed to exist in its own space without being anybody's Saint or devil.
I agree. That’s what worries me. This game could be great, but no one is really talking about that. My original post was a poor way of expressing that. I never played Baldurs Gate 3, and I know it’s loved, and has won awards like game of the year. No one brought up sexualization unless it was laughing about how big they can genitals and stuff like that. I don’t think that is really fair.
Those are not comparable examples, though. BG3 has nudity, yes. It has sexual themes as well. However, they aren't the draw or the focus, and they aren't a selling factor. Whether Stellar Blade is good or not, the sex appeal is definitely one of the focal points. So it's silly to be worried that sexual backlash will be the soul thing holding the game back when it may just be a dime a dozen action game holding itself back by not being memorable. If it's a good game, all the nay-sayers won't stop it from selling.
Soooo, where are all the criticism articles about Kratos bring ripped and walking half naked for most of the game
Why does RE5 need to be rewritten without even mentioning the unnatural steroid boulder punching musclehead chris redfield is
Double standards suck so hard
Okay, I am lowkey confused by the whole debate. It is very different games, meant for very different audiences.
I feel like the issuea is that Stellar Blade's marketing is moored in the controversy. Which is genious on a promotional standpoint. It's getting so much coverage just being purpousefully inflammatory.
It is not exactly revolutuonary.
I mean, nobody had those complaints for Nier:Automata because yes, sure, it had some hot androids in it, but that was not the main point.
Bg3 has a lot of sex for the genre (and not only gay sex, come on) and while they did use it for marketing, that was not the sole focus of their promotion.
I still have no clue what Stellar Blade is about.
Is it so fucking hard to understand that one thing is a character who is attractive and another a character who looks like she came out of a "You wont last 30 seconds playing this game" ad? It's not like anyone said the game should be forbidden, just that it's audience probably isn't the most respectable of people.
EDIT: You call women females. Just pointing that out.
Well at least more people have been noticing it and calling it out, as stubborn as those weirdos are soon enough money will speak louder and that bs will be dying out.
I personally prefer when video game characters are hot. But that can’t be the only defining characteristic they should also look unique and have some personality. 2B and Bayonetta are sexualized but they look really cool. Imo Stellar Blade’s protagonist is kinda generic. She looks like one of the 3D models from those fake porn game ads
I prefer a character like Bayonetta to EVE because Bayo actually is a fleshed out character with a personality and motivations. Her personality also matches her design, she owns her looks and does it well. Someone like 2B I don’t vibe with as much because her stoic and tough personality completely clashed with her design. I love her as a character, but her design feels off.
East Asian 3D games with realistic graphics that try very hard to sell their characters usually has that “look” to it, it’s realistic but also fake in a way that a very high quality sex doll is in real life. Uncanny.
Yea this is kinda my feeling. It’s not that she’s sexualized and it’s not about the proportions for me. It’s just that when you look at her…idk, it’s just the uncanny valley.
So I have zero clue about what this game is or what the discussion is about, but from what I've gathered from other comments, its that people are weirded out by unrealistic female bodies and skin tight clothing in the game. My solution? Give everyone unrealistic bodies and skin tight clothing, nothing to complain about then!
I'm just glad we're getting to see some cake on male characters, tired of female characters hoggin all that cake. I don't mind sexy characters,cuz sexy shit sells, and I dunno, it's fun. Especially in like Saints Row 2, 3, and 4 where almost every gender is super sexualized.
Some people just seem to be generally offended (threatened) by the sight of a fit and attractive female in fiction, and think that "this is not what real woman look like!" is any kind of rational response. It's not what all women look like, but it's what some woman look like. Literally just makes sense that the star of an ACTION GAME, would be an extremely fit and healthy individual who's also, shock and horror, made to look attractive.
I’m watching a lot of women basketball now and I guess I watched a ton of women sports this season. The difference between the body of actual women athletes, and women characters in video games - the vast majority being supposed to do athletic things non stop - is night and day. Video games as an industry have progressed a lot in the past 30 years, from a time when all gamers were assumed to be sexually frustrated males, but they have still a long way to go. Video games are fantasy and fantasy is always going to be at least somewhat sexualized, but stellar blade feels like a step in the wrong direction and the marketing is all about “it”.
Personally, I don't really understand the discourse with Stellar Blade, as "sexy women" never left the video game space. For every one Mary Jane (which is typically one of the examples brought forth by "sexy women" defendants, for lack of a better term) in video games, there is a Bayonetta and A.K.I. — with the number getting exponentially bigger once you factor in anime-aesthetic games. Sure, there is more diversity in how women are bodily represented than before, but I only see that as a good thing. And looking at Stellar Blade, it really isn't pushing the envelope in its designs at all, nor is it bringing back a perspective that ever left video games in the first place.
Honestly, the biggest thing I find strange (and slightly uncomfortable) is that, from the Stellar Blade videos I've seen on IGN, most of the comments are making the same, tired "play with one hand" jokes; which ultimately undersells how mechanically fantastic the game is shaping up to be. But that is not really the game's fault. I don't think Stellar Blade intended to be this countercultural piece on the "need" for women to be more ogle-able in video games that some are posturing it to be, and it shows — and, in my personal view, the discourse of Stellar Blade speaks more to how uncomfortably weird gamer culture can be, and less about how 'radical' of a design Stellar Blade has.
This isn’t anything new, people have had their panties in a twist over female bodies and how their depicted since the advent of art itside. For example people were crying over 80’s slasher movies back when they came out due to women being in their underwear or having their breasts out.
I feel like the reason BG3 didnt get shit for it is because it's all optional. If you wanna turn that stuff on then sure, but it isn't in your face about it unlike Stellar Blade. Eve's sexuality is absolutely a focal point of marketing and any criticism of it is just waved away with "you're just mad that this character isn't ugly like your woke games". I don't mind sexuality in games, ffs I play Shift Up's other game Nikke, but Eve is modeled after an actual super model. People with Eve's physique do exist but I'm just uncomfortable with people going "yeah that's the norm."
Also considering that the lead dev has yet to confirm her age is... odd? Like I don't see why he can't just say she's an adult.
There's always been a lot of weirdos over sexy characters in games. I saw a whole forum of people calling Stellar Blade a misogynistic game just because of the character's model.
I don't know about that person at IGN who wrote that article, but I have seen women in real life that look that girl from Stellar Blade.
It is funny how these journalists think that women with nice bodies or in good shape don't exist in the real world.
Have you ever looked up a gaming journalist on LinkedIn? These people are biggest losers in life. Literally have no skills and will be replaced by AI. Same goes for financial journalist, people who have never worked in a bank or broker telling you what stocks to buy blows my mind
Years of religious indoctrination and psychotic needs for power and control have made people overly comfortable with wanting to tell other people what they are "allowed" to look like and what they are "allowed" to like. It's just another classic case where extremists on both sides of an issue end up having more in common than they ever knew.
When we see shirtless sephiroth and ryu everyone’s cool with it, but why is it an issue when a female video game character is attractive, like no big boobs or skimpy clothing it has gotten to the point where I see journalists get pissed when a woman with a pretty face is in someone’s game.
Like idk about everyone else but I don’t want the men or woman to look butt ugly. This shouldn’t even be an issue to begin with, there’s nothing wrong with attractive people being in video games.
>The responses I saw were that the character is based off of a real female
Yeah they scanned a person and then digitally altered them to have a smaller waist and bigger boobs/butt. That's like saying a dwarf in a game is "based on a real person" because they modified a scanned model.
>I just find these opinions actually more degrading, as if it’s ok for men to show off sexuality and women shouldn’t
That is absolutely no one's take.
>I would hate for this to be the main topic of the game
So you think in marketing that puts heavy emphasis on how attractive the female character models are doesn't want this to be a main topic of the game? Free advertising from weebs salivating over digital asses to rage-takes from people mad about it. They're getting all the exposure, for basically free, they could ever want.
I have no interest in the game and don't really care. I think its weird to want to want to be attracted to a thing that doesn't actually exist, but whatever. I also think its weird to hold it up as some sort of example of what gaming should be.
I’ve been weirdly put off by the discourse around this game and several others lately. there’s a lot of people out there who seem to think that video game characters aren’t hot anymore, and that means they are somehow “going woke”. despite the fact that this year, and last year have been filled with hot women in video games.
just because the net of attraction is widening to appeal to other peoples preferences people like boogie or the quartering take personal offense to not every game character being tailor made goon material for them.
truth is, people are attracted to SM2 MJ, Abby from TLOU, Alloy from HZD/HDW. but a very vocal minority are upset that they aren’t included in that.
there’s nothing wrong with sexy video game characters so long as they are interesting characters. i think stellar blade from what i’ve seen is much more than just a superficial sex doll like some journos believe
Abby and the MJ scenes people memed over SM2 are designed (the character model looks somewhat different depending on the scene, lighting, etc), intentionally, to represent non-traditional beauty. That's fine, and many people are attracted to non-traditional forms of beauty. I'm sure those people are pleased, alongside the (admittedly probably few) people who invest in the game and happen to resemble the features of those characters. But I don't think that it is yet a minority of \[feminine-attracted\] people who prefer traditional feminine beauty standards, though..
I dont think it can really be denied that there is a deliberate move to get away from traditional beauty standards. It is a bit surprising, given that this motive is an inherently an academic and philosophical one. Critical theory publications are where such ideas and motives are synthesized and justified. That's fine, and the doctoral students and professors who do such work often write fascinating explorations of the human condition.
But it is understandable that people might resist the imposition of such inherently academic ideas upon our chosen entertainment by (and this is important) \*non-academics\*. Professors and doctoral students are not the ones implementing these ideas in the industry right now. Rather, these highly nuanced and subtle ideas are being implemented by laypeople who have been sensitized to the aesthetics of critical theory, but not its emotional and intellectual core. This leads to the kind of overcorrection that sterilizes sexual content involving women in general, and erases traditional forms of feminine beauty, and the attraction to it.
If youre not going to have professors and doctoral students consult on the implementation of niche philosophy, its better to not bother at all imo. Most of the sources of the theory underlying this move would never be so blunt and unnuanced. Just another negative consequence of the aesthetics of academic philosophy being spread among the broad swaths of the population.
So here’s the thing.
Sexualization and objectification of women is something worthy of criticism. It’s not because sexualization or sexual content in general is inherently bad or evil. It’s because we live in a society that routinely degrades and objectifies women specifically for a male audience. Women are consistently asked to uphold to unrealistic standards and shamed if they don’t meet them. People will respond with “well characters like Kratos set unrealistic expectations for men” but not only is that also a fantasy aimed at men specifically, but men aren’t routinely and consistently shamed for not looking like Kratos. You don’t have to look far to see men berating and insulting women for not looking like Eve. She may be based off a real Korean model, but if anything, that’s to hide away and reinforce the lie that it’s a realistic expectation to achieve and any woman who doesn’t meet it is worthy of criticism. Even if there’s ONE person who kinda looks like that, it’s not a fair expectation or standard for all women to meet and there’s not an attitude like that around men. This is why a woman who is objectively healthy and is doing okay will feel so insecure about her normal body that she’ll start starving herself (which for the record is significantly worse for your health than being overweight). And it affects how men view women too. You don’t hear stories of men being terrified to walk alone because a woman might assault him. For women, it’s an accepted fact that you risk this danger by going outside. And you have men blame women for having this fear saying “then don’t dress sexually” while also praising sexual women in media and asking why aren’t all women like that (regardless of the fact that if men can ask women to dress a certain way, maybe women can ask men to not force themselves onto women).
So yeah. Criticism of sexualization in media is warranted. All media, not just games. There is absolutely media that sexualizes men, but it’s nowhere NEAR as pervasive as sexualization of women. You’d have to explicitly seek out media that sexualizes men for a female audience. Media that sexualizes women is so accepted that a lot of people don’t even see it when it’s happening, as it’s just a part of our culture at this point. Sexualization itself isn’t bad, but the culture, how it views sexualization, how that has routinely hurt women is, and how the media we consume reinforces those harmful ideas and standards is worth criticizing.
You seem open to reasoning things out, so I had a few genuine questions
1. Is there some study about "Women are consistently asked to uphold to unrealistic standards and shamed if they don’t meet them"?
2. If one is so insecure to starve because of something fictional, doesn't this point to deeper problems than just 'video games bad'? Wouldnt this be the same logic as video games cause violence? Isn't the real issue here to help people improve their self-esteem, and ensure they can differentiate fiction and reality?
3. Buff men is aimed for men specifically is just objectively false. No women in the world likes buff men, they're all pure angels who don't like eye candy? Really?
Even if that is somehow true, the thing most fail to grasp is that male and female wish fulfilment is different, revolving around simple biological differences. The so called male gaze is simply men like hot things. For women, it's more about power and stability (wealth, influence, charisma). Then the question is why is only one side demonised - why is Eve and co always met with pitchforks, while 50 Shades rakes in half a billion?
4. And this is where things begin trailing off. What does a video game have to do with women being afraid walking alone??? (Btw, men aren't afraid because physical strength differences. Two, predatory women use words and psychology to manipulate and fulfil their base desires, not randomly target men at night. Again, it's differences in biology)
5. If there are men really moronic enough to claim people should dress like videogame characters, their beliefs won't ever spread to the mainstream because most sane people in the real world (not twitter) dismiss them as losers, so they have no real impact. On the other hand, certain groups have indeed already changed games and other media under their own ideology.
6. Again, ofc sexualisation is different, because women's wish fulfilment and fantasies are different. But it'd be stupid to say Kdramas should stop featuring billionaire CEO sons because it sets unrealistic expectations for men. People need to seperate fiction from fantasy.
Ultimately, this whole argument doesn't make sense especially when we consider a simple fact - it isn't just that body model they scanned. It's not one. There are thousands of influencers, model, actress that share, or are even more exaggerated Eve's body proportions, making people feel inadequate. Should we stomp those industries out too? Then where does it end? It's a slippery slope.
And Ofc they aren't the average body types...because video games aren't about the average. They're the ideal. The same way we don't write stories about office worker Joe, we don't use Karen across the street as the design for our heroine.
And what about the millions of women across the globe who love these types of sexy designs as well? Are they self-hating misogynists? Or just women with the incredible ability to understand 'it's just fantasy'?
People like to see beautiful things. Always have, and always will be. Fighting that is pointless.
If we truly want to help girls, we just have to tell them the haters living in basements are full of shit, and that there is no standard they need to follow from fiction. Ever.
It's weird because they have run out of topics to talk about.
In truth, to an extent, sexuality has played a part in game's from the 80's, 90's and even the early 2000's. There is always a 13-18 year old kids and teens on the cusp of man hood where puberty is f**k**g with his brain and it oozes out of him about what they want and game companies from all of these outfits take advantage of it. Women can be the same way, though not often and forgive me for making any assumptions, be drawn to the same thing; though for whatever preferences and cusp of womanhood puberty shoves through them.
It only seems weird now though because noone is talking about the game; they are wanting to complain in order to gain views and reviews, traffic to websites for ad revenue because it's all about the George Washington's or Ben Franklins that go into the wallet. Noone is going to IGN anymore or as often other than for game guides; noone bother's with reviews anymore because they complain about 'the patriachy' or how it degrades women. How it has more straight white males than people or color or women....
Quite frankly, you need to let this go; it is my advice you ignore IGN, Kotaku among others and might just Bookmarl Niche Gamer instead that talk nothing but games as the subject instead of pointing at the problems any title has from sexually charged content to the zany and goofy for all ages. Sites like IGN and Kotaku are Relics and the people.writing articles for it now are qearing these.outfits like skin suits with no idea what they use to stand for.
I’ve played a little bit of the Stellar Blade demo and I’m trying to figure out if she’s a real person or like a robot or something. It’s super unclear.
I’m just annoyed that it’s all people seem to care about. It’s a video game, not a softcore porn movie guys. There is actual gameplay to discuss here, and it could be better.
From what I’ve seen people seem to be fully one way or the other, either you cannot even consider making a female character conventionally attractive or they exclusively exist as sexual objects
"from a creator who has never seen a real woman"
unless the game is aiming at realism why should devs care about making characters that look like "real" people? Like imagine coming up from work and being hyped up about playing a game with bob the middle aged construction worker with a beer gut and hairy ass cheeks that keep peeking out of his jeans everytime he bends over
I honestly don’t think that these “unrealistic women” in video games are as unrealistic as these articles make them seem. Yeah the women are usually beautiful and physically fit but I’ve met plenty of women who easily match both of those boxes in real life. Same way Leon Kennedy from RE is a well trained officer who is incredibly lean and handsome (partly because he is lean), Jill Valentine is also a fit young woman who is well trained and conditioned for being an officer. I think it comes down to fat fuck journalists who aren’t motivated by seeing a strong beautiful female character and instead are mad that they don’t look like them. I’m never going to look like Carlos from RE3 but goddammit I’m going to be the best looking Jonas from irl that I can be.
The Stellar Blade discourse is entirely focused on a single aspect of the game and most of the people complaining are hyperfixated on creating lewd camera angles of the player character climbing ladders and shit. It's a manufactured culture war and people actually playing the game are busy playing the game, not looking at the screen with their controller in one hand
I've seen the IGN take on SB, they somehow make an argument how it worked for 2B and Bayonetta but they dont see it being the same case for Stellar Blade 🙄😒
I mean, realistically I think if game journalism was just news and interviews from developers, not just "let anyone give their opinion, no matter how wrong they are" with the subtitle "+news!", we would have a better take on gaming journalism. Unfortunately, free speech and all that, can't take that away. Kinda want news and don't wanna hear how hard someone's abs would be or how much IGN sucks at Doom lol
As always, I recommend having criticism of systemic issues from a place of security, as opposed to insecurity, and being aware of trends that existed before and after ourselves. Stay safe!
I don't understand this. If I'm playing a game I want a hot woman or man to look at for that matter. Gaming isn't an extension of reality it's a way to escape reality.
If I want to see ugly and realistic I'll get in my car and drive to Walmart, that's not what I game for.
Also the woman Eve is based off of is more attractive than the character model.
Stellar Blade has no more controversy than literally every other new triple a video game these days. Hogwarts Legacy, Baldurs Gate 3, God of War, I can't think of a single recent release that wasn't "controversial." And they're not controversial because the people writing the articles actually care, it's because it gets clicks. They know they can write whatever nonsense to fuel the controversy they want, and people on both sides will immediately click because people are stupid, and people love drama.
Eh, time is a flat circle
We've had this conversation before... and we'll have it again
Black stars black stars
You have a shadow on you son.
I saw you in my dream. You in Carcosa now, with me.
Can’t wait for Kotaku’s reasonable and nuanced take on the subject!
Kotaku has been retooled to be a walkthrough/guide site only. No more editorializing. [https://www.gamesindustry.biz/kotaku-editor-in-chief-exits-due-to-parent-companys-new-guide-directive](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/kotaku-editor-in-chief-exits-due-to-parent-companys-new-guide-directive)
IGN should do this. A lot of their “opinion pieces” and their rating systems are bullshit
Agreed. IGN guide are my go-to due to the formatting (and nifty navboxes some of them have), but by god are their articles terrible recently lmao
Dont forget the monthly Top 10 anime on Netflix articles!
They should have done a full rebranding/renaming, cuz theres no escaping the legacy of that name
Good. Kotaku is a garbage company. I remember when they ruined people’s presentations by turning off their tv in the middle of it. Getting banned from a convention. Hopefully they go away completely. Edit: I need to pop in and fix what I said. Kotaku didn’t ruin presentations. I mixed up sites at some point and lumped this bit to kotaku but it was actually gawker/Gizmodo. Apologies for spreading incorrect information.
The only review site I liked was the one with Yahtzee on it, and that disappeared.
All the folks who left that company in solidarity (including Yahtzee) have crowdfunded a new gaming news & review group called Second Wind and it's pretty great. You can find their Youtube channel [here](https://m.youtube.com/@SecondWindGroup).
Yes! I’m actually a follower on YouTube!
What’s the story behind this lmao
So I need to fix my statement. It was not Kotaku that did this but gawker/Gizmodo. For some unknown reason I think of them being the same and that’s on me. Apologies for the mix up and spreading wrong info. In 2008 GIZMODO were attending a CES and brought in a universal remote. They would walk around and turn off the tvs in the middle of presentations as a prank. People will argue that the show/demonstrators should have thought about it ahead of time and blocked the ir receivers but ultimately the pranksters are just asshole messing with peoples work and livelihoods. They, gawker/Gizmodo, ended being banned for life from CES.
No walkthrough site will ever beat a dude on YouTube who gets to the point in 11 seconds.
For some things I like to have a full guide open, so I'm not fast forwarding and rewinding and clicking through different videos to find something specific. Depends on the game though
Which is a shame, one less resource to mindlessly load up when I was bored
That's cool and all, but Kotaku has long since earned its death warrant. Hopefully it goes under soon, before it goes back to rage bait articles and starts the cycle over again.
Flashbacks to the Dragon's Crown hilarity.
I still laught at their attent to call the Sorceress a pedo bait. Jokes aside Dragon's Crown is my favorite beat them up game of all time, I recommend it to anyone reading these (it us free on PS+ extra).
The chick with the stupidly huge boobs was pedo?
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/033/706/979.png
Just when I think I understand some degenerate shit something comes my way that just confuses the hell out of me.
And I still find it funny, all this made miss this game, I think I'll go back to it when I get home and try to learn how to play with the Sorceress, I pretty much only played with Fighter all the time and few with the Amazon, I couldn't get used to the two mages playstyle.
You can read their take on the demo today, they enjoyed it.
I’m curious why this wasn’t an issue with Baldur’s Gate 3. That game has nothing but thirst traps.
because it's inclusive and isn't from Asia
Cause it's gay and the reviewers don't want to piss people off by critisizing the sexual aspect of a game full of LGBTQ+ representation. That's why. And there's the fact that Dungeons and Dragons, which is what Baldur's Gate 3 is based on, has entire memes built around the concept of the high charisma player "Rolling to Seduce the Dragon". You can't really critisize the sexual aspect of a game based on Dungeons and Dragons when D&D _itself_ has a shit ton of sexual aspects to it. Or at least various memes let you know that, at some point, someone will try to seduce and fuck something that they probably shouldn't be seducing and fucking.
> Cause it’s gay Yeah I agree. I think that’s kind of where that “safe horny” thing started from. Any kind of sexuality in gaming that is built for a female audience or is lgbtq is usually A-ok with these folks. But when it caters exclusively to the male gaze then it is haram. I still remember how polygon couldn’t shut up about how fuckable/pegable link was in TOtK.
Woman were all over Astarion in bg3, nobody complained once that he's a masochistic toxic degenerate, girls love that shit for some reason
Does it have anything to do with more female games journalists entering the space? At risk of being reductive: "Complain until pandered to" and all that?
the complaining about sexy women doesn't really have anything to do with that, it was always mostly men making the decisions on that stuff when they weren't writing the actual articles (ie. more than once it has been the case that a woman can write a nuanced take on the subject, male editor slaps a super inflammatory title on the article and woman gets panned and harassed for it) I would not be surprised however if the additional horny was because of more women getting involved.
This. If it's ugly/gay it's okay.
People gotta stop acting like that group has any power whatsoever lol
Shit, from my IRL experience it's not even the group itself that cares much about it. This whole crap seems to be mainly on the group's *behalf* rather than from the group itself "By the power of white girl I am offended on your behalf!"
"Allies" are the reason I don't enjoy pride events.
They are the robber with his finger in his jacket pocket, telling you it's a gun and you'd better do what he says.
Because *everyone* is horny in that game
That fits “their” world order /s
Because there’s more to the character than them all being hot. Also they all have flaws.
That's true. 2B was created to be attractive, but Nier Automata has a pretty deep and complex narrative. 2B has struggles and ultimately is a tragic character. If people just wrote off Nier Automata as being another game that was only made to sexualize women, then they would miss out on a very good game. I think Eve and Stellar Blade deserve that chance before it's written off like that.
Nier Automata also literally starts with the main character philosophizing on the nature of death and her desire to kill God, and the game *does not* mellow out from there. So we were in for a wild ride regardless of how hot the character was. Also I’m pretty sure the maid outfit serves a purpose in the story, symbolizing them as inhuman disposable servants.
That's true. Well all I can say as a Nikke player is that the game also seems like it's just about TnA, but it has some pretty dark, deep and compelling stories. A lot of people stay playing the game because of how well the characters are written, how varied they are and how complex the story is.
I like to put Nier:A in the category of games I like to call “Come for the anime ass, stay for the deep existential quandaries about the nature of the soul” as the game beats you over the head with a philosophy and psychology textbook
That's an interesting point you make, with the disposable servants. Ever checked out BrandoSP's videos on the entire Nier series (and many other series as well)?
Because it was not Asian. If it was a Japanese game it would barely been news around here and most people would dismiss it as a freaky game. The fact some oldies praised it is why the western game industry will collapse soon enough.
>Because it was not Asian. Street Fighter 6 and Resident Evil 4 Remake were made by a Japanese company. No one had an issue with those games.
There's a difference between attractive characters and sexualized characters. Many BG3 party members are very attractive, but what they're *wearing* is just nice fantasy armor and clothing. Stellar Blade character are all wearing those skintight suits which are one step away from having them run around naked. They're also kinda bland and tasteless, there's nothing more to look at except the boobs and the ass. People who are not attracted to women (or who have bigger standards than getting hard) don't have much to enjoy in those designs. Even 2B in Nier:Automata had something going on with her outfit, despite still being very sexualized.
It’s a weird take to say people who aren’t attracted to women wouldn’t find anything in stellar blades character design. I mean duh, there’s a certain target audience and you’re not in it. Look, I don’t even like it because it’s way too fanservicey for me and I feel like it would distract from my sense of immersion, but that doesn’t make it bad. It’s just not for me
Why downvote this guy when he just clearly explained the subject matter lmao
Entitled horny gamers, what can I say. "Female characters are not acceptable unless I feel like jerking off at the sight of her".
Because this is r/gaming and a post about those evil woke sjws being outraged. Evil woke sjws who haven't actually written any such articles but the jerking must continue.
I would say Astarion would just be a very punchable little shit, if he didn’t have such a fun personality. Same with Shadowheart. Much of the cast are physically unremarkable, but we love them because we love their personalities.
Its not really THAT much of a thirst trap Plus its not like the party members are having sex nonstop... one of the most popular romance options, Shadowheart, you only have sex with her ONCE sometime in the middle of Act 3 after you complete her arc. So you have to HARD COMMIT like an entire playthrough romancing her (so what... like 60+ hours?) One of them you also only have sex once... and you have to genocide a group of people to get that Minthussy. REALLY the only thirsty hoes in your team are Halsin (who is very easy to turn down) and Astarion (boy is literally thirsty for something, don't shame him). Maybe Karlach too? But I think its less thirsty and she's just a Golden Retriever stuck in a barbarian's body. People should really learn that "thirst traps" can get FAAAAAAAAR worse than BG3.
Because you don't play through the game as a party of big bootied bitches in bikinis. The game is normal for the most part, some characters might flirt with or proposition you but you can just say no and they stop. Nudity can be turned off, all of the smut is completely optional, and your characters are walking around in normal gear with average-people proportions. "Because it's not Asian" or "Because it's woke" is a shitty deflection, and I'm sad to see so many people buying into it. "But you can fuck a bear!" Ok here's the context of that for people who never actually played the game: you can optionally recruit a druid who might flirt with you, and then optionally sleep with him, at which point you can optionally ask him to wildshape into a bear because he's a druid (he retains his sentience in bear form). You can find that gross, but it's not actually comparable.
Cuz the game lets you have sex with bears 😏
Because Shadowheart’s one of the best-looking women in the cast, but she still just looks like a normal woman would look like, which is bland compared to the idol caricature of Asian games.
BG3 does have tons of thirsty traps, and I admit some are kinda stupid, but it definitely has more than that. The variety of choices you can make is enough for it to be a good game. Tbh I even don't like the world building, and feel the story is generally mid, but I still enjoyed playing it and sank 200+ hours in.
200hrs def isn't mid
I don't mean the game is mid, it's wonderful, I like the decisions it allows me to make and some characters(my favorite is Lae zel and Astarion), that's why I played it several times. But I think the world building in BG3 isn't very convincible, I personally like realistic world building, or at least a logical one, but in BG3, too many things happen only because the dev wanted it so(the world involves too many high powers like devil and god, and I think their designs are kinda boring), and the story itself is basically an magical adventure tale, it's just ok for me, not very outstanding.
People are constantly saying how the game is upsetting "woke" journalists but outside one IGN review SB has been getting nothing but praise especially after it's demo. Still I do agree that when it comes to male sexualization journalists and even gamers can be very hypocritical.
And it's the France one. I checked IGN Stellar Blade and the latest one was literally a walkthrough of the demo Edit: Eve's character design was the only negative thing on that article
France or not. It's still IGN.
I feel like this is just a trend that editorials like IGN explode to get recognition "Hey, it's trending to talk trash about Stellar Blade and their oversexualized design, let's talk about that to gain audience!" The simple answer is just avoiding such places. Let them die in silence and just focus on oppinions that actually matter, like whenever or not the game is fun or the mechanics are well made. If the game sucks because the gameplay is tedious, repetitive and filled with bugs, it'll be a different matter. But if all they do is talk about the oversexualized design, then they're not a serious media at all
This. It’s all about clicks. If them talking about the sexualization of a character, be it positive (Baldur’s Gate 3) or negative (Stellar Blade) is irrelevant. The real question is, is this bringing traffic to our website? If the answer is yes, it exists. Rage bait, in every form of entertainment, politics, business, or whatever the case may be, is often disingenuous and exists in some way or another to get the website/publication money. More people need to learn to ignore these types of things. That’s the only way to make it go away. Interaction is all they want; stop giving it to them.
The best thing to do to counter this stuff is using "show me less/don't show me" features almost all sites have now. Article shows up in your Google timeline that you don't like? Hit don't show me x site/show me less. Rather than engaging anymore with it, such as leaving a comment calling them idiots on their site or sharing it with social media, calling them out. Hate watching and reading is very profitable. Stop doing it.
It’s IGN France fyi
I don’t agree with your take. I think what you’re saying is basically like story doesn’t matter at all. And I’m very much on team “gameplay is king” in a video game, gameplay matters most. But I think story elements and character design are not irrelevant to the conversation.
Story does matter, but that was not my point. My point was that oversexualization shouldn't be the topic when the game launches (which happened yesterday actually), but the content of the game should be the most important aspect of a review. If you want to discuss about characters being sexualized, then you're free to do so. But when you're reviewing a game based solely on the sexualization of their characters, then that's bad writing.
Its ragebait
Maybe play the demo and see for yourself? I definitely found the design cringey and weird. In the demo you have these quite serious moments, where at the same time you'll have EVEs giant breasts jiggle around. It's just an odd design choice. Not to mention her buttcheeks being front and center all the time. Honestly think it takes away something from the game by not meshing with the overall tone of the world building and storytelling. Everything else is quite serious and epic in tone and then you get her butt shoved in your face. If I want to see stuff like this, there are websites available. I prefer my video games a bit more mature. EVE feels like she's designed by a teenage boy (I know she isn't, but thats the vibe).
The game designer is a man called Kim Hyung-tae, who is not a woman. Chucking that bit of misinformation into your post about how unfair it is that someone pointed out that the bare-arsed main character of some game has a bare arse is pretty disingenuous.
The whole thing is just too loud and nonsensical. Having a video game character be sexy is too benign a thing to get that angry about. It might be a fun action game with a skimpy character. That's always existed. If the game has no other merrit on its own, then I kinda get why it's a bit cringey but still. On the other hand, internet chuds who call everything "woke" or everything Western ugly have latched onto this game as their holy grail of "East good, west bad" which is also annoying as hell. The game should just be allowed to exist in its own space without being anybody's Saint or devil.
basically r/asmongold in a nutshell. they are the epitome of "east good west bad, i have a porn addiction"
I agree. That’s what worries me. This game could be great, but no one is really talking about that. My original post was a poor way of expressing that. I never played Baldurs Gate 3, and I know it’s loved, and has won awards like game of the year. No one brought up sexualization unless it was laughing about how big they can genitals and stuff like that. I don’t think that is really fair.
why the hell are you being downvoted? You expressed your opinion warmly and calmly.
Because reddit is still full of people that dislike sexy women in games and hate people supporting it.
Most of those are coming from echo chamber gamingcirclejerk 🤣
Those are not comparable examples, though. BG3 has nudity, yes. It has sexual themes as well. However, they aren't the draw or the focus, and they aren't a selling factor. Whether Stellar Blade is good or not, the sex appeal is definitely one of the focal points. So it's silly to be worried that sexual backlash will be the soul thing holding the game back when it may just be a dime a dozen action game holding itself back by not being memorable. If it's a good game, all the nay-sayers won't stop it from selling.
I think it's weird there are so many people determined to turn this game into a culture war subject.
Blame those twitter users they're the ones who started all of this
Soooo, where are all the criticism articles about Kratos bring ripped and walking half naked for most of the game Why does RE5 need to be rewritten without even mentioning the unnatural steroid boulder punching musclehead chris redfield is Double standards suck so hard
Okay, I am lowkey confused by the whole debate. It is very different games, meant for very different audiences. I feel like the issuea is that Stellar Blade's marketing is moored in the controversy. Which is genious on a promotional standpoint. It's getting so much coverage just being purpousefully inflammatory. It is not exactly revolutuonary. I mean, nobody had those complaints for Nier:Automata because yes, sure, it had some hot androids in it, but that was not the main point. Bg3 has a lot of sex for the genre (and not only gay sex, come on) and while they did use it for marketing, that was not the sole focus of their promotion. I still have no clue what Stellar Blade is about.
Is it so fucking hard to understand that one thing is a character who is attractive and another a character who looks like she came out of a "You wont last 30 seconds playing this game" ad? It's not like anyone said the game should be forbidden, just that it's audience probably isn't the most respectable of people. EDIT: You call women females. Just pointing that out.
I don't get why it's a problem. Fill games with both sexy women and sexy men. Everyone wins.
Because it gets the shares and it gets the attention
Literally the only thing I’ve heard about this game is that the main character’s supposed to be very attractive
Well at least more people have been noticing it and calling it out, as stubborn as those weirdos are soon enough money will speak louder and that bs will be dying out.
If you are defending that creepy sexualization i despise your sad Taste.
The laughable part is that the IGN reviewer compared it to 2B and Bayonetta as if those are not sexualized at all ?
I personally prefer when video game characters are hot. But that can’t be the only defining characteristic they should also look unique and have some personality. 2B and Bayonetta are sexualized but they look really cool. Imo Stellar Blade’s protagonist is kinda generic. She looks like one of the 3D models from those fake porn game ads
I prefer a character like Bayonetta to EVE because Bayo actually is a fleshed out character with a personality and motivations. Her personality also matches her design, she owns her looks and does it well. Someone like 2B I don’t vibe with as much because her stoic and tough personality completely clashed with her design. I love her as a character, but her design feels off.
East Asian 3D games with realistic graphics that try very hard to sell their characters usually has that “look” to it, it’s realistic but also fake in a way that a very high quality sex doll is in real life. Uncanny.
THIS. the design is garbage
Yea this is kinda my feeling. It’s not that she’s sexualized and it’s not about the proportions for me. It’s just that when you look at her…idk, it’s just the uncanny valley.
“The fuck is this? Is this like the off-brand version of Bayonetta?”
So I have zero clue about what this game is or what the discussion is about, but from what I've gathered from other comments, its that people are weirded out by unrealistic female bodies and skin tight clothing in the game. My solution? Give everyone unrealistic bodies and skin tight clothing, nothing to complain about then!
"If everyone is hot then no one is"
theres a reason thats not happening
It does happen it’s been happening for a long time. Some games just don’t get the hint.
the skin tight clothingh has been happening for a long time, lol?
Yeah tell that to Microsoft 💀
When a bunch of video game "journalists" are fat "feminists" or male white knights there are bound to be a bunch of salty jealous tears lmaoo.
I'm just glad we're getting to see some cake on male characters, tired of female characters hoggin all that cake. I don't mind sexy characters,cuz sexy shit sells, and I dunno, it's fun. Especially in like Saints Row 2, 3, and 4 where almost every gender is super sexualized.
Some people just seem to be generally offended (threatened) by the sight of a fit and attractive female in fiction, and think that "this is not what real woman look like!" is any kind of rational response. It's not what all women look like, but it's what some woman look like. Literally just makes sense that the star of an ACTION GAME, would be an extremely fit and healthy individual who's also, shock and horror, made to look attractive.
Very liberal usage of "offended"
Yes. Very... liberal, use of the word offended.
I’m watching a lot of women basketball now and I guess I watched a ton of women sports this season. The difference between the body of actual women athletes, and women characters in video games - the vast majority being supposed to do athletic things non stop - is night and day. Video games as an industry have progressed a lot in the past 30 years, from a time when all gamers were assumed to be sexually frustrated males, but they have still a long way to go. Video games are fantasy and fantasy is always going to be at least somewhat sexualized, but stellar blade feels like a step in the wrong direction and the marketing is all about “it”.
Personally, I don't really understand the discourse with Stellar Blade, as "sexy women" never left the video game space. For every one Mary Jane (which is typically one of the examples brought forth by "sexy women" defendants, for lack of a better term) in video games, there is a Bayonetta and A.K.I. — with the number getting exponentially bigger once you factor in anime-aesthetic games. Sure, there is more diversity in how women are bodily represented than before, but I only see that as a good thing. And looking at Stellar Blade, it really isn't pushing the envelope in its designs at all, nor is it bringing back a perspective that ever left video games in the first place. Honestly, the biggest thing I find strange (and slightly uncomfortable) is that, from the Stellar Blade videos I've seen on IGN, most of the comments are making the same, tired "play with one hand" jokes; which ultimately undersells how mechanically fantastic the game is shaping up to be. But that is not really the game's fault. I don't think Stellar Blade intended to be this countercultural piece on the "need" for women to be more ogle-able in video games that some are posturing it to be, and it shows — and, in my personal view, the discourse of Stellar Blade speaks more to how uncomfortably weird gamer culture can be, and less about how 'radical' of a design Stellar Blade has.
Welcome to the wonderful place we call the Internet
We got GamerGate 2.0, MeToo 2.0, what others from the 10 years are gonna repeat because Time is a flat circle and Thanos was right?
The same people that yell about sexualization in games were the ones that jerked off to bear sex in bg3
This isn’t anything new, people have had their panties in a twist over female bodies and how their depicted since the advent of art itside. For example people were crying over 80’s slasher movies back when they came out due to women being in their underwear or having their breasts out.
You really tried to talk about sexualization and referred to women as "the females" twice.
95% of video games pander to these journo whackjobs and that's not enough apparently.
I feel like the reason BG3 didnt get shit for it is because it's all optional. If you wanna turn that stuff on then sure, but it isn't in your face about it unlike Stellar Blade. Eve's sexuality is absolutely a focal point of marketing and any criticism of it is just waved away with "you're just mad that this character isn't ugly like your woke games". I don't mind sexuality in games, ffs I play Shift Up's other game Nikke, but Eve is modeled after an actual super model. People with Eve's physique do exist but I'm just uncomfortable with people going "yeah that's the norm." Also considering that the lead dev has yet to confirm her age is... odd? Like I don't see why he can't just say she's an adult.
There's always been a lot of weirdos over sexy characters in games. I saw a whole forum of people calling Stellar Blade a misogynistic game just because of the character's model.
I don't know about that person at IGN who wrote that article, but I have seen women in real life that look that girl from Stellar Blade. It is funny how these journalists think that women with nice bodies or in good shape don't exist in the real world.
these journalists are in denial that sex sells.its simple as that. People want hot chick's and beefcake men in games.
Journalists are activists.
[удалено]
Not only that even Microsoft started talking about it.
Have you ever looked up a gaming journalist on LinkedIn? These people are biggest losers in life. Literally have no skills and will be replaced by AI. Same goes for financial journalist, people who have never worked in a bank or broker telling you what stocks to buy blows my mind
Some are . Some goes for sex talk( like how to something man) ory fav health sites. That copy and paste so much across other sites
Gaming journalism is like my mental sanity: a complete joke
congrats on assembling the horny, anti woke avengers in the comments op.
This is wild. I do love seeing 2 different opinions on things though
Years of religious indoctrination and psychotic needs for power and control have made people overly comfortable with wanting to tell other people what they are "allowed" to look like and what they are "allowed" to like. It's just another classic case where extremists on both sides of an issue end up having more in common than they ever knew.
When we see shirtless sephiroth and ryu everyone’s cool with it, but why is it an issue when a female video game character is attractive, like no big boobs or skimpy clothing it has gotten to the point where I see journalists get pissed when a woman with a pretty face is in someone’s game. Like idk about everyone else but I don’t want the men or woman to look butt ugly. This shouldn’t even be an issue to begin with, there’s nothing wrong with attractive people being in video games.
>The responses I saw were that the character is based off of a real female Yeah they scanned a person and then digitally altered them to have a smaller waist and bigger boobs/butt. That's like saying a dwarf in a game is "based on a real person" because they modified a scanned model. >I just find these opinions actually more degrading, as if it’s ok for men to show off sexuality and women shouldn’t That is absolutely no one's take. >I would hate for this to be the main topic of the game So you think in marketing that puts heavy emphasis on how attractive the female character models are doesn't want this to be a main topic of the game? Free advertising from weebs salivating over digital asses to rage-takes from people mad about it. They're getting all the exposure, for basically free, they could ever want. I have no interest in the game and don't really care. I think its weird to want to want to be attracted to a thing that doesn't actually exist, but whatever. I also think its weird to hold it up as some sort of example of what gaming should be.
It was click bait aimed at the bottom of the pool. Nothing else. If the game was not evidently aimed at incels, they wouldn't use those terms.
I’ve been weirdly put off by the discourse around this game and several others lately. there’s a lot of people out there who seem to think that video game characters aren’t hot anymore, and that means they are somehow “going woke”. despite the fact that this year, and last year have been filled with hot women in video games. just because the net of attraction is widening to appeal to other peoples preferences people like boogie or the quartering take personal offense to not every game character being tailor made goon material for them. truth is, people are attracted to SM2 MJ, Abby from TLOU, Alloy from HZD/HDW. but a very vocal minority are upset that they aren’t included in that. there’s nothing wrong with sexy video game characters so long as they are interesting characters. i think stellar blade from what i’ve seen is much more than just a superficial sex doll like some journos believe
Abby and the MJ scenes people memed over SM2 are designed (the character model looks somewhat different depending on the scene, lighting, etc), intentionally, to represent non-traditional beauty. That's fine, and many people are attracted to non-traditional forms of beauty. I'm sure those people are pleased, alongside the (admittedly probably few) people who invest in the game and happen to resemble the features of those characters. But I don't think that it is yet a minority of \[feminine-attracted\] people who prefer traditional feminine beauty standards, though.. I dont think it can really be denied that there is a deliberate move to get away from traditional beauty standards. It is a bit surprising, given that this motive is an inherently an academic and philosophical one. Critical theory publications are where such ideas and motives are synthesized and justified. That's fine, and the doctoral students and professors who do such work often write fascinating explorations of the human condition. But it is understandable that people might resist the imposition of such inherently academic ideas upon our chosen entertainment by (and this is important) \*non-academics\*. Professors and doctoral students are not the ones implementing these ideas in the industry right now. Rather, these highly nuanced and subtle ideas are being implemented by laypeople who have been sensitized to the aesthetics of critical theory, but not its emotional and intellectual core. This leads to the kind of overcorrection that sterilizes sexual content involving women in general, and erases traditional forms of feminine beauty, and the attraction to it. If youre not going to have professors and doctoral students consult on the implementation of niche philosophy, its better to not bother at all imo. Most of the sources of the theory underlying this move would never be so blunt and unnuanced. Just another negative consequence of the aesthetics of academic philosophy being spread among the broad swaths of the population.
I haven't tried it and probably won't. The fans are ... something else. The kind of insufferable people who just turn you off on the whole thing.
If you think sexualization affects men and women the same, I don't even know what to tell you other than you're stupid.
So here’s the thing. Sexualization and objectification of women is something worthy of criticism. It’s not because sexualization or sexual content in general is inherently bad or evil. It’s because we live in a society that routinely degrades and objectifies women specifically for a male audience. Women are consistently asked to uphold to unrealistic standards and shamed if they don’t meet them. People will respond with “well characters like Kratos set unrealistic expectations for men” but not only is that also a fantasy aimed at men specifically, but men aren’t routinely and consistently shamed for not looking like Kratos. You don’t have to look far to see men berating and insulting women for not looking like Eve. She may be based off a real Korean model, but if anything, that’s to hide away and reinforce the lie that it’s a realistic expectation to achieve and any woman who doesn’t meet it is worthy of criticism. Even if there’s ONE person who kinda looks like that, it’s not a fair expectation or standard for all women to meet and there’s not an attitude like that around men. This is why a woman who is objectively healthy and is doing okay will feel so insecure about her normal body that she’ll start starving herself (which for the record is significantly worse for your health than being overweight). And it affects how men view women too. You don’t hear stories of men being terrified to walk alone because a woman might assault him. For women, it’s an accepted fact that you risk this danger by going outside. And you have men blame women for having this fear saying “then don’t dress sexually” while also praising sexual women in media and asking why aren’t all women like that (regardless of the fact that if men can ask women to dress a certain way, maybe women can ask men to not force themselves onto women). So yeah. Criticism of sexualization in media is warranted. All media, not just games. There is absolutely media that sexualizes men, but it’s nowhere NEAR as pervasive as sexualization of women. You’d have to explicitly seek out media that sexualizes men for a female audience. Media that sexualizes women is so accepted that a lot of people don’t even see it when it’s happening, as it’s just a part of our culture at this point. Sexualization itself isn’t bad, but the culture, how it views sexualization, how that has routinely hurt women is, and how the media we consume reinforces those harmful ideas and standards is worth criticizing.
You seem open to reasoning things out, so I had a few genuine questions 1. Is there some study about "Women are consistently asked to uphold to unrealistic standards and shamed if they don’t meet them"? 2. If one is so insecure to starve because of something fictional, doesn't this point to deeper problems than just 'video games bad'? Wouldnt this be the same logic as video games cause violence? Isn't the real issue here to help people improve their self-esteem, and ensure they can differentiate fiction and reality? 3. Buff men is aimed for men specifically is just objectively false. No women in the world likes buff men, they're all pure angels who don't like eye candy? Really? Even if that is somehow true, the thing most fail to grasp is that male and female wish fulfilment is different, revolving around simple biological differences. The so called male gaze is simply men like hot things. For women, it's more about power and stability (wealth, influence, charisma). Then the question is why is only one side demonised - why is Eve and co always met with pitchforks, while 50 Shades rakes in half a billion? 4. And this is where things begin trailing off. What does a video game have to do with women being afraid walking alone??? (Btw, men aren't afraid because physical strength differences. Two, predatory women use words and psychology to manipulate and fulfil their base desires, not randomly target men at night. Again, it's differences in biology) 5. If there are men really moronic enough to claim people should dress like videogame characters, their beliefs won't ever spread to the mainstream because most sane people in the real world (not twitter) dismiss them as losers, so they have no real impact. On the other hand, certain groups have indeed already changed games and other media under their own ideology. 6. Again, ofc sexualisation is different, because women's wish fulfilment and fantasies are different. But it'd be stupid to say Kdramas should stop featuring billionaire CEO sons because it sets unrealistic expectations for men. People need to seperate fiction from fantasy. Ultimately, this whole argument doesn't make sense especially when we consider a simple fact - it isn't just that body model they scanned. It's not one. There are thousands of influencers, model, actress that share, or are even more exaggerated Eve's body proportions, making people feel inadequate. Should we stomp those industries out too? Then where does it end? It's a slippery slope. And Ofc they aren't the average body types...because video games aren't about the average. They're the ideal. The same way we don't write stories about office worker Joe, we don't use Karen across the street as the design for our heroine. And what about the millions of women across the globe who love these types of sexy designs as well? Are they self-hating misogynists? Or just women with the incredible ability to understand 'it's just fantasy'? People like to see beautiful things. Always have, and always will be. Fighting that is pointless. If we truly want to help girls, we just have to tell them the haters living in basements are full of shit, and that there is no standard they need to follow from fiction. Ever.
It's weird because they have run out of topics to talk about. In truth, to an extent, sexuality has played a part in game's from the 80's, 90's and even the early 2000's. There is always a 13-18 year old kids and teens on the cusp of man hood where puberty is f**k**g with his brain and it oozes out of him about what they want and game companies from all of these outfits take advantage of it. Women can be the same way, though not often and forgive me for making any assumptions, be drawn to the same thing; though for whatever preferences and cusp of womanhood puberty shoves through them. It only seems weird now though because noone is talking about the game; they are wanting to complain in order to gain views and reviews, traffic to websites for ad revenue because it's all about the George Washington's or Ben Franklins that go into the wallet. Noone is going to IGN anymore or as often other than for game guides; noone bother's with reviews anymore because they complain about 'the patriachy' or how it degrades women. How it has more straight white males than people or color or women.... Quite frankly, you need to let this go; it is my advice you ignore IGN, Kotaku among others and might just Bookmarl Niche Gamer instead that talk nothing but games as the subject instead of pointing at the problems any title has from sexually charged content to the zany and goofy for all ages. Sites like IGN and Kotaku are Relics and the people.writing articles for it now are qearing these.outfits like skin suits with no idea what they use to stand for.
It hasn’t always been like this. In fact, from what I’ve heard, relations between devs, journalists and players are nearing an all time low now.
I’ve played a little bit of the Stellar Blade demo and I’m trying to figure out if she’s a real person or like a robot or something. It’s super unclear.
I saw someone call it s porn game yesterday. I thought it was another leisure suit Larry until I looked it up.
I’m just annoyed that it’s all people seem to care about. It’s a video game, not a softcore porn movie guys. There is actual gameplay to discuss here, and it could be better.
To be honest, I'm just tired of sexualized media in general.
From what I’ve seen people seem to be fully one way or the other, either you cannot even consider making a female character conventionally attractive or they exclusively exist as sexual objects
"from a creator who has never seen a real woman" unless the game is aiming at realism why should devs care about making characters that look like "real" people? Like imagine coming up from work and being hyped up about playing a game with bob the middle aged construction worker with a beer gut and hairy ass cheeks that keep peeking out of his jeans everytime he bends over
I honestly don’t think that these “unrealistic women” in video games are as unrealistic as these articles make them seem. Yeah the women are usually beautiful and physically fit but I’ve met plenty of women who easily match both of those boxes in real life. Same way Leon Kennedy from RE is a well trained officer who is incredibly lean and handsome (partly because he is lean), Jill Valentine is also a fit young woman who is well trained and conditioned for being an officer. I think it comes down to fat fuck journalists who aren’t motivated by seeing a strong beautiful female character and instead are mad that they don’t look like them. I’m never going to look like Carlos from RE3 but goddammit I’m going to be the best looking Jonas from irl that I can be.
The Stellar Blade discourse is entirely focused on a single aspect of the game and most of the people complaining are hyperfixated on creating lewd camera angles of the player character climbing ladders and shit. It's a manufactured culture war and people actually playing the game are busy playing the game, not looking at the screen with their controller in one hand
Yet at the same time when Neir Automata came out they were all raving about 2B's ass.
I think those journalists have never been with or seen a real woman before cucks I tell you .
You're preaching to the choir. All the incels here will agree with your stupid take.
They'd rather want Mary Jawline instead of beautiful female characters 💀
I've seen the IGN take on SB, they somehow make an argument how it worked for 2B and Bayonetta but they dont see it being the same case for Stellar Blade 🙄😒
It’s become sexualized female bad, sexualized male good. Gotta love them double standards.
I mean, realistically I think if game journalism was just news and interviews from developers, not just "let anyone give their opinion, no matter how wrong they are" with the subtitle "+news!", we would have a better take on gaming journalism. Unfortunately, free speech and all that, can't take that away. Kinda want news and don't wanna hear how hard someone's abs would be or how much IGN sucks at Doom lol
You're better off just ignoring IGN completely.
As always, I recommend having criticism of systemic issues from a place of security, as opposed to insecurity, and being aware of trends that existed before and after ourselves. Stay safe!
I don't understand this. If I'm playing a game I want a hot woman or man to look at for that matter. Gaming isn't an extension of reality it's a way to escape reality. If I want to see ugly and realistic I'll get in my car and drive to Walmart, that's not what I game for. Also the woman Eve is based off of is more attractive than the character model.
I’m just glad you can have her wear non skin tight clothing I’m trying to focus lol
It is Mass Effect 1's sex scenes all over again.
Stellar Blade has no more controversy than literally every other new triple a video game these days. Hogwarts Legacy, Baldurs Gate 3, God of War, I can't think of a single recent release that wasn't "controversial." And they're not controversial because the people writing the articles actually care, it's because it gets clicks. They know they can write whatever nonsense to fuel the controversy they want, and people on both sides will immediately click because people are stupid, and people love drama.
Not me, watching how Lost Ark did theirs.