Boring Game Magazine Covers

General and high profile video game topics.
Tron1
Posts: 401
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby Tron1 » March 25th, 2015, 6:33 pm

[QUOTE=Vexer]

ptdebate-"Painful to read" is obviously just an expression.  The reviewer whines way too much about "over-sexualization" and other nonsense like that but hardly seems to talk much about actual gameplay.  Polygon's reviews aren't always bad to be far, but the guy who wrote the review- Arthur Gies has some of the absolute game reviews i've ever seen, seriously they sound like they were written by a first-grader.

Tron-Game Informer are not "knuckleheads" just cause of that, that's utter nonsense, like it or not digital is becoming more prevalent and it's not like it's that difficult to just Google a game to see whether it's physical or digitial

[/QUOTE]

Vexer - don't disregard my comment as "utter nonsense" just because you don't agree with it. Your arrogant use of disregarding things as "utter nonsense" is both passive aggressive and disrespectful. I can't stop you from replying to my posts, but you're the only person on this forum whose opinions I'd like to block.

Vexer1
Posts: 883
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby Vexer1 » March 25th, 2015, 7:29 pm

strongly disagree that magazines "suck" nowadays, I think they are pretty good, but most of Polygon's articles are terrible hyperbole that has no proper sourcing(I remember them incessantly whining about the premise of Battlefield Hardline cause "all cops are evil!").

Personally I think we should avoid using meaningless terms like "social justice warriors" as we shouldn't fall into the trap of tarring everyone with the same brush.

Games are most certainly not full of sexism or racism, the only truly "sexist" game i've played so far is Ride to Hell: Retribution.  Some have also made the argument of Duke Nukem Forever being sexist but I disagree, sure the hive level made me somewhat uncomfortable and if I was in charge I probably would've cut it from the game, but that alone doesn't make the game sexist.

Also i've never really seen a game that I would call racist, Polygon accused Watch Dogs of being racist just cause it had black gang members in it(which Chicago has quite a lot of in real life, so reflecting reality is hardly racist, and the gang in the game was based off a real life gang to boot).


Jon1
Posts: 378
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby Jon1 » March 25th, 2015, 9:21 pm

I used to get revved up going to Blockbuster or whatever store to see the game magazines back in the day. It was awesome, I remember when the VGC posted the side by side of covers from the mid 90s and today, and it was shocking how unimaginative the recent ones were. It gets my juices flowing thinking about those magazines, especially Gamepro from 1994-1995. They had reviews for Genesis, SNES, 3do, Neo Geo, Jaguar, and others. They also had reviews for the arcades, which were just amazing back then.

HardcoreSadism1
Posts: 526
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby HardcoreSadism1 » March 25th, 2015, 9:33 pm

Oh sh... I think I still have a Halo 2 issue of Game Informer laying around...

Oltobaz1
Posts: 1605
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby Oltobaz1 » March 26th, 2015, 2:25 am

[QUOTE=Vexer]

strongly disagree that magazines "suck" nowadays, I think they are pretty good, but most of Polygon's articles are terrible hyperbole that has no proper sourcing(I remember them incessantly whining about the premise of Battlefield Hardline cause "all cops are evil!").

Personally I think we should avoid using meaningless terms like "social justice warriors" as we shouldn't fall into the trap of tarring everyone with the same brush.

Games are most certainly not full of sexism or racism, the only truly "sexist" game i've played so far is Ride to Hell: Retribution.  Some have also made the argument of Duke Nukem Forever being sexist but I disagree, sure the hive level made me somewhat uncomfortable and if I was in charge I probably would've cut it from the game, but that alone doesn't make the game sexist.

Also i've never really seen a game that I would call racist, Polygon accused Watch Dogs of being racist just cause it had black gang members in it(which Chicago has quite a lot of in real life, so reflecting reality is hardly racist, and the gang in the game was based off a real life gang to boot).

[/QUOTE]

You'll notice my use of commas when using this term. What do you make of it?

ptdebate1
Posts: 909
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby ptdebate1 » March 26th, 2015, 1:00 pm

Just a response to those disputing the race and gender problems of games in general:

When was the last time you played as a black character in a game that was not related to crime?

If you're a kid playing games, and you happen to be of a race other than caucasian, you will find astonishingly few options for games that feature protagonists that look like you. 

The same is generally true--although increasingly less so--of female protagonists in games. All of the big-selling FPS and action-adventure titles (with Tomb Raider being a rare exception) feature white, thirtysomething protagonists that curiously all seem to have the same voice. It's like a cultural singularity that we can't seem to get away from. He's the Nathan Drakes, Booker Dewitts, and Joel Millers. I call him Whitey McStubbles. 

Vexer1
Posts: 883
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby Vexer1 » March 26th, 2015, 1:25 pm

Tron- There is nothing "arrogant" about what i've said at all, it's merely opinion, so if you don't like it, too bad.  You're the only one on here who's posts make me groan in disbelief.

ptdebate-Well that's kind of irrelevant, don't most games involve crime of some kind?  I don't see how that in itself is inherently racist.

I generally can tell the difference between most protagonists, for example no one is gonna mistake Marcus Fenix from Gears of War for Nathan Drake from Uncharted.


Oltobaz1
Posts: 1605
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby Oltobaz1 » March 26th, 2015, 1:46 pm

As far as black characters, Assassin's Creed Liberation/ Assassin's Creed Black Flag (DLC) and Final Fantasy 13, on top of my head. Then you also have these games which let you create your character from the ground up, what he'll look like depends on you. Not denying black characters aren't as widespread as whites, yet things are changing, the examples I'm giving were even scarcer a few years back. Things change, not so much because some generous soul might be concerned about racial issues
mind you. It's not the issue some are making it out to be. Rather, the industry is realizing the audience is more widespread and demanding than it used to be. Thank you, statistics. Thank you, internet. And it's not just video games, this is a trend you'll notice in comics as well, with Marvel passing Spiderman and Captain America mantles to black characters (even though Peter Parker is still Spidey as well, and good ol' Steve Rogers will surely don the stripes again sooner or later down the road). There are also attempts as homosexual super heros, muslim super heros etc... Pop culture reflects society at its own pace, it might not change as fast as some would like, make no mistakes though, it changes, all the time. We've gone long way since the Comic code of authority days... As for video games, it's a young media still. Lots of money, lots of lobbies... Resident Evil 5 comes out, turns out the action takes place in Africa, turns out zombies are blacks, turns out it's an issue. That sort of oversensitive nonsense sure
makes me cringe.



ptdebate1
Posts: 909
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby ptdebate1 » March 26th, 2015, 2:09 pm

Oltobaz,

I totally agree that, for the most part, things are headed in the right direction. But even what you provided seem like token examples. Protagonists (i.e., defined correctly as the single main character of a story) remain overwhelmingly white and male. 

Vexer, the assertion that most games are about crime is wildly inaccurate and says more about the types of games you happen to play (no offence--I love FPSes too) than games as a whole.

Oltobaz1
Posts: 1605
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Boring Game Magazine Covers

Postby Oltobaz1 » March 26th, 2015, 2:14 pm

I gave you two main protagonists and one major supportive character (FF 13). Token examples?


Return to “Video Games General”