• 10May 13

  the Dragon's Crown controversy, or mistaking sexist for sexy

  The time was WWII. Be it in the factories or the battlefield, women fought their way into recognition, earning their rightful place in society. The world would never be the same.

  

   

  Well, turns out the world could have changed a long time ago. Just a few centuries ago, women often held important positions, and would have kicked your ass if you told them they "turned out to be useful after all". How did the old timey Don Draper respond? By inventing the myth of the damsel in distress. Sure, it's not the place to discuss how this influenced our perception of women up to modern times, but it's easy to see a parallel with many sexist ads:

   

  

   

  What is missing in this ad? Rosie the riveter clobbering this guy with a monkey wrench. While these ads are pretty horrifying by today's standards, it's hard to believe they were the norm back then. Sure, things changed, but slowly: random acts of violence gave way to the helpless airhead woman, who then became the active, independant woman, but who is still one rank below a man. Unfortunately, the depiction of women in comics and video games didn't do anything to correct this: while Wonder Woman was a strong female character, she was often little more than a showcase of the author's various fetishes, and to this day female characters' most iconic features are a spandex suit and a pair of boobs too big and round to be natural.

   

  

  plus another random fetish

   

  As a 30something, well-informed male, that's something I can no longer ignore. I read too many articles or blogs about women who fell into anorexia, only because every single woman they saw turned out to be a heavily photoshopped picture of an already attractive woman, or a fictional character with impossible proportions. As artist Michael Lee Lunsford recently proved, female heroines don't need cleavage or a skin suit so tight you could mistake them for body paint:

   

  

  if you can't name any of these characters, try looking at their face for a change

   

  sadly, the above picture led to this appalling poll:

   

  

   

  which led me to this post's title: Michael Lee Lunsford's designs ARE sexy. The poll itself implied a fully dressed heroine couldn't be.

   

  That's what infuriated me in the controversy over dragon's crown: apart from their ridiculous attributes, the characters have absolutely no distinctive feature. Remove her hat and staff, and the sorceress is a color swap of Jessica Rabbit. Without her axe, the Amazon is a bikini clad bodybuilder with implants. And minus the arc and hood, the elf is a dangerously young fashion model. Now look at this illustration from Shikigami no shiro:

   

  

   

  The character is fully clothed, doesn't show impossible pose or proportions, and yet is gorgeous. These days, character design seems limited to mensurations and color palette to tell characters apart, even in shows aimed at children.

   

  

  they are supposed to be 15 yo

  
  

  The Dragon's Crown designs are not sexist because of the impossible proportions. They are sexist because it's the ONLY distinctive feature of the characters. Apart from the diminutive clothing, the artist didn't even bother to draw different faces: they all have a lascivious stare and a pouting mouth. I don' mean female characters shouldn't be sexy. I think they can be sexy without being insulting to half the audience.
  

  • Posted May 10, 2013 6:09 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 21Mar 13

  Games and movies are teaching you how to kill... but not in the way you think

  Playing the latest Tomb Raider game, a specific trope in the game made me tick, for being unrealistic. No, it's not the fact that an untrained protagonist managed to use military grade weapons and defeat an entire army. Nor is how she survived deep wounds, without bleeding to death or passing out from the infection. The scene was when a character's heart stopped because of a helicopter crash ( which is quite uncanny to begin with), and was saved by the CPR method we all know from our favorite shows: a few chest compressions, then artificial respiration and repeat. Needless to say, the character was instantly saved and healthy. Sure, CPR is never as efficient, but CPR is better than nothing right?

   

  Well, it's not. The CPR method shown in the game is not only not recommended by the authorities, it also HURTS the victim's chances to be saved. Even when done properly, CPR has little chance to save someone on its own: its main purpose is to preserve the victim while waiting for an ambulance. So, the first thing to do when facing a cardiac arrest is not to perform CPR, it's to call for help. How is it different from games where players only have to pick up health pack, or magically regenerate health? CPR is not some gameplay mechanic, it's a real life feature, and life saving one as it is. when shown in a media, it should be performed properly, or not shown at all. The saddest fact? Specialists have spent decades explaining why the "hollywood" CPR was harmful, but it still appears in a 2013 game. So if you want to be a real hero, get real training.

   

  source:

  Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

  • Posted Mar 21, 2013 11:22 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 23Oct 12

  the PSP is a surprisingly handy USB controller

  As a gamer and a traveller, I sometimes come upon conflicts between my two passions. My idea of fun often involves sitting in the dark in comfy clothes ( one of the remnants from my jobless time) playing video games and wasting time on the internet. But sometimes, I give up this comfort zone and go to the other end of the world for a few weeks. Of course, being a geek, I wouldn't leave without a safety, which is a netbook and a PSP, which leads to the current conflict: anyone who played super meat boy or they bleed pixels on PC knows they are almost impossible to play without a controller.

  So here I was, pondering if I brought my gamepad along, adding a substantial volume and weight to my backpack (yes, for budget travelers, every gram counts). And then it hit me: what if the PSP was used as a gamepad? A few minutes of search later, I came across a nice plugin for PSP called Fusa Gamepad 0.3, which makes the PSP detected as a gamepad. it is entirely configurable, and makes clever use of ALL buttons, even Wlan! The lack of second stick is overcome by using a button, which makes the PSP stick used as the second one if this button is pressed.

  There are plenty of other plugins, to display the PSP screen on a TV by USB cable, use the PSP as a secondary PC screen, customize the welcome screen... which leads me to ask, why didn't Sony implement these features from the start? The PSP is an awesome system, but it's too bad to rely on hacks (something Sony obviously never intended) to use these awesome features. Considering the price of gamepads (see the SteelSeries Free Mobile Controller Review), I hope sony will offer similar features for the Vita.
  

  )

  • Posted Oct 23, 2012 11:06 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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