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Is AoC sexism?
Elikal
Member UncommonPosts: 7,912
Not sexy, sexism, as in racism.
Now I am not against sexyness in game - nor against a certain dose of gore for that matter - but it came to me that AoC seems rather sexistic (is that the Engish word?) to me.
We have Demonologists, but they only can summone female sexy-demons. No matter what gender or preferrence, there is always this women to safe in the beginning. There are only FEMALE prostitutes, and most important: why do female chars look good but male all like they fell head on into a lawn-mower? I mean the males have only 2 kind of faces: abysmally ugly, and just so far ok than you dont have to puke looking at them.
Oh and did they ever head the difference between a haircutter and a barber?
And dont even get me started about the male clothing! Why does even the cheapest harbour harlot wear golden silk and men wear all stuff looking like pulling on a potatoe sack?
I mean, seriously, the Conan world is not Armani male models-world, but why does it make such a difference between male and female characters? Is the only "good male" when he has a square body in sack-cloth and a face like punched too many times? I rly bemoan a BIT more diversity in all this. Its all QUITE old fashioned stereotypical and quite un-adult in that, I must admit. More like what I'd imagine a teenagers male dream world.
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Comments
Largely it's marketshare. There's not enough people in the world that are attracted to males, let alone attracted to males of any degree to warrant such the extra effort. Is it sexist on FC's part? I would say no, because of the economics of MMOs and games in general still favor heterosexual men, thus it will be shaped by that above all. As gamers change, so will the details of such games.
-- Brede
Sexist the word you are looking for:)
The word your looking for is sexist and yes, the Conan world is very sexist. It mainly appeals to male audience as do most video games imo.
think about the time period. think about the setting.
think about the source material that the game is trying to stay true to.
Of COURSE it's sexist.
There's also slavery, prostitution, cannibalism, and worse injustices in this game. It's not a nice place.
I love it.
Well it sounds just like Conan's world/lore to the tee to me. They must have done a good displaying the IP for you to notice so quickly how immature the world/lore of Conan is.
I mean really, what did you expect?
What does it matter? According to half the folks here the games too buggy to play anyway.
yes, the game is sexist and racist. It is based off of the original books. If you've read the original books they are indeed sexist and racist. That is a big reason why this is rated "M", but also for marketting.
What people have been saying, yes, this is good for marketting. But it is all in the lore of the game, too. The devs have been stating from the beginning that they've been aiming to make the game look and feel like it was from the original comics, novels, and just the various stories in general of Hyboria and it's neighboring kingdoms. It's doing that pretty accurately.
But like I've said, some things are half marketting and half lore. The things such as the looks (although this is part of lore, they can use this as an advantage) of the female characters is for marketting. Others such as the gore, the various racism against the other cultures in the game, and the ruggedness of the males is for the lore.
Then again if you try really hard you can make any game look sexist and racist. I'll use WoW as an example simply because we can assume anyone who's been on this site has attempted the trial and has at least a tiny understanding of the game. WoW uses succubus' too, and the different races of the game can be considered racist as well (if you REALLY want to try and make it appear as cynical as possible).
You can make an airplane look like a UFO. It all just depends on the way you look at it.
Well the world has gore and evil and is dark, thats all nice and fine.
Also granted, the main target audience is straight males. Insofar I am not the audience, also granted. But arent there more and more women gaming? I mean I am sure they dont ALL prefer plushy worlds? I mean, wouldnt have been able to transport the world a WEE bit into the 21st century?
Take, for example Lord of the Rings. No the MOVIE, not so much the game. What did Peter Jackson do? He made Arwen a more active person, just like females in general, thus taking away a bit the very old fashioned notion Professor Tolkien had in his world, dusting it off a little without turning it around altogether. As it is those peeople are caricatures, not people, and I feel its an overdose of stereotypes, EVEN for a Conan-setting.
Some misread me. I dont have something against the sexy women, or against the in-game "racism", I just wish I could play other males than sack-cloth square-faced ugly-types. Oh and a lust-boy for me pls, lol.
The you can have an entire continent with whores. I am quite sure some female players may have enough of only seeing sexy female chars as well, and they ARE 50% of humanity AND a growing part of the market. And maybe even some straight males DONT prefer to look like Conan's beat-up twin brother *gasp*??
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
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Well the world has gore and evil and is dark, thats all nice and fine.
Also granted, the main target audience is straight males. Insofar I am not the audience, also granted. But arent there more and more women gaming? I mean I am sure they dont ALL prefer plushy worlds? I mean, wouldnt have been able to transport the world a WEE bit into the 21st century?
Take, for example Lord of the Rings. No the MOVIE, not so much the game. What did Peter Jackson do? He made Arwen a more active person, just like females in general, thus taking away a bit the very old fashioned notion Professor Tolkien had in his world, dusting it off a little without turning it around altogether. As it is those peeople are caricatures, not people, and I feel its an overdose of stereotypes, EVEN for a Conan-setting.
I agree with you. The game is so sexist that it even gets a bit silly. I mean, the first thing you see when you land on the shore from a shipwreck is a woman strapped in chains, pleading to be release. And when you help her she tells you she don't have any money to give you. But if you help her to town, she might be able to repay you with something else.. *nudge* *nudge*
Well the world has gore and evil and is dark, thats all nice and fine.
Also granted, the main target audience is straight males. Insofar I am not the audience, also granted. But arent there more and more women gaming? I mean I am sure they dont ALL prefer plushy worlds? I mean, wouldnt have been able to transport the world a WEE bit into the 21st century?
Take, for example Lord of the Rings. No the MOVIE, not so much the game. What did Peter Jackson do? He made Arwen a more active person, just like females in general, thus taking away a bit the very old fashioned notion Professor Tolkien had in his world, dusting it off a little without turning it around altogether. As it is those peeople are caricatures, not people, and I feel its an overdose of stereotypes, EVEN for a Conan-setting.
Well lets take a look at some Conan art, any decade, comic book, novel, whatever .... hmmm lets see ... Yeah looks like all the females are Double D Super models wearing little more than a smile, and every one of the males are smashed face Roid heads.... And they are all swimming in blood while they throw sexist slurs at one another ... yup sounds like they got it right.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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Yes the game is blantantly sexist and rightly so. It is that way because that is the world of Conan as described by Robert E. Howard. Don't like it don't play in it. Period.
Why? Its true, thats exactly how the lore is!
Also the whole point is your right, the game is targeted toward straight men,
Its the same as movies about a bunch of white people going golfing wouldnt appeal to a African American (trying to be appropriate here), and how a game like "50 cent live free or die trying" wouldnt appeal as much to white people.
I think it is modern in the fact that its giving its demographic exactly what it wants.
Im sure a homosexual can find something to like about AoC. Then again i guess i really wouldnt know.
-Jive
Pretty wrong acutally. A female demonlogist does summon an incubus. A male demon instead of the succubus. And if you would listen to the quest text, the whorehouse keeper acutally states that she also have some men to offer. However you won't see any male prostitutes running around, almost like in real live you will never encounter a male prostitute on the street. I think the game is ok. Its not as bad as lineage II.
Seriously. conan. Remember when it was first written?
It is very much of a time. Sorry, but I am all for people not being forced to view material that they don't want to see but I am never for changing material to suit contemporary morals.
It is what it is. You either like Conan or you don't. If you change it then you are essentially watering down the source material, no matter what you think of it.
And yes... it is very adolescent in it's, well "proclivities" but again, it is what it is!
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Hyboria is most definitely not Politically Correct. Im waiting with bated breath on all the whiney little trolls to get their "holier than thou" selves all offended so I can giggle at them.
If they dont cave to the Jack Thompsons of the world and somehow dumb down the game so that it doesnt offend the linquini-spines of the world, then it will indeed be a great game based partially on that.
Jiav: very little can be as bad as Lineage II. >.> Except perhaps Vanguard...
Of course the game is sexist it's conan for crying out loud. I think some of it is a bit overdone, but it's not like anyone is going to play the game just for that stuff. Hopefully.
Sex sells and almost always is sold to men so thats why its used to sell everything from beer to fast food. It fits in with the soryline here to a certain degree. They could have chosen to be more subtle about it, but they decided they wanted a more "mature" game. One could argue that is sort of counterintuitive in a way. I don't really care either way, but this game is probably not for the easily offended. Plenty of other "safe" games made for kids and you god fearing types out there.
All I can say is that the women need's to be more rough and dirty to capture the lore..Othervise I think it follows the lore as it should..
The captured whore after the ship wreck is all but that, yet she is tied up in chains and raped and beaten by her capturers...
Besides, the heroic women in the game, is or will be the ones that play's female characthers I presume..
And..Lord of the Rings and Arwen, Peter Jacksson only did this to sell his movie to a wider audience, I even think that this was a sort of demand from the movie company, this and Legolas surfing on shields..And I sort of dislike this take, even thou I have noting against Arwen..
/Junker
Concise, simple, and deadly accurate.
First demonologist DO have male demons to summon, in fact the very first pet you get is male.
Second there are Jiggalos in other words MALE hookers.
So I guess the lesson here is know your facts before posting. Also it is a very dark sexist atmosphere, the Howard books were written this way and Funcom has chosen to stick to the lore. If it is too much for you to handle you need to go and play LotRO or something soft core like that.
That's the thing. It's not supposed to be subtle. It's BLATANT, very sexual, dark, gory, and all around gritty. The stories were written in the 1930's with the times affecting the writer. If you read some of the stories that R.E. Howard wrote you can clearly see it in his stories, all of them, from the swords and sorcery to the mystery/horror he wrote.
Sometimes a fantasy world is just that, FANTASY. It's make belief, not real. I never understood people asking for things to be more real when the intent was to make it as far removed from reality as possible. There is nothing wrong with wanting to remove yourself from reality once in a while and do things you're not able or allowed to do in the real world.
Sometimes a game is just a game.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
QFT. This is not politically correct 2008 you're playing in. This is Hyboria.
The Ip is everything that has been mentioned, as is the game's rendition of the subject matter. But, don't forget that in the lore, it's the few(the players) that pull themselves up out of the common slave/peasant mass backdrop(the Npc's) and distinguish themselves, whether they're male or female.
Also, be mindful of Tortage's setting as a slave trade port, this is far from high society, in Hyboria. So yeah, a bunch of male ex-slave brick walls (turned slavers) that are wheathered by the lash and the stereotypical dolled-up submissive female pleasure toys.
I actually think this may appeal to some female players, because, as they build their characters and distinguish themselves(just like the male players), they atleast stand out, apart from this backdrop.
In additon, in terms of RP'ing, they may like to incorporate some aspects of the more notable females characters from the movies. -- Conan's one true love, that's lost in battle(Valaria, I believe) or Red Sonja.
Both of whom have horrid tales in early life, all of their own, and decide one day, 'Not Me, Never Again!' and pick up the sword...
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I'm pretty sure the books are based on that timeline of real human history, just the legends have been changed from real to conan fiction, and considering the game follows the book story, it seems only logical that the world stay the same, and for that time even in real human history it was infact closer to the way you are describing the current game, as opposed to the way you think a politically correct (and apparently fashionably correct) world should be. This is a history game with the facts changed but keeping to the general standards, what this isn't is a modern-based game where people have rights.
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