great article, and so refreshing reading these comments. it was only like a year ago that I felt like I couldn't look at giant bomb comments sections for any article that wasn't explicitly and exclusively about games
you missed the point completely - i wasn't questioning the severity of either, and there's no need to discuss whether "rape is worse than murder" or vice versa, that's a stupid, pointless argument. the idea is that audiences - especially gaming ones - are mature enough to know that murder is bad, but not necessarily that all rape is bad. this is why rape is a sensitive issue, because people are still raped, have their perpetrator go on trial and have them get off scot-free. yes, this happens with murder obviously but with rape it's a huge problem that silences its victims - mostly women, who find themselves silenced and attacked by gaming audiences anyway. the entire point is much larger than this and deserves a space where it won't be unnecessarily scrutinised by people who'll never agree
I know that this topic is largely connected with things like the social perception of what's right and wrong, which is a purely theoretical and unquantifiable concept, but I'm not just gonna let you get away with a statement like this. Please tell us on what do you base the claim that gaming audiences don't know that rape is bad (at least they don't know it on the scale compared to murder).
i said "all rape" (not just rape) because audiences tend to have their own definitions as to what rape is, things to do with the ambiguity of consent etc. this enables "ordinary people" to rape even when they think they're not. this cannot be said for murder
I'm also disturbed by the amount of people who say "rape is a serious thing to be handled with care" and thereby implicitly stating gun violence is somehow not serious or doesn't affect peoples lives as severely. Over 100,000 people in the US each year are injured or killed by guns, and each of their lives and their family's lives are hurt by this. I've had multiple people hold guns aimed at me and it's a horrifying, pants-shitting moment that sticks with you and makes you feel queasy when you think back to it, but I feel no desire to hold game developers to an obligation to treat everything as deathly seriously as an after-school-special.
yes but you probably don't know many, if any, who have been shot on purpose with a gun. rape statistics suggest you're probably acquainted with a rape victim, whether you know it or not. you cannot treat these issues as being equal when one is much closer to home and is STILL not totally culturally abhorrent. many still don't understand what is and isn't rape.
Irrelevant, as someone that has been close to both a person who was raped, and one who was the victim of gun violence. Just because it might happen close to you has no influence, in my opinion, on how horrible something is. Let's say that I lived in a reality where I had had someone close to me shot, but never sexually assault. That doesn't lessen the impact of sexual assault. Same vice versa. The amount of people should not influence the severity of it.
you missed the point completely - i wasn't questioning the severity of either, and there's no need to discuss whether "rape is worse than murder" or vice versa, that's a stupid, pointless argument. the idea is that audiences - especially gaming ones - are mature enough to know that murder is bad, but not necessarily that all rape is bad. this is why rape is a sensitive issue, because people are still raped, have their perpetrator go on trial and have them get off scot-free. yes, this happens with murder obviously but with rape it's a huge problem that silences its victims - mostly women, who find themselves silenced and attacked by gaming audiences anyway. the entire point is much larger than this and deserves a space where it won't be unnecessarily scrutinised by people who'll never agree
I'm also disturbed by the amount of people who say "rape is a serious thing to be handled with care" and thereby implicitly stating gun violence is somehow not serious or doesn't affect peoples lives as severely. Over 100,000 people in the US each year are injured or killed by guns, and each of their lives and their family's lives are hurt by this. I've had multiple people hold guns aimed at me and it's a horrifying, pants-shitting moment that sticks with you and makes you feel queasy when you think back to it, but I feel no desire to hold game developers to an obligation to treat everything as deathly seriously as an after-school-special.
yes but you probably don't know many, if any, who have been shot on purpose with a gun. rape statistics suggest you're probably acquainted with a rape victim, whether you know it or not. you cannot treat these issues as being equal when one is much closer to home and is STILL not totally culturally abhorrent. many still don't understand what is and isn't rape.
As a lot of other people I only really care about reviews when they are done by reviewers I know has the same taste as myself. Reading a review done by someone I know hates several of my favorite games make no sense for instance. With that in mind, I tend to stay far away from reviewers who inject much of their social views in their reviews.
Does this have something to do with how most reviewers are American, and in America sex is viewed as something bad? I mean, it is common knowledge that Europe and the USA has widely different views on sex.
So whenever some game writer says something like "this woman has a sexy outfit, this game is bad and made to appeal to perverted teens" or "the game has prostitutes in a level where you go through a brothel, this is a bad game and you should be ashamed for playing it" I instantly find that writer to be someone I can safely ignore. Those writers are free to write whatever they will of course, but I'll stay far away.
as a european... what the hell? how are you equivocating the depiction of women as sex objects in games as "sex is bad"? what you're referring to is usually part of a larger point, wherein the only (or a major part of) female representation in a game is via prostitution or their tits. please find me an example of what you're talking about
re: the topic, as was said right at the start of the thread, i think games should be criticised like any other artistic medium and not have to pander to any anti-feminist (etc) crowd, this is pretty obvious
after watch the giant bomb crew get into Windjammers and play some Sanrio World Smash Ball I was wondering if there's many other games in this vein? fun 2-player sports games invented by the developers, rather than them being simulations of pre-existing games. maybe Tetris Battle Gaiden counts too
this is heartbreaking for me, i love both games for entirely different reasons. spelunky is so perfectly designed and i don't see myself ever not playing it for at least an hour every day for the foreseeable future at least. dark souls is such a weird game but i've probably had better with experiences with it just down to the nature of what the game sets out to be from the start. so i don't really think it's fair putting these games against each other, and i think spelunky is better designed overall but i'm voting for dark souls
when you boot up project zero 2, it tells you that the game HAS to run in either 480i or 480p to even function, then it kicks you back to the wii menu. I thought I could just go back to the wii u menu, change the resolution there to 480p and boot up VWii again and have it work, but got the same prompt, so I guess VWii doesnt adhere to any display changes you make on the Wii U? this is such an edge case but does anyone have any insights as to what I can do here? otherwise I just straight up can't play this game, since my Wii is in another country right now
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