Fuck NO Video Games

Call of Duty got a playable dog character before it got any playable women characters

(Source: tsunderisse)

Taro Yoko on gay marriage and minority groups

I can’t translate it (though I wish someone would), but game writer/designer Taro Yoko (Nier, Drakengard) has been writing in defense of gay marriage on twitter and talking about problematic representations of minority groups on the Japanese equivalent of ask.fm. Don’t necessarily agree with all he’s saying, I think he ignores context and the harm caused by prejudice, and I don’t necessarily like the way he deals with sexuality, which, with the exception of Emil, is to heavily dramatize the point and have it drive the character to despair. But he’s talking over issues and making worlds that include folks outside the heteronormative, so yay. 

There’s an interview in Grimoire Nier where the interviewer brings up a literally arcane explanation of why Emil is attracted to other men and Yoko’s exasperated response, “No, Emil is gay!”, makes me smile :3

Also:

Yoko: How would you define “unusual”, is the question. If we look around, we can definitely see homosexuals, few in number they may be. I’m not trying to say “Don’t discriminate” or anything like that, just “People like that exist. It’s simply the way the world works.” They’re labeled with “normal”, “unusual” and compared quite often, but the difference between people with certain sexual preferences lies purely in number. Some are quite abundant, some are not, but we’re all in the same world. I never intended for them to appear as special.

I think he’s affecting that Ivory-tower naivety - it’s not a fucking coincidence that lgbt characters appear in games about outsiders - and the numbers don’t matter half as much as what society’s made of them (women being over half the goddamn population hasn’t stopped sexism), but he’s thought about the issue and it’s good to recognize that. 

I hadn’t heard about this and this is pretty cool! I actually didn’t even realize Emil was gay. I need to pay more attention.

NieR definitely has ISSUES with how it represents some things, but it’s cool to hear this.

sliverofjade:

Fuck NO Video Games: SURPRISE - Adopted children have families

After the Killer is Dead ad by Kadokawa Games I wanted to see what they’d done in the past. They published Lollipop Chainsaw with the same strategy they’re using now, they’ve even kept the same model employed. At least two of the games they’ve developed are harem titles based off the properties…

It’s also harmful in perpetuating the mistaken concept that any offspring/siblings who do not share genetic material are somehow “less” than those who are genetically related.  This erroneous thinking leads to a hierarchy of families with the stereotypical, white, suburban nuclear family with at least 2 children at the apex and everyone else is beneath them and barely deserving of the moniker “family.”

This is a very good point. Thank you for making it.

SURPRISE - Adopted children have families

After the Killer is Dead ad by Kadokawa Games I wanted to see what they’d done in the past. They published Lollipop Chainsaw with the same strategy they’re using now, they’ve even kept the same model employed. At least two of the games they’ve developed are harem titles based off the properties of their sister company, Kadokawa Manga. In Sora no Otoshimono Forte, a DS game, you rub girls in different locations and as quickly as possible to achieve a high score. 

If it’s acceptable for submission though, I’d like to bring up an game they and their parent company have published several ports of - Lunar: Silver Star. There’s a girl called Luna, and she is the hero’s damsel in distress, sister and love interest all in one. That she was adopted (as parents, friends and random NPCs PERPETUALLY go on about) does not mean a relationship between them wouldn’t be incest. They’re siblings. I don’t care that it’s a trope, it’s harmful as hell that one of the defining traits of a character can be WELL, IT’S NOT LIKE SHE’S BLOOD RELATED.

Honestly, there’s a lot of discussion of incest in our culture that needs to be happening but isn’t.

I would go so far as to say that blood relation is the LEAST RELEVANT ASPECT of any discussion of incest. What’s more important are the actual relationships, which aren’t based in blood, and the power dynamics those result in.  

Lunar’s rather backwards understanding of these sort of issues reflects a general ignorance in culture at large.

Women as baby factories in Conception video games

I found a truly horrible game.. that happens to be a sequel to a horrible game:

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/03/05/spike-chunsofts-baby-making-rpg-series-procreates-3ds-and-vita-sequel/

Conception II: Guidance of the Big Dipper and Mazuru’s Nightmare the sequel to
Conception: Please Deliver My Child

Is literally a game where you have a harem of women and you “woo” them to make babies for you, that you use to attack opponents.

The basic concept is just sickening.

Ah, the all too common trope of reducing women to baby makers. I’m hoping these games never see a US release.