GAMER LOUNGE 20XX (NO CASUALS!!)

[Koh]

Eh, I'm just disappointed I can't feel completely comfortable playing this game co-op with my friends, or even just playing it in the same room as another human being. It just makes me feel awkward.

That would still be an issue with you and not the game, though.  


Maybe someday everyone will have grown enough of a backbone to not care about other people's shallow thoughts.  If they are your real friends, they'll already know your interests and dislikes, and know why you are playing the game. In the case with my friends and myself, it leads to some good joke material, and silliness.

[Kriven]

Has it not occurred to you guys that games don't have to appeal to the widest common denominator and that niche titles can still be good, even if you don't appreciate them?

[Shade]

Overly inflated boobs make me uncomfortable...

...for the designer who felt inclined to create an unnecessarily sexualized character whose design's sole purpose is to appease the everyday perverted gamer. This isn't just a goofy anatomy decision, it's an all too common reprisentation of woman all because of the fact that sex sells.

Just because the way a character is portrayed doesn't bother/annoy/offend you personally, doesn't mean a problem isn't present.

[puggsoy]

Can I request that a mod move this discussion to its own thread, since it's taken up at least the last 2 pages here? It's clearly enough of a topic to warrant it.

[Kriven]

A--aren't you a mod?

[Koh]

Just because the way a character is portrayed doesn't bother/annoy/offend you personally, doesn't mean a problem isn't present.

It does though, as it clearly means that character design wasn't intended for those who are so easily offended by such designs.  It's like complaining about Call of Duty being a shooter, when you don't even like shooters.  You don't like hyper sexualized characters, fine, then why are you looking into playing a game that features them?  Or, if you decide to play it anyway despite your distaste, then you still don't have any ground to stand on, given that you've had to have come to terms that "yes, this game features hyper sexualized characters, and I don't care. I'm here for the gameplay, music and art style." Target audience must be considered, and obviously, with character designs like that, they aren't catering to people who don't like those types of designs.

[puggsoy]

A--aren't you a mod?

I'm simply Site Staff; I don't have any forum powers. In this thread Petie and I recently outlined which kind of staff can do what. Only Moderators and Administrators (not Site Admins) can do forum-y things.

[miyabi95_]

It'd probably be better for that discussion to move to its own thread :U.

In other news, did anyone hear about Hidetoshi Ishizawa? Makes me mildly curious about SNK Playmore's future...

[psychospacecow]

Ooh, It can only mean good things if they give him the power he needs.

[DragonDePlatino]

Has it not occurred to you guys that games don't have to appeal to the widest common denominator and that niche titles can still be good, even if you don't appreciate them?

Since when were beat-em-ups considered niche titles? I can see that argument working with Dating Simulators and Visual Novels, but it feels more out of place in a beat-em-up. It's a genre that appeals to more people and doesn't have a history of oversexualized characters. Sure, there are some characters like Blaze from Streets of Rage 2 but she's a heck of a lot more classy than Ms. Balloon Tits from Dragon's Crown. It's OK to have sexualized characters in beat-em-ups but there's a point at which you cross the line and it's no longer normal.

And that's just the thing. I don't feel particularly offended or uncomfortable when I look at Witch, but I hate it when stuff like this becomes normalized. Instead of broadening a genre, it sends out the message that only a certain type of person should play these games.

Can I request that a mod move this discussion to its own thread, since it's taken up at least the last 2 pages here? It's clearly enough of a topic to warrant it.

Seconded.

[miyabi95_]

Ooh, It can only mean good things if they give him the power he needs.

They say that he resigned from Capcom months ago...And I've noticed small improvements in both gameplay and visuals judging by the recent trailers for KOF XIV. Many fans are led to believe that he's already assisted in that project.

A positive thing I will say about KOF XIV is that they're still living down to creating huge rosters. Although they're sometimes making spinoffs of Street Fighter characters, at least the game will come with more characters...

(unlike the roster of like 10 characters in SFV)...

[Kriven]

Since when were beat-em-ups considered niche titles? I can see that argument working with Dating Simulators and Visual Novels, but it feels more out of place in a beat-em-up. It's a genre that appeals to more people and doesn't have a history of oversexualized characters. Sure, there are some characters like Blaze from Streets of Rage 2 but she's a heck of a lot more classy than Ms. Balloon Tits from Dragon's Crown. It's OK to have sexualized characters in beat-em-ups but there's a point at which you cross the line and it's no longer normal.

And that's just the thing. I don't feel particularly offended or uncomfortable when I look at Witch, but I hate it when stuff like this becomes normalized. Instead of broadening a genre, it sends out the message that only a certain type of person should play these games.

There's a lot more that goes into a niche than just the specific genre... Ecchi is a niche aesthetic style. So here we're talking about a beat-em-up with an Ecchi aesthetic. You're making a mistake by breaking the experience down to just "Object A interacts with Object B in this way so it's this genre" and assuming that's the end of things.

The message that should be sent out is "a game with ecchi artwork is only for people who like ecchi artwork" not "this one game in this broad genre has ecchi artwork so I don't like the entire genre."

By that logic I guess Dynasty Warriors type of games are only for fans of mecha, right? That's the message Gundam Warriors is sending me.

Side-Edit: "ecchi" might not actually be the proper terminology here, but it's close enough to illustrate my point. Anybody more caught up on terms want to tell me what step lies between ecchi and hentai?

[Dolphman]

Man, SFV is a joke. I've bought it, but left it alone until everything comes around as it IS a rushed and incomplete game right now.
Poor Bengus's art for the story mode suffers badly because it looks obviously rushed, all due to the messed up faces and body proportions.
And he's usually one the good artists for Capcom. Just look at the art he made for the CPS2 arcade games.

With KOF XIV, It's starting to look better as it does seem the developers are listening to feedback. Models look better than the first trailer's.
Even if the roster's supposedly leaked. Many whiny idiots right now are too impatient wanting to know when Mai will show up.
Where some of those wingers are often saying "NO MAI, NO BUY!" on every trailer. That's a forced meme just from reading it.
At least they've confirmed there's about fifty characters, and the leaks do show she's in.

Waiting patiently is also the reason why I'm not buying Killer Instinct yet. As soon as they're done with everything, then I will buy it.

[miyabi95_]

Side-Edit: "ecchi" might not actually be the proper terminology here, but it's close enough to illustrate my point. Anybody more caught up on terms want to tell me what step lies between ecchi and hentai?

Hentai is any work of fiction that contains sex. Ecchi usually contains allusions to sex, but it's mostly sexual innuendos and humor. There's definitely some ecchi that almost crosses into hentai though.

[Kriven]

Side-Edit: "ecchi" might not actually be the proper terminology here, but it's close enough to illustrate my point. Anybody more caught up on terms want to tell me what step lies between ecchi and hentai?

Hentai is any work of fiction that contains sex. Ecchi usually contains allusions to sex, but it's mostly sexual innuendos and humor. There's definitely some ecchi that almost crosses into hentai though.

That's what I thought but when I looked it up I got the impression that ecchi was actually even more soft-core than what Dragon's Crown is depicting, so I wasn't sure if I was right or not.