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All that said, Gerren's point about the pursuit of approval is even more interesting. Personally, I think the story of Samus, a life-long loner, going on a quest for the approval of the people whose job she seems to have been doing all these years, could be great. And in that context, it would be a lot harder to argue that her taking orders from a man was sexist. I'm getting uncomfortably close to fan fiction though, so I'll shut up now. :)"
I think what makes me like P3 and P4 so much is how well-developed the world is. I love that even the nameless NPCs walking around at school or in the streets have little stories attached to them. That's the kind of detail that makes all the difference in pulling players into the game world.
It's funny that you mention the music getting repetitive, though--I got so hooked on it that I would listen to the soundtracks even when I wasn't playing the game."
To answer Greg's question, I think standing the test of time means passing on ideas to future generations. Super Mario Bros. holds up because it introduced ideas that developers are still using. On the other hand, early '90s FMV games don't hold up because they offered a very limited experience that game designers ultimately rejected. Someone might still enjoy playing Night Trap, but that doesn't mean it has held up well."
The bottom line is that we need more diversity in the development community. I don't just mean more minorities and more women, but also a more diverse group of white men (or Japanese men, as the case may be). I don't want to censor anyone, even if I hate what they're saying--I just want to see other perspectives represented. I think that makes sense from a business standpoint, too. Maybe keeping Lara Croft's breasts huge keeps the white male teenager market strong, but surely there are other markets that could be equally strong if publishers tried to reach out to them."
As for double standards, I pointed out that male characters are also poorly written way too often. Maybe you're just agreeing with what I wrote, but I read you as suggesting that I had missed that point. At any rate, you're right--we shouldn't get upset about Samus's treatment and turn a blind eye to Marcus Phoenix or Kratos.
I don't know where you get the idea that I'm looking for reasons to be offended, though. This whole piece is about considering the possibility that we SHOULDN'T be offended by the perceived sexism. Maybe we should be offended that games don't have better writers, but I'm not taking a position until I've actually played Other M."
All that said, I'll still play Other M sooner or later."
So the charm might still originate with the Japanese development teams, but thankfully there are some Americans who understand how to carry that charm over in a localization."
@David You ask "...are you well informed of the upcoming games and hardware that are coming out after E3?" That's a good question, and I wonder how you judge whether a given site has done a good job informing its readership of what they saw. When I hear people in press conferences cheering and clapping, I wonder whether they're also taking the time to take notes. I also saw a lot of previews which said little more than "This game is freakin' awesome," which doesn't inform me of anything except the writer's emotional reaction. I can't say for sure that the people who didn't follow Mitchell's guidelines did a poor job, but I'm less inclined to trust them than someone who did."
As for the free 360, I feel like it's a little more ambiguous. After all, game journalists do get sent a whole lot of free games to review, and those games often come with a lot of free promotional items. If those free 360s go live in an web site or magazine's offices, I don' t think it represents a huge breach of ethics. But if they go live in a particular writer's living room, then I think a line has been crossed. It would also be interesting to know whether MS will send out additional 360s for review purposes. I don't really know why they would, but it's still the kind of disclosure I wish we saw more of.
Good work calling attention to the problem. More people need to hold the game press accountable for this kind of thing."
