ITT: Darkling is picky and sexist about video games

[Jo']

I see what you mean, but I think often it's a case of the character initially being weak-willed and indecisive (in order for male audience members to be able to identify with him), but learning to overcome those traits (perhaps to excess) by the end.

Keitaro and Hideki do not become machos iirc. Actually when Keitaro grows up as an archologist he even seems to loose interest in Naru. That macho think happens mainly in action shows. I don't see much of an excuse in why growing as a person would healthily result in becoming sexist. Esp. if the protagonist is weaking than his female side-kick. It's more like power jealousy. But then I might be off track since it's more likely that that Japanese writers just throw any kind of emotion and plot element into the mix they can think of.

But for me, those themes and issues are explored so often (over and over and over again) that even I (an ineffectual Asian-Australian male) no longer find them interesting. I think that could be a large part of the reason I'm no longer interested in bishoujo games or anime. They were a fun source of escapism for me, for a while, but I grew up and they didn't?

It's like Ego Shooters in western game culture. Once profi oriented business saw it works, noone wants to change persuing this path ad nauseam. It's the almost 0% exclusion to the rule that is annoying. There must be childhood flash backs, there must be cooking and eating, there must be feeling like a family (of friends). And ther eI believed esp. the japanese are so innovative. but then it's just how to make another copy of a copied copy look very different

The issue is also that in the coming decades there will be a lot more elderly / retired Japanese than working adults, which will cause problems for the Japanese economy and presumably social services. I found this article interesting:

A 55 hour week? "Welcome to the 21th century!" is my catch phrase. Hi-tech automation, high productivity ratios - the only thing that does not change is society. Economy preaches Growth over everything (what for anyway?). It's like the religious crusade of the middle ages. Machines create less need for manual labour. Yet, everbody seems to be surprised that "all of a sudden" there are fewer jobs for more and more people... Well, the people slowly realise it... veeery slowly.


I play DX Invisible War (2003) again and I am mildly surprised how similar it actually is to DX3. Not in graphics and design of course, but the elements inside the game. Even the technological struggle is similar. After the Collapse there is now some source that can offer piezo-bio-mods compatable to all people (in game it's like 1:10 or 1:20) Same thing Megan Reed discovered. Augmentation without any rejection.

[Darkling]

Keitaro and Hideki do not become machos iirc. Actually when Keitaro grows up as an archologist he even seems to loose interest in Naru. That macho think happens mainly in action shows. I don't see much of an excuse in why growing as a person would healthily result in becoming sexist.

I don't tend to watch action anime - I always preferred the cute shows over the ones with lots of fighting. Keitaro and Hideki started out as bumblers with no direction in life, by the end of their stories they had 'grown up' and started taking responsibility for their own lives in an assertive way.

From what you're saying, it sounds like some action shows take their male characters' chauvinism up to eleven as they get more competent, in a sort of heightened male fantasy. I don't really know since I don't have much experience with that genre.

I play DX Invisible War (2003) again and I am mildly surprised how similar it actually is to DX3. Not in graphics and design of course, but the elements inside the game. Even the technological struggle is similar. After the Collapse there is now some source that can offer piezo-bio-mods compatable to all people (in game it's like 1:10 or 1:20) Same thing Megan Reed discovered. Augmentation without any rejection.

I was considering playing Human Revolution (either on PC or my old Xbox 360), but I was put off by how primitive the graphics look. Of course, the cheaper graphics meant that HR had a much more sprawling campaign, with lots of globetrotting, whereas in Mankind Divided the action is basically limited to two relatively small (but highly detailed) areas in Prague.

None of the people who worked on Human Revolution and Mankind Divided had ever worked on a Deus Ex game before. They did play the previous games to evaluate what they thought made those games fun, and what elements should be carried over.

HR and MD are prequels to the other games. HR takes place in 2027 and MD in 2029.

Deus Ex takes place in 2052, and Invisible War takes place in 2072.

Jensen mentions in Mankind Divided that he doesn't need to take neuropozyne (a drug to help prevent aug rejection), but the game doesn't make a big deal out of it.

[Jo']

From what you're saying, it sounds like some action shows take their male characters' chauvinism up to eleven as they get more competent, in a sort of heightened male fantasy. I don't really know since I don't have much experience with that genre.

My watching habits are rather "compulsive". I don't want to do anything, but I also don't want to do nothing at all, so I go and check through the 1000s of anime in hope to find something I might like. It's a little pathologic.

It seems that even women's anime, have those beautiful bad boys, who take the female MC by force. Makes me wonder, what the average Japanese female is up to. But then I have heart that some women shall have fantasies, about being taken forcefully. They do not want that in reality though...

I was put off by how primitive the graphics look.

Seriously!? I watched some DX4 game play and didn't notice that much of a difference. It does take me a while when switching from 360 Full HD to the lower resolution org. Xbox or PS2 or even PS1. But that's not really my problem. It's that older games have clumsier control and less intricate game play. I tired to play "Second Sight" again, but the camera isn't really on the player's side. So I dropped it.

Of course, the cheaper graphics meant that HR had a much more sprawling campaign, with lots of globetrotting, whereas in Mankind Divided the action is basically limited to two relatively small (but highly detailed) areas in Prague.

I don't see how those two are related? Sure, more polygons might result in smaller areas, but they still could have created more locations in DX4.

Jensen mentions in Mankind Divided that he doesn't need to take neuropozyne (a drug to help prevent aug rejection), but the game doesn't make a big deal out of it.

Funny. The whole dilemma IS that anybody who got augementation was experienceing rejection symptoms and in turn was in need of that (claimed to be rather expensive) drug. This was however not reflected in the NPCs we meet throughout the game or in the streets. There everyone seemed rather normal.

Well, the issue is said to be kept secret in order to make augmentation sound more "romantic". Some people replaced healthy limbs just for the en vogue idea of wearing e.g. an artificial arm. Even the Doc at the Limb Clinic is only mildly surprised that Adam has no rejection symptoms. Reed's discovery (through Adam's DNA) therefore is a Big Deal. And this is why Sarif is attacked by the Illuminati. Funny that they forgot that in the "sequel". I guess things got better on their own some 2 years later. I'd blame that on weak story and background exposition...

[Darkling]

My watching habits are rather "compulsive". I don't want to do anything, but I also don't want to do nothing at all, so I go and check through the 1000s of anime in hope to find something I might like. It's a little pathologic.

Fair enough. The problem for me is that I don't have the energy to wade through the dozens of series that get released each year. I found that my enjoyment of anime started to dwindle as I watched more and more new series and started noticing how similar they all were (though admittedly this could partially be because I limit myself to certain genres by preference). So, while at the start I might have found a series like Love Hina fascinating and compelling, at this point in time a romantic comedy has to be something really special in order to hold my interest.

But then I have heard that some women shall have fantasies, about being taken forcefully. They do not want that in reality though...

True enough. That's what sadomasochism is all about, to my understanding. The 'sub' (submissive partner) and the 'dom' (dominant partner) play out the fantasy that the sub is completely at the dom's mercy, but in reality the sub just has to say 'stop' and the dom will stop. That allows the sub to experience and enjoy the sensation of being bound and used, while still having complete control over the situation.

Seriously!? I watched some DX4 game play and didn't notice that much of a difference.

I guess I've gotten used to the higher-resolution graphics of the PS4 over the past couple of years. I haven't played a previous-gen game in a long time. The buildings and objects in Human Revolution just look a bit blocky and boxy to me (fewer polygons), without as much texture mapping or atmospheric lighting as the current-gen consoles. Would you say the story is worth playing the game for?

I'm still playing Tomb Raider and have gotten used to the controls as well as the 'design philosophy' (ie how the game wants me to approach the enemies and environment). At first glance, it seems much bigger than a game like Mankind Divided, but then I realise just how 'on rails' I am - being moved from one linear area to another linear area with pretty much only one path through and lots of unavoidable scripted encounters. So the world looks big, but that's an illusion because the actual amount of area I can explore is minimal. (There are usually barriers and chasms preventing me from straying too far from where I'm supposed to be heading next.)

Of course, the cheaper graphics meant that HR had a much more sprawling campaign, with lots of globetrotting, whereas in Mankind Divided the action is basically limited to two relatively small (but highly detailed) areas in Prague.

I don't see how those two are related? Sure, more polygons might result in smaller areas, but they still could have created more locations in DX4.

Well, the more detailed the characters, environments and objects are, the longer they take to design, model and animate (and the more money has to be poured into the budget). I think that's the pitfall of modern gaming, especially over the last decade or so - it hasn't been about making games 'better', it's been about making games 'look nicer'. And with today's HD and 4K televisions, players' expectations for the level of detail in their games are astronomically high.

I think that's why so many AAA games are going with an open-world style of gameplay nowadays. The developers create a large, detailed area and then let you run around chasing plot objectives in it for the entire game, rather than having to create numerous unique and specific new environments as you progress through the plot.

Funny. The whole dilemma IS that anybody who got augementation was experienceing rejection symptoms and in turn was in need of that (claimed to be rather expensive) drug. This was however not reflected in the NPCs we meet throughout the game or in the streets. There everyone seemed rather normal.

By the time of Mankind Divided, neuropozyne is hard to come by. If you have any, you can sometimes use it in conversations as a gift or payment/bribe (or just sell it for a high price at a store). There's this whole apartheid metaphor in MD, where 'naturals' have turned against augs after the Aug Incident. There's blatant prejudice against augs on the streets (especially from the police), and a lot of augs have been shipped off to an aug-only 'settlement' which is basically a slum.

Even the Doc at the Limb Clinic is only mildly surprised that Adam has no rejection symptoms. Reed's discovery (through Adam's DNA) therefore is a Big Deal. And this is why Sarif is attacked by the Illuminati. Funny that they forgot that in the "sequel". I guess things got better on their own some 2 years later. I'd blame that on weak story and background exposition...

I think MD was originally intended to be much grander in story scope than what was eventually released. The story doesn't really go anywhere. A bomb goes off in Prague. Adam investigates it and finds a terrorist organisation who want to kill a bunch of rich people, so he goes and stops the terrorists. The end.

There's stuff about aug rights, emergent AI and Adam's mysterious 'new' implants, but none of it seems to go anywhere by the end. There's a sort of mild twist in the end credits (oh noes, the organisation that Adam works for has a mole!), but no real thematic closure to anything that happened in the game. I guess it was all supposed to be wrapped up in the third game that they cancelled shortly after releasing MD. Shame; I probably would have played it after how much I found myself enjoying MD.

[Jo']

I have both, lost interest in anime - therefore I watched Japanese "real life" series on Kissasian, but those are mostly of the genre "investigation". And I have that compulsion to watch something in hope it will inspire me. This happens in "blocks". For a week or two I might watch several hours a day and then not at all for months. Same with games.


The PS4 has higher resolution than Full HD? Well, many games on the 360 are up-scaled to Full HD. I supposed the PS4 uses true Full HD.

If you are "high-end picky" about it then DX3 is not worth it, because story-wise it betrays you in the end. If you like a moderately to good and fun game play, I'd recommend it.

I don't really much care about nice graphics - though "Shadow of Memories" on the org Xbox was really borderline (sound as well) even for that time. But since it was a different type of game I went with it.

A bomb goes off in Prague. Adam investigates it and finds a terrorist organisation who want to kill a bunch of rich people, so he goes and stops the terrorists. The end.

Oh wow, that "bad" Explains why the bits of game play I watched didn't seem to go anywhere either. Pity. I blame that on profit driven capitalism. We need a society system, that is no longer "incapacitated" like this.