|
Post by wyrdwad on May 12, 2014 19:32:40 GMT -5
I dunno if Altered Beast is the best example since it seems to cater more to fetishists, particularly furries, than women. Succubus has a point that most games featuring buff, shirtless dudes weren't really designed that way with female gamers in mind, but rather to make the dudes playing the game feel like they were playing a real badass. I mean, would a game with SUPER-BUFF SHIRTLESS WOMEN WHO COULD CRUSH YOU be all that appealing to you? I'm sure it would have its fans among men, but I certainly wouldn't be into it, personally. There's a difference between showing skin and being sexy. The two often go together, but you can show skin without being sexy, and you can be sexy without showing skin. Another way to think of it: some characters are designed to make the player say, "I want to be that." Others are designed to make the player say, "I want to hit that." -Tom
|
|
|
Post by Snarboo on May 12, 2014 19:45:09 GMT -5
I dunno, did anyone seriously play Altered Beast and say to themselves "I want to become a giant roided up dude with a tiny head before turning into a furry"? (Don't answer that )
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Joestar on May 12, 2014 20:03:38 GMT -5
Getting off to video games is kind of weird in general It's less depressing and damaging to your self esteem than fucking.
|
|
|
Post by Ike on May 12, 2014 20:24:27 GMT -5
There's like actual porn of actual women though. They don't even censor it most of the time
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Joestar on May 12, 2014 20:44:15 GMT -5
There's like actual porn of actual women though. They don't even censor it most of the time I guess it's just something to do. It's like doing whippets instead of sniffing glue.
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on May 12, 2014 20:50:40 GMT -5
There's like actual porn of actual women though. They don't even censor it most of the time Yeah, but you can get real women in real life (well, maybe *I* can't, but most people can!). But cartoon women? That's like, Roger Rabbit crap. We don't got that in real life, yo. -Tom
|
|
|
Post by Ike on May 12, 2014 20:52:21 GMT -5
There's like actual porn of actual women though. They don't even censor it most of the time I guess it's just something to do. It's like doing whippets instead of sniffing glue. I never truly understood until hearing this simile.
|
|
|
Post by Allie on May 12, 2014 20:54:46 GMT -5
There's like actual porn of actual women though. They don't even censor it most of the time Yeah, but you can get real women in real life (well, maybe *I* can't, but most people can!). But cartoon women? That's like, Roger Rabbit crap. We don't got that in real life, yo. -Tom Well, that's it. I've had it. Check, Please.
|
|
|
Post by thoothan on May 12, 2014 22:42:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on May 12, 2014 23:36:07 GMT -5
In an effort to try to bring things back to the topic at hand: The bottom line with this game is that it's a game in which you strip people on the streets of Akihabara in order to expose their skin to sunlight so they melt. It's satirical and all that, but I've also been very clear that it's just as much a celebration of Akiba culture as it is a lambasting of it -- it's very much like a roast in that respect. So ultimately, if you're offended by fanservice games, or if you think this game's concept sounds deplorable, or if you believe games like this signify the death of the Japanese gaming industry, then Akiba's Trip IS NOT the game for you. Even though it is clever, and it does hold a magnifying glass to many of the flaws inherent in the culture, it still "revels in its crapulence," and will thus most assuredly offend those of you who go into it expecting to be offended. That having been said, if there's one thing the game got very close to pulling off, it's perfectly equal gender representation. It would've been VERY EASY for this game to be made in such a way that you ONLY strip women (there's even precedent for that, with classic anime like Those Who Hunt Elves centering around stripping women exclusively) -- and it would've also been very easy to make the game "super-sexy" if Acquire had chosen to do so. Instead, they made it completely nondiscriminatory -- you strip EVERYONE. And they made the stripping comical rather than sexy in most cases... with the sole exception being the strip portraits, which are utterly indulgent in nature. And in the American version of the game, those strip portraits now equally represent both genders as well. While it's not quite 1:1 as far as sexy women to sexy men go, it's as close as it possibly can be within the confines of its story and characters, and Acquire DID NOT half-ass the designs of the men for these portraits. If you're offended by this sort of thing, this sole act of equalization is probably not going to make you any less offended. But I hope that if this is a game that you think sounds like it has potential, you'll appreciate what's been done here, and appreciate that we really did do our best to make this game "equally smutty for all," as it were. And while you're free to say we should've never localized the game in the first place, or the game should've never been made in the first place, etc... I think this was a very worthwhile cause, personally, and perhaps even a revolutionary one! -Tom
|
|
|
Post by Weasel on May 12, 2014 23:42:09 GMT -5
Honestly, the only thing I'm really upset about in regards to Akiba's is that I had initially missed the whole stripping thing. I thought it was just going to be a humorous beat-em-up, in the vein of a Kenka Bancho game except with vampires. Ah well. I'll always have Yakuza for my "pick up bloody anything and use it as a weapon" cravings.
...Except Sega still won't give us 5. Or the spinoffs. Damn it, Sega.
|
|
|
Post by wyrdwad on May 13, 2014 0:02:02 GMT -5
Honestly, the only thing I'm really upset about in regards to Akiba's is that I had initially missed the whole stripping thing. I thought it was just going to be a humorous beat-em-up, in the vein of a Kenka Bancho game except with vampires. That basically IS what it is. The stripping thing is a gimmick -- like I said, it's really not very sexy, and is much more played for humor and shock value than anything else. Unless the mere idea of it bothers you on a fundamental level, I'd suggest giving it a shot despite your reservations -- you might find yourself enjoying it! -Tom
|
|
|
Post by Weasel on May 13, 2014 0:25:09 GMT -5
Only if there's a playable demo.
(And if I can somehow get my hands on a PS3 again, of course.)
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Joestar on May 13, 2014 7:32:00 GMT -5
I've got a coworker that's been using ok cupid for booty calls. He tried Plenty of Fish but he refers to it as "Plenty of Single Moms".
|
|
Pleont
New Member
いまじゃパワーをメテオに~!
Posts: 16
|
Post by Pleont on May 13, 2014 7:56:21 GMT -5
Has XSEED released any sample of the male and female portraits? I'm kind of curious to see what they look like and how they compare (mainly to see if they really are sexualized to the same degree). In any case, your Clannad characters also fall into moe being sexual. You used the word pornographic, but these people are mainly interested in eroticism. In the case of Clannad, some of the characters wear short skirts to expose their sexually mature thighs to appeal to the Zettai Ryouiki fetish. You don't need something as blatant as nudity or panty shots to be sexual; something as simple as a character exposing the nape of their neck while wearing a kimono is enough to be erotic. And that is precisely the root of the problem. A woman can't have a square inch of bare skin exposed without somebody considering it "erotic". What do you propose as a solution, that all women on Earth wear full-body burqa? Not like it makes a difference, women will still be viewed as sexual objects either way, hence the perceived need for the burqa in the first place. It's not the short skirts that are a problem, it's the creepos who think "look at her exposed sexually mature thighs". I haven't played the game or watched the series, but I did watch the Clannad movie a few months ago. It seemed to have far bigger concerns than the attractiveness of any of the characters (namely, telling a gut-wrenching story) and it didn't strike me as particularly sexualized. I'm far less likely to side-eye Clannad than I am you for taking from it the message "sexually mature thighs". Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe, man. Considering something erotic isn't the root of the problem; sexual attraction is not a bad thing. However, sexual objectification is a bad thing. Labeling people who notices sexual attractiveness as a "creepo" is a problem in of itself because it means you have an inability to discriminate between attraction and objectification. allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/14920792241/a-response-regarding-sexual-objectification-andHumans are sexual beings, however superstition has led people to consider sexuality and masturbation to be bad things. You mentioned burqas, but those already have been used, and they still led to the eroticisation of things like ankles, so these people would then strive towards even more extreme measures like gender segregation, male and female circumcision, and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. In the end, none of these things worked, and have only made people miserable. Moe being sexual is just that, and it's not some new thing that sprang into existence just recently; it's been around for a long, long time. In its simplest form, it's supernormal stimulus, and the oldest recorded example of this kind of stimulus is the Venus of Willendorf. There's a myriad of problems with supernormal stimulus. For example, our over-consumption of salty and sweet foods is due to supernormal stimulus, and the only thing that will help us avoid an unhealthy diet is to be informed about these things so we can be moderate in our consumption. The same goes for moe characters, since they affect the plasticity of our brains. There's books and scientific studies on this subject, so you should read those if you want to even come close to coming up with any practical solutions to these kinds of societal problems that have plagued our species. I don't know about the movie you watched, but how someone looks plays a huge role in how you feel about them. If you were to replace the characters with ones with physical traits that elicit disgust (bad skin, teeth, hair, etc.) you wouldn't feel as moved by the gut-wrenching story than you would if the characters had physical traits that are cute. Supernormally cute characters will move you even more strongly.
|
|