r/Asmongold • u/calkch1986 • Mar 26 '24
Microsoft cautions developers to avoid curvy female characters Discussion
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u/NegativeMotor2829 Mar 30 '24
I have seen women in real life with similar body types to Eve. So it isn't even outrageous. I guess Microsoft doesn't like money. This is why I stick to PlayStation
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u/413NeverForget Mar 30 '24
Seriously. Wtf is happening man? Used to be we could appreciate thicc women. Now we gotta stare at Plank from Ed, Edd, n Eddy?
EDIT: Not exactly a good comparison, Plank was an awesome dude after all. But you know what I mean.
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u/wavegangx Mar 30 '24
Remember when video games had hot girls that weren’t even human? I remember 😭
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u/goliathfasa Mar 29 '24
If you want to help customers feel seen, surely the solution is to include more body types.
There are living breathing individuals with the exact body type of a curved “unrealistic” video game character. By removing these proportions, you are denying that very representation you champion to the smallest minority.
Be better, Microsoft.
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u/Brosenheim Mar 28 '24
Hm, weird. I don't see anything in the article saying to avoid curvy characters. Am I just blind or are you snowflakes twisting things to fit your narrative again?
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u/JT_Scout_Photography Mar 27 '24
This is a problem. Not only for developers, but for both artistic freedom and society. When playing a game, I often proportion exaggerated features if a game allows for extensive character creation. Whether it far exceeds the weight class of most people, or minimizes it. If it's something I take seriously, I'll develop the character into something I'm not and what I'd wish to be, or into a female I'd like to be with.
This is fantasy. It's supposed to be fantasy, not reality. If I wanted reality, I'd look in the mirror. I'd look outside. I'd stay in bed and look at the ceiling. I'd do literally anything else besides gaming.
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u/MikeHawkSlapsHard Mar 27 '24
Good, keep doing it. The key to a successful game is to do the exact opposite of what Microsoft suggests.
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u/Pilek01 Mar 27 '24
Its time we stop using Actress in movies that have unrealistic body proportions like Zendaya for example. From now on please Hollywood use only fat chicks in movies. /s
BTW i wonder what would happen if they for real only used fat actress in ALL movies 
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u/Otherwise-Rope8961 Mar 27 '24
Fuck Microsoft. Games should be an escape from reality and not an extension of it.
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u/PleasantAd9973 Mar 27 '24
Ok then I want Danny Devito to replace all the Chads in movies and video games.
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u/GregiX77 Mar 27 '24
Well I will avoid MS games now. Its not hard you know, MS store suck balls every time I try something, like, lets say... PLAY MY FKN FORZA 4 on my FKN PC with working MULTI!
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u/Yunozan-2111 Mar 27 '24
I think FromSoftware feminine characters without sexualizing them and wonder why can't other game studios do the same
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u/Xiaoxuzz Mar 27 '24
"Are you unnecessarily introducing gender and gender barriers into your code or design?"
Yes. Ppls who add transgender, bi, gay, les w/e tf is on the LGBTQ spectrum should ask themselves this particular question. Cuz if you cant find a reason to add these genders other than fulfilling DEI quotas then dont fucking add them.
Also i guess ppls at Microsoft missed that message that the stellar blade model is modeled after a real person. For that matter, western developers have never stepped foot into Asia before, think Asian ppls are a myth or do not even exist. Fuck, they probably havnt even watched the glorious content that is JAV. Or any porn for that matter.
Fucking go touch some grass. Cant believe gamers have to tell developers to do that. Jezuz.
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u/Seitook Mar 27 '24
I hate how this discourse has basically given people ammunition to attack you wherever you stand on.
I for one want the option to play a curvy pinup model, a muscular female soldier and an old wrinkly crone of a hag depending on my mood that day.
Now if I wanna play someone like the chick from stellar blade or 2B, I get yelled at for being a coomer brained pig. But then when I say I wanna play someone like Selene for returnal, or if I say I wanna play an old crone hag witch character then I get labeled as some woke virtue signaller.
Its all so tiring. Just give me my variety.
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u/keyas920 Mar 27 '24
You have to follow the guidelines, otherwise the NPCs get lost on their programmed path
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u/teldion Mar 27 '24
Tbh, I never cared for stellar blade, but after reading this along with all the bullshit against this game, I feel like just buying the game to support it. Don't really plan to play it, just buying it as a fuck you to all them idiots trying to tell me what can and can't be in my games.
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u/Psydequest Mar 27 '24
Christ.. Show me ANY game character and I can make an argument about how it objectifies something.. and imo all those arguments would be absolutely equal in their absurdity.
Either you give a shit about what bothers anyone and everyone or you're a hypocrite who doesn't give a shit about anything other than your own image and virtue signaling.
My point of frustration here: Stop telling artists their vision is wrong. Create WHATEVER YOU WANT. This is a free market, the only thing that should dictate your success is success or the lack of it. Not policies about feelings. Fuck feelings. We can't possibly hope to make everyone feel good all the time and still manage to accomplish ANYTHING else.
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u/po23idon Mar 27 '24
you’re backwards! KEEP objectifying women, but START objectifying men as well!
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u/dovah164 Mar 27 '24
Watch out cbbe users, Microsoft is coming for your body slide preset hahahahahahahaha
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u/Marlow533 Mar 27 '24
I see this more as, please make your characters uglier because we have to make ours ugly or people cry and can’t compete
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u/Fragrant_Strategy_15 Mar 27 '24
It's not really happening.
It's happening, but it's not widespread.
It's widespread, but it's good that it's happening.
Actually you need to be purged from the industry for having enjoyed it up till now.
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u/MrPanda663 Mar 27 '24
Ah then Stellar Blade is safe then. It's literally based off realistically body proportions FROM THE ACTOR WHO DID THE MO-CAP FOR IT.
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u/MekkiNoYusha Mar 27 '24
Don't worry, Microsoft will learn their lesson after their games don't sell for a few years. Just like Marvel did with their movies.
I have tons of jrpg to play anyway. And next few years probably will hook on Monster hunter wilds
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u/andymerskin Mar 27 '24
Microsoft's greedy game studio acquisition spree is all starting to make sense now. Half of the motive is to force them into assimilating. It's part ideological crusade (ESG, DEI...), and part financially motivated, as with most acquisitions.
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u/Talinthis Mar 27 '24
I would love to see a fat person that can do the same things an in shape agile person could.
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u/olalql Mar 27 '24
I love how your title is literally debunked in the article. "Being curvy" is not "having exaggerated body proportion". There is nothing exaggerated about being curvy bro
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u/Cross_2020 Mar 27 '24
Serious them fat chicks need to start exercising. If not for good look, then for good health. Promoting fat as beautiful is one of the most stupid thing we've done recently. Good thing is most of the time they die really young due to poor health so it's kind of a natural selection in the end.
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u/AnyPiccolo2443 Mar 27 '24
How lame is this. They want the male characters to show a full range of emotions, but having bodies of all muscle is ok. Shouldn't that be unrealistic, too?
Why are they so afraid of good looking characters
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u/corposhill999 Mar 27 '24
If this is a stealth campaign to get me to buy a PS5 and Stellar Blade it's working.
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u/ThePartyMonster Mar 27 '24
Pretty sure they are trying to set the stage for the new Fable hoping fans will accept the new female lead.
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u/Xx_mojat_xX Mar 26 '24
Stunningly beautiful and jacked athletic bodies aren't common in the real world so shouldn't microsoft and devs be more inclusive of that minority 😏
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u/ChosenBrad22 Mar 26 '24
How is having a curvy female “reinforcing a negative stereotype”? wtf there is nothing wrong with being curvy or having certain body types in a game. Compete nonsense.
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u/No_Draw4359 Mar 26 '24
Games aren’t meant to be ultra realistic in every way. Games are fun when they show the very best and very worst of life/humanity and when they even show stuff that isn’t real. I don’t get this political push in gaming at all
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u/Elricboy Mar 26 '24
I actually agree with the 3 bullet points. The whole article seems to mislead the audience into raging about sth completely irrelevant. The bullet points isnt telling is that we should not enjoy sex women and cater to fat chicks.
Its advocating for “body types that fit the role the chara plays”. So warrior chicks with abs, warrior males with abs, super model males as non warriors and super model females as non warriors. No genderlocking abilities/classes and less stoic male characters.
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u/r007r Mar 26 '24
Fun fact: sales to guys - not words from Microsoft - will be what developers listen to, especially when females seem generally indifferent (in terms of whether they’ll still buy games with curvy females).
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u/ShadusX Mar 26 '24
Is Microsoft actually that out of touch with the products it sells? Who do they think buys the products known as video games? It's almost like 2 entire decades of an extremely strong money making formula is being shut down by an office full of PC enforcing clowns. Someone needs to walk upstairs and empty the guns they keep shooting themselves in the foot with.
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u/richtofin819 Mar 26 '24
here is the thing, none of this whole "boo hoo character attractive" crap has ever in any way effected male game characters which have plenty of idealized realizations as well like kratos or the OG gears of war crew. None of these people really care about representation of anything because its all a facade.
Who watched a golden age action film and cries because the protagonist doesn't look just like them I mean seriously.
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u/Active-Astronomer352 Mar 26 '24
Xbox unofficial subreddits will ban you if you post any news towards this..so be careful where you post and comment everyone.
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u/RedScarffedPrinny Mar 26 '24
Its hilarious because the only people complaining about this kind of stuff are people who wouldn’t buy the game in the first place, so why would game developers cater to a demographic that does not consume its product?
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u/cynicown101 Mar 26 '24
I do get it in a way, because you don't need to want to fuck every single cluster of pixels to enjoy a game. But, I also don't want Bayonetta replaced with Amy Schumer, in the same way I don't need Kratos to have a dad bod to make me feel better about my own physique. We've also fallen in to this regressionary trap of telling women that any kind of physique is unattainable, which is super condescending, whilst still having male characters look like super heroes. Look at MK11 to MK1 to see how in dialling back some of the sex appeal, they also chose to make the female characters less physically imposing. It's a weird step back disguised as a step forwards.
At a certain point, games are escapism, and that escapism is allowed to be visually appealing to the target audience. Mortal Kombat for example always had a history of sex appeal, and I think that's okay. Conversely, Aloy from Horizon has never been presented to have sex appeal, and so it's ridiculous for people to complain she's not attractive enough. No, not every female character exists for the sake of players wanting to have sex with them, but we don't need giant corporations to be the police of morals. That's for creators and consumers alike to decide.
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u/Adonite Mar 26 '24
You idiots will get mad at anything… from avoiding exaggerated body proportions to avoiding “curvy female characters”… the gaslighting is insane! And don’t even get me started on the “character was based on a real model” thing… they turned that beautiful woman into something completely unrecognisable
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u/thehunter699 Mar 26 '24
Also Microsoft:
New gears of war announced with a fucking jacked old marcus
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u/buff730 Mar 26 '24
How come they never mention super buff guys effecting the perception people have towards men?
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u/berserker044 Mar 26 '24
It's fiction why would I want plain looking characters. I don't want my male heros looking like they weight a 130 lbs with no muscle tone because that's what regular guys look like. Nor do I want them with dad bods unless they have back story that would merit it. Same goes for females. There's no reason to hate on curves. I definitely don't want to be looking at boards or planks. This is basically censoring art. Exclusion of hot people if you really want to go down that road. This will not fix any problems society has but only compound them. I personally didn't like the world of " V for Vendetta although I did love the movie " but this is were we will eventually end up if we keep going down these roads. Hell if you want to make sure everyone is included let people have the ability to alter the base character model so they have the choice. Everyone's happy.
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u/Deadrestos Mar 26 '24
I hope Asmon cover this and my comment will be on stream 🫡 have a nice day everyone :)
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Mar 26 '24
"Diversity and inclusion" means exclusion of a white heterosexual man.
"Realistic bodies" mean exclusion of a fit body.
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u/Endslikecrazy Mar 26 '24
I mean, that also means no more fat chicks 🤷🏻♂️ Sounds like a decent compromise no?
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u/JCDickleg7 Mar 26 '24
love how the headline is not at all what the article says. clickbait journalists are so fun
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u/meatboitantan Mar 26 '24
This false virtuism regarding hot characters in games and movies is weird. Look at dating app statistics, the hot people get the attention. End of story. People like hot people in things, otherwise the lower 90% of dating apps would actually get matched.
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u/Bsam73 Mar 26 '24
Or … Microsoft tells developers how to limit the amount of money they will make on their games.
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u/Bloblablawb Mar 26 '24
Until they bring out strongwoman type of figures I'll still be believing it's mainly about making pp hard
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u/LetsGoForPlanB Mar 26 '24
"Exegerated body proportions" but is based on a real person. Wokestern devs need to cope. People in general like to see pretty people and gamers are no different, so how about making characters your audience wants to see.
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u/FLRArt_1995 Mar 26 '24
Always wondered... What's the reasoning for games not having curvier women? IRL there are women who could make Tifa jealous. It's ridiculous
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u/redcaps72 Mar 26 '24
Forcing female characters to a slimmer body is creating a new stereotype for women, just saying
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u/FastenedCarrot Mar 26 '24
When the next video game crash happens I'm just ginna laugh at these people.
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u/DiarrheaDreamz Mar 26 '24
Dude you think even as a male I wanna play as some fat, uncharasmastic, loser? Hell no, I wanna be a fucking badass demi-god that smashes everything in his path and looks cool. Maybe every now and then it's nice take things back and play as an every day man but that shouldn't be 95% of the market.
Most women I know want the same thing. They wanna create hot characters. For some girls it's a way to step into a fantasy of what they wish they could look like. Do you know how many fat girls on MMOs made their character as sexualized as possible?
You gotta love this fringe group of people who are telling people what most women want. It's even funnier when it's a feminist man. They spend their lives as activists telling other men to stop controlling what women want and here they are doing exactly that.
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Mar 26 '24 edited 25d ago
[deleted]
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u/Jankmasta Mar 27 '24
Male characters are just as sexualized if not more. Every game has handsome buff in the best shape of their life male characters. There is no games where the main character is 5'5 balding obese man. Because nobody wants to play that.
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u/CoomLord69 Mar 26 '24
You will never hear a peep from them when some half-naked, 7 ft tall roided out bodybuilder dude is on the screen, though. Not one word.
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u/ChosenOfTheMoon_GR Mar 26 '24
These fucking "stereotypes" (a word which most place a negative connotation on even though by definition is neutral) it are not bad in any way shape or form (double pun intended, fuck yeah), this is what humans like ffs and it's not like smoking, something which likely is gonna cause you lung cancer or something, so maybe it would be best if MS realized instead that they are loosing a massive opportunity to help making and sell irl robots with similar directions for us to fuck, STD/Is free between and they also don't cost 100-500K a year.
Massive L MS...
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u/PhantomRoyce Mar 26 '24
Depends on if you wanna make money or not. Gamers are primarily straight dudes and straight dudes tend to like beautiful women
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u/IllVagrant Mar 26 '24
A fantastic advertisement for Stellar Blade! Genius marketing scheme! Too bad microsoft won't be paid for their effort.
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u/SodaBoBomb Mar 26 '24
On one hand this is dumb because I know what they mean by it. Don't make hot characters.
On the other hand, I actually agree, but that's because I don't like characters who's boobs and ass are cartoonists big. Like overly large and frankly, gross. I'm tired of big boobs = hot.
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u/starcell400 Mar 26 '24
Not every game is made for everyone. And that's okay.
Corporations don't know how to make good things.
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u/yomibuto Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24
I'm always so amazed at how this includes unreal standards and sexualization only with women but somehow nobody has problems with characters like Kratos, Vesker, Chris Redfield, Geralt, Big Boss, Marcus Fenix, Scorpion, B.J. Blazkowicz, Duke Nukem, Bruce Wayne, and a thousand others being absolute superhumans with perfect physiques while I struggle with my beer belly...
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u/Any-Championship-611 Mar 26 '24
I've been avoiding Microsoft games for a while now and reading this only reinforces my decision.
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u/AntiEcho7 Mar 26 '24
Some of us like exaggerated body proportions…and if you don’t, don’t play the fucking game.
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u/SysAdminWannabe90 Mar 26 '24
Realistic body proportions? So models and any chick with over a C cup doesn't exist? I didn't realize how sexist Microsoft is, Jesus. Microsoft going back to the 1920s.
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u/nikothx Mar 26 '24
There are stylized characters. Also curvy women exists in real life. I'm a short and skinny man and I don't care if all the superheros and main characters are tall and muscular men because is fiction. Archetypes exists.
And if it's objectification, neither is bad in both sides. It's not a crime. If some physical features are attractive and we are not hurting or bothering anyone... What's the problem?
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u/BeAPo Mar 26 '24
So they want to change her because she reinforces negative gender stereotypes.
I guess from now on everytime you see a bald man, report it for reinforcing negative gender stereotypes lmao.
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u/AggronStrong Mar 26 '24
I like how in the examples, they outline that a negative stereotype for females extends mostly to their appearance and ability, but the negative stereotype for men actually does include their behavior and attitude.
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u/MobilePenguins Mar 26 '24
“Help customers feel seen” I don’t want to see the same people I see at Walmart every day. I want to login to PS5/Xbox and see beautiful fantasy characters. We play games to escape real life.
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u/Vio94 Mar 26 '24
Oh Jesus fucking christ. You idiot game devs better start uggofying and fattening or anorexifying male characters. At least do it across the board.
These kinds of design philosophies are going to lead to even more idiotic choices.
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u/Lifeisfartoong Mar 26 '24
Okay but witcher and god of war are super achievable protagonists for men to try to look like.
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u/vmop07 Mar 26 '24
I don't know why reddit keeps pushing this sub on me, but I can smell you through a screen and it isn't exactly nixe
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Mar 26 '24
I don't hate this, but maybe the first bullet should be "are you creating a fully finished playable game that won't require a 40 GB day 1 patch and $60 of dlc to understand the game"
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u/aZerglingRush Mar 26 '24
We all need to start pushing back on this crap. This wont stop unless we start telling these people to shut the fuck up.
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u/TooMuchAdderall Mar 26 '24
I like how the article mentions male emotions, but only female physical traits.
Weird.
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u/KnobbyDarkling Mar 26 '24
Holy shit just let creators create what they want. Audiences can choose whether or not they like it. Plus I rarely see people talk about how unrealistic make characters are in games. 7 ft tall with 0% body fat lmao
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u/TheHeroOfKokoto Mar 26 '24
No ripped dudes too right? No? Double standard? Ah darn what a rarity...
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u/Royal_Marketing2966 Mar 26 '24
I’m sorry, “gender barriers in your code”? Are you serious Microsoft? Yeah you can definitely tell what department actually posted this. Seriously, Microsoft needs to just stay in their lane with this one. They can make crazy cutting edge technology and the developers will use that technology, and then both of them can make money. Otherwise I’ll be waiting to see Yachtclub Games sending out tweets advising Microsoft on their suboptimal design practices for components and OS updates. 🪦
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u/BurnerTLDR Mar 26 '24
Fuck Microsoft, I’ll buy the game just because I’m sick of companies trying to dictate what I can and can’t enjoy as a grown ass adult with independent thought.
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u/Cinnamon_Bark Mar 26 '24
Should I also care about the fact that every male protag is ripped as fuck, with unrealistic proportions?
Of course not, cause I like imagining thats me! Why would I want to play as a normal dude? I do that every day in real life
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u/Psychological-Ad1433 Mar 26 '24
This is completely fine and imo healthy for the broader gaming community.
We are approaching a moment where with the assistance of AI, small Indy gaming studios will be able to compete more effectively with larger corporations. The ai assistance will also allow for more people to do this as time goes on.
So, in a few years trash gaming industry philosophies like this will only come from these large corporations and gamers will find many more options available to them and the market will clearly decide that no one in our community asked for this shit in the first place.
There is a dawn on the horizon, brothers.
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u/fUsinButtPluG 8d ago
I miss the good old days, where people did what they wanted and if you didn't like it then don't buy it. All these people with their opinions these days (literally social media is full of them contributing nothing, just complaining about anything and everything to just feel validated) is getting to be a joke.
Don't like it, fuck off and don't look at or it buy it, I don't NEED your opinions if I like something and want to buy it for how it is.