how to “pander to sjws / feminists”: in depth characters and storytelling, non objectified female characters, characters of all manners of races, identities and backgrounds
how to pander to gamer boys: make titty wobble
Wow no wonder they don’t want to make games more accessible to women, they’d have to reveal their lack of actual talent.
Then they end up promoting the wrong people and we end up with this guy.
– wincenworks
Bringing this post back, since now the gamer boys directly accuse “pandering to SJWs/feminists” as the primary reason for anything they don’t enjoy about any game, like the glitches in Mass Effect Andromeda.
~Ozzie
Particularly worth mentioning that these same voices are generally for more accepting and forgiving when it comes time to apply a critical lens to games like Scarlet Blade, Haydee or asset flips… and who conveniently claim creators should be allowed to do whatever they want when a short skirt is involved.
As a blog focused on criticism, there’s something we come across regularly in responses to our writing – insistence that we’re “never happy” no matter how much better a particular example is than most media we feature on BABD.
Readers (though mostly detractors) question why we can’t qualify something (mostly games) as 100% positive example if it does one thing better than the rest in its medium/genre/etc.
Examples:
Samus Aran is a formidable fighter and legendary female game protagonist, so it’s totally not a big deal that with every iteration of the character she gets designed as daintier, more conventionally feminine and runs around in skin-tight undersuit and impossible heels rather than her classic power armor.
Overwatch has cast with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, therefore we should ignore how, despite that, most of its female characters are a very slight variation on the same “pretty” character mold and have costumes and poses that put gratuitous emphasis on their boobs and butts.
NieR Automata’s creator admits the main character is another skinny chick in high heels and with boob window, because of his personal preference instead of some convoluted lore-specific excuse… and that honesty means her design is beyond criticism?
It’s quite disheartening to have the audience insist that we should settle for media to be tiny bit better than mediocre and call it a day. That a game or its creator not being as bad as they could deserve to be awarded and held up as an example for the rest of the industry.
We refuse to set our standards so low that “her battle costume isn’t a literal bikini” or “has characters who are female in it” or “shows a male butt/chest sometimes” qualify a title as good, equal gender representation with no room for improvement.
Being better than a random asset-flipping game with stolen artwork in their web ads isn’t hard. Being better than your last project and learning from its mistakes should be a given. Simply not makingasinine excuses for poor representation shouldn’t be applauded. No-one is asking for perfection, but all creators should be held accountable for the product they’re selling, with its good and bad sides.
BABD in particular, instead of doing comprehensive reviews, is focused on female costume and character design compared to male ones. Yet even such specific topic can’t be talked about from both angles without someone decrying unfairness. Does it really say more about us being negative and cynical or the fans being entitled and blind to any challenging point of view?
~Ozzie
*The link leads to a satirical @pointandclickbait article, but the satire is not really all that exaggerated. Yes, really.
Also, more often than not, the belief in effectiveness of tired formulas seems to go hand-in-hand with this weird conviction that anything an artist makes is inherently “creative” and therefore should not be criticized. Or revised. Which is, to say the least, a pretty damn disingenuous attitude.
Given this week’s trend on showcasing games so generic that they can literally be using the same assets it seems appropriate to bring back these wise words from Kermit the Frog about creative risk taking.
Also to not-so-subtly hint that there’s a whole lot of potential for creative exploration in the realm of badass women who are not dependent on appealing to the male gaze or wearing ridiculous “armor” to show off that they don’t need armor.
Just saying.
– wincenworks
Posted on
Posted on
So apparently HiRez has revealed their newest addition to SMITE, the Celtic goddess The Morrigan… who looks suspiciously like they borrowed fan art from another character who bears the name Morrigan. The video does confirm that they at least read the Wikipedia page, but apparently had no concerns to come up with their own interpretation.
Of course, not all her skins revealed to date look like “empowered” fan art of Bioware’s Morrigan. There’s also one that looks like sexy fan art of Leliana (dressing up as a Dalish elf):
Of course, both are complete with strange woad body art (complete with them treating it as interchangeable with henna) and wear even less than the characters from Dragon Age do, and have zero items of traditional Celtic attire such as
In summary:
– wincenworks
This… is so far the most shameless SMITE got with a female character design.
Unlike with Nike who looks like a lovechild of Zarya and Mercy, no-one in their right mind can argue this Morrigan is an original twist on the mythical figure. Or that any resemblance to a character from a different game is coincidental.
Let’s take a moment of thoughtful appreciation for the fact that they devoted an article to concisely sum up a huge chunk of our “creative freedom” tag.
~Ozzie
The ongoing saga of people getting outraged that Blizzard uses their beta period as a beta period and adjusts the game. It’s worth mentioning that Blizzard also removed a tasteless masturbation joke at the same time.
Ordinarily we wait longer before we bring back posts but it seems that there’s been a recent event involving a certain product we post about from time to time, and the response by certain demographics has been woefully predictable.
In case you missed it: Blizzard has revealed via a comic for people who enjoy Overwatch and want more fluff (x): Tracer lives with her female romantic partner. How did the aforementioned demographic reply?
So yes, predictably it turns out that the people who are used to being pandered to constantly don’t actually appreciate creative freedom – they just think it makes a cool catchphrase (or magic incantation in some cases).
There was, however, a bright side: the response from women who celebrated that Overatch’s mascot character was confirmed to a lady attracted to ladies, and loudly reaffirmed their appreciation of as well as their right to representation. That was truly awesome.
But for the mini-gun wielding heavy… I feel like there was almost an attempt at diversity here, but that it was so poorly executed that it seems more like the result of using a spinner than any attempt to plan a design.
