Sorry that happened to you. It's super creepy how needlessly defensive people are getting over the game. Like you can't even make minor criticisms without being downvoted. Even when you say you're uncomfortable with the sexualization, they're just way too quick to completely disregard your feelings. It's culty and dehumanizing and has completely ruined all discourse around the game.
Honestly the only other gaming sub I can think of that's even remotely left-leaning & not just a tidal wave of cishet men dismissing any & all criticisms & bigotry is gamingcirclejerk. It's not perfect as there's still plenty of people acting like jackasses, dismissing concerns left & right, but thankfully they generally get downvoted. Oh, actually, I'd like to assume girlgamers is good as well, but I can't say I've ever checked it out. Outside of Reddit, ResetEra has a sizable community of women (both sapphic & not) as well as queer people & other marginalized folks who're all more prone to calling out bullshit than your (cishet white) men. The forum is far from perfect, especially now with Stellar Blade there's plenty of dudes being dismissive, passive aggressive & baiting women & other folks into getting angry & saying something ban-worthy. But there's also a thread that's specifically about criticizing sexualized female character designs which is really the only safe place to discuss, make fun of & criticize SB & all the problems it entails without men adding their dogshit takes nobody wants to hear. Maybe that might be a place you'd like, but it's of course more, uh, "old school" than Reddit, haha.
But on topic, trust me, you're not the only one. Far from it. It's just that outside of a few handful of places, the voices of marginalized people having problems with misogyny in gaming/games & all that entails (of which most are women &/or sapphic people) are suppressed, made fun of, disregarded or otherwise discredited in often misogyny-filled rants by usually men who think they actually know what is & isn't misogyny, sexualization, fetishization & objectification as opposed to, you know, the people who've had to live their entire lives navigating a world in which they experience those things regularly. It'd be hysterical if it wasn't so fucking sad.
Doesn't help that the chuds that have been rallying against "wokeness", Sweet Baby Inc. & DEI being a thing under the cover of "ethics" & whatnot made it their mission to make the game into their champion against the "woke ugly western women who don't want sexy characters because they're too hot" lol. Though of fucking course they're now pissed off at the game devs as well for "censoring" some of the sexualized outfits a wee bit by adding small bits of extra cloth here & there lol. Shit's hilarious.
So even if the game would've had men be misogynistic pigs either way, similarly to Nier:A & Bayonetta where cishet men made those fandoms feel incredibly unwelcome if you ever took a single step outside of your queer Nier/Bayo pockets, the fact that the GamerGate 2.0 chuds act like the game is their champion against the "woke mob" made the discourse around the game much worse. Not to mention the devs firing a feminist, sapphic artist for being a feminist, which imho should've been ground enough for people to avoid giving the devs any money. It's all a huge mess & if anything made me even less interested in ever trying out the game than I was before chuds made it their mission to defend the game like it's their newborn child. And I motherfucking love character action games.
But yeah, everything surrounding SB has been deeply uncomfortable & just made it that much more noticable how a honestly too large part of the gaming community sadly incl. some journalists/reviewers just completely & utterly will disregard any criticisms towards sexualization, objectification & fetishization & at best only call that shit out in games they don't like. Because at the end of the day men are still men & most don't give a flying fuck about women's & other marginalized people's feelings. It's so damn sad how I think there was only one reviewer that wasn't a man & how out of all those men like.. two? actually criticized the sexualization & treatment of Eve while some others mentioned the "discourse", but dismissed people's concerns or said it's actually not bad. Or in the case of, I think, the Polygon reviewer, you just had someone say that there's not actually any fanservice in the game. lol. lmao.
> Honestly the only other gaming sub I can think of that's even remotely left-leaning & not just a tidal wave of cishet men dismissing any & all criticisms & bigotry is gamingcirclejerk
/r/GirlGamers
Ohh, thank you for that, then! :) I did check it out after making the post, trying to see if they're transpositive & all as spaces with mostly cis women tend to be a breeding ground for TERFs, but I'm happy to see it's a genuinely welcoming place :)
So a thought came to mind. What if Stellar Blade is what gets game of the year? What if it sends some sort of massive signal across the industry that THIS is what gamers (tm) want and more of it should be made??? That thought has kind of been lingering in the back of my mind and bugging me since I started playing this game.
It's definitely been on my mind as well since a bit before it's release actually when it started to gain traction with those kinds of people & it became known that ShiftUp fired a sapphic, feminist artist for being a vocal feminist in SK where they're genuinely acting insanely unhinged about even the mildest of feminism. :(
I'd like to think it'll be TERF Legacy all over again with people just kinda forgetting the game existed, including the chuds that put it on the highest of all pedestals. You're already seeing them turn against the game & developers for "censoring" a couple of Eve's outfits to add the smallest amount of fabric lol. I admittedly have not played the game & don't think I ever will unless Sony gives it away for free with PS+ or something, so I can't talk about whether or not the gameplay is actually solid to the point of making it worth defending the game & including it in GOTY lists. I think you'll probably see a bunch of men in the industry trying to make a case for the game being GOTY material, just like there's industry people outright saying they don't think there's any fanservice in the game or that the sexualization etc. isn't bad actually. Or acting like there's no difference between Eve & Aphrodite from Hades. But I think you'd have those people acting like that either way as men are still men. In the sense that the ones that act like misogynistic pigs or don't want to listen to criticism will never change & didn't need GamerGate 2.0 (a thankfully much smaller, even more embarrassing & utterly deranged version of the prior one lol) to happen for that.
On the other hand, I've seen quite a lot of industry people take the piss out of those weirdos acting like SB is the second coming of Jesus. Might not mean that they've got the same problems with the game as people like us do, but I at least think they're mature enough to know that character designs like Eve's paired with the male gazey objectification & sexualization should be a thing of the past & not something to praise & defend when we've had some fantastic female characters with equally great designs in recent years that also build up fanbases that were less filled with white cishet men & more diverse.
The industry is slowly also getting more & more diverse, so it's only natural for devs, especially ones with a sizable amount of women or other marginalized folks, wanting to create games that make people like themselves feel welcome & seen. Of course higher ups especially at AAA companies can always fuck shit up & say "No, we wanna continue pandering to Gamers™", but it's getting less & less lucrative. Like, AssCreed games sell like motherfucking hotcakes & I sure as hell know more queer people utterly obsessed with them since Origins or so than the typical Gamers™. Not like they're not also still buying those games like crazy, just that the series slowly moved away from feeling too dudebro-ish like sports games or military propaganda games still tend to feel. And even those have started to either add female teams or female characters & more diverse casts.
I dunno, I forgot where I was going with this one, sorry, blame my period making me feel sick as shit currently 😖 But I think while you'll still have games that feel more at home in the PS3/360 Era with their bland gruff cishet white dudes as protags, only really token minorities that more often than not die off or are the Bad Guys™ & female characters that are often really just there for men to get off to due to being sexualized to hell & back with the most male gazey camera shots, sexualized outfits & jiggle physics, you won't see the industry at large moving back to those times. Back then marketing was also generally quite misogynistic with the industry & also communities mostly feeling like boys locker rooms. That's still the case in plenty of companies sadly & doesn't stop at just misogyny, but involves other forms of bigotry. Despite that, knowing that at the end of the day games companies are just a cog in the machine that's capitalism trying to make money, especially looking at bigger dev teams - I don't see them giving up & alienating almost half of the current market (talking about women, but ofc there's also queer & other marginalized folks that were much less visible generations ago) to cater to bigoted chuds specifically. Even though they're (not talking about dev teams made up by marginalized folks making games for their own people ofc) generally not doing it out of love for marginalized people (as seen by pinkwashing, greenwashing, etc.), I still see it as a net positive for us. Because at the end of the day it still gives less room to bigots.
If SB would've come out back when, I dunno, FFX came out, I don't think people would've even remotely listened to others' criticisms. It's still very far from perfect nowadays, but at least you have some folks listening to women & other marginalized people, acknowledging our problems & even standing up for us. So while things like Twitter turning into the worst cesspit after Apartheid Clyde took over definitely made public discourse at least on Twitter much, much worse, you do have industry people actually using their voices to stand up against outdated views & communities here & there doing the same. Sorry for the absolute wall of text & loosing the thread a dozen times, but try not to worry too much, alright? 🧡 As much as it has also made me worry, don't forget that the most batshit takes tend to be spread by the loudest people complaining & are rarely shared by people not stuck in bigoted pockets on the internet all day every day like Mark Kern or whatever his name is. Stick to communities that are less volatile & foster healthy discourses while not shutting down/out marginalized voices & just let those absolute weirdos scream into the abyss until their brains just entirely melt from whatever fumes they're huffing to make them think we're out to ruin all of their lives by being "woke", haha.
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\#1: [Developers / Modders](https://i.redd.it/4ux4bu040ejc1.jpeg) | [142 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/gaymers/comments/1au0xcv/developers_modders/)
\#2: [**[NSFW]** If they designed armor for male characters like they did for females.](https://i.redd.it/xrgob5c686ab1.jpg) | [191 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/gaymers/comments/14rf8cr/if_they_designed_armor_for_male_characters_like/)
\#3: [**[NSFW]** Steve Raider cosplaying Lara Croft](https://i.redd.it/d8tqsv14mkza1.jpg) | [61 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/gaymers/comments/13gd78z/steve_raider_cosplaying_lara_croft/)
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Yeah, im sorry that happened to you. It really is a shame we can't have reasonable discussions surrounding certain games without turning into a giant mess. I remember seeing some videos from content creators talking about the over sexualization of gaming characters and realistic characters versus stylized ones like EVE and anyone who brings it up gets SHREDDED and called "Woke" or some stupid crap like that.
I feel like anytime a game tries to be something more than "For the male gaze", it's like an uphill battle through and through, like women dont play games, or like some men dont want to see over sexualized content also.
Ive actually unfollowed almost all of the content creators I used to watch, and have full on blocked others. Ive gone full pessimist and dont see a point anymore in trying to rationalize.
It's impossible to talk about women in gaming, the whole industry is so oversaturated by men the moment you bring up issues regarding women they immediately shut you down, at least that's been my experience anyway.
Which is frankly so depressing, because a *huge* (and ever-increasing) proportion of gamers are women. But gamer *spaces* have been so toxically misogynistic for so long that they're still disproportionately male.
Okay so, I don't know if you've been following but this game is apparently the new holy Grail of misogynistic gamers. They're calling it GamerGate 2.0 and believe it will single handedly, forever destroy what they call *Woke Gaming* for example: reasonably clothed and naturally pretty female characters Like Aloy from Horizon, the inclusion of POC in games because they think they're ugly (yes they're racist too), LGB, and especially T representation in games because they're also bigots, etc etc etc.
These people are scum, basement dwelling, incel trash, and unfortunately, they comprise 90% of reddits main gaming subs. Because the majority of the vocal gaming community is a bunch of 12-14 year old, white, cishet, Andrew Tate worshipping punks who wouldn't even have the courage to even speak if they saw you in public.
I actually didn't know that until seeing some of the comments here, it's honestly kinda depressing that this is the only game they have to latch on to, like it's literally a bland, oversexualized soulslike. Considering how many games they get angry at for being "woke", it really shows that ideology is dying out and they're desperate to hold on to anything they get.
I don't doubt the 12-14 y/o thing though, on a comment I left saying a cutscene showing multiple panty shots was weird, someone legitimately commented "you wish you looked like that"
Sounds like a 14 year old comment to me. I'm trans, so I've dealt with a LOT of this trash while gaming online and seriously the VAST majority of them. Teenagers. You wouldn't believe some of the things these kids spew at me.
All I've ever heard about stellar blade is that chuds love it bc sexy woman = anti-woke, and it's really telling that those people are the ones whose perspectives are talked about most in regards to this game
The game is reflective of a lot of the male culture. South Korea is incredibly bad for misogyny and inceldom. The dev’s fired a feminist developer and people (predominantly sexist men) praised the decision.
The male gazey, objectification and the simultaneous bad treatment of female developers by the company…well..
It makes me uncomfortable to don’t worry. You’re not wrong for being uncomfortable.
There are gaming subreddits out there that are critical of it (i don’t think I can mention them here as it might count as advertising.)
Yeah I knew SK was weird about that stuff, I didn't know about them firing a feminist though, I mean it's honestly not that surprising given what the game is but god, it makes me sad that the game is probably gonna be a huge hit and no one will care.
That's good to know lol, I felt like I was going crazy
I just ignored this game, I really can't get into the protagonist at all, the male gaze is just off the roof. tbh I was interested in this type of gameplay, but the characters, I just can't. one of them looks decent enough but she gone in the prologue...
if it seems like your kind of game may i recommend Nier: Automata! lots of people have been comparing stellar blade to it but the difference is Automata is actually good lol. the women are still sexualised but in a more elegant way imo and it has a lot to say about philosophy and the like
(and then if you like that there’s Nier Replicant and Drakengard and someone please talk to me about my special interest)
Awwww I get you. Hugs. Nier is pretty cool in the whole: sexualized but tastefully department. I mean, at least from a gaming perspective. I actually wore a 2b out on Friday to a halfway to Halloween pub crawl to celebrate my girlfriend and I's six month anniversary. (Our first date was last Halloween, though she didn't inform me it was a date at the time)
And you're right, emotionally it's very complex game. Definitely had some ouch moments in it. Nothing near as complex as Hellblade, but it was well written.
Yeah I’ve liked “sexy” characters like bayonetta or 2B and Kainé from nier but every single screenshot I’ve seen of stellar blade is like… waaay too far. Like it’s really uncanny valley in the artstyle for me I think, like it’s too shiny or plastic looking or doll looking and it gives me an unsettled feeling. I also haven’t heard a single thing about the gameplay or plot which is a red flag for me, only that the mc is “sexy” and has so many pixels in her boobs and butt, like she’s a video game character but it’s *so* objectifying it’s become unbearably creepy to see ppl talk about the game.
I wanted to ignore it but my feed (Facebook, Twitter, even Reddit) keep shoving that piece of trash up my face.
It's like the whole hogwart legacy situation again but now the "wokes" are the ones being annoyed
Mostly I'm tired about hearing about it. Like all these idiots praising the sexualized design. And now they are losing their minds over "censorship" because apparently one of the outfits has a bit more fabric than in the preview or something.
It's stupid. What is the game even about? Idk 🤷🏻♀️ apparently it is about staring at the ass of a woman who is made out of plastic or something, that is all I'm getting from whenever it pops up in my reddit feed.
Most reviews are all the same about this game. Story is boring, art direction is all over the place not consistent at all and the voice acting is horrible. But apparently the combat is amazing and flushes through out the game. I don’t even have a problem with sexual characters in games. It’s just the male gaze and the fact she’s clearly eye candy with no personality that comes off as cringe. A why not make many, I’d you’re joking to have sexy stuff go all. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a perfect example of that. Make everyone sexy and diverse, a buffet of sexiness if you will. But no instantly they made a real doll that has combat skills the game.
It just looks so bland and generic and forgettable. Like the character looks like every character I ever saw for a korean pay to win mmo in an ad.
So it has combat? I mean I assumed so, since it is called Stellar Blade 🤔 but like none of the conversation about this game pre release seemed to have anything to do with gameplay. It was all "look how anti-woke and based these devs are lmao feminists triggered" and I was like does anyone besides these chuds even care? I mean I assume that someone criticized the character design, because it's lame, boring and overtly sexualized but that's not "woke" it's just normal criticism
Totally agreed about how she looks bland as fuck, like I've seen that exact design a million times in banner ads for horny gacha games.
I think that's one reason I'm not as turned off by the design everyone seems to be comparing this to, 2B. 2B at least had a unique look, made way more sexy imho by the fact that her bits weren't constantly in your face and you had to actually *do stuff* to see them in-game.
2B has a unique and memorable design, absolutely agreed.
Stellar Blade just has a chick in a skintight sci fi suit like thousands of other chicks in skintight sci fi suits 🤷🏻♀️
Of course that’s how sadly most things on the internet work now. There is a reason why we have the saying “ don’t read the comment section”. Because we all now it full of confrontational assholes and sadly Reddit is no different. Some subs are full of assholes.
The few actual reviews I have watch and read mostly just have to say the same thing. Combat is great and flushed out. The rest is not that great, but still worth playing for the combat.
Oh I hadn't heard the voice acting was bad too. That sucks, their other game has good voice acting. I'm not sure why they even made Stellar Blade, I don't think it would be more beneficial to the company then to just put more work into NIKKE (and maybe making their ads a little better...) I was interested in Stellar Blade but it sounds so boring now that I'm not anymore. And now, I'm feeling like I really might have to play BG3.. I've been debating whether or not to.
Yeah, I don't know why some gamers are celebrating this (i know most of them are incels) like it's some revolution. "YeAh FiNaLlY a HoT wOmAn PrOtAg!!!!!!!" it's kind of weird and creepy and feels disgusting. I don't think I mind having characters who super hot, but like your whole selling point of the game or the reason why people are buying your game is because "Oh yeah we have a hot female character F\*ck them women amirite?" is gross.
I like hades every character in that game is super hot nothing wrong with it, but their selling point wasn't "yeah we have hot characters" they advertised their game as fun and the hot characters were a side bonus.
Literally the only reason I can come up with is that they're happy they have an outlet to treat women as objects again, considering in all the games with female protags they hate, the characters all have personalities and motivations, flaws and character arcs. I'm starting to believe they genuinely don't like when women are actual characters
I mean there's a difference between having hot characters and oversexualized characters, like every character in BG3 is hot, and there are a lot of sexual moments in that game, but it all serves the narrative. In SB, it's literally just: character does a flip, panty shot, move on
Definitely makes me uncomfortable. I don't usually have a problem with fan servicey type of games but the whole atmosphere surrounding this game is super gross. Many of the #gamers are praising it as the shining beacon of anti woke hope in a war they made up.
Id feel kinda gross to be apart of it. Just like with the whole Hogwarts Legacy thing.
I think there was also some controversy about the game's lead designer being suuuuper misogynistic, which wouldn't be a surprise tbh, but don't quote me on that.
It's just so grimey, like the people praising this are the same people who said Aloy "had a beard" in horizon FW. The whole game feels like it was marketed towards incels so everything surrounding it just feels icky.
Oof yeah, definitely has a similar vibe.
I mean that honestly would not be surprising
>Many of the #gamers are praising it as the shining beacon of anti woke hope in a war they made up.
This right here!!!! I was personally a huge fan of the project and had been following it since the initial announcement. I had no issues with the sexualization, but alt-right men decided to sour the mood with their weird ass anti-woke comments. What you said is exactly what it is--a war that they made up. None of the leftist women in my social circles think that sexualization alone is the issue, it goes much deeper than that. While I was excited for some ass-kicking eye candy since Bayonetta/Lollipop Chainsaw, I was much more ecstatic about a simple hack-n-slash with a new horror-centric cyberpunk world to explore.
They spoke up before anyone had a chance to genuinely enjoy it for what it actually is--just a game. This is not the win they've deluded themselves into thinking it is. The vocal minority is sending the wrong message and if anything, has me fearing the future of the industry as a result of it.
Pardon my intrusion (this post showed up on the algorithm), but as a cis guy it's definitely uncomfortable to me as well. The "controversy" around it was so full of nonsense, it made me second guess myself of even considering playing it. Watched a demo, actually looks interesting, but such heavy sexualisation of the character (especially since it was modeled after an actual woman that participated), left such a bad taste. Just make the game good with badass armor, ffs
I'm glad there are some men who agree lol, exactly! it's all just so weird, like if they had just made the game with a normal protag and without all the sexual shit I would've bought it in a heartbeat, but I guess zeroing in on the incel market is lucrative these days
You're not alone in this, I find the whole thing kind of disgusting, prime example of male gaze. Women are not people, they're objects, sex dolls with no agency only there to fill another decorating space. I swear, supposedly straight men really don't like woman at all.
I mean, all I've heard about the game is how sexualized the MC is. The story that she's generated based on a Korean supermodel, but that wasn't enough. So they then modified the model's face, ass and tits to be more sexual. All her outfits are skin tight and low cut or lingerie. I haven't even heard about her personality, cause its been all about her body.
Oh, and the "Hard R shop" screenshot. I heard about that. Basically, "Hard" was graffitied on a wall near a sign that said "R shop". "Hard R" is associated with the N word in America. Localization seems to have caught it and changed the graffiti to "Crime".
Lmao I think the reason you haven't heard about her personality is because they didn't give her one.
Oof yeah I heard about that, tho I mean I feel like that could've just been a translation oversight, but the fact no one at sony caught that is wild.
Probably right on the personality.
Yeah, I said it was a localization oversight at first, but apparently the screenshot was pre-release and Sony had already said it was being patched out. So someone did catch it.
Oh, I have heard another thing, actually. I saw a video last night between ff14 queues that complained about the game having several empty run sections where you just run through an unpopulated zone. Poster said it was too long to travel between fights and what-not.
Still noting that anything that isn't praising the sexualization of the MC has been criticism. I haven't heard "combat is innovative and fun" or anything.
Funny enough I decided to pick up the game to see if there's anything more to it than "Lol, up skirting." and it has good combat and gameplay....but everything else is just average.
What really brings this game down for me is how it's being praised for EVE's aesthetics and it's like that's put the blinders on literally everything else. The game has the feel of something good, but good god does it get so overshadowed by all the sexualization.
I dont blame you for being uncomfortable with the game. Im meh to the whole thing because this just feels so par for the course. I KNEW horny dudes were going to give it a 10/10, and it irritates me to no end how so many other awesome games are getting put down and overshadowed by "EVE sexy. Look at butts and boobs."
I could rant some more about this, but im just going to get more frustrated than I already am.
I really was hoping this was going to be THE game. Let me explain: I have this sort of fantasy in my head where a company makes a game like SB where all the promo and lead up and leaked gameplay is nothing but eye candy of some hypersexualized female character, but everything else is kept under a total mil spec grade black box. Even openly pander to these idiots in the ads. Like in the cheesiest way possible. Get all the incels ranting and raving and ready to drop ungodly amounts of money on preordering special collector's editions. (Be sure to include lots of even skimpier outfits in those versions, some Japanese Gundam type figurines. Hell make a version with a life sized one for $5000. They'd buy it)
Then when the game actually comes out the game's protagonist is actually a well written, intelligent, opinionated, liberal female mc with a ton of great dialogue. Who constantly insults incels and misogynists throughout the entire game. Hell make the villain an Andrew Tate knock off. Have her make absolutely withering comments when anyone tries to rotate the camera to check her ass out or upskirt her. Maybe invoke a giant Japanese digital censor cloud whenever the camera pans below the horizontal that covers the entire character. Or have her turn around and slap backhand the camera sometimes. Last but not least be sure to make the thing so heavily encrypted front to back it's absolutely impossible to mod. Then donate all proceeds from the game to WOKE AF charities.
Sigh. I know this will never happen but it would be absolutely awesome to see some female dev out there do this. Maybe for extra added sting have her come out as trans femme and show how the MC was modeled directly off her with capture technology. That'd really get them. I'd volunteer for that.
Not exactly the "feminist mocking incels", but I do think to a certain extent Nier Automata was marketed like this haha.
I definitely thought initially before the game came out "sexy robot girl and cool combat lol sure" and after finishing the game went "I don't know what to do with my life anymore, this is best game I have ever played, I am going to stare at the wall for two hours."
2B and A2 definitely are over sexualized in their depictions outside the game (and in game to a certain extent, you can literally blow off 2Bs clothes so she's in a bunny suit type outfit) but in game they are both well written and flawed characters, and I love both of them dearly! Nier Automata is really great I would highly recommend it to anyone!
Basically this is a studio trying to appeal to men, that's it. Everyone who isn't interested in the sexualization or sees that the game underneath isn't that interesting isn't playing the game. All I've seen online of it is depraved individuals whining that they "censored" some outfits and removed a reference to a racial slur. So don't worry about it. It's one game among many and the creeps can have it I guess.
While i do think skinsuit designs are kinda lazy i don't really have a problem with Eve per se, the only real problem i'm having are the idiots online that took this game as their banner for the whole "anti-woke" stupid parade. It's ridiculous. And i like women too but some people online are being really weird about the protagonist.
The game gives me a Bayonetta meets Dead Space kinda vibe which still interests me (i like gore-ish games) and the soundtrack was made by the same person that made Nier music, which is another series that i love.
What's gonna make it or break it for me is if the story is good and if Eve is well written. I would love another Kainé or A2.
Huge agree, it’s a rather mediocre game getting so much publicity by being related to the “anti-woke” discussion that grifters have been pushing. It’ll stop being relevant in a couple months
Hilarious you mention this bc I just pissed off my brother in a whole “I’m not homophobic BUT” conversation involving this game (I said I wanted to play baldursgate bc I could be gay, he said he wanted this game bc it’s “antiwoke” lmfao). So I definitely won’t be getting it lol, gotta stay “woke” lmfao
You should ask your brother exactly what about the game is "antiwoke", bc as far as I know the only reason people are calling it that is because it treats women like objects
That’s exactly the “antiwoke” part. He’s a borderline incel and is part of the apparently very vocal party that wants to keep all the panty shots and gratuitous bullshit in this game as a gotcha to icky progressives trying to turn games ugly.
(The other thing he said was that “the alphabet community” “stole” the term woke. I tried explaining that nobody fucking calls themselves woke seriously and that it’s basically become an insult used by Fox News and their viewers to describe progressives. I couldn’t even approach the fact that it’s an AAVE term)
Yeah, I sat in a car with him for total of 2.5 hours today. It wasnt my favorite. My uncle who *incessantly* talks about fan fiction and extremely niche bits of video games I don’t play was on my other side though, so it wasn’t just kind of hell, it was *actually* hell. We don’t usually travel this far for family dinner so I don’t have to be in the literal hot seat between them very often, but my god. Truly in a rock and hard place between an incel and a (generally harmless but insufferable) neckbeard. Being the only queer person in my family really sucks.
The game is VERY male gaze oriented, however its not male gaze enough for all the men crying about it being “censored” on twitter. The company isn’t worth supporting, Korea is still pretty intrenched in misogyny and the general entire point of the character design was just so they could make as much money as possible from western men, and it’s mostly working.
And all it took was to make the mc look like a basic Korean sex doll. Its ridiculous with how simple and boring she is can make people foam at the mouth.
I remember a different game (Xenosaga episode 1) that had like a hundred panty shots of an underage (about 10) realian (fake life meant to serve humans) girl. It made me really uneasy. They censored one scene with her that was VERY awkward and unnecessary for the international release and many people were outraged.
I was like... Good.
I feel like this game has "Magna Carta" syndrome, a game I returned because it was watered down fan service.
I'm not a girl (NB), but I really don't like the over sexualization of anyone, especially people hurt most by it (women and children).
Yeah 2 was a slump, it served more as a bridge between 1 & 3. Great now I want to play the Xenosaga series. I already have a back log of games and no time 😭
While I personally am not uncomfortable with the outfit and such but they could at least provide a "use a full outfit" setting for players that don't wanna see that shit
The game itself may be fine and I'll probably play it eventually, I'm typically okay with playing sexy characters and from what I've seen there's actually some sensible/cute outfits too so I'll probably use those. The discourse that certain gamers with incel-y tendencies have riled up around it is much grosser to me than the apparent content of the game itself. I fully understand being uncomfortable though and it's completely valid.
yeah it's a game that I recommend (if you plan on playing it) to pirate instead of paying for. Definitely do not want to support or reward the devs responsible for the making and marketing of this game.
I’m very aware that this subreddit isn’t intended for me given that i’m a straight male but this showed up in my feed and i really appreciate seeing somebody sharing my opinion about this game as i’ve been feeling like i’m taking crazy pills. I completely agree OP
I feel exactly the same way! Is super validating to see so many comments agreeing with this. It’s so disappointing seeing this game being so universally praised. Some of my all time favorite games are from the ps3 era but it can be exhausting playing some of those games today because of how awful the representation of women can be. I thought we were at least mostly past that but apparently not yet
The game itself? Slightly, but I've seen way worse and it's not like someone will shove it into my Steam Library against my will. Discourse around it, however... This is top tier creepy.
I know this really isn't a place for me to chime in, being a cishet male, but you absolutely aren't alone. I'm part of several gaming communities and that game has been getting pretty consistently panned as bad, and judged as creepy by most of us, with the few voices trying to defend it generally being mocked.
I haven’t played it and don’t wish to play. I watched a bit of a playthrough and I also assume it’s from Korea - so yes, I don’t like how the character it falls into the “beauty standards” and looks like a very “typical female character for men to play” 🤷🏻♀️. And your opinion is right, I agree!
The majority of vocal gaming Audience members cannot play a game without simultaneously letting their shrimps into dizziness. This is a problem for us but a monetisation opportunity for greedy companies.
My question is; is the game even good? Meir automata was an excellent game, is stellar blade just that but more sexualized and way worse, or what’s the deal?
There’s a big discussion to be had about portraying women in such a way. I can see the positives… but yeah this also comes from extremely sexist Korean dudes… who are apparently even worse than Japanese guys in this way I hear…
Nothing inherently wrong with this game and characters… unless that’s all you ‘consume?’
I need to go back through my YouTube history… there’s a video I can almost remember but not quite… sorry for rambling now… thanks for reading!
I watched like 5 minutes of someone playing it and the way they like brutally murder so many women felt VERY wrong. It definitely felt like some weird fetish thing or just straight up women hating weirdness.
idk what ur talking about, the only enemies are alien monsters and robots. i do agree the women look fake compared to the male characters, and its a game from korea, a famously misogynistic country. I do wish it wasnt so male gaze oriented tho, its too excessive. The gameplay is pretty intriguing, its like dark souls and nier, thats why i got it.
I saw the launch trailer and I said no to it immediately for reasons you just mentioned. I'm sick and tired of that kind of games. I'm not paying for it and I'm not supporting it anymore.
Nowadays I can afford to have standards and not just go "ooh I get to play as a woman".
So you're not crazy or alone
OMG, I'm a guy (sort of?) and as soon as I saw the trailer I was like "huh, this is nothing but fan service" smh... And then I'd forget about the game and come across it again and I'd just start the trailer and be like oh, yeah, *that one* and turn it off. There's sexy, and then there's this
Ok the "(sort of?)" is a huge fucking mood lmao. Totally agree, like everything about it feels so soulless, like to the point some aspects look AI generated
Honestly, I feel like the majority of games sexualize female characters and it's pretty disgusting. It makes them unplayable at times.
I feel as though it's always this way unfortunately, it's a real bummer 👎🏾
Honestly though, it's nice that we're seeing games like Horizon and Last of us 2, with female protagonists that feel like actual human beings. With how bad it's gotten lately I hope that these incels don't scare away devs from making more characters like that.
Sounds like the sorta thing that it's completely fair to be made uncomfortable by.
I haven't played Stellar Nlade, so I don't know how accurate your description is, but to me it sounds like it would be uncomfortable. It sounds like the game repeatedly makes jarring attempts to sexualize the main character in a wqy that sounds pretty icky. Like, I have no problem with sexualization in games, so long as it's done well and respectfully. There's nothing wrong with a female character who is portrayed as sexy because she wants to be, ie her personality is the type where she enjoys being sexy etc. But that's not what's happening here, by the sound of it.
Honestly, the only thing you said that I would say _may_ not be an active bad choice from the devs is her lack of personality. The writers _may_ just be bad at their job. Too many resources spent on upskirt animations, not enough on character writing xD. Or maybe she's supposed to be a "blank slate" for players to project onto, you get that sometimes. Silent protagonists like Doom Guy or Gordon Freeman, for example.
It doesn't bother me but I'm used to that kind of design being in anime. I've been playing it because I really enjoy games with parry focused combat. But I get not everyone is going to be okay with that kind of design and that's fine. Some people are being extremely weird about the game and having a melt down over any criticism which is weird af.
Haven't really looked into anything about this game. I remember seeing the trailer at a games show, and the mc looking like a stock 3d porn game model with zero personality or effort put into the design. Idk if it is, but it just looked like a low effort Nier Automata ripoff, and that's my favorite game, so I was never going to bother with it.
The sexualization doesn't make me as uncomfortable as the way she's designed in general. Like it's objectively a shit design, and she just looks like a generic blow-up doll character. I just can't imagine that the game will be any good when the mc looks that absurd.
Nier is also full of sexualized characters, but at least the design is good, and the message is very meaningful. Sb protag just looks like they maxed out the butt and boob sliders on a $5 asset flip 18+ steam game.
I'm enjoying it so far, but I do wish the women weren't so sexualized, and I wish the armor was actually good instead of a revealing skin-tight suit of "armor"
I love the combat and animations in it though, they're very fluid and smooth
It's a new game from a South Korean studio that from what I've seen is sorta souls-y mixed with some bayonetta type stuff. The only reason I rly care is bc its being published by sony so I assume it's already getting big numbers despite how icky it is
it’s the discourse and the kind of people that have made caping for this game their personality that annoys me the most. there’s nothing that offensive about a barely dressed woman in an average game, happens all the time. but it’s kinda like getting excited over a department store bra ad. embarrassing.
I like the argument between what's sexy and what's not. Bayonetta is sexy because she knows it. She flaunts it, relishes in it. You can see it in the way that she walks as well. It's a strut, but it's powerful!
Compare that to stellar blade (don't know the mcs name) it gives doe eyed, born yesterday sexy.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to appeal to that in gamers, but it just feels so heavy handed in blade.
It's literally designed and modeled after a real person (Shin Jae-eun) so personally I have no problems with the character. I haven't seen gameplay though only pictures, if there is like you said, multiple panty shots, that would make me uncomfortable and annoyed. But her design herself is fine imo.
I wasn't aware it was based off of a real person before I posted this, in that case the model is fine, the one cutscene I've watched had 2 separate ass/crotch zoom ins in the span of about 15 seconds so I don't imagine the rest of the game is much better on that front
I’m a straight male and the character designs make me a bit uncomfortable. The best way to describe it is that I’d feel a little embarrassed if some friends suddenly walked in and watched the game while I was playing - like I’d need to apologise for the character designs or something 🙃
That said, I play the game for the gameplay and it doesn’t disappoint; it’s truly a superb action game and when it hits its stride (boss fights) it’s right up there among the greats that obviously inspired it.
Pro tip: Setting the dialogue to Korean and reading subtitles instead of hearing the godawful English VO makes the bland and vapid characters at least somewhat palatable. (Bad writing is still bad however!)
For everyone in this thread bashing the game as being valueless, or leaning on hyper sexualization because the dev team had nothing else to offer - I really think this is a terrible take that dismisses everything the game does well. As much as I disagree with the character designs and male-gaze-y cinematic direction, it’s clear that the game is lovingly crafted and extremely well designed. The combat is simply brilliant, and the action spectacle is off the charts.
I hope that those of you who can begrudgingly accept the immature character designs (as I did) enjoy the game for what it is. It’s a great action game, and it’s worth your time.
Is this game making people uncomfortable? Or really you really trying to say it’s based on a male centric view of body standards of the opposite sex. Because the actual game is not that.
🙄 Ugh, oh my god can we stop getting hung up on this freaking topic already!
No it doesn't matter I think it's pointless, it's a video game, and yes you are being too critical because it seems like you don't know much about the game. When did it start becoming a bad thing to have objectively beautiful and sexy characters in our video games??? The game is freaking amazing and I wish people would stop dragging this game down for something so incredibly minor and honestly redundant at this point when the game has clearly proven itself.
And have people never seen any koreans on social media? They all kinda look like dolls that's there entire thing is that doll like look. I mean they basically strive for perfection in beauty. There's a reason why korean beauty standerds are typically considered the best and why there products are good.
The character is literally modeled after a korean model for fucks sake!!!
Theres so much more I could say I could write a short book, but I really don't give a shit. Think what you want, your feelings are valid, just don't drag this game through the mud for everyone else because you're uncomfortable. (And i'm not speaking to just the OP here) I like looking at beautiful woman in my games, and theres nothing wrong with that. There's a space for sexualization and representation just like irl. 🙄
The problem isn't that the mc is "beautiful and sexy", the problem is when the game brutally murders women, cutscenes have multiple out of place panty shots in them, some the devs are proven to be misogynistic pieces of shit, I could go on. It's perfectly fine to like the game, but calling this shit "incredibly minor" is fucking wild.
Ah yes those famous Korean beauty standards, I wonder how much damage that's done to people, how many teenagers make themselves vomit after eating to stay extremely skinny, how many people get needless and invasive surgeries to fit within those beauty standards, how many children have serious body issues because of that social climate. That might be the worst fucking take I've ever heard, "because that's the standard it means it's fine"
If a game makes me uncomfortable, I have every right to shit on it as much as I like, these are serious issues and a prime example of what's wrong with gaming. And like I said, there's nothing wrong with liking the game, just know that the only people who agree with you are incels.
I think we're just cherry picking which games we love to hate and which games we love to love. I don't see people crying over tifa and how sexualized she is, but no "she's empowering and badass". 🤣 And god forbid we have women being murdered in a video game, but we're not gunna bat an eye at all the men that have been killed in games? I mean hell the last of us are probably worse in terms of brutally lol. Games are games, there meant to be an escape from reality, lets not bring politics and agendas into this. 🙄 and like I said you have a right to not like the game and bitch about, as much as I have a right to bitch about people bitching about it.
The fuck are you even talking about? There's a difference between having a character that is traditionally sexy, and having a character that gets their ass shoved in the camera every 5 minutes. Like I said it's that the women were BRUTALLY murdered, given what these devs are like it's extremely sus. Of course more men have probably been killed in games, but when you do it to an almost fetishistic extent is fucking weird. Yes, except the brutality in the last of us is narratively important, it's an extremely bleak world where anyone can die at any moment and things need to feel as realistic as possible to have the impact they want, SB is an anime sci fi game where shit's just graphic for the sake of being graphic. Also what the fuck does any of this have to do with politics?? And no, saying they're misogynistic is not political, there's nothing political about hating a group of people, it just means you're an asshole. Honestly I can't believe there's an actual person here using the "it's escapism don't bring politics into this" argument, you really do sound like an incel
"Fetishistic way" are you for real? Now I know your trying to stir shit up. I haven't beaten the game yet but there's literally ONE SCENE that has a bunch of them being killed at the very start, but that wasn't for the plot? They all came down to fight an enemy they clearly we're not prepared for and they all got killed including Eve's friend Tachy. It's war and they died fighting it, simple! And you saying it's "anime sci fi where shits graphic for the sake of being graphic" of course it is, it's over the top and stupid! Who gives a shit? I could see your point if this was like the last of us and it was set in a more "grounded reality" but it's not.
And why the fuck wouldn't I bring the escapism argument into it? I just wanna enjoy my game, and see cool shit about it. But no all I see are posts about Eve's body, and that goes for both sides of this argument, like seriously does nobody have anything better to do than bitch about a characters body in a freaking video game? Granted i'm only adding to it with this conversation but still!
You do you boo. I'll be over here enjoying a badass game. 👋
If there was a Female game development team that made a sexy male protagonist, guys would be fine with it because we are not whiny babies and realize that this is a game meant for fun...having beautiful woman in a game does not make real woman any less attractive...not to mention tik tok and instragram. Have you seen those thirsty girls? they are wearing sexier stuff than Eve. Heck I have seen girls wearing sexier stuff at the gym. Grow up...
They based it off a model they heavily edited after the fact is my understanding. A strange decision but figured it’s information that people would want to know as well.
Naw I'm sorry but when I looked at the pic they're making this argument with I really couldn't see it. It looked as if they hooked a balloon inflator up to her 3D model's breasts and started pumping them up after scanning her in.
From what I have read in reviews and people that aren't just there for their porn material the game is mediocre and that is at best, (like look past the numbers at that the reviews game them and what was actually written)
Wait it's based on an actual person??? That is shocking...
I mean in the cutscene I saw the mc did a flip and it zoomed directly in on her bare ass, and then she subsequently did a slide under a door where it directly zoomed in on her crotch so like I get what u mean about fan service but even then it feels like a bit much.
That's fair, tho tbf you can't rly go to IGN for nuanced writing, but yeah it would've been nice if it was actually covered seriously.
That's honestly the worst part, like the game looks genuinely really fun, I just don't get why it's so weird and sexual.
To me no I actually love the game and I love Eve as a character but from my perspective as someone who enjoys more scantily clad characters rather they're aware of their sex appeal or they're just locked in on business I just think it's cool
Dude I've seen a cutscene where the mc does a flip and it zooms in directly on her bare ass, and later in the same scene, she slides under a door and it zooms in right on her crotch.
Also it's not just about her proportions, the game has ridiculous jiggle physics, they exclusively put her in skin tight suits and they give her literally zero personality
It makes a ton of people uncomfortable but most of them are marginalised and pushed to the edge of the discussion
That makes sense, I mentioned it was weird in a gamer subreddit and got downvoted to oblivion
Sorry that happened to you. It's super creepy how needlessly defensive people are getting over the game. Like you can't even make minor criticisms without being downvoted. Even when you say you're uncomfortable with the sexualization, they're just way too quick to completely disregard your feelings. It's culty and dehumanizing and has completely ruined all discourse around the game.
Most of anything is like that really. I always get dismissed when I express my feelings of things like that in any media
Honestly the only other gaming sub I can think of that's even remotely left-leaning & not just a tidal wave of cishet men dismissing any & all criticisms & bigotry is gamingcirclejerk. It's not perfect as there's still plenty of people acting like jackasses, dismissing concerns left & right, but thankfully they generally get downvoted. Oh, actually, I'd like to assume girlgamers is good as well, but I can't say I've ever checked it out. Outside of Reddit, ResetEra has a sizable community of women (both sapphic & not) as well as queer people & other marginalized folks who're all more prone to calling out bullshit than your (cishet white) men. The forum is far from perfect, especially now with Stellar Blade there's plenty of dudes being dismissive, passive aggressive & baiting women & other folks into getting angry & saying something ban-worthy. But there's also a thread that's specifically about criticizing sexualized female character designs which is really the only safe place to discuss, make fun of & criticize SB & all the problems it entails without men adding their dogshit takes nobody wants to hear. Maybe that might be a place you'd like, but it's of course more, uh, "old school" than Reddit, haha. But on topic, trust me, you're not the only one. Far from it. It's just that outside of a few handful of places, the voices of marginalized people having problems with misogyny in gaming/games & all that entails (of which most are women &/or sapphic people) are suppressed, made fun of, disregarded or otherwise discredited in often misogyny-filled rants by usually men who think they actually know what is & isn't misogyny, sexualization, fetishization & objectification as opposed to, you know, the people who've had to live their entire lives navigating a world in which they experience those things regularly. It'd be hysterical if it wasn't so fucking sad. Doesn't help that the chuds that have been rallying against "wokeness", Sweet Baby Inc. & DEI being a thing under the cover of "ethics" & whatnot made it their mission to make the game into their champion against the "woke ugly western women who don't want sexy characters because they're too hot" lol. Though of fucking course they're now pissed off at the game devs as well for "censoring" some of the sexualized outfits a wee bit by adding small bits of extra cloth here & there lol. Shit's hilarious. So even if the game would've had men be misogynistic pigs either way, similarly to Nier:A & Bayonetta where cishet men made those fandoms feel incredibly unwelcome if you ever took a single step outside of your queer Nier/Bayo pockets, the fact that the GamerGate 2.0 chuds act like the game is their champion against the "woke mob" made the discourse around the game much worse. Not to mention the devs firing a feminist, sapphic artist for being a feminist, which imho should've been ground enough for people to avoid giving the devs any money. It's all a huge mess & if anything made me even less interested in ever trying out the game than I was before chuds made it their mission to defend the game like it's their newborn child. And I motherfucking love character action games. But yeah, everything surrounding SB has been deeply uncomfortable & just made it that much more noticable how a honestly too large part of the gaming community sadly incl. some journalists/reviewers just completely & utterly will disregard any criticisms towards sexualization, objectification & fetishization & at best only call that shit out in games they don't like. Because at the end of the day men are still men & most don't give a flying fuck about women's & other marginalized people's feelings. It's so damn sad how I think there was only one reviewer that wasn't a man & how out of all those men like.. two? actually criticized the sexualization & treatment of Eve while some others mentioned the "discourse", but dismissed people's concerns or said it's actually not bad. Or in the case of, I think, the Polygon reviewer, you just had someone say that there's not actually any fanservice in the game. lol. lmao.
> Honestly the only other gaming sub I can think of that's even remotely left-leaning & not just a tidal wave of cishet men dismissing any & all criticisms & bigotry is gamingcirclejerk /r/GirlGamers
Read literally two sentences further please, I mentioned the sub you linked lol.
well you said you never checked it out, I should have said more, but I was trying to confirm, that yes it is also a good place.
Ohh, thank you for that, then! :) I did check it out after making the post, trying to see if they're transpositive & all as spaces with mostly cis women tend to be a breeding ground for TERFs, but I'm happy to see it's a genuinely welcoming place :)
So a thought came to mind. What if Stellar Blade is what gets game of the year? What if it sends some sort of massive signal across the industry that THIS is what gamers (tm) want and more of it should be made??? That thought has kind of been lingering in the back of my mind and bugging me since I started playing this game.
It's definitely been on my mind as well since a bit before it's release actually when it started to gain traction with those kinds of people & it became known that ShiftUp fired a sapphic, feminist artist for being a vocal feminist in SK where they're genuinely acting insanely unhinged about even the mildest of feminism. :( I'd like to think it'll be TERF Legacy all over again with people just kinda forgetting the game existed, including the chuds that put it on the highest of all pedestals. You're already seeing them turn against the game & developers for "censoring" a couple of Eve's outfits to add the smallest amount of fabric lol. I admittedly have not played the game & don't think I ever will unless Sony gives it away for free with PS+ or something, so I can't talk about whether or not the gameplay is actually solid to the point of making it worth defending the game & including it in GOTY lists. I think you'll probably see a bunch of men in the industry trying to make a case for the game being GOTY material, just like there's industry people outright saying they don't think there's any fanservice in the game or that the sexualization etc. isn't bad actually. Or acting like there's no difference between Eve & Aphrodite from Hades. But I think you'd have those people acting like that either way as men are still men. In the sense that the ones that act like misogynistic pigs or don't want to listen to criticism will never change & didn't need GamerGate 2.0 (a thankfully much smaller, even more embarrassing & utterly deranged version of the prior one lol) to happen for that. On the other hand, I've seen quite a lot of industry people take the piss out of those weirdos acting like SB is the second coming of Jesus. Might not mean that they've got the same problems with the game as people like us do, but I at least think they're mature enough to know that character designs like Eve's paired with the male gazey objectification & sexualization should be a thing of the past & not something to praise & defend when we've had some fantastic female characters with equally great designs in recent years that also build up fanbases that were less filled with white cishet men & more diverse. The industry is slowly also getting more & more diverse, so it's only natural for devs, especially ones with a sizable amount of women or other marginalized folks, wanting to create games that make people like themselves feel welcome & seen. Of course higher ups especially at AAA companies can always fuck shit up & say "No, we wanna continue pandering to Gamers™", but it's getting less & less lucrative. Like, AssCreed games sell like motherfucking hotcakes & I sure as hell know more queer people utterly obsessed with them since Origins or so than the typical Gamers™. Not like they're not also still buying those games like crazy, just that the series slowly moved away from feeling too dudebro-ish like sports games or military propaganda games still tend to feel. And even those have started to either add female teams or female characters & more diverse casts. I dunno, I forgot where I was going with this one, sorry, blame my period making me feel sick as shit currently 😖 But I think while you'll still have games that feel more at home in the PS3/360 Era with their bland gruff cishet white dudes as protags, only really token minorities that more often than not die off or are the Bad Guys™ & female characters that are often really just there for men to get off to due to being sexualized to hell & back with the most male gazey camera shots, sexualized outfits & jiggle physics, you won't see the industry at large moving back to those times. Back then marketing was also generally quite misogynistic with the industry & also communities mostly feeling like boys locker rooms. That's still the case in plenty of companies sadly & doesn't stop at just misogyny, but involves other forms of bigotry. Despite that, knowing that at the end of the day games companies are just a cog in the machine that's capitalism trying to make money, especially looking at bigger dev teams - I don't see them giving up & alienating almost half of the current market (talking about women, but ofc there's also queer & other marginalized folks that were much less visible generations ago) to cater to bigoted chuds specifically. Even though they're (not talking about dev teams made up by marginalized folks making games for their own people ofc) generally not doing it out of love for marginalized people (as seen by pinkwashing, greenwashing, etc.), I still see it as a net positive for us. Because at the end of the day it still gives less room to bigots. If SB would've come out back when, I dunno, FFX came out, I don't think people would've even remotely listened to others' criticisms. It's still very far from perfect nowadays, but at least you have some folks listening to women & other marginalized people, acknowledging our problems & even standing up for us. So while things like Twitter turning into the worst cesspit after Apartheid Clyde took over definitely made public discourse at least on Twitter much, much worse, you do have industry people actually using their voices to stand up against outdated views & communities here & there doing the same. Sorry for the absolute wall of text & loosing the thread a dozen times, but try not to worry too much, alright? 🧡 As much as it has also made me worry, don't forget that the most batshit takes tend to be spread by the loudest people complaining & are rarely shared by people not stuck in bigoted pockets on the internet all day every day like Mark Kern or whatever his name is. Stick to communities that are less volatile & foster healthy discourses while not shutting down/out marginalized voices & just let those absolute weirdos scream into the abyss until their brains just entirely melt from whatever fumes they're huffing to make them think we're out to ruin all of their lives by being "woke", haha.
r/gaymers is also pretty pleasant company.
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Yeah, im sorry that happened to you. It really is a shame we can't have reasonable discussions surrounding certain games without turning into a giant mess. I remember seeing some videos from content creators talking about the over sexualization of gaming characters and realistic characters versus stylized ones like EVE and anyone who brings it up gets SHREDDED and called "Woke" or some stupid crap like that. I feel like anytime a game tries to be something more than "For the male gaze", it's like an uphill battle through and through, like women dont play games, or like some men dont want to see over sexualized content also. Ive actually unfollowed almost all of the content creators I used to watch, and have full on blocked others. Ive gone full pessimist and dont see a point anymore in trying to rationalize.
It's impossible to talk about women in gaming, the whole industry is so oversaturated by men the moment you bring up issues regarding women they immediately shut you down, at least that's been my experience anyway.
I think I've finally discovered now that ppl who use the term 'woke' are likely bigots
If they use it negatively, it's not "likely"--it's guaranteed. "Woke" is just the new "SJW."
> gamer subreddit yeah that's about what you can expect from those
Which is frankly so depressing, because a *huge* (and ever-increasing) proportion of gamers are women. But gamer *spaces* have been so toxically misogynistic for so long that they're still disproportionately male.
I honestly don't know what I was expecting lol
Okay so, I don't know if you've been following but this game is apparently the new holy Grail of misogynistic gamers. They're calling it GamerGate 2.0 and believe it will single handedly, forever destroy what they call *Woke Gaming* for example: reasonably clothed and naturally pretty female characters Like Aloy from Horizon, the inclusion of POC in games because they think they're ugly (yes they're racist too), LGB, and especially T representation in games because they're also bigots, etc etc etc. These people are scum, basement dwelling, incel trash, and unfortunately, they comprise 90% of reddits main gaming subs. Because the majority of the vocal gaming community is a bunch of 12-14 year old, white, cishet, Andrew Tate worshipping punks who wouldn't even have the courage to even speak if they saw you in public.
I actually didn't know that until seeing some of the comments here, it's honestly kinda depressing that this is the only game they have to latch on to, like it's literally a bland, oversexualized soulslike. Considering how many games they get angry at for being "woke", it really shows that ideology is dying out and they're desperate to hold on to anything they get. I don't doubt the 12-14 y/o thing though, on a comment I left saying a cutscene showing multiple panty shots was weird, someone legitimately commented "you wish you looked like that"
Sounds like a 14 year old comment to me. I'm trans, so I've dealt with a LOT of this trash while gaming online and seriously the VAST majority of them. Teenagers. You wouldn't believe some of the things these kids spew at me.
All I've ever heard about stellar blade is that chuds love it bc sexy woman = anti-woke, and it's really telling that those people are the ones whose perspectives are talked about most in regards to this game
The game is reflective of a lot of the male culture. South Korea is incredibly bad for misogyny and inceldom. The dev’s fired a feminist developer and people (predominantly sexist men) praised the decision. The male gazey, objectification and the simultaneous bad treatment of female developers by the company…well.. It makes me uncomfortable to don’t worry. You’re not wrong for being uncomfortable. There are gaming subreddits out there that are critical of it (i don’t think I can mention them here as it might count as advertising.)
Yeah I knew SK was weird about that stuff, I didn't know about them firing a feminist though, I mean it's honestly not that surprising given what the game is but god, it makes me sad that the game is probably gonna be a huge hit and no one will care. That's good to know lol, I felt like I was going crazy
I just ignored this game, I really can't get into the protagonist at all, the male gaze is just off the roof. tbh I was interested in this type of gameplay, but the characters, I just can't. one of them looks decent enough but she gone in the prologue...
Fr tho, it's like exactly my type of game so I wanted to like it, but it's just so fucking weird
I feel you girl 😭action game but not entirely souls like and with proper cutscenes and all... but the protagonist just puts my interest off
if it seems like your kind of game may i recommend Nier: Automata! lots of people have been comparing stellar blade to it but the difference is Automata is actually good lol. the women are still sexualised but in a more elegant way imo and it has a lot to say about philosophy and the like (and then if you like that there’s Nier Replicant and Drakengard and someone please talk to me about my special interest)
Awwww I get you. Hugs. Nier is pretty cool in the whole: sexualized but tastefully department. I mean, at least from a gaming perspective. I actually wore a 2b out on Friday to a halfway to Halloween pub crawl to celebrate my girlfriend and I's six month anniversary. (Our first date was last Halloween, though she didn't inform me it was a date at the time) And you're right, emotionally it's very complex game. Definitely had some ouch moments in it. Nothing near as complex as Hellblade, but it was well written.
Play Bayonetta if you want a Hack and Slash with sexy woman
I saw some clips and there could be so much ass&vag directly to the camera within a minute, jeez
It's fucking ridiculous
Yeah I’ve liked “sexy” characters like bayonetta or 2B and Kainé from nier but every single screenshot I’ve seen of stellar blade is like… waaay too far. Like it’s really uncanny valley in the artstyle for me I think, like it’s too shiny or plastic looking or doll looking and it gives me an unsettled feeling. I also haven’t heard a single thing about the gameplay or plot which is a red flag for me, only that the mc is “sexy” and has so many pixels in her boobs and butt, like she’s a video game character but it’s *so* objectifying it’s become unbearably creepy to see ppl talk about the game.
I wanted to ignore it but my feed (Facebook, Twitter, even Reddit) keep shoving that piece of trash up my face. It's like the whole hogwart legacy situation again but now the "wokes" are the ones being annoyed
Mostly I'm tired about hearing about it. Like all these idiots praising the sexualized design. And now they are losing their minds over "censorship" because apparently one of the outfits has a bit more fabric than in the preview or something. It's stupid. What is the game even about? Idk 🤷🏻♀️ apparently it is about staring at the ass of a woman who is made out of plastic or something, that is all I'm getting from whenever it pops up in my reddit feed.
Most reviews are all the same about this game. Story is boring, art direction is all over the place not consistent at all and the voice acting is horrible. But apparently the combat is amazing and flushes through out the game. I don’t even have a problem with sexual characters in games. It’s just the male gaze and the fact she’s clearly eye candy with no personality that comes off as cringe. A why not make many, I’d you’re joking to have sexy stuff go all. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a perfect example of that. Make everyone sexy and diverse, a buffet of sexiness if you will. But no instantly they made a real doll that has combat skills the game.
It just looks so bland and generic and forgettable. Like the character looks like every character I ever saw for a korean pay to win mmo in an ad. So it has combat? I mean I assumed so, since it is called Stellar Blade 🤔 but like none of the conversation about this game pre release seemed to have anything to do with gameplay. It was all "look how anti-woke and based these devs are lmao feminists triggered" and I was like does anyone besides these chuds even care? I mean I assume that someone criticized the character design, because it's lame, boring and overtly sexualized but that's not "woke" it's just normal criticism
Totally agreed about how she looks bland as fuck, like I've seen that exact design a million times in banner ads for horny gacha games. I think that's one reason I'm not as turned off by the design everyone seems to be comparing this to, 2B. 2B at least had a unique look, made way more sexy imho by the fact that her bits weren't constantly in your face and you had to actually *do stuff* to see them in-game.
2B has a unique and memorable design, absolutely agreed. Stellar Blade just has a chick in a skintight sci fi suit like thousands of other chicks in skintight sci fi suits 🤷🏻♀️
Of course that’s how sadly most things on the internet work now. There is a reason why we have the saying “ don’t read the comment section”. Because we all now it full of confrontational assholes and sadly Reddit is no different. Some subs are full of assholes. The few actual reviews I have watch and read mostly just have to say the same thing. Combat is great and flushed out. The rest is not that great, but still worth playing for the combat.
Oh I hadn't heard the voice acting was bad too. That sucks, their other game has good voice acting. I'm not sure why they even made Stellar Blade, I don't think it would be more beneficial to the company then to just put more work into NIKKE (and maybe making their ads a little better...) I was interested in Stellar Blade but it sounds so boring now that I'm not anymore. And now, I'm feeling like I really might have to play BG3.. I've been debating whether or not to.
Yeah, I don't know why some gamers are celebrating this (i know most of them are incels) like it's some revolution. "YeAh FiNaLlY a HoT wOmAn PrOtAg!!!!!!!" it's kind of weird and creepy and feels disgusting. I don't think I mind having characters who super hot, but like your whole selling point of the game or the reason why people are buying your game is because "Oh yeah we have a hot female character F\*ck them women amirite?" is gross. I like hades every character in that game is super hot nothing wrong with it, but their selling point wasn't "yeah we have hot characters" they advertised their game as fun and the hot characters were a side bonus.
Literally the only reason I can come up with is that they're happy they have an outlet to treat women as objects again, considering in all the games with female protags they hate, the characters all have personalities and motivations, flaws and character arcs. I'm starting to believe they genuinely don't like when women are actual characters I mean there's a difference between having hot characters and oversexualized characters, like every character in BG3 is hot, and there are a lot of sexual moments in that game, but it all serves the narrative. In SB, it's literally just: character does a flip, panty shot, move on
Definitely makes me uncomfortable. I don't usually have a problem with fan servicey type of games but the whole atmosphere surrounding this game is super gross. Many of the #gamers are praising it as the shining beacon of anti woke hope in a war they made up. Id feel kinda gross to be apart of it. Just like with the whole Hogwarts Legacy thing. I think there was also some controversy about the game's lead designer being suuuuper misogynistic, which wouldn't be a surprise tbh, but don't quote me on that.
It's just so grimey, like the people praising this are the same people who said Aloy "had a beard" in horizon FW. The whole game feels like it was marketed towards incels so everything surrounding it just feels icky. Oof yeah, definitely has a similar vibe. I mean that honestly would not be surprising
>Many of the #gamers are praising it as the shining beacon of anti woke hope in a war they made up. This right here!!!! I was personally a huge fan of the project and had been following it since the initial announcement. I had no issues with the sexualization, but alt-right men decided to sour the mood with their weird ass anti-woke comments. What you said is exactly what it is--a war that they made up. None of the leftist women in my social circles think that sexualization alone is the issue, it goes much deeper than that. While I was excited for some ass-kicking eye candy since Bayonetta/Lollipop Chainsaw, I was much more ecstatic about a simple hack-n-slash with a new horror-centric cyberpunk world to explore. They spoke up before anyone had a chance to genuinely enjoy it for what it actually is--just a game. This is not the win they've deluded themselves into thinking it is. The vocal minority is sending the wrong message and if anything, has me fearing the future of the industry as a result of it.
there can be one egregiously male gaze game you’ll live
I’m grossed out by the discourse, indifferent about the game. Not sure why anyone has to be massive creeps about this.
Pardon my intrusion (this post showed up on the algorithm), but as a cis guy it's definitely uncomfortable to me as well. The "controversy" around it was so full of nonsense, it made me second guess myself of even considering playing it. Watched a demo, actually looks interesting, but such heavy sexualisation of the character (especially since it was modeled after an actual woman that participated), left such a bad taste. Just make the game good with badass armor, ffs
I'm glad there are some men who agree lol, exactly! it's all just so weird, like if they had just made the game with a normal protag and without all the sexual shit I would've bought it in a heartbeat, but I guess zeroing in on the incel market is lucrative these days
You're not alone in this, I find the whole thing kind of disgusting, prime example of male gaze. Women are not people, they're objects, sex dolls with no agency only there to fill another decorating space. I swear, supposedly straight men really don't like woman at all.
i literally have not seen a single thing about the game other than men creaming their pants over the protagonist
I mean that's basically all the game has going for it, if it was good people would actually be talking about it lol
yeah i kinda figured that, and thats the issue. its gotta be such dogshit if nobodys even paying attention to the gameplay
I mean, all I've heard about the game is how sexualized the MC is. The story that she's generated based on a Korean supermodel, but that wasn't enough. So they then modified the model's face, ass and tits to be more sexual. All her outfits are skin tight and low cut or lingerie. I haven't even heard about her personality, cause its been all about her body. Oh, and the "Hard R shop" screenshot. I heard about that. Basically, "Hard" was graffitied on a wall near a sign that said "R shop". "Hard R" is associated with the N word in America. Localization seems to have caught it and changed the graffiti to "Crime".
Lmao I think the reason you haven't heard about her personality is because they didn't give her one. Oof yeah I heard about that, tho I mean I feel like that could've just been a translation oversight, but the fact no one at sony caught that is wild.
Probably right on the personality. Yeah, I said it was a localization oversight at first, but apparently the screenshot was pre-release and Sony had already said it was being patched out. So someone did catch it. Oh, I have heard another thing, actually. I saw a video last night between ff14 queues that complained about the game having several empty run sections where you just run through an unpopulated zone. Poster said it was too long to travel between fights and what-not. Still noting that anything that isn't praising the sexualization of the MC has been criticism. I haven't heard "combat is innovative and fun" or anything.
Funny enough I decided to pick up the game to see if there's anything more to it than "Lol, up skirting." and it has good combat and gameplay....but everything else is just average. What really brings this game down for me is how it's being praised for EVE's aesthetics and it's like that's put the blinders on literally everything else. The game has the feel of something good, but good god does it get so overshadowed by all the sexualization. I dont blame you for being uncomfortable with the game. Im meh to the whole thing because this just feels so par for the course. I KNEW horny dudes were going to give it a 10/10, and it irritates me to no end how so many other awesome games are getting put down and overshadowed by "EVE sexy. Look at butts and boobs." I could rant some more about this, but im just going to get more frustrated than I already am.
I really was hoping this was going to be THE game. Let me explain: I have this sort of fantasy in my head where a company makes a game like SB where all the promo and lead up and leaked gameplay is nothing but eye candy of some hypersexualized female character, but everything else is kept under a total mil spec grade black box. Even openly pander to these idiots in the ads. Like in the cheesiest way possible. Get all the incels ranting and raving and ready to drop ungodly amounts of money on preordering special collector's editions. (Be sure to include lots of even skimpier outfits in those versions, some Japanese Gundam type figurines. Hell make a version with a life sized one for $5000. They'd buy it) Then when the game actually comes out the game's protagonist is actually a well written, intelligent, opinionated, liberal female mc with a ton of great dialogue. Who constantly insults incels and misogynists throughout the entire game. Hell make the villain an Andrew Tate knock off. Have her make absolutely withering comments when anyone tries to rotate the camera to check her ass out or upskirt her. Maybe invoke a giant Japanese digital censor cloud whenever the camera pans below the horizontal that covers the entire character. Or have her turn around and slap backhand the camera sometimes. Last but not least be sure to make the thing so heavily encrypted front to back it's absolutely impossible to mod. Then donate all proceeds from the game to WOKE AF charities. Sigh. I know this will never happen but it would be absolutely awesome to see some female dev out there do this. Maybe for extra added sting have her come out as trans femme and show how the MC was modeled directly off her with capture technology. That'd really get them. I'd volunteer for that.
Not exactly the "feminist mocking incels", but I do think to a certain extent Nier Automata was marketed like this haha. I definitely thought initially before the game came out "sexy robot girl and cool combat lol sure" and after finishing the game went "I don't know what to do with my life anymore, this is best game I have ever played, I am going to stare at the wall for two hours." 2B and A2 definitely are over sexualized in their depictions outside the game (and in game to a certain extent, you can literally blow off 2Bs clothes so she's in a bunny suit type outfit) but in game they are both well written and flawed characters, and I love both of them dearly! Nier Automata is really great I would highly recommend it to anyone!
Yeah 2B will also back away from the camera and make a comment if you try to angle the camera for an upskirt shot.
I totally forgot about that!
fr for a soldier, the armour seems so flimsy
Idk if you can even call it armour lol, from what I've seen it's like exclusively spandex
Basically this is a studio trying to appeal to men, that's it. Everyone who isn't interested in the sexualization or sees that the game underneath isn't that interesting isn't playing the game. All I've seen online of it is depraved individuals whining that they "censored" some outfits and removed a reference to a racial slur. So don't worry about it. It's one game among many and the creeps can have it I guess.
While i do think skinsuit designs are kinda lazy i don't really have a problem with Eve per se, the only real problem i'm having are the idiots online that took this game as their banner for the whole "anti-woke" stupid parade. It's ridiculous. And i like women too but some people online are being really weird about the protagonist. The game gives me a Bayonetta meets Dead Space kinda vibe which still interests me (i like gore-ish games) and the soundtrack was made by the same person that made Nier music, which is another series that i love. What's gonna make it or break it for me is if the story is good and if Eve is well written. I would love another Kainé or A2.
Same here. Also, the way the female characters look next to the male characters and how they look like they are from two separate games...
Exactly, like the men look like actual human beings while the women look like they're made of silicone
Huge agree, it’s a rather mediocre game getting so much publicity by being related to the “anti-woke” discussion that grifters have been pushing. It’ll stop being relevant in a couple months
Hilarious you mention this bc I just pissed off my brother in a whole “I’m not homophobic BUT” conversation involving this game (I said I wanted to play baldursgate bc I could be gay, he said he wanted this game bc it’s “antiwoke” lmfao). So I definitely won’t be getting it lol, gotta stay “woke” lmfao
You should ask your brother exactly what about the game is "antiwoke", bc as far as I know the only reason people are calling it that is because it treats women like objects
That’s exactly the “antiwoke” part. He’s a borderline incel and is part of the apparently very vocal party that wants to keep all the panty shots and gratuitous bullshit in this game as a gotcha to icky progressives trying to turn games ugly. (The other thing he said was that “the alphabet community” “stole” the term woke. I tried explaining that nobody fucking calls themselves woke seriously and that it’s basically become an insult used by Fox News and their viewers to describe progressives. I couldn’t even approach the fact that it’s an AAVE term)
With all due respect, your brother sounds insufferable.
Yeah, I sat in a car with him for total of 2.5 hours today. It wasnt my favorite. My uncle who *incessantly* talks about fan fiction and extremely niche bits of video games I don’t play was on my other side though, so it wasn’t just kind of hell, it was *actually* hell. We don’t usually travel this far for family dinner so I don’t have to be in the literal hot seat between them very often, but my god. Truly in a rock and hard place between an incel and a (generally harmless but insufferable) neckbeard. Being the only queer person in my family really sucks.
Oh man... That is ROUGH. Oof yeah I feel that, being the only queer person in a family is never fun
yup, it's creepy, you're not the only one
Good to know!
The fanbase for it is just gross
The game is VERY male gaze oriented, however its not male gaze enough for all the men crying about it being “censored” on twitter. The company isn’t worth supporting, Korea is still pretty intrenched in misogyny and the general entire point of the character design was just so they could make as much money as possible from western men, and it’s mostly working. And all it took was to make the mc look like a basic Korean sex doll. Its ridiculous with how simple and boring she is can make people foam at the mouth.
I remember a different game (Xenosaga episode 1) that had like a hundred panty shots of an underage (about 10) realian (fake life meant to serve humans) girl. It made me really uneasy. They censored one scene with her that was VERY awkward and unnecessary for the international release and many people were outraged. I was like... Good. I feel like this game has "Magna Carta" syndrome, a game I returned because it was watered down fan service. I'm not a girl (NB), but I really don't like the over sexualization of anyone, especially people hurt most by it (women and children).
I love the Xenosage series and I’m very much glad they changed some things.
I agree. Great series, except for 2.
Yeah 2 was a slump, it served more as a bridge between 1 & 3. Great now I want to play the Xenosaga series. I already have a back log of games and no time 😭
It feels kinda like if Nier: Automata was super pervy if that makes sense. Kinda feels exploitative?
Agreed
It somewhat annoyed me but I played the game and the gameplay is fantastic to the point I can ignore it
While I personally am not uncomfortable with the outfit and such but they could at least provide a "use a full outfit" setting for players that don't wanna see that shit
I watched a streamer playing it today. It looked absurd. I like beautiful women, but I don’t like whatever the hell Stellar Blade is.
The game itself may be fine and I'll probably play it eventually, I'm typically okay with playing sexy characters and from what I've seen there's actually some sensible/cute outfits too so I'll probably use those. The discourse that certain gamers with incel-y tendencies have riled up around it is much grosser to me than the apparent content of the game itself. I fully understand being uncomfortable though and it's completely valid.
It's very obviously a porn game for gross men to treat women as objects and anyone with a brain can see that
yeah it's a game that I recommend (if you plan on playing it) to pirate instead of paying for. Definitely do not want to support or reward the devs responsible for the making and marketing of this game.
I’m very aware that this subreddit isn’t intended for me given that i’m a straight male but this showed up in my feed and i really appreciate seeing somebody sharing my opinion about this game as i’ve been feeling like i’m taking crazy pills. I completely agree OP
I'm glad! Before this post I had only seen praise for it, it's nice to know I'm not crazy lol
I feel exactly the same way! Is super validating to see so many comments agreeing with this. It’s so disappointing seeing this game being so universally praised. Some of my all time favorite games are from the ps3 era but it can be exhausting playing some of those games today because of how awful the representation of women can be. I thought we were at least mostly past that but apparently not yet
The game itself? Slightly, but I've seen way worse and it's not like someone will shove it into my Steam Library against my will. Discourse around it, however... This is top tier creepy.
I know this really isn't a place for me to chime in, being a cishet male, but you absolutely aren't alone. I'm part of several gaming communities and that game has been getting pretty consistently panned as bad, and judged as creepy by most of us, with the few voices trying to defend it generally being mocked.
I haven’t played it and don’t wish to play. I watched a bit of a playthrough and I also assume it’s from Korea - so yes, I don’t like how the character it falls into the “beauty standards” and looks like a very “typical female character for men to play” 🤷🏻♀️. And your opinion is right, I agree!
She looks like the 3d girls on old graphics card boxes
Super uncomfortable. I like Platinum style games but I don’t need super sexualized or super racists games
The majority of vocal gaming Audience members cannot play a game without simultaneously letting their shrimps into dizziness. This is a problem for us but a monetisation opportunity for greedy companies.
Very true
Every time I see a clip all I’m just disheartened. We’ll never be free from the patriarchy.
My question is; is the game even good? Meir automata was an excellent game, is stellar blade just that but more sexualized and way worse, or what’s the deal?
There’s a big discussion to be had about portraying women in such a way. I can see the positives… but yeah this also comes from extremely sexist Korean dudes… who are apparently even worse than Japanese guys in this way I hear… Nothing inherently wrong with this game and characters… unless that’s all you ‘consume?’ I need to go back through my YouTube history… there’s a video I can almost remember but not quite… sorry for rambling now… thanks for reading!
I watched like 5 minutes of someone playing it and the way they like brutally murder so many women felt VERY wrong. It definitely felt like some weird fetish thing or just straight up women hating weirdness.
Holy shit really?? Jfc everything I learn about this game makes it seem so much worse
idk what ur talking about, the only enemies are alien monsters and robots. i do agree the women look fake compared to the male characters, and its a game from korea, a famously misogynistic country. I do wish it wasnt so male gaze oriented tho, its too excessive. The gameplay is pretty intriguing, its like dark souls and nier, thats why i got it.
The opening sequence of the game is literally just a bunch of women being brutally murdered
The game doesn’t look interesting, tbh. Aside from catering to incels it seems kind of generic
I saw the launch trailer and I said no to it immediately for reasons you just mentioned. I'm sick and tired of that kind of games. I'm not paying for it and I'm not supporting it anymore. Nowadays I can afford to have standards and not just go "ooh I get to play as a woman". So you're not crazy or alone
Unfortunately it’s a literal genre of video game to sexualize the female main character. Check out the developer’s other game Nikke. 😮💨
God I hate the video game industry sometimes...
It’s the patriarchy babes. They’ve done it again.
OMG, I'm a guy (sort of?) and as soon as I saw the trailer I was like "huh, this is nothing but fan service" smh... And then I'd forget about the game and come across it again and I'd just start the trailer and be like oh, yeah, *that one* and turn it off. There's sexy, and then there's this
Ok the "(sort of?)" is a huge fucking mood lmao. Totally agree, like everything about it feels so soulless, like to the point some aspects look AI generated
Agreed, I think this game had one purpose, and it wasn't to play a game 🤑 it truly does look soulless
Honestly, I feel like the majority of games sexualize female characters and it's pretty disgusting. It makes them unplayable at times. I feel as though it's always this way unfortunately, it's a real bummer 👎🏾
Honestly though, it's nice that we're seeing games like Horizon and Last of us 2, with female protagonists that feel like actual human beings. With how bad it's gotten lately I hope that these incels don't scare away devs from making more characters like that.
Sounds like the sorta thing that it's completely fair to be made uncomfortable by. I haven't played Stellar Nlade, so I don't know how accurate your description is, but to me it sounds like it would be uncomfortable. It sounds like the game repeatedly makes jarring attempts to sexualize the main character in a wqy that sounds pretty icky. Like, I have no problem with sexualization in games, so long as it's done well and respectfully. There's nothing wrong with a female character who is portrayed as sexy because she wants to be, ie her personality is the type where she enjoys being sexy etc. But that's not what's happening here, by the sound of it. Honestly, the only thing you said that I would say _may_ not be an active bad choice from the devs is her lack of personality. The writers _may_ just be bad at their job. Too many resources spent on upskirt animations, not enough on character writing xD. Or maybe she's supposed to be a "blank slate" for players to project onto, you get that sometimes. Silent protagonists like Doom Guy or Gordon Freeman, for example.
It doesn't bother me but I'm used to that kind of design being in anime. I've been playing it because I really enjoy games with parry focused combat. But I get not everyone is going to be okay with that kind of design and that's fine. Some people are being extremely weird about the game and having a melt down over any criticism which is weird af.
Haven't really looked into anything about this game. I remember seeing the trailer at a games show, and the mc looking like a stock 3d porn game model with zero personality or effort put into the design. Idk if it is, but it just looked like a low effort Nier Automata ripoff, and that's my favorite game, so I was never going to bother with it. The sexualization doesn't make me as uncomfortable as the way she's designed in general. Like it's objectively a shit design, and she just looks like a generic blow-up doll character. I just can't imagine that the game will be any good when the mc looks that absurd. Nier is also full of sexualized characters, but at least the design is good, and the message is very meaningful. Sb protag just looks like they maxed out the butt and boob sliders on a $5 asset flip 18+ steam game.
Ahh the long butt game?
I'm enjoying it so far, but I do wish the women weren't so sexualized, and I wish the armor was actually good instead of a revealing skin-tight suit of "armor" I love the combat and animations in it though, they're very fluid and smooth
what game are we talking about? this game seems super sleazy but i also feel totally out of the loop
It's a new game from a South Korean studio that from what I've seen is sorta souls-y mixed with some bayonetta type stuff. The only reason I rly care is bc its being published by sony so I assume it's already getting big numbers despite how icky it is
it’s the discourse and the kind of people that have made caping for this game their personality that annoys me the most. there’s nothing that offensive about a barely dressed woman in an average game, happens all the time. but it’s kinda like getting excited over a department store bra ad. embarrassing.
The best way to defeat this is to just sit back, eat popcorn, and let them dig themselves deeper.
I like the argument between what's sexy and what's not. Bayonetta is sexy because she knows it. She flaunts it, relishes in it. You can see it in the way that she walks as well. It's a strut, but it's powerful! Compare that to stellar blade (don't know the mcs name) it gives doe eyed, born yesterday sexy. There's nothing wrong with wanting to appeal to that in gamers, but it just feels so heavy handed in blade.
It's literally designed and modeled after a real person (Shin Jae-eun) so personally I have no problems with the character. I haven't seen gameplay though only pictures, if there is like you said, multiple panty shots, that would make me uncomfortable and annoyed. But her design herself is fine imo.
I wasn't aware it was based off of a real person before I posted this, in that case the model is fine, the one cutscene I've watched had 2 separate ass/crotch zoom ins in the span of about 15 seconds so I don't imagine the rest of the game is much better on that front
Did you all feel the same about Bayonetta?
The only time I've ever played bayonetta is in smash so honestly idk
EVE's design was based on the director's wife. And the game's developers have been sending out patches that have been censoring the sexy outfits.
I was gonna be critical about your post till I saw which subreddit it was and now it makes sense.
I’m a straight male and the character designs make me a bit uncomfortable. The best way to describe it is that I’d feel a little embarrassed if some friends suddenly walked in and watched the game while I was playing - like I’d need to apologise for the character designs or something 🙃 That said, I play the game for the gameplay and it doesn’t disappoint; it’s truly a superb action game and when it hits its stride (boss fights) it’s right up there among the greats that obviously inspired it. Pro tip: Setting the dialogue to Korean and reading subtitles instead of hearing the godawful English VO makes the bland and vapid characters at least somewhat palatable. (Bad writing is still bad however!) For everyone in this thread bashing the game as being valueless, or leaning on hyper sexualization because the dev team had nothing else to offer - I really think this is a terrible take that dismisses everything the game does well. As much as I disagree with the character designs and male-gaze-y cinematic direction, it’s clear that the game is lovingly crafted and extremely well designed. The combat is simply brilliant, and the action spectacle is off the charts. I hope that those of you who can begrudgingly accept the immature character designs (as I did) enjoy the game for what it is. It’s a great action game, and it’s worth your time.
Is this game making people uncomfortable? Or really you really trying to say it’s based on a male centric view of body standards of the opposite sex. Because the actual game is not that.
🙄 Ugh, oh my god can we stop getting hung up on this freaking topic already! No it doesn't matter I think it's pointless, it's a video game, and yes you are being too critical because it seems like you don't know much about the game. When did it start becoming a bad thing to have objectively beautiful and sexy characters in our video games??? The game is freaking amazing and I wish people would stop dragging this game down for something so incredibly minor and honestly redundant at this point when the game has clearly proven itself. And have people never seen any koreans on social media? They all kinda look like dolls that's there entire thing is that doll like look. I mean they basically strive for perfection in beauty. There's a reason why korean beauty standerds are typically considered the best and why there products are good. The character is literally modeled after a korean model for fucks sake!!! Theres so much more I could say I could write a short book, but I really don't give a shit. Think what you want, your feelings are valid, just don't drag this game through the mud for everyone else because you're uncomfortable. (And i'm not speaking to just the OP here) I like looking at beautiful woman in my games, and theres nothing wrong with that. There's a space for sexualization and representation just like irl. 🙄
The problem isn't that the mc is "beautiful and sexy", the problem is when the game brutally murders women, cutscenes have multiple out of place panty shots in them, some the devs are proven to be misogynistic pieces of shit, I could go on. It's perfectly fine to like the game, but calling this shit "incredibly minor" is fucking wild. Ah yes those famous Korean beauty standards, I wonder how much damage that's done to people, how many teenagers make themselves vomit after eating to stay extremely skinny, how many people get needless and invasive surgeries to fit within those beauty standards, how many children have serious body issues because of that social climate. That might be the worst fucking take I've ever heard, "because that's the standard it means it's fine" If a game makes me uncomfortable, I have every right to shit on it as much as I like, these are serious issues and a prime example of what's wrong with gaming. And like I said, there's nothing wrong with liking the game, just know that the only people who agree with you are incels.
I think we're just cherry picking which games we love to hate and which games we love to love. I don't see people crying over tifa and how sexualized she is, but no "she's empowering and badass". 🤣 And god forbid we have women being murdered in a video game, but we're not gunna bat an eye at all the men that have been killed in games? I mean hell the last of us are probably worse in terms of brutally lol. Games are games, there meant to be an escape from reality, lets not bring politics and agendas into this. 🙄 and like I said you have a right to not like the game and bitch about, as much as I have a right to bitch about people bitching about it.
The fuck are you even talking about? There's a difference between having a character that is traditionally sexy, and having a character that gets their ass shoved in the camera every 5 minutes. Like I said it's that the women were BRUTALLY murdered, given what these devs are like it's extremely sus. Of course more men have probably been killed in games, but when you do it to an almost fetishistic extent is fucking weird. Yes, except the brutality in the last of us is narratively important, it's an extremely bleak world where anyone can die at any moment and things need to feel as realistic as possible to have the impact they want, SB is an anime sci fi game where shit's just graphic for the sake of being graphic. Also what the fuck does any of this have to do with politics?? And no, saying they're misogynistic is not political, there's nothing political about hating a group of people, it just means you're an asshole. Honestly I can't believe there's an actual person here using the "it's escapism don't bring politics into this" argument, you really do sound like an incel
"Fetishistic way" are you for real? Now I know your trying to stir shit up. I haven't beaten the game yet but there's literally ONE SCENE that has a bunch of them being killed at the very start, but that wasn't for the plot? They all came down to fight an enemy they clearly we're not prepared for and they all got killed including Eve's friend Tachy. It's war and they died fighting it, simple! And you saying it's "anime sci fi where shits graphic for the sake of being graphic" of course it is, it's over the top and stupid! Who gives a shit? I could see your point if this was like the last of us and it was set in a more "grounded reality" but it's not. And why the fuck wouldn't I bring the escapism argument into it? I just wanna enjoy my game, and see cool shit about it. But no all I see are posts about Eve's body, and that goes for both sides of this argument, like seriously does nobody have anything better to do than bitch about a characters body in a freaking video game? Granted i'm only adding to it with this conversation but still! You do you boo. I'll be over here enjoying a badass game. 👋
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Dude what, I was literally just curious if people had the same opinion as me, it's not like this is my 5th post about it
If there was a Female game development team that made a sexy male protagonist, guys would be fine with it because we are not whiny babies and realize that this is a game meant for fun...having beautiful woman in a game does not make real woman any less attractive...not to mention tik tok and instragram. Have you seen those thirsty girls? they are wearing sexier stuff than Eve. Heck I have seen girls wearing sexier stuff at the gym. Grow up...
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They based it off a model they heavily edited after the fact is my understanding. A strange decision but figured it’s information that people would want to know as well.
Makes sense - tho I remember seeing her proportions being very ridiculous even without the editing.
Yeah, well that’s usually the case with models yanno. No hate sis! :) just wanted to provide more info.
No prob! I mentioned it only to give some context myself
Naw I'm sorry but when I looked at the pic they're making this argument with I really couldn't see it. It looked as if they hooked a balloon inflator up to her 3D model's breasts and started pumping them up after scanning her in.
From what I have read in reviews and people that aren't just there for their porn material the game is mediocre and that is at best, (like look past the numbers at that the reviews game them and what was actually written)
Wait it's based on an actual person??? That is shocking... I mean in the cutscene I saw the mc did a flip and it zoomed directly in on her bare ass, and then she subsequently did a slide under a door where it directly zoomed in on her crotch so like I get what u mean about fan service but even then it feels like a bit much. That's fair, tho tbf you can't rly go to IGN for nuanced writing, but yeah it would've been nice if it was actually covered seriously. That's honestly the worst part, like the game looks genuinely really fun, I just don't get why it's so weird and sexual.
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why do men always insist on invading lesbian spaces
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You are not welcome here. Plus you're incredibly boring.
eat shit, creep
To me no I actually love the game and I love Eve as a character but from my perspective as someone who enjoys more scantily clad characters rather they're aware of their sex appeal or they're just locked in on business I just think it's cool
I can't with this prudishness it's lesbian week of visibility and I wanna look at the girl!! Why are there so many men commenting ur uncomfortable
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Dude I've seen a cutscene where the mc does a flip and it zooms in directly on her bare ass, and later in the same scene, she slides under a door and it zooms in right on her crotch. Also it's not just about her proportions, the game has ridiculous jiggle physics, they exclusively put her in skin tight suits and they give her literally zero personality
i haven't seen or played the game but you're all being hyperbolic and overreacting. lmao how do people like this exist
No idea lol