BruceVC

I'm going on a crusade to make sure all male video game characters have more realistic physiques. That is, pot bellies and can't run for more than 50 feet without huffing and puffing. I mean, apparently big breasted female video game characters give a bad message to girls. So the same should really apply to the risk of boys feeling bad about their bodies because they don't look like those muscle-bound hunks in their video games. It's more an issue with diversity. I mean, look at Mario. Although "I mean, apparently big breasted female video game characters give a bad message to girls" is somewhat telling, given that I'd argue it's not the girls that it sends the wrong message to. It also has the implication that it's exclusively women that have issues with this. Frankly, I think it sends a bad message to everyone. I don't care much for Marcus Fenix body types. Nor do I care for Tomb Raider 2-esque Lara Croft body types. Unfortunately I feel oversaturated with them that I tend to bring additional, and sometimes unfair, assumptions into character archetypes and the games that go with them as a result of this (mostly because I'm human). Men with suboptimal body types are still represented. How often are women with suboptimal body types presented? More importantly, what responses does she normally receive? I mean, the mere fact that the body type has been changed in the MMO appears to be threatening to people. If we're truly measuring the value on purely their function, shouldn't we not care how they look? Incorrect. Again, it comes down to diversity. It took me zero seconds to come up with a popular male character protagonist that does not come close to an idealized physique. Yes, hyper idealized men exist (and frankly, I do consider it a problem as well), but like I said above it comes down to diversity. Feminism, at its core, is simply having men and women being treated equally. It's exceptionally important to note that feminism agrees that men are treated unfairly with respect to things like having the pressures of being the primary income earner for a family, that they are typically denied jobs that are considered only appropriate for female (nursing was the big one - and in many cases men still get teased for this), and the big one that often comes up is child custody. The problem, of course, is moderate perspectives don't proliferate. No one cares about the moderate posts, but when some man hating misandrist goes around people will share that ("Look at this crazy person") point and laugh, and make implicit assumptions to how common that perspective is simply based on how frequently it's posed. Exposure is important. For the same reasons YOU get annoyed because you see something like this SO much, the other people are feeling over exposed to things like excessively endowed women and it's making them annoyed. Does this link even get shared here if it's about the MMO making less idealized male physiques? Does Nepenthe get upset? Or is it something that doesn't register because it's a topic that simply doesn't come up enough? The ironic part is that I would never have identified as a feminist until the frothing anti-feminists (not so much you, but the people that have extreme and unhealthy retorts to people like Anita Sarkeesian wanting to do a video) created such vitriol that not only did they expose me to topics and perspectives that I hadn't really given much thought towards, they also provided a perspective that I had a particular aversion towards which pushed me away from the perspective they were championing. Gaming is becoming mainstream, and it's not just "ours" anymore. The muscle bound meathead of Gears of War is likely not going away though, nor will women with very large breasts. But there's dozens upon dozens of games that don't feature the muscle bound meathead like Marcus Fenix. But with that comes people that are going to have issues with other things than you and I care about, and they're going to talk about them. While excessively large breasts are more likely to get me to do an eye roll rather than anything else, other people are perfectly within their right to voice their own concerns for what they feel increases or decreases the level of enjoyment they receive from the game. (NOTE: If we want to have a more detailed discussion of feminism, and specifically feminism in video games, we should probably take it to its own thread). Wow what a good post. I have said this before and I'll say it again, you can really articulate a point in a way that I find is almost impossible to disagree with. I read your posts and I think "how come I can't get my message across like that ?" Nice one

No I haven't, what do they look like Bester?

Maybe I'm not explaining properly, I'll try to keep it simple. Are you saying that a representation of a male character in a game can't be demeaning to men? If you think it can be then you should respect the fact that many female gamers find these ridiculous breast sizes as objectifying to them and possibly offensive?

I'm going on a crusade to make sure all male video game characters have more realistic physiques. That is, pot bellies and can't run for more than 50 feet without huffing and puffing. I mean, apparently big breasted female video game characters give a bad message to girls. So the same should really apply to the risk of boys feeling bad about their bodies because they don't look like those muscle-bound hunks in their video games. I know you are being facetious but the analogy isn't quite the same. If you want to understand why they want to reduce the inordinately large sizes of womens breasts in some games a similar example would be male characters who have massive and bulges where there p***s are. It would looks silly and isn't unrealistic. I also believe most guys would have an issue with it, this is about the objectification of women and there physiques. I don't think its unreasonable or is going to dilute your gaming experience in anyway? No, that's exactly the feminist fallacy. That portraying women with an idealized physique somehow cheapens them, and yet is a completely different thing when it comes to males. In fact, the real fallacy of common feminism is trying to replace one set of double standards with another instead of trying to do away with them. Really, I use to play the MMO Mortal Online. In that game you could have a character that was naked. There was huge complaints from members about the "unacceptable nudity around male avatars " in the game, but I don't remember anyone complaining about females that were naked. I don't see this as a fallacy, many men are fine with disproportionate size female body parts but perish the thought if this applies to men. I have personal experience with this perspective.

Well I think its a good idea for Italian members of the community, so good luck

I'm going on a crusade to make sure all male video game characters have more realistic physiques. That is, pot bellies and can't run for more than 50 feet without huffing and puffing. I mean, apparently big breasted female video game characters give a bad message to girls. So the same should really apply to the risk of boys feeling bad about their bodies because they don't look like those muscle-bound hunks in their video games. I know you are being facetious but the analogy isn't quite the same. If you want to understand why they want to reduce the inordinately large sizes of womens breasts in some games a similar example would be male characters who have massive and bulges where there p***s are. It would look silly and isn't unrealistic. I also believe most guys would have an issue with it, this is about the objectification of women and there physiques. I don't think its unreasonable or is going to dilute your gaming experience in anyway?

Have I ever mentioned that you a pessimist. No not a pragmatist or realist. You need to see the glass as half full sometimes Monte

Increased Russian military intervention or aid wouldn't help the situation at all I am optimistic that the peace talks could have positive results. I see that the Western backed Syrian opposition doesn't want to attend the peace talks because Iran was invited. But we need Iran there as they are primary sponsors of Assad. I am of the opinion that Iran is prepared to assist in brokering a truce because sanctions are being lifted against them and there is a real deal around there Uranium enrichment where they feel they are not being treated unfairly. I did predict that if you can get Iran back into the international community this will bode well for conflicts throughout the region. The only concern I have is Assad may want to stay in power in some sort of coalition government and I don't see Syrian opposition accepting this. Maybe he can go into exile into Iran but I doubt he would accept this so we will have to see what transpires

But Malc imagine all the wild moose you would see in the Canadian wilderness, you could gain another pet?

So in summary you don't care if PoE is a good game because you have loads of time on your hands to not play RPG

That does sound fun, I enjoy visual hallucinations. But I can arrange a little piece of paper for you that will give you the same effect without the lack of sleep

Wow Tale I always thought you had more patience than that, I can't believe you gave up after 10 hours Everyone knows you only stop pointless and repetitive monster fighting scenes after 100 hours, the way I see it you still have 90 hours in that maze. Back to the game son, back to the game

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/20/shroud-of-the-avatars-raised-over-3-million/#more-185347 Wow so this game is slated for a March 2014 release, that's a mere 2 months away. 2014 really seems to the " Year of the RPG "

http://www.destructoid.com/leaked-grand-theft-auto-v-bug-log-references-pc-version-269160.phtml More evidence of port to PC for GTA V, its looking good folks Now we just an official statement

What about me Prime, doesn't the Internet need more people like me who are committed evangelists to decent Romance options in RPG? You know you need more people like me .....

I think that's a good call. I haven't played the original BG, I picked it up on a Steam sale for $5 or so. I'll play it some time in the future

I'm a rogue program imagination, I'm the malevolent thought you can't stop thinking, the kind of thought that can't be forgotten nor controlled. I like the thought of you being in my imagination all the time...what lingerie would you be wearing? Personally I prefer pink or black but some role-playing outfits would work for me if that's fine for you?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/world/middleeast/iraq-bombings-and-fighting-kill-dozens.html?_r=0 More bomb blasts and killings in Baghdad and general violence as the Iraqi security forces try to recapture Anbar province from ISIS

Can you share some minor details?

This makes sense because in some of these games, particularly games from the east, the breast sizes are completely disproportionate to the size of the women. This is a positive step in the campaign to address the objectification of ladies in games.

clicking all the white icons on the screen != solving puzzles clicking through dialogue != playing a game walking from one screen to the next != exploration clicking through a QTE != combat It's not that different from a point and click adventure game really although TWD obviously doesn't want people to get stuck on anything since the story is the focus. Does it matter whether it's a game or not though? That's just a label, a lot of people clearly enjoy the product. I guess you're right, that's the bottom line - how successful the product is. I guess I'm just upset people support products I don't like. I'd much rather see game companies push themselves and genres they work on forward. It may not matter that much as we seem to be debating semantics, but I still think you guys would feel much better about yourselves if you admitted that Walking Dead is a game. I think you'll find it therapeutic

What exactly is the definition of "blant"? I tried Googling it, but all I got were crappy urban dictionary entries that seemed to have nothing to do with the subject at hand, as well as one entry that basically equated to "bland". It is me trying to type "bland" at 4:45AM it happens to the best of us

That Cthulhu game has potential

Yes and the primary reason we didn't see war declared between the USA and USSR was because of the threat of nuclear holocaust but as you mentioned they did fight various ideological proxy wars throughout Africa and other continents.