So is the flying spandex & gun woman in all of the pics related to this article?
Is she an avitar in a one on one fight game?
Is Mario in a fight game too?
I guess I am exposing the depth of my ignorance.
Yep, thatās from one of the later iterations of Super Smash, one of the fighting games in the article. Itās a Nintendo game filled with characters from their various properties.
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Nintendo apparently took the features and characters most annoying to parents and put them all in one game, called āSuper Mario Smash Brothersā or something like that. The kids love it, and whenever I find it laying around loose I throw it away. They fish it out of the trash, wash the coffee grounds off, and keep playing. The game has no redeeming features that I can discern.
I was drawn to this article not because I play fighting video games, but because of the tag line āAll my life winning was everything. These days Iām just proud I still show up.ā Last Sunday I fenced schlƤger against people literally less than half my age. Literally. Today I am still suffering from a wrenched psoas muscle, or anyway thatās what the therapist says it is. But it was worth itā¦
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I do find that the PVP games are the most amped and unfriendly places. i do find them fun, but more and more I play them less and less. I am trying to relax and they make me stressed and angry. Itās probably also the place least friendly to women and minorities of any sort. Its just full of angry white men.
I have been playing a lot of Destiny for the last few months and the sort of forced collaboration in that game creates a much better atmosphere. I think I have 3 women I have played with multiple times and I havenāt seen them mistreated. If anything the men they play with regularly are very protective about language. Maybe they still have to avoid the public spaces a bit, but It doesnāt seem to be as bad a scene as I have seen in the past. I also really think it points to how game design can change behavior and the game makers really do have some responsibility for the behavior they reward.
I also have to say I am starting to think more about the NPCās. As I play more games where its a collaboration of humans killing invented characters, I get somewhat more uncomfortable with the nature of the inventions i am rewarded for killing. I think to get better, games have to get more nuanced and thoughtful about how joyfully killing is portrayed and the motivations it gives to our enemies.
Importantly, note that Samusās game model is hyperrealistic and sexualized, complete with a bump suggesting her vulva. The male characters in the game are all cartoons.
This type of competitiveness exists in many areas, regardless of gender. My wife competed in riding competitions, and thereās a big divide between the pretty, wealthy, long-term horse riders and the general population who ride and compete for fun. Historically riding was a male pursuit, but now itās predominantly female, and the competition is also split among gender lines (by the competitors; there are not āmaleā or āfemaleā leagues).
I definitely ran into this (as a male) when I was playing Magic: The Gathering in the late 90s. Women were rare, and they were universally thought of as either a unicorn (everyone wanted her) or as ājust someoneās girlfriendā who ādidnāt make her own decks.ā
I agree, but for video games - especially fighting games - decision are made in split seconds.
My poor analogy to your example would be a magic player who can memorize your deck after playing you once. Knowing the starting frames (as well as the duration) for a movementās animation is an amazing skill and common with professional players that fighting games have added a way to cancel your movement in order to better competition.
Hereās a guide on frame data reading for Street Fighter IV.
You do have to wonder why there is essentially a naked woman in what is otherwise a game full of childrenās game characters. Another great example of why developers shouldnāt be left out of the conversation about making games friendlier environments for women.
Quick check, this Samus is the person inside the Metroid suit. I remember even back in NES days thinking it was weird how they slowly took off her armor revealing more woman as levels progressed.
(edit) Despite the uncanny valley effect I assume her shape is supposed to rev up hormone levels in people interested in the sprayed on spandex exaggerated female form, in the same way a hunting decoy or mating call would. Kinda sad when you think about it that way, sad like seeing a bull aggressively mount one of those semen collecting rubber cow backsides, or parting a few extra gamers from their money for a 3d model of a woman.
I only played the Gameboy version, which was much less of a strip tease.
Itās Zero Suit Samus. That specific model of the main character of Metroid without her armor didnāt exist until the early 2000s. Samus normally looks like this, and itās the way she appeared in the original Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl the Zero Suit is an alternative model (essentially, another character, with her own set of moves) to the standard one. I havenāt played the latest Smash Bros, but Iām assuming they kept the Zero Suit in some capacity, since itās basically canon by now.
While Iām not terribly thrilled with the skeevy design of that outfit, Samus is the lead in one of the classic Nintendo franchises. It makes sense for her to be in Smash Brothers.
This article makes me extremely sad because Iād love to see more woman at EVO kicking ass and taking names. I want Maddy to feel like she can still be one of the people to do that. Not the woman as a whole but for herself. I have that same drive and hope sheāll find a way to navigate that space in a way thatās not mentally or emotionally triggering.
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they really need to cover her vulva
Uhā¦Iām pretty sure they do? From my perspective, the problem with the Samus character was always in the creepy end screen she gets in each of her games (e.g. in Super Metroid she takes off her helmet visor if you beat the game with in a certain time limit and her entire suit if you do it even faster).
When my children were younger, I forbade them to play games where they murdered characters based on somebody elseās assurance that those people needed to be killed. COD, and that sort of training-kids-to-be-cannon-fodder crap.
I let them play games where they killed things/people in self defense, but not any sort of murder/assassination games. I didnāt even let them play arena type games (like Super Smash Bros) until the youngest was 12 or so, and then with the understanding that it was only because all participants were willing volunteers.
I love my games and have definitely killed untold masses of NPC and avatars. For a long time it didnāt really bother me. In some ways it still doesnāt But in terms of story it sort of gets absurd when all the enemies are these infinitely spawning violent space idiots that one can kill with joy. And you stroll through their high tech complicated ships and architecture and have to wonder how the heck mindless violent alien animal people could design and maintain all that. It just makes for terrible story.
Zombies are sort of a perfect enemy that way. No need for motivation or concern. Nazi zombies being the absolute perfect enemy.
And they may prevent your game being banned in Germany.
Though that may result in your game being banned in Germany.
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Now there is a question, when your govt bans a game you want, how easy it is to circumvent their will, and do what I call an āunilateral opt-outāā¦
I donāt even really play fighting or FPS type games anymore. But the games I do play do have dying NPCs. And itās usually my fault too.
KSP is a helluva lot of fun. Even if you do feel bad when Jeb dies because you forgot to strut together his rocket correctly. Heāll just sit there, happily grinning as the fireball consumes his body.
Then itās time to reset, and try again.
I could make so many bad jokes about Germans banning things, but I am concerned its too soon.
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After reading this, I feel compelled to comment on a couple of things.
First off, kudos for the well-written piece. The almost stream-of-consciousness, emotional outpouring hit home.
But there are two things which I feel a need to comment on. First of all, the thoughts resulting from the competitiveness of fighting games. I think the smack-talk, the feeling of needing to win, the insecurity, that is all part and parcel of climbing the ranks of a combatitive endeavour. You get better, youāre afraid of losing. You want all those times that you have proved yourself to your opponents and to yourself to not be for nothing, not to be a lie. Any loss would mean a setback and is something you want to avoid, something you strive to not have happen to you. That happens to certain personalities not just in gaming, but in all sports, business, politics: everywhere you have shown you can excell. Cāest la vie.
And the stakes get higher as you go. This is not a āwoman in gamingā thing. This is a āperson in gamingā thing. The better you are, the rougher the smack-talk is, the more personal it all gets. The more you invest in this thing which, truly, is only as worthy as much as you assign worth to it.
And then there is the lamenting on the woman-man interaction in what you wrote. Welcome to the world, to life. This is not just gaming, or fighting-games. This is everywhere and in all things. Itās just a part of life and how men and women (or certain men and certain women, certain sub-sets) interact.
When it happens it is uncomfortable. Annoying. But those kinds of interactions are not just the reserve of women who compete in fighting games, or even gaming in general. That can happen everywhere.
What you wrote made me a bit sad for your bad experiences. It just seems to me that you have conflated the problems of male-female interactions and competitive gaming, making it seem as if they are related. But I think they are two seperate issues: men can react oddly (to say the least) to women in any setting, and competitive gaming can lead to personal feelings where the higher you go, the more is at stake and the rougher the interactions can get no matter if you are male or female.
TL;DR: Iām sorry for your bad experiences and I understand the maudlin feeling they engender, but I think that certain men can react strangely to women in any setting and any competitive occupation can lead to things getting personal. They just arenāt necessarily related.
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