Kessler Kam: The Great Half-Life Debate
By mattbodega 102 Comments
What's up, everyone? Hey, Guess what? I'm working at Whiskey!
I'll be spending the summer working as an Intern for Whiskey Media, providing an extra hand to all the sites when they need it. I've alphabetized comic books for Comic Vine and written Anime stories for Anime Vice already and posted a trailer on Giant Bomb!
I'll also be an extra person to contact in case you guys have problems on the site! If you guys have any questions, comments, or angry rants, feel free to send it my way. I'll try and help in any way I can.
Let no one tell you that your dumbass podcast is a waste of time.
Your humble intern,
MattBodega
is totally killer!
I know we don't talk about World of Warcraft much on Giant Bomb, because World of Warcraft is for nerds, and Giant Bomb is only about cool stuff like guns and boobs and anthropomorphic domino men that refuse to be halted. So it makes sense that serious discussion of WoW tends to take place....well....anywhere but on Giant Bomb.
But with today's release of the much anticipated Wrath of the Lich King patch 3.3, I thought I'd take a moment to tell you why this patch may be the most exciting thing to happen to the Warcraft Franchise since 2004......and why even Non-WoW players might be interested to see what goes down.
You see, Patch 3.3, along with adding a slew of new game systems, quests, dungeons, and stolen ideas(they TOOK the Tome of Knowledge Questing Map straight out of Warhammer! Those devious jerks!) 3.3 also adds the Icecrown Citadel raid, where teams of 10 to 25 can face Azeroth's toughest enemies and, potentially, take the fight to the Lich King, the Traitor Arthas.
Let me reiterate that with the proper emphasis.
There are so many wonderful characters in Persona 4: the energetic Chie, who will do anything to protect those she loves, the awkward Yosuke, who dreams of a more exciting life, the innocent Nanako, who doesn’t understand why her Father works all the time, and the whipped Dojima, who can’t find the courage to tell his daughter that he works all the time to protect her. Even within the confines of Japanese game storytelling—which doesn’t often have the luxury of subtle, quiet storytelling (with rare exceptions) – Persona 4 creates a cast of compelling, interesting characters who do, indeed, have genuine, human characteristics at their core. The kids and adults of Iniba are flawed people, as flawed and compelling as anyone in Liberty City. It makes the ridiculous murder plot of Persona 4—which has the characters jump into Television sets to fight shadows created by the insecurities of the town—actually seem somewhat plausible. Persona 4 is a rich, fascinating universe, with one of the greatest ensemble cast of any video game I have ever played.
The character who I found the most interesting of the whole group—the character whose psychological dilemma really touched me the most—was none other than wannabe biker, roughneck, and textile master Kanji Tatsumi. Kanji is brazen, reckless, and incredibly loyal. He isn’t afraid to call out other characters on their bullshit, and he, more than any other member of the Investigation Team, realizes that dealing with your shadow is, in fact, incredible beneficial to those whose minds are so troubled.
And yet, under that tough-as-nails exterior, Kanji, emerges as one of the most complicated and interesting characters in the game; raising serious questions about the way society handles and understands gender and sexuality.
I was so connected to the character, and felt that his characteristics and message were so clear, that I was more than a little angered by the way Kanji was interpreted in a recent video on Destuctoid.com. The video in question was a rant, written and performed by site editor Anthony Burch, in which he argued that video games desperately needed homosexual characters that didn't conform to obvious stereotypes. It's a pretty standard video about a topic that has come up a fair number of times; we've all read something like this before, where progressive game writers bemoan the obvious and infuriating stereotypes about minorities that appear so often in games.
What shocked me, about the article, however, was that Mr. Burch called out Persona 4 as an example of a game which handled homosexuality extremely poorly.
As P4 players and Endurance Run viewers remember, Kanji Tatsumi's main struggle is to come to grips with his own sexual orientation. The battle that leads Kanji to understand himself is one of the great moments in any video game to date, period. It provides-- or, at least, I thought it provided--a clear and profound explanation for the character.
Apparently, this is not the case.
With the character of Kanji, Mr. Burch thinks that Atlus, “sotra half-assed it. Is he gay? Is he not gay? You can argue that this is because of different definitions of sexuality in japan vs. here, and that (sexuality) is not as clear cut as that, but the game still made me feel that that was a cowardly move, to make a character, and actually explore what it’s like to be gay in high school when that’s not really the accepted norm, and then refuse to say whether he’s gay or not."
MattBodega, TokyoChicken, and Jensonb began thought they were recording just another ordinary episode of Bomb Should Have A Face, Giant Bomb's Community Podcast.
But something happened on that Skype Call. Something they didn't expect Something wondrous. Something terrifying. Something.....smoggy.
6 Guests. 3 Topics. Less than 2 hours.
Bomb Should Have A Face was reborn. Shorter. Faster. Leaner. Quicker. Smarter. Bomber.
On this week's BSHAF, we make our awkward E3 predictions, share our rarest Achievements, and finally realize that Giant Bomb's first birthday is just around the corner! All this and more on Bomb Should Have A Face, Giant Bomb's Community Podcast for the Community Matters that Matter Most!
You can download the show directly here!
You can check out our past episodes on our RSS feed here! Or Subscribe to the Feed!
And be sure to subscribe to the new show on iTunes here!
Want to be a guest on Bomb Should Have A Face? Share your thoughts about Giant Bomb, video games, or whatever errant throught wanders through your brain! PM MattBodega or JensonB if you want to join the podcast fun!
You can download the show directly here!
You can check out our past episodes on our RSS feed here! Or Subscribe to the Feed!
And be sure to subscribe to the new show on iTunes here!
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