If anyone has read anything on my blog (which I doubt), I haven't updated it in a while for 3 reasons.
1. I'm generally too scared to actually voice my opinions.
2. I've been going through a lot of shit regarding college.
3. I ran out of things to talk about that weren't me ranting on how fucked up forums are.
Well, I guess the atrocity of online communication has given me other topic to rail on for an hour about. Yep, it's time for yet another "Women in Video Games" debate. Honestly, I feel like it'd be a crime not to say anything after this shit here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8I0Wy58adM
Look at the comments section. Yep, there really is THAT much of a fuss over the shear idea of challenging female tropes in video games. This happens every time someone "threatens" video games too and I'm simply sick of it. I could go on for hours about shit I don't like about the gaming community but, let's focus on female game characters and whither or not it's a real issue.
For starters, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you where these complaints stem from. I'm sure we've all played enough video games to know what the stereotypes are. If you need a refresher, just play DOA for 5 minutes to get up to speed. The real question here is, how do we change this and why? Women are often used as either a motive for the male character's action or eye candy for the male players themselves. There aren't that many games when women take center stage or are given important roles so it's easy to see why some women feel undermined in video games. The problem here is...well it's not their problem. Yeah, I hate to say it but, until game sales are effected by this, no one in the industry has a good reason to give a damn. This is made worse by the fact that most gamers are male so it's not like women are "supposed" to be playing video games anyway even if they want to. I honestly think this is stupid because when I see women who want to play games, I see people who are willing to buy a product and outright ignoring potential consumers is simply bad business. I understand why companies don't want to take the risk but, women and their wallets are something that should be kept in consideration.
Well, what has gaming done to address this? Aren't there already "strong female characters" already? Hell if I know. "Strong female character" is such a vague term that writers make up their own definition for it or end up playing a guessing game of what women want to see without anyone actually telling them what this ridiculous phrase is about and that usually ends with the writer in question making women who act like dudes because apparently making a character too "female" is yet another "stereotype". If I'm coming off as disgruntled, it's because this assertion kind of annoys me. Let's get one thing straight here. Men are men and women are women. No, this isn't me saying that all women belong in the kicthen. I'm simply saying that if being a woman is irrelevant to a character in terms of design or personality, the character isn't really female. You know what the worst part is, every one's favorite "strong female character" is a perfect example of a woman who isn't a woman and apparently should never try to be. I'm talking about Samus Aran.
In the original Metroid NES instruction booklet, there is a "typo" that refers to Samus as male. Samus appears in the game in full body armor (which makes perfect sense given her occupation) and in no way can you really tell Samus is a woman. We all just assumed she was a he until we got the ending.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQppamJoDqc
Woah, hold up! Samus is a chick! That was pretty much every one's reaction to this bait and switch. What's worse is that Samus reveals herself in a two-piece in the Famicom version. See, the shitty thing about this is that the game basically tricks you into playing as woman. Well, I suppose it was a different time back then. If Samus was up in every one's face about her gender, all the boys may have rejected it. Kind of like in the movie She's the Man. OK, I'll let if slide. So now that we all know Samus is a woman, let's look at how later Metroid games handle this. Well, in Metroid 2, Samus kills all the metroids save for one newborn that mistakes Samus as its mother. I heard people argue that this was somewhat of an insult to Samus as a character because as a woman, this implies that Samus has built in maternal instincts. I always thought of this as one her best moments because it's one of the very few times Samus seems to have a personality. She shows compassion and mercy to the baby metroid by giving it to researchers rather than outright killing it. OK, so in Super Metroid, that same baby is kidnapped and cloned resulting in more bloodshed but, the no-longer-a-baby metroid sacrifices itself to save Samus so it's not like her compassion was misplaced. It's not her fault that the Space Pirates are asswipes.
You'd think with a history like that, Samus would be the perfect example of good female character design. She's brave, heroic, and passionate. The problem is that the games never went anywhere with it and it's pretty damn obvious from the context that the games never truly embrace Samus as being female outside of her stripping off her clothes in the first 3 games. The Metroid Prime trilogy is the biggest offender. Aside from an obviously feminine death scream, Samus never speaks, makes andrognynious gestures (she barely makes any gestures at all), and is always covered in body armor. You know until you beat the game and strips into her skin tight zero suit which looks like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1ZjyWma4P8
Notice the iconic "Boobs and Butt" posture that most action heroines have in their pin-up art. See, this is why could never take Samus seriously even though, I really want to. When she isn't rubbing her vagina in our faces, she's running around playing masquerade. I'll be honest, my first encounter with Samus was in Super Smash Bros. for the N64. She made a bunch muffled robot sounds and I just assumed she was a robot. Then my cousins tell me Samus is female and I honestly couldn't tell because Samus looks and acts like a machine. When she's not doing that, she's doing the "Badass Girl" stereotype. I find it hilarious that people were complaining about the insulting portrayal of Samus in Other M. Don't get me wrong, Other M's characterization of Samus sucks but, that isn't saying much because herself sucks. She had the potential to be something truly inspiring amongst female characters but, she barely qualifies as having a personality. To put it bluntly, she's Batman with a cunt. Not to mention Samus have been active in fan-service way before Other M came out. Take note of the pic in the previous video and compare it to her fully dressed "I'm going to shoot you in the face" pose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MRznLSFGFQ&feature=relmfu
Pretend you don't know Samus is a woman. Can you tell if she is even human in that picture because I couldn't when I was 10 and I doubt anyone unfamiliar with Samus could tell either. I think that was the joke regarding her to begin with. "Let's put a chick in a suit and troll all the boys". Yeah, well it would of been nice if she had more personality than Captain "Unfunny Meme" Falcon. Yes, Samus sucks that much. Chelle from Portal is the same faceless female type and you gotta love how Portal 2 had those two robots whose animations add more character to them than Chelle could hope to have. The fucking robots have more of a personality than the one human female in that serious. I know GLaDOS is technically female but, she is also a robot. I don't know if that counts or not.
I don't know about you but, when I think "strong female character" I just want woman with an important role in the plot who has a personality that can't summed up in one word. That's the problem with both men and women in video games. The writing is shallow. You can call it sexist but, bad writing is bad writing no matter what the fuck it's supposed to be. Really, take good look at some of these "plots" and you'll see what I'm talking about. Now, this doesn't change the fact that women aren't really represented in video games and when they are, it's usually exploitative. I never understood why Ivy would walk into battle in a thong swinging a whip-blade around while Nightmare would charge into battle in a suit of armor wielding a veiny, pulsating, one-eyed sword. Er...forget I said that. Anyway, I get the point. We want women in games that don't have to show you their panties every time they bend over. You know what, I'm gonna plays Devil Advocate and argue that those characters already exist, we just ignore them. As long as we except that women are women, there are quite a few characters that fit. Since I'm this post is already too long, I'll leave you to do research on these characters and form opinions on them but, I'll list a few here.
Kya (Kya: Dark Lineage) - Your average teenage girl who has to save her brother from her evil alien father.
Jill Valentine (Resident Evil) - Before her ridiculous blonde-brainwashed babe phase, she was the main character of REs 1 and 3. She shared all the responsibilities of here male compainions and she wasn't the only woman on the team either. She was obviously female and shooting the shit out of zombies.
Aile/Ash (Megaman ZX/ZX:Advent) - Aile is the female version of the male character Vent. Hence, she has the same background story and is equal to him in representation. Ash has her own story aside from Grey's and in no way is she sexualized. She shows a whole range of emotions and is the heroine of her story.
Tron Bonne (Misadventures of Tron Bonne) - A 14 year-old genius mechanic who builds and pilots various machines. She also created 40 servbots that assist her in various tasks. She is very stubborn and impulsive but, is she is still a confident and effective leader. She develops a crush on the protagonist of the Megaman Legends series, Megaman Volnutt, and her poor attempts at winning him over is due to her inexperience in love. Her entire character is based on her personality.
Jade (Beyond Good & Evil) - A reporter and martial artist who uses her skills to uncover a human (well, not entirely human) trafficking conspiracy. She is the lead character in her adventure.
Blaze the Cat (Sonic Rush) - A princess who guards the Sol Emeralds from those who would abuse them. With the help of Sonic the Hedgehog, she is able to stop Eggman Nega (her world's version of Dr. Eggman) from talking over the world. When the 2 Eggmans team up for a final showdown, both Sonic and Blaze turn super to defeat them. She is just as important to the story as Sonic.
I'm sure you can find some other candidates. Also, all because the character is sexualized doesn't automatically make the character bad. That's something to consider when talking about sexualization. That doesn't change the fact that sexualization is usually used as pure eye candy so I understand why people have a problem with it but, sex sells and as much as I wish that wasn't the case, it is what is. That's why Fat Chick with Acme: The Video Game isn't on anybody's wishlist. Remember what I said about graphics? Yeah, it's the same reason why almost all fictional characters are made to be attractive. Now, some would argue that only ugly "feminazis" give a damn about this. I honestly don't think so. The idea that women can be just as good as men at slaying demons and shit should be old news at this point. I'd argue those who don't see this maybe sexist if I wasn't familiar with the kind of shit people are capable of. Point being that all hatred regarding things like "Tropes vs Women in Video Games" has more to do with trolling and shit social skills than outright hatred towards women. Those kinds of people will attack anybody for anything. Not only that but, the idea that women are being victimized by these stereotypes is, quite frankly, horseshit.
The reason why women in mainstream video games are shit is because mainstream games have shit story lines. This effects minorities and homosexuals too. Yet, we're focusing mainly on women which actively ignores why those female tropes exist in the first place and dare I say some stereotypes are accurate. I met plenty of women in real life that fit some of the stereotypes in video games. This is because stereotypes are based on generalizations, not pure make believe. There are reasons why most porn stars are women. I may not know why that is but, I'm sure oppression isn't one of them. Gender relations are a result of culture. If you want that relationship to change, the culture has to change. How does the culture change? Well, that's not an easy question. People will have to open their minds to different ways of thinking and throw out old gender stereotypes. You know what would help though? If more people bothered to actively become apart of the solution rather than complaining about the problem. I'm sorry but, we've known there was a problem for over a decade now. You can only bring up so much awareness until people have to actually start doing something. For the record, "I'm not a game designer" isn't an excuse. Sure, you don't have to be a game designer but, the game designers are the ones expected to fix this and they don't have to do shit.
That's right, they don't. It's not your work. You don't decide what it's about. You can decide to buy it or not but, you can't decide what it is. It's no one's responsibility to pander to you. Developers will pander to those who will give them the most money. Maybe you can convince more people not to buy games that objectify women but, that's there decision. If you aren't a game designer, you can always try to become one. Then you can say you tried to make a difference. Hell, you don't even need to be a game designer. You can just write the story. It's better than nothing. That's not saying that projects like "Tropes vs Women in Video Games" are automatically bad and worthless but, I know for a fact that this and anything like it won't change anything. It never does. Only actions change shit like this.
What's funny is that women working in the gaming industry (yes, women make games too) must not be doing enough to change this. The stories and characters haven't changed. You know, those horrible female stereotypes are voiced by women, right? Hell, some of those breast physics were animated by women. It's not like women aren't apart of the problem. I guess they just don't care enough like those women dancing in those rap videos. Are they doing that shit at gun point? It's pretty clear that women can play games, talk smack over XBOX Live, and objectify themselves and men just as much as men can. "Can't" isn't the issue. "Won't" is the problem. That "won't" part is the product of culture. Women have generally different interest then men do and it just so happens that video games aren't on most women's radar (though, it should be because those are more consumers). So if you happen to be woman and you're reading this, don't think being a woman stops you from getting into the gaming industry. Anyone that says that is shitting you. Women can do it to and we know this because women have done it already.
Ultimately, I see what the problem is here but, we're addressing it the wrong way. The females stereotypes aren't sexist, they're just shallow. Trolls aren't sexist, they're just ignorant. There is no doubt that gaming is male dominated but, all that means is we need more women involved in the industry. It reminds me about that time in High School and these group of girls kept making sexual remarks to me. One of them even said she "liked my rolls" (yeah, I'm really some fat guy with too much time on his hands). Of course, no one, not even my own mother, took that seriously because a woman can't sexually harass a man. Seriously, fuck that shit. Now if you excuse me, I have to play as no-tits Talim and smack Sophita right up the ass with twin blades then beat my score on Water Palace with Blaze. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you make your own damn games. That's what I'm going to college for.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Lemmings and Cows and Sheep, Oh My!
Yeah, I think I over did it with the Wizard Of Oz reference. Anyway, people love to label things. This is no mystery and anyone familiar with gaming culture might recognize what these 3 animals mean. Basically, lemmings are Microsoft fans, cows are Sony fans, and sheep are Nintendo fans. I've seen this shit explode before my own eyes and thankfully the terms are becoming taboo but, the mentality that spawned them hasn't died. If you have any bias towards anything at all, you're automatically a "fan boy". You know what, fanboyism (or fangirlism if you have a vagina) was totally okay until insecure crybabies made a big deal out of being "objective" and it's shit like this that prevents gamers from being taken seriously. You wanna know something else...this is politics all over again.
You know how Republicans are represented by an elephant and Democrats are represented by a donkey. Have ever wondered why that is? Each animal is more or less a symbol of their groups ideals and characteristics. Think about elephants for a minute. They're big, powerful, and they never forget (supposedly, I'm not a zoologist). Mice, which are tiny and weak by the way, scare the shit out of them. Now look at donkeys. They're stubborn, considered to be generally ignorant, and it better hope no one calls you one because that's considered an insult. Come to think of it, how the hell is a donkey a positive symbol for anyone? You'd think that would send the wrong message. Maybe it has something to do with donkeys not taking any shit. It's really hard to force those things to do something (again, not a zoologist). Granted, the reasoning behind these symbols and their origins have very little to do with the actual parties themselves. Hell, neither party really chose their animals, they were assigned to them by cartoonist. Either way, the point is, no matter what animal you are, these are simply labels used to generalize groups for the sake of convenience. You know the kind of convenience that creates ridiculous stereotypes.
You see, the reason I'm so fucking terrified by the idea of voting is because I can't trust either party. Why the fuck would I? Politics is a glorified game of poo-flinging. The "elephants" talk shit about how the "donkeys" are ruining America and the "donkeys" go on about how the "elephants" are destroying the country and once the song and dance is over, practically nothing changes (for the better anyway). This is what smear campaigns are all about, making the opposing side look as terrible as possible so you can win people over. Hence, you have people throwing around words like "terrorist" when referring to Barrack Obama. That's pretty scary considering how influential a lot of these voices are whether they're members of congress or just some random people pulled off the street. As a result, we're constantly at each other's throats regarding our differing opinions on politics despite the fact that we mostly share a common goal; we just want what we think is best for our country.
What could all of this possibly have to do with fanboyism? Well, when you have a bunch of gamers dividing themselves into smaller and smaller groups in an attempt to prove which systems, franchises, etc. are "just", all you get are gamers attacking gamers for having different opinions on video games which something all gamers love. If they didn't, they wouldn't be called gamers. The cruel irony of "fan boy" hunting is that we're essentially calling people out for having preferences in video games. Funny thing is, there are still people out there demonizing us for playing video games altogether yet, we expect them to stop attacking us when we can't even stop attacking each other. This is something I've always disliked about being "objective". Your interest in genre, consoles, franchises, etc. have to all be put aside so you can judge a game "objectively". I understand this to an extent. We shouldn't let our bias stop us from trying new things or seeing a honestly good/bad game for what it is. The problem is that "objective" usually translates into "least offensive opinion" or "opinion your supposed to have". This is probably why games score 8s and 9s so easily because anything lower turns the comments section into Lava Reef.
It doesn't take a genius to tell you that most of this madness stems from insecurity. We have the this need to feel reassured by other people, usually our peers, in regards to damn near everything so when it comes to whether or not we have "good taste", we need a seemingly endless amount of reassurance so we can feel like our opinions are justified. That's understandable. I know how it feels to be an outcast for the most ridiculous reasons. The way I look, talk, walk, act, etc. were all bashed to hell and back when I was a kid so that feeling of shittiness when everyone and their mother calls me an idiot for having an opinion that differs from the majority isn't new but, it still doesn't feel good because now I have to deal with a sense of wrongness. After all, if thousands of people believe something and you don't, those people couldn't possibly be wrong, right?
Well, they could of fooled me with the kind of asinine justifications and flat-out excuses for why the majority is magically right just because it's the majority. I'm not saying majority opinion is always wrong but, if thousands of idiots believe something that one genius doesn't, the genius is still right. The problem here is that people nowadays can't even dream of giving clarified and logical explanations for their beliefs. So instead, we form groups with people who share our specific views and either attack the shit out of anyone who disagrees with them or play the "it's just your opinion" card so we can still basically ignore any criticisms and nobody gets their feelings hurt (a mentality that embodies everything that's fucked up about political correctness).
This is why voicing your opinions on anything (god help you if you're in the minority) is one of the most seemingly hopeless and terrifying things you could do, especially over the internet (which apparently isn't stopping me) because you have no way of knowing if you'll be loved for your insightful views or condemned for being wrong about everything. By "condemned", I mean emailed various death threats. Now, I wouldn't suggest that people simply cower in fear of each other's judgemental views on their opinions but, this does explain why some people (including myself a while back) prefer to keep to themselves rather than risk the internet's cruel and usually nonsensical rejection.
Funny thing is Lemmings, Cows, and Sheep (also Hermits but, nobody today seems to give a shit about PC gaming) are nicknames mostly exclusive to GameFAQs but, you know what, that doesn't matter. Just replace the animal names with the term "fanboy" and you'll see this shit pretty much occurs on practically every gaming website imaginable in some way or form. Why do you think Youtube comments are so...well...like Youtube comments? Just to clarify, this issue isn't exclusive to gaming one bit. You're bond to have similar discourse arise over movies, books, music, etc. However, none of those mediums are still fighting for the right to be seen as "art" and if we ever expect gaming along with gamers to not been viewed as children, we all need to acting like children. I guess as a big fan of video games, I'm naturally going to see general issues like this as if they only apply to gaming which they don't.
All I know is when the original Halo: Combat Evolved came out and I started talking shit about it to my associates. They were not happy. I said it was generic, boring and even said that Japanese people were easily entertained by shit like Halo which exampled its success. That was of course one of the most uneducated and downright stupid (and pretty racist too but, I was in middle school back then of course was some kind of stupid) things that have ever escaped my lips. They're respond to this was pulling out a candle lighter and threaten to set me on fire. I apologized, took back what I said about Halo and the Japanese (which was made all the more embarassing when I found out Bungie was founded in America) and I finally agreed to play Halo with them like were begging me to. I still didn't enjoy it and I don't understand what's so damn great about Master Chief. More disturbingly, I'm left wondering to this very day if their sky-high voices and threatening me with a lighter was just a joke or if I had insisted that Halo was still shitty, would they have really set me a blaze?
My point is that while I was definitely in the wrong for having such a misguided view of the game, these guys decided that instead of giving a well constructed counter-arguement to correct my uneducated opinion of the game, they threatened to perform a real-life "flaming". I did mention this happened in real-life and not over the internet right? So next someone gets shot for believing in the "wrong" god or gets their teeth smashed out for liking the "wrong" flavor of ice cream, keep in mind that some guys (who I obviously don't talk to anymore) threatened to set me on fire for saying Halo wasn't a good game. Somehow, XBox Live being filled with assholes makes a lot of sense now.
You know how Republicans are represented by an elephant and Democrats are represented by a donkey. Have ever wondered why that is? Each animal is more or less a symbol of their groups ideals and characteristics. Think about elephants for a minute. They're big, powerful, and they never forget (supposedly, I'm not a zoologist). Mice, which are tiny and weak by the way, scare the shit out of them. Now look at donkeys. They're stubborn, considered to be generally ignorant, and it better hope no one calls you one because that's considered an insult. Come to think of it, how the hell is a donkey a positive symbol for anyone? You'd think that would send the wrong message. Maybe it has something to do with donkeys not taking any shit. It's really hard to force those things to do something (again, not a zoologist). Granted, the reasoning behind these symbols and their origins have very little to do with the actual parties themselves. Hell, neither party really chose their animals, they were assigned to them by cartoonist. Either way, the point is, no matter what animal you are, these are simply labels used to generalize groups for the sake of convenience. You know the kind of convenience that creates ridiculous stereotypes.
You see, the reason I'm so fucking terrified by the idea of voting is because I can't trust either party. Why the fuck would I? Politics is a glorified game of poo-flinging. The "elephants" talk shit about how the "donkeys" are ruining America and the "donkeys" go on about how the "elephants" are destroying the country and once the song and dance is over, practically nothing changes (for the better anyway). This is what smear campaigns are all about, making the opposing side look as terrible as possible so you can win people over. Hence, you have people throwing around words like "terrorist" when referring to Barrack Obama. That's pretty scary considering how influential a lot of these voices are whether they're members of congress or just some random people pulled off the street. As a result, we're constantly at each other's throats regarding our differing opinions on politics despite the fact that we mostly share a common goal; we just want what we think is best for our country.
What could all of this possibly have to do with fanboyism? Well, when you have a bunch of gamers dividing themselves into smaller and smaller groups in an attempt to prove which systems, franchises, etc. are "just", all you get are gamers attacking gamers for having different opinions on video games which something all gamers love. If they didn't, they wouldn't be called gamers. The cruel irony of "fan boy" hunting is that we're essentially calling people out for having preferences in video games. Funny thing is, there are still people out there demonizing us for playing video games altogether yet, we expect them to stop attacking us when we can't even stop attacking each other. This is something I've always disliked about being "objective". Your interest in genre, consoles, franchises, etc. have to all be put aside so you can judge a game "objectively". I understand this to an extent. We shouldn't let our bias stop us from trying new things or seeing a honestly good/bad game for what it is. The problem is that "objective" usually translates into "least offensive opinion" or "opinion your supposed to have". This is probably why games score 8s and 9s so easily because anything lower turns the comments section into Lava Reef.
It doesn't take a genius to tell you that most of this madness stems from insecurity. We have the this need to feel reassured by other people, usually our peers, in regards to damn near everything so when it comes to whether or not we have "good taste", we need a seemingly endless amount of reassurance so we can feel like our opinions are justified. That's understandable. I know how it feels to be an outcast for the most ridiculous reasons. The way I look, talk, walk, act, etc. were all bashed to hell and back when I was a kid so that feeling of shittiness when everyone and their mother calls me an idiot for having an opinion that differs from the majority isn't new but, it still doesn't feel good because now I have to deal with a sense of wrongness. After all, if thousands of people believe something and you don't, those people couldn't possibly be wrong, right?
Well, they could of fooled me with the kind of asinine justifications and flat-out excuses for why the majority is magically right just because it's the majority. I'm not saying majority opinion is always wrong but, if thousands of idiots believe something that one genius doesn't, the genius is still right. The problem here is that people nowadays can't even dream of giving clarified and logical explanations for their beliefs. So instead, we form groups with people who share our specific views and either attack the shit out of anyone who disagrees with them or play the "it's just your opinion" card so we can still basically ignore any criticisms and nobody gets their feelings hurt (a mentality that embodies everything that's fucked up about political correctness).
This is why voicing your opinions on anything (god help you if you're in the minority) is one of the most seemingly hopeless and terrifying things you could do, especially over the internet (which apparently isn't stopping me) because you have no way of knowing if you'll be loved for your insightful views or condemned for being wrong about everything. By "condemned", I mean emailed various death threats. Now, I wouldn't suggest that people simply cower in fear of each other's judgemental views on their opinions but, this does explain why some people (including myself a while back) prefer to keep to themselves rather than risk the internet's cruel and usually nonsensical rejection.
Funny thing is Lemmings, Cows, and Sheep (also Hermits but, nobody today seems to give a shit about PC gaming) are nicknames mostly exclusive to GameFAQs but, you know what, that doesn't matter. Just replace the animal names with the term "fanboy" and you'll see this shit pretty much occurs on practically every gaming website imaginable in some way or form. Why do you think Youtube comments are so...well...like Youtube comments? Just to clarify, this issue isn't exclusive to gaming one bit. You're bond to have similar discourse arise over movies, books, music, etc. However, none of those mediums are still fighting for the right to be seen as "art" and if we ever expect gaming along with gamers to not been viewed as children, we all need to acting like children. I guess as a big fan of video games, I'm naturally going to see general issues like this as if they only apply to gaming which they don't.
All I know is when the original Halo: Combat Evolved came out and I started talking shit about it to my associates. They were not happy. I said it was generic, boring and even said that Japanese people were easily entertained by shit like Halo which exampled its success. That was of course one of the most uneducated and downright stupid (and pretty racist too but, I was in middle school back then of course was some kind of stupid) things that have ever escaped my lips. They're respond to this was pulling out a candle lighter and threaten to set me on fire. I apologized, took back what I said about Halo and the Japanese (which was made all the more embarassing when I found out Bungie was founded in America) and I finally agreed to play Halo with them like were begging me to. I still didn't enjoy it and I don't understand what's so damn great about Master Chief. More disturbingly, I'm left wondering to this very day if their sky-high voices and threatening me with a lighter was just a joke or if I had insisted that Halo was still shitty, would they have really set me a blaze?
My point is that while I was definitely in the wrong for having such a misguided view of the game, these guys decided that instead of giving a well constructed counter-arguement to correct my uneducated opinion of the game, they threatened to perform a real-life "flaming". I did mention this happened in real-life and not over the internet right? So next someone gets shot for believing in the "wrong" god or gets their teeth smashed out for liking the "wrong" flavor of ice cream, keep in mind that some guys (who I obviously don't talk to anymore) threatened to set me on fire for saying Halo wasn't a good game. Somehow, XBox Live being filled with assholes makes a lot of sense now.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Graphics Matter. They Matter A LOT.
You know the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover". It means you should look past appearances and learn to appreciate something for its value, not just looks. People go on about being loved for their personalities, not just their looks and some gamers are quick to say that a game's graphics doesn't determine its quality. These are very understandable and very true assertions. A woman with big breasts doesn't necessarily have a big heart and a game with top-notch visuals doesn't guarantee good game play. I agree with this statement wholeheartedly but, whoever the fuck said "Graphics don't matter" is full of shit.
Graphics matter. They matter A LOT and it has a lot to do with your taste in food and sex. For starters, I want you to ask yourself what you like in a video game. What is the first thing you look for in a game before you purchase one? What do you look for in a partner before dating him/her? What do you look for in a meal before you indulge it in for the first time? No matter how you answer these questions, you'll always be shallow and you know what, there isn't shit wrong with that. You see, people are shallow by nature and there's a pretty good reason why. It's called standards.
If you've ever taken a sex education class or know what it's like to make love, you probably already know that your body gets "turned on" by certain aspects of your partner. Maybe it's their big butt, ripped abs, or even the shape of their nose. Unless you're blind, your eyes pick up visual queues that cause your body to react in that special way and even if you can't see, your sense of touch can have the same effect. It's nature's way of saying "He/She is fertile" or "This person is attractive". The keyword here is attraction.
The only real reason besides scaring off predators that male peacocks have big and vibrant tail feathers is to attract mates. So naturally, if Mr. Peacock wants to get his freak on, he has to put on show. That's why people use make up, go on crazy diets, and bother with hygiene. It's all an attempt to look attractive so they can win over that special someone or just get hired for a job. No offense to anyone but, we don't live a magical world where all is just and fair though, everyday I wish that were the case. "Ugly", as subjective as it is, is still a negative trait and it's one pretty much anyone who gives a damn about...well anything is generally trying to avoid wither it be an ugly appearance or ugly personality.
You see, whenever you see something ugly, you see something wrong. Bad smell, bad looks, bad taste and such are just various ways your body recognizes flaws. You wouldn't eat food that smelled like literal shit would you? Even if was the most delicious and nutritious food on Earth, would you still chance it if the smell made you want to vomit? Usually when something smells bad, it taste bad too. I think we all know sour milk doesn't taste any better than it smells. Just like we know that we aren't going to form meaningful relationships with people we can't bare to look at. But let's say you meet this really great person online and you can't wait to meet them in person. Then when you do, he/she turns out to be the ugliest living thing on the planet and now it's no mystery why they never posted pictures of themselves on the Internet. But you figure "Hey, they've got a great personality" and you stay with them, share all your deepest secrets with them, and live happily ever after because you don't care about race, gender, or weight and you love that person for who they are on the inside. And you know what...you're STILL shallow.
The idea of eating a pie just for the filling is just as ridiculous as eating it just for the crust. That is unless you don't like the crust or filling in which you'd be better off with a good combination of both rather than settling for one over the other. And yet, there's this misconception that value is determined by depth alone (which is horseshit) and that anyone who dates, eats, and buys based off impression is somehow shallow and therefore bad because they only look skin deep. Funny thing is, too many people don't care about depth for such a idea to be relevent to how are society works and even if you date people with good personalites and ultimately never prejudge anything based off appearance, you'll still be shallow in the end because your only going out with that geek with the thick glasses because he/she tells funny jokes or you love to eat Chicken Alfredo because you love the creamy taste of the noodles combined with chewy, zesty chicken bits. To be "deep" should mean you have more than one reason to like or dislike something. Instead, the word is being used to define what is essentially a complete lack of both objectivity and subjectivity.
Ever see the movie Shallow Hal? It's about some pervert who only dates women for their looks until some guru puts a spell on him to make him see their "inner beauty". He then starts to go clubbing with women his friend thinks are ugly as fuck. He eventually falls in love with a morbidly obese woman and the two get into a very serious relationship. Then shit hits the fan when his friend breaks his trance and all the "ugly" women look "ugly" again. Of course now he's terrified that if he sees the girl of his dreams to be the queen of seacows she really is, their relationship will fall apart. As you probably guessed, he learns to look past her 300 pounds of lard and loves her for who she is on the inside and the two lovebirds live happily ever after. The catch? This bastard literally needed to be tricked into dating unattractive women. Everytime he had sex with his fat girlfriend, he thought he was plowing a supermodel. It's funny because the movie's "moral", if you can honestly call it that, is that true beauty isn't skin deep and yet it enforces the exact opposite. He wouldn't have said one word to her if he wasn't brainwashed into thinking she was anything other than fat which, in hollywood, means your instantly ugly (go fucking figure). All this movie did was help prove the point I'm about to make: No One Is Attracted To Unattractive Things.
I know what you're thinking, "What the hell does all of this have to do with graphics in video games?" Well, it has everything to do with it. You see, the fact that looking good, standing out, and basically shaking your peacocks feathers is the only real way to get attention is the main reason animators, graphic designers, and box artists all have jobs in the first place. If no one cared about looks, strip clubs would go broke. If no one cared about graphics, the Nintendo 64 wouldn't be called the N64 because who gives a shit if it has 64-bit visuals or not? All those high-definition trailers for upcoming games are eye-catchers. It's the companies way of "shaking their feathers" so to speak and get you interested in their product and half the time, the trailers don't even have game play footage but, when they do, you best believe their gonna try to doll it up as much as possible because, let's be honest, if they didn't put on a show, they wouldn't sell any tickets. That's why ads and commercials are crucial to game's financial success. Simply having good game play isn't enough when no one knows your game even exist.
Hell, this is why female characters are usually half naked with barely covered breasts. You think Dead Or Alive got to where it is now because of its game play? Please. All that stuff I said about human sexuality is the main reason characters like Mai Shiranui exist. They give the game sex appeal which would of course make any already visually appealing game even more appealing because now your hormones wanna buy it too. There's a reason characters like Lara Croft aren't sporting double chins. If they didn't meet the status-quo of what is considered attractive, consumers wouldn't run out and buy a copy eagerly wanting to learn about her backstory. They're just gonna see some "ugly" chick on the cover and write it off which is unfortunately one of the main reasons the industry has become somewhat stagnate but, that's a whole blog post in itself. Bsaically, to ensure a game has a chance at making a profit, it has to look the part and make its presence known. It's the same reason why popstars, regardless of musical talent, are mostly about image. Who would go to their concerts if all they had to look forward to was good music? No dancers. No special effects. Just a couple of guys on stage playing instruments and singing. That kind of bland and cheap presentation sure as hell wouldn't rack in cash in today's world so it's ludicrous to even think of making it look bad on purpose.
That's what I don't understand. If you had to choose between a nice ugly person and a mean pretty person then you're probably better off the the nice ugly person. Given that same choice but, not knowing who was the saint and who was the asshole, chances are you'll end up with the attractive one. Why? Because they're attractive. So if you had to choice between a ugly ass game that looked like shit and one that looked fucking fantastic, not knowing anything about the game play, you know damn you'll pick the game that looks good because that's the one that will most likely be good even though that isn't a guarantee. Now if I gave you a choice between two versions of the same game but, one version had better graphics, why the fuck would you willingly choose the version with shitty graphics? You wouldn't, that's why.
You know, I remember when the 3 current home consoles first came out and everyone was dogging on the Wii cause the games didn't look good. Being a lot less judgemental, I told people that all because the graphics on most of Wii games at the time weren't good didn't make them bad games. Then this one guy responded with, I kid you not, "If a game has good graphics, it has good game play". Of course, I thought he was crazy. In fact I still do but, the sad truth is that the average consumer doesn't have particularly high standards when it comes to actual game play. You'd have to actually give two shits about hub exploration, item management, and challenge to point out just how streamlined a game like Final Fantasy 13 is but, if sells proved anything, it was that no one really cared that the game practically played itself. Visuals are the first thing people see and ultimately those along with demos (which quite a few companies don't like having for their games) form whatever prejudgements they have about a game which then encourages or discourages their purchase. Sure, personal taste, peer pressure, and such factor in but, their opinion on the full product doesn't exist yet because they don't own it yet and when they do buy it, wither or not they like doesn't mean shit anymore. That $60 you spent on that new game says you like it. Fuck enjoyment.
This is where everything works perfectly in all the wrong ways. Since people aren't as "tasteful" as they like to believe and game companies only really need to care about selling a game, not really needing it to be good as long as it's good enough, game companies can essentially produe shit in a box and it would sell like hotcakes and in a way, that's exactly what half of these guys are doing right now. So I totally understand people wanting to look beyond just a games visuals but, the sheer idealism behind being so "enlightened" that you like a game for it's game play alone is just as shallow of a mindset as those who believe good graphics is enough. This isn't just because your willingly choosing to ignore other aspects of a game in favor of others regardless of quality but, because most people who say this are simply full of shit. It's like when a guy tells a girl she has a beautiful soul. That's just his way of begging for sex most of the time. People do this "I'm so deep, I'm so smart" routine and some of us who can't tell the difference between fakers and the real thing fall for it. It should come as no surprise that the "Graphics don't matter" phrase usually comes out of Wii fans or fans of games with generally inferior graphics. What better way to overcome your insecurities about your preferences than to pretend an entire chunk of the gaming industry doesn't mean anything. Heaven forbid they make games with good graphics AND good game play. That's just popotsterus.
All and all though, I do wish people would be just a little more analytical about their purchases because if you buy shitty games, all that says is that these companies should make more of them and never bother to change but, if you see no problem with this then be my guest. Oh, and the next time someone says "Graphics don't matter", tell them that they're fucking wrong or better yet, link them to this blog. It'd be a shame if I took 3 hours to write a post no one reads.
Graphics matter. They matter A LOT and it has a lot to do with your taste in food and sex. For starters, I want you to ask yourself what you like in a video game. What is the first thing you look for in a game before you purchase one? What do you look for in a partner before dating him/her? What do you look for in a meal before you indulge it in for the first time? No matter how you answer these questions, you'll always be shallow and you know what, there isn't shit wrong with that. You see, people are shallow by nature and there's a pretty good reason why. It's called standards.
If you've ever taken a sex education class or know what it's like to make love, you probably already know that your body gets "turned on" by certain aspects of your partner. Maybe it's their big butt, ripped abs, or even the shape of their nose. Unless you're blind, your eyes pick up visual queues that cause your body to react in that special way and even if you can't see, your sense of touch can have the same effect. It's nature's way of saying "He/She is fertile" or "This person is attractive". The keyword here is attraction.
The only real reason besides scaring off predators that male peacocks have big and vibrant tail feathers is to attract mates. So naturally, if Mr. Peacock wants to get his freak on, he has to put on show. That's why people use make up, go on crazy diets, and bother with hygiene. It's all an attempt to look attractive so they can win over that special someone or just get hired for a job. No offense to anyone but, we don't live a magical world where all is just and fair though, everyday I wish that were the case. "Ugly", as subjective as it is, is still a negative trait and it's one pretty much anyone who gives a damn about...well anything is generally trying to avoid wither it be an ugly appearance or ugly personality.
You see, whenever you see something ugly, you see something wrong. Bad smell, bad looks, bad taste and such are just various ways your body recognizes flaws. You wouldn't eat food that smelled like literal shit would you? Even if was the most delicious and nutritious food on Earth, would you still chance it if the smell made you want to vomit? Usually when something smells bad, it taste bad too. I think we all know sour milk doesn't taste any better than it smells. Just like we know that we aren't going to form meaningful relationships with people we can't bare to look at. But let's say you meet this really great person online and you can't wait to meet them in person. Then when you do, he/she turns out to be the ugliest living thing on the planet and now it's no mystery why they never posted pictures of themselves on the Internet. But you figure "Hey, they've got a great personality" and you stay with them, share all your deepest secrets with them, and live happily ever after because you don't care about race, gender, or weight and you love that person for who they are on the inside. And you know what...you're STILL shallow.
The idea of eating a pie just for the filling is just as ridiculous as eating it just for the crust. That is unless you don't like the crust or filling in which you'd be better off with a good combination of both rather than settling for one over the other. And yet, there's this misconception that value is determined by depth alone (which is horseshit) and that anyone who dates, eats, and buys based off impression is somehow shallow and therefore bad because they only look skin deep. Funny thing is, too many people don't care about depth for such a idea to be relevent to how are society works and even if you date people with good personalites and ultimately never prejudge anything based off appearance, you'll still be shallow in the end because your only going out with that geek with the thick glasses because he/she tells funny jokes or you love to eat Chicken Alfredo because you love the creamy taste of the noodles combined with chewy, zesty chicken bits. To be "deep" should mean you have more than one reason to like or dislike something. Instead, the word is being used to define what is essentially a complete lack of both objectivity and subjectivity.
Ever see the movie Shallow Hal? It's about some pervert who only dates women for their looks until some guru puts a spell on him to make him see their "inner beauty". He then starts to go clubbing with women his friend thinks are ugly as fuck. He eventually falls in love with a morbidly obese woman and the two get into a very serious relationship. Then shit hits the fan when his friend breaks his trance and all the "ugly" women look "ugly" again. Of course now he's terrified that if he sees the girl of his dreams to be the queen of seacows she really is, their relationship will fall apart. As you probably guessed, he learns to look past her 300 pounds of lard and loves her for who she is on the inside and the two lovebirds live happily ever after. The catch? This bastard literally needed to be tricked into dating unattractive women. Everytime he had sex with his fat girlfriend, he thought he was plowing a supermodel. It's funny because the movie's "moral", if you can honestly call it that, is that true beauty isn't skin deep and yet it enforces the exact opposite. He wouldn't have said one word to her if he wasn't brainwashed into thinking she was anything other than fat which, in hollywood, means your instantly ugly (go fucking figure). All this movie did was help prove the point I'm about to make: No One Is Attracted To Unattractive Things.
I know what you're thinking, "What the hell does all of this have to do with graphics in video games?" Well, it has everything to do with it. You see, the fact that looking good, standing out, and basically shaking your peacocks feathers is the only real way to get attention is the main reason animators, graphic designers, and box artists all have jobs in the first place. If no one cared about looks, strip clubs would go broke. If no one cared about graphics, the Nintendo 64 wouldn't be called the N64 because who gives a shit if it has 64-bit visuals or not? All those high-definition trailers for upcoming games are eye-catchers. It's the companies way of "shaking their feathers" so to speak and get you interested in their product and half the time, the trailers don't even have game play footage but, when they do, you best believe their gonna try to doll it up as much as possible because, let's be honest, if they didn't put on a show, they wouldn't sell any tickets. That's why ads and commercials are crucial to game's financial success. Simply having good game play isn't enough when no one knows your game even exist.
Hell, this is why female characters are usually half naked with barely covered breasts. You think Dead Or Alive got to where it is now because of its game play? Please. All that stuff I said about human sexuality is the main reason characters like Mai Shiranui exist. They give the game sex appeal which would of course make any already visually appealing game even more appealing because now your hormones wanna buy it too. There's a reason characters like Lara Croft aren't sporting double chins. If they didn't meet the status-quo of what is considered attractive, consumers wouldn't run out and buy a copy eagerly wanting to learn about her backstory. They're just gonna see some "ugly" chick on the cover and write it off which is unfortunately one of the main reasons the industry has become somewhat stagnate but, that's a whole blog post in itself. Bsaically, to ensure a game has a chance at making a profit, it has to look the part and make its presence known. It's the same reason why popstars, regardless of musical talent, are mostly about image. Who would go to their concerts if all they had to look forward to was good music? No dancers. No special effects. Just a couple of guys on stage playing instruments and singing. That kind of bland and cheap presentation sure as hell wouldn't rack in cash in today's world so it's ludicrous to even think of making it look bad on purpose.
That's what I don't understand. If you had to choose between a nice ugly person and a mean pretty person then you're probably better off the the nice ugly person. Given that same choice but, not knowing who was the saint and who was the asshole, chances are you'll end up with the attractive one. Why? Because they're attractive. So if you had to choice between a ugly ass game that looked like shit and one that looked fucking fantastic, not knowing anything about the game play, you know damn you'll pick the game that looks good because that's the one that will most likely be good even though that isn't a guarantee. Now if I gave you a choice between two versions of the same game but, one version had better graphics, why the fuck would you willingly choose the version with shitty graphics? You wouldn't, that's why.
You know, I remember when the 3 current home consoles first came out and everyone was dogging on the Wii cause the games didn't look good. Being a lot less judgemental, I told people that all because the graphics on most of Wii games at the time weren't good didn't make them bad games. Then this one guy responded with, I kid you not, "If a game has good graphics, it has good game play". Of course, I thought he was crazy. In fact I still do but, the sad truth is that the average consumer doesn't have particularly high standards when it comes to actual game play. You'd have to actually give two shits about hub exploration, item management, and challenge to point out just how streamlined a game like Final Fantasy 13 is but, if sells proved anything, it was that no one really cared that the game practically played itself. Visuals are the first thing people see and ultimately those along with demos (which quite a few companies don't like having for their games) form whatever prejudgements they have about a game which then encourages or discourages their purchase. Sure, personal taste, peer pressure, and such factor in but, their opinion on the full product doesn't exist yet because they don't own it yet and when they do buy it, wither or not they like doesn't mean shit anymore. That $60 you spent on that new game says you like it. Fuck enjoyment.
This is where everything works perfectly in all the wrong ways. Since people aren't as "tasteful" as they like to believe and game companies only really need to care about selling a game, not really needing it to be good as long as it's good enough, game companies can essentially produe shit in a box and it would sell like hotcakes and in a way, that's exactly what half of these guys are doing right now. So I totally understand people wanting to look beyond just a games visuals but, the sheer idealism behind being so "enlightened" that you like a game for it's game play alone is just as shallow of a mindset as those who believe good graphics is enough. This isn't just because your willingly choosing to ignore other aspects of a game in favor of others regardless of quality but, because most people who say this are simply full of shit. It's like when a guy tells a girl she has a beautiful soul. That's just his way of begging for sex most of the time. People do this "I'm so deep, I'm so smart" routine and some of us who can't tell the difference between fakers and the real thing fall for it. It should come as no surprise that the "Graphics don't matter" phrase usually comes out of Wii fans or fans of games with generally inferior graphics. What better way to overcome your insecurities about your preferences than to pretend an entire chunk of the gaming industry doesn't mean anything. Heaven forbid they make games with good graphics AND good game play. That's just popotsterus.
All and all though, I do wish people would be just a little more analytical about their purchases because if you buy shitty games, all that says is that these companies should make more of them and never bother to change but, if you see no problem with this then be my guest. Oh, and the next time someone says "Graphics don't matter", tell them that they're fucking wrong or better yet, link them to this blog. It'd be a shame if I took 3 hours to write a post no one reads.
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