Hey, I never said it wasn't sexist. It doesn't glorify violence against women though. Plus, like you said, it's marketing shtick. I care about what I'll be interacting with.
Hang on, that's an entirely reasonable sentiment. If I "reference" sexist depictions by saying "that sexist depiction is sexist", my statement isn't sexist! You need to be more precise - saying something like "It's not sexist because this other sexist depiction is even worse" would be unjustified, but Mr. Johnson isn't making that assertion, I believe.
The reference is using the original sexism of the pin-ups to appeal to consumers. Sure, you can make non-sexist references to sexist materials, but this is not one of them. Using the "oh, well of course the source material is sexist because of the times/context/whatever" argument does not excuse the sexism in derivative works.
Surely a parody of sexism must contain sexist elements to lampoon, in order to be effective? Must we discard this potent weapon? The Avengers "swapped postures" picture, for example, ridicules the classic "cheesecake" poses by employing them on, shall we say, alternate models - but it still has those suggestive stances. I suppose you would argue that it accomplishes its goal without using a female figure, but is that always possible? I'm not sure, which is why I'm asking - I'm not making a definite argument here.
Weapon against what? And to me, that picture is not lampooning anything. It doesn't feel like parody of sexist material nearly as much as it feels like "let's use sexy bikini babes in our marketing, but zombified!" To me, the differences between the picture and the bust are in gore level (only one of the zombies is missing a limb, for example), and the level of "zombie-ness" (discolored skin, etc.). Otherwise, they're both "sexy bikini bodies with some element of violence/gore/zombie-ism." However, there are images from the same set that I thought were effective parody. For example: and
Thanks. For some reason my brain had locked up at the word "weapon." I blame violence in video games.
Since I'm not into shooters, I ran the "would you buy that" question by my husband, who answered that, while he found the first one to be somewhat fun, he defintitely wouldn't. He added that, even if he were to buy it, quote, "I'd do so in a different part of town and pay cash. No way that'd end up on my Amazon profile or something." I found that somewhat heartening. Maybe enough of those guys who wouldn't balk at the sexism are at least too embarrassed to buy the thing that the sales figures send a message.
this is a limited edition of 8 thousand copies. They cost 120, or 60 over base price. So, just under half a million dollars (in revenue, not profit) is the price of the entire female gaming audience's dignity for these fuckheads.
Did he mean the game at all or specifically the disemboweled tits edition? Because I agree 100% with the latter (and think that feeling of shame is worth exploring) but find the former a bit of an overreaction unless he's in a position where people would investigate his Amazon purchases (like politics I guess?).
The former, actually ... as I understood, not so much for the investigation part but for the Amazon recommended purchases and such, as in, "Here's something all those guys who like their women with fake tits, half naked and too dead to say no (to quote that article Charles linked) loved, bet you'll enjoy it too!". Probably related to that time when US Amazon somehow seemed convinced I was a gay, pregnant male and I had the most interesting recommendations.
God, I wish I had saved those, I just remember them being so bizarre. I checked with Amazon.com just now, but it only recommends a bunch of writer's guides for some reason, as well as Twilight, which seems like another contradiction to me, but oh well. I only order from the US when their European branch can't get it so that profile is sketchy at best (they don't seem to share data between .com, .at and .uk for some reason).
This is awesome and so true. I remember I looked at Catherine on Amazon once and for about a month I had recommendations for huge-breasted anime games that came packed with sex pillow pillowcases.
Not to single you out or derail the thread, but "going gay" makes it sound like a flamboyant fad rather than a legitimate trait, and that type of thinking is part of the reason the fight for equal rights has been so difficult for them.
Sorry, never meant for it to be taken that way (I thought it was pretty clear that I was just clowning around). What's that phrase, going on the down low or something, would that fit better? For if they end up pregnant there surely must have been some heterosexual goings-on beforehand, even if the biological details elude me. Amazon would know more, I guess.
When I first saw this I assumed they have a marketing guy who is into guro. I suppose they can sell gangbusters to that particular niche group.
I laughed at the comment about the arm. But then... Facepalm. His bachelor status is a easy cheap insult, but has nothing to do with his complete misunderstanding of the stupid torso. Games have been making some headway toward being less brotastic. But for every female protagonist that isn't tits with guns, we get shit like this. Or tits with guns. In fact, anybody want to start a game company where we make a game called Tits With Guns? I think you can guess the premise.
Is it an adventure game based on The Brothers Karamazov? I hope it's an an adventure game based on The Brothers Karamazov.
Fabulous. There was the older RPG Macho Women With Guns that gave you higher armour bonuses for wearing less... but it was a parody.
I wasn't going to buy Dead Island: Riptide, because the first game was terrible and I got it a Tom Chick gushing review, to regret spending any time with that horrible cast of characters. Now I'm doubly not getting DIR!
I went back to the page to see that comment thread and noticed that, in the article proper, Tom linked and older piece of his called "In Defense of Tentacle Rape". The first paragraph seems to indicate that it's more along the lines of "it's a fetish and it isn't real, so who cares", but oh man that title.
Yeah, I saw that and read it too. Don't forget the "women were always getting their lady parts interfered with in historical stories, so a wink-wink-nudge-nudge card game that makes light of high school girl sexual assault should also be allowed" parts either.
Sorry, that idea was put forth by a friend of mine like 6 years ago. Sadly Ubi wasn't interested... but I bet they would be now!
That's pretty repugnant regardless of gender, but the sexist element puts it into the disturbing category. It looks like great ammunition too for that bill in the US Congress intended to criminalize the sale of M rated games to minors. That's probably not what the company was hoping to achieve, teen gamers being a core demographic for hack & slash zombie games and all.
In this expansion, you play as a professional arm wrestler (wing wrestler?), loosely based on the classic 80's film Over The Top. "Just look at the guns on this blue tit!".
Guro is the Japanese transliteration of gore and refers to gore-centric stuff. Some, though not all, involves porn. All of it is horrifying. Don't google it.
Gabrielle Toledano, executive vice president and chief talent officer of Electronic Arts, wrote an article for Forbes about three dirty little secrets about women and the video game industry.
There's goddamn plenty of them, there's just not "enough yet" if you make no adjustments whatsoever to the hiring process and expect everyone to have X years of experience in the gaming industry.
