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Why women criticise sexualised character designs | OT3 | "make her look more...corpulent, more stuffed where the eyes can't escape."
- Thread starter Persephone
- Start date
- OT
You're welcome!
Right haha.
"At least until they get ported to PC"
What a sacrifice. Sony appreciates your future purchase.
I'm also quite fond of the part "I don't pay game developers to tell me how to think".
Why, yes! You actually do.
I usually lurk this thread because I feel like I have nothing good to add to the conversation, but this thread's discourse about SB has been my oasis. Thank you all.
Join in! I'm not speaking as an authority, but as someone that felt similarly - I lurked for awhile before I decided to just join the convo and it's helped to be able to discuss things that bothered and/or concerned me in a more direct manner in a space where I know I don't have to worry about retaliation. I hope you feel more inclined to post too in the future.
It was pretty refreshing listening to the last Abject Suffering episode. It wasn't even about Stellar Blade, but they spent half the episode shitting on these idiots.
That last line... I actually felt my stomach tighten a little with cringe lol
I can't xD
If this is in reply to me saying the dude with wife dolls might be mentally ill, I apologize.It's sad when people top fiction, it was a SpongeBob joke that Plankton married his computer Karen because he was such a loser (and even then, Karen actually had a personality and ended up being a regular character).
Also damn this thread has moved fast since I got sick.
What exactly is this Vagina bones people in this thread and others have been talking about?
Also a quick reminder not to to use casual ableism on chuds or imply their chud and bigoted behaviour is based on mental health issues or being on the Autistic spectrum. It negatively stereotypes people and enforces false stereotypes, incredibly hurtful for many people with health issues or Autism who are often victims of these chuds and something we simply shouldn't be doing.
There's something kind of poetic about this being the game's fate. Torn apart by the very same chuds who propped it up. Shakespeare wrote plays about this sort of thing, you know. I think.
It's funny. I remember with Subverse they mocked game journalists who even the mildest of problems with StudioFows more..... choice movies. Meanwhile, they flew into a blind rage that the NTR might not be optional. Their complete inability to be self-aware is terrifying.
I guess to spread some positivity, I've been playing A Plague Tale and though I don't claim to be perfect critic on everything, I do feel like Amacia from both writing and design is really good. I was a bit worried the sequel would just repeat everything from the first, but so far I like the direction they've taken her character in so far. It's easy to go edgy with trope and so far I think they've avoided it.
Glad I took the time to play them so far!
Glad I took the time to play them so far!
I appreciate you noticing it :) There's good things out there too.
At this point we need multiple concurrent OTs to house all these titles.
Yea there's prolly gonna be one that'll top this one by the end of the day
I lurked this thread for over two years before even making an account. It's nice to just have a place where you don't have to worry about getting an insane level of pushback for mildly disagreeing on something.
We could probably make a bingo card out of all of them.
Sayonara Wild Heart was such a breath of fresh air. And the music~
The devs of Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children (the Korean X-Com-like) have been showing off concept art for their next work in that world, Banished Children.
Hannah
Tyra Goldsand
Aurora
View: https://x.com/BraveDandyLion/status/1784955539946164679
Hannah
Tyra Goldsand
Aurora
View: https://x.com/BraveDandyLion/status/1784955539946164679
It is very mechanically dense.
Also you pretty much play as K-Pop superheroes instead of earth's last line of defense against aliens
I only played it for like 10 hours and I've been meaning to go back, the devs supported the game for a long time. I remember it being pretty darn cool.
The chuds malding about SB is highly amusing, especially after months of their creepy gooning.
Mega64 on point yet again lmao
Mega64 on point yet again lmao
I got it because of the XCOM comparisons here, but they aren't really similar at all.
It's much closer to something like FFT, where you mash together tons of skills and passives to get OP superhero builds that let you do stuff like run a character solo in the middle of 20 enemies and counter them all to death. The tactics within a battle don't feel like they matter much past the very early game, it's all about the builds.
There are tons of little things to fiddle around with, so it's a pretty decent game of that style, just go in with the right expectations.
Sony
(If anyone else wants a listen, it's episode 554)
So thankyou for the podcast recommendation lol. Extremely cathartic listen.
(If anyone else wants a listen, it's episode 554)
Kind of curious to see what y'all think about Jeff Gerstmann's answer to a viewer email talking about Stellar Blade:
View: https://youtu.be/rJ--kHdXHZk?si=Vlw9Ozbneo9-aQu3&t=6528
youtu.be
(Timestamped link, but if it doesn't work the section starts at 1:48:48ish and goes til about 1:58:00)
On one hand he rightfully calls out the "censorship!" chuds, but he also leans heavily on the, "plenty of women have said they like that kind of game so clearly it's not that big of a deal" reasoning. A lot of his response boils down to, "It's whatever, cheesy sexualized games will always exist and it's not harming anyone so...whatever."
Part of the initial question asks if these types of games hamper public perception of gaming compared to, say, movies and other media. Jeff brings "sexploitation" movies up a bit into his answer and, again, falls on the, "they existed then, they still exist now, and nobody seems to care so...whatever."
I feel like an important point of comparison there is that movies may use fictional characters like games, but the on-screen actors are very real people and the "behind the scenes" environment on B- and C-movies has drastically changed so the films are—most of the time—less gross when taken as a whole.
I dunno, I didn't really expect a different response from Jeff (I don't think he has bad political thoughts, but he's always seemed kind of apathetic towards certain social issues) but at the same time I hate hearing someone with a relatively big platform use talking points that are mostly used to shut down any arguments against sexualisation in games.
View: https://youtu.be/rJ--kHdXHZk?si=Vlw9Ozbneo9-aQu3&t=6528
The Jeff Gerstmann Show 099: The Mashima Zaibatsu
We talk about hitting 33333333333 in Tekken 8, as well as Stellar Blade’s frustrating animation stuff, the absolute joy of playing Minishoot’ Adventures, and...
youtu.be
On one hand he rightfully calls out the "censorship!" chuds, but he also leans heavily on the, "plenty of women have said they like that kind of game so clearly it's not that big of a deal" reasoning. A lot of his response boils down to, "It's whatever, cheesy sexualized games will always exist and it's not harming anyone so...whatever."
Part of the initial question asks if these types of games hamper public perception of gaming compared to, say, movies and other media. Jeff brings "sexploitation" movies up a bit into his answer and, again, falls on the, "they existed then, they still exist now, and nobody seems to care so...whatever."
I feel like an important point of comparison there is that movies may use fictional characters like games, but the on-screen actors are very real people and the "behind the scenes" environment on B- and C-movies has drastically changed so the films are—most of the time—less gross when taken as a whole.
I dunno, I didn't really expect a different response from Jeff (I don't think he has bad political thoughts, but he's always seemed kind of apathetic towards certain social issues) but at the same time I hate hearing someone with a relatively big platform use talking points that are mostly used to shut down any arguments against sexualisation in games.
Kind of curious to see what y'all think about Jeff Gerstmann's answer to a viewer email talking about Stellar Blade:
View: https://youtu.be/rJ--kHdXHZk?si=Vlw9Ozbneo9-aQu3&t=6528
(Timestamped link, but if it doesn't work the section starts at 1:48:48ish and goes til about 1:58:00)The Jeff Gerstmann Show 099: The Mashima Zaibatsu
We talk about hitting 33333333333 in Tekken 8, as well as Stellar Blade’s frustrating animation stuff, the absolute joy of playing Minishoot’ Adventures, and...
On one hand he rightfully calls out the "censorship!" chuds, but he also leans heavily on the, "plenty of women have said they like that kind of game so clearly it's not that big of a deal" reasoning. A lot of his response boils down to, "It's whatever, cheesy sexualized games will always exist and it's not harming anyone so...whatever."
Part of the initial question asks if these types of games hamper public perception of gaming compared to, say, movies and other media. Jeff brings "sexploitation" movies up a bit into his answer and, again, falls on the, "they existed then, they still exist now, and nobody seems to care so...whatever."
I feel like an important point of comparison there is that movies may use fictional characters like games, but the on-screen actors are very real people and the "behind the scenes" environment on B- and C-movies has drastically changed so the films are—most of the time—less gross when taken as a whole.
I dunno, I didn't really expect a different response from Jeff (I don't think he has bad political thoughts, but he's always seemed kind of apathetic towards certain social issues) but at the same time I hate hearing someone with a relatively big platform use talking points that are mostly used to shut down any arguments against sexualisation in games.
It's not much different from what I heard from Giant Bomb's most recent podcast (Revengeance one at least), so I'm not really surprised by such a handwavy answer.
I think on the one hand I do kind of agree, the game is very clear about what it is, and I think its existence as a game is fine. I feel like everyone buying the game knows what they are getting, and I think a lot worse are games that are going for a serious and grounded tone and then just have hyper sexualized characters for no reason at all. I feel like this is one of those games, where in an ideal world if you didn't feel like it was for you, you could easily just ignore it, and focus on other games.
This game makes that hard to do though because you have a group championing the game as some kind of push back against elements in mainstream gaming they don't like. That isn't really the games fault for simply existing, but it is now an element directly tied into the discussion surrounding it (and Sony as well as they published it). And I think that discussion, and allowing these people to build a platform on this, could conceivably do harm.
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Kind of curious to see what y'all think about Jeff Gerstmann's answer to a viewer email talking about Stellar Blade:
View: https://youtu.be/rJ--kHdXHZk?si=Vlw9Ozbneo9-aQu3&t=6528
(Timestamped link, but if it doesn't work the section starts at 1:48:48ish and goes til about 1:58:00)The Jeff Gerstmann Show 099: The Mashima Zaibatsu
We talk about hitting 33333333333 in Tekken 8, as well as Stellar Blade’s frustrating animation stuff, the absolute joy of playing Minishoot’ Adventures, and...
and it's not harming anyone so...whatever."
Oh it isn't hurting anyone Jeff? So like the women fired for speaking up on it?
It's a bit of a loaded comparison, but it sort of reminds me of people saying, "Now is not the time to politicize X" right after some tragic event. People can push back and say, "This game's not even *THAT* bad, so why waste your energy on it?". Well, if not this game, than which game? When is the right time to bring this up? When are we "allowed" to be a bit turned off and upset by the way a game portrays female/BIPOC/queer/etc. characters?
Kind of curious to see what y'all think about Jeff Gerstmann's answer to a viewer email talking about Stellar Blade:
View: https://youtu.be/rJ--kHdXHZk?si=Vlw9Ozbneo9-aQu3&t=6528
(Timestamped link, but if it doesn't work the section starts at 1:48:48ish and goes til about 1:58:00)The Jeff Gerstmann Show 099: The Mashima Zaibatsu
We talk about hitting 33333333333 in Tekken 8, as well as Stellar Blade’s frustrating animation stuff, the absolute joy of playing Minishoot’ Adventures, and...
On one hand he rightfully calls out the "censorship!" chuds, but he also leans heavily on the, "plenty of women have said they like that kind of game so clearly it's not that big of a deal" reasoning. A lot of his response boils down to, "It's whatever, cheesy sexualized games will always exist and it's not harming anyone so...whatever."
Part of the initial question asks if these types of games hamper public perception of gaming compared to, say, movies and other media. Jeff brings "sexploitation" movies up a bit into his answer and, again, falls on the, "they existed then, they still exist now, and nobody seems to care so...whatever."
I feel like an important point of comparison there is that movies may use fictional characters like games, but the on-screen actors are very real people and the "behind the scenes" environment on B- and C-movies has drastically changed so the films are—most of the time—less gross when taken as a whole.
I dunno, I didn't really expect a different response from Jeff (I don't think he has bad political thoughts, but he's always seemed kind of apathetic towards certain social issues) but at the same time I hate hearing someone with a relatively big platform use talking points that are mostly used to shut down any arguments against sexualisation in games.
Should also listen to the earlier part of that podcast starting at around 8:42. That's when he gives his direct impression of the game and the only thing he talks about is not liking the input delay/animation priority stuff so he isn't playing more of it. I mention this to say that he seems to be making an effort to avoid having a take/view on any of the ongoing nonsense about the game completely. Also fucking of course he has an issue with the part of the game I would really be into as I like the more thoughtful animation balanced kind of combat games.
So yeah, I was a bit disappointed in his coverage of it but also I'd rather nothing be said if you aren't going to actually focus on the issues/look deeply into the thing. Him answering that question later with the "plenty of women have said they like that kind of game so clearly it's not that big of a deal" kind of response made it worse than just leaving it at saying nothing. Even if there are some issues with it I don't think the biggest problem is there being a sexy/attractive character but how the game frames her, example being that video posted a few pages ago. That pared with how little relevance any of it has to the actual character. Acting like it's people fighting over if sexy character designs should be allowed is the kind of brain dead shit that leads to "so sex in this game is okay but Stellar Blade isn't" bullshit I keep getting served on social media stuff.
Giant Bomb itself is kind of harder listen to me these days since they have leaned into "horny culture" stuff even if they are more willing to put shitheads of blast and actually say something. Even unrelated to Stellar Blade, any time an attractive character is mentioned or referenced there will be some dumb comment. Can't detach how much of my dislike of that is just my dislike of horny culture. Very few of my gaming podcasts aren't letting me down recently though. Guess Nextlander will just be oblivious since they follow stuff from a distance and I'm sure Remake will be fine.
Yup, exactly to my point of if he isn't going to actually look into the stuff it would have been better for him not to push his perspective. Which is why I think he didn't in the opening bit but just had to later for whatever reason.
Ya know, it's pretty weird that the only stylish action games I can think of that feature women as the main characters also all feature heavy sexualization. I wonder why that is? Maybe it's just how small that genre seems to be and the obvious influences all featuring it. I mean, I don't mind that Bayonetta is like that, but it's kind of grating when they all are!
I haven't listened since Jeff left, but are they really going all in on "boys club" shit?
I support the idea of, just don't even try to put your take in once you're done with any "initial thoughts" on the game if it's clear you don't want to look at the actual discussions. Which, look, I get it. Dude has kids and is doing all his media stuff solo and I'm sure doesn't have the time (nor interest) to dive into it like we do. Give us your thoughts on the game like he did earlier on, then maybe don't handpick the viewer email asking that question if your opinion is so, "whatever" about it.
What a bunch of pathetic men.If you haven't seen the videos on this page then grab some popcorn
I hope so! Right now there's little reason to expect it when it comes to her actual character, but I'd love to be wrong. I like Eve well enough already, her quirks can be endearing even if they lack any material foundation. It's just the story and writing don't do anything to actually build and support that. Perhaps in the back half of the narrative, but I'm not in any rush to get there at the expense of the elements I do enjoy.
Heya. I'm going to speak a tiny bit about being a mod, but just to make it clear it's not going to be about mod decisions or anything like that. I'm not here being all official or anything.
What always makes me go 'oh no,' when I see one of these *frankly* embarrassing games, is when it's published by one of the platform holders. Like, Stellar Blade's character designs are laughable, and I feel ashamed to be the same species as the people I see defending them, but also I've seen far worse. There's still far worse being made.
But throw in the whole 'platform exclusive' thing... and fucking hell. Moderating discussion around games like Stellar Blade (and Xenoblade Chronicles 2) is some of the most exhausting and depressing stuff. You have people genuinely concerned about these things, like most of you here. But then you've got people that would defend anything their favored platform holder does, and people who will criticize anything the 'enemy' platform holder does. Add those to the mix and now you've got multiple kinds of bad faith posters on top of the misogynistic ones.
It's really really depressing. Like, 'oh god, am I going to have to talk to my therapist about people fighting over Stellar Blade on a game forum?' levels of depressing.
So I sort of get the 'eh whatever' reaction from some quarters, because Stellar Blade's content is... well there's much worse, and if it wasn't an exclusive it wouldn't have attracted a fraction of the firestorm even if it was doing the same number of sales. But... even if its just an example of the kind of shit that we should really really really have left behind already, it's still a valid example, and the exact sort of thing I'd expect to see discussions around here.
Heck, I know that the thread reply banner specifically asks people to use examples, and Stellar Blade is absolutely that. But goodness me am I going to be very very happy to see the reports on it die down.
What always makes me go 'oh no,' when I see one of these *frankly* embarrassing games, is when it's published by one of the platform holders. Like, Stellar Blade's character designs are laughable, and I feel ashamed to be the same species as the people I see defending them, but also I've seen far worse. There's still far worse being made.
But throw in the whole 'platform exclusive' thing... and fucking hell. Moderating discussion around games like Stellar Blade (and Xenoblade Chronicles 2) is some of the most exhausting and depressing stuff. You have people genuinely concerned about these things, like most of you here. But then you've got people that would defend anything their favored platform holder does, and people who will criticize anything the 'enemy' platform holder does. Add those to the mix and now you've got multiple kinds of bad faith posters on top of the misogynistic ones.
It's really really depressing. Like, 'oh god, am I going to have to talk to my therapist about people fighting over Stellar Blade on a game forum?' levels of depressing.
So I sort of get the 'eh whatever' reaction from some quarters, because Stellar Blade's content is... well there's much worse, and if it wasn't an exclusive it wouldn't have attracted a fraction of the firestorm even if it was doing the same number of sales. But... even if its just an example of the kind of shit that we should really really really have left behind already, it's still a valid example, and the exact sort of thing I'd expect to see discussions around here.
Heck, I know that the thread reply banner specifically asks people to use examples, and Stellar Blade is absolutely that. But goodness me am I going to be very very happy to see the reports on it die down.
I went back and played a game called Crimson Tears for PS2. For anyone who hasn't heard of it, don't worry I'm sure no one has. It was made by Dream Factory. The developers of the hit new series on PS2:
View: https://youtu.be/A8FTfSjocq0
It's pretty similar to that game, too. The change is that it is yet another attempt at a dungeon crawler seen in their Tobal/Ehrgeiz alternate modes. But the reason I bring this up here is that it feels like Stellar Blade 0.1 with its treatment of women android characters.
capcom.fandom.com
Rather than link them individually, the main characters are listed at the link above. All in various states of undress. It doesn't show them all, but all the women not shown there are in just as dumb outfits as those main characters are. Not surprisingly, Tokio is dressed somewhat normally compared to Amber and Kadie.
No real winners in personality. You really don't get a strong reading of any of them. Amber is the tough leader. Kadie is more childlike. Tokio is the gentle giant with a voice that doesn't match it at all. Lana is just your tutorial/announcer support bot. These personalities don't change. The characters barely grow. Like all of DF's work, everything is just somewhat mismanaged and confusing.
Also, if you forget you're playing a girlbot, the enemies will constantly knock you down to remind you. The girls will spread their legs so far that a gynecologist would blush.
Everyone also gets 3 alternate outfits, but you can only get them if you play the extra dungeon. The first two outfits are all from other Capcom games. Amber getting Chun Li and Morrigan, Kadie getting Sakura and Lilith, and Tokio with Ryu and Guile. You can get a third from completing the 100th floor with each character from the same dungeon, but I had no desire to do so.
I wouldn't recommend the game to anyone who didn't like Dream Factory's work on some level. I just thought how similarly the women were treated in comparison to Stellar Blade. No personality, poor designs, and the feeling you have to hide what you're playing with others around.
View: https://youtu.be/A8FTfSjocq0
It's pretty similar to that game, too. The change is that it is yet another attempt at a dungeon crawler seen in their Tobal/Ehrgeiz alternate modes. But the reason I bring this up here is that it feels like Stellar Blade 0.1 with its treatment of women android characters.
Crimson Tears Characters
capcom.fandom.com
Rather than link them individually, the main characters are listed at the link above. All in various states of undress. It doesn't show them all, but all the women not shown there are in just as dumb outfits as those main characters are. Not surprisingly, Tokio is dressed somewhat normally compared to Amber and Kadie.
No real winners in personality. You really don't get a strong reading of any of them. Amber is the tough leader. Kadie is more childlike. Tokio is the gentle giant with a voice that doesn't match it at all. Lana is just your tutorial/announcer support bot. These personalities don't change. The characters barely grow. Like all of DF's work, everything is just somewhat mismanaged and confusing.
Also, if you forget you're playing a girlbot, the enemies will constantly knock you down to remind you. The girls will spread their legs so far that a gynecologist would blush.
Everyone also gets 3 alternate outfits, but you can only get them if you play the extra dungeon. The first two outfits are all from other Capcom games. Amber getting Chun Li and Morrigan, Kadie getting Sakura and Lilith, and Tokio with Ryu and Guile. You can get a third from completing the 100th floor with each character from the same dungeon, but I had no desire to do so.
I wouldn't recommend the game to anyone who didn't like Dream Factory's work on some level. I just thought how similarly the women were treated in comparison to Stellar Blade. No personality, poor designs, and the feeling you have to hide what you're playing with others around.
Kind of curious to see what y'all think about Jeff Gerstmann's answer to a viewer email talking about Stellar Blade:
View: https://youtu.be/rJ--kHdXHZk?si=Vlw9Ozbneo9-aQu3&t=6528
(Timestamped link, but if it doesn't work the section starts at 1:48:48ish and goes til about 1:58:00)The Jeff Gerstmann Show 099: The Mashima Zaibatsu
We talk about hitting 33333333333 in Tekken 8, as well as Stellar Blade’s frustrating animation stuff, the absolute joy of playing Minishoot’ Adventures, and...
On one hand he rightfully calls out the "censorship!" chuds, but he also leans heavily on the, "plenty of women have said they like that kind of game so clearly it's not that big of a deal" reasoning. A lot of his response boils down to, "It's whatever, cheesy sexualized games will always exist and it's not harming anyone so...whatever."
Part of the initial question asks if these types of games hamper public perception of gaming compared to, say, movies and other media. Jeff brings "sexploitation" movies up a bit into his answer and, again, falls on the, "they existed then, they still exist now, and nobody seems to care so...whatever."
I feel like an important point of comparison there is that movies may use fictional characters like games, but the on-screen actors are very real people and the "behind the scenes" environment on B- and C-movies has drastically changed so the films are—most of the time—less gross when taken as a whole.
I dunno, I didn't really expect a different response from Jeff (I don't think he has bad political thoughts, but he's always seemed kind of apathetic towards certain social issues) but at the same time I hate hearing someone with a relatively big platform use talking points that are mostly used to shut down any arguments against sexualisation in games.
I don't like the hand-waving and double-downing on the double standards that we see in play with a lot of games like Stellar Blade, especially when they're being championed by the chuds. The apathy just doesn't need to be said on a public platform and used as a cudgel against any arguments against objectification, sexualization, and overall representation problems in video games like you've described already.
If he was going to use the fallacy of "if a few women find it enjoyable, then it is okay", then just don't bother having an opinion on it honestly. It does absolutely nothing to spark serious debate over the issues and comes across as being disingenuous and ignorant about it. Women are not a hive mind. When a select few find enjoyment out of something, it doesn't automatically just go through the pipeline into the rest of us. We all have different beliefs, tolerances, aspirations, and opinions on different subject matters. The same thing can be said for other minorities like queer, black, Asians, etc.
Nothing is taken more insincere than the stock line of "[X] said it was fine, so [Y] is okay with it or it's not that big of a deal". The moment that other influencers and gamers start using these fallacies, I just tune right on out as their opinion on the matter starts with ignorance and ends with it.
Yeah a bit. Most of it is in a joking kind of way where the intent may be to make light of it but even then it's something that is grating to me.
Yup. That was my complete take on his take. Was actually going to post something in the dedicated Jeff thread this morning about it but stopped because I couldn't find the effort so was happy to see someone else noticed it/talking about it.
Well it's kind of the baseline issue. Stylish action games in general will have a very "extra" lead in it. The variance of most extreme versions of male character design is power fantasy and of female character design is....sexy. This is where a chud would say something like how the males leads of those games are also super exaggerated/attractive while missing the distinction. And to return to the start, yes that is the issue.
Kind of curious to see what y'all think about Jeff Gerstmann's answer to a viewer email talking about Stellar Blade:
View: https://youtu.be/rJ--kHdXHZk?si=Vlw9Ozbneo9-aQu3&t=6528
(Timestamped link, but if it doesn't work the section starts at 1:48:48ish and goes til about 1:58:00)The Jeff Gerstmann Show 099: The Mashima Zaibatsu
We talk about hitting 33333333333 in Tekken 8, as well as Stellar Blade’s frustrating animation stuff, the absolute joy of playing Minishoot’ Adventures, and...
On one hand he rightfully calls out the "censorship!" chuds, but he also leans heavily on the, "plenty of women have said they like that kind of game so clearly it's not that big of a deal" reasoning. A lot of his response boils down to, "It's whatever, cheesy sexualized games will always exist and it's not harming anyone so...whatever."
Part of the initial question asks if these types of games hamper public perception of gaming compared to, say, movies and other media. Jeff brings "sexploitation" movies up a bit into his answer and, again, falls on the, "they existed then, they still exist now, and nobody seems to care so...whatever."
I feel like an important point of comparison there is that movies may use fictional characters like games, but the on-screen actors are very real people and the "behind the scenes" environment on B- and C-movies has drastically changed so the films are—most of the time—less gross when taken as a whole.
I dunno, I didn't really expect a different response from Jeff (I don't think he has bad political thoughts, but he's always seemed kind of apathetic towards certain social issues) but at the same time I hate hearing someone with a relatively big platform use talking points that are mostly used to shut down any arguments against sexualisation in games.
It honestly gets my blood boiling. I'm going to vent. More so because it made me remember of a YouTuber couple that I'm a fan that covered the game recently. They are left leaning, very progressive, and normally jump on topics defending feminist points. That said, they decided to show a Stellar Blade gameplay and started it by saying something like "We are going to ignore the controversy that is running around. We will just focus on the gameplay. It could be the case like Bayonetta were people had issues with it, and now it is a figure of female empowerment.". They them praise the gameplay, and joke on Instagram about the bear outfit making it look like there is no issue. That people are just overblowing it.
It is infuriating. I hate, HATE this "the issue doesn't exist" approach. These people don't get that this isn't about being against sexy or sensual people. It is about people being against being treated and/or displayed as objects, and against ONLY wanting that. And that yes, being against does things actually made things better.
Also, as much as I still have caveats with Bayonetta (because she is character created by a person), she has tons of character and is aware of her sensuality. Y'all have said it many times before with several great examples.
And last but not least, I'm obviously not saying you can't think Stellar Blade gameplay is nice, or that you can't enjoy it. But also saying there is no issue, or just praising while choosing ignoring the issue is too much. Even more when you are an influencer, as you said in your last paragraph.
Nioh 2, Wu Long, and Rise of the Ronin all have character creators that are incredibly detailed and allow for some amazing female main characters. They also have a number of female characters in the story / games and most of them aren't sexualised (although some of the monsters definitely are).