Politics in Media - The Good, the Bad, and the Preachy

Well, that's another question: do you go for as broad an appeal as possible at the risk of being homogenous (and coming across as pandering), or do you stick to your guns and serve a specific audience at the risk of being called exclusionary?

I'm sure some audience members would have appreciated if Geralt had a gay romance option in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but the writers decided that he was purely straight and that was that. Is that wrong — from either perspective?

I don't mind characters hit on the player character - it makes it seem more natural, rather than them sitting around like dolls waiting to be interacted with.

If anything, I'd even like to see more games where the character continues to feel that way even after they're turned down: let's add some jealously to the mix. Make that jealousy deadly, even.

Edited by SilentColossus on May 6th 2024 at 11:29:11 AM

I don't think it's wrong for a character to be straight and only have opposites-gender love interests, just as I don't mind if everyone is bisexual, or the protagonist is gay with only same-gender love interests. I think the idea is for media as a whole to portray more diversity of sexuality, body type, looks, etc., not every single piece of media.

It would definitely be nice if there was a mix in RP Gs with romance options where some NP Cs you have to start the flirting, other NP Cs will fall for you (perhaps depending on your choices) and you have the choice to turn them down or accept, and some NP Cs who you can ask out but who will turn them down. It's a nice way of increasing immersion, as not everyone you could enter a relationship with would wait for you to make the first move.

Edited by king15 on May 6th 2024 at 3:32:04 PM

I'd say that if a writer chooses to write a character of the majority demographic, the writer cannot be faulted. There are theoretically enough other writers that slack can be picked up.

I will however fault publishers who shut down works for featuring minority representation.

Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on May 6th 2024 at 11:31:10 AM

Were that I was rich and insane, I'd find a 1969 Dodge charger, paint the pan-African flag on the roof, and drive around the deepest, reddest parts of the South and see if anyone gets it. I'd call it the Frederick Douglass.

Within my statement I did also include mentioning the industry at large. That's what I meant with the line "Same deal if the industry releases dozens of otaku works every season, but 1-2 fujoshi works in the same period, if we want our fanservice works segregated." If you're aiming for a specific audience, that's all well and good. But if the industry as a whole favors a specific audience, that becomes an issue all over again. But if you're stating your work is for a general audience, but all your general audience works only show male gaze laden fanservice, you're not doing general audience works. You're doing primarily male audience works with everyone else acting as the periphery. You treat sexuality like any other form of representation, including who is the one treated as eye-candy, and not just in genders, but in body-types and features as well. There is a colorism and body discrimination in how sexuality is treated after all.

In KOTOR 2, several of the Force sensitives fall in love with the Exile, despite the fact that the game doesn't allow you to romance any of them. And they get really, really jealous of each other, to the point, if you have the restored content mod, Atton and Brianna will try to kill Mical and Visas, respectively, in the dark side ending.

Even normally, Brianna can get jealous enough that she will refuse to speak with the Exile if Visas gets a higher influence score. Which, from a gameplay perspective, is frustrating, but it's something I want to see more: angry, vicious jealousy.

Aside from the fact that KOTOR 2 is obviously unfinished even with the mod, my biggest issue is how gender locked everything is, like so many games from the time period.

So, I want more of that, but even bigger and more complicated, and set in a speculative fiction setting like Star Wars.

Edited by SilentColossus on May 6th 2024 at 12:10:39 PM

The argument is based on the fact that a lot of Japanese games get made to censor their fanservice elements, whilst games from high-profile western developers like Naughty Dog get away with having actual nudity and sex scenes.

And IIRC is only on Sony's platforms while other places don't censor it, as just a few days ago there was talk about Sony censoring an art book included with a limited edition release of a VN, while the Switch version is untouched.

Yeah, didn't Sony censor (via lens flare) a scene of a naked arse (gasp!) in one of the Devil May Cry games?

Edited by king15 on May 6th 2024 at 6:39:12 PM

Way to give an edge to the competition.

5 specifically, yes. They backtracked and edited it, but its still a Never Live It Down Moment there.

They also infamously censored the Playstation ports of Doki Doki Literature Club! +, making all the blood black and the violence less graphic, and thats a western indie game that simply uses anime style graphics as a Parody of Japanese Dating Sims, as if they specifically have something against games that use Anime artstyles specifically regardless of country of origin. Every other port, even the Switch version, remained untouched.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on May 6th 2024 at 2:55:12 PM

Sony aside, you can still find all the hentai games you could possibly want on Steam. PC Gaming Master Race for the win again.

Edited by Fighteer on May 6th 2024 at 2:55:38 PM

never pegged you as a PC master race guy.

they were being ironic

-Wrong thread, sorry.-

Edited by PhoenixAct on May 6th 2024 at 8:07:47 PM

Well, Steam has it’s own problems in this vein, but they are far removed from PlayStation ones. As in, the content they have denied was never (and wouldn't have been) released on any console.

Edited by Smeagol17 on May 6th 2024 at 10:29:46 PM

If I ever utter the words "PC Gaming Master Race", I am absolutely being ironic. That said, I do rather enjoy sitting over here in my PC world, getting all the games I want for cheap AF and not having to deal with console bullshit.

Instead, I have to wait for console games that I'm interested in to get crappy, half-hearted ports. Such is life.

Getting back to the "less sex in movies" topic, this makes me wonder, has the level of sexual subject matter in popular music increased or stayed the same? It's hard to really say given the numerous genres out there.

I wouldn't say it's increased in amount/frequency, but it's definitely becoming more blatant.

The 2000s was definitely the most glaring decade. Enough that P!nk could make a song and music video satirising it.

So I'd like to discuss a scene from Dragon Ball Super. Specifically, Zamasu's and Gowasu's discussion on the nature of good and evil, and justice.

It's one of those scenes where you can see where both sides are coming from, and it gives Zamasu a level of complexity not seen in most Dragon Ball villains, while most are evil for the sake of it, or because they are actual destructive forces like Kid Buu, Zamasu comes from a perverted sense of justice, but he certainly has validity in arguments from my perspective.

Mostly the bit about how the Kai should be doing more to combat evil in the universe while Gowasu believes otherwise.

I did find Gowasu's argument for why they let evil in the world to be quite profound however:

""One can succumb to evil but reject that darkness and rediscover the light with new understanding. Justice makes that journey possible, and evil informs good."

Gowasu basically argues that evil is needed in the universe to represent free will and evil is there to make good shine brighter and illuminate our mistakes so that we learn more. That's why the Kai have a policy of non-interference even against people like Frieza who routinely commits genocide against multiple races.

Think about it, without Frieza, then Goku would never become the Super Saiyan and achieve the victories needed in later fights.

Zamasu would argue that evil only sullies good, but his inability to accept his own evil and mistakes just leads him to embrace black and white insanity to enact the zero mortal plan.

So Gowasu's point about evil being needed to inform justice is demonstrated through Zamasu's own fall. Because how can one know the right thing, if you don't know the wrong thing?

Edited by RedHunter543 on May 7th 2024 at 2:41:11 AM

Those... Are some valid points, but it kinda reeks of Misery Builds Character in some way.

Yes, that’s exactly what Gowasu is arguing in favor of.

That’s why he argues mortals make mistakes and are flawed so they can learn from them. That is why evil informs good.

Shonen is slanted in favor of that argument since Goku’s power ups tend to be fueled by anger.

Hell, Zamasu ends up achieving Rose because of his hatred of the mortals and injustice spurring him to new heights.

Edited by RedHunter543 on May 7th 2024 at 4:08:37 PM

Gowasu does have a point about how the duality of nature leads to the beauty of balance. Just as mortals are capable of great evil, there's also good that shines brighter in the face of great evil.