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[Sowelu]

http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html

Samus has battered woman syndrome :/  Go to hell, Yoshio Sakamoto.

[IronyOwl]

Haven't played the game, but the article makes me think he's reading way too much into shitty writing/directing. I mean, he goes on and on about how this part doesn't make sense and this scene doesn't work, then tries to tie it together into something that still doesn't work.

Plus, it's fairly obvious this hit a nerve. I mean, look at how long the damned thing is. This isn't Guys This Is Stupid length, this is MY CHILDHOOD DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY STOP THAT length. And he ends it with a lengthy description about how the guy's raping everyone's favorite video game character and a shining beacon of feminism because Twilight glamorizes the abuse of women.


Yeah... I mean, I hate it when people do stupid shit with things I like too, but trying to make some sort of moral crusade about it isn't helpful.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Haven't played the game, but the article makes me think he's reading way too much into shitty writing/directing. I mean, he goes on and on about how this part doesn't make sense and this scene doesn't work, then tries to tie it together into something that still doesn't work.

Plus, it's fairly obvious this hit a nerve. I mean, look at how long the damned thing is. This isn't Guys This Is Stupid length, this is MY CHILDHOOD DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY STOP THAT length. And he ends it with a lengthy description about how the guy's raping everyone's favorite video game character and a shining beacon of feminism because Twilight glamorizes the abuse of women.


Yeah... I mean, I hate it when people do stupid shit with things I like too, but trying to make some sort of moral crusade about it isn't helpful.

Well the whole sexualization of Samus was something of a complete annihilation of her original mystique.  It's like if they took that biosuit girl from ME out of her biosuit and she turned out to be a fairly unremarkable hot thin large breasted blond that didn't really look any different from any other video game character of that type and then they also changed her personality on top of that.

Also, it's an essay, the fact that your only real criticism is that it is long is just plain anti-intellectual.

[dogstile]

Ugh. I don't care if he's offended, he needs to cut that down, he takes way to long to make the points he's trying to make.

I don't see why people got so offended. I know plenty of people in real life who respect and do anything people who don't exactly like them tell them too. Its common enough to be excusable. That, plus I don't really care enough about the game to let it bother me and ACK I HAVE COLLEGE IN LIKE 10 MINUTES I'LL FINISH THIS ANOTHER TIME IF I REMEMBER

 

[breadbocks]

....

I got the game a few days ago.

Suffice to say, Team Ninja did what they always do.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Ugh. I don't care if he's offended, he needs to cut that down, he takes way to long to make the points he's trying to make.

I don't see why people got so offended. I know plenty of people in real life who respect and do anything people who don't exactly like them tell them too. Its common enough to be excusable. That, plus I don't really care enough about the game to let it bother me and ACK I HAVE COLLEGE IN LIKE 10 MINUTES I'LL FINISH THIS ANOTHER TIME IF I REMEMBER

Here's a summary.  The article basically lays out in fairly compelling detail how the relationship between Samus and Adam is consistently portrayed as similar to an abused housewife and her abusive husband and that it seems to be romanticized as a healthy or even possibly ideal relationship.

[beorn080]

When I heard Team Ninja, makers of the Volleyball series and consistent purveyors of immense fan service, were being handed creative control for one game of the basically most bad ass female in gaming, I sighed. It would appear I didn't sigh hard enough.

[fenrif]

Yeah, damn you team ninja for your swimsuit games. Samus has nothing to do with swimsuits (cough... justin bailey... cough).

Also, it's an essay, the fact that your only real criticism is that it is long is just plain anti-intellectual.

Every single essay I've ever written has had a max word limit. Learning to make your point without rambling on for hundreds of pages is one of the most important parts of writing good essays.

[beorn080]

There is a difference between an easter egg and DOA volleyball.

[qwertyuiopas]

Perhaps the Metroid series needs a fangame replacement where the plot was done right and Adam is a respectable character. What if the loss of powerups was explained in a suit update to match a certain hostile environment, and upgrades sent over as science teams completed the adjustments? That would be far more realistic than disabling stuff because it's 'unauthorized'.

[Zangi]

Eh, all I can say is that the whole Other M affair hits the nerve in more then just... "Ruining my childhood."

[IronyOwl]

Well the whole sexualization of Samus was something of a complete annihilation of her original mystique.  It's like if they took that biosuit girl from ME out of her biosuit and she turned out to be a fairly unremarkable hot thin large breasted blond that didn't really look any different from any other video game character of that type and then they also changed her personality on top of that.

Characters change, both intentionally and not. You can't expect a character to appear in a dozen different games and suit you in every single one. See my last point.

Also, it's an essay, the fact that your only real criticism is that it is long is just plain anti-intellectual.

Its length was an example of it seeming to be a sore spot for the author. I also mentioned that he seemed to be reading too much into it, both in terms of what it was trying to say and what ramifications that had at large.

Your insistence on boiling that down to "TOO MANY WORDS ESSAY BAD" is just plain anti-intellectual.

[Ephemeriis]

I have purchased basically every Metroid game ever made.  I have not purchased this game.  I will not purchase this game.

One of the things that was always awesome about Metroid was the fact that you were playing as a woman, and it didn't matter that you were a woman.

You play through the game as this armored badass, blowing shit up left and right.  You kill just about every moving thing on a planet.  You solve puzzles, kill posses, recover ancient technology, and save the galaxy from a terrifying monster.  And nobody ever says "hey, you're a woman".  It isn't until the very end that you discover that Samus is a woman.

But it doesn't matter.  There's no tits or ass flashing around the screen.  There's no "I'm just as good as a man" moral crusade.  You're a bounty hunter doing a job.  Male, female, it doesn't matter.

Metroid came out at a time that women in video games were generally just princesses to be rescued.  Or, if they were the protagonist, a huge freaking deal was made out of it.  Oh, look at us, we've got a strong female character!

And now Team Ninja has managed to sexualize her...

I read that essay a few days ago, and I found it interesting.  I haven't played the game so I can't say whether it's an accurate assessment or not.  I wouldn't be surprised though...  Victimization of women seems to be a popular trend right now.  It isn't just Twilight that portrays an unhealthy relationship.

But that is really irrelevant to why I won't buy the game.

My major complaint is that they took a character who was so badass that her gender did not matter, and they managed to objectify and sexualize her until that original character was just plain gone.

No thank you.

[GlyphGryph]

My opinion, and the gist I get from everything I've seen about it, isn't just what they did.

No, it was the fact that they did it so very very terribly. Like, really terribly.

If you do something ho-hum terribly, people generally don't make a big deal out of it. If you do something guaranteed to piss people off, but do it well, make it real and sensible and natural and all that, that you'll have some people pissed off, but you'll also get a lot of acclaim.

They did something guaranteed to piss people off, and then did it incredibly poorly. Frankly, for their execution of this plot and these character's alone, they deserve bit of bile they get. Even if it hadn't been Samus at all, and it was a new series with some new character, it would have been pretty bad. When you give that sort of treatment to a long time fan-favorite... well, I honestly can't say I'm surprised one bit at the reaction. Most of which seems to "Samus deserves better than this."

[beorn080]

Well the whole sexualization of Samus was something of a complete annihilation of her original mystique.  It's like if they took that biosuit girl from ME out of her biosuit and she turned out to be a fairly unremarkable hot thin large breasted blond that didn't really look any different from any other video game character of that type and then they also changed her personality on top of that.

Characters change, both intentionally and not. You can't expect a character to appear in a dozen different games and suit you in every single one. See my last point.

This wasn't a change. This was a complete derailment of her character. Just the Ridley scene alone. She's faced down Ridley between 2 and 4 times, depending on how certain games work into canon, before this game. Each time, she stared the bastard down, and curbstomped him. Granted, this was the days of the NES and SNES, and there wasn't too much story, but even in the side stories she never collapsed into a little girl state. She stood up, blasted the heck out of him, and took no quarter. THIS time, shes gonna collapse and start crying? If that occured to say, Master Chief, would that be a simple character change?