[QUOTE="Black_Knight_00"][QUOTE="Grammaton-Cleric"]We don't have to focus on DOA5 at all. By your rationale I can assume you find violence equally objectionable as it too caters to a more base and primal human fascination with the taboo of death, dismemberment, etc. It certainly occupies no higher intellectual strata than sexuality. Yet you don't seem at all repelled by games featuring copious violence, which could be argued as hypocritical or, at the very least, logically inconsistent. That isn't an insult but rather an observation because you seem offended by the paltry titillations present in DOA5 yet I don't see you reeling from the overtly violent images present in many of the games you play and have subsequently ranked. It all seems a tad...selective.[/QUOTE] Actually it's a more complicate matter than that. I have spoken against gratuitous violence as well, I have also spoken in defense of it. Violence can be a catharsis feeding the natural instinct of domination or it can be something sick and completely distasteful. The keyword here is "context": there are games where violence is complementary and cathartic, while in others it's an end in itself. The line is much less blurry when it comes to sex: you can represent a woman as a [i]person[/i] (say, Lightning from FFXIII or the new Lara Croft) or you can represent her as a walking excuse for huge bouncing boobs (Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, even Heavy Rain). You can make her act like a [i]person[/i] or you can give her a constantly alluring and flirtatious personality. You ask if this offends me. It does, but not the way you may think: I could care less about the sexual content per se. What bothers me is what's behind it: this undying bilateral gender stereotype which wants women to be either buxom sluts or preteen schoolgirls in skimpy outfits and male gamers to perceive this as added value to a game. I feel like they expect us to increase our interest in the game on account of the sexual content and this is an insult to our intelligence. Then there's the feminine point of view: we have plenty of fantastic male protagonists, but you don't need two hands to count female leads who actually look and act like [i]people[/i] and not something out of a japanese softcore magazine. In other words: we are not horny teens and we don't need cheap sexual stimulation from our videogames. What we need are female characters we can actually look at and [i]respect[/i] for a change.[/QUOTE]

You've done a solid job of delineating your position but when it comes to context I would assert taking umbrage at something like DOA seems odd given the nature of the genre. Like SC, Tekken, or SF these games feature hyper-idealized characters fighting at impossible velocities and performing acts of inhuman physicality; they are essentially superheroes and have the physiques to match. (Both the men and the women)

By contrast DOA Volleyball seems a bit more exploitive and therefore offensive, as would garbage like that ill-conceived BMX-XXX from last generation.

As to the bilateral gender stereotypes you mention, I think we generally see a far greater spectrum of female characters within this medium than buxom sluts or preteen schoolgirls. The characters in DOA have always been heavily influenced by an anime aesthetic thus some exaggerated proportions hardly seem unreasonable, though again I would stress that the ladies of DOA5 are hardly some sort of soft-porn fantasy set to a fighting game.

Regarding the feminine POV, I think that stems not from stereotypes or gender role expectations but rather from the relative newness of this medium. You mention strong male leads but as someone heavily steeped in literature and film I'd actually state that few of the male characters in games are anything more than recycled tropes and two-dimensional heroic archetypes mostly borrowed from superior literary and filmic sources.

Regardless, the ultimate thrust of your position is appreciated because what you are advocating is that developers not assume their target demographic is comprised entirely of horny young men easily distracted by gratuitous sex and violence. You want to be treated intelligently and you desire that cerebral component in what you play.

Such an ideology is certainly something I can get behind.

[QUOTE="capaho"]

[QUOTE="Grammaton-Cleric"]

And what are the specific implications of the imagery in this game you clearly haven't played?

Please explain, in detail, what these images imply and how they contribute harmfully to the social segregation and inequality of women.

[/QUOTE]

As an article in a recent Atlantic Monthly pointed out,such images objectify women. They are designed to appeal to males who look at womenthe same way they look at houses and sandwiches, as composites of attractive parts. When you objectify women, or dehumanize a class of people with degrading characatures, as has been noted elsewhere in this thread, you relate to them as physical objects to be used or ridiculed. You lose sight of their humanity. If you can't grasp that conception then you will probably never get it.

[/QUOTE]

More veiled insults. I'd be offended was I not so utterly amused at the delicious irony of your ignorant comments.

I've given lectures on the Holocaust, taught low-income and socially-marginalized youth The Diary of Anne Frank and fought to relate the teachings of Dr. King to kids whose own parents are selling drugs out of their homes.

I do not require a lecture from you on social responsibility and the importance of gender equity.

And again, your explanation regarding the matter is vague. What images are we referring to? Because in most media females are depicted as attractive and often wear provocative outfits.

The ladies of DOA are portrayed in a manner not dissimilar from how the women in most Bond films are presented. Or in action films, fantasy adventures and dramas.

Your argument (or the argument you've regurgitated) assumes that the very presence of sex appeal in media automatically makes it something that dehumanizes and marginalizes females by default and if that is the case are we asserting that the female form be entirely obfuscated so that cannot happen?

And what about a game like Dues Ex, which you scored a perfect 10? That games allows you, a male protagonist, you walk up to a random woman on the street and knock her out with a brutal punch. Isn't the inclusion of this option inherently misogynistic? Doesn't it advocate and endorse violence against women by making such an option available? And why is it that somebody as supposedly enlightened as you consider such a game acceptable?

The problem is that you traffic in generalities, which operate in the absence of logic. To make blanket statements about all media or to dismiss an entire race over certain aspects of their popular culture is puerile. For all of your intellectual bravado you submit the most vapid and unsubstantial arguments; arguments so stale they crumble to dust when you latch on to them.

And I notice you once again opted to dodge the larger issue which was your inherently intolerant comments regarding Japanese culture. I'm very disappointed given that you were clearly looking for a fight on that issue and I remain very interested in how you intend to spin such blatantly racist comments.

[QUOTE="capaho"]

[QUOTE="El_Zo1212o"]

People objectify women. Images don't. You might have said such images promote the objectification of women, but as stated, your assertion is false. And again, it is down down to the people playing the game to decide whether a woman is a person with feelings or something to be masticated, consumed, and/or lived in. And couldn't the nature of the game(I.E. beating the bejesus out of those women-and in my case with a male character) be as objectionable as their cup size or their attire?

[/QUOTE]

My assertion is false? I was referring to an article in the Atlantic Monthly, it wasn't my assertion.

The images are intended to cash in on people who objectify women.

So many clueless, so little time.

[/QUOTE]

Why would you cite an article you don't agree with?

Clearly you agreed with it as you cited it as reinforcement for your assertions.

And again with the insults.

Keep dancing and keep swinging because frankly, I love tearing apart the garbage you write.