These Social Justice Radicals (or Social Justice Warriors) have been a cancer to the gaming and entertainment industry for quite some time. Don’t believe me? R. Mika’s buttslap and DOAX3 says hi. I am calling on MS and IG not to cater to these radicals who will stop at nothing to censor everything in today’s media. So if you want Kim Wu’s retro to remain as it was in KI2? Don’t let SJRs influence you from presenting the content as is.
Also, if you really want to stand up to the SJRs, redo Orchid’s retro to her KI2 outfit! There’s plenty of fans who want that costume back.
IG should do whatever they want to do. If they don’t want Orchid’s KI2 retro or anything very risqué, it’s within their creative freedom not to do so. If they are comfortable with including the costume and want to do it, that’s also their right to do so.
I’m kind of sick of these whiny, paranoid politics being trying to be pressured on games. You’ve got these SJWs on one extreme who unfairly criticize creative choices that anyone may find offensive, and then you’ve got these overzealous anti-SJWs on the other extreme who unfairly criticize creative choices that might represent what SJWs want. All the while they use the old “Be on the righteous side and not like like THOSE people” rhetoric.
Whatever IG chooses to do, it shouldn’t be for the sake of picking a “side” in this petty, antagonistic culture war. Just politely and humbly ask for what you’d like see in the game.
I for one love the fact that IG/MS have standards in their game and are trying to be respectful of potentially touchy areas like sexism or racism. I love the fact that they are willing to stand up to people who expect them to cater to their every whim, and say “no, this is tasteless, and we don’t think it has a place in this game”. And not everyone who feels the same is some sort of “radical” as you are trying to write them off as. Some people simply realize that games don’t have to provide blatantly sexual content to still be enjoyable. Female characters can still be beautiful and attractive without waving practically bare asses all over the screen… in fact, I think that sort of thing detracts from the overall product.
Re: Orchid’s KI2 outfit, that disaster should stay in the past and I hope it’s never officially endorsed by the team. But don’t worry. I’m sure plenty of people will take a shot at modding when the PC version comes out, so you can at least have that.
At this point guys, costumes will become irrelevant once KI drops on PC. There are a ton of modders who are foaming at the mouth to create custom content for the game so I’m sure that you’ll be able to get your hands on a Bootylicious Orchid and even a Socially/Racially offensive Thunder if you so choose. However, I’m betting that you’ll only be able to play with that locally unless IG chooses to support the modding scene.
I’m sorry/not sorry to offend you, but I think this needs to be said before we have another censor controversy happens. Next time, it could be Kim Wu or another KI female fighter.
Kim Wus retro is basically very similar to Sadiras default, so I don’t see a problem.
The only problem may be the hair, as I recall Maya’s retro with great clothing but WTF worm tennis player hair
I mean, sure, there are feminists and other social justice activists who go too far. There are some issue I think that whole movement goes too far on, even – try Googling “Scott Aaronson” for example. But generally I think feminist criticism of games has been pretty reasonable.
What I do see is gamers misinterpreting the likes of Sarkeesian a lot. Despite disclaimers explaining that her coverage is from a systemic, big-picture perspective (i.e. aims to assemble a whole lot of case studies to highlight a problematic trend, not to weigh in on whether that trend occurring in a given game is adequately justified), people still get ■■■■■■ off that she misrepresented or vilified their favourite game, or infer that she thinks the tropes she highlights shouldn’t occur in games in a world that agrees with her (i.e. censorship). The point is that, say if 50% of games had the same problematic trope in them, even if every one of them had a good justification for said trope, you’d be a fool to suggest that everything’s okay.
The fact that gamergaters and whatnot continually demonstrate an inability to grasp this concept is one of the key reasons why they are so easily dismissed.
You mean the same Anita Sarkessian who went to the UN to promote internet censorship?
That’s all I have to say on the subject. I’ve said my piece. Bottom line, I call on MS & IG not to censor Killer Instinct Season 3 content and not cater to SJRs.
You can’t censor content by simply not creating it in the first place. You need to actually look up the definition of censorship. Capcom has not been censored and neither has KI.
Congratulations, though, as a consolation prize you still get Capcom’s incredibly tasteless R. Mika design and Cammy’s butt floss one piece.
There have been three iterations of Orchid. The KI 1 version with the physics defying and biologically inexplicable chest that was primarily notable for showing off the ability of a silicon graphics workstation to produce a shiny material for her clothes. The KI 2 version which even my 20 year old self recognized was atrocious. And the kick-■■■ version MS and DH designed for KI 2013. There’s just no comparison. From an aesthetic viewpoint, from a story logic viewpoint and from a game design viewpoint that this last is by far the best of the three.
I have never considered myself a feminist and Anita Sarkeesian is the kind of person who makes my skin crawl. But I simply don’t understand how people can look at the video game industry and think that the treatment of women in games is more or less okay. I’m not talking about “rescue the princess” tropes. I’m talking about blatant, sex object pandering to horny teenage boys.
I am really grateful to the folks at MS, DH and IG for making a game that I can play in front of my 4 year old daughter without having to have an awkward conversation about why the lady has no clothes on. Forget “radicals.” If they bow to the pressure from stupid young men who think that gratuitous crotch shots in video games are something we need to “take a stand for,” then I will be EXTREMELY disappointed.
What I do see is gamers misinterpreting the likes of Sarkeesian a
lot. Despite disclaimers explaining that her coverage is from a
systemic, big-picture perspective (i.e. aims to assemble a whole lot of
case studies to highlight a problematic trend, not to weigh in on
whether that trend occurring in a given game is adequately justified),
people still get ■■■■■■ off that she misrepresented or vilified their
favourite game, or infer that she thinks the tropes she highlights
shouldn’t occur in games in a world that agrees with her (i.e.
censorship). The point is that, say if 50% of games had the same
problematic trope in them, even if every one of them had a good justification for said trope, you’d be a fool to suggest that everything’s okay.
The fact that gamergaters and whatnot continually demonstrate an
inability to grasp this concept is one of the key reasons why they are
so easily dismissed.
I don’t know why I’m bothering to reply to some deluded moron who legitimately believes Sarkeesian has any merit whatsoever, but you are a fool to suggest that there is anything “problematic” about fictional content. The only way it would possibly be problematic is if these characters were physically reaching through the screen and fondling you. The fact that you find yourself uncomfortable with human sexuality or any other “problematic” content is entirely your own problem, because that subjective discomfort is something that occurs entirely in YOUR OWN head, and it is not ANYONE else’s “responsibility” to shield you from it, particularly not creators/developers who have their own vision for a product they make. Human sexuality has been an integral aspect of art and culture since the dawn of civilization, and it will remain that way. Imagine if someone baked an apple pie for themselves and their friends who also like apple pie, and then some imbecile like you came along and and screamed about how problematic it was that they didn’t also make you a cherry pie.
Now of course, you being the social justice slacktivist that you are, you will naturally spin a yarn about how these changes to games make them “more inclusive” and “let games be taken more seriously”; a delusion known as validation syndrome, where instead of enjoying games you wring your hands about some imaginary third party that isn’t taking video games seriously and use that as a justification to make changes to games, just to appease this ephemeral non-gamer entity. To you it makes sense that video games need to be more inclusive to appease people who don’t play video games, an action which would be dismissed as completely illogical in any other context (“we need to start making books for people who don’t read books!”). If you really consider this a problem then you need to start making your own video games instead of attempting to force your ridiculous alterations on other people’s products. There is no reason why they should legitimize your grievances; why should they? Under penalty of a backlash from the gaming media? You have absolutely nothing to peg others with other than the political correctness kool-aid you’ve been forcing down other peoples’ throats. Gamers AND indie game devs are already sick of it, and we are no longer just allowing you idiots to declare yourselves the negative space around which human creativity is allowed to take place.
Oh boy, and the laughable argument that sexualized designs are made for “horny teenage boys”. Guess what, teenage boys are LEAGUES AHEAD in sexual maturity than you are. Everyone who makes this criticism of “pandering to teenage boys” has a view on sex that’s more similar to that of a five year old child, which is infinitely more shameful. You whine and stomp your feet that it’s gross and throw a tantrum until the grown-ups take it away. You are mentally closer to a toddler than you are to a healthy teenager, so congratulations if you take pride in this fact, I guess.
I don’t see how there could be any awkward conversation between you and your four year old daughter about the types of clothes a game character wears, it seems to me that this is something that a small child would completely glaze over if it wasn’t for the fact that their father was making a bigger deal of it than they were.
RIP BUTT SLAP
I’m actually glad for this. I don’t like the over-sexualization of women. It doesn’t do anything for anyone, and it’s just Fan service. How does skimpy clothing make a better video game character?
If that’s the case, we need half naked Batman, then… Batman would be perfect.
sorry. I left out incredibly juvenile stunted adolescents who also want gratuitous and unnecessary sex thrown into their video games. My bad. The next time I will name you by name.
I have no need and no interest in sharing my views on human sexual expression with you. But besides name calling and insulting anyone who disagrees with you, you can’t offer a single positive argument in favor of your position. So great - go play dead or alive. Knock yourself out. But don’t come in here pretending that you are taking a stand for freedom of expression by trying to crap up KI.
I’m happy with the art style IG already has, I mean the characters look cool and I don’t see anything bad about them, so yeah more of the same is good with me , tbh Kim Wu’s retro isn’t that different to Sadira’s main.
But I get where your coming from KRX8, when game journos deliberately hate on games due to personal prejudice, blacklist people who disagree with them or bully devs to the point they’re reluctant to release games in particular regions, that’s a problem.
