God of War Team "Pulling Back" From Violence Against Women

[Casual Shinji]

If you've seen the trailer for GoW: Ascension you'll notice that Kratos pushes a guy out of the line of danger. So I doubt his "gentle" disposition will only be directed toward women. And don't forget that Kratos spent the entirety of God of War 1 not killing everyone he met.

I think this is just a PR spin rather then Kratos genuinely becoming a male focused killer only. I'm sure there'll be plenty of gorgons and harpies to slice in half.

 

[ace_of_something]

There will be less female enemies/things to kill. Probably won't even notice. Besides if it's before he went all nutbars over the loss of his family it might make sense for him to have 'soft spots' didn't he have a daughter? I've seen some pretty chauvinistic, chest-thumping, mean sumnabitch types have a daughter and they're suddenly a little more courteous to women or turn in to a giant teddy bear around said daughter. It seems reasonable.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

In fairness, Kratos is at his most human in Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, before he has nothing left to live for but rage. And he's gone out of his way to save women before--the Oracle, the women on the ship being attacked by the Hydra--but those that stand in his way do not get far. Hera was a nuisance, and those don't last long around the human liquidizer. Since this is going to be a prequel, one where he'll still have some ties to a proper emotional reaction, it's safe to assume that he could even show concern for something! Gasp!

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Kratos? A role-model? Fuck that noise. I'd sooner take on King Bowser as a role-model.

Okay, so they don't want to portray a negative image of women because Kratos is going to be 'kinder and gentler'? It's a little late to pull back on that now, considering the second game had you killing three women just because they wouldn't do what he wanted them to.

Sure, you may want to move away from awesome female warriors that could kick Kratos's ass, but ten bucks says there'll still be a mini-game where you use two naked women as meat pillows to earn red orbs. That's setting a much better example. At least he's not killing them right? He's just using them for sexual gratification.

Try and be as sensitive as you want, but when you continue to over sexualize women the way the God of War series does, you're still negatively representing the gender. That may not be what they're worried about, but that's the impression I get from the article.

 

[KaosuHamoni]

Kratos doesn't hate women. Kratos hates EVERYONE. The fact that he's not going to kill women, because they're women, negates the whole last act of Chains of Olympus... Oh Santa Monica. Y U SO STUPID?

 

[Treblaine]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sexism

sex·ism   [sek-siz-uhm] Show IPA
noun
1.
attitudes or behavior based on traditional stereotypes of sexual roles.
2.
discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, as in restricted job opportunities; especially, such discrimination directed against women.

Yep, this is sexism.

Women are denied the role of being Kratos' magical and mythical opponent due to a stereotypical view of their weakness and sensitivity.

If there cannot be women to fight, or for romance, and being a peripheral character would be jsut as bad, aren't Santa Monica just writing females COMPLETELY out of the God of War universe?!?!? Even though the Greek mythology from which it draws from had a plethora of female antagonists.

This really needs to be said, this is NOT FEMINISM. Demanding that women be covered up and never even fictionally exposed to anything because they are apparently so impossibly fragile is NOT FEMINISM, it is conservatism. People like Anita Sarkeesian are just conservatives like old republicans, they just use the Feminist name as the "conservative" title has been so rightly discredited.

 

[Treblaine]

This is the kind of "equality" that "feminists" tend to be looking for.

We are all "feminist" now, we all consider women as equals with men with their own intentions and varied abilities.

The thing is the old discredited guard of conservatives are now striking back, saying women should now cover up again and be denied active roles, they call themselves "feminist" just because they say they are working for female's cause, but really they are following THE EXACT SAME ideology of old conservatives, and back then they said they were working for women's interests by restricting what they can and cannot do.

Antita Sarkeesian is a Conservative.

 

[Risingblade]

No if anything we should be able to kill more women, equal rights to die all that good stuff

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

*sigh*

This is what I didn't want when I was defending that whole 'let's not be assholes to women' stance.

If this is genuine character development, Kratos is younger and thus less rage filled, then fine, go for it. The problem is that in the fight for equality, the developers have...

started treated women differently to men.

Equality means exactly what is says on the tin. Equal treatment of everyone. Not being overly mean to any one group in particular, but equally not being overly nice to one group at the expense of another.

 

[Kahani]

"In order to avoid accusations of sexism, we're going to treat women differently from everyone else."

A plan with absolutely no drawbacks.

 

[Phasmal]

Are we really doing this?
Are we really pretending they are doing anything but trying to cover their own arses and they probably didn't think about it very much?
They're just trying to sidestep controversy in the laziest way.
But no, lets blame `feminists`. Fuck it, it's easier.

 

[Piorn]

Wasn't the whole point of Kratos' character that he butcheres EVERYONE, until he even butchers his own family, driving him mad with revenge and bringing the whole system down in the process?

And now he's all about protecting fair maidens and stuff? I really don't see the connection.

 

[Dogstile]

Are we really doing this?
Are we really pretending they are doing anything but trying to cover their own arses and they probably didn't think about it very much?
They're just trying to sidestep controversy in the laziest way.
But no, lets blame `feminists`. Fuck it, it's easier.

After all the recent arguments from both sides, is it really much of a stretch that people would believe its because a fuss has been kicked up by, yes, feminists?

I mean I agree with your neutral response, but its not like its completely hard to believe that the main reason why someone would sidestep is because feminists have been working very hard to be very... bollocks, can't think of the word. Easy to see? Prominent? Something along those lines?

 

[Isaac59]

Here the logic behind this which is sexist.


So women are far to precious to kill and thus are weaker. That's the message this sends. Which means that women are unable to think for themselves because if they did they may want to kill the monster called Kratos. Nope instead they'll stay at home and do the dishes.

I mean if they aren't going out fighting wars or being used for sex what else is there for them to do. We here at Sony Santa Monica support women doing nothing proactive with their lives.

 

[Phasmal]

Are we really doing this?
Are we really pretending they are doing anything but trying to cover their own arses and they probably didn't think about it very much?
They're just trying to sidestep controversy in the laziest way.
But no, lets blame `feminists`. Fuck it, it's easier.

After all the recent arguments from both sides, is it really much of a stretch that people would believe its because a fuss has been kicked up by, yes, feminists?

I mean I agree with your neutral response, but its not like its completely hard to believe that the main reason why someone would sidestep is because feminists have been working very hard to be very... bollocks, can't think of the word. Easy to see? Prominent? Something along those lines?

I didn't say it was hard for people to jump to conclusions.
It's much easier for me to see it as a game company looking at all the controversy and deciding they want to avoid it. I don't know how they'll do it yet, but people are already assuming GoW will now feature Gentleman Kratos, who tips his top-hat to ladies and violently stomps on mens faces.

It just reeks of the whole `feminists want to ruin our fun` thing.
The answer given seems vague to me so I can't say what I think as of yet.

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

Men are, of course, the expendable gender.

Seems counterproductive.

 

[cobra_ky]

If they were actually worried about sexism (or knew what it looked like) then maybe they would have cut back on the gratuitous sex scenes instead.