reichaos

I'm curious as to how much weight EA is going to be able to throw around with the SW franchise, especially given their most recent SW game (SWTOR). We should all remember how that went. Regardless of their past however, there is still plenty of potential in this. I'm not going to keep my hopes too high, but maybe they can do some justice to the universe now that they have the rights to develop.

My best to everybody put out of a job by this decision. It's unfortunate that so many closures of one sort or another have been happening so recently, but hopefully everyone will land on their feet.

This was a great read Alex, well done. I'm hopeful for the future of these franchises and for these studios. Hopefully everyone can stay together and keep developing such intriguing franchises.

I agree with a lot of the previous comments. As long as the article is good enough then I say bring it on! However, the Dead Island article was simply trying too hard.

I think that you're making some pretty broad generalizations of gamers, and people who work in the industry in any capacity. I don't think you're wrong though: it's pretty clear that strong sexualization of women, arguably to the point of objectification, is prevalent in the industry. And it's pretty obvious that there are enough people who condone it to let these decisions get made in the first place. However, where do you draw the line between 'sexualization' and 'objectification'? At what point should we applaud the developers for making a sexy female character and when should we chastise them for playing up a woman's sexuality to appeal to a bigger audience?

I don't want to seem like I'm defending the industry for this, but it sure as hell isn't as easy a problem to solve as some people are making it out to be. I also don't want to use the word sexism because it's such a charged word and isn't incredibly easy to define.

Interesting article. I was particularly intrigued by the concepts that the developers decided that they couldn't compromise on, and those that they gave up on for the sake of time. I'm now more than lukewarm about the game, thanks for the information!

Also, shouldn't it be "...defend against the incoming horde"?

That's definitely a valid point -- I guess I just got used to it like that :|

@rubberluffy While I agree that Hunter X Hunter is worth watching, I think it makes for a more awesome manga for the same exact reasons. There's something about watching it that kind of irks me, but I can't really articulate why.

I sincerely appreciate the effort to reach out to various women and to get their opinions on this matter. I think it's important for articles like this to be written every now and then, if not to try and elicit some much needed change to the industry, then to at least not let the issue fall into the background and fester until the next time it gets brought up. However, I fear that getting so many passionate opinions about this particular statue is actually harmful to the intent of the article. What I mean is that this statue is a pretty horrible attempt to advertise to the horny young men who they must consider to be their largest demographic. To put so much effort into disclaiming this statue rather than just adding it to the list of examples of objectification in gaming (and arguably sexism in gaming in general) and getting different opinions on that list is giving Deep Silver much more attention than they deserve!

Let's not let this statue divert the discussion from the real issue!