I made a comment about in a recent Open Thread about companies being cynical by putting a hot chick in a video game, in the hope of increasing sales this way. The context was the game Stellar Blade, which supposedly has pretty average gameplay, but this seems to not be an issue considering that it features one of the two hottest women in video games in recent times. (The other one is Tifa in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.)
There is a bit more to this issue than it may at first seem. I think that companies who use sexy female characters in today’s cultural climate, in order to appeal to the “core gamer” fraction are only acting in a cynical way if this is done in order to detract from obvious weaknesses of a product. This may even explain part of the appeal of putting LGBTQ abominations in to movies. Imagine you direct a movie that is likely to bomb at the box office. You know the script sucks, the budget is not great so you cannot get good actors, and some busybodies at the studio keep telling you to not forget about modern audiences. Directing a movie is probably not an easy job. What is worse, there are many more aspiring directors out there than there are directors who can make bank with a movie. So, what if they do not? It would be tough for a Hollywood-director ego to deal with disappointing sales and negative critic reviews. Yet, there is, or was, this one weird trick that deflects all criticisms: just throw out the white guys, put in a few blacks and lesbians, and call it a day. If the movie sucks, you only need to accuse your critics of being bigots. The media will support you, too. Your box-office bomb may even accelerate your career because you proved that you are on board with the program.
It is unbelievable that it was possible for years to deflect criticism by pandering to the fringe of society. Yet, this was only possible because we were living through an economic world in which up was down, and down was up. Due to ZIRP money was effectively free, and if it costs basically nothing to service your debts, you can put out one box-office bomb after another and simply shrug off lackluster sales of your triple-A game. After all, there is always more free money around. These times are gone, thankfully.
People obviously want to look at beautiful things, and beautiful people. Thus, any creator who is proud of his work will readily use attractive models. In gaming, you can probably increase sales quite a bit if you have a good to very good game at hand and put hot female characters in it. Make their boobs a bit bitter, their legs a bit longer, and their eyes a bit bigger, and perhaps you will be able to suddenly sell millions of a game that would otherwise only have niche appeal. Nier: Automata is probably the best example there is, but the Xenoblade Chronicles series is not far behind.
If you were running a business wanting to make money, you probably would want to maximize your sales, and not lose money just to make a point. This is perhaps a different issue if you have been financed by a woke venture capitalist, but normally this is how it works. You need to sell your product because otherwise you may not be able to keep making products. This is a trite observation, yet in clown world people behave as if this basic fact is not true.
Apart from some movies or games that only exist to push an agenda, anyone wanting to be successful cannot afford to risk losing sales by putting ugly women in his movie or game. People used to understand this. Thus, Chun Li in Street Fighter had to be hot, Cammy also had to be hot. Surely, Capcom would not have risked the success of their product by giving you women who look like men. Mai Shiranui in King of Fighters was given huge boobs to get the attention of players. The thought of companies fiercely competing for your money sabotaging themselves by using ugly character models is absurd, at least in a rational world. We are probably a few years away from companies routinely putting hot women in games or movies, and people not question it because it is seen as normal. Nobody would even ask if it was cynical that a new game has a hot female lead character. This is the end point of the current development. The pendulum is swinging backwards. In gaming and film-making, it happens one hot chick at a time.
“This may even explain part of the appeal of putting LGBTQ abominations in to movies… If you were running a business wanting to make money, you probably would want to maximize your sales, and not lose money just to make a point.”
100% agreed with point two. As for the first, and as you are no doubt fully aware, LGBTQ abominations in gaming and other media is still a cynical transaction as it isn’t necessarily to the benefit of the consumer, but more benefit the creators in the form of incentives i.e. BlackRock handouts.
Speaking of Nier: Automata, this video of a 2B figurine popped up recently. I presume due to the fact that I started playing the game again about a week ago and did some side quest searches. Anyway, the model looks quite stunning and will set you back about $2500: https://youtu.be/jHhjYF4ahH0?si=F70OJ4jedthEm4H-
I just realized that the fact that a video game character would get such an expensive product release these many years later, one that essentially boils down to a fancy action figure or a mini statue, speaks volumes to the effect that creating such a beautiful character can result in culturally. Imagine the dyke from Horizon Zero Dawn getting the same treatment.
While putting more time into classic Capcom games, I had the thought that video game characters from the 1990s were a lot more iconic, and this is not due to there having been fewer games. In the 1990s, there was already a lot of shovelware. However, in the 2000s, and especially the 2010s, the goal was realism, while an even bigger goal was to appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to maximize profits. All the original 12 characters in Street Fighter II were memorable. Of the four they added in Super SF II, only one ascended to the same heights, i.e. Cammy. Today, Street Fighter has dozens of characters and many of them are quite forgettable. People don’t make videos about Hakan’s theme matching everything, like they do with Guile’s theme.
The character 2B is most remarkable. This is arguably the most iconic character created in the last ten or twenty years, albeit the mainstream does not agree with this view. It also says a lot that there is a market for extremely expensive figurines as this implies that there are now a lot of financially well-off men who do not care at all about women or the opinions of women. I can imagine some ultra-Chads telling their girlfriend that she will have to live with a 1:3 scale statue of 2B in his house.
Sony has been working really hard on making the butch from Horizon: Zero Dawn culturally significant. They put her on the cover of one of the top glossy magazines, there is an official Lego figurine of her, and they even wanted a TV show based around her, but that one was dropped. I get the impression that this is not really working out.
I had to look up the term shovelware. That immediately reminded of the old developer LJN and the atrocious output they have now become known for.
“However, in the 2000s, and especially the 2010s, the goal was realism, while an even bigger goal was to appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to maximize profits.”
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. And today, it’s as if developers spend an enormous amount of time crafting detailed models and environments as well as expensive animations in many cases, but it’s as if they forgot to program the game as you end up with something that plays at half the capacity of whatever game it’s meant to emulate. Not to mention that much of the actual gameplay is padded out with walking sequences and mind-numbing puzzle sections to increase the amount of time required to finish the game. And apparently a large portion of the consumer base seemingly prefers this for the time being. Many people apparently are not looking to actually play a game and be challenged, but to passively consume a product and be entertained.
“Sony has been working really hard on making the butch from Horizon: Zero Dawn culturally significant. They put her on the cover of one of the top glossy magazines, there is an official Lego figurine of her, and they even wanted a TV show based around her, but that one was dropped. I get the impression that this is not really working out.”
This reminds me of how EA shelled out a ton of cash in an attempt to bolster the popularity of Dead Space to that of Resident Evil, which helped to kill the franchise in the end. Specifically, there were several animated spinoffs and some other crap I can’t recall off the top of my head. A more conservative marketing approach might have done wonders for the longevity of the franchise.
In the case of HZD, I get the sense that something more sinister is afoot. The fact that none of it is really working out is a testament to the fact that attempting to make chicks that look like dudes hot is unnatural and degenerate, and much of the consumer base appears to realize this on at least a visceral level.
“It also says a lot that there is a market for extremely expensive figurines as this implies that there are now a lot of financially well-off men who do not care at all about women or the opinions of women.”
Conversely, not caring about women or their opinions does wonders for your finances. And as we’ve discussed elsewhere, a sizeable percentage of men have simply bailed rather than try to become a multimillionaire just to afford a 1950s ranch house or satisfy some 6 who’ll steal it in divorce court anyway.
“I can imagine some ultra-Chads telling their girlfriend that she will have to live with a 1:3 scale statue of 2B in his house.”
If you’re an ultra-Chad then your girlfriend better have the hots for 2B herself and/or be willing to cosplay as her in bed.
“Yet, this was only possible because we were living through an economic world in which up was down, and down was up. Due to ZIRP money was effectively free”
Fiat money isn’t just a tool for theft, it’s moral annihilation.
“If the movie sucks, you only need to accuse your critics of being bigots.”
Michael Crichton warned of this way back in his 1992 novel Disclosure:
“Pale males eat it again. I tell you. Sometimes I get so sick of the constant pressure to appoint women,” Lewyn said. “I mean, look at this design group. We’ve got forty percent women here, better than any other division, but they always say, why don’t you have more. More women, more-”
“Mark,” he said, interrupting. “It’s a different world now. ”
“And not a better one,” Lewyn said. “It’s hurting everybody. Look: when I started in DigiCom, there was only one question. Are you good? If you were good, you got hired. If you could cut it, you stayed. No more. Now, ability is only one of the priorities. There’s also the question of whether you’re the right sex and skin color to fill out the company’s HR profiles. And if you turn out to be incompetent, we can’t fire you. Pretty soon, we start to get junk like this Twinkle drive. Because no one’s accountable anymore. No one is responsible. You can’t build products on a theory. Because the product you’re making is real. And if it stinks, it stinks. And no one will buy it.”
As it happens, the story is set in Seattle, where they now design and build planes that tend to randomly fall out of the sky for the same reasons just described. That has a way of getting the public’s attention, although DEI-caused medical errors are no doubt killing far more, and are the more frightening because they can be more easily covered up.