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[Ar¢tos]

LOL. Thats gaming and movies for ya.

Funny how they never have groups of enemies gang tackle the hero all at once. But they got to do that because if they did attack all at once the hero would be immediately dead. And it would look stupid if a hero can kill 5 enemies attacking all at once slashing them all in 0.5 seconds.

I played Dark Souls 2, I'm ok with being gangbanged.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

A bit of tree movement makes things feel more alive.

i think GoT had windy trees depending on the environment. I think we are safe.

 

[Topher]

Definitely not doing a very good job promoting this game. Still looking forward to playing myself

 

[miller152]

Absolutely no surprise that the kind of people who frequent IGN would be excited for this game.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Their marketing is so shit with this game. These are not making me want to buy this, it continues to look like a ps4 game and a DLC. After i platinumed tsushima, i have 0 desire to buy this based on what i saw so far

Yea. I got the plat too. I've been more hyped about the precinct, hell is us, mafia and everybody's golf than this. But I'll get it and I'm sure it'll be great.

 

[Toons]

Do folks here unironically think the casual public has anywhere near the kind of discussion that are had around games of this nature here?

Most just know it's a follow up to a well recieved game with gorgeous graphics and thats all you really need.

 

[archangelmorph]

I'm looking forward to GoY too but looking at that list...?

...

I mean it's slim pickings isn't it?

 

[calico]

KCD1 the enemies wouldn't hesitate to rush you and overwhelm you. I didn't play the woke slop sequel but from the trailers I saw it looked like they dialled that back a bit.

The guiding wind concept in Tsushima was neat, but it became too much after a while. By the end I was avoiding having any quest active just to get the weather to calm tf down. They should probably add an intensity slider or something.

 

[calico]

Do folks here unironically think the casual public has anywhere near the kind of discussion that are had around games of this nature here?

No, but I don't think they need to discuss it to find a protagonist unappealing and have that negatively inform their purchasing decision.

There is after all a reason why the conventional wisdom was to make the protagonist male, or on the rare occasion they would use a female protagonist, to make her very attractive / sexualise her. I think given the male dominated audience, that reasoning was sound, commercially speaking.

The more recent thinking has been that the audience was male dominated because of those protagonist choices (and other elements associated with that mindset). ie. it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. While that may have some truth to it, I suspect combat-oriented games will naturally skew heavily towards a male dominated audience even with all else being equal. I suspect that by abandoning the conventional wisdom and forcing the issue to try and equalise the audience split, they will only get there by losing more male audience than they will gain female audience.

It's not a death sentence for a game to abandon the conventional wisdom and embrace the new approach -a great enough game can overcome it- but I do think it amounts to a self-selected handicap for game (and movie) genres which inherently skew towards men.

 

[Fake]

the gap between GAF's opinion and the broader gaming market opinion gets wider by the day

'Fuck GAF's opinion, Concord Marathon will succeed.'

 

[viveks86]

No, but I don't think they need to discuss it to find a protagonist unappealing and have that negatively inform their purchasing decision.

There is after all a reason why the conventional wisdom was to make the protagonist male, or on the rare occasion they would use a female protagonist, to make her very attractive / sexualise her. I think given the male dominated audience, that reasoning was sound, commercially speaking.

The more recent thinking has been that the audience was male dominated because of those protagonist choices (and other elements associated with that mindset). ie. it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. While that may have some truth to it, I suspect combat-oriented games will naturally skew heavily towards a male dominated audience even with all else being equal. I suspect that by abandoning the conventional wisdom and forcing the issue to try and equalise the audience split, they will only get there by losing more male audience than they will gain female audience.

It's not a death sentence for a game to abandon the conventional wisdom and embrace the new approach -a great enough game can overcome it- but I do think it amounts to a self-selected handicap for game (and movie) genres which inherently skew towards men.

Well said and I agree. I do think this push back and forth is ultimately good and healthy for society, if we can just look past all the ragebait. Blindly catering to the majority needs and desires forever is nothing short of pandering. Abandon conventional wisdom once in a while and try something. Anything. You never know what that could catalyze. You can always fall back on conventional wisdom if it gets too hot. There might be a new normal or happy medium that we didn't know existed.

The guiding wind concept in Tsushima was neat, but it became too much after a while. By the end I was avoiding having any quest active just to get the weather to calm tf down. They should probably add an intensity slider or something.

Looks like someone didn't play very honorably. Did you know that the weather gets more chaotic the more ghost tactics you used?

 

[Sethbacca]

Did you know that the weather gets more chaotic the more ghost tactics you used?

Wait, seriously? How did I never realize this.

 

[viveks86]

Wait, seriously? How did I never realize this.

It was an inside secret until Sucker Punch admitted it much later. Luke did a piece on it recently:

 

[calico]

You can always fall back on conventional wisdom if it gets too hot.

Maybe. It depends how much long term damage was caused to the traditional, proven audience in the process of chasing the new, hypothetical audience. It isn't a given they will still be there to fall back on.

Disney for example is going to find it much harder trying to revert Star Wars and Marvel to boy brands after their attempts to turn them into something else, than if they had just allowed them to continue to exist as boy brands.

 

[viveks86]

Maybe. It depends how much long term damage was caused to the traditional, proven audience in the process of chasing the new, hypothetical audience. It isn't a given they will still be there to fall back on.

Disney for example is going to find it much harder trying to revert Star Wars and Marvel to boy brands after their attempts to turn them into something else, than if they had just allowed them to continue to exist as boy brands.

In the creative film and video game industry, it's actually not that hard. Unlike consumer goods, where you are spoilt for choice, the market is always hungry for good products. So when a good product does come out, it will be immediately recognized. If that isn't rewarded to the extent it deserves, the very next good product will. Look at the reception for Andor. If they make shows of that caliber, genre fans will lap them up no matter when.

The only ones that struggle to bounce back are ones built on cult of personality, like in music. You can make bad music and bounce back. But if you fuck with your audience, it's going to take a miracle to win them back. Nameless corporations in media don't have that risk.

Marvel is struggling with poor output and genre fatigue. Not because they are Marvel. Even if they make a fantastic movie or show, the issue with genre fatigue remains. They saturated the space and are now facing the consequence.

That's always the risk with Star Wars as well. Of fatigue. Less so of Disney's image imo.

 

[Toons]

No, but I don't think they need to discuss it to find a protagonist unappealing and have that negatively inform their purchasing decision.

There is after all a reason why the conventional wisdom was to make the protagonist male, or on the rare occasion they would use a female protagonist, to make her very attractive / sexualise her. I think given the male dominated audience, that reasoning was sound, commercially speaking.

Maybe 35 years ago.

The more recent thinking has been that the audience was male dominated because of those protagonist choices (and other elements associated with that mindset). ie. it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. While that may have some truth to it, I suspect combat-oriented games will naturally skew heavily towards a male dominated audience even with all else being equal. I suspect that by abandoning the conventional wisdom and forcing the issue to try and equalise the audience split, they will only get there by losing more male audience than they will gain female audience.

It's not a death sentence for a game to abandon the conventional wisdom and embrace the new approach -a great enough game can overcome it- but I do think it amounts to a self-selected handicap for game (and movie) genres which inherently skew towards men.

I think audiences know very well what to expect from a game of this nature. Japanese warrior and samurai tales led by female protagonists are not a new thing, either in video games nor film nor even animation. And almost no one is going to be considering this character "ugly" either unless they spend their waking hours on porosity and onlyfans looking at airbrushed slop on the regular.

 

[calico]

In the creative film and video game industry, it's actually not that hard. Unlike consumer goods, where you are spoilt for choice, the market is always hungry for good products. So when a good product does come out, it will be immediately recognized. If that isn't rewarded to the extent it deserves, the very next good product will. Look at the reception for Andor. If they make shows of that caliber, genre fans will lap them up no matter when.

The only ones that struggle to bounce back are ones built on cult of personality, like in music. You can make bad music and bounce back. But if you fuck with your audience, it's going to take a miracle to win them back. Nameless corporations in media don't have that risk.

Marvel is struggling with poor output and genre fatigue. Not because they are Marvel. Even if they make a fantastic movie or show, the issue with genre fatigue remains. They saturated the space and are now facing the consequence.

That's always the risk with Star Wars as well. Of fatigue. Less so of Disney's image imo.

The fatigue is largely a symptom of the shift I am talking about.

Maybe 35 years ago.

The major shift happened about ten years ago.

 

[viveks86]

The fatigue is largely a symptom of the shift I am talking about.

Ah ok. Then we agree!