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Kotaku: Lost Ark's Depiction Of Female Characters Feels A Decade Out Of Date

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Airbus Jr

Banned
Yeah, but that's just you. There are over 1 million people playing it at this very moment, which is pretty remarkable.
Indeed...even with those numbers still couldnt give a feck about what they do..so theres that i suppose...
 
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Lost Ark is exactly the type of GAAS game that both MS and Sony wish they could make but the focus groups would never allow.
They don't need to make anything, they can just purchase the rights to and rebrand a random KMMO like Amazon Games did. Lost Ark was released in Korea back in 2019, Amazon Games just bought the Western publishing rights.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
They don't need to make anything, they can just purchase the rights to and rebrand a random KMMO like Amazon Games did. Lost Ark was released in Korea back in 2019, Amazon Games just bought the Western publishing rights.
Yeah, but Amazon is only getting western publishing rights and not ALL the profits. Amazon's home grown GAAS New World, has already failed (althought it sold enough that it is likely profitable). Obviously everyone wants their own home grown gaas or they wouldn't be funding risky development of them and buying up studios.
 

Airbus Jr

Banned
Love the game, but dislike being forced to being an oversexualized woman. I'd rather be an oversexualized man to realize everything I'm missing in reality.
Yeah im pretty sure youre a good fit on that other places btw

Youre carrying it here( the mentality from that place)

Im quoting this so everyone can see it ( your post)
 
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Well... er... maybe Kotaku, you know... it's just not for you?

You try to make a game to please everyone and you please no one. So you pick your niche.

Believe it or not, Kotaku, but there exists a niche of red-blooded adults that like tits and ass and appreciate slender feminine forms, exaggerated features and sexy gaits. If you're not part of that niche, play something else. It's not hard.
 
Yeah, but Amazon is only getting western publishing rights and not ALL the profits. Amazon's home grown GAAS New World, has already failed (althought it sold enough that it is likely profitable). Obviously everyone wants their own home grown gaas or they wouldn't be funding risky development of them and buying up studios.
There's almost no risk in just publishing though versus funding development. If Amazon Games feels a bit burned after the spectacular flameout of New World, they might be shifting to being more a publisher in order to limit risk. In the case of Lost Ark, it's common for people to flood into the latest KMMO that makes it out of Korea for a month and then forget about it shortly afterwards. KMMO's are as superficial and disposable as Kpop music, and I've been around for the Western launches of Aion, Tera, Blade&Soul, Black Desert, and now Lost Ark and nothing I'm seeing surprises me. 95% of players will be gone by next month.
 
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Hari Seldon

Member
There's almost no risk in just publishing though versus funding development. If Amazon Games feels a bit burned after the spectacular flameout of New World, they might be shifting to being more a publisher in order to limit risk. In the case of Lost Ark, it's common for people to flood into the latest KMMO that makes it out of Korea for a month and then forget about it shortly afterwards. KMMO's are as superficial and disposable as Kpop music, and I've been around for the Western launches of Aion, Tera, Blade&Soul, Black Desert, and now Lost Ark and nothing I'm seeing surprises me. 95% of players will be gone by next month.
Yeah there is no financial risk to publishing, but of course you lose out on the opportunity to make ALL the profits like you would if you made the game yourself. This is clearly the case as Sony just bought Bungie because they want a GAAS game.

I'd be curious if you compared Lost Ark to those games in more detail. I played Black Desert and thought it was somewhat decent but the grindy-ness of it was apparent early on. Lost Ark seems vastly improved by virtue of:

1. Launching in the more forgiving markets first (like Mobile games always launch in New Zealand or someshit) and iron out all of the bugs and build up content before the western launch.
2. Hide the grind behind a metric shit ton of content (due to the delayed western launch).
3. Tweak the GAAS systems for western sensibilities and don't just directly port the Korean system,
4. Absolutely F2P with no buy-in cost. (Black Desert and those other games had a buy-in cost IIRC)
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
It’s a good job for Kotaku that Lost Ark has been such a failure, otherwise they might actually be completely out of touch with the majority of the gaming community.

J Jonah Jameson Laughing GIF
 
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Boss Mog

Member
Lost Ark is made by Koreans and the women there embrace their femininity and actually enjoy being feminine and the ones who play games want their female characters to be pretty and cute and have feminine outfits. It's more for their benefit than for the "male gaze". These woke idiots will constantly champion foreign cultures who treat women like shit but the second a foreign culture favors thin, light skinned, feminine women, that's a huge problem for them apparently.

Korean singer Taeyeon just came out with a album that's currently topping the charts and in the title track's music video she literally looks like a Korean MMO character:



While 10-15 years ago it might not have been the case, today most of Taeyeon's fans are female.
 

peek

Neo Member
Eh, what do you expect? Seems like these days people get upset if a video game character is too beautiful, sexy, attractive, etc.

Id rather have unrealistic looking models in games than realistic people I would see at the grocery store.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I'm not an ERA member either and I agree with him. Their community (formerly NeoGAF's) is much better. It's a shame the moderators are absolute maniacs.

Ah yes, their community is truly better. Openly racist, openly transphobic. Actively celebrate peoples deaths, go on witch hunts on a near daily basis. Hate games, hate gamers. Truly a paradise /s

Fuck out of here with that shit, kid.
 

Tams

Gold Member
Sort of? They still have that one dude that's dedicated to Japan and other Far East matters. He seems like the only one that still writes like he did in the old days and hasn't gone the "left wing lunacy" route.

I myself don't care about anime or anime-heavy games so I'm oblivious to how much of that they cover.
Brian Ashcraft, or something, right?

I didn't mind the occasional article by him, and some were great deep dives, but he also did a lot of BuzzFeed like clickbait, and think I remember the anime/amazing Japan stuff starting to eclipse the games.

Anyway, I don't care for the site anymore.
 
And now...

The new angels are so fat you wonder if they have wings or they just eat wings.

And another angels that gets down to Earth, I mean Down's Syndrome.

#Diversity

iu

Not going to lie. I'd smash that. But, it would be a respectable and inclusive smash.
 
I'd like to see more decade-old designs in the future.

I'm playing Final Fantasy X right now and you know I'm making sure to finish every fight with Lulu.

Everyone in the game has hexagonal shoulders but they didn't spare a single polygon where they counted.
 

Fredrik

Member
I remember. This is how many streamers bahave when there are boobs or even bikini models on screen.
Covering the screen or their eyes. like cmon
It’s kinda funny to think that it would trigger people to say that a perfectly normal person should want to do that for gore and wish they had a bigger screen for the bikinis.
 

Airbus Jr

Banned
Cant tell if youre being sarcastic..or
Thats the way women walk maybe you should learn some basic human anatomy

 
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Sinthor

Gold Member








I'm sooo tired of this shit. Yes, a lot of female characters in games are 'sexualized' or whatever you want to call it. They are made to look hot. WHY? Because male gamers of a certain persuasion are appreciative of that. Male characters are ALSO 'sexualized.' I mean, the average guy is hardly a 6'5" 280 lb with 2% body fat wearing tank tops or armor that show off the chest and arms, etc. Not to mention the face and chin! Why? Because some gamers appreciate seeing studly MALE characters in their games. So what? GET OVER IT, PEOPLE! Humans in general are attracted to some common features of both males and females, so characters will tend to exaggerate or highlight those features. It's part of marketing and social science. People do NOT usually want to play characters that look like themselves. Games are about escapism. Escaping from reality thru a fantasy role play experience. So that's how things are. DEAL WITH IT.

Sheesh...the agony and constant whining about this sort of thing, especially from the 'video game press' is beyond old at this point. Makes me wish that every game was like Bayonetta just so the freaks would go ahead and have their strokes and get out of our hair about the whole thing!
 

Nydus

Gold Member
TBH sometimes I don't like the revealing outfits cause they just don't look badass. More like Barbies day on the beach. Can't remember but there was another MMO where I changed gender after a while cause the melee class I was playing was just wearing kinis while the males where walking tanks. It looked so much cooler. And normally I prefer playing female.

On caster classes the sexy outfits look much better and more thematic. There it was kinda the reversal and males looked like crossdressers.

And the walking is just anime lol. although my wife walked a bit like this when she was younger (that changed after having two kids lol).
 
Don’t they have anything better to do? This is why imho, certain regions have much more interesting and better designs than others. They aren’t afraid to think outside the box and take risks. Basically, if it isn’t the generic T-shirt/tank top, jeans combo with the short, one-side shaved hair woman or the female that isn’t covered from head to toe, it’s getting ridiculed by these “journalists”.
 
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UnNamed

Banned

Now in 2022, it’s not only bad, it seems as if the folks making this game just ignored the last decade or so of discussions and debates surrounding representation of women and non-masculine characters in games.

Also

Lost Ark is a lot of fun. I’ve played hours and hours of it and I’m excited to play more.

It sounds like "I'm allowed to have fun with games you shouldn't have fun with".

1.5M players, how many of them are from ERA and Kotaku?

everyone-gary.gif
 
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BlvckFox

Gold Member
Thats the way women walk maybe you should learn some basic human anatomy

Jesus, you weren’t being sarcastic. Relax soldier, my post was not that serious.
 

winjer

Gold Member
Lost Ark is made by Koreans and the women there embrace their femininity and actually enjoy being feminine and the ones who play games want their female characters to be pretty and cute and have feminine outfits. It's more for their benefit than for the "male gaze". These woke idiots will constantly champion foreign cultures who treat women like shit but the second a foreign culture favors thin, light skinned, feminine women, that's a huge problem for them apparently.

Korean singer Taeyeon just came out with a album that's currently topping the charts and in the title track's music video she literally looks like a Korean MMO character:



While 10-15 years ago it might not have been the case, today most of Taeyeon's fans are female.


It's almost refreshing to see a country where women are women (XX), and can act as feminine as they want to.
Where they don't pander to identity politics and censorship.
 

NikuNashi

Member
Hey indie dev making a retro style game, stop!!! you are 10 years out of date, put down those pixels, don't you know you have to make the exact game as everyone else now, there is no room for diversity.

Quick let's cancel that's shredders revenge, you are sooooo out of date!.
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
I don't know it's funny more than anything else, I think that second video in OP is spot on. It's just funny, that's it.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
I like seeing sexy female characters as the next guy, but I would also not play this on my TV.
Too anime for me. Wish the character were more like diablo.
 

Fredrik

Member
I'm sooo tired of this shit. Yes, a lot of female characters in games are 'sexualized' or whatever you want to call it. They are made to look hot. WHY? Because male gamers of a certain persuasion are appreciative of that. Male characters are ALSO 'sexualized.' I mean, the average guy is hardly a 6'5" 280 lb with 2% body fat wearing tank tops or armor that show off the chest and arms, etc. Not to mention the face and chin! Why? Because some gamers appreciate seeing studly MALE characters in their games. So what? GET OVER IT, PEOPLE! Humans in general are attracted to some common features of both males and females, so characters will tend to exaggerate or highlight those features. It's part of marketing and social science. People do NOT usually want to play characters that look like themselves. Games are about escapism. Escaping from reality thru a fantasy role play experience. So that's how things are. DEAL WITH IT.

Sheesh...the agony and constant whining about this sort of thing, especially from the 'video game press' is beyond old at this point. Makes me wish that every game was like Bayonetta just so the freaks would go ahead and have their strokes and get out of our hair about the whole thing!
Perfection.

And to add to that. People should try asking their children what they prefer, let them be there creating a character. I guarantee that it would show that young boys generally speaking likes to play as big and strong muscle men and girls likes to play as beautiful feminine women. The everyday Joe/Jane is seen as incredibly boring.

At what point does a person start preferring to play as an everyday skinny or fat man without muscles or everyday woman without curves in pants and a leather jacket? I have no idea. I’ve never reached that point. Maybe it happens when I get older, I’m only 45.
 
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