Entitled Americans and media over-representation.

[Terminate421]

Why can't you grow up and be more like the rest of the world?

I stopped reading right there.

You have no right to justify your culture over ours because of your own beliefs. End of story.

I will admit we have shit on TV but thats why you just change the channel like we've been doing since the 1960's

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Oh, you don't like America? Get in line, most of the world hates us, and we give zero fucks. We can't hear your butt hurt over the sound of our buying power and economic influence.

Spoiler

 

[klaynexas3]

While I didn't read it all, I made it far enough before vomiting to notice that this actually was a satire. While it definitely lacked the finesse of many better satires, I can still say I do somewhat agree with what you're talking about. However, the reason why so many gamers complain about the content that are in games is so that developers get a chance to hear the ideas of the communities. Most developers hardly actually listen unless there is a decent enough shitstorm to get things changed, so otherwise these people would be unheard. Either way, you might want to cut down on the massive wall of text when writing satire, as it can take away from the message you might be trying to get across.

 

[Zeckt]

Why don't you get mad at japanese game developers for making their games primarily having their race as main roles as well? Why the surprise when a game is made or a book is written in a country it stars the race in question? is it their fault someone else wants to experience that specific entertainment? why should they have to impress every single religion, culture and person in the world? American media and entertainment is the most vocal because you allow it to be. You don't like it, stop buying it. Why not have your country make their own games? is it our fault your country is not interested enough in making alternatives for your race and culture that ours has to go out of their way to make you happy? I understand it's a satire, but no ones to blame for American entertainment being successful in other countries but the countries themselves. Why bite the hand of steam when they make the effort to bring more games to your country?

 

[karma9308]

This thread is going places. And by places I mean the 7th circle of hell.

Captcha: Be my friend?
I'll be your friend Captcha.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I agree... to an extent.

There are dozens of game types out there that don't even have male or female characters. There are many, many Arcade/Simulation/RTS etc. that don't even appear on the gender issues radar because they don't have genders in their games.

However if you look at the big hitters, the AAA games, the ones that get the multi million dollar advertising campaigns and sell the most copies, break records, etc. There are some gender issues that need to be addressed.

Virtually all the protagonists of these games are male. It's a big issue. If you tried to name as many dedicated male human videogame protagonists as you could you'd be in the triple figures before you start really struggling. Do it with females and it's difficult to go much further than 10.

Look at Naughty Dog's fight to keep a female character on the box art. Look at their discovery that marketers don't include girls when doing market research into videogames, Heck, Bioshock Infinite failed to keep Elizabeth on the box art, instead we got scruffy middle aged dark haired white guy #4536 holding a shotgun. *ORIGINALITY HO!*

Successful female videogame protagonists are very much the exception in the AAA industry, and the industry have no intentions of trying to change that. That is an issue, and it won't go away until we ask why it's there and try to correct it.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I seriously could not get through even a third of that, no matter how hard I tried. I think my brain shut off my reading comprehension skills in order to preserve my sanity.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

 

[Fishes]

While I didn't read it all, I made it far enough before vomiting to notice that this actually was a satire. While it definitely lacked the finesse of many better satires, I can still say I do somewhat agree with what you're talking about. However, the reason why so many gamers complain about the content that are in games is so that developers get a chance to hear the ideas of the communities. Most developers hardly actually listen unless there is a decent enough shitstorm to get things changed, so otherwise these people would be unheard. Either way, you might want to cut down on the massive wall of text when writing satire, as it can take away from the message you might be trying to get across.

Really? It is your position that coming out and insulting large groups of people over the ridicules, ignoring the majority of data because it disagrees with you, belittling things you know people adore, and everything else that boils down to an effort to create a "shitstorm" is a great way to get people to listen to you? That it does not put people on the defensive and shut the conversation down, and rally troops against anything you have to say?

First: Profiteers listen when profits drop, or at least stop going up, not before.
Second: People don't listen at all when they are upset about an irrational personal attack. Ad hominem isn't persuasive.
Third: One post in this thread deals with the actual issue, the rest stopped reading before the end third paragraph.

It seems to me that we have fairly high quality evidence that creating a storm is the absolute worst way in the world to get a point noticed, much less discussed. A lot of people who think they know a thing about A Modest Proposal don't know very much about Irish History. Here is a point in Irish History fifty years after the death of Swift.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Rebellion_of_1798

If you wish, you can just skip down to Atrocities.

Finally: The opening post contains the word satire, but it is not a work of satire. Satire does not jump up and down and scream that it is satire and talk about other examples it might have belittled to make it's point. The post is designed to discredit the honored status creating a storm holds in the hearts of folks with political agendas.

Creating a storm is a great way to get people to react. Just not a great way to get people to react in your favor.

 

[DoPo]

There are dozens of game types out there that don't even have male or female characters. There are many, many Arcade/Simulation/RTS etc. that don't even appear on the gender issues radar because they don't have genders in their games.

However, it should be noted that that's not exactly a point in favour. It just means that games either depict genders badly or don't even try to. And compared to the rest, there is a very small minority that tries, some even succeed. And herein lies the issue - how many games can we point out that even attempt, let alone succeed? Going from the top of my head, I can remember...maybe a dozen. Now let's compare them to all the rest. I can name dozens of each of the two groups. From the top of my head.

 

[klaynexas3]

While I didn't read it all, I made it far enough before vomiting to notice that this actually was a satire. While it definitely lacked the finesse of many better satires, I can still say I do somewhat agree with what you're talking about. However, the reason why so many gamers complain about the content that are in games is so that developers get a chance to hear the ideas of the communities. Most developers hardly actually listen unless there is a decent enough shitstorm to get things changed, so otherwise these people would be unheard. Either way, you might want to cut down on the massive wall of text when writing satire, as it can take away from the message you might be trying to get across.

Really? It is your position that coming out and insulting large groups of people over the ridicules, ignoring the majority of data because it disagrees with you, belittling things you know people adore, and everything else that boils down to an effort to create a "shitstorm" is a great way to get people to listen to you? That it does not put people on the defensive and shut the conversation down, and rally troops against anything you have to say?

I never said it was a great way, I'm saying history has shown, at least in most places, that the shitstorm is necessary to get some movement. That makes people listen, when people are clearly pissed. Take the ME3 ending for example, people made a big enough fit, and things changed. I'm not saying this is something we should be proud of, or that it should be the way that things are, I'm saying that that is how things are for the most part. So yes, that is my damn position. I wasn't expecting the hostility for putting it out there.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

That is indeed a lot of reading for me to do. I read though a lot of it, though. I'd be wrong to write a lot myself but not read large posts of other people.

From what I can tell, you don't like how dominant American pop culture is throughout the world. There's a little word for that called "cultural imperialism". That is sometimes used right and sometimes abused for a separatist, anti-multicultural agenda. Or for people to justify bad aspects of multiple cultures. Other times, it shows how unfair things are.

The flow of culture is largely one way. That is, from Western colonies of Western Europe who speak English to the rest of the world. In which most of the media around the world is about white people who speak English, or racial stereotypes of non-whites. It's a real problem. In my opinion at the very least. Lots of cultures and languages are starting to disappear from this mostly one way flow of culture.

Though, other than better racial and ethnic representation, there isn't much we can do as a privileged group in a globalist society. Perhaps challenging big Corporations that help to decided to segregate markets and speed up the global cultural washing process. And perhaps lessen the money inequality in the world.

One of the reasons the United States is so dominant in the media is because of money. It is also helped by the fact that the United States is the origin of Hollywood. But money is certainly a massive influence. In fact one of the reasons that Japanese and South Korean entertainment is powerful and influential worldwide while languages around the world are currently dying, is because these countries have money. More money, means better representation. The United States, Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea all have money, and lots of it.

Other races and nations will be better represented, when, in the global sphere, they are less poor. Countries being poor is already a negative thing period. No nation should be poor. And having your culture wiped with American culture is an unfortunate side effect. This is just one small reason among many more important reasons to end global poverty.

 

[Fishes]

I agree... to an extent.

There are dozens of game types out there that don't even have male or female characters. There are many, many Arcade/Simulation/RTS etc. that don't even appear on the gender issues radar because they don't have genders in their games.

However if you look at the big hitters, the AAA games, the ones that get the multi million dollar advertising campaigns and sell the most copies, break records, etc. There are some gender issues that need to be addressed.

Virtually all the protagonists of these games are male. It's a big issue. If you tried to name as many dedicated male human videogame protagonists as you could you'd be in the triple figures before you start really struggling. Do it with females and it's difficult to go much further than 10.

Look at Naughty Dog's fight to keep a female character on the box art. Look at their discovery that marketers don't include girls when doing market research into videogames, Heck, Bioshock Infinite failed to keep Elizabeth on the box art, instead we got scruffy middle aged dark haired white guy #4536 holding a shotgun. *ORIGINALITY HO!*

Successful female videogame protagonists are very much the exception in the AAA industry, and the industry have no intentions of trying to change that. That is an issue, and it won't go away until we ask why it's there and try to correct it.

So, the problem is that media that emphasizes production values over things like originality and innovation employes stereotypically shallow marketing ploys and targets the demographic that prioritizes production values over originality and innovation?

Shallow media targets shallow people. Lucky for us, there is other media, no? Or to provide an actual example:

The movie Battleship cost five times as much to make as Lincoln, and two and a half times as much as Django. Why should this tick me off. As someone who laughed hysterically for ten minutes when I found out there were making a movie out of Battleship but did not see it, why do I need to actively campaign to change this trend?

Seems like supporting the heck out of media you adore gets the job done. That is while I was awaiting the expected reaction posts I got to play Stardrive. I supported the crap out of the 4x industry in all of it's incarnations even when it was presumed dead. I never gave up on it, because X-com got me into gaming when I dismissed it because my Dad played Doom. When I got the news about the first person shooter, I... Well can you guess what action I took?

Now I am going to go play Kerbal Space Program. I don't want to stop designing space ships, but I have had enough war today. What game are you going to go play? If it is Bioshock, you may wish to think about which one of us is actually supporting the game industry they hope to see next year.

I never said it was a great way, I'm saying history has shown, at least in most places, that the shitstorm is necessary to get some movement. That makes people listen, when people are clearly pissed.

Again, the reactions seem to disprove this, as example, look at this quote.

That is indeed a lot of reading for me to do. I read though a lot of it, though. I'd be wrong to write a lot myself but not read large posts of other people.

From what I can tell, you don't like how dominant American pop culture is throughout the world.

On top of this, Johnathan Swift's A Modest Proposal did not have an impact on the bloody history of Ireland. It didn't get people thinking about how maybe they should treat Irishmen like people, much less the actual Irish people, or stop a single atrocity. It mostly just ticked people off. It was pretty much only useful to English professors explaining the concept of satire to people.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I may have just posted in a thread admitting that I occasionally eat at McDonald's, but truth be told, I'm not really a hamburger person overall. The rest of your thread confused me and reminded me of when my grandmother gets upset about something.

 

[Trinab]

That was one of the worst written rants I've ever read. Way too off tangent to follow easily. Although considering the author is a self-confessed bag of fish, the meandering may be explained by their communal thought process.

As for the, uh, topic of the title thread, the American media is so American focused because it's designed to appeal to Americans. Mass Media originated in the States, so they have a bit of a stranglehold on it. Lots of non-american media out there, CBC, BBC, Al-Jazeera, they just don't have the presence that the US does because well, less of a market for it.

Frankly as a non-American I enjoy American media. Mixing it with local and international sources I feel it provides a more balanced view of the world. And whether you like it or not, what the US thinks in general will have a world-impact as the last Superpower.

 

[Xdeser2]

You see, I thought about getting mad and writing walls of text denoting how ridiculous most of the points in your rant are (that is, when you even have a point and aren't just on some 5 paragraph tangent) but then I asked myself...Do I really care that one more person doesn't like my country?

Lets see your country become the shining paragon of human idealism that you apparently want. Im not saying that we all shouldn't try to attain that goal (we totally should), or that the U.S. is perfect or "Better" than other nations (it's most certainly not) but its not gonna happen, no matter how much anyone tries.

Took the words right outta' my mouth (well, keyboard, but you get the idea)

 

[Muspelheim]

I am from the rest of the world.

Der Amerikaner at not -that- big meanies. :<

 

[Doom972]

Funny how many people didn't read it all the way and just assumed that it's an anti-American rant.

This rant is poorly worded but makes a good point - The gaming industry makes a lot of games for straight white males because that's their biggest audience (not sexism) and they do make many games that aren't for that audience, but people who want to seem progressive by complaining about sexism choose to ignore those.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

Oh, you don't like America? Get in line, most of the world hates us, and we give zero fucks. We can't hear your butt hurt over the sound of our buying power and economic influence.

Buying power, you mean all the money you lend from China?

You know what we call someone who needs to borrow money in order to function? A bum.

Lets see your country become the shining paragon of human idealism

Groping children and old women at the airport security check? Granting the millitary power to arrest and detain citizens without habeas corpus? There are other countries where this happens, they are often known as dictatorships.

-------------

As far as the OP I got nothing against Americans, but yes they are often self entitled.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Funny how many people didn't read it all the way and just assumed that it's an anti-American rant.

This rant is poorly worded but makes a good point - The gaming industry makes a lot of games for straight white males because that's their biggest audience (not sexism) and they do make many games that aren't for that audience, but people who want to seem progressive by complaining about sexism choose to ignore those.

I think people didn't read it all the way BECAUSE it's a gigantic, textwall of a bunch of confusingly written points with little focus. Even the "good point" you mentioned assumes that AAA games are inherently bad and American and not worth improving, which is about as dismissive as you can get. So why bother?

 

[Auron]

@OP This is actually a good read man, the xenophobia was a bit too much imo though and it called attention to all the wrong parts.

So, remember when I contrasted Google image searches of the words romance novel covers with the covers of the books actually being sold to people? Now go download Steam, and take a look at it's four thousand three hundred and ninety eight single player gamer and expansions. Too lazy? Here is the list of games supported by steam with in game achievements.

http://steamcommunity.com/stats/

Don't worry, you will still see boobs, but the only way one could look at such a list and conclude that gaming exclusively caters to adolescent male power and sex fantasies is if they focus only upon the games that target the teenage male demographic by catering to their power and sex fantasies while ignoring others. You know, like the ones that target that demographic with poop jokes.

Which is a bit like getting ticked off that TV focuses upon Americans, assuming you only consider American TV that is created for American consumption, while ignoring everything that doesn't support your argument. Like the rest of the world.

In short, don't like games made by guys for younger guys? You realize general audience is the largest market, and has the most games, right?

Right? We are all going to stop showing how progressive we are by pretending Duke Nukem is the only game in existence? There are flipping legions of happy gamers that rarely if ever pick up AAA action dudebro to the max games. Heck, there is even this one type of seriously creepy gamer, that plays this 'sports ball." thing almost exclusively. They all run around doing confusing things, and then get really excited for no reason. Then for some reason, a very flaming individual sings about how he is going to rock you, and how they are champions. I am pretty sure it is a cult, but I think both men and women join this 'sports ball" cult.

I mean seriously, I am building space ships over hear, and I need to fully test it before I save this game and load up the one where I build rocket ships to fly to the moon. I won't have time to if you people don't stop getting your sexism debate all over my video games.

Oh, wait. Content you object to doesn't jump from games you don't like onto beloved games you have already purchased? Holy crap folks, I thought it said does. I missed the n't. Sorry for the wall of text. Total false alarm, I am a total bag of fish.

This is actually good stuff lol and I actually agree, most of my library in Steam lacks Gear of War-esque protagonists or boobs everywhere, in fact I don't think I own a single game that exploits sex, maybe Hitman absolution but it was just the trailer pretty much and it's far from the game's main focus.

I will admit we have shit on TV but thats why you just change the channel like we've been doing since the 1960's

Oh don't worry, it's shit everywhere, Down here in South America it's just as bad, maybe more diversified but just as bad.

Oh, you don't like America? Get in line, most of the world hates us, and we give zero fucks. We can't hear your butt hurt over the sound of our buying power and economic influence.

lol, that's not the way to go buddy, don't know if you're just trolling the bait in the OP but still not the way to go. Also like guy from the 80's stated, the economy is dwindling slowly but steady, which actually worries me because the Chinese are much worse but anyway not the time or place.