misquared

@hailinel: Mm, yeah. I've seen the joke in a lot of Japanese media. It's something that doesn't actively bother me, but if we're looking for jokes that are... sexist is a bit strong for that kind of joke, but if we're pointing out jokes that are based on gender stereotypes, I just felt like I should point it out.

As someone who loves JRPGs and is kind of sensitive to gender roles and stuff like that, here are some games I've enjoyed recently...

• Rune Factory 4 (echoing hinderk above, there is a wide range of ladies and dudes in this game, and they're all interesting and fleshed out. You can also play as a lady in this game, which is fun :D)
• Fire Emblem: Awakening (character designs are... questionable. Lots of instances where dude versions of classes wear pants, but the girls wear underpants for no real reason, but the characters are fleshed out, diverse, and lovable. Also, like Rune Factory you can play as a female protag which is coolio)
• Tales of Xillia (came out last year, and I found a delightful female main character in Milla! Her character design is hypersexualized, but she mentions it in the game and the way she considers her sexy appearance as a tool is really neat! She has a sexy appearance, but it feels like her choice and she owns it. Leia and Elize are also great lady characters, and it's a fun game)
• Bravely Default (The story dips in to a lot of "LOLOL LOOK AT THESE GIRLS THEY FAIL AT COOKING, IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE GIRLS SHOULD KNOW HOW TO COOK LOL?" in the same way that Persona does, but I found wonderfully strong and complex characters in Edea and Agnes. Agnes in particular is interesting to me, a girl character who could easily fall into the "nice anime girl" archtype, but she's really determined and cold as a result in a surprising way. She goes through a lot of character development and her arc is really cool

Now, in the "your mileage may vary" category are...

• Tales of Symphonia HD / Final Fantasy X Remastered (I have hardcore nostalia gogges on both these games, so I'm not sure if it will appeal to you in the same way that it does to me. But I've always found both games to have really interesting and wonderful ladies that I love dearly (Colette and Yuna were role models of mine when I was growing up))

Oh, I get this question a lot at work (haha, always nice when Starbucks work knowledge comes in handy). Whatever drink you end up getting (I see a lot of mocha recommendations, and that's a good starter drink if you like chocolate) ask for ristretto shots. You can do this for any drink that involves shots rather than brewed coffee, and pretty much it's a shorter shot-- the machine leaves off the bitter end of the shot, and you end up with a more mellow and smooth coffee drink. It's great for people who are just starting to ease into espresso drinks :)

And also if you like your drinks a bit less sweet... I'd recommend a tall ristretto mocha with two pumps of mocha, no whip cream. (And this is advice is only really applicable to Starbucks, I don't know if other coffee chains default to putting whip cream on their mochas. I also don't know how many pumps of chocolate you'll get at other chains, but at Starbucks if you order a tall, it'll come with three pumps. Ordering just two will get you a drink that's less sweet). Or... you say you like caramel, you can always get a caramel mocha, just ask for maybe... One pump chocolate, one pump caramel?

Yep, Heavy Rain and the whole Uncharted series... Since I never really had a PS3, I settled for watching them on youtube.

Rune Factory 4! It came out the same time as GTA V, and I get the feeling that no one noticed that it existed.

Do you like Harvest Moon + dungeon crawling + all the motherfucking crafting and cooking that you can handle + romances/frendships with awesome characters + able to play as a male or female protag? Then you need this game in your life, it's fucking fantastic.

I was listening to an old podcast (around 2008 era) and Ryan introduced himself by saying "And I'm Ryan Davis, back from the dead!" I almost started crying then and there. RIP dude, you're a wonderful soul.

Here's a crazy idea.

You could ask her? Girls aren't mysterious unfathomable creatures, they're people. And just like all other people in the world, there isn't a specific game that appeals to all girls everywhere. You mentioned she as a good sense of humor, that makes Portal 2 seem like a good choice out of the options that you presented. But seriously, just ask her what she likes. In every day life, does she like puzzles? If so, then that's more argument for Portal. Does she like to read? Maybe grab an rpg that she could play, and you could help her through it. Someone above mentioned Walking Dead, that is a fantastic choice if she's cool with zombies. Has she ever played games before? If not, be mindful that using a controller can be hard for people who haven't played console games before, she'll learn it but it might take a little while. So if that's the case, and you want everything to go smoothly, maybe don't pick a game that gives you control of the camera.

I say go for it. My children ended up being rediculously overpowered, and outclassed their parents by a long shot. Like Cynthia = Sumia + Gaius? I had a ridic overpowered Gaius, so Cynthia became this god-like white storm of death and destruction, nothing could stand against her. Owain was the child of Lissa and Donny, and holy crap absolutely nothing could touch him by the end of the game. Lucina also came out as pretty damn powerful for me, and Inigo & Kejelle (I can't remember how her name is spelled) came out as pretty ding dang powerful.

So yeah, I say go for it good sir. Pair them up with one of their parents (whichever one is higher level) and go grind them on the paralogs/skirmishes

Aaaaaah, can you hear the sound of my heart breaking? It's ringing throughout the internet...

I'm actually buying a 3DS for this game, so I figured I'd go all the way and preorder one of those nifty blue Fire Emblem 3DS bundles... Of course, it's all caught up in the GameStop shipping hullabaloo, so I can't play it until I get that magical phone call from GameStop saying that it's arrived.

You lucky bastards... Enjoy your glorious experience I will join you all in the halls of tactical strategy soon *^*

@mrfluke said:

@misquared said:

@mrfluke said:

@misquared said:

@Legion_ said:

How come no men were asked to comment? I'll give you the answer. It's because Patrick wanted support for his own opinions, and used women to do so. Pretty sexist if you ask me.

As for the statue? It's dumb and should never have existed.

Just out of curiosity (and because I think discussion breeds understanding on both ends), I'd like to ask... Why do you think this article is lacking because no men commented on it? Would it be somehow more valid if there were quotes from men? Or am I misunderstanding your statement?

it would be more valid actually, as it would present a more balanced argument, and not make some dudes here feeling singled out

Mm... but reading the opinions of these ladies, how do they single out men on this website? If they're calling out anyone, they're calling out people who would want to buy this, and the people who made this and thought it was a good idea. I don't see any comments saying that all men are terrible, simply some statements that the video game industry as a whole tends to objectify women.

If you don't mind (again, sorry for asking so many questions. I just want to understand where you're coming from) what comments in this article make you feel singled out?

nah its all good, i dont mind discussing with an open minded polite internet person. :)

ill be honest with you here, i kinda dont care about these issues, as i favor more championing the positive stuff as theres too much negativity we all deal with these days(stuff like this i would rather champion http://www.giantbomb.com/bungie/65-476/sick-kid-gets-a-gift-from-bungie/35-575864/ )

but im just watching how these comments are going, other than the stupid back and forth "U SEXIST", "NO U SEXIST" and "GAMERS ARE NECKBEARD VIRGINS BLAH BLAH BLAH"

Giantbomb is a majority male oriented website. a large majority of us just come here for the fun content.

so to have an article where its essentially a bunch of women complaining about a dumb statue and imo overblowing its symbolism, is going to draw some rage from people, as the impression is that this is the feminists "cross" now ,

i could go into big detail, but ultimately the tone of the text from a majority of these ladies just come off as pure hyperbole to people which is what is fueling the rage (Anna is the only one out of the bunch that had an open mind and a level headed opinion i thought) , that and it comes off to people that men are all scumbags, which is causing us males to rage about it in the comments how stupid this is.

so i think having some industry males weigh in on this issue would help not write this off as women overblowing this issue. as people would see the males comment on it and be more inclined to listen,

i also wager a lot of the people not willing to listen to the females here is also due to the 1reason articles that ran a while ago as well, which definitely definitely definitely left the impression on us males from the feminists that we are all scumbags, so having another one of these coming off as championing females opinions and making it seem we males are horrible doesnt help at all

in short, to condense all that ramble above = its all boils down to the feminists from those 1reason articles making us less reluctant to listen ( that 1 reason stuff was not all feminists, but there definitely were some hardcore feminists involved in that) , as we are all impressioned from a majority of these opinions that this is one of the worst things ever, when a lot of us males think this statue is pure whatever, and that if the ladies do want their voice to be heard, they need to be more proactive and do something about these issues rather than just "whining" on the internet about it.

at least thats my 2 cents, i dont know if that answers your question or not :P

also as much as its EA, this lady has a point which look at some of the comments on the last worth reading from other people, seems they were more receptive to that approach

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/185122/EA_Blaming_sexism_for_lack_of_women_in_our_industry_is_a_copout.php#.UQGA0XeoSSo

I know it might seem like people are blowing this statue out of preportion, but hear me out... I can tell you're a nice guy, even though I don't really agree with a lot that you say here. Hopefully, if I word my points well, I won't come off as completely bonkers :').

The reason why so many women (not even just women, people of all genders) are getting up in arms about this is because it is pointing to a larger issue that exists in the video game industry. In many many games (I won't say all, because obviously it's not true) women are treated as nothing more than a fantasy. They're not so much characters, but women that men can have sex with. It's a sad trend, and one that has existed in the video game industry for many many years. The reason for it? Well, because the industry is very male-centric. Traditionally, men are the ones who mostly play games. These men grow up and make games, or review games.

Because of this tradition, modern game developers think that they know what their buyers want. The marketing team behind Dead Island made this for shock value, but they must have also thought that there were people who would genuinely want this in their house. Looking at the comments here, that's obviously not the case. I don't see anyone saying "THAT BUST LOOKS GREAT, IDK, I WOULD BUY IT". People are saying that it's stupid, pointless, garrish, ugly... and women are also pointing out that it objectifies women to an extreme degree. It shows the latent sexism that exists throughout the industry... No one who made that statue maliciously thought, "this MUST be a women because I hate women, the boobs MUST be perfect because I want to perpetuate a male fantasy", of course not. But the symbolism still exists, pointing at the subconscious sexism that exists in the gaming industry. And you know what? At some level, some marketing team thought that you as a player would want to buy that. Do you? I don't think so... so what's wrong with telling marketers "hey, we don't want this, and you don't understand what we like"? The only way to change their perspective of us is to raise complaints when they do dumb shit... Otherwise latent misogyny will continue.

Even in some of your comments... I don't think you're a sexist person, but I couldn't help but note some of the things you said. The idea that you would be more willing to take this article seriously if you knew that some of these complaints were coming from a man (as if implying that these women's opinions are somehow less valid because they are women), or that the idea of us raising complaints about it is whining (was it whining when fans were up in arms about the end of Mass Effect 3? I thought that was fans raising complaints to a developer about their actions, in essence these situations are similar)... It's a bit disheartening to know that my complaints are somehow worth less because I'm a woman, you know?

And yes, I've read the article that you've linked. I think there's a lot of great points, and I LOVE the idea that our school systems encourage more girls to get into computer science (I was one of two girls in my graduating group of 20 computer science students, I would love to see more girls getting involved in the program), but I also see a disturbing trend in the way that article is received Should men who do sexist things (note, I'm not saying all men: I'm saying men in important positions at video game companies who make sexist decisions) get a free pass? If a man designs a sexist female character, should we look at him and say "well, in the end it's the women's fault for not being in his position and making a different decisions"? It's a good article, but I dislike the fact that men want to say all of this is the fault of women, you know? I think sexism is something that is deeply embed in our society is a whole, and it's something that I'd like to see argued against.

And... goodness, this ended up being very long. I'm sorry I got so rambly, I just have a lot of feelings about the subject :') Sorry for the tl;dr, and thank you for replying to me in the first place! It's always wonderful to engage in real discussion.