Whatever Happened to Defending Artists?

Original Gamer: "News came out earlier this week that upcoming game Deep Down would not have any female playable characters due to the game’s storyline. As you may have guessed, many people lost their proverbial shit over this reveal and demanded a change to the story. See, for some people, artistic freedom ends where they say it ends."

[Neonridr]

lol, no offense but it was the same with The Hobbit. There were no female major characters in the book, however they felt the need to augment the story to help appeal to female moviegoers. Thus they created a completely fictional character and gave her some importance in the second movie.

[armycore]

Well Peter Jackson didn't create the source material, he's providing a little spin to it.

[Edsword]

Not disagreeing with your point, but they were all fictional characters. Also, which one was not in the books? I read the books and I can't recall there being a character with a major role that was extra in the movies. I know almost all of the first book (there are actually 6 as each book is really 2) was not included in the movies, but it would have been hard for people to follow if it were included.

Edit: Nevermind you said Hobbit not LOTR my mistake. Yeah the Hobbit is another story.

[Neonridr]

lol, yeah it was Evangeline Lily's character that they created. Her name in the movie was Tauriel. She didn't exist in the book.

and of course they were all fictional, but you know what I mean.. ;)

[KonsoruMasuta]

Who cares what those people think? Let them lose their minds and complain. There is no need to shoehorn things into your vision just because people don't like it when they can't get what they want.

[AaronMK]

People will make purchases based on what they think.

[KingPin]

so should us guys be complaining that we can only play as a girl in tomb raider. should we start whining and moaning till they make a new story for a guy as well?

some people just like to whine to feel important.

[aliengmr]

I sense something missing from this story. People getting in an uproar over this clearly had a reason to assume the option would be there. Its not like people are freaking out at every release that has a solo male/female protagonist. I've never heard of the game so I'm not sure.

I still think that fiasco over Remember Me was manufactured to a certain extent for publicity reasons. It seemed every article leading up to the release was about the devs/game being victimized for one thing or another.

The reality is, "artistic freedom" is determined by the budget. You can be as free as you want, as long as people buy your stuff.

[Sketchy_Galore]

I hate politically correct pandering and I am sure Deep down will be fun but come on, let's not pretend there's gonna be any singular artistic vision behind it at all. Artistic vision is just about extinct in modern mainstream gaming. Of course there are a few obvious exceptions to the rule (woof woof) but just about everything in modern gaming is now conceived and developed from the get go by focus groups and market research. I don't think one more concession to the unwashed masses is gonna make much difference.

If you're really trying to tell an important story about the human condition that really requires your lead character be a white male, go for it. If you're just trying to throw together a disposable entertainment product based on market research why not just add the option to personalise your character a little?

[aerisbueller]

Yeah, I'm not super psyched about Deep Down for whatever reason, but I think it's completely idiotic the way 'feminists' and white knights have to make this into an issue, and despite whatever issues I have with Crapcom lately, I hope they don't cave in to any pressure.

You know what image of women is much more damaging to young girls and society than what does or doesn't appear in video games? The one where females are fragile, stupid little creatures who can't play video games without males protecting them from shallow uncreative character design. Where they're in danger of becoming a bikini clad damsel in distress after too many mario and fighting games corrupt their innocent exposed souls. Or even worse, that they will be alienated from liking games at all. I don't know any female gamers who have had difficulty adjusting to all these scary archetypes and tropes. Most of them are just as capable as I am at rolling their eyes at the female character designs in the latest mk game.

There are plenty more gamer girls than in the 80's and many of them will grow on to be game devs, and the medium will evolve, much better than trying to for a guy who can't or doesn't want to write a female character to try. It certainly isn't doing women any favors in our society for the Anita Sarkeesians of the world rallying thousands of non-gamer feminists behind the cause of bitching about everything.

[ziggurcat]

lemma guess - madam sessler, and the other horrible members of the white knight morality police threw a hissy fit over this?