In the latest chapter of the industry's depressing saga of female character portrayals, Hideo Kojima of MGS fame has been forced to do damage control. In several tweets, he talked about how he ordered the design for "Quiet", the big tittied sniper in the E3 trailer, to be made more "erotic"--posting a close-up of her ass for emphasis--in order to facilitate sexier cosplay and spur figurine sales (gag).
A few things:
- Putting aside the whole sexism debate for a second, Quiet's design is thrown-together trash. It's a bikini with some belts, straps and ripped pantyhose on top--something that looks like it was thrown together in 2 minutes. Totally uninispired dreck.
- His weak-sauce defense here is that he meant "sexy" in a more general sense, that could be applied to the guys, the weapons, the equipment, and everything else in the game. For one thing, that difference is entirely academic when you start talking about appeals to the Japanese figurine market. But beyond that...is this really the first thing that came to mind when he wanted to make Quiet "appealing"? That doesn't sound any better, frankly.
- I'm REALLY getting sick of hearing the entitled whining about these issues whenever such things come up. People whine about how games aren't taken seriously and are treated like corrosive kids stuff--and then act like spoiled kids whenever anyone dares to even brings up gender issues at all. It's the same thing we saw with the hilariously stupid Amazon and Sorceress designs in Dragon's Crown, or the film rape scene in Hotline Miami 2, or Ben Kuchera's douchey, tone-deaf handling of the whole "dickwolves" controversy.
Too many gamers want to have it all. They want validation for the medium from outsiders, without any of the potential criticism or responsibility that comes with it. They say that the media and critics of games don't focus enough on the good things in games--but shit like death threats over balance changes in COD, or telling someone they should've aborted their children because they DARED to criticize combat in gaming, can't be ignored.
Nor should it be.
I'm not really into MGS, so I probably shouldn't comment, but I will say that if you aren't following Kojima on Twitter you are missing out on some pretty amazing tweets.
Man, I'm following too many people as it is. :p
I'll look at more of them later.
I wonder if Kojima came up with his own definition for the word sexy...
Sexy: 1 - When applied to men and/or equipment means a sleek and practical design; 2 - When applied to women, near nakedness.
When he was talking about "boosting figurine sales", I REALLY don't think he meant tanks. :p
Sniper wolf was sexy. This looks like amature night at a ghetto strip club.
Not without a thong, no. :p
Seriously, though, amateur is right.
My first reaction to seeing "The Quiet" was "oh look, the obligatory cleavage character." Sniper Wolf, Fortune, Eva, and Naomi took that role in each game. With the exception of Naomi, it's almost like they lose more clothes each game!
Looking at some pics, her design looks downright prudish in comparison. At least she's wearing proper pants. :p
Eh, as long as the game turns out good, I couldn't care less.
That's what depresses me most about the whole thing. Does a game like MGS really need this to push more units? REALLY? Somehow I doubt it.
I often thought a lot of MG characters looked like BDSM enthuaists. lol. (Psycho-Mantis and naked cart-wheeling Raiden come to mind surprisingly)
However, I will say appearances aside, most MG characters end up surprising me in some way by just how deep and human they are.
Personally I don't think Quiet has an offensive immature design (I've seen much worse) but that's just my personal opinion. Besides,should I be offended Kojima wanted to create a sexy character? By that logic you should lash me many times over as well as the artist for Dragon's Crown.
If Quiet ends up being a shallow vapid under-developed cliche THEN I'll be offended. Afterall, more goes into buiding a fictional person than their outer appearance.
Oh, trust me, I've seen worse too. I just find it depressing that we're seeing this in a game as big as MGS--if Kojima feels compelled to take this approach so deliberately, what other Japanese developers wouldn't?
Depends on how Quiet acts & reacts in the game. Aka, she could set the standard really high (despite her choice of fashion) or set the bar really low. (Aka,if she comes off as Snookie from Jersey shore. lol. Though truth be told, I feel kinda mean by taking jabs at Snook. She's such an easy target.)
In a way I agree with you Ben. Depth can make up for a bad fashion sense. What is sad is that Kojima just seems to be capitalizing on the "sex sells" formula instead of working on how Quiet fits in MGS. The new entry is set to tackle some serious subject matter, but sexploitation doesn't seem to be one of them.
The character looks could have gone in many directions, but he decided that the bikini and pantyhose combo was ideal to boost figurine sales and to make cosplaying as Quiet easier, or in more cynical terms, to make more money and get free publicity. That doesn't sound as good character creation at all.
I have no problem with sexy characters, and I don't think we should vilely them. But the gaming industry needs to grow up a bit and realize that sexy doesn't mean just scantly clad women, and that striping them just for money is downright offensive.
Ever since Meryl said "Women have more hiding places than men" and I could get Snake to interogate women in bikinis on the beach I suppose I haven't been as upset about this stuff. Aka,it seems trivial to me. However, I know that's just my personal viewpoint.
Yes,there are a variety of things that can be "sexy" but let's be honest. Nothing communicates that quite like the beautiful and idealized female (and male) physique.
Again,I remember Raiden running around while being totally naked. It's going to take more than Quiet to offend me!
Sniper Wolf looked more like a sniper than this Quiet sniper. I'm just glad I'm not as big into Metal Gear like I use to be or else I'd care about this whole issue. This just makes me glad this pushes games back into less mainstream and more niche. I liked my games where they were before they hit mainstream.
To be honest, the amount of skin and cleavage showing doesn't bother me. I do find the choice of trailer trash outfit amusing, though.