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Phil Spencer Suggests Perfect Dark Reboot Helps Xbox Lineup Become Less Male-Oriented

Skifi28

Member
Well it can't get any worse than having a female lead in a series famous and popular for being dudebro games... it can't, right?
Assuming you're talking about Gears, The fifth game that I recently finished didn't have a female lead.
 

Beer Baelly

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Does he sound worried?

pulp fiction does he look like a bitch GIF
 

OceanGaming

Member
How interesting that both of the West Coast companies are like this. Anyways, let's wait and see the game, but let's say i am truly not hyped for western games this generation.
 
You guys are reading too much into this. Its just marketing and being smart to look good. If I was in his position I'd say same crap.

I've met Phil Spencer multiple times throughout past events and have friendly casual conversations with the guy. I can assure you he doesn't care about any of that stuff.
 
Pandering virtue signal.

Females are not having harder lives over video games being mostly designed with males in mind.

Just make a good game anyone can enjoy.

It's not pandering. It's smart business to serve an underserved demographic and making something that would appeal to them more. Basic business. If the game gets popular you have sequels, merchandising opportunities, women and girls cosplaying the character, etc.


pan·der /ˈpandər/verb

gerund or present participle: pandering

To gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful desire, need, or habit or a person with such a desire, etc.).

"newspapers are pandering to people's baser instincts"
 
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These desperate click bait headlines from these websites always make me laugh. Amazing how hard they try to twist whatever is said into something that might have a shot at offending somebody somewhere. There's not a thing really wrong with what Phil actually said, but some people will actually still be in their feelings over what the gamespot's interpretation is.
 

elliot5

Member
I posted the interview timestamp but since nobody wants to listen to it I'll save you a click.

Before even mentioning anything about Perfect Dark's female lead Phil said this:

"I actually don't think it matters .. the path that we picked. Whether we decided to go back and reimagine Perfect Dark or do something new.
Most important thing will be the quality of execution and whether we deliver a delightful game that people love."

He fucking knows the game being good is what matters.
 
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Corndog

Banned
It's not pandering. It's smart business to serve an underserved demographic and making something that would appeal to them more. Basic business. If the game gets popular you have sequels, merchandising opportunities, women and girls cosplaying the character, etc.


pan·der /ˈpandər/verb

gerund or present participle: pandering

To gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful desire, need, or habit or a person with such a desire, etc.).

"newspapers are pandering to people's baser instincts"
There’s nothing wrong with games for different demographics. Unfortunately the demographic a lot are aiming for all vote the same way politically. And since there is no more politics here I’ll will leave it at that.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Once again, there is no ethical imperative or even human benefit behind "widen the gamer demographic" -- it's just marketing, and amounts to wanting a larger, less demanding install base who can more easily be targeted with lowest-denominator content
 

ShadowLag

Member
Does that mean Kameo is finally coming back? Because she was female…… on Xbox…… 10 years ago….

This is what gets me. Joanna, an awesome female character, was the protagonist of ... PERFECT DARK ... released 21 years ago on N64. The game was simply released, and became one of the most legendary console FPS games of all time, with no mention of the gender of the main character to score audience points. Kinda like most games 10+ years ago.

I don't know who needs a reality check more - the executives that keep acting like female main characters are mythical golden needles in a haystack, or the audiences that want to keep believing that. Perhaps it's both.
 
Once again, there is no ethical imperative or even human benefit behind "widen the gamer demographic" -- it's just marketing, and amounts to wanting a larger, less demanding install base who can more easily be targeted with lowest-denominator content

You are staying an opinion masqueraded as a fact.

Here is my opinion: If in 90% of games the protagonist was a black woman with a strong black male love interest you could romance to your little hearts content you would be squirming in your god damn chair begging for representation. Have some god damn empathy folks.
 

Kenpachii

Member
FREEZE! Take your hand of that doughnut Elvis…





R.2a7ca221a899ef0f3ee0a76101d113bf

Defeating the endboss and save all cookies for yourself !

giphy.gif



Also clickbait title

this is what he said

"I think it's awesome that for us we can focus on a female protagonist in our lineup, we don't have a lot of that in our our first-party," he said. "I think Joanna offers a lot of modern opportunities that I love to see the team focusing on, having a strong protagonist..."

And he's right on that front nothing SJW about it.
 
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01011001

Banned
You are staying an opinion masqueraded as a fact.

Here is my opinion: If in 90% of games the protagonist was a black woman with a strong black male love interest you could romance to your little hearts content you would be squirming in your god damn chair begging for representation. Have some god damn empathy folks.

I wouldn't, I'm not stupid :) I feel represented by people with the same ideas and mindset as me, not by the same skin color.

skin color is a stupid distinction to make in the first place. a blonde/head head and blue eyed man is about as genetically different to a black man as he is to a white man with dark hair and brown eyes... why don't we differentiate between those as well? because our dumb monkey brains see dark skin and think OH this dude must be different... it's literally just prehistoric primal behavior that makes us think that a black guy is distant to us yet the guy with the different hair color next to you is totally not.

and then US propaganda even made Americans believe that Latino is a distinct racial group... you know, the guys whose ancestors come from fuckin spain...
 
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I wouldn't, I'm not stupid :) I feel represented by people with the same ideas and mindset as me, not by the same skin color.

skin color is a stupid distinction to make in the first place. a blonde blue eyed man is about as genetically different to a black man as he is to a white man wit dark hair and brown eyes... why don't we differentiate between those as well? because our dumb monkey brains see dark skin and think OH this dude must be different... it's literally just prehistoric primal behavior that makes us think that a black guy is distant to us yet the guy with the different hair color next to you is totally not.

You're correct in a sense. But have you ever walked into a restaurant in Atlanta and been the only white guy in the joint as everybody looks up at you like "you lost?". If you have you'd understand that that momentary feeling of not being in the majority and being noticed for it is an experience that black people go through all the time. That will instill a sense of empathy in you and will teach you that while we want to pretend it's all good and we're all the same, our experiences may differ and that may have an impact in how we perceive the world. Empathy.
You skipped over the male / female part of the point. I can tell you when I played DONTNODs game and MC Max was being pursued by this boy romantically I felt awkward as fuck. That told me everything I needed in understanding how straight women feel when this shit happens in games all the time.
 
is all the anger in this thread part of a bit? or are you all really this angry that someone might want to celebrate another perspective?

(and I say this fully acknowledging that some IPs - like Star Trek Discovery - go totally overboard on representation for the sake of looking good in the press/twitter. but this ain't it)
 

reksveks

Member
It must really annoy some people that these 'woke' companies are the biggest ones in the world. The Go Woke Go Broke is the stupidest statement that constantly gets repeated.

If it truly is just useless marketing, you are really getting riled up over nothing.

Also none of you focused on the bit where Phil said the execution of the game was the most important thing.
 

the_master

Member
I agree with him. It is a cool character, cool IP and having a female character in the line up is a correct step to get more female gamers and developers in.
I myself like having female protagonists as well.
The thing about modern topics is the one thing that sounds a bit more weird. I men she already existed in the past and already was a cool character.
 

elliot5

Member
I agree with him. It is a cool character, cool IP and having a female character in the line up is a correct step to get more female gamers and developers in.
I myself like having female protagonists as well.
The thing about modern topics is the one thing that sounds a bit more weird. I men she already existed in the past and already was a cool character.
I think the "modern" thing was kinda like old Lara vs new Lara in Tomb Raider. Just a reimagining of the character. It's the same person, but a different lens due to it being 20+ years later.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
You are staying an opinion masqueraded as a fact.

Here is my opinion: If in 90% of games the protagonist was a black woman with a strong black male love interest you could romance to your little hearts content you would be squirming in your god damn chair begging for representation. Have some god damn empathy folks.

"If you took an entertainment genre that was entirely brought into existence by the technological interests & work of young men and then inverted all the characters, they wouldn't be so happy" - um, great insight?

Again, there is no ethical imperative or even gain whatsoever to "more people should play core video games." It's just a particular set of products whose every trope, novel idea, and genre flowed directly from the niche of consumers around whom it grew into being.

This notion that it somehow benefits young women to play in men's fantasy worlds is a stupid as trying to convince the world that girls reading dumb superhero comic books would be a net gain or empowerment for them. Again, who cares? There are genres that organically appeal to women (take Mario Kart, which has always been universal, and which I also adore), but this isn't even about that--this is about the nonsense where companies try to convince you that it would make the world a better place if more women played Doom or whatever. An absolutely trite and meaningless goal, which only dumbs down and waters down what is distinctive about different genres, which always derives from the peculiar interests of their unique base of consumers.
 
"If you took an entertainment genre that was entirely brought into existence by the technological interests & work of young men and then inverted all the characters, they wouldn't be so happy" - um, great insight?

Again, there is no ethical imperative or even gain whatsoever to "more people should play core video games." It's just a particular set of products whose every trope, novel idea, and genre flowed directly from the niche of consumers around whom it grew into being.

This notion that it somehow benefits young women to play in men's fantasy worlds is a stupid as trying to convince the world that girls reading dumb superhero comic books would be a net gain or empowerment for them. Again, who cares? There are genres that organically appeal to women (take Mario Kart, which has always been universal, and which I also adore), but this isn't even about that--this is about the nonsense where companies try to convince you that it would make the world a better place if more women played Doom or whatever. An absolutely trite and meaningless goal, which only dumbs down and waters down what is distinctive about different genres, which always derives from the peculiar interests of their unique base of consumers.

Calm down Archie Bunker
 
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