thatdemoguy

(And if I haven’t, please feel free to take offense and give me some free publicity....a brother needs them reads)

 

Well that all seeing eye of social justice has turned its full attention on a medium that I happen to really love. And that's gaming. It all started a few years ago with the infamous "five guys" incident, which spiraled into the gamer gate fiasco, which then went right into the crusade of Anita Sarkeesian and her followers. I’m not going to say that this attention has been all negative or it hasn't produced positive results, because it has. In fact, dare I say this; it’s produced lots of positive progress that I genuinely support. Thanks to the feminist agenda (and I say that with NO negative inflection at all) we, as in gamers of both sexes, are more open to dialogue and are actively seeking solution to the problems that have long been present in the medium. Most importantly we have seen more representation of female characters in gaming. Look at titles like the Tomb Raider reboot and its recently released sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, starring a totally revamped iteration of the Lara Croft character. A woman of strength and conviction who is a far cry from her daisy dukes, hiking boots, and ummmm "guns" from year's past. But I feel the movement was really felt in the most recent Assassin's Creed title, Syndicate. Which, because of the pressure applied by the community, Ubisoft added not just a tacked on female assassin character, but they built a game that centered around the new female protagonist, Evie. Who in my opinion, was a much more nuanced and interesting character than her brother, Jacob, and she felt more like the center of my own personal narrative.

 

Unfortunately it seems like for every positive stride that’s made, there's a stutter or a back step. Whereas while you have those who are actively seeking to make changes that push the medium forward, you also have those who are only out there to make a bunch of noise and be heard. Which is very troublesome because that group is usually the loudest and has a dangerous amount of influence. And when that influence creates problems that affect how games are presented, then we really need to look at ourselves and question if we are too easily offended.

 

In recent weeks this has become an issue that can't be ignored. This is going to seem a bit subjective because I am an admitted lover of fighting games and have a bit of a horse in this race, but for those who don't know, Street Fighter V has been censored due to the possibility of offending that vocal group that only wants to be heard. Two characters, Cammy and R. Mika, have had a couple of their pre-match and in-fight gestures altered to the point of basically being taken out of the game. I’m going to speak specifically about the R. Mika change. When you would activate her critical art, the camera would do a quick zoom in and the character would quickly smack her butt before proceeding to perform the move itself. The entire animation is about 10 seconds, but the "trigger" that offended that vocal group was the HALF second at the start of the move where she smacked her butt. Why would this offend anyone at all? The character R. Mika by design is a wrestler. A wrestler designed by a Japanese company. And in Japan, more specifically JAPANESE WOMEN'S WRESTLING, that very same butt smack is a very commonplace gesture. Go ahead and take a moment and look up any match with the wrestler named Kana, who goes by the name Asuka now in WWE/NXT, and you will see her use that very same butt smack and even the flying hip/butt attack that R. Mika uses and calls the "flying peach". There really shouldn’t be anything to be offended about because at its core it’s really just art imitating life (yes I just referred to games as art). But there are those who don't know these things and only saw the gesture as demeaning or a means to try and make themselves heard, which lead to the gesture being censored in the upcoming release, and this isn't even the worst of it....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball 3 had its domestic release outright cancelled!!!! Meaning the game will not even be made available on Western shores, be it physical or digital. And this is where the line needs to be drawn.

 

Let me be the first to stand right up and say that I personally hate hyper sexualized characters in games. I’m a red blooded American male, that loves me some females, but I roll my eyes at the way characters are "sexploited", or the way a character's sexuality is used to sell a product. The Dead or Alive series has always been known for its sexy characters, and using that sexuality to sell itself, remember the "she kicks high" commercial? I happen to like the Dead or Alive fighting games, even given how the female centric cast is presented, with all the sexy casual, sexy nurse, sexy sports, sexy ninja, sexy racing, sexy Santa, sexy bath time, sexy Halloween, and sexy sexy costumes. The aesthetics betray a very fine and deep fighting system, which is very enjoyable. But with that said, I think that the Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball series is absolute trash. It’s nothing more than shameless fan service. A means to appeal to a certain demographic that I’m definitely not a part of.

 

Here's the thing. I may not be a part of that demographic, and I may not like all the sexy costumes. But that means that I just don’t have to play with the sexy costumes or BUY them at all!!!! It’s all elective, it’s a choice. And with the cancellation of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball 3, that choice has been taken away from the consumer. WELL KINDA. It’s no secret that the PlayStation 4 is a region free system. Meaning that unless it’s expressly coded to be locked, you can play a game from ANY region on your hardware, and it will play in your native language if it’s available. I have imported quite a few games this way because they were going to be sold as digital only here and I am a large supporter of physical media. What I’m getting at is that cancelling the game on Western shores doesn't solve the so called problem because the whole restriction can be circumvented.

 

So what’s the point?

 

I have no intention of importing the game, but I feel its cancellation and going back to the censoring of the gestures in Street Fighter V creates a very dangerous precedent for the future of gaming as a whole. I say this because the power has been firmly placed in the hands of people who plain and simply DO NOT CARE about the product to begin with and likely had no intention of ever buying it. And changing a simple camera angle or altering or censoring a gesture was NEVER going to convince those weren't going to buy it into buying it at all. But when these people see they can make some noise and can change things to this degree, that just means it will escalate further and further. These people will only find something else to dislike, something else to be a trigger, something else to be taken to forums and demand be "fixed" to fit their own vision, something else to be offended by.

 

And that offends me.