Warning: Incoherent ranting made below while I'm not thinking straight. May have had something bad or stupid, I apologize in advance.
As an intro to this discussion, pretty much, people constantly blow their fuse or whatever over stuff in games, like boob armor, inaccurate representations of characters, making females too weak/reliant on males or males too generic/strong or whatever, homosexual marriages, etc., and I'm sick of people whining about it and acting like they're entitled to have their ideals or concept of "social justice" be implemented in games... or other media, even. The short version is that I think at least in games, developers are free to do what they want and what they like and have no obligation to cater to the needs of anyone. If something is offensive and they choose for it to be that way, so be it.
Maybe that's the point? Maybe it's a representation of the times, the setting, the era, or the individual characters? Like can you blame a game for having all male characters if that's just how it is, how it turned out? Do they have to shoehorn in female characters, or shoehorn in homosexual relationships (or hypothetically the other way around, if there were a game with only homo relationships) in a game that they didn't intend to have it, that wasn't planned/designed/conceptualized that way? I say no, that's stupid, why should they have to do it? "Realism"? Not offending people? Please. Video games usually aren't trying to be accurate depictions of the real world (even if their graphics are sometimes a bit realistic) and the real world is cruel and harsh and offensive anyway. If you don't like a concept or something, simply don't buy it. Don't act like anyone has the obligation to cater to you or your ideas or whatever because that's stupid and naive. If you want to complain that it lacks X or Y fine but being so petty and pathetic about it is dumb in its own way, and that's probably something you should keep to yourself. I mean I'll admit I do have certain expectations for games (those set with precedence) and similarly I do expect them to cater to me because of that, because that's the whole point of creating a series/franchise, to give it an identity, and I think hurting that identity is something else. But in the case of a game simply trying to do something and not caring to touch on X or Y, they have no obligation to touch on those subjects if they don't want to. They don't have any obligation to touch on it in a realistic manner either if they don't so choose.
Let me be a little bit specific by bringing in Fire Emblem. I don't consider the way relationships work in Awakening very realistic, but that's how they choose to do it. 3 conversations/small events and a marriage one. Lots of possibilities. FEFates recently had same-sex marriages confirmed. OK, that's their choice. Whatever, but the problem I have is when people say "oh it's only 2 people" or something like that. People act like everyone needs to swing both ways or they won't be content because it's not flexible enough in catering to people's needs. That's offensive to the creators and the characters they made because this isn't some kind of total joke, it's not a waifu/husbando simulator yet, even if it's dang close.
Think of it this way: every character is their own. That includes who they want to talk to and build relationships with, how they feel, etc., and as it is it's already open-ended enough that the main character can... elope with most characters, now you want everyone to be like that? I mean if the devs decide to do that of their own volition because that's what they envision for the characters, it's that kind of world, fine. But expecting them to do that, expecting "Nintendo" to keep trying to fit in X or Y because that's what people want is silly. They have no obligation to do anything. If you don't like it, that's fine, and you can show that by not supporting their stuff or whatever, Likewise, I could be immature, turn around, and say "it's dumb that the game's characters are such sluts I wish they'd make everyone straight", you see hate can go both ways, thinking you can always include everyone or expecting people to be included or whatever is silly, I'm intelligent enough to realize that I have some things in my tastes that make me not like certain things and in that case I don't throw a fit over it I just deal with it because I know it's up to the devs to do what they want and I don't blame them for trying to cater to the majority or thinking like the majority or thinking however they like.
Well it's not quite that simple but yeah just a bit frustrated at how pushy people can be and how entitled they act. I get you want representation and inclusion but it gets so blown up. it's not about homo hate or whatever, it's about being reasonable and respecting other people and if people act that way they're not going to get my respect, they're going to build up an identity for themselves as annoying.
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[Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:35 PM] ballin1337: I know about same sex marriage, what bothers me is that people will just NOT shut the **** up
llike oh my gosh they gave you it now
but oh no, there's not enough options!
[Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:36 PM] ballin1337: they don't have ANY obligation to make you guys happy, it's their characters and their world, they can do WHATEVER THEY WANT
[Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:37 PM] ballin1337: IT'S UP TO THEM, THEY HAVE THE RIGHT, THEY DON'T NEED TO MAKE SOCIAL COMMENTARY OR APPEASE PEOPLE OR WHATEVER
if you want to make a game that is racist
if you want to make a game that is sexist
if you want to make a game with boob armor, or super macho men, that isn't realistic
if you want to make a game with weak female characters and gary stu male characters
that is ALL UP TO YOU, YOU CAN DO IT
PEOPLE NEED TO DISTINGUISH REALITY FROM VIDEO GAMES
EVEN IF IT'S STUPID, EVEN IF IT'S NOT REALISTIC, EVEN IF IT'S INSULTING, IT'S ALL OK
THE REAL WORLD IS STUPID. THE REAL WORLD IS INSULTING. STOP TRYING TO FORCE YOUR IDEALS INTO EVERYTHING BECAUSE THE WORLD ISN'T YOUR IDEALS AND IT'S STUPID TO THINK PEOPLE SHOULD TRY TO ADHERE TO THEM
it's nice when people do or whatever, I'm all for respecting others and stuff, but my gosh complaining about stuff like that just comes off as so petty
it's one thing if a game is actively trying to insult people or make negative social commentary
but did you maybe think that people are just not caring, they're just doing what they want to? not everyone can be so super sensitive to try to appeal to everyone, that fundamentally speaking, not everyone can be happy in the first place?
a lot of game devs are just trying to have fun. all this social inclusion and justice stuff is crap not because it doesn't matter but they're targeting the wrong things
if you think everyone has an obligation to be sensitive about that and not try to offend everyone, you're fucking wrong
it's your job to avoid stuff if you don't like it and you think it's offensive
[Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:42 PM] ballin1337: there are a certain things I don't like in video games and I just avoid it I don't go saying you should change it
[Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:42 PM] ballin1337: nor am I whining and saying "no buy from me!" that's stupid no one ****ing cares
[Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:44 PM] ballin1337: is Splatoon offensive to sea creatures? should the marinal life society be taking up arms due to the inaccurate representation of squids or something?
[Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:46 PM] ballin1337: I don't really care that it's in I don't have anything against homo people
it's the devs choice
whether they include it or not
I'll tell you straight up I don't want ANY kind of marriage
lol
tl;dr
if people make a game on e way or another, that's up to them, and sure, including more people is nice, but if they don't do it that's their choice and if they make less money because of it, so be it.
complaining is cool until you make yourself look worse than the people you're complaining about.
also on an unrelated note, I want to say the people losing their crap about same-sex relationships being IN are also kind of dumb, because likewise as they have the right to not include them, they have the right to include them.
whether these kinds of relationships the way they are executed and portrayed in FE is fitting for the series, setting, and style of game in general, is a different topic IMO