Okay back now:
MyFooThurTS said:
I want to make it clear here, the people I referenced never made arguments like the one you made. Look up the thread 'I won't be buying the new Lara Croft', it is
depressing how many people just posted the basic argument 'you're just angry that her boobs are smaller' rather than actually address the main issue.
Depressing.
You might be overreacting. Social realities exist - if using a female character makes them more sympathetic, then the artists have a right to do so.
Sympathetic, yes. However in the interview he made it sound like the goal of the game was to make the player feel like they are actively 'keeping her safe', which is kind of problematic because in addition to this meaning they are using her inate helplessness as a
selling point it also suggests that male players can't project themselves onto a female character and identify with her but that we have to feel like we are her 'protectors' instead.
In retrospect I don't doubt that he actually meant players will want to protect her in the sense that she will ultimatley invoke sympathy and empathy in audiences. But it really is all about how you phrase it, words have meaning after all.
On that count of the 'rape', as well, what happened in the game can't, really, by any practical definition, be called 'rape',
Yes it's true, the trailer's footage didn't have much to go on (though what was there I still was turned off by) but the controversy began because of what the producer and later director would continue to say in every major
interview. By declaring frequently 'you are going to want to protect her' and 'the bandits will then try to rape her' it clouded the image of the overall product.
and I neither accept the producer's statements as relevant because that doesn't actually interfere with the player's experience.
However it's fair to expect the producer and production director to be major players in shaping 'the player's experience', that's why people responded the way they did.
Frankly part of the whole issue for me is about whether or not the developers are mature enough to take on this subject matter. I mean they flash the whole rape subtext around like crazy, apparently deciding it needed to be in the trailer for all the world to see how edgy and great they are for being bold enough to tackle this serious issue, then their producer starts talking about it in interviews and makes it almost sound like he hopes it'll be a selling point and then when the inevitable controversy came up they threw it away in an instant and desperately backpeddled at every oppurtunity.
What I'm saying is, I don't disagree that rape as a subtext can be used in a video game to tell a story. However given that it is a very serious issue the people using it better be very mature about it and it had seriously better be of more significance then just shocking for the sake of shocking.
That's why I have a problem with Crystal Dynamics because their actions throughout this whole controversy have made me believe they
aren't mature enough to handle this subject matter. Waving the issue front and center and gabbing off about it like idiots in their interviews showed quite a disregard for a serious and intimate issue that many people have to live with their whole lives. In addition the fact that they were just as quick to drop it to the ground and let it shatter to pieces and fiercly backpedal away from it tells me that they obviously weren't very committed to it in the first place, otherwise they would have done a better job defending their position. Leaving me to believe that this really was just 'shocking for the sake of shocking' and therefore I think it doesn't deserve to be defended.
Sure in and of itself the scene isn't very bad and left at its own devices it would just be an 'iffy' part of an otherwise fairly standard (though harrowing to watch) trailer. But because of idiotic comments made by producers and the inevitable controversy and the panicky backpeddling afterwards reflected negatively on them and gave us a potential insight into the mindsets of the people making this game.
And let me tell you something. I
hate, absolutely
hate having to criticize them for this. I actually have a degree of sympathy for them for what their company's going through right now and I don't want to see them suffer as a company and I don't want to see this game go down in flames with this controvery being the only thing people remember of it because believe it or not
I AM EXCITED FOR THIS GAME!
I
want to play a Lara Croft game where she's a young woman who gradually becomes stronger after being taken away from society's rules and shaping herself accordingly. And up until that fateful trailer and all of the downward spiral afterwards the game looked really promising in that respect and even though this whole issue has disgusted and
pissed me off I still want to see the game succeed because I keep hoping to be proven wrong and end up liking it. I
want to like this game and I
want the developers to learn from this experience and I feel that with the way people have been defending this game and completely missing the point of
why there was a controversy in the first place,
neither of those things will happen.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this game will be a great beginning of a hero's journey as Lara starts off soft and becomes a hardened warrior by the end of it but at the same time Crystal Dynamics needs to get that it is not the presence of a female character, nor even the idea of rape as a subtext that is troublesome, it is the very immature way in which they handled both of those things.
There are parallels in the experiences of men's characters, I might add, and they don't get noticed - I might dare call your position misandric.
I assume this is going to be about Fear 2, yeah?
In that case let me address something.
Fear 2 is reality obscure, not very well known outside of gaming circles. In addition the rape scene in Fear 2 happens at the very end as a sort of shock ending, it wasn't being marketted as overtly or put in the public spectacle anywhere near as much as Lara Croft's. Besides which, if say 343 industries executive producer were to come out tomorrow and remark:
'-and then Masterchief runs afoul of a Covenant patrol party. And then they try to rape him...'
Do you
really think people wouldn't react to this? Somehow I don't see my compatriots on the Halo forums being thrilled at such a 'bold and edgy' direction to take the franchise. Just because I don't mention men's issues directly does not mean I am 'pro' man rape or male abuse. However the simple fact is, according to CD themselves they wouldn't market a male character with rape as a subtext, they just wouldn't.
Your response:
THEY DISAGREED WITH ME! THEY WERE OVERREACTING WHEN THEY CALLED THEIR REACTION AN OVERREACTION! THIS IS WHAT THEY SOUND LIKE WHEN THEY TALK! RAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT THE FUCK IS ACADEMIC INTEGRITY? HYPER-SENSITIVITY, HYPER SENSITIVITY!
You, see? I can do it, too.
I like to think my response was a little better than that.
P.S. I don't necessarily agree with the argument I sold there, and I apologize for the childishness of my post.
It's okay and I hope you don't take offence to anything I've posted.
