Yeah, I’ve seen that girl’s videos and she basically uses feminism as an excuse to be extremely obnoxious. No, thanks.
And this topic should be avoided because every time it comes up it scares Peter and Mike away.
Their ‘sexualization’ is played for laughs, not as a serious attempt to titillate.
I have been watching this game since E3, and have been a longtime lurker here at Shoryuken. After Valentine’s reveal I just felt the urge to say I am really excited for this game. The last fighting game I ever really played was Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Any other title I played, was always solo and I eventually became tired of the genre. This was when I thought the point of fighting games was to master special moves.
I became interested in Street Fighter IV and Blazblue, but I always felt as though I was far behind other players and it was too late to catch up. Skullgirls has made me reexamine my views on fighting games. Maybe it is because the characters seem to differ greatly from one another. Before, I believed that all fighters controlled alike. Or maybe it is the tutorial that is supposed to teach players how to play not only Skullgirls, but also fighters in general. More than likely it is because of the special moves such as Valentine’s poisons, which have different negative effects besides mere health draining.
Whatever it is that is pulling me toward Skullgirls, I just wanted to say it is nice to be excited about a new fighting game. I have not felt this way since the first time I played Street Fighter II. A game that elicits a feeling such as this deserves to be played.
I will agree with you here. It’s similar to the extreme masculinity of “The Hulk”. Humorous and cool.
I appreciate your consistency on the issue drexciyan. I guess going by your qualifications for what is and isn’t considered inherent sexualization the only male character that comes to mind that would be appealing to a specific demographic of women would be Benimaru from The King of Fighters.
Am I on the right track or am I still off base here?
Mr.X
3966
Oh shit, a consumer product is designed with a particular usergroup in mind.
Wrong, he needs to be in a thong or have an enormous bulge, like Urien because sexualization focuses on the naughty bits. Or is it just being a woman that makes people scream sexualization.
People really need to learn demographics, and that appealing to certain a demographic is just the way all media goes and you don’t need to please everyone and everything with your direction, someone somewhere will find something offensive in your creation no matter what.
Not everything needs to cater to all different taste, and they should learn to be open minded about sexual freedom.
It’s pretty clear you’re out to be dismissive rather than seriously engage in the discussion, so I won’t bother responding to you any more.
j13901
3969
There’s no question that this game’s (and most fighting games’) art style targets the male demographic. That is unfortunate and perhaps an oversight on the part of the designers. the gameplay is awesome and rather than fighting amongst ourselves WE SHOULD BE WORKING ON DEVELOPING A COMMUNITY.
However, it would be cool if the skullgirls team could tone down the TnA so I don’t feel like such a creeper when i play this game.
Mr.X
3970
Obviously I’m being dismissive when the whole premise surmounts to we shouldn’t be celebrating the human form, especially the female form and should feel bad because it makes other people feel bad or whatever this bogus moral dilemma is.
Tomo009
3971
Am I really the only one who finds the art in this game cute, not sexy? Everything about the characters is exaggerated in a cartoonish way anyway, I’m not really seeing how the game is so sexist, but whatever. It seems like it will be a great game and that’s what I care about.
It only gets better when you play it. Much, much better.
I think I may have asked this before (too lazy to back through my own posts. How bad is that?!) but is anyone going to be creating a fansite for the game? Just something I’ve been wondering about.
Alright thats it. Im giving my two cents on this.
I am a girl that likes this game. The way I see it is that it’s part of their paesonal character. Im not offended, disgusted and not attracted. I know it’s just WHO THEY ARE.
We definitely need one up sometime in the future, or at least a dedicated forum for it.
I wonder what would be a good name?
Mr.X
3975
There’s a coming soon on the forum part of the main Skullgirls site.
I think this is a thorny area because, as I said earlier, what constitutes ‘sexualization’ for men is distinct from the same for women. Setting aside looks for a moment, conventionally attractive attributes for men are not all that distinct from simply conventionally ‘admirable’ traits in general; strength, decisiveness, leadership, etc. Being a strong male character and being sexually attractive can easily co-exist. The problem is, for women, submission to male sexual desire (but not too much - then you’re just a slut) is a huge element of conventional attractiveness. A sexualized female character (and bear in mind ‘sexualized’ is distinct from ‘sexual’ because it panders to an audience) cannot also be a strong female character, because any strength, independence, etc that they possess is undermined by their submission to the violation of the male gaze.
Thus even if we accept that, say, SF4’s men are just as sexualized as the women (and I really don’t), it’s still hugely problematic because of the differing nature of the sexualization.
I know I kind of didn’t respond to your question, but that’s because I’m not sure if it’s the right question to be asking; we shouldn’t be looking for men to be sexualized to pander to a female audience in the same way that women are to pander to a male one, but to question why these archetypes of conventional sexual attractiveness are so dimorphous to begin with (it’s because of patriarchy).
edit: this is probably where someone trots out some essentialist bullshit and I bow out of the discussion
Eh there’s a way to portray “strong yet attractive and modest female women” it can’t be that hard.
[details=Spoiler]
]
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/6/61766/1169625-prv4758_pg3_super.jpg
[details=Spoiler]
I have something to say about this:
Skullgirls : sexist against women
Soul Calibur : ???
I feel like other than Fillia, women who play the game would like how the characters are portrayed, it’s not like most anime-y fighters where the female character is like a priest or something, they have jobs like thief, mafia arm-breaker, leader of the army, military bioweapon, etc.
Also, regarding the valentine screenshots, looks like we might be getting a character who can outpoke parasoul!
Plus, lightning effect!
Yeah I remember that being mentioned, I believe they said it would be up near launch?
I wonder who will be the first post?
