23 June 2012

Saturday Supplemental - Girl Power!

Jonathan Holmes - Destructoid
Talking to Women about Videogames: On icons & minorities
Some people think Lara Croft is cool and empowering. I do not. In fact, while I eventually learned to appreciate the games, I passed over the Tomb Raider series for years because I was embarrassed by the pandering character design, so the idea of retooling ol' Pyramid-Chest sounds fine with me, but replacing her with a dirty, moaning, sexual assault victim is so much worse.

Jim Sterling - Destructoid
Objectification and Lollipop Chainsaw
I've been a diehard Grasshopper Manufacture fan since the moment I first played Killer7, but very little about the marketing for Lollipop Chainsaw, the company's latest release, has done much to grab me. There's nothing especially enticing about the "hilarious" premise of a sexy lady who cuts up zombies, and even if there were, I've played more than enough OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers (i.e., more than thirty seconds) to slake that thirst for life. Still, I trust that Grasshopper wouldn't lean so heavily on male gaze and cliché without some subversive purpose, and Jim Sterling has a compelling theory about what that purpose is.

Lucy O'Brien - IGN
Shigeru Miyamoto Talks Competition at E3
This is the correct attitude: "People come to E3 and they want to talk about competition and who won the show, and all these companies combating one another. But what we’re meant to be doing is bringing fun to the world. So rather than focusing on competition, I feel it’s my job to go up on stage and show how I can bring fun to the world by having fun myself.”

Simon Parkin - Chewing Pixels
The Rise and Collapse of Yoshinori Ono
Capcom's is the wrong attitude, which is probably why so many of their most creative and talented people are leaving the company. I really hope they turn things around before they lose anyone else.

1UP
The DOs and DON'Ts of Gaming Gender Relations
This video purports that anyone can be not-awful, but the comments section provides a convincing counterargument.

Christian Nutt - Gamasutra
Serving 'damn good sushi' is the Japanese developer's path, says Team Ninja
As opposed to "hamburgers." It's refreshing to see Yosuke Hayashi soberly admit that Ninja Gaiden III was misguided, especially at a time when I'm sure his bosses would prefer that he hype the upcoming Wii U port.

John - tikisaurus
Ken Sugimori’s original Pokemon Red/Green Concept Art is Awesome
Those "Capsule Monsters" sure looked like dinosaurs back in 1990.

Jean Pierre Kellams - 1UP
OP-ED: Mainstream Gaming and the Male Gaze
Like Lara Croft, Bayonetta is either an icon of female empowerment or an embarrassing sexual caricature, which goes to show that applied feminism is full of complications. Fittingly, this essay by a Platinum Games employee raises more questions than answers.

Jessica Citizen - Player Attack
Australian R18+ game rating gets the go-ahead
I thought I'd reported this before, but I guess it's really real this time. For real.

Mark Brown - Wired UK
Judge Declares iOS Tetris Clone ‘Infringing’
Good! It should be illegal to copy existing games and sell them as your own.

Julia Lepetit - Dorkly
How Games Are Meant To Be Played vs. How You Play Them
A funny comic.

Maki - Sci-ence
On Playing Well With Others
A serious comic.

Like a Cheep-Cheep without an Excitebike.