149: I've Got to be a Macho Man

Ajar

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Interesting article, and some interesting posts in this thread as well.

One thing I noticed in Gears that's been touched on a bit in this thread is that the game, while predominantly over-the-top machismo, did have some serious elements. As the game goes on it seems more and more like the over-the-top machismo is in a large part a cover for the fact that most or all of the CoGs are scared out of their minds. Marcus even mentions it directly to Dom at one point, when Dom admits to being afraid of going underground -- "Don't tell Baird. He's scared shitless as it is." And that's all part and parcel with the 1980s sci-fi space marine thing that seems to have been the main influence on the game outside of Resident Evil 4.

The blatantly American nature of Gears and Epic's parking lot full of expensive cars also bring to mind kind of an interesting parallel. Silicon Knights, a bunch of artistes who put extraordinary effort into setting and narrative in their games but whose games are also not known for their technical execution, don't seem to have gotten along very well with Epic. Silicon Knights are a bunch of Canadians from the quiet Ontario town of St. Catharines. I don't think there are any Ferraris in the SK parking lot.
 

Razzle Bathbone

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Beery said:
You're confused. Calling someone a 'closet homosexual' is not the same as calling them a homosexual AT ALL. 'Closet' is the operative word. While there's nothing at all wrong with being homosexual there IS definitely something wrong with the idea that it's healthy to hide your sexual identity.
While I agree that "fag" and "closet homosexual" are different, it doesn't necessarily follow that CALLING someone a "fag" is much different from calling them a "closet homosexual". Both are insults in the context Zegai described, and their intended purpose is the same (to hurt someone's feelings). Zegai's point has merit.
 

ayoama

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There are notable exceptions to this rule, however. Games like Devil May Cry get a pass because objecting to its aesthetic reveals yourself to be culturally illiterate, the sort of RPG fan who'd reject a Final Fantasy game on the grounds of characters using too much hairspray. But the double standard is kind of obvious - they find redeeming value in another culture's juvenalia while rejecting wholesale their own. Juvenalia with a sense of exoticism passes the test on its exoticism alone.

Or, it could it be that Gears of Wars' "aesthetic" is just objectively ugly.
 

Joeshie

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I played this game co-op with a friend and had a blast. I never cared for the story or characters, except when it was so absurd that it was hilarious, as mentioned in the article. The gameplay was fun and enjoyable with everything else pretty much being background noise, kind of like a Mario or Zelda game.

I also never found the game to be bursting with the gay either. I mean, I guess maybe you could make the conjecture that because of their ridiculous bodies it focuses on hyper-masculinism, but other than that, I can't see the gay. I've never really seen hyper-masculinism very gay either. Maybe if they went around slapping each others ass and grabbing each others balls...
 

L.B. Jeffries

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Chalee said:
Thing is - how is it that everbody is so certain that Gears' super-macho act is not intentionally cheesy? I somehow managed to play through it without coming into contact with internet opinion on the matter, and as I played I kept thinking to myself 'haha they are so doing this on purpose' and laughing out loud at the (in my opinion) intentionally rubbish dialogue. How can people so confidently proclaim that 'it takes itself seriously'? Perhaps the 'non taking yourself seriously' element is just not quite as pronounced as in Duke.

Can anyone say that gears takes itself seriously after looking at Fenix's jaw?
I picked the game up after watching the 'Mad World' commercial. I got the very distinct impression from the ad that it was a dark and intense story, so I assumed that's what I was signing up for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8

It's not bad that it's a cheesy sci-fi story, but the marketing team pulled a Halo 3 with the commercial by making the game seem way more dark & serious than it really was. It's not a bad game, it's just...the commercial made me think I was getting a really dark, meaty story and then I got fluff.
 

Beery

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ElArabDeMagnifico said:
Unlike Duke Nukem, GoW took itself seriously, so if it wasn't supposed to be taken seriously then I missed it.
Exactly. It takes itself seriously and it's about the most homo-erotic game in existence. What else am I supposed to get from it other than it's SERIOUSLY aimed at closet gays who act all macho to hide the fact that they don't want anyone to know that they REALLY like the company of men more than the company of women.
 

Beery

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Cheeze_Pavilion said:
Umm, why are you keeping an eye out for which of your friends is a closeted homosexual?

Maybe you should be asking *yourself* a few questions... ;-D
Firstly, I've been married - to a woman - for twenty years and I have a daughter. I also have gay friends. If I was gay, unlike GoW fans I'd have some clues by now.

The reason I'll be keeping an eye out for GoW2 fans is that it's not healthy to hide one's sexual identity. Some folks seem to get into the GoW macho thing a little too much for their own well-being, if you get my meaning.
 

Beery

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Novan Leon said:
Gears of War is distinctly Western and wholly inspired by 80's Americana.
1940s Nazi-ana more like. Heck, the '80s was the decade of androgynous clothing and big hair, not the butt-slapping steroid-pumping jocks that we get in GoW. If it's not Germany in the 1940s it must be the US in the McCarthy era, because I've never seen any game that suppresses its sexual themes with such seriousness. It's like James Cameron's 'Aliens' for the Me Generation. I mean if they want to make a game like this, why don't they just go all the way and call it "Hunky Men Together in Nature with Big Guns" or perhaps "Back Door Ex-Cons vs. the Alien Horde"? And the dialogue - my God! Other than having characters say "Oh Lance, your rifle is longer than Bruce's - can I team up with you, big boy" I don't know how they could have made the homoerotic aspects more obvious.
 

I Mav I

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I find it humourous how people think if you enjoy playing a game like Gears, or the Top Gun volleyball scene it makes you a closet homosexual...cos to be honest i see it as a blatant bit of childish homophobia...

I enjoyed Gears and i love Top Gun, but i'm also pretty sure that last friday i stuck my dick into my girlfriend...it seems that the people who redicule the game or movie just have this thing against anything macho with fear of it turning them gay..."oh i better not play this...i might get attracted to muscles." "I can't watch this film anymore cos i might contract 'the gay' ewwwwwwwww"

Its the 21st century...grow the fuck up...

And seriously...how many people our age didnt idolise Stallone in Rambo? Or Arnie in Predator and Terminator as kids? Gears is a throw back to the 80's action sensibilities that if you ask me, the AvP films could do something to learn from...
 

TeamWang

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Beery said:
I don't know how they could have made the homoerotic aspects more obvious.
Why don't you fire up that imagination of yours, I'm pretty sure you can do it as you purport to be the ultimate arbiter of high homo-eroticism. I bet you're already picturing the main characters smearing motor oil all over each other. You think that excites other men don't you, other men would be real excited by that. Imagine all those other men touching themselves at the thought of two improbable video game characters smearing absurd substances all over each other.

I think the reviewers who slammed Gears in the way they did probably also thought that the movie Starship Troopers was a serious attempt to win everyone over to the awesome concept of fascist, ultra-conservative, militaristic cultures, and the importance of propaganda and snazzy black uniforms.

Where the reality is that the makers of Gears of War, and so too the writers of Starship Troopers, managed to use an essentially satirical situation as the backdrop and the raison d'être for big armor, big guns, and stupid ideals. Yes it is a fantasy, but not all fantasies are sexual as you and your friend Freud most incorrectly assume.

Seriously, what's next, 'My Little Pony' being a metaphor for heavy petting?
 

AronaX

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Facepalm, I bet the author really liked the game but was to scared to make his own opinion because his friends and indeed the rest of the gaming community would laugh at him because he likes a homoerotic game, which GoW isn't. Well I liked GoW, and there is nothing homosexual about the game and if people think there is some gayness to it I'd say its because *that* person is insecure and can't look at a buff guy with a chainsaw without getting a erection which is a very interesting fetish. I agree with TeamWang
 

Asehujiko

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So because it's muscular it must be gay? A big part of the story of dow2 is about rescueing the wife of one of the characters...
 

MannPower

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Wow, people. Get shorter horses to ride.

I like Gears for the same reason I like to watch Predator, or Commando. Did they take themselves seriously? They tried to, at least, but I think it was two-sided; it's over-the-top. It has an excuse to be unintentionally humorous. I think the intent is secondary to the actual product.

Not sure how Gears is a 'closet homosexual' game, to be honest. Yes, you can certainly make that joke based on the sillyness of the character interactions and designs, but it doesn't translate to the psychology of the person actually playing the game. I certainly don't take the games seriously, but I do enjoy a bit of mindless fun, which Gears provides. The same reason I can watch an Arnold film and genuinely enjoy it.

Get over yourselves.
 

Neosage

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Gears is great and really fun. Wait aww man I must be a BLATANT homosexual that hasn't come out yet. Pfft how much more homophobic can you get?
 

PirateKing

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I felt kind of insulted by this article. I own Gears of War and Gears of War 2. I did think that the COG troops were...overly masculine I guess. I figured that was meant to parallel the equally disturbing locust soldiers though. Sort of a, fight fire with fire thing.
I like Gears because it's fun. Running from cover to cover with bullets flying overhead and fighting giant t-rex like monsters with guns on their heads is pretty awesome. Gears is why I play games. To experience things that I can't in real life. This is coming from a guy who owns and loves both Psychonauts and Okami.
Devil May Cry is stupid. I still like it though, despite its brutal difficulty. Gear though, I think Gears is smarter. Although I couldn't understand what the "resonator" from the first one was, I like the evolving story finally ending with them sinking the Jacinto Plateau. I hope there's a Gears 3.
 

Madshaw

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I think it might be safe to say that gears lacks in story what a game like final fantasy lacks in gameplay,
both can be a lot of fun and both are very enjouyable to their fans,
but final fantasy isn't trying to pump adrenaline through your body with all that grind, just like gears is hoping that the intense gameplay will drag you through its story

so its just a case of which comprimise you prefer

and you also get the choice of a bit gay, or a jrpg
 

Sylocat

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Nov 13, 2007
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The problem I have with Gears is different, and a more serious one: The graphics are held up as the pinnacle of next-gen gaming.

Yeah, yeah, it's impressive from a technical standpoint, I know that. The shading and textures are very well-done and the architecture is mapped out amazingly well. I just came out of the game design program at MATC, I know nice graphic specs when I see them.

And the spectacularly high-quality graphics... look boring as hell. There is nothing interesting about the way the game looks. Every damn level in Gears of War looks exactly alike, and that would be bad even if they didn't look spectacularly uninteresting.

So why are the graphics in this game so popular? Very simple: "Hardcore" gamers are ashamed of the fact that they like video games. They don't like the designation that they're playing with toys, since they're determined to act macho at all costs. This leads to them craving "realism" in games, even at the expense of fun (in a way, especially at the expense of fun) so they can pretend they're not sitting on their ass playing with a toy.