Ubisoft shows the dark side of game development
Namely, how quickly these people can get fired for unknown reasons. The first director was rehired in a takeover, then fired without even being allowed to take his personal items. Someone else was fired yesterday, (I can't find the article.)
The fact is, game developers have the ability to hire and fire who they want. And without a reason. They fire people to get work but not give them pay, they fire people for having different ideas, and they fire people after buying the studio.
Game development seems like a fun, and fascinating, business. There's just a very large amount of casualties in the business.
Because of the new Assassin's Creed Trailer I decided to focus on Ezio's Family this time. I haven't played the Assassin's Creed games. ( I have an issue with playing as a character who's life work is killing random people and historically significant people. I know they are just ones and zeroes, but I'm still uncomfortable) so... here is some music.
I will say something good about the games though. The Assassin's costumes are beautiful.
Gender is.... naturally complicated. Men are usually the ones making the games (which is something else) so when it comes to character design, women are usually sexualized
While the men are... not.
I know there are unsexualized mature women (Jade from Beyond Good and Evil and Faith from Mirror's Edge for example) and sexualized men (Tekken's Jin for example) and, admittedly, Kaine's case is VERY complicated so she's getting her own post later.
But, by and large, this is the general trend. Which is why women get very frustrated.
For me, at least, either turn down the fanservice on the female characters or turn it up on the males. It's really frustrating when men are "complicated" and dressed reasonably but women are more "fanservice" and... that's it. (Yes, I'll know I'll get called on for some characters such as Tifa, but let's just look at the general picture right now. That is the exception, not the rule.)
Some fanservice isn't that bad. Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII has a belly button ring you can see, and that's it. Othertimes, it's so overboard it may as well be parody, but it gets to be more then annoying when the first female character's show up, and it's a big breasted women wearing nothing but underwear, which has happened alot. And then personality ends up just being somewhat one dimensional. Admittedly, early non RPG games (and even some early RPG games) didn't really give anyone a personality so they are excused, but since technology has developed, this has to change.
Again, nothing against fanservice, when done in moderation. Girls do wear Midriff bearing shirts (which is why Jade isn't on my sexualized list) and men do sometimes go around shirtless.... though unless they're exercising or in a naturally hot climate that just makes them look like jerks in my opinion.
Just make design practical (I can see a few small edits that could turn Lara's outfit from fanservice to actual climbing gear.... like extending the pants and shirt so she doesn't risk getting easily cut) or give it a reason. (Kaine) and make the men a bit fanservicey too. Again, in the realms of practicality.
And please, for the love of Cosmos, give the girls a real, complicated, personality, will ya?
Then maybe we can look on these designs as something outdated from yesteryear, rather then something we do need to fix now.
So, can I ask a favor? May I get a list of your top video game characters, one for each category.
1) Sexualized male
2) Sexualized female
3) Unsexualized male
4) Unsexualized female
Thank you for reading this post. I'll try to tackle other gender issues later, and maybe I'll rewrite this post some day.
Apparently, this was more then a tease for the new ad campaign.
This was, apparently a tease for an ENTIRE GAME.
Yes, Ladies and gentleman, if the rumors are true then Sony is making a Smash Brother's style fighting game that is tentatively called Title Fight.
You can read the rumors here: Title Fight. The page notes that the "Michael" ad was a tease for the game. Here is IGN's Rewind theater that notes the games in the ad.
(I like Rewind Theater's and they can point out more things then I can)
So, IF the rumors are true (and I have no vids to speculate on gameplay) Who do you want to be in it?
Final Fantasy HAS to be represented as it is considered a "Sony" type game recently (All the main titles from 7-12 not including 11 were PlayStation exclusives. 1,2,4,5, and 6 were rereleased on the Playstation and with Dissidia all main games have had characters released on a Sony system) But which hero? I think it would boil down to between Cloud and Lightning. Cloud is iconic and SE has been promoting Lightning lately. Lightning would have more variety (Switching between Commander (Physical), Ravager (Black Magic) and Medic (White Magic) in Dissidia for example) and she has Odin, but Cloud is a normal swordsman and is probably more popular and iconic. Lightning is a bit more over promoted but still a viable choice.
Sly Cooper is in there,so why not Cole from InFamous? He's a really good option for fighting games. He's going to be in Street Fighter X Tekken!
No, really, he's going to be in Street Fighter X Tekken.
So, first player, fighter, he's looking like a good choice, if Sly wasn't already in the game.
Ezio isn't an exclusive character, but he was in the trailer, has a good fighting set up, and is going to be in Soul Calibur V, so he's also a viable option.
Subject Delta from Bioshock 2. Again, not completely exclusive but would be a VERY powerful "Tank" option. Between the plasmids, guns, and iconic drill he could do quite a lot in a fight. Plasmids would probably drift to the more offensive ones. (INCINERATE! Electrobolt, Winterblast, telekinesis, etc) the downside is he can't really talk... but it would still be cool. (While Delta does not appear in the trailer, the Little Sisters do)
Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Much like FF, MGS is a third party series tied to the Sony brand.Snake has a large role in the trailer and has already appeared in a fighting game. Unfortunately, that game is Super Smash Brother's Brawl. While it CAN be done, (he's very good in Brawl) I'm not sure of the legalities.
Ratchet and Clank from... Ratchet and Clank. Playstation Exclusive characters, would compliment Sly Cooper well, lots of gadgets to play with... would be a very fun choice! (Plus Ratchet was in the trailer)
Ico or Wander from Ico/Shadow of the Colossus. I honestly don't know too much about these two, so I can't say much.
Dante from Devil May Cray. So, yeah, talking about White Haired Dante here. Lots of variety, devil may care attitude, would be a good way to mix up play. He was JUST in (Ultimate) Marvel vs Capcom 3 so I don't know if there would be legal issues, but there might be. (Character is exclusive, company isn't)
Ryu from Street Fighter. I don't think I have to explain why.
That's all I can think of right now, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to shoot down Chell. I ADORE her, but she doesn't have much fighting potential and Valve is considered more of a PC company then a console company. Plus, until recently, Gabe Newell hated the Playstation for some reason.
And while the three heroes from Trine would be another good option, it's a downlodable multi platform game. it doesn't feel quite right. Would be fun to switch between all of them though!
