“It seems that Mr. JASON SCHREIER is pleased also with neither sorceress nor amazon. The art of the direction which he likes was prepared.” ~ George Kamitani
Feminism Moves Past Demanding Bans On Content, Demands Bans On Artstyle Now Too
Are Lusireaders outraged this week? One hopes that they are, because failure to properly outrage me be indicative of sexual perversion and/or RAPE!
When holier-than-thou Kotaku hack, Jason Schreier, accused Dragon’s Crown artist and Vanillaware president, George Kamitani, of being a fourteen year old boy for daring to portray busty female mammaries, Kamitani responded by posting some hilarious online art [pictured] which he asserted would be viewed much more favourably by Shreier. This should have been the beginning and the end of this grubby and confected little affair, but sadly an increasing number of internet offense-junkies have been clambering aboard the umbrage-wagon to wring their hands and shake their fists at Vanillaware for producing this shocking SEXISM!
The most recent industry person to enter this most public of debacles is Gearbox artist Shaylyn Hamm [such an apt lesbian name], who not only implied that that Kamitani was a poor artist, but also bluntly stated that he was basically a sex offender for depicting animated female jubblies.
“I want to see more women getting interested in games and game development, but stuff like this only serves to further cement the idea that you’re stepping into a male hobby rather than something that is more inclusive.
Also, this is the first time I’ve seen that character and holy shit, ahahahahahahahahahaha. That’s actually something that made its way into a basically finished video game, fucking lol! Some juvenile delinquent kid in my 5th grade class used to draw girls that looked like that (only without the creepy blank, featureless samefaces and wizard hats), and I think he was actually better at it. I also think he’s in jail now. This is amazing.
…But it’s not even the boobs and ass itself that creeps me out with this kind of stuff, it’s those awkward painful-looking sexy poses combined with identical faces that are completely devoid of features, expression, or personality. It’s super creepy and makes it clear that the focus is meant to be their sexual features and not the characters themselves, and to me that’s an artistic cop-out and boring.”
Hamm could be talking about any of Gearbox’s own catalog of games, all of which range from middle-of-the-road [Borderlands] to downright awful [Duke Nukem Forever, Aliens: Colonial Marines] in the visual department. Moreover, the character model for Borderland‘s busty Siren is almost indistinguishable from Borderlands 2‘s Mad Moxxi, save for the identifying tattoo that Siren has scrawled all over her bosoms. Both characters mentioned are also wont to pose in all manner of impractical ‘sexyposes’, the better with which to show off their not inconsiderable cleavage.
Then there is also the fact that Borderlands is one of Gearbox’s least sexually offensive offerings when compared to their blow-job happy graphical mess, Duke Nukem Forever. But all this is besides the point when one realises that naysayers do not even understand what they are talking about. Dragon’s Crown is a game which seeks to channel the essence of Capcom’s old Dungeons & Dragons arcade brawlers, and has arrived at its striking visual style by attempting to embellish the dominant generic visual features of each character-type. It seems a little wrong-headed to suggest that the Amazon character-model is sexually objectifying women, when her freakishly large thighs look like a couple of Christmas hams. If her character model was geared towards male sexual gratification, then Vanillaware is certainly looking to service a decidedly niche circle of body building fetishists.
Even this immutable fact is besides the point however, as, even if the character designs were created solely for the purpose of male sexual gratification, the question remains: so fucking what? If Vanillaware enjoys making such games, then why should they be prevented from doing so? And if a largely male audience enjoys playing such games, then why must such benign enjoyments be quashed? The intellectual myopia of Feminism is once again asserting that games should not be produced if they service specifically male tastes [not that I think for a moment that Dragon’s Crown actually falls into such a category]. This is rank hypocrisy on their part when they spout this nonsense out of one side of their mouth, while tirelessly advocating for more female oriented games from the other. As far as totalitarian ideologies go, feminism is a particularly annoying one.
“Prease be buying our console.” ~ Satoru Iwata
Nintendo PSA to Wii Owners: Wii U Exists
There is something wonderfully forlorn about Nintendo contacting every Wii system connected to the internet in order to beg their owners to consider an upgrade. The fact is that the Wii U has been doing abominably poorly on the global-scale, and Nintendo has identified the marketing efforts of NoA and NoE to be the system’s one key failing, seeing as this is the one key failing which does not reflect poorly on Nintendo’s Japanese management.
“Did you know that you can play nearly all your existing Wii games on Wii U? Your Wii controllers and many Wii accessories can also be used with a new Wii U console – along with any downloaded games, save data, and other info stored in your existing Wii console.
It’s time to discover Wii U.
Wii U is the all new home console from Nintendo. It’s not just an upgrade – it’s an entirely new system that will change the way you and your family experience games and entertainment.
The second screen on the included Wii U GamePad controller enables never-before-seen ways to play games and enjoy TV And for the first time ever, you can see Mario and your favorite Nintendo franchises in glorious HD.”
In terms of the Wii U’s visibility in the video game console marketplace, Wii U marketing definitely takes some share of the blame – yet this blunder is not so large when compared to some of the incomprehensibly poor decision making to come out of Japan. Bizarrely, it was Japan’s decision to name and style the Wii U to be virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor. Even this state of affairs could have been salvaged if Nintendo had some day-1 Nintendo software which was able to set the Wii U apart from the Wii in terms of visuals. Instead Nintendo opted to launch with New Super Mario Bros. U as its only recognisable Nintendo-brand property – a game which is almost visually identical to its Wii counterpart in every way, save for screen resolution [which does not translate into screenshots and television spots].
This is not to say that NoA do not deserve to wallow in similar proportions of blame for the fact that Wii U sales have fallen off a cliff. Nintendo as a whole were broadly responsible for alienating core Nintendo gamers by placing a larger emphasis on the casual market – but Nintendo of America seemed particularly malicious in this regard, as they deliberately went about attempting to block core Japanese content from reaching America in a seeming bid to quash unsightly core gaming on Nintendo consoles. This lost them a portion of core Nintendo customer goodwill and support.
It is only Nintendo of Europe which looks as though it is working hard to shift Wii U’s by allowing European retail chains to lower the price of the Wii U – though NoE may have had no other option depending on the strength of their bargaining position. At any rate, it will take a lot more than a wretched and grovelling PSA to Wii owners in order to get the Wii U selling, as Nintendo will first have to make the purchase of the Wii U into a desirable proposition – a task they seem ill-suited to at present.
Sony proved with the PS3 that success does not automatically transition from one console generation to the next, and Nintendo are only just learning what was patently obvious over a year ago; that a lazy appeal to casual Wii owners focusing on the dubious strength of the Wii brand simply will not be successful in shifting units. Nintendo will have to find some marketing point more compelling than their reliance on the strength of brand-Wii if they wish to regain any sort of traction whatsoever for their moribund console.
“Hey Nintendoroonies! I sure bet you’d like to pay up front for a game that is just like Eternal Darkness, only a little bit different, and called something else!” ~ Dennis Dyack
Dennis Dyack Wants to Waste Your Money
What do bad companies do when on the brink of financial ruin? They change their name and then host a Kickstarter of course! Precursor Games, an alleged developer which [probably] exists in the same capacity as Black Isle studios does [as one man and a computer in a basement], is set to launch a Kickstarter for the development of a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness called Shadow of the Eternals, set to debut on the 6th of May. The project is to be headed by Dennis Dyack, the man responsible for running Silicon Knights into the ground, and is said to consist of twelve episodic games. A gameplay trailer has already hit the internet, yet it is likely comprised of gameplay footage generated from the Eternal Darkness 2 vertical slice which [the now defunct] Silicon Knights developed with stolen Activision money. For the first episode alone they will be asking for 1.5 million dollars.
“Our primary goal for Shadow of the Eternals is to raise 1.5M dollars. Any money raised beyond this will contribute to stretch goals that go beyond the first episode, including future episodes, additional characters, additional platforms and in-game perks. The more money that we raise, the more we can deliver, which is a win for everyone.”
Fantastic. So the asking price of this extravagantly expensive Kickstarter is just for the first episode of twelve – with Dyack’s new company presumably returning to Kickstarter each time. Some of the last news to come out of Silicon Knights was that Dyack was madly trying to pitch Eternal Darkness 2 to Nintendo in order to save his mismanaged company. Nintendo rejected his proposals, and they were right to do so, because Dennis Dyack is an incompetent manager and an untrustworthy man. One would like to think that gamers are not possibly stupid enough to fund this looming disaster, yet Dyack has opportunistically seized upon the desperation of the stupefyingly optimistic Wii U crowd to fund the game, by primarily targeting the project for Wii U release. One fervently hopes that the project does not get funded – that would be a win for everyone.
