blazestuck:

Hey I want to genuinely ask why don’t you make your own story/game with the design of how you want females to be represented? I know what you have to say about it in your Rhetroic Bingo but there are ways to get around that; Like making a webcomic of said story to gain fans then make a kickstarter for a game or book I mean it worked for Andrew Hussie’s Homestuck series, Or you could gather a group of like minded individuals to collaborate on a game/movie/comic.

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

image

Actually we’re both working on our own projects (they’re at a stage of completion where we’re comfortable sharing, and neither are the like minded people we’re working with (so there will be no further details forthcoming at this time).

Also, believe it or not: Some of the people involved in related blogs actually work in industries such as video games.

Saying that it “worked for Andrew Hussie’s Homestuck series” is as absurd, it’s like suggesting that someone’s who broke should just become a millionaire by building a web site like Google (it worked for Larry Page and Sergey Brin!)

Homestuck is a particularly bad example because it:

  • Didn’t really challenge the status quo at all, it was just a new absurdist comic that wanted to tell a story and entertain
  • Has a large and very enthusiastic fanbase, but has more or less no influence outside of that fanbase.  It’s very successful for a web comic, but that success doesn’t mean it’s influential in the grand scheme of things (or even in web comics)
  • Employs an economical style that works fine for the stories in Homestuck but is not necessarily even faintly compatible with other styles and stories.

image

Making a production that showcases women in sensible armor would pretty much require a higher standard of visual quality than something that’s intended to look like a scribble done in MS Paint.  So even with a web comic at a lot of hours in image creation.

More accessible and larger markets (which means more competition) products like animated features/movies/etc require even more effort and expertise.  Video games would require more skills and time again.

That’s not to say things like Kickstarter and Steam’s Greenlit aren’t fantastic and making the market more accessible but it’s insulting to creators of these products to downplay the work involved and pretend just anyone can do it (particularly with their other responsibilities and how much work is involved).

image

Even if Ozzie and I did somehow stumble across the time, money and connections to make a modest game (since video games are currently the biggest market) – say on par with Gone Home, here’s what we could look forward to:

  • Sales would be a small fraction of those by mainstream publishers – even a lambasted product like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning gets more sales (and hence market influence) than a critically acclaimed indy production
  • If the game doesn’t do well, for any reason – there will be a general backlash saying that it’s proof that the public doesn’t want well armored heroines
  • If the game does do well, for any reason – there will be a general backlash from people claiming that it’s only got sales due to political reasons and not because of the game (for more information, read the reviews on Gone Home’s Steam Store page – for extra laughs compare them to the reviews on The Stanley Parable a game that employs almost identical mechanics but doesn’t challenge people’s perceptions of the world around them per se)
  • While it may provide some influence in mainstream gaming, it is likely that the industry would in general mostly overlook. Lots of people want to copy Minecraft – but almost nobody talks about its gender ambiguity.

I mean we already have big names in industry like David Gaider promoting the importance of inclusion, Mark Rubin – the executive producer of Call of Duty (the iconic game of brodudes) recently announced they’ll be including female playable characters to recognize the female fanbase they already have around the same time that Ubisoft announced that making female characters in their next Assassin’s Creed game would be too much work.

The idea that an independent production is somehow going to overpower the influence of the mainstream media is, frankly, ridiculous (unless you’re Batman).  None of that is to say there aren’t things like games or artworks out there that are made for political reasons or with such goals – but they’re made by people who want to make the things.

History has already shown that if you make a web comic just because you want to make lots of money off it – you’re going to be disappointed.  Likewise if you make a web comic, animation or game just because you want the world to change their perceptions of other people.  Usually even political projects are less about expecting to change people, and more about the need to express something important.

So to summarize the main points:

1. Not everyone who is critical of a market should be expected to produce for that market. Every modern marketplace needs more customers than suppliers so it makes sense to leave the production up to people with the motivation and skills to do so.

2. If 50% of the population can see themselves well represented by going to, say, a game store, but the other 50% have to spend years building a game for themselves – that is not equality.

Criticism in the marketplace is important, it leads to more pressure on the experts to make better products and refine their priorities.

image

– wincenworks

This week throwback: an in-depth explanation of why “If you don’t like it, go make your own!” argument is one big fallacy and an insult to all hard work that goes into creating media.

All of the above are the reasons why it is warranted its own spot on the Rhetoric Bingo.

image

Feel free to share this post with anyone who insists that people should start making their own games/movies/comics/whatever instead of “whining” about having no representation in media.

~Ozzie

Hey I want to genuinely ask why don’t you make your own story/game with the design of how you want females to be represented? I know what you have to say about it in your Rhetroic Bingo but there are ways to get around that; Like making a webcomic of said story to gain fans then make a kickstarter for a game or book I mean it worked for Andrew Hussie’s Homestuck series, Or you could gather a group of like minded individuals to collaborate on a game/movie/comic.

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

image

Actually we’re both working on our own projects (they’re at a stage of completion where we’re comfortable sharing, and neither are the like minded people we’re working with (so there will be no further details forthcoming at this time).

Also, believe it or not: Some of the people involved in related blogs actually work in industries such as video games.

Saying that it “worked for Andrew Hussie’s Homestuck series” is as absurd, it’s like suggesting that someone’s who broke should just become a millionaire by building a web site like Google (it worked for Larry Page and Sergey Brin!)

Homestuck is a particularly bad example because it:

  • Didn’t really challenge the status quo at all, it was just a new absurdist comic that wanted to tell a story and entertain
  • Has a large and very enthusiastic fanbase, but has more or less no influence outside of that fanbase.  It’s very successful for a web comic, but that success doesn’t mean it’s influential in the grand scheme of things (or even in web comics)
  • Employs an economical style that works fine for the stories in Homestuck but is not necessarily even faintly compatible with other styles and stories.

image

Making a production that showcases women in sensible armor would pretty much require a higher standard of visual quality than something that’s intended to look like a scribble done in MS Paint.  So even with a web comic at a lot of hours in image creation.

More accessible and larger markets (which means more competition) products like animated features/movies/etc require even more effort and expertise.  Video games would require more skills and time again.

That’s not to say things like Kickstarter and Steam’s Greenlit aren’t fantastic and making the market more accessible but it’s insulting to creators of these products to downplay the work involved and pretend just anyone can do it (particularly with their other responsibilities and how much work is involved).

image

Even if Ozzie and I did somehow stumble across the time, money and connections to make a modest game (since video games are currently the biggest market) – say on par with Gone Home, here’s what we could look forward to:

  • Sales would be a small fraction of those by mainstream publishers – even a lambasted product like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning gets more sales (and hence market influence) than a critically acclaimed indy production
  • If the game doesn’t do well, for any reason – there will be a general backlash saying that it’s proof that the public doesn’t want well armored heroines
  • If the game does do well, for any reason – there will be a general backlash from people claiming that it’s only got sales due to political reasons and not because of the game (for more information, read the reviews on Gone Home’s Steam Store page – for extra laughs compare them to the reviews on The Stanley Parable a game that employs almost identical mechanics but doesn’t challenge people’s perceptions of the world around them per se)
  • While it may provide some influence in mainstream gaming, it is likely that the industry would in general mostly overlook. Lots of people want to copy Minecraft – but almost nobody talks about its gender ambiguity.

I mean we already have big names in industry like David Gaider promoting the importance of inclusion, Mark Rubin – the executive producer of Call of Duty (the iconic game of brodudes) recently announced they’ll be including female playable characters to recognize the female fanbase they already have around the same time that Ubisoft announced that making female characters in their next Assassin’s Creed game would be too much work.

The idea that an independent production is somehow going to overpower the influence of the mainstream media is, frankly, ridiculous (unless you’re Batman).  None of that is to say there aren’t things like games or artworks out there that are made for political reasons or with such goals – but they’re made by people who want to make the things.

History has already shown that if you make a web comic just because you want to make lots of money off it – you’re going to be disappointed.  Likewise if you make a web comic, animation or game just because you want the world to change their perceptions of other people.  Usually even political projects are less about expecting to change people, and more about the need to express something important.

So to summarize the main points:

1. Not everyone who is critical of a market should be expected to produce for that market. Every modern marketplace needs more customers than suppliers so it makes sense to leave the production up to people with the motivation and skills to do so.

2. If 50% of the population can see themselves well represented by going to, say, a game store, but the other 50% have to spend years building a game for themselves – that is not equality.

Criticism in the marketplace is important, it leads to more pressure on the experts to make better products and refine their priorities.

image

– wincenworks

This week throwback: an in-depth explanation of why “If you don’t like it, go make your own!” argument is one big fallacy and an insult to all hard work that goes into creating media.

All of the above are the reasons why it is warranted its own spot on the Rhetoric Bingo.

image

Feel free to share this post with anyone who insists that people should start making their own games/movies/comics/whatever instead of “whining” about having no representation in media.

~Ozzie

So, according to the dA page – the blue skinned lady is a “hybrid”.  Because using the most generic stock characters wasn’t bad enough, they also had to try to rip of Underworld while making her look exactly nothing like either.

– wincenworks

King Cashing

King Cashing

L. Scott Johnson submitted:

Since zombies’ only “vital” organs are their brains, the boobplate on this zombie is less of a hazard to its owner than most, but it is also not protecting anything that needs protecting (see also: no head protection)

Since Halloween is approaching, let’s continue (as briefly as humanly possible) on our theme of undead boobplate:

image

Glossing over how a slot machine combat game is an RPG, this one seems really dedicated to maintaining the use of boobs as a visual clue to gender, even when they really, really shouldn’t.

image

Along with what I can only assume is their attempt to balance:

image
image

Yeah, I’m just hoping that was “if no boob how woman” thing… because the alternatives are too horrifying to contemplate.

– wincenworks

King Cashing

King Cashing

Undyne from Undertale!(AKA Awesome Character with Awesome Armor)

Anonymous submitted:

image

Undyne is an awesome character. She’s not only a hammy badass fish woman who’s strong enough to suplex boulders and stuff like that, but also is a canonical lesbian. Goes to show her armor isn’t half-bad either.

Obviously, she isn’t wearing a helmet in this image, but she does wear one before you first encounter(and, depending on how you play, escape.)

Even when she doesn’t wear armor, she isn’t at all sexualized:

Undertale is certainly a unique game that brings a lot to talk about to the table. Partly because it brings the long awaited option to try to talk to monsters (in lieu of just killing them and taking their stuff) and partly because the creators have really gone all out with the whacky creativity.

– wincenworks

Undyne from Undertale!(AKA Awesome Character with Awesome Armor)

Anonymous submitted:

image

Undyne is an awesome character. She’s not only a hammy badass fish woman who’s strong enough to suplex boulders and stuff like that, but also is a canonical lesbian. Goes to show her armor isn’t half-bad either.

Obviously, she isn’t wearing a helmet in this image, but she does wear one before you first encounter(and, depending on how you play, escape.)

Even when she doesn’t wear armor, she isn’t at all sexualized:

Undertale is certainly a unique game that brings a lot to talk about to the table. Partly because it brings the long awaited option to try to talk to monsters (in lieu of just killing them and taking their stuff) and partly because the creators have really gone all out with the whacky creativity.

– wincenworks

Tidy-Up Tuesday #11

This week’s recurring concerns:


If we make a bingo or approve a submitted one that doesn’t hit all the right squares, PLEASE, instead of replying/reblogging/commenting about the supposed mistakes keep in mind that:


Feel free to submit your art and characters as positive examples (or suggest them as a reblog, if you have the art on your blog already)!

That said, sadly we can not offer design critiques on personal art.


Other addressed before:


~Ozzie & – wincenworks

Tidy-Up Tuesday #11

This week’s recurring concerns:


If we make a bingo or approve a submitted one that doesn’t hit all the right squares, PLEASE, instead of replying/reblogging/commenting about the supposed mistakes keep in mind that:


Feel free to submit your art and characters as positive examples (or suggest them as a reblog, if you have the art on your blog already)!

That said, sadly we can not offer design critiques on personal art.


Other addressed before:


~Ozzie & – wincenworks