You just have to laugh. Neogaf is still butthurt over Being Wrong About Everything that went on last generation. Now that I think about it, they’re still wrong about what has gone on in the 8th Generation as well (e.g. thinking 3DS would be a huge success, Steambox being awesome, etc).
Neogaf literally believes everything on the Internet revolves around them. People say I have a ‘huge ego’ don’t realize I have to act that way to put out reason over the noise coming from these gaming forums. Why is Neogaf so interested in claiming me as a former member? I don’t use that message forum. I don’t use ANY message forum. Malstrom has never posted on Neogaf. I know there is much confusion as many people have carried over the same ideas to forums like Neogaf. I don’t know why certain people at Neogaf desire to think of me as a ‘salty’ (is that to be angry?) former member since I’ve never been a member, and I’ve always been ‘salty’ (I prefer ‘saucy’).
Looking forward to hear what they thought about my post on John Walker, I was disappointed that they (as usual) had no argument. All they can do is link to some posts I made about a prior election as if that has any relevance on the topic (and why no links to the 2010 election?).
There is no diversity of intellect at Neogaf. One could argue there is no intellect at all. What I mean by this is that the forum now reads like a bloated twitter with people competing for best ‘joke gifs’. Sometimes, they don’t even post the joke gif! They literally write ‘joke gif’. In the past, Neogaf posted NPD sales figures (before NPD realized what the Internet was), and there was actual debate over things of the Game Industry. Now the typical thread is about what Game Industry official said on Twitter or someone asking, “So guys, what is your favorite gaming box art? LOL.” (The ‘So’ has to be used because apparently making titles without the ‘So’ would be seen as ‘salty’, i.e. having balls).
While I do think Evilore will have regrets in life as he said in an interview that the gaming message forum is ‘his life’s work’ (shall we put that on his tombstone? “Dedicated life to Internet Gaming Message Forum!”), I do applaud him for being able to sucker so many people’s time (especially game developers) in generating content for him for free. People generate the content free of charge while he makes the money. A tidy little arrangement for him. (Game makers should just post their own content anonymously on their own blog or website. They should make advertising revenue that way instead of giving it all away.)
RPS put out another ridiculous post which is this time dedicated to Kerrigan’s ass. I hesitate to respond to this RPS stuff since it is SO EASY to shoot down like shooting fish in a barrel. Either these RPS guys are such kool-aid ideologues or certain moneybags are being put on them to write this stuff. No argument is presented in the link. They are just Kerrigan’s ass and pictures of other male characters’ asses.
One thing I forgot to mention in the John Walker piece is that he says such objectification is for ‘straight males’. Last I checked, lesbians liked this type of stuff as well. Lesbians were the primary fanbase for bikini chain-mail Xena. Women’s magazines are full of beautiful women. If there is any stereotyping, it is men who think they know what women want. Most men don’t have a clue.
Human sexuality has different standards for the different sexes. Physical attraction and youth are what men find interesting in women. For men, however, women look for more than physical attraction. There are personality traits, wealth potential, and sheer power that are seen.
And this is what I’m never seeing from places like RPS. Why aren’t they mentioning the men?
Do you smoke cigars at work? Do you risk your life everyday? Do you have bulging muscles? Do you get paid an obscene amount of money? Do you hang out in steel metal cities doing various engineering, chemical, and technical work? Unless you work in the oil industry, the answer to that would be no.
Male gamers cannot measure up to Raynor or even the simple marine. Guys like Raynor are depicted to be ultra-masculine. Why? It is because ultra-masculine is interesting. The point of entertainment is to be interesting. No one is interested in ugly people or people who don’t have adventures. Most people are living their lives in front of a computer screen. How many TV shows are about ugly people or people who don’t do anything?
If anything, Kerrigan’s body shapes make the most sense with Starcraft’s lore logic. Everyone gazes over that Zerg can evolve new species at will, but RPS is crying that Kerrigan has a normal looking female butt. Using Zerg technology, Kerrigan could ‘mutate’ breast implants and totally look ridiculous with it still making sense in the game. She has wings after all (and apparently can fly which was a surprise to me).
Neither man or woman finds females looking like a refrigerator to be interesting. If one goes to World of Warcraft, which has a substancial population of female players, one finds that the most popular race of females are Blood Elves (which women love to play).
Above: Oh dear! Burning Crusade ‘objectified’ women back in 2006! How did the world not explode!!!?????
Above: The Night Elf dance? How could anyone forget? Alizee’s great contribution to video games! If this is objectification, I want more of it.
Above: This is what Blizzard developers must have been watching while they made World of Warcraft. Women had no problem with it and love the Night Elf dance.
The least played gender/race in WoW is the female dwarf. Why? It is because no one wants to look like a beach ball. So even when there are options of different female shapes, women gravitate towards the Blood Elves (and they are wearing bikini chain-mail). WoW is a good example since no other game has so many female players on it.
To those of you outside of the United States (and in a nation that doesn’t speak English), the nature of these screeds that RPS is doing about ‘tight pants on women in make-believe entertainment’ is a smaller piece of a bigger issue. The issue is that some females (I do not call them women) find fantasy depictions of women in video games to be threatening. I say that if men prefer to play a video game fantasy woman over a real flesh and blood woman, then the woman is doing something extremely wrong to repel the men. For men, women always take priority over video games. Unless…
It is commonly said for the hardcore gamer to ‘man up’. In other words, he has to go get a job and make a living instead of playing games in the basement all day. He has to dress better and maybe go to the gym to get in shape.
Certainly, the female has to do something as well. She has to ‘woman up’ to get the guy she wants. She can’t just get fat or chop her hair and expect to attract a high status guy. And it isn’t confined to biology but to choice. Some female gamers do it. Others whine or persuade men that ‘make believe women’ are ‘objectification’. What’s next? Are we to criticize the great arts and paintings of the past as well because of depictions of women?
I’d love to do a financial audit on RPS because I suspect there may be some entity paying them money to put out these feminist screeds. It certainly isn’t in their site’s interest to go this route.
This issue is a safe one to come down on. Men and women have both liked having pretty women in entertainment and the arts and this has gone on for thousands of years. I don’t see this changing anytime soon.
Sorry, feminists. Make-believe women in video games are still more interesting than you are. Eliminating all other competitors, even make-believe ones of video games, still won’t make men find fat women attractive. Most men would rather die single.