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[PA Comic] Wednesday, November 7, 2012 - Dongles
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
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Back after a three year hiatus!
On a side note, I'm kind of disappointed Mike and Jerry haven't done a Wreck-it Ralph strip(yet?). I thought it would be prime strip material considering how big a Disney fan Mike is and how its such a wonderful tribute to gaming culture.
Holy shit, thank god someone else said it. I was wondering if he was going to say "just give me a male to male cord" Its creepier that it makes the camel toe(super creeper) look like testes.
Edit: Or the cord looks like a gigantic stereo male to dildo male.
edit:Relevant
http://www.theonion.com/articles/even-ceo-cant-figure-out-how-radioshack-still-in-b,2190/
Why, game developers, why?
Depends on the location. There's three in my town, two of which are cell phones, overpriced batteries, and knockoff "Looks mostly like an iPad" crap. The third is tucked back in a strip mall and has all kinds of adapters and components and obscure tools you can't buy anywhere except at the wrong end of six hours experimenting with search terms on eBay. That store is one of my favorite places in the world, they have an adapter there to convert the old 1/4" stereo jacks to USB for people who want scratchy tin can on a blackboard sound without the compact size of $10 bottom shelf minispeakers from Walmart.
Once, just playing around, I conceived of a chain of converters and adapters that would after almost twenty steps let me plug HDMI into a parallel port. It wouldn't actually do anything, but it could be done.
Clearly, having boobs gives them something to play with instead of going rampant and trying to wipe out all life in the known universe.
Now, you might say that giving the AI a dick would have the same effect, to which I respond: Sure, but then the AI would never get anything else done ever.
Because she's a lady (seriously, AIs in this universe are constructed from human brain imprinting), a major character, and it's easier to empathize with something human looking rather than a disembodied voice
Feel free to complain that she's too sexy though, I guess?
On the black screen
"A supermodel wearing a glowing purple skintight jumpsuit, obviously."
"PERFECT."
[flash forward to Halo 4]
"Do we want to change Cortana at all?"
"Uh... she's pretty good but I think it would be easier to empathize with her if she had even larger boobs."
Perhaps the message that gamers can only empathize with someone whose body proportions are slightly more realistic than a Barbie doll and who dresses in nothing except pure energy (which happens to hug her figure perfectly) is not the greatest message for a game developer to send. Unrealistic representations of the female form are indefensible when the female is A HOLOGRAM and could literally look LIKE ANYTHING and thus when she looks like a game developer's idea of the chick he'd most like to bang, it sends a less than ideal message about what women should look like if they are to be respected/empathized with/trusted/whatever.
The second panel in this comic is fucking amazing. Radio Shack next to Forerunner architecture or whatever looks hilarious.
edit: via Gabe's twitter, slightly bigger Cortana -
About why she looks human, she was created by a detailed brain scan/clone from a scientist who looked like that in her youth. So Cortana's identity is that she "looks like that" on some base level. In the books, there's an AI that did not take on a human appearance because it's "not so needy about its identity" which really just means to me that it is an AI hipster and its identity deeply depends on feeling superior to everybody else.
About the comic, yeah Chief just kinda slings her chip everywhere and it works great. It makes sense that Forerunner tech reacts to human presences based on the lore, but being perfectly designed for human computer chips? Er... why?
I think you're conflating those two things. They made her look human so people could empathize with her.
They made her hot because sex appeal, MAIL GAMERZZ, etc. I certainly don't think it makes it harder for male gamers to care about her, but I don't think it's what brings anyone to care when they wouldn't have before?
But they're two separate issues. I know you're kind of joking but you seem to think I implied myself or anyone thought that her being hot makes her easier to empathize with. She doesn't need to look stunning, and if you want to have that conversation then great. There's a lot that can be said about the female form in gaming.
Personally, I don't think Cortana is particularly offensive in a vacuum. She's smart, assertive, and her relationship with the Master Chief is one of the best platonic relationships in all of gaming and probably recent TV and Movies too. But in the context of most every lady in videogaming being supa fine, yeah it's a bit of a problem. And I wasn't aware they made her breasts bigger in Halo 4 either, that kind of sucks.
On the black screen
Actually creepers on the internet proved that her boobs are slightly smaller than on promotional images from earlier in the series. This SO doesn't matter at all though, the "issue" is that she's "super hot" (which is not true) and "naked" which... her hologram should be wearing the hottest future fall fashions? Why?
Unless... Cortana is an exhibitionist! It all makes sense now. Her behavior is much more understandable if she exists to show her increasingly sexy body off to men (and women who are into that sort of thing).
Yeah, I think we basically agree. I don't have a problem with women being stereotypically "hot" like Cortana definitely is (even if people like shoeboxjeddy have such ridiculously high standards that a perfectly sculpted body with a redesigned sexier face still isn't hot because of a tiny imperfection in her teeth). I just have a problem with every portrayal of women in video games/entertainment in general being stereotypically hot. Cortana is probably fine in a vacuum (although I'd argue that making her super sexy is still pretty dumb because there's no reason for a scientist to be walking around basically naked), but the two issues are 1) every video game female has to be Lara Croft hot, even when they're a scientist AI that lives in a suit of power armor, and 2) Cortana has been getting hotter over time because if our female character is anything less than "better than supermodel" we have to fix that shit for the sequel.
The front tooth gap is actually a sign of beauty in many cultures and apparently also a growing trend in the fashion industry.
Also, you're being silly. "NUH UH THE HUGE BOOB LADY ISN'T A SEX SYMBOL."
Of COURSE she's being used as a sex symbol. If they wanted to adhere to this lore that she looks like a scientist who brain scanned in, she'd probably look like an average to moderately frumpy or overweight scientist. They didn't make her sexier because it "fit the lore," they made her sexy because young men play this game and it's good marketing.
They've started to make a concerted effort to reach out to "makers." The electronics section still consists of two large metal storage bins in the far back of the store, but I've noticed that they stock it better, and have started bringing in a lot more hobbyist level electronics gear.
Anyway, the Radioshack jokes is easy, but I still laughed.
It wouldn't be hard. Just put Doctor Manhattan in a Chippendale collar and tie made out of vaguely alien-looking dark blue circuitry. Boom, just enough pandering for you to act hurt and surprised when you get accused of objectifying women. Or woman-shaped constructs.
Wait, hold on. Can we actually objectify a woman who is, in the most literal sense, already an object?
(*I know all chaps are assless)
Which really just Cortanas headless zentai suit weirder.
Actually, a cut Independence Day scene reveals that most modern computing tech was reverse-engineered from the Roswell crash, which goes some small way towards explaining how Jeff Goldblum pulled it off. A shonky explanation, but better than none.
http://www.zeldawiki.org/Groose
Huh, didn't know that. Is it a sign of beauty in the US though (culture of main sales and where the game was made)? Because if not, shit don't matter.
Er, her boobs are regular sized for a video game "sex symbol". Please compare to Lara Croft, every girl in Mass Effect, DOA, etc. I think she's supposed to be pretty but T&A really? I get the feeling you guys don't even play the games before you make these type of complaints. 99% of the time, she's just a voice. OH SHIT SEX SYMBOL AHOY. The other 1%, she's a tiny hologram that stays put while you run onwards. In some cutscenes she's bigger and does stuff, but it's never like 'vogue vogue, panty shot' like every other cheap video game female character.
As far as her clothes, this is industry boilerplate 'hologram' look. Look at Tron, look at anything like this. If your response is "they are all pandering sexist things"... I guess? So every time you see a 'spiritual journey' or 'mindscape' or whatever where they don't wear clothes, you immediately think of softcore porno? I FULLY AGREE that women in video games are 99% ridiculous when it comes to things like armor choice and so on, but Halo pretty much isn't like that. Ladies in Halo:
-Keyes' daughter, completely average looking, always depicted in military uniform
-Halsey, looks like an average woman, getting realistically old and grey by 4
-Kat, has that "other" look to her face that all Spartans have. I guess she has 'dat ass', but that's more of an armor design (and only internet weirdos are stopping firefights to zoom in on the butts of their comrades to check details
-Multiplayer girl Spartans, look identical
-Tricia Helfer's character in ODST, looks like her as far as the engine can handle. Yeah she's pretty, but she's also in uniform that isn't flattering or odd in any way.
-Jennifer Hale's character in 4, looks like FemShep. I guess "traditionally attractive" is offensive somehow?
If we're continuing this discussion, please raise the level of argument above "she isn't ugly, therefore it is sexism."
But honestly if these pictures don't make the point for you then this probably isn't a discussion we can have because we're just on two completely different pages. You look at the pictures and see "better than Lara Croft" and I see "obviously designed to pander directly to the male gaze at the expense of her dignity and characterization." If that's not sexism then not much is.
edit: Jesus Christ, she has huge boobs and a perfect ass! How is this even contestable? This is like Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough! We have a female character who's a scientist, so what should she look like? Well obviously a porn star. And what should she dress like? Wait, dress? You're saying you want her to wear clothes? That's bullshit! Make her naked! But no nipples, that would get us an AO rating.
Comic's great, we've all been in the Chiefs situation before! Although maybe not while stranded on an alien planet in the distant future.
PS4: Voranth
Also, it's probably about time we stop pretending that only women get hypersexualised or objectified in video games. There are no shortage of video games out there that feature tall, extremely muscular male protagonists with chiselled jaw lines and piercing eyes. In the very same game we are discussing right now, we have the other primary protagnist himself: Master Chief. While not brazenly displaying bulging muscles, he is still not only extremely tall and broad-shouldered, but he is also presented as the ultimate alpha male and warrior. While women are often harshly judged on their appearance (likely due to a male's primitive instinct to select mates on the basis of their apparent fertility), men are equally often harshly judged by their social dominance (likely due to a female's primitive instinct to select mates on the basis of their apparent ability to provide and protect).
though i do see it i guess, she is shaped that way.. but she's also six inches tall, semi-transparent, blue, and spends 99% of the game as a disembodied voice in your head?
i would file this as one of those battles not worth picking. but i guess it's really a personal prism thing here. i see cortana as a much lighter shade of grey than say, the camera in mass effect 2 suddenly exploring bold new positions and angles whenever you had a cutscene with miranda. or how the only way to solve jacks psychosis was to hump it out of her. (i may be exaggerating but did anybody else notice that? there didn't seem to be a real platonic resolution for her? everybody else seemed to be happy and at peace regardless of being touched by my magic stick or not.)
light enough to not bother me.
someone mentioned "not as bad as tomb raider" meant "not as bad as raw sewage" but there's a LOT of things better than raw sewage. i feel like i do when i drink tap and don't notice/care until someone feels the need to point it out because they have some grudge for or against bottled water "oh my god your drinking tap water, gross!" or "see, you can't even tell the difference. why do they sell bottled water?!"
i'm just over here slaking my thirst for sci-fi shootery action... and now it apparently means something?
my only problem with Halo 4's Cortana is that she has toes
Chell, Alex Vance, that huntress from the new Assassin's Creed (just off the top of my head) manage to make do with being more than 50% clothed.
What did strike me as sexist from the little of Halo 4 I've seen is the way Cortana needfully, weakly whispered "I need you" in the intro: she's a super powerful AI! She should blast some of those guys out of the airlock and tell say "let's do this" like an equal, not...that. Ugh.
In short, sexism to me is treating woman like they are less able than men, not pretending like sexiness isn't inheritable enjoyable. It is. Get over it.
...I'm really liking these video game comics ¬.¬
Look, I'm not even going to dive into the Cortana discussion, but if this is your definition of sexism you're going to want to reevaluate some things before presenting it to a broader audience and expecting people to take it seriously. Targeting ability as a primary heuristic doesn't touch on objectification at all, which is the complaint people have about this kind of media.