Strategic butt-coverings in video-games

Because it’s a video on youtube, I think it’s fair that you are tuning in for a lecture rather than a discussion. Of course she can’t host an actual discussion because it would be overrun by people who want her to die, so she’s in a bit of a bind on that. She does definitely want you to come out the other side of the video agreeing with her, but I’m not really sure how else that would ever be.

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I’m one of those who have trouble estimating the distance in 1st person, so platforms get painful with that camera.

Vociferously, IIRC. She uses examples a wider audience (ie - people who don’t play videogames as a regular pastime) might recognize to get her points across. I don’t see a problem with this approach. Afterall, just because you don’t like a particular example doesn’t mean the trope isn’t going to be repeated in AAA titles to be release later this year.

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Its not that. I have seen discussions she was on, and I got the same feeling from those. I don’t know…I’m not that big of an ‘activist’…my background is in psychology so when I come to trying to convert others, I am a little more empathetic about the other side and trying to see why they feel one way or the other and trying not to demonize them. Again, I’m sympathetic to what she is trying to do. I RARELY play games any more because I can’t stand most of them…the latest TR was the first I played from the beginning to the end in years and if this was even slightly a result of Ms. Sarkeesian pushing for more realistic (right? In an action game) female, then I’m glad she’s done it.

FemFreq seems to me like it highlights important aspects of (video game) culture. It’s taken me multiple threads (and years now of her videos) to really nail down a single statement I want to throw out there:

Most complaints about Anita make no more sense to me than berating the Mr. Skin website. “Why try to get off on Hollywood when you can go watch Bang Bus?” Because nude celebs make people horny, just like negative portrayals of women in video games reflect and perpetuate a socially destructive environment.

Everything you just said makes for a terrible critique of media.

The costuming is better.

YMMV, but I think the torture porn level of brutality toward Lara in the last one was so effing skeevy I couldn’t play it.

And the game still absolutely focuses on dat ass.

So you know, the usual one step forward, two steps back song & dance. Which is part of why Anita’s a goddamn national treasure.

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You also make your opinion known on every one of the Sarkeesian threads, and it’s always the same old things. You guys sound like broken records.

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[quote=“Daedalus, post:349, topic:72494”]
YMMV, but I think the torture porn level of brutality toward Lara in the last one was so effing skeevy I couldn’t play it. [/quote]That’s just saying you don’t like brutality in games, because it isn’t exploitative.

[quote=“Daedalus, post:349, topic:72494”]And the game still absolutely focuses on dat ass.
[/quote]No it doesn’t. It’s identical in camera angles to Uncharted, a game specifically given to explain the difference between the trope and games that do not have a problem.

[quote=“IronEdithKidd, post:350, topic:72494, full:true”]
You also make your opinion known on every one of the Sarkeesian threads, and it’s always the same old things. You guys sound like broken records.
[/quote]How dare we. I also made my opinion known about the trope and the others earlier in the thread, because MGSV is awful.

Don’t worry lads. The “on rails” aspect of AAA games has been criticized to death, yet it’s still a vibrant part of the AAA ecosystems. Trust the market. If the market for casual misogyny exists, 'twill be catered to.

Do you mean butt flab? Because those are wrinkles in the cloth of her leggings. And look at how deep the butt crack goes. And of course the required thigh gap. Isn’t it helpful to have a bright light illuminating that part of her body? Why wouldn’t she be holding her light in a way to make it easier to move forward? Who does it help to have her light shining on her butt instead?

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So’s Gollum.

Your point being wimmen are naturally curvaceous, and the mens are uggos?

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Odd. How do they feed the human once it’s been wholly captured into the computer?

The examples are being intentionally cherry picked to highlight specific elements, and often interpreted in the most controversial / provocative way imaginable. The first time I watched one of the videos, I thought this is roughly a Fox News level of coverage – highly partisan, more interested in advancing a particular agenda than actual discussion.

The underlying issues covered are often valid, just like the issues Fox News covers are valid. Not disputing that. Gender representations in videogames are often … not great … just like they are frequently not great in movies, tv, books, and everywhere else.

The Tomb Raider example in the video is another instance of cherry picking a particular set of data (look at how this game from 2003 showed women’s butts!) to highlight an agenda, versus the actual narrative of real world progress in gender representation as demonstrated by the 2013 and 2015 entries in Tomb Raider:

The new Tomb Raider is absolutely fantastic.

Forget everything you’ve read about Lara needing your protection. Forget about her needing to be “broken down.” It’s nonsense, all of it, the remnants of some truly misguided remarks about a character who is, without a doubt, one of the best action heroes I’ve ever seen. Not female action heroes — action heroes, period, full stop.

And sometimes the examples feel like we walked into a store, picked up a copy of Maxim magaxine, and said “isn’t this copy of Maxim terribly sexist?” Well, yeah, it is sexist, because it’s gendered media. Perhaps we could apply this pointed analysis to something reasonably intended to be gender agnostic, like Newsweek magazine, instead?

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You should feel bad about this comment. You twisted my words entirely, body shamed an actress doing normal work, and I purposely chose the shots most like the trope presented in Anita’s video.

For Christ’s sake, the thigh gap bullshit is for when your knees are together!

Do you know that the Porsche Boxster, which is one of the most successful sports cars in the world, actually has an adequate boot/trunk? Good design is just good design, but superior design takes into account things the average buyer hasn’t even thought of.

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But if we can find examples of extreme sexism like that found in Maxim in games shouldn’t we point it out? Sure its getting better, but does that mean we should stop looking at things with a critical eye to making things even better?

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And the point I was replying to was you attempting to refute Lara Croft’s hourglass figure by saying the character is motion capped. Nothing to do with clothes.

Women are under insane pressure to look a certain way in order to be “normal”, let alone attractive. The woman used to create the mocap model has been exposed to these pressures her entire life. Also, I would not be surprised if the character model for the game has had her dimensions tweaked as opposed to the model’s actual body type.

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Looks like it’s gonna be a bumper-crop this year!

Which is great for connoisseurs, but if I don’t get this harvest to market soon, the price will plummet.

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Wait… are you telling me that Andy Serkis doesn’t look like Gollum!?! But that was motion capture too!

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