Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
So in other news I can confirm that replaying missions via the Master Archive post game and failing the optional objectives has no negative consequences. I replayed a mission, got a new better time but failed the optional objectives, it now has my better time but still says "2 of 2 Optional Objectives Complete"
That thing about overwriting progress must just be if you reload an earlier campaign save. Which, yeah. :P
ALSO! Via this Master Archive thing, you get to pick and choose which evolution strains you want, as well as upgrades. Kerrigan is at her highest potential level for any given mission, which in practice is WAY higher than she actually was at the time for me, IE I did Kaldir first, so playing via this Master Archive thing, she's level 37 already and has a buncha evolved Zergs and everything be crazy
It's gonna spoil me when it's time to go back to Wings of Liberty and progress is entirely locked off.
No, I see the issue.
"Is there sexism in the gaming industry and in media at large?" Yes.
"Is that Starcraft 2's fault?" No.
The sexism in the gaming industry is largely cemented by giant game companies doing this sort of shit. They have the power and influence to change their medium, but they choose to just keep on trucking with the same cliched tropes. Remember, they CHOSE to portray their female characters in certain ways. Why did they choose to give her a fuckable bod, and not a swollen alien queen ass? Because they wanted to communicate a certain sex appeal through her design (and shut-the-fuck-up with the "tumor-like lumps on her chest aren't a hardened form armor better than the rigid plates". They're breasts, alright?.) They didn't do it because it made her an interesting character, or contributed to the storyline. They did it because she's a female character in a AAA sci-fi game, and the template dictates that she must have X sex apeal, because that's what horny little teenaged boys want. For the record, horny little teenaged boys also want to have power fantasies about being muscle bound supermen who bang hot chicks. Jim Raynor's mecha armoured power abs arent there for those rare female gamers to oggle.
Now, starcraft 2 will get played by millions of people. Seen by millions of eyes who will have that portrayal of female characters imprinted on them.
Look at the spread here.
For males, we got grizzled Jim Raynor, Nerdy Kid in the lab, Stumpy Dwarf mechanic, old man tyrant mengsk, scv trucker redneck, admiral battlecruiser, and a wealth of other diverse characters.
For females we got.... Sexy kerrigan. Sexy nova. Sexy scientist. Sexy medic. Sexy dropship pilot. Sexi banshee pilot. Sexy random hyperion mechanic. Sexy adviser robot. Sexy protoss lady. Sexy zerg wall-worm-thing. annnnnnnd gross alien queen (who's only female in voice).
They CHOSE to do that. They have some responsibility here, with the amount of influence they have. They could have not traveled the unrealistic and tired road that paint 99% of ALL FEMALES IN THE UNIVERSE as beauty models, but nope. They CHOSE to just keep on truckin.
So yeah, they're sort of at fault here.
Just because everyone is doing it, doesn't make it alright. They don't have to be progressive feminist hippies, but they certainly shouldn't be reinforcing the entire problem. "hot bitches in games makes money! Everyone keep making hot bitches in games!"
McGibs on
+4
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
Also every single combat troop in the game, except Queens (but gender is pretty irrelevant for zergs), is male. Selendis shows up once but she isn't any of the actual units, you get her as a hero unit for a single mission. Everything else? Male. Which strikes me as slightly unrealistic.
So you ignore the parts of her anatomy that are mutated and alien, the claws, the tentacle hair, the skin color, etc? Comparing her to the other character you mentioned is incongruent because he an infested human. Kerrigan is a zerg, which do not wear clothes. To our knowledge the parts of her anatomy that look "exposed" could be pure armor or an incredibly hardened structure offering more protection than the rigid plates.
Is femininity itself sexual?
Are masculinity and femininity congruent when it comes to sexualization? What defines male sexuality?
As I said before, compare Kerrigan to
Infested Stukov. He's infested and he wears clothes, his face is far more deformed than Kerrigan's.
Once again, that character is infested. Its been established that infested humans or characters of any race become zombie-like and deformed upon infestation. Kerrigan was carefully modeled by the overmind, then herself to be the perfect Zerg Queen. Different circumstances for two different characters.
Except,
She wasn't modeled by the Overmind in HotS. She transformed back into the Queen of Blades by the Primal Zerg.
Not exactly true.
She isn't remodeled specifically by the Primal Zerg, she enters a pool of primordial essence and absorbs it. Its implied that she is remodeling herself.
Also, how does having glossy lips, breasts, and built in high heels make her the perfect Zerg Queen? The Zerg specifically breeds out useless traits and puts in the strongest/most useful ones. So why doesn't Kerrigan have fangs or armor on her chest?
She doesn't really have glossy lips in the game, thats mostly the statue Blizz made, also as I pointed out before how do we know the tumor-like lumps on her chest aren't a hardened form armor better than the rigid plates? Its established in HotS she can weave DNA strands so how do we know she didn't choose that appearance for herself?
If the "tumor-like lumps" on her chest are better armor than rigid plates then why isn't the rest of her body like that?
As for her femininity, you are aware that her proportions are very idealized, don't you?
As is Jim Raynor's, Tychus Findlay's, Prince Valerian, and countless other male characters in the game. I would love to have their physiques. Video games very rarely reflect reality.
Did you not understand the idea that I pointed out earlier about the lack of diversity in female characters?
It seems like you just moved the goalposts. "Kerrigan has features that society would consider attractive."
"Yes, but so do the men in the game."
"But less females in media break out of that mold than men."
"How is that Kerrigan's fault?"
You're faulting Blizz for not being progressive, which isn't sexist. Its just using an established norm the same as the male characters in the game.
Where did I move the goalpost? I specifically said that the lack of diversity in the portrayal of women is part of the problem.
In order to have this discussion, you really should stop acting as if SC2 exists in a vacuum separate from culture.
I just don't see the usefulness in berating a game for having benign aspects that are part of a larger grievance with culture. Its kind of like going out of your way to dislike or attack something, especially when said thing is not the cause and merely a byproduct.
Except it's a problem when it perpetuates the stereotype. Let's say that you made a movie in 1940 that had an African American character who was unintelligent, ignorant, and needs the help and guidance of a white person. Even if you aren't just saying that he's like that just because of his race and can completely justify why that character is like that, it would still perpetuate that specific stereotype. The very fact that there is either very few or no other depictions of a certain gender or race out side of that stereotype means that when you follow that same mold, even if you can perfectly justify it within your story, you are contributing to the perpetuation of that stereotype.
Except here the "stereotype" that is being perpetuated is that Kerrigan is female.
Except women don't naturally have plump glossy lips, high heels built into their feet, or super model figures that accentuate their butts and breasts.
Countless women have plump limps, choose to wear high heels, and have "super model figures".
Also, 100 years ago, the majority of African Americans lived in poverty and were poorly educated so people would have justified portraying African Americans mainly as ignorant and uneducated as saying that they were just reflecting reality.
Yes, so for the time period would a film portraying that have been unreasonable? Whats wrong with reflecting reality? By your definition "To Kill a Mockingbird" is racist because it contains an african american character who is poor and uneducated.
You're missing the point. If 95% of all media portrays a certain race, gender, or culture in just one way then that perpetuates a stereotype even if none of the individual pieces of media are prejudiced/racist/sexist. The problem with fiction only reflecting reality is that it helps to maintain the status quo. It shows oppressed minorities that this is "their place" in society and that they should accept it. That's why Lt. Uhura was such a big deal that Dr. Martin Luther King asked Nichelle Nicols to stay on the show when she wanted to quit. If they had just reflected the reality of the time that were no black women officers in the military and that most black women were poorly educated and had menial jobs then you would not have a role model for people to look up to and strive for so that reality can change to be less racist and sexist.
With HotS, not only does it perpetuate that stereotype, there is nothing within the story to actually justify its use of those stereotypes. The idea of Kerrigan having a super model figure or wearing high heels makes no sense within the story. The accentuation of the qualities that American culture defines as sexy makes no sense within a character who is supposed to have been trained from birth to be a special operative spy/soldier/assassin. How many female soldier have a bodies like super models, glossy lips, and wear high heels into combat?
Seriously like. Way more women do not look like that then actually do look like that. It is orders of magnitude of difference. And seriously, you're going to argue that a well muscled, badass, unstoppable dude is COMPLETELY EQUIVALENT to a woman being defined by how attractive people find her body? Are you being deliberately obtuse, or do you not understand anything about anything?
I will make that case. I was in the Army, and out of the thousands of different soldiers I encountered, I can count the number of well muscled badass types at under a dozen. The toughest and scariest soldiers I met were thin wiry SF types who could march through the toughest terrain and weather for days and still have more than enough energy to smoke through extended PT. The bodybuilder image is an idealized fantasy that contains a bunch of unnecessary and potentially counter-productive bulk, just like excess bulk in a woman's breast.
holy fuck are you mad. or maybe you just really don't like breasts. But to bring it back to the real world, NEWSFLASH: most women like to feel sexy. Thats why they wear high heels and makeup. And short skirts and tops with exposed cleavage. None of that shit helps them file papers in the office, answer telephone calls, or work on a computer. So before you go on a white knight crusade on behalf of women everywhere, you might want to rewind and think about just what the fuck you are talking about.
I don't understand why sex appeal is sexist. Why is making a female character sexy a sexist act?
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Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Protoss females tend to be high ranking, not frontline fighters; Selendis is the current High Executor, and Raszagal was the leader of the Dark Templars for a while.
Quasi-spoilerish, but I love how evolution can consist of "put yourself in a shitty situation and force yourself to evolve."
In the real world, such stupidity would be selected against.
There are a lot of things to get mad about when it comes to how zerg evolution is treated, but "apply selective pressure-->see if a mutation allows for adaptation into a stronger organism" is probably the least ridiculous.
I get more mad about the assertion that you can just take DNA from one creature and put it in another to get the same results. That is...not really how biology works. It would be great if it was though. My PhD would be done already.
Early-ish spoilers
The one queen is stated as to having put herself in a situation to force adaption. This is stupid, because evolution occurs in populations. She can either handle her brood, or she cannot. Were she part of a greater pack of queens trying to see which are best adapted to filling in the power vacuum Kerrigan left behind, it would make more sense. They are basically acting as if they can just spontaneously create new genes without the aid of some external force.
Yeah, the DNA or essence thing is also silly, and probably worse because that is how the Zerg operate at their core. They take beneficial sequences and incorporate them into the species. This ignores how genetics isn't always that neat and evolution brings in bad traits with good.
You're missing the point. If 95% of all media portrays a certain race, gender, or culture in just one way then that perpetuates a stereotype even if none of the individual pieces of media are prejudiced/racist/sexist.
Since Rorus wants us to stop talking about this subject and derailing the thread, I will simply say this:
I am not here to champion the fight against sexism in media at large, nor am I here to oppose it. My whole argument was against singling out Starcraft and trying to analyze the specific elements of it people were calling offensive. I do not agree with the "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" ideal. It is a false dilemma and pretty fascist.
Youre still talking about it. And now I can't reply.
McGibs on
0
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
These alternate evolution paths are a lot more appealing when I can switch em off and on for each given mission.
I went Hunter Zerglings and didn't really regret it, but now, trying these fast spawny versions instead? Coupled with the jumpy bitey Banelings? It is a winning combination.
Also every single combat troop in the game, except Queens (but gender is pretty irrelevant for zergs), is male. Selendis shows up once but she isn't any of the actual units, you get her as a hero unit for a single mission. Everything else? Male. Which strikes me as slightly unrealistic.
Quasi-spoilerish, but I love how evolution can consist of "put yourself in a shitty situation and force yourself to evolve."
In the real world, such stupidity would be selected against.
There are a lot of things to get mad about when it comes to how zerg evolution is treated, but "apply selective pressure-->see if a mutation allows for adaptation into a stronger organism" is probably the least ridiculous.
I get more mad about the assertion that you can just take DNA from one creature and put it in another to get the same results. That is...not really how biology works. It would be great if it was though. My PhD would be done already.
Early-ish spoilers
The one queen is stated as to having put herself in a situation to force adaption. This is stupid, because evolution occurs in populations. She can either handle her brood, or she cannot. Were she part of a greater pack of queens trying to see which are best adapted to filling in the power vacuum Kerrigan left behind, it would make more sense. They are basically acting as if they can just spontaneously create new genes without the aid of some external force.
Yeah, the DNA or essence thing is also silly, and probably worse because that is how the Zerg operate at their core. They take beneficial sequences and incorporate them into the species. This ignores how genetics isn't always that neat and evolution brings in bad traits with good.
Zerg changing themselves with
dude who's a flesh-o-mancer or flesh-smith or something. Kerrigan sends Zagara down to him like 2 or 3 times to get improved. The brood queens don't seem to smart, she probably wasn't actually going to achieve anything with that since she has no magic tube worm with 6 hands who molds creatures with "DNA essences". It's not like the zerg evolution thing ever made any more sense than it does now :P
A lot of the mutations and strains are phoned-in. In many cases you just get what would have been an upgrade in the normal game. Oh yeah, this unit can burrow now! Or, my thing can evolved into something it was always capable of evolving into! That's...fun?
A lot of the mutations and strains are phoned-in. In many cases you just get what would have been an upgrade in the normal game. Oh yeah, this unit can burrow now! Or, my thing can evolved into something it was always capable of evolving into! That's...fun?
That's pacing? They pretty much separated what units do in single and multiplayer ages ago due to different demands of both parts of the game. Like with vipers and swarm hosts.
Narud had Raynor steal artifacts from the Tal'darim in WoL but now we learn that the Tal'darim work for Narud so Narud destroyed his own forces and stole stuff from himself?
Quasi-spoilerish, but I love how evolution can consist of "put yourself in a shitty situation and force yourself to evolve."
In the real world, such stupidity would be selected against.
There are a lot of things to get mad about when it comes to how zerg evolution is treated, but "apply selective pressure-->see if a mutation allows for adaptation into a stronger organism" is probably the least ridiculous.
I get more mad about the assertion that you can just take DNA from one creature and put it in another to get the same results. That is...not really how biology works. It would be great if it was though. My PhD would be done already.
Early-ish spoilers
The one queen is stated as to having put herself in a situation to force adaption. This is stupid, because evolution occurs in populations. She can either handle her brood, or she cannot. Were she part of a greater pack of queens trying to see which are best adapted to filling in the power vacuum Kerrigan left behind, it would make more sense. They are basically acting as if they can just spontaneously create new genes without the aid of some external force.
Yeah, the DNA or essence thing is also silly, and probably worse because that is how the Zerg operate at their core. They take beneficial sequences and incorporate them into the species. This ignores how genetics isn't always that neat and evolution brings in bad traits with good.
The Zerg do not operate under the normal rules of evolution though. As established on Zeros, the unique trait of the Zerg is that their bodies are naturally able to incorporate genes into their own DNA on a macro scale, changing their whole biology. Evolution is not neat, but what the Zerg are doing is not natural evolution, it is deliberate genetic modification, albeit done instinctively and using their unique biology rather than technology.
That said it is unlikely that any creature could evolve this ability, especially one that would work between species from different planets. Conceptually I don't really have a huge problem with it though.
A lot of the mutations and strains are phoned-in. In many cases you just get what would have been an upgrade in the normal game. Oh yeah, this unit can burrow now! Or, my thing can evolved into something it was always capable of evolving into! That's...fun?
The Hydralisk and Mutalisk evolutions were really disappointing, yeah. I liked the Swarm Host upgrade conceptually, but I never found the unit to be strong enough to usable. It basically seems like a Guardian that is stationary, fires really slowly and fires creatures that can be killed before they even get into range to do damage.
That said I mostly used it as a defensive unit, I suppose it makes more sense as the siege unit it is marketed as. I can't imagine it would do well against a position with any real amount of defences though.
The Swarm Host can be pretty good in assaults if you go with
the Creeper and give Kerrigan the Malignant Creep ability. You can spread creep anywhere, giving your units the increased regeneration and 30% attack speed. Combined with Wild Mutation and those locusts can take and dish out a lot more damage.
So Kerrigan rescues Jim, and then he turns out to be a space racist and can't deal with his not-even-girlfriend's new weave, so he abandons her. Then after a couple days of sulking he figures he may as well fly his tin can over to help her out, since she probably can't hack it with only her billions of ever evolving and never ceasing bio-terrors. And then he sneaks in to the palace just in time to beat the bully for her, as he realizes her and him are going to just be friends and that is ok, and they're going to different colleges in the fall anyway so we may as well just make up and get on with our lives. And then she inexplicably floats away because they love each other but love is hard.
So Kerrigan rescues Jim, and then he turns out to be a space racist and can't deal with his not-even-girlfriend's new weave, so he abandons her. Then after a couple days of sulking he figures he may as well fly his tin can over to help her out, since she probably can't hack it with only her billions of ever evolving and never ceasing bio-terrors. And then he sneaks in to the palace just in time to beat the bully for her, as he realizes her and him are going to just be friends and that is ok, and they're going to different colleges in the fall anyway so we may as well just make up and get on with our lives. And then she inexplicably floats away because they love each other but love is hard.
"We're Done".
*cue sitcom ooOOOOOoooo audience jeer*
I'm so glad I skipped the last two pages of discussion, holy shit. Go write to your damn congressman people.
As for the best mutations, if you end up with a completely purple mutated army, you are master upgrade selector.
A lot of the mutations and strains are phoned-in. In many cases you just get what would have been an upgrade in the normal game. Oh yeah, this unit can burrow now! Or, my thing can evolved into something it was always capable of evolving into! That's...fun?
The Mutalisk Viper/Brood Lord upgrade was particularly egregious. Either you give up a really useful siege unit, or you don't get to play with the new unit at all.
Also, I don't think any of the caster units got evolution upgrades.
The bigger problem I had with the Zerg in this is that they really didn't seem like protagonists. Neither did Kerrigan, for that matter.
Like, Warfield had exactly the right point - running around murdering the fuck out of all the random dominion people and infesting humans and stuff felt pretty evil to me.
The part on the prison ship where you could implant virophages I specifically avoided doing because infesting a bunch of random prisoners to send them off to die randomly felt pretty morally abhorrent.
The Zerg as a whole got way more interesting when
infested Stukov showed up. Because Stukov actually seemed notably un-infested to me. He was mutated, but he had free-will, was lucid and thoughtful, and no strong desire to be generally all murderery and essencey and wasn't all power-mad like Kerrigan comes across as.
Narud had Raynor steal artifacts from the Tal'darim in WoL but now we learn that the Tal'darim work for Narud so Narud destroyed his own forces and stole stuff from himself?
Nah, this works.
Narud could just give Jimmy the artifacts in Wings of Liberty, but he's manipulating everyone towards the future of In Utter Darkness. Depowering Kerrigan was the main objective then, but getting the Terrans and Tal'darim fighting each other too is like an optional objective that he goes for.
The Tal'darim wouldn't know Narud sent Raynor after the artifacts. To them, he's some messenger from their old God telling them what's up.
The bigger problem I had with the Zerg in this is that they really didn't seem like protagonists. Neither did Kerrigan, for that matter.
Like, Warfield had exactly the right point - running around murdering the fuck out of all the random dominion people and infesting humans and stuff felt pretty evil to me.
The part on the prison ship where you could implant virophages I specifically avoided doing because infesting a bunch of random prisoners to send them off to die randomly felt pretty morally abhorrent.
The Zerg as a whole got way more interesting when
infested Stukov showed up. Because Stukov actually seemed notably un-infested to me. He was mutated, but he had free-will, was lucid and thoughtful, and no strong desire to be generally all murderery and essencey and wasn't all power-mad like Kerrigan comes across as.
I felt this way too, especially around the early parts of the game since it felt like such a hard swing, but I ended up liking it. As laughable as most people seem to find the story, I found Kerrigan to be an interesting character. What was not apparent at the start (and understandably so) is that she is truly Zerg. The transformation freed her from Amun's influence and changed her body, but her mind is still completely that of the queen of the swarm. Characterwise her second transformation halfway through the game was mostly a formality, and though Kerrigan struggled a bit with having lost her humanity and the cost that would have for her relationship with Jim, she never doubted that it was the right choice.
There was no gollum back-and-forth between an evil and a good persona, which I appreciated. She is brutal, uncompromising and completely focused on her goals but her mind is her own. Her goals are to kill Mengsk, save Jim and protect the swarm, and she is willing to pursue each at any cost. I thought she was a monster when she started sending off her queens to kill entire planets, and those actions certainly were monstrous from a human perspective, but what she was doing was uniting the swarm and ensuring its survival. With the way Mengsk brought in troops from all over the section it became clear that those massacres were necessary for Kerrigan to complete her ultimate goal.
Kerrigan is an alien, but one who understands and is capable of compassion and mercy. She just usually chooses not to exercise it. It was also interesting to see her more human values rub off on the Swarm. The Zerg are changing because of her presence, into something that might eventually be able to live peacefully beside the Terrans.
I found that the most inexplicable thing about Kerrigan's personality was from those weird little cutscenes
where Kerrigan gets contacted by other swarm queens who want to join her and then she tells them to wipe out some planet to prove their worth. I didn't really understand the point of those conversations. They didn't seem to have any effect on the game and all they showed was that Kerrigan had no problem with wantonly slaughtering people, which blatantly contradicts any scenes in which she shows some kind of doubt or remorse in her actions. She'll let Warfield's men go but then she just casually orders a Zerg brood to decimate an entire planet.
I found that the most inexplicable thing about Kerrigan's personality was from those weird little cutscenes
where Kerrigan gets contacted by other swarm queens who want to join her and then she tells them to wipe out some planet to prove their worth. I didn't really understand the point of those conversations. They didn't seem to have any effect on the game and all they showed was that Kerrigan had no problem with wantonly slaughtering people, which blatantly contradicts any scenes in which she shows some kind of doubt or remorse in her actions. She'll let Warfield's men go but then she just casually orders a Zerg brood to decimate an entire planet.
I assume that she wanted to cripple key military locations and bind up dominion troops on those planets to weaken Mengsk's forces before the final assault. It was incredibly brutal though, that is true.
Posts
That thing about overwriting progress must just be if you reload an earlier campaign save. Which, yeah. :P
ALSO! Via this Master Archive thing, you get to pick and choose which evolution strains you want, as well as upgrades. Kerrigan is at her highest potential level for any given mission, which in practice is WAY higher than she actually was at the time for me, IE I did Kaldir first, so playing via this Master Archive thing, she's level 37 already and has a buncha evolved Zergs and everything be crazy
It's gonna spoil me when it's time to go back to Wings of Liberty and progress is entirely locked off.
The sexism in the gaming industry is largely cemented by giant game companies doing this sort of shit. They have the power and influence to change their medium, but they choose to just keep on trucking with the same cliched tropes. Remember, they CHOSE to portray their female characters in certain ways. Why did they choose to give her a fuckable bod, and not a swollen alien queen ass? Because they wanted to communicate a certain sex appeal through her design (and shut-the-fuck-up with the "tumor-like lumps on her chest aren't a hardened form armor better than the rigid plates". They're breasts, alright?.) They didn't do it because it made her an interesting character, or contributed to the storyline. They did it because she's a female character in a AAA sci-fi game, and the template dictates that she must have X sex apeal, because that's what horny little teenaged boys want. For the record, horny little teenaged boys also want to have power fantasies about being muscle bound supermen who bang hot chicks. Jim Raynor's mecha armoured power abs arent there for those rare female gamers to oggle.
Now, starcraft 2 will get played by millions of people. Seen by millions of eyes who will have that portrayal of female characters imprinted on them.
Look at the spread here.
For males, we got grizzled Jim Raynor, Nerdy Kid in the lab, Stumpy Dwarf mechanic, old man tyrant mengsk, scv trucker redneck, admiral battlecruiser, and a wealth of other diverse characters.
For females we got.... Sexy kerrigan. Sexy nova. Sexy scientist. Sexy medic. Sexy dropship pilot. Sexi banshee pilot. Sexy random hyperion mechanic. Sexy adviser robot. Sexy protoss lady. Sexy zerg wall-worm-thing. annnnnnnd gross alien queen (who's only female in voice).
They CHOSE to do that. They have some responsibility here, with the amount of influence they have. They could have not traveled the unrealistic and tired road that paint 99% of ALL FEMALES IN THE UNIVERSE as beauty models, but nope. They CHOSE to just keep on truckin.
So yeah, they're sort of at fault here.
Just because everyone is doing it, doesn't make it alright. They don't have to be progressive feminist hippies, but they certainly shouldn't be reinforcing the entire problem. "hot bitches in games makes money! Everyone keep making hot bitches in games!"
edit: Mission in WoL, that is.
If the "tumor-like lumps" on her chest are better armor than rigid plates then why isn't the rest of her body like that?
Where did I move the goalpost? I specifically said that the lack of diversity in the portrayal of women is part of the problem.
You're missing the point. If 95% of all media portrays a certain race, gender, or culture in just one way then that perpetuates a stereotype even if none of the individual pieces of media are prejudiced/racist/sexist. The problem with fiction only reflecting reality is that it helps to maintain the status quo. It shows oppressed minorities that this is "their place" in society and that they should accept it. That's why Lt. Uhura was such a big deal that Dr. Martin Luther King asked Nichelle Nicols to stay on the show when she wanted to quit. If they had just reflected the reality of the time that were no black women officers in the military and that most black women were poorly educated and had menial jobs then you would not have a role model for people to look up to and strive for so that reality can change to be less racist and sexist.
With HotS, not only does it perpetuate that stereotype, there is nothing within the story to actually justify its use of those stereotypes. The idea of Kerrigan having a super model figure or wearing high heels makes no sense within the story. The accentuation of the qualities that American culture defines as sexy makes no sense within a character who is supposed to have been trained from birth to be a special operative spy/soldier/assassin. How many female soldier have a bodies like super models, glossy lips, and wear high heels into combat?
I will make that case. I was in the Army, and out of the thousands of different soldiers I encountered, I can count the number of well muscled badass types at under a dozen. The toughest and scariest soldiers I met were thin wiry SF types who could march through the toughest terrain and weather for days and still have more than enough energy to smoke through extended PT. The bodybuilder image is an idealized fantasy that contains a bunch of unnecessary and potentially counter-productive bulk, just like excess bulk in a woman's breast.
holy fuck are you mad. or maybe you just really don't like breasts. But to bring it back to the real world, NEWSFLASH: most women like to feel sexy. Thats why they wear high heels and makeup. And short skirts and tops with exposed cleavage. None of that shit helps them file papers in the office, answer telephone calls, or work on a computer. So before you go on a white knight crusade on behalf of women everywhere, you might want to rewind and think about just what the fuck you are talking about.
Its not that there ARE sexy females. ITS THAT EVERY SINGLE FEMALE IS A SEXY FEMALE.
EDIT: oh come on, I posted this before you put the hammer down.
Kerrigan was supposed to be trained from childhood to be a soldier. How does it make sense for her to look like a super model?
Yeah, the DNA or essence thing is also silly, and probably worse because that is how the Zerg operate at their core. They take beneficial sequences and incorporate them into the species. This ignores how genetics isn't always that neat and evolution brings in bad traits with good.
Since Rorus wants us to stop talking about this subject and derailing the thread, I will simply say this:
I am not here to champion the fight against sexism in media at large, nor am I here to oppose it. My whole argument was against singling out Starcraft and trying to analyze the specific elements of it people were calling offensive. I do not agree with the "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" ideal. It is a false dilemma and pretty fascist.
Medics, banshees, medivacs.
Zerg changing themselves with
That's pacing? They pretty much separated what units do in single and multiplayer ages ago due to different demands of both parts of the game. Like with vipers and swarm hosts.
Like, maybe they could cloak on creep or something.
I was so disappointed when all I got was dumb
Same for mutalisks.
The quotes were something like:
"NOOOOOOO .. YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR SACRILEGE!!"
"TAL'DARIM WARRIORS, CRUSH THESE INTERLOPERS!"
"DEFEND THE TEMPLE! LAY WASTE TO THESE ABOMINATIONS!"
That said it is unlikely that any creature could evolve this ability, especially one that would work between species from different planets. Conceptually I don't really have a huge problem with it though.
The Hydralisk and Mutalisk evolutions were really disappointing, yeah. I liked the Swarm Host upgrade conceptually, but I never found the unit to be strong enough to usable. It basically seems like a Guardian that is stationary, fires really slowly and fires creatures that can be killed before they even get into range to do damage.
That said I mostly used it as a defensive unit, I suppose it makes more sense as the siege unit it is marketed as. I can't imagine it would do well against a position with any real amount of defences though.
*cue sitcom ooOOOOOoooo audience jeer*
I'm so glad I skipped the last two pages of discussion, holy shit. Go write to your damn congressman people.
As for the best mutations, if you end up with a completely purple mutated army, you are master upgrade selector.
I'm Wings of Liberty was annoying with random technobabble.
Also(mid-wayish campaign spoiler)
The part on the prison ship where you could implant virophages I specifically avoided doing because infesting a bunch of random prisoners to send them off to die randomly felt pretty morally abhorrent.
The Zerg as a whole got way more interesting when
It's silly you don't even get to experiment with completely new units outside of incredibly short side missions.
I've kinda given up on expecting realism from any game that hasn't already strived to be realistic.
Now I sort of don't really understand why people ever complain about it, honestly.
Nah, this works.
The Tal'darim wouldn't know Narud sent Raynor after the artifacts. To them, he's some messenger from their old God telling them what's up.
Also for the record, Tal'darim be fucking nuts.
There was no gollum back-and-forth between an evil and a good persona, which I appreciated. She is brutal, uncompromising and completely focused on her goals but her mind is her own. Her goals are to kill Mengsk, save Jim and protect the swarm, and she is willing to pursue each at any cost. I thought she was a monster when she started sending off her queens to kill entire planets, and those actions certainly were monstrous from a human perspective, but what she was doing was uniting the swarm and ensuring its survival. With the way Mengsk brought in troops from all over the section it became clear that those massacres were necessary for Kerrigan to complete her ultimate goal.
Kerrigan is an alien, but one who understands and is capable of compassion and mercy. She just usually chooses not to exercise it. It was also interesting to see her more human values rub off on the Swarm. The Zerg are changing because of her presence, into something that might eventually be able to live peacefully beside the Terrans.
That's basically a siege tank at lair tech.
Lurkers suck! ^_^'
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra