I'm trying. But it's easier said than done.Xorghul said:
There is a lack of developers, and lack of publishers willing to take risks.
The industry has an entrenched group that are accustomed to aiming at a specific target.
It's a lot harder to create anything that goes outside that target.
Theoretically, if you wanted to (for the sake of argument) create an all female development team from existing industry professionals (which I don't consider a particularly good idea, but it's merely an example), you'd probably find it quite difficult.
But that's nothing compared to getting a game funded... Just look at all the games that have failed commercially, despite being interesting in their own right.
I never said anything about realism.Halo Fanboy said:
I'd say... Diversity is a bigger issue. Negative stereotypes extend far wider than games, but in most media they are at least tempered by a little diversity.
There are books with varying perspectives... Films that have different approaches to how things are represented...
Where is the diversity in games? It's quite a lot more difficult to find anything that doesn't repeat the same kind of thing.
And if I made any implication of 'realism', I mean it only in a relative sense.
Compare a Weight-lifter, with a body-builder.
A weight-lifter has physical strength. A body builder mainly has the illusion of physical strength.
But if you take things to an extreme, it becomes all to easy to see through the illusion.
How do you create convincing fantasy art? - Ask an artist, and they will tell you making the fantastic seem convincing relies on paying attention to the mundane details.
I suppose what I'm referring to isn't 'realism', it's subtlety.
It is possible to imply strength without resorting to arms the size of tree-trunks.
And it's possible to do sexy without creating a woman whose breasts are larger than her head.
Yes and no. My ideals, in the sense that they would apply to something like this are a mixture of things that follow cultural norms, but also those that run counter to it.LimaBravo said:
It's very difficult to give a straight answer though, because I'm conflicted about some things.
In terms of pure aesthetics, I don't like extremes. Big breasts & Big muscles both seem off to me.
And as much as I know that the Japanese are among the worst offenders for the first of these (just look at Anime to spot that one), I still tend to prefer their artistic sense to that of a lot of western styles.
In terms of the subject of this thread, it's a little more complicated. Not least of which because a lot of it has to do with narrative, and extensive narrative doesn't always make sense in games.
You might not think so from all of this, but I can actually tolerate quite a bit. I quite happily play Tomb Raider, Dead Or Alive, or several other titles singled out as apparently being particularly offensive.
But, I can illustrate the deviding line more easily with anime...
A lot of anime contains 'fan service', which is similar in nature to a lot of the things being complained about here.
Some of it is pretty silly, and I just laugh at it. Some of it is mildly offensive, but the story as a whole makes up for it...
Then, there's some series where it gets pushed so far that it becomes too much to deal with.
I could see it coming from the promos, but my overriding sense of curiosity made me watch at least one episode... Only to confirm that Ikki Tousen does indeed take things too far.
The problem with games is that there seem to be far more that take things too far, or come very close to doing so, than there is anything else.
But anyway, I'm going to leave it here, because this is becoming somewhat self-defeating.
And I'm not even sure I care enough to worry about it. (I played DOA beach volleyball without too much concern, although I found it rather bizarre. But I can't exactly say I'm truly all that sensitive to the matter as it might have seemed I am.)
