Tag: commentary

Posted on

The Impossibility of Satirizing Game Art [NSFW!]

The Impossibility of Satirizing Game Art [NSFW!]

A really good piece by @wundergeek​ on the topic we brought up before: the difficulty of making satire look like satire, instead of just straight-up reproducing whatever it’s supposed to comment on.

Because the important thing to remember about satire is this: what makes something successful satire is how it is viewed by the audience, not what the author or creator’s intentions behind the creation were. When you create art, you don’t get to tell people how they will respond to it. They bring their own feelings and experiences to the table, and the best intentions in the world won’t make offensive art any less offensive.

Indeed, there’s a delicate balance between recreating parts of the thing you’re parodying and adding the edge of self-awareness which communicates that your aim is humor and criticism. And there’s no edge in just wink-wink, nudge-nudge sleazy “ironic” tone. 

The key to good satire is a twist that distinguishes deliberate ridiculousness from clueless one. Otherwise, there is no difference between the two products and the audience won’t recognize the author’s intent.

Big thanks to nomotog for directing us at it.

~Ozzie

Posted on

Hi LG. So on the female power fantasy thing: I agree that the sexy warrior babe thing is overused, and women should have WAY more options. But, in interractive media-video games & rpgs, shouldn’t women have the OPTION of playing that, as well as not?

lawfulgoodness:

Nope!  No more sexy!  Sexy has been hereby banned.  No more sexy for anyone!

image

From that post about female power fantasies: 

Sexy Warrior Babe type of character is vastly overused, so it’s really hard to to make it work without looking like you’re playing it straight.

Please remember that I’m a dude, and my opinion on what media “should” or “shoudl not” look like in regards to a) how women are portrayed and b) what women should enjoy is pretty close to irrelevant.  I try to throw in a cheap joke here or there, or offer some practical application for what women (or any other group regularly discrimnated against) have said about it.  I’m not about to start criticizing women for liking what they like or how they interact with video games.

I will say that any game that markets itself on it’s ability to appeal to the male gaze (especially through super-sexy / absurdly revealing clothing on its female characters) isn’t doing it for their female audience.  I’m all for fully-featured, rich, comprehensive character customization, both in physical traits and clothing.  Let folks do what they want with their character (including skin tone, muscle & fat composition, size, height, weight, etc).  I’m more suspicious of a game in which it is incredibly difficult to find female clothing that is both functional and non-revealing.

image

I’m guessing @bikiniarmorbattledamage can offer better insight into this, but for me, I’m casting a side-eye to any video game that markets itself using half-clad women as marketing gimmicks.

This is a nice summary of the quoted post and of what our response to things like “do you want to ban all sexyness in media?” is.

Thank you, @lawfulgoodness

~Ozzie

Posted on

thoughtspirals:

Hi LG. So on the female power fantasy thing: I agree that the sexy warrior babe thing is overused, and women should have WAY more options. But, in interractive media-video games & rpgs, shouldn’t women have the OPTION of playing that, as well as not?

lawfulgoodness:

Nope!  No more sexy!  Sexy has been hereby banned.  No more sexy for anyone!

image

From that post about female power fantasies: 

Sexy Warrior Babe type of character is vastly overused, so it’s really hard to to make it work without looking like you’re playing it straight.

Please remember that I’m a dude, and my opinion on what media “should” or “shoudl not” look like in regards to a) how women are portrayed and b) what women should enjoy is pretty close to irrelevant.  I try to throw in a cheap joke here or there, or offer some practical application for what women (or any other group regularly discrimnated against) have said about it.  I’m not about to start criticizing women for liking what they like or how they interact with video games.

I will say that any game that markets itself on it’s ability to appeal to the male gaze (especially through super-sexy / absurdly revealing clothing on its female characters) isn’t doing it for their female audience.  I’m all for fully-featured, rich, comprehensive character customization, both in physical traits and clothing.  Let folks do what they want with their character (including skin tone, muscle & fat composition, size, height, weight, etc).  I’m more suspicious of a game in which it is incredibly difficult to find female clothing that is both functional and non-revealing.

image

I’m guessing @bikiniarmorbattledamage can offer better insight into this, but for me, I’m casting a side-eye to any video game that markets itself using half-clad women as marketing gimmicks.

This is a nice summary of the quoted post and of what our response to things like “do you want to ban all sexyness in media?” is.

Thank you, @lawfulgoodness

~Ozzie

Posted on

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

After discussing the disturbing attitude towards female protagonists in video game industry Jimquisition once again tackles the topic of gender in games by commenting on controversy around Dragon’s Crown female character designs.

Sorry to post again about not-exactly-warrior-outfits, but it’s a very relevant case concerning strictly related areas (character design, women in popular culture).

Bringing the case of Dragon’s Crown’s female character design problems as a reminder that just because lady hero’s “sexyness” is exaggerated deliberately doesn’t automatically make it okay. Especially not when she’s not that different looking from any other generic sexy warrior we already have too much of in media.

~Ozzie

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Posted on

At this point I feel that it is also worth pointing out that Shantae’s magical abilities allow her to transform into a variety of creatures.  So people arguing she needs the outfit, that wouldn’t work for belly dancing, at all times are apparently fine with her being an elephant in game:

image

But not with the idea that maybe she should wear something that doesn’t look like a sex shop parody of a Genie/Bellydancer outfit.  It’s puzzling.

That and we should also mention, there was a vote for backers to decide which design for the “rival” genie would be used.  Let’s look at the variety of options.

image

Gotta say, I’m actually impressed the design that eventually won was the one with bra straps so at least some suggestion of breast support and the least impractical shoes.  Of course, we’ll have to wait until release to see if those are “in execution”.

– wincenworks

Posted on

It’s not that we should censor or be down on individual women for doing things that make them feel empowered, but the larger question shouldn’t be about individuals. It should be about systems. Why do we live in a world where the easiest way to be empowered is to put your naked body on display when that’s not true for men? Why is that something we commodify? Why do we have such a limited set of options to begin with?

We Were Feminists Once author and Bitch Media co-founder Andi Zeisler in this interview, “Is Mainstream Feminism Bad for Women’s Rights?”  (via femfreq)

These are all very important questions to ask about popular depictions of female “empowerment”. Yet we so rarely see them asked, let alone treated as a systemic issue, not individual choice of a person (or fictional character).

~Ozzie