Why are people making such a big deal of out of Quiet from MGS 5?

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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I mean seriously whats the big deal, ooh she wheres a bikini into battle and poses all sexually. Coming from the MGS series which already gave us plenty of sexually arousing ladies in the form of Sniper Wolf and her exposed clevage, EVA with her tight Jumpsuit and black bra (and at times in her whole bikni), and do I need to remind you of the Beauty and the Beast unit from MGS 4?

So whats makes Quiet so special?

Personally I blame the internet of today (youtube,ease of access, and faster speeds) because appearently gaming back in the 2000s are completely unknown and forgotten in todays internet.
 

Zhukov

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People are talking about it because it's a thing in a game that just came out. It's topical.

People aren't talking about the things in the previous games because those games came out years ago. People talked about them back then. For example, I remember Yahtzee writing about the female characters in MGS4 back when MGS4 was topical.

It's also worth noting that previous MGS games tended to have a more mixed bag when it came to female characters. Yeah, there were some fanservicey ones, but there were also cool or competent ones (Boss says hi). It stands out more in MGS5 because you basically just have the one woman running around alongside the sensibly dressed guys and she's in a bikini and doing stripper routines.

I'd say more, but I'd basically be paraphrasing Jim Sterling, so I'll just link his video.

 

Eddie the head

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Ehh. She's fine if you ask me. The justification for her going into battle like that is a bit silly, but whatever. If you want a sexy girl in a bikini in you game fair enough. Frankly it's not the weirdest thing to ever happen in a Metal Gear game. And I do find myself wanting to know more about her. She's interesting because she doesn't talk so you have to try and figure out what she's thinking by context. I like it.

And would say just ignore this shit. It looks like a case of manufactured outrage to me. Any reasonable person knows it's the consistency of "sexy" characters that's a problem. So if anyone's getting pissed off at a specific instance it's just an attempt to take the moral high ground. Ignore it and it will go away. Although in fairness I guess it dose add to the pile, and it's a fairly high profile game. So maybe some people are using it as an example?

To boil it down. To feel morally superior to others, or just as an example of sexism.

Zhukov said:
It's also worth noting that previous MGS games tended to have a more mixed bag when it came to female characters. Yeah, there were some fanservicey ones, but there were also cool or competent ones (Boss says hi). It stands out more in MGS5 because you basically just have the one woman running around alongside the sensibly dressed guys and she's in a bikini and doing stripper routines.
I mean those traits aren't mutually exclusive. You can be "fanservicey" as well as being cool or competent. I mean just mean just look at MGS3. Eve was very competent. Hell Quiet is very competent. Do you mean sensibly dressed? In witch case fair enough.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Zhukov said:
People are talking about it because it's a thing in a game that just came out. It's topical.

People aren't talking about the things in the previous games because those games came out years ago. People talked about them then. For example, I remember Yahtzee writing about the female characters in MGS4 back when MGS4 was topical.

It's also worth noting that previous MGS games tended to have a more mixed bag when it came to female characters. Yeah, there were some fanservicey ones, but there were also cool or competent ones (Boss says hi). It stands out more in MGS5 because you basically just have the one woman running around alongside the sensibly dressed guys and she's in a bikini and doing stripper routines.

I'd say more, but I'd basically be paraphrasing Jim Sterling, so I'll just link his video.

Yes I know all about the Boss (And I still feel remorse everytime), I also know alot of strong female characters in other Japanese games, Resident Evil females in perticular, Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, Rebecca Chambers, and the unfairly overlooked Sheva Alomar from RE5. And also look at Left 4 Dead Rochelle and Zoey (the latter looks so much like Claire :p)

Anyway back on MGS 5: Didn't Jim once made a video where giving too much attention to something automatically makes it famous, like his one video about Anita Sarkissean is a monster created by the internet's negative response? He's making a monster out of Quiet and now everyone knows Quiet. I remember seeing the first trailer to Phantom Pain and when I first saw Quiet my reaction was "Well she's only wearing a bra because she's in a desert and its hot"
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Eddie the head said:
Ehh. She's fine if you ask me. The justification for her going into battle like that is a bit silly, but whatever. If you want a sexy girl in a bikini in you game fair enough. Frankly it's not the weirdest thing to ever happen in a Metal Gear game. And I do find myself wanting to know more about her. She's interesting because she doesn't talk so you have to try and figure out what she's thinking by context. I like it.

And would say just ignore this shit. It looks like a case of manufactured outrage to me. Any reasonable person knows it's the consistency of "sexy" characters that's a problem. So if anyone's getting pissed off at a specific instance it's just an attempt to take the moral high ground. Ignore it and it will go away. Although in fairness I guess it dose add to the pile, and it's a fairly high profile game. So maybe some people are using it as an example?

To boil it down. To feel morally superior to others, or just as an example of sexism.
Personally I don't mind Quiet because well unlike most people on the internet decrying and rationalizing her. I'll just accept her for what she is, Fanservice. And I like that because I love women, I don't care if I am decried as a pervert. Someone in this very forums made an Anime "Plot" Thread and of course deviantart. Besides the MGS fanbase as of late tends to make a lot of shall we say "Male Only" content in the internet.
 

Zhukov

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Samtemdo8 said:
Yes I know all about the Boss (And I still feel remorse everytime), I also know alot of strong female characters in other Japanese games, Resident Evil females in perticular, Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, Rebecca Chambers, and the unfairly overlooked Sheva Alomar from RE5. And also look at Left 4 Dead Rochelle and Zoey (the latter looks so much like Claire :p)
Oooooookay then.

Anyway back on MGS 5: Didn't Jim once made a video where giving too much attention to something automatically makes it famous, like his one video about Anita Sarkissean is a monster created by the internet's negative response? He's making a monster out of Quiet and now everyone knows Quiet.
You'll have to take that up with Mr Sterling. I can't speak for him.

I remember seeing the first trailer to Phantom Pain and when I first saw Quiet my reaction was "Well she's only wearing a bra because she's in a desert and its hot"
*snrrk*

Sure you did buddy. I'm sure it was the very first thought in your head.

But if we're going to do that dance, then have you ever seen what people who live in deserts actually wear? Google images search "desert clothing" right now if you like. I'll wait. Notice that the results tend toward loose clothing that covers the wearer from the sun without overheating. Especially if the wearer has light skin.
 

Eddie the head

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Zhukov said:
But if we're going to do that dance, then have you ever seen what people who live in deserts actually wear? Google images search "desert clothing" right now if you like. I'll wait. Notice that the results tend toward loose clothing that covers the wearer from the sun without overheating. Especially if the wearer has light skin.
I think it's pretty clear he meant that as a keen jerk reaction not a logical thought processes. We might know that logically in hot places you want something to cover you up a bit. But you have to admit it's a little counterintuitive. Especially if you live in a place that's lacking in sunlight.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Because she's an even more blatant source of fanservice in a world that isn't strictly devised for fanservice.
Who the fuck wears a bikini top to battle?
 

ERaptor

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The main problem is that Kojima tried to cover the fact that she's Fanservice up. Some mind blowing revelation why she's running around showing off her goods. It fell kinda flat.

Doubly so because it's not needed. I think most Fans knew what they were getting. Kojima is many things, but subtle he is not. He could've just come out and say she's Fanservice, I doubt most Fans would've made a big Deal out of it. "It's just Kojima" after all.

Altough I will call BS on people actually complaining about her Design, instead of Kojima's bad cover-up. This is Metal Gear. If the one scantily-clad Lady is taking yout out of the "narrative" you havent been paying attention the past couple games and should probably give this one a skip.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Johnny Novgorod said:
Because she's an even more blatant source of fanservice in a world that isn't strictly devised for fanservice.
Who the fuck wears a bikini top to battle?
And EVA was not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XcRtn8_cFA

And who exposes their clevage during a Sniper duel?

https://youtu.be/rr7YPzuPLas?t=231
 

RJ 17

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Samtemdo8 said:
He's making a monster out of Quiet and now everyone knows Quiet. I remember seeing the first trailer to Phantom Pain and when I first saw Quiet my reaction was "Well she's only wearing a bra because she's in a desert and its hot"
Not really, he's expressing the "controversy" that others have already pointed out from way back when Quiet was first revealed.

The issue is not that Quiet is a girl in a bikini in a game, the issue is that when questioned why a girl would be wandering around combat zones in Afghanistan in a bikini, Hideo said "When you find out the reason you'll be ashamed of your criticizing words" (or something along those lines). And while the reason she's half-naked is a "fair enough" reason by MGS logical standards, the fact that she's displayed making photo-shoot poses, rolling around and reveling in the rain, and there's even a cutscene where you take a shower with her...it makes it pretty clear that he just wanted a sexy, scantily clad chick in his game.

Had he just come right out and said "She's a sniper in a bikini because she's hot and I wanted a girl in a bikini in the game", that is to say: had he just been up front with his intentions and owned his perviness, then it wouldn't be nearly as big of an issue. But he tried to make himself seem above the other developers who have sexy females in their games by saying "No, no! Really! There's a great reason for it in this game! And when you find out, you'll feel ashamed of criticizing the decision to have her like that!"

In short: Jim and the internet didn't make this a big deal, Kojima did.
 

IronSkape

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I think it's because she IS such an awesome character that her hypersexualization is an issue. She's a great sniper, has an interesting backstory, and is genuinely useful in the game....all of which is undermined by her blatant objectification, and the flimsy excuse behind it. Cover in tactical gear that exposes her head, arms, and maybe midriff, and you keep the "breathes through her skin" narrative (which seems even sillier when it's not a boobies excuse, now that I think about it), she's still the same awesome character, and hell, she's probably still sexy, but in an empowering rather than objectified way.

Nothing I say is going to do the topic more justice than Jim Sterling, who's already been brought up.

No one's forgotten about past games, but we do talk about what's topical. Imagine if we had to bring up every single instance of past sexism in games when a new example came up; no one would escape the carpal tunnel syndrome that followed.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Because people are boring and ignorant and they need a dumb controversy to fill the void in their empty little lives. Jim Sterling included, as much as I tend to agree with him when it comes to most other things. I'm not even being sarcastic. This is what I really think about people who raise a fuss over things like the portrayal of fictional characters. Especially a fictional character created by people who's culture and social sensibilities are so different from western culture that it's completely fuckin' pointless to even discuss it. Unless you think that you can change an entire culture. In that case your ignorance knows no bounds.
 

sanquin

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I wouldn't have had a problem with her if she wasn't constantly moving like a stripper. Breathing through your skin? Well, pretty silly, but even we do that a tiny bit. Adding the stripper poses and ass/cleavage shots to that while claiming that it isn't fan service really made me dislike her as a character.
 

omega 616

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With sniper wolf the graphics where so boxy it wasn't exactly porn, unless you're Chinese.

Eva was a femme fetal,used sex appeal to get what she wanted.

Beauty and beast unit was not only referential to beauty and the beast but things are automatically worse if tragic back stories happen to women, instead of guys. Plus they were only sexually displayed when out of their armour, then they just zombie walk at you.

Quiet is just naked all the time, camera constantly zooms to inappropriate body parts and the reason for her walking around wearing next to nothing? She breathes through her skin .... WHY!? It was a character designed by erection ... so lonely guys can ogle them and women who like to show off "what their mama gave them" can cosplay them.

I'd rather her be dressed like an assassins creed member, not wearing string or even worse ... coated in blood/silver/gold!
 

Aesir23

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Honestly, I don't see it as a terribly big deal but I do think Kojima should have just come out with "I want a sexy girl in the game" as opposed to trying to sweep it under the rug with the whole "You'll be ashamed of yourselves" thing.

Quiet's attire doesn't bother me either since you can change it later on if you like.

The only thing I would say even remotely "bothers" me is the blatant posing plus how they almost seem to be shoving her tits and ass into the camera so often. I mean, I get it, I'm not the target audience for the game but it does make me roll my eyes a bit and I think I'd be able to take the character a lot more seriously if the posing wasn't so obvious.
 

Schadrach

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Zhukov said:
Yeah, there were some fanservicey ones, but there were also cool or competent ones (Boss says hi).
I always find it odd that a female character can be either sexually appealing or competent, but somehow the one prevents the other. Rather like when I see someone say that they had high hopes for an anime being well written, but there was fanservice, and one somehow prevents the other instead of being unrelated.
 

TilMorrow

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Because they don't know that
A) She gets super burnt at the start of the game but is ordered to spend ages at a time in the desert which is hardly a pleasant experience if you wear full combat fatigues plus the body armour she wore in the beginning.
B) Is like a chameleon in that her skin either blends into the background or she turns invisible to complement her role as a sniper and it appears it isn't possible if she is wearing a full set of gear. (at least this is how it appears ingame, haven't got a full explaination of what is up with super soldier Quiet yet).
C) May not even be really her as there's been a strong suggestion of hallucinations so far as I've played. so her appearance could simply be a fantasy appearance created by Big Boss' partially-pressured-by-a-big-piece-of-shrapnel brain.

But yeah it's a women in a bikini in a game so someone has to lose their shit over it.
 

Mister K

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*I did not play MGSV and is judging Quiet based only on her looks*

I am not making a big deal out of how she looks, I simply think that she looks bad.
I mean, this is one extreme, know as chaimail bikini:
Looks pretty. Impractical, but pretty.

This is a woman in fully clothed military-like attire(s):
Looks official, as if character means buisness.

This a woman with "something in between" street-like attire:
Looks practical (belt aside), but still reveals one of the sexiest parts of woman body (apart form every other part) which is belly.

Now look at Quiet:
She has the clothes that a cheap hooker on her bad day would be too decent to wear.