I always have a hard time arguing with you because I rarely actually represent the points I'm arguing for. I think that asking for improvement and striving for self improvement is one of the most important things you can do, but I also look at people with lower standards, simpler tastes, and I can't help bu notice how much bloody happier they are. Ignorance is bliss and all that. On the biases thing, we're all about our biases yeah
Final Fantasy has representations covering pretty much every par of the spectrum, honestly.
It's only good for judging a trend though. Plenty of terrible movies pass the bechdel test, while good ones fail, and there can be a variety of reasons. Star Wars Episode4 fails the test, but that's because at it's core the story only follows three characters. See, I don't get why avoiding conventions is automatically bonus points, for one thing. The action shouldn't be praised, the execution should, and the point I was getting at with the OP was that while there's this angle from your view, there's an equally strong opposing view that says what you're saying goes against the ideas of women's rights. That's two terrifying rocks to be caught between, if you're in charge of making a product, I think. On the number of male characters who could be femael... that I really agree with. I think there's way less importance to gender than people seem to think there is, except in certain contexts. I'd like to see more games opt to offer a male and female character in the future, though hiring an actress to redo every line of dialog would be a pretty significant effort in more story driven games. On the Mass Effect thing... that's an interesting view, but I kinda feel like it doesn't make that much sense in the context of the universe. In the Mass Effect universe you have a pretty optimistic future where nobody seems to really care what gender you are or your orientation. In the context of Mass Effect, a women leading the defense against the Reapers isn't really anything special at all Also Shepard isn't really masculine or feminine... or really anything, besides a few gender sensitive scenes. Shepard is a very neutral character, with only ME3 really giving them any defining characteristics. But yeah, what a lot of you guys are saying is that a strong character is a strong character, gender doesn't matter, and I agree, but that's not really what the world at large expects when they talk about a 'strong female character'
I could just as easily start throwing around games like Brothers and Journey. They're not the majority, they're the exception to the rule. On my friend bit... I'm sorry, but you're just trying to find any excuse for why his taste in games is somehow wrong. My friend is just a man of simple taste. He likes explosions and stuff, he likes honing his skills in multiplayer, and he's very competitive. That's just his jam, and you have yours. He's more concerned with enjoying a video game while you're concerned with finding hidden trends that prove that everybody but you has the wrong taste in games.
I specifically mentioned Metroid Fusion because it's the only narrative focused Metroid prior to Other M, gives us a fair bit of characterization to Samus. Beyond Good and Evil, yeah. I'm not actually terribly familair with it, I've just watched a Let's Play, but the way people constantly demanded a sequel led me to believe it was more popular than it was (500,000 sales isn't THAT bad though) Mass Effect... well the empathy thing is going to be insanely subjective, isn't it? But they are multi-faceted, and I find them believable. Assassin's Creed blatantly refused to use a female AVATAR in a multiplayer mode. Earlier this year they released a game with a female protagonist, and there have been plenty of other female characters before that. Bechdel test is definitely an interesting look at the trend. A shame people mistook it as a way to measure a film's quality.
I can't speak of anybody else, but constantly going to the menu would make me lose my bearings
It's 16 FPS in Europe, 20 FPS in America
but that's what they're primarily USED for. That's what MOST entertainment is used for. Most people don't want their entertainment to be work, they want it to be the escape from work. And people don't buy bad games because they're familiar, they buy games they think are good that are familiar. A person doesn't go and say "Hm, this new Call of Duty looks awful, but I bought CoD last year so I guess I have no choice" they work more like my friend, in other words "Oh man! Did you see how they have like lasers in the new CoD? And mechs and other fancy stuff? It looks so cool I'm really excited!" I don't disagree with the fundamentals of what you're saying. We need to vote with out wallets, and actually stick to things, as gamers, to enact change. And unfortunately gamers are some of the most impatient people as a group in the world. But you're being too hamfisted with it, encouraging this hyper diligence based on some arbitrary scale of good and bad, as well as saying the core way people enjoy games is wrong, and that everybody else needs to change
Well I've actually been talking about movies, if that wasn't indicated by my original post. Samus is Metroid Fusion maybe? Jade from Beyond Good and Evil? A Final Fantasy character? Some of the girls from Assassin's Creed games? Female squadmates in Mass Effect? Most of the Goddesses in Kid Icarus Uprising? Midna in Zelda Twilight Princess? I dunno, quite frankly gaming is way behind movies in terms of women's rights, and we're just now getting movies praises for having female main characters
That sounds like the ideal for a good character period, but people get focused on other things. It doesn't matter that she has a complex motive... SHE WORE A DRESS!? It doesn't matter she has an interesting and flawed personality... SHE WANTS TO GET MARRIED!? To a MAN!? And the the reverse sort of thing when you have a female character that doesn't have overtly feminine traits. Honestly probably comes from how absolutist our society is. There's a dogged refusal to believe that characters are a sum of parts, rather than extreme defining characteristics. I suppose there's a bit of (justified) paranoia that any characteristics applied to a character are there to fuel some guy's fetish, but I dunno, it seems like we're more focused on shaming girls for liking certain things than trying to actually find a wya to make this work better.[DOUBLEPOST=1402959464][/DOUBLEPOST] You can't quantify 'inoffensive' And there's already a bit of a paradox in expecting a 'believable' character from a game or movie, since they're scripted, voiced by charismatic actors. Our media isn't about capturing realism, it's about capturing ideals
Not to keep up, but to mute risk. You're treating being homogenized as being a knock off, but there's plenty of ways to appeal to a broad audience by being vague. It just so happens that when you're vague more and more things seem similar to it If you can fill a niche, you can count yourself among a very lucky few, otherwise making an indie puzzle platformer will at least make SOME people buy it because they know what to expect. How is it irresponsible yo want a better version of something you know you enjoy? A safe bet means you're less likely to waste your money, for one thing, and I'd hardly say it's the consumers job to ensure everyone else gets a fair shot at being discovered.[DOUBLEPOST=1402959298][/DOUBLEPOST] Constant new things will over stimulate you. Most people play video games to relax, not on some sort of quest to improve the state of the entire industry. If you enjoy something, do it, buy it, whatever. It's insanely egotisitcal to assume that there's a 'right' way to enjoy something Complacency isn't ideal, to be sure, but buying something that's new and improved isn't complacency. Just because they see more value in the changes made to a new game and you don't doesn't make their enjoyment any less worthwhile. You're literally arguing that everybody needs to have the same standards as you
Uh... no? My earlier defense was that people need to make a living, and my follow up was that being homogenized was a good way to do that. They go hand in hand, they don't cancel each other out People need to want different things...? why? What's wrong with people enjoying what they enjoy? is broad appeal a sin, for that matter?
they're big because they're homogenized. They appeal to the broadest demographics. They put so much money into their games they HAVE to sell well, and being homogenized is a fairly easy way to do that
