Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

I dunno I feel like games made for women have been on the rise very quickly. In a few ways, both of which are arguably as much stereotyping though, so keep that in mind
1. There's been a huge rise of games where either there is no story thus you can play as a woman because your character isn't a character.
2. There are plenty of women who are only casual gamers and mobile gaming has been heavily focused on women vs. console gaming
3. Visual novels have become more and more frequent, especially the ones where you date handsome boys that sometimes make you cry
4. Rise in narrative games and games in general that don't have the typical difficulty that used to be the norm (again, stereotyping, I realize, I didn't make these creative choices)

I think the big thing is that even in terms of fanservice, from what I understand at least, women don't look for the same thing in men that men do for women in this sort of thing. So you don't see men in the same level of shameless outfits because that wouldn't appeal to women as much as you might think. I've also heard there's sufficient evidence that in popular online games, women specifically choose the "sexiest" female characters to play as.

Granted, I do think fanservice is overused. Especially if it's just awkward or distracting.

They're adding too many sprites to Mario Maker that only Japan or weebs would know about, and not even a lot of weebs. But I guess this is better than some stupid western compromise. Lookin at u Splatfest

That's true about Mario Maker, but in my ongoing quest for a solid Nintendo community, I'm realizing the the Ninty fan community is filled with weebs. Just look at any Nintendo Life comments section every time Nintendo decides to cover up some anime gal's boobs.

@CreamyDream, probably not the thread for us to get into that whole can of worms — I was just following up on Danky's comment. Hope that doesn't come off as rude, I just don't want to derail the thread.

@CreamyDream, cool, cool. Thanks for understanding.

Back on topic, I'm sad to hear your take on Affordable Space Adventures. It's a game I've been looking forward to since it was announced, but never got around to buying till the (always awesome) Humble Bundle pushed me into it. I've been really looking forward to it.

I'm curious to know — did you play co-op, or solo?

Ah, gotcha. Lots of the reviews recommended co-cop play, so my lady and I are planning to make a night of it. Here's hoping it doesn't let us down.

@VelvetElvis: Let me know if that works out well, I might do that same lol.

Will do, Def.

Ah, sexualization/female represenation in video games. A delicate minefield if ever there was one. A few thoughts:

1: This is so much more than gaming. It saturates pretty much our entire culture. And video games aren't even a remarkable offender. definitely not he worst offender by a long shot.
2: The Feminist/SJW/Anti-GG/Whatever you want to call them has some very good, very salient points. However, some of their most vocal representatives, for various reasons, end up putting a bad face on the entire movement.
3: The same as #2, but for the other side.
4: A big factor of the conflict is differing senses of what constitutes empowerment. Men (generally speaking) view sexualization as empowerment - when they want to make a strong, empowered woman, just as with a man, sexualization is one of their go-to resources. It's built into the cultural gestalt. Women, on the other hand, (generally speaking) do not find sexualization to be empowering - again, part of the cultural gestalt.
5: It's not as simple as male creators = sexy women. (In)famously, CLAMP is pretty female-dominated, and, well, "Miyuki-chan in Wonderland."
6: The hypothetical "female gaze" that focuses on men's packages is a bit of a rhetorical disservice. My anecdotal evidence finds a much stronger female visual focus on swimmer's chests and nice butts.

To focus on a more unpopular opinion, I support the editing/censorship of games when they come overseas - provided that's the only way it's considered feasible to make it a domestic product. I don't think it should be that way, and I feel that people often err too much on the side of caution, but I support the general idea. If I could make one request, it would be that a little effort goes into making the change a "value-added" proposition (cf: Fatal Frame replacing sketchy outfits with Nintendo character cosplays).

(On a side note, in Bravely Default, my biggest objection to the Bravo Bikini was that the player got to see it at all. The conversation without the reveal was gold. But, after knowing what it looks like, well, my Agnes objected to wearing it while she was dressed as a Spell Fencer...)

@VelvetElvis @DefHalan: I can assure, it's better in co op.

@VelvetElvis: Well weebs or not, they've added a handful of sprites that basically nobody got excited for, and it's a fact because even the special levels have low play count.

So, the New 3DS = apparently another DSi. It has what? 2 exclusive games and one is an eShop only game. Why did they do that again? With the NX coming and Xenoblade coming to the WiiU VC (at least for NA), and the rumors of it being 1 system to kill off having a home and a mobile system, seem like clues to it all fitting together.
At any rate there's absolutely no reason for me or anyone to get the N3DS anymore. I suppose that's good since I can use the money for something different but kind of a bummer. If you upgraded from a regular XL to a New XL then you wasted your money. At least the original has the screen size upgrade.

@Dankeykong, agreed. I haven't played in months. The completionist in me will eventually get those sprites, but they used to be enough to make me want to fire the game up — now I see an announcement and just say, "Who?"

Also, I think the n3DS absolutely is another DSi, in that it's the best iteration of its platform, and it's also a business move to keep the platform relevant. The whole "exclusive games" thing is pretty much bunk.

@Freeon-Leon, that's great to hear. I'm stoked about it.

I never said it was.

Nothing in your post said that you meant anything else.

Not at all what I said. The problem I have with Shantae's artstyle is the fact that every single female character (barring maybe one) has their boobs out as if the developers thought it would make horny boys play the game, while no male characters (as far as I've seen) are having their sexual parts bulking out or showing. It would be a different matter if it was just one or two female characters but it is pretty much every single one I've encountered so far.

I'm not saying it only applies to Shantae because it doesn't. You might have noticed by my avatar that I love the Ace Attorney (also Professor Layton but that does not apply here) series. Yet the character of Mia Fey along with some other are examples of the same thing (and in case of Mia Fey it gets even worse when the under 10-year-old Pearl uses her spirit medium powers to channel Mia - and thus gains her physical qualities). But that series features other body types as well and it's more balanced. It even has most of the male characters sport a wide muscular upper body (this does not apply to the overweight or child characters obviously).

I wasn't referring to the hypothetical female gaze but talking about sexual parts in general. My example of there being no characters with a visual package in their pants was because that's a sexual part of a man's body just like the boobs are a sexual part of a woman's body. Obviously this is not that simple as boobs would be just boobs if we as society wouldn't have sexualised them. The same applies to dicks too though.

And to talk about something else:

I played ASA for about half an hour yesterday and really liked it. It has that great sense of adventure and discovery I've learned to love from games like Metroid and Zelda. I do agree though that it has its weak points - so far the tunnels and progress have been very narrow without really any way to get lost in a maze. I don't mind the loading screens though as they are entertaining given the context of the game's story.

I haven't played co-op either and I most likely won't but I would really like to try it out because it would truly be a co-op experience without a single leader. I had stop playing yesterday when I hit a puzzle I couldn't figure out. I'm sure that if there was another or two other players playing the game with me, we could work the solution out together - if not by else, then by trial and error.

@CreamyDream: I didn't mean to say that ASA has the same kind of exploration than Metroid and Zelda but that it has a sense of adventure and exploration in that you are thrown in an uncharted world you're left to figure out what to do. I personally am taking my time with the game and not using too much the thrusters.

I also like the fact that it doesn't handhold you too much. Sure it tells you tips on what to do and how things work but it also leaves a lot up for you to figure out on your own.

Devil's Third is actually quite enjoyable and no where near the train wreck it was hyped up to be.

@Nego, thanks for the take one Affordable Space Adventures. I have a feeling I'll jell with it — related, the Wii U has been a hell of a great local co-op system for me. Also, lucid points in your post about gender representation.

@arronishere, I'm still curious about that game. Wish it were a bit cheaper here in the U.S. How active is the online community these days?

I've only had the game since yesterday (I saw it cheap and I had fancied playing it before the negativity over it) so I've been playing solo so far but I heard the on-line is still active just far from brimming.

It's fun for what it is and what it is dumb fun.

@VelvetElvis: I'd play local co-op more but I have no one to play with. Pretty much the only real life friend I have that is into gaming lives kilometres away nowadays and I only see him during Summer. It was different for me five years ago though.

@jump: I actually got really excited for Devil's Third when it was first announced but I somehow just forgot all about it. It sounded like a great concept at least.

Btw did you just change your username?

Yeah, I use jump on my other forums so I thought it best to change it.

That doesn't surprise me. But that game had the weirdest consistent complaint ever. People didn't like it because "it played like a PS2 game" Like WTF? Since when are PS2 games bad as a whole?

Since when are games in general from that generation bad? Did I miss something?! That is so baffling and I saw multiple people say it as a huge negative.