KH-Vids Podcast Episode #53: E3 2014 Coverage

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It's Tuesday and you know what that means....!

This week we've got our full lineup of hosts: @Misty, @libregkd, and @Llave sit down with @Cat~ and @Darkandroid to discuss E3 2014! We go through all the major conferences, citing what games interested us, rating the company's show, and more, as well as discuss what we saw on the floor show. Because this is so much to cover the episode is nearly double the length of our usual podcast, but I'm sure you'll be interested and entertained all the same!

Have thoughts of your own on E3? Hyped for a game shown? Bummed not to see an in-development game? Let us know in the comments!

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Haven't listened to one of things in a long time, and so far it is pretty solid guys. I'll have to do some catching up.

As for E3, I watched all of it except for Nintendo. Some of the stuff I watched was kind of exciting but to be honest I thought there was a ridiculous amount of focus on indie titles, don't get me wrong you gotta share the love with smaller dev teams but none of it wow'd me at all.

That aside, it's nice to hear this podcast again.

 

Likewise, I skipped Nintendo -- our discussion of it will probably fill you in on the highlights of their conference if you haven't caught up yet. Glad to bring another listener back in!

 

MS conference had about 5 minutes devoted to indies in an hour and a half long conference. Sony had a bit longer with ~8 minutes in an hour and 50 minute conference (Though this segment also included Grim Fandango and a somewhat long-ish trailer for No Man's Sky)

So in the grand scheme of the entire conference, I don't feel like they really got a lot of focus at all and kinda wish they had more.

 

Well to someone who isn't interested in them at all, it was a lot. It all depends on what the viewer likes. To me it seemed like a lot, to you not so much.


As for the sexism debate or whatever, good lord this is a sensitive topic so I'll just say this: To me, it doesn't matter if someone in a game is a male or a woman. I don't care if the main character is a woman, I don't need the main character to be a male and believe it or not most people feel this way. In fact while playing the Destiny Alpha I made my character a female because the in game model design actually seemed interesting. I said this before in the lounge thread. Equality (in my eyes) will never happen until we stop caring about the race, gender, etc. "Oh wow isn't it great that there is a female character", that isn't going to lead to equality. Male or female in my eyes it doesn't matter because at the end of the day we are all just human. I'm not heart broken that I can't select a female in a game in the same way that I wouldn't be upset if I couldn't select a male.

This isn't meant to offend anyone or their ideals. I just get tired of people pushing for "equality" when what they really want is more attention to their side. Meh. inb4theban

 

Well the problem is that you are talking from an inherently privileged perspective, as a (correct me if I'm wrong) cisgendered white male. You haven't experienced the lack of representation that women and people of color do, at least not in a ubiquitous and systematic way -- so for you to say that it doesn't matter to you is a privilege. Which is okay! You're not an evil person for this, it is something you can't control. But acknowledging that privilege is an important step in being apart of feminist and egalitarian conversation.

Moving forward, you can't deny that video game protagonists are, overwhelmingly, (white) males. There are exceptions of course, and as we conclude in the podcast it is improving, but it's important to continue to put pressure on companies like Ubisoft to be more inclusive in their games, and attempt to reach that state of equality that you're describing. Bringing attention to feminist issues is important! That is what we're trying to do, because historically the rights & voices of women and other minorities have been excluded from the mainstream. Feminism is an egalitarian movement that's fighting for exactly what you're describing: a world where we don't have to worry about the race or gender or sexuality of a protagonist, where people are open to experiencing and relating to the story of any person, and where everyone is represented. But that's not the world we live in today, and we have to acknowledge that and work to correct that. It's great that you can relate to female characters and are open to more female protagonists -- that, despite what you may think, separates you from a lot of other male gamers!

 

Of course it depends on whatever the viewer likes (Like I thought the Far Cry 4 segment was way too long) but objectively, 5% and 7% (MS and Sony respectively) of a conference devoted to something isn't really a lot at all. If it was going into the 15% mark I'd actually agree with you because while I love indie games, I don't think they should have a huge, dedicated portion of the conference (Though honestly I would have preferred more indies if it meant getting rid of that Powers segment lol).

Not caring about who or what you play as doesn't address the issue though. What does that have to do with the lack of representation in the industry? It's nice to have an end point where having either a male or female character won't matter but we certainly aren't there yet. So there needs to be a proactive approach to get more representation in the industry so it gets to the point where having a male or female character isn't even an issue, that they are just characters in a game.

 

I don't really have much to add that Misty already addressed, though on male characters in AC (and other games), I don't really see it as too much of an issue if the white male protagonist is continually the protagonist in the game series. Characters like Drake in Uncharted 1-4, Ezio (I have never played an AC so correct me if I'm wrong) in AC 1-3 (????), and Cole in inFamous 1 & 2 aren't really an issue since the first line of those games (and in Uncharted's case, all of them) follow their specific story.

In the case of reboots or side games -- anything that leaves room for a new character, basically, the creators should consider telling the story of a different character, someone who isn't in the same...default? as what they've done. AC does have a host of cultural representation, but in terms of protagonists, it's been consistently through European males, when there are so many other people and places to go to in the world! History is so expansive and so wide, there isn't really an excuse to not consider taking a page and face from the Tao dynasty, or Ghana, or reservation life in America, or something else. I do find a lot of history generally interesting, and I'm sure the AC writers/directors do as well, but they shouldn't limit themselves just to what they may know best. They should expand into areas & people that haven't really been explored, and it'd very likely pay off in their favor.

Using inFamous as an example again, Second Son and First Light, covering a Native American male and a white female protagonist respectively, don't/aren't going to mark some unholy shift in the game. They're still inFamous, they're still fun games with a good story, and those two are universally loved (on Tumblr anyway) along with Cole. You can tell an interesting story and have an interesting game with anyone or anything, so they (and other game producers) should take that leap and do it.

which is why supergiants games da bomb

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SUNSET OVERDRIVE BEING EXCLUSIVE (for now) IS MY PAIN

EA was probably the worst for me, ha. Still pumped for ME4, MiEd, and dat new Bioware IP. ...Whenever they come.

They should've let Aisha play some of the games! She sounded excited about them (which is loads better than her telling dick jokes again), but it would've been a much better selling point to let her and the hosts play the games that had gameplay segments so we could get an honest, unscripted feel for the games themselves. Who better to get you hyped for a game than a fellow fan's passion for it?

I THANKFULLY MISSED ALL THE TV STUFF, but I wish Sony showed more gameplay. LBP3 was super endearing to me because they actually played the damn game in front of us, lol. Bloodborne and Witcher 3 look sick [ AND I'M SURE CYBERPUNK WILL TOO WHEN WITCHER 3 IS FINALLY DONE B) ]

Nintendo showed all gameplay and the Treehouse segments in the main E3 days were great, so they won the show imo. Still not too interested in a Wii U, but it's definitely looking more appealing after this.

 

AC flops around with different main characters.

AC1, Bloodlines, Chronicles: Altaïr
AC2, Brotherhood, Revelations: Ezio
AC3: Ratonhnhaké:ton
Liberation: Aveline
AC4: Edward
Unity: Arno

So there really is no set character or story line or anything. Main character is fully up to the developers for each game they make (Unless they make sub-sequels within the series like they did with Ezio or Altaïr)

 

Was mostly talking about the 'historical' figures used because they are the ones that get the majority of the screentime with modern day stuff usually taking a back seat to everything. But to answer your question

Spoiler: AC Series

Desmond was the "Modern" protagonist and was the one experiencing the memories of his ancestors. He died in AC3 and is pretty much irrelevant as a character at this point.

 

I had fun on the Podcast, thanks for having me on. Though I apologise that I talked over a few of you, my bad.[DOUBLEPOST=1403045834][/DOUBLEPOST]

It's worrying when you see games like Remember Me being rejected by a few publishers because there was a woman lead or removing Elizabeth from the Bioshock Infinite box art because it "doesn't market as well". This industry is still so young and things are slowly changing for the better, but like Misty mentioned on the Podcast it doesn't mean it shouldn't stop, people need to continue pushing the issue (though I would argue people need to pick their fights better) and start getting proactive both from a consumer and developer point of view.

 

I KNOOOOW it just looks so fun ;;

I agree! Say what you will about Aisha Taylor's sense of humor but it's clear that she genuinely loves video games (and she's quite an activist for representation in them which is awesome), so letting her actually put the controller in her hands would be amazing. I mean the scripted multiplayer sessions they show are funny in a kind of "wow this is so awful" but what made LBP3's showing so much fun is just how real and honest it was. I hope there will be more of that in years to come.

Yeah I agree that Sony could have shown more gameplay at the conference, but a lot of the games shown there had more gameplay shown during the floor show (like The Order 1886).

I agree actually! Objectively speaking, Nintendo did the best job -- they came prepared with a lot of great stuff and had so much to show. I'm not a Nintendo fan really, so I wasn't invested in the things they were talking about (while I was very invested in some of Sony's titles), but Nintendo definitely took the crown this year.

 

Podcast seems entertaining so far, still haven't listened to the entirety of it but hey if it's kept me interested thus far I doubt I'll lose it anytime soon.

On another note, I didn't realize this was the debate corner :P