Capcom Addresses Deep Down Sexism Controversy

[Busard]

Keep in mind, this is Capcom, who turned out to be the ONLY company willing to publish a game with a female lead that the developer fought to keep, "Remember Me". Short sighted this one, but sexist it is not. At least on the publishers part. Which I also ask, is Capcom developing this or just publishing? Because if they're also developing it and their answer is "story reasons" then my response is "Pah-hahahahahahahahaaaaa 'story' reasons".

A team in Capcom is making in it

And it doesn't matter if you think the reason is laughable or not. Game makers should be allowed to make the things they want without automatically getting into the little footnotes of the politically correct

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

Disappointing for female gamers maybe, but certainly not sexist. It's frankly really silly to say that something is sexist because of something that's not included

Agreed. If there were too few games with a female lead character, that's something that you could accuse of showing a male-oriented mindset (which the industry has justly been accused of before). But I don't think that's the case now, although male protagonists are still the majority.

Make the game that you want to make, and hopefully people will engage with it.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I guess gaming is different to movies. Movies have topless men showing whatever and its not an issue, as are women showing whatever. Games its women its looking sexy and men looking powerful. But i dont notice it or care, so id think a lot of ale gamers dont care so i dont think its an issue. I have a friend that never plays as a female in an rpg, but that can be taken as sexist or he just wants to play a game as a male. In the end its up to the developers.

 

[Britpoint]

Yeah, this is fine. I was pretty appalled when the news came out that there were no playable women, but I was under the impression there were a ton of playable characters or that there was character customisation.

If you only have a single protagonist, that's absolutely fine. Do I wish there were more games with females as the sole playable protagonist? God yes. But it would be totally unreasonable to slam one particular game for it.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Complete sexism for skullgirls not to feature any playable male characters, guys.

Actually, a new dlc char that is coming soon will be male I think.

 

[The Lunatic]

Complete sexism for skullgirls not to feature any playable male characters, guys.

Actually, a new dlc char that is coming soon will be male I think.

Missing the point.

For all we know, this game could have a female character as DLC later!

At release however, entirely female player list.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

If there had been indeed twelve characters to play as and not one of them was female, then yes, I think that might have been a bit of a problem. But one character? No. No problem. Not every game needs to give you the choice (although when given one, I play as a girl first) in your sex in order to be good.

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

Career feminists continuing to alienate the masses and harm aspirations of sexual equality yet again.

Violence breeds violence, hatred breeds hatred. Sexual equality advocates who cannot step back from this cycle and be empathetic and productive are more harm than good. Stocking the fires and creating more and more skeptics from people who originally were just misinformed.

 

[Yuuki]

This particular case aside (just miscommunication), it's still funny that we've reached a point where devs/artists have to "answer" why they decided to have one sex instead of another, or one race instead of another.

1 playable character with no female = That's ok...sorta...
2 playable characters with no female = Why isn't the other one female? We demand equality!
3 playable characters with no female = Omg sexist!
4+ playable characters with no female = MISOGYNY

Is this a thing now?

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Capcom's done stuff to earn some respect from me. It's not like they completely shun female protagonists as playable characters like other game companies.

Still, the game's dropped off my radar for now. Still tired of the status quo of male leads. Not gunna drop the sexism bomb on'em. I mean, not every game has to have a female lead, or gender select. It's just nice that companies occasionally have those in games now and then.

Plot reasons are ok, I guess if there's a story being told, and it's a deep, good one, then it's cool. If it's shallow enough that there -could- be gender select, then, well, they can do lewd acts to themselves.
I don't care about history, or historical accuracy coz there's a metric crapton of default male leads to fill that niche, and I prefer people having the chutzpah to be, I dunno, creative, and willing to break molds.

Edit:
As for games having a huge cast of sausagefest? Yeah, it irritates me. I know there's companies that can do better. Large all male casts without some really damn good reason? They can go fornicate themselves. Heck, if it's multiplayer and doesn't have the ability for 2 people to freely be female, I'm not really interested.

I can't believe some people act like it's too much to ask to be more welcoming to half the planet.

 

[FalloutJack]

Really now. Why do they not see that the gaming campanies do not really even care if anything looks sexist? As soon as somebody makes an over-the-top complaint that everyone sees, WELCOME TO FREE ADVERTISING! Because companies like Capcom are hardly out to make a statement, they know that the male lead or the sexy female is going to be somebody else's problem, while the people who all SEE the product and want to buy it...will, especially since it gets all the exposure.

To wit: Sexism call-outs are like anti-game sentiments. The people shouting about it attract more customers to it.

 

[AuronFtw]

This particular case aside (just miscommunication), it's still funny that we've reached a point where devs/artists have to "answer" why they decided to have one sex instead of another, or one race instead of another.

1 playable character with no female = That's ok...sorta...
2 playable characters with no female = Why isn't the other one female? We demand equality!
3 playable characters with no female = Omg sexist!
4+ playable characters with no female = MISOGYNY

Is this a thing now?

Yep. The greatest fallacy of the "gender equality" movement is how easily they're cowed by bullshit writing. Shoehorning in a female character with no other point in the plot other than being a female character is all they're interested in - "equal representation." They don't seem to realize that actual quality writing is lost or severely damaged when you force characters into an already existing story simply to meet a quota - or similarly, force people to write characters they have no interest in (and no way to "make human") simply to meet a quota.

Games exist with strong, independent female characters, regardless of whatever the delusional Anita might say. They are the minority, but they exist. The way "out" of this situation is to have more people who are comfortable writing strong female characters actually writing them - there are already plenty of writers who can make believable, relateable male characters. The way out is NOT, however, to force existing writers to awkwardly include female characters for no other reason than to include female characters. That is a one-way trip to ruining your game's story and characters - forcing more token females into games simply to avoid claims of "omg sexist" and "THESE DEVS ARE MISOG" instead of writing a story and forming characters based on what you want to have in the fucking story.

It's honestly shameful that these people have such a superficial view of the problem. But that's pretty much all they have - they aren't contributing to any meaningful resolution, they're simply whining to get noticed, to get white knight attention, to get internet sympathy points. In terms of improving the industry, at best they're doing nothing and at worst they're actively hurting it. Pity they aren't self-aware enough to see it.

As a necessary postscript, publishers are still a huge hurdle to this whole issue. Even disregarding the pigeonholing they do with games already, they're the leading cause of "you want to make a *female* lead? Well... I don't think that would sell as well, can't you make him male instead?" at the moment, and that's counterproductive for the industry. On the whole, many things publishers are doing right now are counterproductive for the industry (drm, console exclusives, season passes, overpriced low-content DLC). The sooner we get away from the "publishers are required" mindset of the 80s and 90s and embrace internet distribution, the better off everyone will be. Developers will be more able to make games they actually want to make (including those featuring female leads!) without interference from moneygrubbing publishers, and all the profits of the game will go to those devs. But for now, it's important that the omg gender equality people realize the problem isn't going to be solved by jumping up and down and throwing temper tantrums every time a singular game without an arbitrary number of female characters in the cast is released. That's counterproductive for their movement without effecting any real change. Lose-lose situation. And yet they keep doing it.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

My general philosophy on sexism (and racism, and just about any -ism) is that it isn't really there unless there's actual hatred behind it. So yes, basically as Yahtzee put it during his RE5 review; and as he also put it in that same review, Capcom aren't bad people, they're just idiots.

 

[Icehearted]

In a creaky old voice
"So this is what passes for a sexism controversy these days? Why back in my day..."

No seriously, that's it? Some stupid miscommunication if Capcom is tilling the truth?

It would be as irresponsible of the press not to have blown this out of proportion as it would have been for the readers not to throw reactionary tantrums about it.

 

[vagabondwillsmile]

Capcom Addresses Deep Down Sexism Controversy


So what do you guys think? Is it "sexist" to not include a female playable character because of the game's plot?

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-19-capcom-addresses-concern-over-lack-of-female-characters-in-deep-down]

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Maybe this is just an issue of personal taste for me, but the questions at the end of article after article, makes the material feel less like news - less like a real article - and more like just an elongated intro to start a forum thread. This is a hot-button issue anyway, so one can safely assume that there will be a discussion whether the author asks a question or not. Sometimes they are so tacked on as afterthoughts that they even miss the point of the article they aim to discuss (not this one though; and I don't have time to sift through and find the ones to which I'm referring). If the goal is to start a thread, then please do so. If the goal is to report the news, please do that too. But, to me and most likely others, it seems a mistake to attempt to achieve both goals with the same document. I can even respect that this device could be seen as driving and directing the inevitable conversation. However, considering the topic and information provided on it, the number of directions that the discussion could take is pretty limited; thus the direction isn?t necessary. Also please don?t misunderstand. I?m not singling out an author, nor do I mean disrespect. I?ve simply noticed this trend rapidly developing; and an example happened to present in an article on which I intended to comment, regardless.

OT - No, it isn't sexist. Context is everything. I remember a while back Spike Lee heavily criticized Clint Eastwood for not having African American soldiers as part of the story in one of his films. But in CONTEXT of the film, based on historical accounts, these characters didn't appear because there weren't any in that particular platoon / company. While Spike Lee is right, there were many African American heroes of that, and in fact, every war America has ever faught; Clint Eastwood (any personal feelings towards him or anyone else aside) did nothing wrong in re-enacting the bit of history in question with accuracy in this particular aspect.

The discussion this game has prompted is one of the same issue but with a different ism. The story is about some guy on a journey. It could be about some girl in a space suit, or some hedgehog, or some princess, or some plumber, it doesn't matter. In context, there is no inherent sexism in simply telling a story about some guy. I would even argue the same in the case of the original misunderstanding. However, the caveat would be, with twelve characters, why not a girl - at least one. In which case, I would err on the side of inclusion for inclusion's sake (as someone who despises racism, sexism, and all other forms of exclusion). Even then, I wouldn't call it sexism, rather ? at worst ? one could say exclusionary at that point. As it stands though, again no, there is nothing sexist about this in context of the story being told.

On a side note, but none-the-less related, we in the West should also refrain from projecting our social norms on others. What would be an example of sexism here in the Americas and possibly Europe as well ? not that the game in question here is ? may very well not be in Japan, Korea, etc. The culture is different; and the CONTEXT that informs the characterization, story, art, and game design is a product of that specific culture. We?ve got to resist the impulse to assume all cultures look through lenses tented the same hue.

 

[Kurt Cristal]

Keep in mind, this is Capcom, who turned out to be the ONLY company willing to publish a game with a female lead that the developer fought to keep, "Remember Me". Short sighted this one, but sexist it is not. At least on the publishers part. Which I also ask, is Capcom developing this or just publishing? Because if they're also developing it and their answer is "story reasons" then my response is "Pah-hahahahahahahahaaaaa 'story' reasons".

A team in Capcom is making in it

And it doesn't matter if you think the reason is laughable or not. Game makers should be allowed to make the things they want without automatically getting into the little footnotes of the politically correct

Oh, no. I agree. You misread my intent. The 'controversy' here is silly at best and I resent people who obstruct art because they disagree with the direction it takes solely because it's not in tune with their world views. I am merely just pointing out that a Capcom-developed game has laughable story at best and that this probably wouldn't be any different. So really, what I'm saying is that they were called out for being sexist and their 'defense' was 'story'. Story? Bah. "Screw the rules, I have money!" would have been a better comeback.

 

[Grabehn]

I don't get it... So the sexist part is that you have to play as a male and not a female? WTF is going on now? I can't really figure out when the "EVERY GAME NEEDS A FEMAEL CHARACTER AS WELL" shitstorm started but it's so f*cking annoying.

I remember this happening to that other "marionette" game for the PS3 (I think) and that had no "12 character" confusion. I mean, is it THAT important to have every gender "represented" in every game? Seriously, WTF.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Capcom Addresses Deep Down Sexism Controversy


So what do you guys think? Is it "sexist" to not include a female playable character because of the game's plot?

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-19-capcom-addresses-concern-over-lack-of-female-characters-in-deep-down]

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SNIP

I don't see the problem, considering how the news story's comments lead into our actual forum. Like you said, it helps incite discussion. What's wrong with that?