Escapist Podcast: 096: Sassy E3
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Great Podcat everyone!
Hope you all can recover soon fro E3.
Thanks for all the great coverage!
I was disappointed with the discourse around the Call of Duty: Ghosts gender representation question. Regardless of historical representation of women in the United States military or the modern political debate on their service, the Call of Duty franchise is a work of fiction whose relation to realism is laughable at best and disgusting at worse. Claiming that CoD titles should reflect gender representation in the United States military while not reflecting the realities of any other facet of warfare is nothing short of ridiculous.
Secondly, the inclusion and announced playability of another species in the CoD franchise should be taken as an affront to female representation in the medium. The idea that a CoD player will sooner play as a dog, a combat capable but in many cases inferior to a standard human solider before playing as a female human solider is really disappointing. Of all the game franchises that could carry a female protagonist without the industry fear of losing sales, it is the Call of Duty franchise. The primary fear Infinity Ward or Activison should have about the inclusion of females in the CoD franchise is poor characterization as so often mars the single player campaigns of these games. There is however no reason females soldiers could not be playable in multiplayer, where dialog and characterization are minimal.
Finally, Call of Duty is in a role model position in the games industry and could set an example for female representation or characterization. Seemingly every game wants the audience and brand of Call of Duty to the point where imitation is the most frequently used tool in AAA development. This author has no idea what the impact of a playable dog will be, but could guarantee that the use of female soldiers would most certainly attract imitation and eventually over-saturation. Infinity Ward and Activision do not owe this to the industry or the consumer, but it would be a reason to get excited about the next generation of gaming in the midst of all the negativity upon the conclusion of E3. Such a move would feel like actual progress in the medium and would not jeopardize sales in the least bit. In conclusion, this is not a comparison of apples and oranges as stated in the Podcast, but rather an examination of subtext in the medium.
Secondly, the inclusion and announced playability of another species in the CoD franchise should be taken as an affront to female representation in the medium. The idea that a CoD player will sooner play as a dog, a combat capable but in many cases inferior to a standard human solider before playing as a female human solider is really disappointing. Of all the game franchises that could carry a female protagonist without the industry fear of losing sales, it is the Call of Duty franchise. The primary fear Infinity Ward or Activison should have about the inclusion of females in the CoD franchise is poor characterization as so often mars the single player campaigns of these games. There is however no reason females soldiers could not be playable in multiplayer, where dialog and characterization are minimal.
Finally, Call of Duty is in a role model position in the games industry and could set an example for female representation or characterization. Seemingly every game wants the audience and brand of Call of Duty to the point where imitation is the most frequently used tool in AAA development. This author has no idea what the impact of a playable dog will be, but could guarantee that the use of female soldiers would most certainly attract imitation and eventually over-saturation. Infinity Ward and Activision do not owe this to the industry or the consumer, but it would be a reason to get excited about the next generation of gaming in the midst of all the negativity upon the conclusion of E3. Such a move would feel like actual progress in the medium and would not jeopardize sales in the least bit. In conclusion, this is not a comparison of apples and oranges as stated in the Podcast, but rather an examination of subtext in the medium.
Hey Guys good podcast. I also like the idea of investing more in PC hardware as my "option" for this generation.
also also Ma'idah as the best twitter handle.
Just a quick aside about the females in COD Ghosts; I very much got the impression that Ghosts would have the protagonist in a special forces unit which is still something women almost universally are not allowed to enlist in, which would go a long way in explaining a lack of female character in COD Ghosts.
also also Ma'idah as the best twitter handle.
Just a quick aside about the females in COD Ghosts; I very much got the impression that Ghosts would have the protagonist in a special forces unit which is still something women almost universally are not allowed to enlist in, which would go a long way in explaining a lack of female character in COD Ghosts.
Has Sony said anything about Playstation One games on PS4 yet? I wouldn't rule it out because PS3 can still play PSOne game discs, I don't see why 4 couldn't have whatever software takes care of that, or an adaption of it. Be a bit of a shame if it couldn't.
I like Final Fantasy 8, 9, and 10, don't care if anyone else doesn't. 9's not my favorite but I've grown an appreciation of it and would defend it the hardest. As for Tidus, the amount that I do not like him is less than the amount that I do like Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, Auron, and the Aeons, each individually.
COD Ghosts. Yes, there's a dog, but not instead of a female character, there's just a dog, remove the dog and a girl will not appear, there just wouldn't be a dog. On top of it, any amount of *new* gimmick or element I think far out weighs cosmetic changes. A woman character in a COD game seems like a very reasonable thing, why not have one, but in this context people are upset that a dog is in the game instead of a woman? Having a woman character wouldn't really change the game any though she would play the same as a guy, where as having a dog would change things. There are seemingly going to be new gameplay elements in Ghosts based on the dog - as stupid as the dog is going to be, as silly as it is to have a dog, whatever they do it should add a new element to the game, one that shouldn't hurt any, be happy for that. Don't be upset that there's now a dog and still not a woman, be upset there's still not a woman, but don't blame the dog.
I like Final Fantasy 8, 9, and 10, don't care if anyone else doesn't. 9's not my favorite but I've grown an appreciation of it and would defend it the hardest. As for Tidus, the amount that I do not like him is less than the amount that I do like Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, Auron, and the Aeons, each individually.
COD Ghosts. Yes, there's a dog, but not instead of a female character, there's just a dog, remove the dog and a girl will not appear, there just wouldn't be a dog. On top of it, any amount of *new* gimmick or element I think far out weighs cosmetic changes. A woman character in a COD game seems like a very reasonable thing, why not have one, but in this context people are upset that a dog is in the game instead of a woman? Having a woman character wouldn't really change the game any though she would play the same as a guy, where as having a dog would change things. There are seemingly going to be new gameplay elements in Ghosts based on the dog - as stupid as the dog is going to be, as silly as it is to have a dog, whatever they do it should add a new element to the game, one that shouldn't hurt any, be happy for that. Don't be upset that there's now a dog and still not a woman, be upset there's still not a woman, but don't blame the dog.
On the point that we, the enthusiasts are not the main demographic I actualy recently made this thread.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.410168-We-are-the-minority-of-game-players#17177077
I'll copy paste my Original post here.
"I think it needs to be said. We, the people who keep up with gaming news, follow the industry and agonize and/or praise what happens are the minority of people who buy and play games.
I don't have actual numbers but us game enthusiasts are probably less than a quarter of the market. what this means is that we only really have niche games marketed towards us, the rest are marketed towards much larger demographics (like the Wii to families for example)
But most importantly, it means that our "voice" matters very little. We may wail and gnash our teeth at things like No used games and always online DRM but the public doesn't even know about those things, and probably doesn't care.
And this is scary. Things like this mean that despite what you may read from fans on Gaming sites like this, products like the XB1 and practices like persistent internet connection will probably be successful.
Perhaps I'm just being defeatist but it seems like nothing we do matters. The only way to change things is to get the "non-gamers" to care about things like these."
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.410168-We-are-the-minority-of-game-players#17177077
I'll copy paste my Original post here.
"I think it needs to be said. We, the people who keep up with gaming news, follow the industry and agonize and/or praise what happens are the minority of people who buy and play games.
I don't have actual numbers but us game enthusiasts are probably less than a quarter of the market. what this means is that we only really have niche games marketed towards us, the rest are marketed towards much larger demographics (like the Wii to families for example)
But most importantly, it means that our "voice" matters very little. We may wail and gnash our teeth at things like No used games and always online DRM but the public doesn't even know about those things, and probably doesn't care.
And this is scary. Things like this mean that despite what you may read from fans on Gaming sites like this, products like the XB1 and practices like persistent internet connection will probably be successful.
Perhaps I'm just being defeatist but it seems like nothing we do matters. The only way to change things is to get the "non-gamers" to care about things like these."
Brain fart, just watched a Morgan freeman movie. I hope many a lol was had at my expense.-Dragmire- said:
Call him what you like, if anybody was in his shoes they would deal with things a lot worse than what he did. For example, How would you react to the knowledge that the life you knew, as a world famous blitzball player, was gone and there was no way to go back to it?Eric the Orange said:
How would you react to finding out that your home town was destroyed a thousand years ago, all the people you knew are long dead?
How would you react to finding out you were just a dream?
From what I remember he never shed a tear, brought it up only a handful of times. The rest of the time was spent trying to destroy a well established religion that summoners (which included the love of his life) had to die in a never ending struggle against Sin, the deaths of the summoners only brought a few years of peace.
But no 'cos he isn't Marcus phoenix
He gets labeled "whiny" ... if anything, I think he is emotionally stunted.
It was all in good fun. I often make that mistake when speaking, many lols all around at that.omega 616 said:
OOk, I don't mean to be a dick, but a lot of the info about the PS4 and Xbone was quite jumbled, I understand that this is a relaxed conversation, and you guys are tired and all... but you guys are also game journalists, so you should inform yourselves more precisely when you report ( or maybe organize the facts first, since a lot of it was quite messy).
First off, the only change the PS4 is making to the current system is that ps+ will be required to play online games (not free to play games, as you said). Other than that, there have been no lies or changes on the policies. EVIDENTLY, they cannot control external companies' policies. If EA requires authentication or checks the serial number of disks and stores your PSN name in their servers, they can perfectly block used games... but Sony simply CANNOT do anything about it... and they are really in no condition to forbid it anyhow.
Both next gen GPUs are AMD, the PS4 has a (~Radeon 7870 equivalent) which is significantly more powerful than the (~Radeon HD 7790 equivalent) in the XONE. The processors in both machines are also AMD, but again the cpu in the PS4 is slightly faster. To make up for the difference, the XONE has a 32MB of sram cache. Which in theory would leave the consoles somewhat balanced, even if there is still a slight edge towards the ps4.
Also, the people from Sony Santa Monica and Ready at Dawn have reported that The Order 1886 trailer WAS in fact IN ENGINE, as stated by the disclaimer before the trailer.
Overall though, good job, it was fun to hear you out, even if slightly scatter-shot.
First off, the only change the PS4 is making to the current system is that ps+ will be required to play online games (not free to play games, as you said). Other than that, there have been no lies or changes on the policies. EVIDENTLY, they cannot control external companies' policies. If EA requires authentication or checks the serial number of disks and stores your PSN name in their servers, they can perfectly block used games... but Sony simply CANNOT do anything about it... and they are really in no condition to forbid it anyhow.
Both next gen GPUs are AMD, the PS4 has a (~Radeon 7870 equivalent) which is significantly more powerful than the (~Radeon HD 7790 equivalent) in the XONE. The processors in both machines are also AMD, but again the cpu in the PS4 is slightly faster. To make up for the difference, the XONE has a 32MB of sram cache. Which in theory would leave the consoles somewhat balanced, even if there is still a slight edge towards the ps4.
Also, the people from Sony Santa Monica and Ready at Dawn have reported that The Order 1886 trailer WAS in fact IN ENGINE, as stated by the disclaimer before the trailer.
Overall though, good job, it was fun to hear you out, even if slightly scatter-shot.
I would argue that it would be pretty dumb and inexcusable not to have female characters in a game that tries to have a lot of variety.beef_razor said:
Not thatCOD; Ghosts is like that but it could be a game where it would make sense to have female characters, story-wise. From what I understand, it's supposed to be about a small group waging guerrilla warfare, so they could easily have members who haven't been a part of any official military, people who joined because they had no choice and were maybe trained by their dads/husbands/brothers who were soldiers.
Even if they're a government-employed and official group, they'd benefit from having female members, because wouldn't it be useful to have members people wouldn't suspect being special forces? Not to mention they'd need non-combat support personnel.
"Most underwhelming game"
Sunset Overdrive. Oh new game from Insomniac, looks pretty cool... Xbox One. Nothing to see here.
Sunset Overdrive. Oh new game from Insomniac, looks pretty cool... Xbox One. Nothing to see here.
