15 Questions about #Gamergate



THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT BATTLE OF HISTORY!

 I'm hoping that by the time I publish this, it's subject matter will no longer exist. I'm sort of a late adopter, and I mostly sat out of the whole ruckus of Gamergate.

From the beginning I had my doubts. I couldn't muster any anger about some lady doing some sex things to some people from some sites  I didn't even frequent. I haven't had a console in roughly 4 years. Money problems is all.  And really, the whole thing where there where so many accussations and counter accusations...I wrote like 3 articles about it I never posted because it hardly felt right. Even the one I did post kind of makes me feel a little stupid, in retrospect.

But in that time I also watched. Gamergate was not about the pretty blond lady who made a text game, or the lady dressed as a sultry lumberjack, it's members said. They claimed that the media had them figured all wrong, and if we only listened. 

But if I don't assume Gamergate is about what it absolutely looks like it's about, by all the evidence and, frankly with most of it's supporters replies on Facebook (it rhymes with Shmarassment of Shwomen, and Shmear of Shmeminism), then I have to ask a question or 15 of them. Speak now, Gators. I will listen.

15. Why don't you harass men more?

I mean, yeah, not ALL the Gamergators or whatever, threaten women with death and rape. Some threaten some men, too. But...there's a disproportionate amount of hate towards females, who, like Leigh Alexander, aren't even being extreme: they're just disavowing the harassment.

This threats make you look bad and sexist. You should be equal opportunity harassers and harass some men. It's not like there's a shortage of men that disagree with your opinions.

People of all genders and creeds agree that Gamergate is just a bunch of idiots from 4Chan out to spook women for laughts. Won't you prove them wrong?


14. What are you gonna do when games grow up?

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The simple answer to the women in videogame problem

Yes, it does turn out  you're the bad guy in the end.

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A Gate for Gamers

As you may have heard, this last month we've seen a bit of trouble here in videogame liking land. That problem has been given the name Gamergate, and a few accompanying hashtag warcries tag along it now.

I dread to recap it, because it's the kind of topic everyone's already settled their minds upon, and any deviation from their version will probably end up in accusations of bias, missinformation, missoginy, and many more things. So let's break this down.

Some lady I don't know, and also a lady I kind of know, claim to have been targets of harassment by lowlives that happen to also like games. This leads many game sites to simultaneously claim that gamers are over/dead/unnecessary. This leads to some more backlash from gamers, who are now angry with the media for being full on the side of these ladies. They claim these ladies manufactured their own threats, and also screwerized actual profemale gamejams. I think I got most of it. Now put it in there in the comments that Bestgeekever is biased  against someone, because it is, and it's called EVERYONE.

I've always believed that most of the times, when we're looking for the truth in extremes, we're off the mark. So basically you're all wrong in my eyes.

Gamergate partidarians, I acknowledge that your sides accusations of media bias towards Whatever's side should have been acknowledged. And that's exactly the problem with begging everything with massive harassment. Even if Ms Whatever was the conniving succubus you claim her to be, no one likes to see a lady get attacked. I learned this in school, when I teased a girl who had teased me everyday, and some random kid punched me in the gut. "Not fair?" Fuck fairness, play to win with the rules that are in place!

It's natural that  claims of harassment will be heard over claims of "having em' rolled around her little finger". Why wouldn't they? Even if they aren't biased, as far as they know that's just the harassers falling into self defense! That's what I would believe!

And you media? How dare you? For shame! "Gamer's are dead now"? "Game's culture is a shame?" Weren't you at E3 just  a few months ago, sorrounded by those famous "adults in mushroom hats" you so now loath, telling about all the future upcoming products we were going to buy? And all of a sudden, because a few bad eggs did something, you want to disolve the whole thing? Kotaku ain't got no love for Gamers and Cosplay and Death Row?

And really, it is just a few bad eggs. Don't make this about Gamers. SOME ASSHOLES sent harrassing messages to those people, just like some assholes might yell insults at the players during a basketball game. You don't see Sports Illustrated going "We don't need B-Ball fans anymore, they're stupid." Because yes they do. Who's gonna buy the tickets and merchandise if not the fans? Who is going to convince others to get into it if not the fans? Do you think if they all leave some new type of fan will materialize itself, as if fandom was a naturally occurring phenomenom?

Some of us have been into gaming a while, is all. We have injokes. We remember certain things. We don't just play games every odd moon, we try to know about them. We don't hate people who don't play videogames as much as us. I knew this one family of like, 8 kids that all they had was baseball games (and also my Smash Bros cartridge that they never gave back...) That's okay too. But some of us like games in a more intimate levels.

And finally, to all you who want to see the games industry get some more variety overall, this I agree with. But, as I told  one of said ladies once, the point is not to nag the industry into compliance. The point is to create a niche, from where different kinds of games can grow. Prove that such different experiences have a market to them, and you will sow the seeds of change.

And finally, to all I say: disagree as much as you want. Democracy is made of people arguing until one argument is agreed more than the other. But remember that, just like using the Game Gennie on a single player game, you only cheat yourself if your arguments aren't truthful and fair.

And now you can witness my initial reaction for this and how right it was.

Now go inside and play.

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Let's talk about Wonder Woman's body as if it mattered

"I wish Hollywood had some tricks to make people look not-as-they-are..."

Wonder Woman is one of the earliest female superheroes, and probably the one most people care about anyway. So going into Batman v Superman : Dawn of Justice, which had her first appearance in live action in decades must be pretty exciting for fans, right?

This is just as pointless as  #bringbackourgirls, except Zack Snyder might actually bring them back.

Oh, you wanna talk about Wonder Woman's body in what's likely to ammount to a cameo in Batman's movie? Fine. I like Wondy's body too.

There's 3 prevailing schools of thought on Wonder Woman's body: Jezebeline, Maximist, and Curvilinears. And none of the people who  profess these styles actually acknoweledge their titles, because I just made them up.

The Jezebelineans would love for Wonder Woman to not-give girls bad body image.  If Diana looks like a model they'll probably complain, even if 90 percent of all female actresses are like that anyway. DC comic heroes are easy to make a stand on while Black Widow rolls around in her  skintight jumpsuit, totally not getting a movie.

For them, there is a Wonder Woman.

For the record I like her movies. She's no Camryn Manheim, though.

They'd probably say I'm exaggerating. I am. But if you're gonna cast Wonder Woman exclusively for the Jezebelian crowd, without any accounting for anything else, this is your stop.

Maximists take this ficticional amazon's ficticional history seriously. "She's an AMAZON! She should have oak stumps for legs and abs that can take a tomahawk missile!"

For them,there is a Wonder Woman.

Don't know.

I mean, Superman and Batman are ripped. Why can't Wonder Woman be super ripped? Huh? Why is it? Is it because that's not nearly the most important thing when it comes to bringing this character to life? Huh? Is it?

The Curvilinears just want to see an accurate depiction of Wonder Woman's breasts. The character's long history has seen many changes in tone and style, but NEVER have her breasts been what we'd consider "small". They plan to be starring at that cleavage for a good amount of time, and they want to make good on that investment. For them, there is a Wonder Woman as well.

Va va va boom!

I guess that makes me a  Curvilinear as well. huh.

But in the end the people at WB chose this chick.

Those are some nice headlights.

There's bound to be a bunch of reasons why she got cast. How much money  she could bring to the movie chief among them. She's not the ideal actress for Wonder Woman we all picture in our head, but that just us. Some of us thought Thomas Jane would make an excellent Shadow the Hedgehog, and some of us thought HHH would make a fine Thor, and some of us thought  Heath Ledger would ruin the Joker forever. In the end we're proven wrong, we like the actor and we move on.

Or the Sonic movie never happens and we start to hate on  Jane over The Mist. Goddamit!

 

In either case, here's some of the questions you should be asking instead: How much screen-time will Wonder Woman actually have? What exactly will be her role in a movie titled Batman v Superman? Will she actually show in costume in the film? Will she use her magic lasso? Her invisible plane? Will we see Themyscira? Will Themyscira be actually a river near Turkey, like in real life?  Why is there not a sequel to the wonderful animated Wonder Woman movie? Why is there no Wonder Woman movie period, and instead we have to settle for her playing  a support role to Batman and Superman? Just asking, man.

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Fighting for your attention

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Fighting for your attention

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I Endorse: IAMGAMER'S Game Jam

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Progress looks like  a Saint Valentine's decoration?

  I want to support IAMGAMER's  Gamejam going down this weekend, July 12-14 2013 in Vancouver Canada, which has laid out the challenge: to create a game starring a strong female character. But I must confess the reasons for this are more ego driven  than  anything else. I like female characters. I want more of them, whether they are  bikini barbarians or more conservative ones.  I am not a feminist.  Not as long as I have Netto Strip Fighter IV I am not. I don't know if liking THIS helps me any, though.

And also, the challenge itself, I love it. I am an artist at heart, and as an artist one of my goals is to try and do things that are not as common.Because trying to succeed at creating what already exists merely puts you in equal footing to more experienced creators of what already exists. Regardless of whether you think there is  an issue of representation in videogames (hey, I think so, since a couple of years one the second largest racial group in America had 0% representation in mainstream videogames, even with an incredibly high consumption rate of the things!), I think the future will belong to those who can expand the reach of the medium. We want videogames to be art, right? Well art is best served by a variety of voices and ideas participating.

I don't know that one can create a classic in 48 hours. EA spends more resources than we have trying to create durable, marketable IP. But if things go right the products out of this Jam won't look  and feel like the games EA is doing now, but perhaps the opposite will eventually be partly true true.

I will not be able to directly participate. Too much water between me and Canada. But if things go right I'll participate remotely by making a game over here and documenting the game. But if you can, come on and Jam. And tell 'em the Best Geek Ever sent you!

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Tropes vs Women in Videogame is kinda right, bros.

Wait, are you saying that feminists think games are sexist? Get me the president!!

I think discussions of diversity are worthy of discussion in videogames.  I know when they are brought up  it causes uneasy feelings. The videogamer, the one who's into the culture of videogames enough to sign on to a forum strictly dedicated to the genre, is a creature that has been bred to fear criticism from all sources, because historically that criticism is ill informed about the industry itself.  And when you don't talk about it you feel good. You look at the newest shitty pop singstress trying  singing about licking your lollipop and the newest shitty patronizing rom-com and you go "well, we doing all right over here." And hey, in some respects, we are. But we can always be better.

 

If only so that we don't get complacent.

And so has the reaction been to a new series, kick-started out of the money of people willing to see it. It's apparently gotten, flagged and otherwise illegitimately attempted to be brought down by...I don't know. Assholes? You know, there's thousands of terrible videos of shitty opinions out there. At least this one is well produced and researched.

 

I always knew I'd end up using this panel. But I NEVER thought it'd be on my own kind.

Some of the initial reactions to things like this are more akin to "The Man" trying to "Make it PC" down here, but the way I see it, and I think I might have said this before, the point isn't to take away your swear words and boobs. As long as there is a market for schlock, and the game's industry as it is is more a market for schlock rather than  a field of varied artistic depictions. Don't fight it, just look at the top sellers this week.

But the more diverse the market becomes, the more it will thrive. Do you think Hollywoold does  cg kids movies because it likes kids?  For refferences sake, this are the Mainstreem  movies I can see in my cinema right now vs the games being released this week in my console of choice. Please  assign each one a target demographic, and while you're at it, describe what the protagonist does in the  tale.

Caribean Cinemas:

42

(The Jackie Robinson Biopic)

Admission

(A comedy, possibly romantic)

Dos mas Dos

(Some kind of sex comedy)

Emperor

(some kind of  post-WW2 thriller)

Epic

(Ferngully in CG and they put Pitbull in as a Frog)

Fast and the Furious 6

(I trust you to already know what this franchise is about)

I am the Director

(A mockumentary)

Iron Man 3

(About a B-Lister at Best Superheroe in a quest to continually humiliate DC comics)

Mi Primera Boda

(Comedia)

No

(histo-drama about Pinochet years Chile)

Oblivion

(Sci-Fi action)

Pain and Gain

(Action-comedy)

Star Trek into Darkness

(Sci Fi Comedy)

The Big Wedding

(Rom com)

The Place Beyond the Pines

(Drama)

Xbox

Metal Gear Rising: Blood Wolf

(Action shack and slash)

Dark

(well, it's not about a kitten's birthday)

Ride to Hell: Retribution

A racing game, no doubt.

Deadpool

(about a killer psycho that is also a parody of the industry that borne him)

Borderland's 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep

(I don't know what this is. Sounds refreshingly peppy.)

As you can see, movies catter even to different language speakers. The videogames can barely move  beyond their core male 18-30 demo. You want to know what's really killing the industry? That it hasn't really diversified. This is why comics are dying. One day there where all kinds of comics, including some for  ladyfolk. Archie sold millions. Fucki'n' Archie! Now DC and Marvel barely make ends meet by banging pots every year around the  chance  a character someone liked may die in a convoluted crosover event. I don't want one day that people are just making videogames to just "keep the dream alive" and trying to get movie deals. Do you?

 So what do  I think of the series? Well, it's certainly not  just frothing at the mouth feminism. Even though I appreciate the hosts "barely not barfing" face after some of the clips.

She either just saw a kitten torn apart by alligators or a clip from the Mario Anime.

 I certainly don't agree with everything, so I guess It's easier to just put down the parts that I disagree with. Less because I "think she needs to be shut down" and more to challenge some of you to maybe argue with points and not just try to drown out all criticism with a pillow. The industry is no longer helped by excuses and  insularity, if it  ever was. I want to make this perfectly clear: YOU GUYS ARE MAKING US LOOK BAD, AND I REVIEW PORN FIGHTING GAMES UNASHAMEDLY!

So, in general, the first two episodes focused open the Damsel in Distress trope. The eventual thesis that it depowered women, in order to serve as objects in  a male characters story. Which is interesting when you string a series of  images of women screaming "help me!". But I feel it's not entirely fair to  the games, in the sense that the stories of most games are, as accurately pointed out in the videos themselves, fairly crude and simplistic.

I mean, I could string together a series of stories that don't feature damsels in distress as a core gameplay story, and make an argument that videogames are seriusly holding up the status quo with it's save the world plots or something. In truth, while this tropes are fairly lazy writing, it's no more creative to have a woman rescue a man, or a manrescue a lunch or a pet. This stories, this KIND of stories, were not going to do much else with  women. It's like...it's like demanding reasonable female representations from porn. And... now I feel bad about myself.

My solution, as ever, is to craft these games instead of waiting (and basically asking) for them to be crafted. Becase there's a few games that have avoided the tropes I'm sure this series will outline as negative(I'm going to guess besides DiDs it will discuss sexploitation, and probably characters that are all about a man, and female villains, and games that leave the toilet seat up). Oh,  yes. Games like Beyond Good or Evil, and Urban Chaos. Games like  Mirror's Edge. Just in general games that don't sell enough. I'm not saying that those games deserved to sell just because they wern't aboug Groff Ankzt gunning down big boobed angels to avenge his mother's death at the hands of her ex- wife and rescue her daughter. In fact, Urban Chaos was a pretty shitty game.

What I'm saying is that this is not an industry that  prizes subtlety all that much. Square Enix is probably as we speak putting millions into a  game that ends with a girl keeling over dead while a guy yells no, because they don't think you'd buy it otherwise. If you don't buy it, they'll probably have to lay off hundreds of employees and be bought by a larger company. Again.

Objection! Nobody fucking bought it!

They won't believe it until it becomes "a thing" A thing where you can make a game of just Ms Arkeesian just shaving her armpits, and it won't bring bankrupcy and failure to the company. Someone has to make this games that women say they'd rather have (I mean...story games, not the puzzle games and such that they already play and that are not sexist merely by not having humans and stories in them) and  then women have to buy it. Begging Nintendo to change is going to do very little. Proving to Nintendo that there is money there is going to do a lot.

Another miss was that, as it tends to happen, games with multiple characters that include women. I'm not saying that the industry is not sexist because Chun Li. but to ignore many, many story driven games that feature multiple characters seems like a cop out. I'm sure those will come along mostly when they want to discuss the objectification of women, narrowing the dynamic of what the series considers desirable. What happens when your damsel in distress is saved by Blaze Fielding, Ada Wong or on co-op games that let you play as both genders on a quest to rescue a woman? If women in danger are inherently objectifying women as objects to men, is it less wrong when other women do it? When  Iron Patriot had to save The President of the USA  from being burnt alive, does that mean that the president belongs to him?   I know this is a short series, and that it's sticking mostly  to a specific dynamic.  My point is, that the concept of having to finally rescue SOMEONE is pretty common in videogames, and the general pervasiveness of "Rescue X" stories might be making it seem like more sexist than it is if you don't contrast it with what plots there mostly are.

 

The President's daughter can't wait until a team of feminists deems this acceptable.

Mario's one thing. Mario's basic plot is to rescue a Princess 99.9 percent of the time. But Sonic only rescued those 2 damsels. IN 20 FUCKING YEARS! I'm not trying to point out a counterexample to say it doesn't happen. I'm just saying if you take a franchise that's 2 decades old  and over 20 games strong and that  has plenty of female characters at this point, and some of them are not THAT stereotypical.... and point out the he twice had to rescue females... I don't know, It's practically cherry picking, and potentially a misrepresentation.

 

See, I don't need a crowdsourcing just to look at videogame cutscenes in Youtube.

But I think her assessment is mostly accurate. But that's just it. That's what I think. Maybe you think differently. You are free to  dissent from me and from her. However, I suggest listening to her before  you reach your conclusions on her. And if you can make a more valid point, by all means, do, please. Not because she deserves it. But because you  can't prove she's not right by shutting her down.  That only proves that you don't want to hear an opinion different than yours.

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A small Fighting Female February tribute

As part of my yearly  ritual celebrating the field of fighting game females, here's a homage to the ladies of Konami's fighitng games. The fighting games might have been mostlyy forgetable but...sometimes the women in them wern't! This group is far from definitive, and some series are missing. However, you I crawled out an obscure game boy character into probably her first ever fan art, so forget you! From top left to right!

Nad Jeed from BattleTryst

Anne from Monster Maulers

Marsa from Rakuga kids

 Miyabi from Outburst

Maria from Castlevania Judgement

Fan from Yie Ar Kung Fu

Gaia  from Galactic Warriors

??? from ???( drew and researched this over a year, and I can't remember what  Ms Gi and a red headband is called.)

Chaos/Titi from Martial Champion

Serina from Deadly Arts

Aska from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters

Layla from Dragoon Might

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Fighting Female February! 2013 Edition!

 Allright, it's 2013, and  the world is evidently not over. So I continue to like females in fighting games and continue to try to dedicate a month to them, despite myself. I've still got some stuff backed up from the last one(such as this wonderful Banner) I couldn't use, so I plan to use that and complement with new stuff.  If  I don't do it, whose gonna? You?

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The Fantasy Female Fighting game roster draft

More Breasts...

Before games like Tekken and Virtua Fighter  changed the landscape, making  a fighting game usually involved playing a game of chicken with how close a fighting game can come to Street Fighterwithout actually being Street Fighter. Even classics like KOF and Killer Instinct have easy lines of comparison.

This is Fighting Female July, so I wanted to know if I could pick up random female characters from different games and put them on  a roster, kind of like fantasy football, but without any possibility of it actually happening. Except, of course, M.U.G.E.N.

So I will pick and draw one female from one fighting game that fits the archetype of each Super Street Fighter character, and explain why the character fits the roster.

Ryu The Hero

  The hero is usually the character that gets selected if you just bang at the buttons on the select screen. Also, look for the hero to be in, usually at the center of, all the oficial artwork.  If that's not possible, it is usually a character that is well rounded, both morally and in terms of gameplay.

I choose, Raiya Mikazuki, Touki Densho (ENGEL EYYYES!)'s resident main character. Raiya fits the bill perfectly.

Ken The Rival

This character's story is irrevocably tied to another character. In fact, the character usually evokes the other character visually.

Mileena. Mileena, unlike my boy Scorpion, has not distracted herself from the vendetta that justified having her be a palette swap. As of late she's been presented particularly more provocative than her rival as overcompensation of the fact she's a disfigured version of a well respected, well liked member of the community. Kinda like Brandon Routh or Johnny Test.

Honda  The Overtly Japanese character

Okay, most notable fighting games are made in Japan. So, there usually is more than one Japanese character. However, sometimes you get a character representing things so particularly Japanese, that the character becomes "the Japanese Guy".

What's more Japanese than a Geisha? How about a Ninja Geisha? Following the advise of Sutefani, Namco added such a character(sort of) in the form of Setsuna, a pretty lady with a parasol-sword that  conveniently covers her beautiful kimono from all the arterial spray she's bound to cause.

 blanka  The Monster

You know, when you need a character to represent 3 things, like, say, a country, a play style, and a character archetype, things can get a little messy. Everyone wants to be represented by the hero, not the nymphomaniac. Still, you gotta have a monster character. And he's probably from a country  that will really love your game, why not?

Mantazz, from Time Killers. Female in a very technical sense, as she's an insectoid queen from another planet. Mantazz represents giant monsters from space can be ladies too just fine.

 guile The Gringo

America's history with Japan, as well as being  a world superpower, has made this an archetype in several medias of the Island nation. The American is usually pretty easy to spot. Look for military ranks,  strokes of Red, White and Blue, and engrish.

And here's another chance to say how much I love Tiffany Lords from Rival Schools. She's a completely silly, sexy, energetic character. She has a move called EXCITING KICK! That's s fucking exciting!

 balrog  The Specialist

Here's a fighter that screws up your button scheme. The style is usually a real martial art that doesn't conform to a button style presented.

Gonna go with Ryoko  from World Heroes. She's a judeka, and she's not gonna not Judo throw just because  you say it's a "punch button'.

Or How about Ryoko from Fighter's History?

 Look...I never got them done, awwight?

chun li The Chun Li

Chun Li is the first lady of fighting games. There is only one Chun Li. Her name is Chun Li.

T.Hawk the Horrible stereotype

Allright, look: Most of the Street Fighter cast is some sort of stereotype. It would just take a huuuuge, huuuge kind of stereotype for people to get actually offended at this point. This character is that. However,  that's not to say said controversial character won't be liked.  Just...not a lot.

I'm going with Voodooh, from the legendarilly shitty Shaq Fu. I mean, they put the name of  the thing into the character. Not the last time it would happen, but this is the one time it's a lady.

 zangief The Grappler

Grapplers as usually deadly in the hands of experts, but shit to newcomers who rely on their reflexes and mashing over memorization and  stats. They tend to be slow and rangeless to compensate for their damage output.

Tina Armstrong, my favorite Dead or Alive character. Sure, in DOA there's not any great amount of projectiles, and Tina's pretty great in it. And sure, she's kinda the gringo in that one, too. Still...she's a grappler, whatayawant?

dhalsim The contortionist

The contortionist is a weird character with far reaching or visually confusing moves that make for good mental games.

For this slot a slut: Rana, from Strip Fighter. She's pretty much my favorite character of that game. And it's not just because she's graphically naked and gives blowjobs to losers.

 sagat The Frustrating Subboss

Usually coming before the frustrating boss, the frustrating subboss is annoyingly difficult when the CPU uses it. That's not to say that it's not frustrating to fight against in multiplayer.

Chizuru from King of Fighters. I have no observations on Chizuru, except that she was a subboss in KOF 98. I'm a couple of years behind in this franchise.

Vega  The Psycho

There's always a psycho in these games. Watch the anime adaptation and he'll be there, licking blood of his blade, laughing maniacally, and talking about how killing is fun.

I'm putting up Sekka, from the game adaptation of the Double Dragon cartoon. I don't know much about Sekka, but she has blades coming out her arms. that counts for something, right?

Fei Long The Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee is a worldwide icon...whose name and likeness is registered by his estate. Otherwise, every fighting game would have old Brucie in it. Instead, they all have some kind of Chinese, Jeet Kune Do, doing, "whooooaaaa" yelping  warriory warrior that isn't actually Bruce Lee.

I gather this character Chie from Persona is the closest any videogame has come to a female Bruce Lee. Since the character is confirmed for the Persona fighting game, I think I will favor this once. If I decide to do this feature again I will be in big fucking trouble.

Deejay The Islander

 The islander doesn't have to actually come from an island.  He just needs more pigment on his skin than most of the other fighters and  fight in Capoeira or other fluid, dance-like moves and  be overly energetic and rhythm obsessed. 

Christie Monteiro, of Tekken fame, is the only Tekken character I've taken up that I haven't felt like a complete noob playing.  So, here's Christie.

Cammy The eye candy

Capcom, seeing the sucess a fully dressed woman fighting had, quickly realized  that Sex drops quarters, and for the Super version introduced a lady in a thong leotard that grabs people with her legs.

 We could sit here all day talking about sexy fighting game females and a lot of the other ones could probably apply, but I would have to go with Ivy. There's no denying that Soul Edge's Taki and Sophitia where meant to arouse,  but Ivy was both added  later in the series, and meant to take up the sex appeal up to eleven. She'd only gotten more blatant over the years. But let's be fair: hasn't every SC woman?

Akuma: The Hype

This character is so tough, you guys. He can, like kill whatever he wants by looking at it. He just doesn't because you're playing wrong he, like enjoys the thrill of the fight and stuff.

In that context, Athena Asimiya seems most fit. An import from an older SNK non fighting game, Athena Asimiya is a Japanese schoolgirl that is somehow related to the Greek Goddess Athena. That's kind of a big deal. She's even played the role of Boss.

Bison The Boss

It's the final threat: the meanest fighter.  He will fuck your shit up.

Or she. She will fuck your shit up. Sadly, there isn't a great history of female final fiends in fighting games, so I will have to look for the licensed one: Karai. Final Boss of 2 TMNT:  Tournament Fighters, despite the logic supporting Shredder for the role. Sure enough, Karai is frustrating to defeat, overtly evil, and not the sportest fighter in the world. So just throw her like a ragdoll.

So here's my roster. What's yours? You think I should use another game as base next year. Lemme know!

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The first woman in fighting games

Yeah...hopefully you won't have to avenge your father many more times.

Folks, they say history is written by the victors, and it's mostly true. Sometimes history is written by the victor's bitter enemies, though.

But it's true in the sense that, if someone spearheads something that becomes really popular, people are way more likely to study them instead of checking if benchmarks they made had already been made, therefore attributing them to  the more popular one.

In fighting game terms, Street Fighter, specifically Street Fighter 2 is the trendsetter, the first, the freshmaker. Sure, a little research will show fighting games existed before Street Fighter 2 made them a genre, such ar Yie Ar Kung Fu and Karateka, but generally, we accept that the genre was shaped by Ryu and Ken's shenanigans.

However, I will have to take away at least one of Capcom's most prestigious awards: The first woman in fighting games. Sure enough, most of us recognize Chun Li as the first. Games like Yie Ar Kung Fu could hardly bother letting you choose character, let alone putting a woman in there as a playable. However, Chun Li is not the first woman in fighting games

The first woman is, in fact, Gaea, from Konami's 26 Year old Galactic Warriors.

Pink. Of course.

If you've been following me, you should recognize the title. It is a 1 player, robot vs robot game. Like Cyberbots but...really sad. On of Konami's many, many failed attempts at fighting games. Gaea is merely 1 of 3 playable characters. But is she better than Chun Li? Well, It's a matter of opinion, but I guess it depends on how much you like breasts as projectiles. That's usually the dividing line.

At least Chun Li is still the first LADY of Fighting games. Haruumph!

Sure, we could split hairs on whether a robot shaped like a woman counts as a woman. But that would be (even more) pointless. The guys at Konami put breasts and hips  an d high heels on a robot so we could identify it as female.  I'd say she's as much a woman as a videogame can let a school of sprites be.

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Skullgirl-Gate: my take

In case it is too long and you falied to read.

I know this is overly late, but this being Fighting Female July, I want to write about the controversy regarding weirdo fighter Skullgirls.



See, apparently, someone accused the maker of the female centric head-to-head fighting game of making a sexist game. What, on account of all the cleavage, and pantyshots, and how none of the alumni look like Jaime Lee Curtis at all. And his attempts at sort of defending his design aesthetic, which include that a woman designed them and that no women have shown disapproval, have earned him no amount of credit.



My first thought is that I guess it's true that the rope always breaks through the thinnest part. Think of all the fighting game series that have any importance today. Are they equally sexist, more sexist, or less sexist? Is any of them free of thongs, bikinis, panty shots, bouncy mammary globes, etc? I think if any (popular, mainstream) series today can block against the accusation of exploiting the female form it's maybe Virtua Fighter.



I mean, it's easy to come in now, after the millions of pages dedicated to naked Cammy we've made, millions of Ryona Seung Mina videos, after we've made the Dead or Alive series thrive on mostly sex appeal to the point where they made a game that was just girls lounging on the beach, now that fighting games are building on other fighting games that are built on other fighitng games, to try and decide that women in fighting games should be fully dressed and tactful just for this one new game/potential franchise. What! Panty-shots? The (out)RAGE!







Compare these two characters' popularity as relative to the importance of the games they where in.


But I guess nobody wants to show up to Project Soul and be the guy who says maybe Ivy and Taki's breasts should stop growing at some point. Nobody wants to go to Ono-San and say that they are bothered by a nymphomaniac fighter. Nobody wants to say that a woman taking off her top after a fight is pandering. Suddenly, when it's an independent title whose creator speaks English, we care. Will somebody think of the children?



Thing is, nobody fucking cares. Nobody gives any props to Virtual Fighter for not having panty-shots, bouncing breasts and exaggerated cleavage or things like that. Nobody cared when Mortal Kombat or Soul Calibur added fully clothed women after many years of skimpiness(and in SCs case, after 3 lolis. 3!). When someone finally steps in and asks if one game is sexist, we all jump in and try to decide if that game is sexist, and we don't stop to think if we've let the whole industry become sexist. We become bothered by what we have been supporting.



Though the Soul series gets no props for having a naked man in all of it's games, either.






And yes, that is "we" as in "us". The games-buying crowd "us".



If you get asked if making a product with scantily clad women is sexist, I guess there isn't a right answer. If you say that nobody's complained, they say you should have thought about it. If you say women worked on it, they get even more offended. If you say you just want to make some money, they say you are exploiting women for profit. What do you fuckers want to hear? "Oh, I'm sorry that my game could be perceived as sexist. I'll cancel it right away, good sir!"



The truth is, creative design doesn't happen in a vacuum and Skullgirl's influences are as obvious as anything. Skullgirls could be that game where old angry lesbians and morbidly obese working women fight. And while that wouldn't be bad for the industry, that wouldn't negate that someone made another game in which sexy caricatures of women fight each other. Some of us do enjoy the female form. Maybe if I call it a sexual preference, you have to tolerate it, huh?

Make it look like this.

You aren't gonna get a fighting game that's not sexist by berating games that are sexist. You are gonna have to make it. That's just the truth. Not to prove anything, though. If you can even get it halfway done , you're already better than me. If you can get it to sell in today's crowded market, you're some kind of deity. Get the funding and get it made. Then come back here so I can tell you that it's racist. Ha.

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