#to throwback

The invaluable Shaun dropped in November a very exhaustive look at Stellar Blade and at the manufactured culture war that Mark Kern/Grummz tried to recruit the game into in an attempt to revive Gamergate.

To summarize, an introduction to whom Mark is, his failed game project and the fake outrage is followed by quite measured review of Stellar Blade itself, including a look at the story, gameplay and design. Surprising no-one, Shaun is not very impressed, despite giving it a fair shake.

Of course my favorite part must be when he makes a point about NPCs having no reaction to Eve's outfit, by making her bring tragic news to an NPC while clad in a silly bikini. Which then extends into a short discussion of what's basically our blog's thesis, including examples of varying levels of ludonarrative dissonance caused by sexualized outfits in different games. Including this comment on the skimpy costume rhetoric:

"Of course it is up to your own judgment what you think is sufficient justification for any particular character outfit or design. And if you're happy to accept actually she has to be naked because she caught Clothes-Fall-Off Disease, then that's up to you honestly, I'm not going to argue with you."

I'm with Shaun here. Perhaps pretending that this sort of Thermian Argument rhetoric is serious media analysis goes a tiny bit over the line? Maybe admitting to being a horny, aimlessly angry gremlin would actually help guys like Mark and his audience to find some cheesy fun games they'd genuinely enjoy? Hell, he could just... actually deliver that game he promised them.

Or maybe they're just too commited to spewing anti-trans hate and other Nazi rhetoric at anything even remotely "PC/woke/DEI" in their eyes to even care about actual gaming, as our last related post elaborated.

Actvision Blizzard decides to "improve" diversity in their games by quantifying things like ethnicity, culture and sexual orientation.

Just another, sadly unsurprising step in Blizzard's long, long journey of promising a more diverse respesentation followed by more sexism and tokenism every time.

If you don't see what's wrong with that picture, please stop to ask youself how you'd represent something like ethnicity or gender on a numeric scale. And what would 0 on that scale be.

Thankfully, most of the fandom and media seems to react to this idea with well-deserved bewilderment and mockery (like comparisons to phrenology, a racist pseudoscience). Also with obligatory mentions of how this does the opposite of improving the company's image in the light of their bigoted, toxic work culture and corrupt business practices.

Moreover, despite now edited-out claims in the official announcement about the diversity tool, Overwatch 2 developers deny using it or even knowing about it prior to the media buzz.

If we could put a number on how out of touch this is, ActiBlizz PR would score off their little dystopian charts!

But hey, it's not like we've been pointing out for years that Blizz seems to do diversity by begrudgingly ticking off boxes on a list of superficial character features (and only after ticking some boxes multiple times), right?

~Ozzie

Media reporting on the matter:

Activision Inexplicably Introduces Tool to Rate Character Diversity Metrics - FanByte

Activision Blizzard Discusses Tool to Calculate Diversity in Video Game Characters, May Also Be Investing in Lab Coats - The Mary Sue

Activision Blizzard's New Diversity Game Tool Comes Across Terribly & Activision Blizzard’s Diversity Tool Has A Long, Even More Embarrassing History - Kotaku

‘Overwatch 2’ staff say they never used Activision Blizzard’s diversity tool - NME

Activision's "Diversity Tool" Is F*cking Awful - The Jimquisition (video)

Duke du H’arcore returns to read some more stuff that “real” gamers wrote to complain about the SJW soy boy agenda and other stuff that’s definitely ruining the game industry with the feminist tentacles. 

Thing about the comment cited in this episode is... it’s virtually indistinguishable whether the sad fuck who wrote it was earnest or only thought it was funny to hit every single gamer bro buzzword to “anger the snowflakes”. Or maybe it’s a Russian troll account, or whatever. 

Which, at the end of the day, makes zero difference - ironically or not, toxic attitudes are still perpetuated. 

We truly live in the worst timeline, when there’s enough of bullshit like this posted on the Internet that you need to don a 16th century fop persona to clearly communicate you’re satirizing people who actually said that. 

~Ozzie 

It’s been some time since last we visited @pointandclickbait​ to binge on some quality, totally serious game journalism.

Since then, they touched upon such important issues to us as: 

“Respecting” sexy female characters while being creepily attracted to them. [article]

The sad omission of Junkrat’s sexyness, despite him being one of the few shirtless (therefore totally sexualized) male heroes in Overwatch. [article]

The unbridled “creative freedom” that comes with a job in video game development! [article]

All the definitely justified and rational spite, rage and bigotry gamer dudebros have for anyone with different opinions than their own. [article]  [article] [article] [article]

Also good to announce: Point and Clickbait launched a Kickstarter to publish print version of their best 2016 articles! 

If you’re interested in quality game  journalism in print form (or PDF, because Australia Post’s shipping costs are intimidating), there’s a week before the campaign closes.

A discussion that started since Wasp’s boobtastic costume got revealed in the Ant Man movie got rekindled once new photos from the upcoming sequel started popping up.

Significant quote from the article, a response to something us female costume design critics are often accused of:

To be clear, this isn’t a call for modesty. This is a call for Hollywood to have more realistic depictions of female warriors. and more creativity in their designs. 

While it’s hard to advocate for the barbarian warrior heroic nudity in media like PG13 movies, modesty of a costume is hardly ever an issue for us (well, maybe unless it directly contradicts a specific character’s modest personality). That’s why the Female Armor Rhetoric Bingo has a "You want every woman to be covered from head to toe!” square.

As usual, though, I strongly disagree with assertion (in the latter part of the text) that movie!Wonder Woman’s armor is a good middle ground between practicality and aesthetic. Again, neither having vaguely historical references nor looking better than Amazon bikinis from the Justice League film make it an objectively good design, especially when you put Diana next to her male peers. 

Also, throwing Lady Sif and Valkyrie under the bus, when at worst their costumes are exactly as bad as Wondy’s and the Amazons’? Someone seems to write with DC-favoring bias >.> 

For more comprehensive commentary about the whole spectrum between genuinely practical female armor and unrealistic, but feminine and aesthetically pleasing armor, I recommend reading the Skin Is Not Necessary for Sex Appeal article we reblogged before.

~Ozzie 

“Newbies should be seen and not heard”

Our long-time reader @red-queen-on-the-heathen-throne recently brought up important point we never put to words on BABD. It’s related to the “You never played/saw/read this (so shut up)!” rhetoric. Namely, it’s the fact that perspective of someone who never consumed media in question is just as (if not more!) valid as the fans who knows all the lore, including Thermian arguments which supposedly justify bad design  decisions. 

If a design isn’t good enough to communicate its narrative purpose to someone completely unfamiliar with the story behind it (so each and every bikini armor falls under this), it fails as a design. As Red Queen puts it:

It’s not the player’s job to figure out what the designer is trying to actually tell them, as opposed to taking what is being communicated through this image at face value, before the game even begins.

And continues:

If this is what the game chooses to present to people who don’t know anything about the game yet, maybe don’t be quite so flippant about it when people get the wrong idea. Because then it actually matters that they don’t know anything about the game. 

So truly, insight of someone who doesn’t know yet how an element that looks ridiculous is explained in-universe (or even by the creators, in some additional material), is quite valuable, as it sheds light on potentially problematic things that lore-savvy fans and creators aren’t capable of noticing. 

Also please remember that parody/satire needs to keep their intent even more clear than stuff that plays the same tropes straight, otherwise Poe’s Law and “ironic” reproduction happens instead of insightful criticism.

“Hand me your geek card!”

We’re often accused by detractors of not having credentials to talk about (usually) a game we’re criticizing, because we supposedly never played it.  Putting aside a fact that with three of us being huge nerds and pop media consumers, at least one would be somewhat familiar (unless the product is super obscure) - why would that be relevant? No matter if we know the title well or just superficially, our criticism of female visual representation is always the same.

In-depth familiarity of a story behind combat lingerie hasn’t yet once made us ashamed of our words and deeds. If anything, the more we know about any particular Thermian argument, the better we are at picking it apart. So asking us to “do our homework” before we comment will make the commentary far more critical, not more lenient.

Whether or not we actually do comprehensive research for any particular piece of media depends on many factors, like: 

how influential versus obscure the media in question is

how interesting the excuses for skimpy female costumes in it are

if we’re already familiar with it beforehand

if there’s a Wiki for it

if a submitter provided some info

how much time we have at the moment

So while we try to at least look up everything we talk about, the amount of lore-heavy commentary (and its relative accuracy) varies from post to post.

Because, again, as we put it in our FAQ, this is not a full review blog, but one discussing character and costume design in the very specific context of in-story combat and meta-level sexism. Finishing a game or knowing a TV/comic series full storyline isn’t necessary for us to point at a fictional lady who goes sword fighting in two pasties and a chainmail thong next to dudes in heavy plate armor and say this is an absurd image. It just is. 

~Ozzie 

Here’s a redesign that @kafine did a year ago for this atrocity:

Finally we can tell the difference between Alice in casual clothes, in armor and in regular underwear. 

Who knew those were supposed to all look different? Certainly no artist employed by Zenoscope!

~Ozzie

Who knew you could design an armor that’s both practical and cute? <looks at the camera>