Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

People aren't being turned into misogynists by sexualized depictions of women in the media they consume. It may or may not (has there even been any reliable research on this?) reinforce tendencies that are already in the person to begin with, but even if you drain the sex appeal out of every fictional woman out there, those computer science students you mentioned aren't going to treat real women any better than they would have otherwise. I fail to see how this isn't just a re-packaging of the rhetoric from the 80s and 90s about how violent media was programming people to become aggressive.

@Ralizah “I fail to see how this isn't just a re-packaging of the rhetoric from the 80s and 90s about how violent media was programming people to become aggressive” it is literally that. Overly sexualised characters in games are arguably dumb but I don’t see how it can be considered dangerous, providing you’re the right age to view such material. And if you’re that way inclined there are countless more effective ways to get your kicks.

@Ralizah The difference between sexist attitudes being reinforced through media and the violent video games attitudes is that one is fundamentally more subliminal than the other. Just watch an older episode of Friends and you’ll cringe at some of the lines which reflect a society in which it was perfectly OK to say those things. So people see these things being put in shows, movies, games etc and played for laughs and it washes over them, reinforcing the attitudes and creating an environment where it’s seen to be acceptable. This is especially obvious in school playgrounds, I was in high school during the meme boom of the last decade and it was really obvious to see the links between current trends and social attitudes. We had one black girl in our year and each time a racist meme surfaced, she bore the brunt. And with high school being a microcosm of society, if a couple people made racist comments, their friends joined in and now there’s a group of people laughing and soaking it up. People don’t really grow out of that. Look at cases of workplace harassment where a toxic culture is created with people joining in, tolerating it etc in order to fit in. What starts out as a few laughs at someone else’s expense leads to Blizzard.

Something like Friends is of it’s time, which is perfectly alright and we can look back and understand that, but a show released in this day and age would either explicitly make clear that such behaviour is wrong or the character would face some kind of consequences. Like how It’s Always Sunny gets away with pushing boundaries as it’s always shown that the gang are in the wrong. The thing about violence in these things is that unless you’re quite literally insane or have incredibly bad role models, we’re bred from a very young age to know that dismembering people is A Bad Thing To Do. It’s not like there’s an episode of Seinfeld where he cuts up babies and eats them with gravy while the slap bass and laugh track plays.

Regardless of culture, whether you’re a boomer, Gen X or whatever, acts of violence are a red flag pretty much everywhere in the world. Sexism varies where you are. While obviously cultural hegemony isn’t the answer, there are certain standards. It’s not like I just write off stoning gay men to death as part of Bruneian culture. So like how Japan specifically has a weird obsession with sexualising schoolgirls (which is extremely rarely actually explored as predatory in media - of course that would be different due to being a nuanced exploration), they’re also still an incredibly male-driven society and their media reflects this. When this media is released in countries with a more equal society sex-wise, it’s subjected to scrutiny reflecting their own society. Nobody’s arguing for this stuff to be censored. It just impacts general reception due to differing standards.

Also important to note that context matters as well. Bayonetta might be a sexualised character but she’s written in a way that she owns her sexuality and it’s a conscious decision on her part. Whereas the reasons given for Quiet in Metal Gear Solid V’s sexualisation were paper-thin to the point of being transparent. It’s really a test of writing ability, first and foremost. It’s incredibly easy to tell the difference between a well-written and badly written femme fetale for example. It’s on designers too though. Armour with boob holes etc. Xenoblade may have decent plot elsewhere but come on, X had a 13 year old wearing an outfit with a crotch window and underboob. There’s no earthly reason for that.

TBF, (unnecessary) violence in video games has its repercussions. You can't go around in a killing spree in GTA and expect nothing to happen. And even video games where there's no an explicit karma system, there's a clear downside to violence. Yes, there's nothing stopping you from killing all enemies in most video games, but those enemies can also use that same 'violence' to end your game.

But it's an interesting thought, if outside influences don't shape a person, do violent and/or sexist tendencies already exist from a young age? I don't think so. It's not the depicting of violence alone, but also the reinforcement that it is alright behaviour. Now I presume that real life events will more likely play a role in this than media, but still. For the 'sexist' appearance of characters in games, there are often no repercussions, they're just there.

Then again, I also don't understand why you'd want to be looking at underage teenage cartoon girls in any form of media. A friend of mine showed me some Xenoblade 2 gameplay and some of the character designs, and it was just cringy AF. And even my friend, as a big JRPG fan, found it to be awkward.

EDIT: On second thought, best not to turn this into the "Debate Sexism in Video Games" thread.

Nintendo Switch Sports is alright. Volleyball is the only real standout, none of the others really feel all that great to play, although i haven’t tried football as that uses 2 controllers so me and my brother can’t play it in 2 player. The framerate is surprisingly choppy at times as well. Genuinely confusing how much worse tennis feels than it did on the Wii. Actually, most of the games are a step down from Resort in terms of feel. I find myself longing for the table tennis in Resort which felt fantastic. There’s a significant lack of content too, as I don’t really care about online play as a sole selling point in 2022. Hopefully the other sports to come like Golf add a bit extra fun. I’d love to see stamps return from Resort too, they actually gave you something to work for. Also, any semblance of personality would be great, the game is a clinical fun vacuum.

Worth noting that while there are stamps, it’s not the same achievement system that was in place before.

Just got 13 Sentinels for the Switch. I already bought and played the game on PS4 previously but I couldn't resist picking it up a second time.

So… Nintendo Switch Sports without Switch Online is a scam. You can technically play the single player mode against the AI but you can only earn 2 items a week, and they rotate weekly. So yeah, we can only really have progression on one profile. Nintendo are getting really bad for this.

The may the 4th hype has got me, I've just bought lego star wars: the skywalker saga on switch. I'm looking forward to some handheld antics and hopefully some family coop, even though I suspect it will push the switch hardware to the absolute limit! Cheers again @RogerRoger for the cracking review

Am enjoying Mario Golf: Super Rush so far, though I don't think I'm a huge fan of Timed or Speed Golf, which seem to run counter to the vibe of Golf.

I'm in Balmy Dunes now (in the story mode) and have to say I really think the hub areas are really charming and surprisingly large (not sprawling or anything, but I thought they were all going to be as small as the Ridgerock Lake hub. Again, not a huge fan of the Timed or Speed Golf (which seem to be the only varieties explored in story mode, other than Cross Country Golf, which is only ruined because they put a timer on that too), but I do like the optional Driving, Approach, & Putting target challenges that open up in each area, and they can get surprisingly tough (it took me about 20 tries to clear the approach challenge in Balmy Dunes).

Standard Golf is super relaxing though & it's fun to hit the links with your Mario favorites. The New Donk City course may be my favorite so far (it seems like they simply imported the map wholesale from Odyssey & slapped some greens on it, instead of making a golf course first that happens to be NDC themed which makes it really interesting to play), though I like the chilled atmosphere of the more plain courses as well.

@R1spam @RogerRoger

Graphics look fine to me, and the performance is reportedly very stable.

Seems like a good port.

@Ralizah nice, I had seen some switch footage but not handheld, it looks solid! My copy arrives Saturday, can't wait to try it out

Finished up Golf Adventure in Mario Golf Super Rush today. Mixed opinions on it overall, mostly because I don't think I'm a big fan of Speed Golf and almost every round was some variation of it (even with Cross Country Golf, I think the biggest problem is that they put a timer on it), however I did find myself enjoying the target challenges in each area (though most were optional), as well as the boss fights. The hub areas were cozy as heck, too.

I thought I was going to get a bit of a break in Wildweather Woods when one of the Toads said they don't play Speed Golf there due to things being so wet, then (other than the three hole practice round) it was all freakin' Speed Golf!?

@RR529 I'm right with you for speed golf, I traded the game in within a week of purchase as I really wasn't a fan. You would think that the moments between shots would be the most boring bit (for a golf party game anyway) but losing you watching the shot removes any stakes, with the stamina limit for running making time between shots actually seem more drawn out and slow.

@R1spam, yeah, luckily you can still play regular golf outside of the story mode, and it really is fun & chill to do so, so I'm still getting mileage out of the game (they've added 5 more courses since the game launched, so it has a total of 11 now, with two of them having "amateur" & "pro" variants, so you could possibly count it at 13 if you wanted to).

I think they added a "Target Golf" mode as well (in addition to the Standard, Speed, & Battle modes), though I haven't tried it yet.

Saudi Arabia acquiring 5% of Nintendo is particularly worrying. They literally banned Pokémon in 2001. Not to mention that they execute people like me. It’s fairly horrific for Nintendo Life to censor any comments pointing this out given that it’s about as on-topic as you get considering they’ve acquired shares in the very company the website is named after.

I'm surprised to see largely whatevs coverage of the Saudi Arabia buying 5% of Nintendo thing. Like, shrug, Saudi Arabia is buying 5% of Nintendo and next the weather. When it should be more like murderous, anti-human rights, anti-woman, anti-gay etc. regime buys 5% of Nintendo and that sucks.

@nessisonett Of course it's on topic. It makes me feel ill, actually. I don't really care about Saudi Arabia's stance on Pokémon, but the country's appalling human rights record and how gay people are executed should repulse us all. When people suggest topics like this have no place in gaming, what they are really saying is they don't want to be reminded of the existence of gay people; and so silencing gay people and allies is really just pandering to that mentality. Also sick of homophobes acting like my existence is some kind of political statement that is up for debate.

@mookysam The Pokémon aside was more pointing out the baffling nature of the investment as it’s hardly like anybody can say that they’re big supporters of Nintendo. Obviously that doesn’t compare to journalists being chopped up.

The new NSO games