I was born and raised in a small country town which only had one lonely arcade. Funzone, it was called. The owners had a prime location directly across the street from the local cinema and next door, there was also an amusement arcade filled with test-your-strength machines and mini basketball hoops. The arcade was a little run down and had one of those weird back rooms you never talked about but overall, it was a fantastic spot for getting together with your friends for a great time. The arcade’s peak time of business was, naturally, directly after school. Kids would pack the place out for hours on a weekday. I don’t remember any problems at Funzone. As the title suggested, fun was had by all.
Between Operation Wolf and Daytona USA, Street Fighter II always had a permanent residency at this arcade. It would be one of the few machines that you always had to wait to play. It was eternally popular. Which says a lot for the depth and quality of the game considering hardly anybody knew what they were doing. There was no move list taped to the side of the cabinet and we certainly weren’t looking at GameFaqs back in those days. The internet just wasn’t a thing. It technically existed, but not for high school kids in a country town in the early nineties.
Kids just kept hammering away at the controls and when a special move was executed, it was a rare and joyous occasion. The game was still new and so were our skills. It was a glorious time. Street Fighter would become a staple in our lives. It would settle arguments and create enemies. But recently, a very clear memory of that time has reappeared. One that I had apparently tried hard to forget.
Guile and Honda were the most popular characters. Guile because of his physique and Honda because of the ease of his Hundred Hand Slap. Sometimes, Chun-Li and Ryu would make an appearance. Dhalsim too, if someone wanted to experiment for a round or two. But out of all the World Warriors on the character select screen, Ken was never used. Despite him being one of the friendliest fighters to new players, I rarely saw him picked. Only in the last few weeks have I remembered why. There was an unwritten rule amongst my school friends at the time that nobody played Ken because he looked like a girl. His flowing blonde locks were enough to see the select square hover past him in favour of somebody else more often than I care to remember. He was considered effeminate. Girly. I even have crystal clear memories of Ken being referred to as a ‘poofter’ more than once. All of this seems utterly ridiculous twenty five years later. But at the time, it was just how things were. Accepted. Normal. Especially to those kids. In that arcade and in that small town.
Street Fighter V has now hit shelves and that good old feeling that only the hypest of fighting game tournaments can produce has returned once more. Since Capcom rejuvenated fighting games in popular culture in 2008, Street Fighter has stood tall for years amongst the pack of beloved games in the genre and everyone’s excited for this entry in the series.
Instead of playing my copy of the game, I’ve been spending my nights disappearing down the black holes of forums, comment sections and Youtube videos. Screen after screen of rage, frustration and hatred. For months, men were turning red with anger into webcams and anime avatars caps-locking their way through pages and pages of gripes. It is endless. You couldn’t fit all of this rage into a stadium even if it was specifically built to hold rage. They have spent day after day holding their swords high, defending their right to have things their way and let nobody influence their decisions when it comes to buying Street Fighter V. What had these people so angry? Well, there’s two reasons.
Firstly, R. Mika. In August 2015, the Japanese wrestler from Street Fighter Alpha 3 was announced as joining the ranks of the 2016 instalment in the series. What was a collection of nicely-drawn sprites in 1998 was now bursting at the seams in three dimensions for PS4 and PC. Quite literally. R. Mika’s costume was barely holding her in. Her colossal breasts were matched only by the size of her head and judging from what angle she was standing at, her backside may have outsized them both. Sitting in juxtaposition with these enormous assets was something else even more glaring. Her body may have had the proportions of a veteran bodybuilder but everything about R. Mika’s face looked like a twelve year old girl. Like it was as if her head was grafted onto someone else’s body. And the pigtails didn’t help either.
Regardless of fans defending her revealing outfit and disturbingly young face by saying that this is the way she’s been since Alpha 3, the fact remained that R. Mika didn’t exactly have an announcement video that you could fire up at your place of employment and expect everyone to be cool. In fact, some fans weren’t cool with it. Some fans were uncomfortable with the over-the-top sexualisation of R. Mika. You could argue that characters like Chun-Li and Laura were also erotically charged (especially in their alternate costumes and menu poses) but there was something about R. Mika’s jailbait face and ass-slapping antics that pushed her over the edge into Creeptown.
A month later, some aspects of R. Mika were changed. A camera angle slightly shifted to no longer highlight the butt cheek wiggle from her own slap and also… well, to be honest, that was it. There were slight graphical lighting variations on one of her finisher moves but it was imperceptible at best. Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono stated at the time that the changes were made because “we want the biggest possible number of people to play, and we don’t want to have something in the game that might make someone uncomfortable.” A change was made for a more broad appeal to gamers and development on Street Fighter V continued. R. Mika’s massive breasts and schoolgirl face remained untouched.
Here’s where the first bout of anger came in. A certain section of men on the internet cried censorship. They claimed that feminists were ruining Street Fighter V and anyone who had a problem with R. Mika aren’t real fans anyway because she was exactly like this in 1998. They said sexism doesn’t matter in this case because the character is fiction. Who cares about a butt-slap anyway, they said. In fact, they didn’t care about it so much that a real-life petition was launched to restore the butt-slap. You could virtually sign an internet petition for demanding Capcom to Reinstate The Ass. All these “insecure women” were nothing but complainers and didn’t care about Street Fighter, they said. ‘Censorship’ must be torn down in all its forms no matter what the circumstances, they said.
Just to be clear, the game wasn’t even released yet and Capcom’s decision to slightly move a camera angle (and not change anything else about R.Mika) was as a result of, in their words, trying to reach as many gamers as possible when Street Fighter V finally hit shelves.
As I said before, I’ve looked into these arguments. Night after night, I’ve scrolled through the most angry videos and rage-filled blog posts. Boy, they’re something. For months after the change, endless Youtubers yelled about the butt-slap. Claiming that ‘Social Justice Warriors’ convinced Capcom to cave to censorship and these people would bring about the death of games in general. “Mark my words”, one beanie-wearing rage monster exclaimed.
Alright mate. I’ll mark your words. That was last year and I don’t see games with one foot in the grave in 2016. What I do see though, is some pretty dark portals on the internet. Alongside people raging about ‘SJWs’ and ‘feminist censorship’, I’m seeing outright desperation to see some boobs. Looking back through these forum users and Youtube commenters, their internet history is a long road of talking about women as if they were the most depraved subservient animals to be used and thrown aside. None of these men displayed any evidence of regularly talking to women in their daily lives. You know, like people. No, it’s either rage or sexual frustration. Site after site of it. Coupled with ‘likes’ of Fallout nude mods and revealing Lara Croft fan art, this went against any cries of fighting the good fight against censoring art or defending the realistic depiction of wrestling moves in a video game. I fell down the rabbit hole of every one of these people’s backstories and it was all a dark circus of goblins whose obsession in their internet life was devouring more and more bare skin. Any excuse used to defend R. Mika’s fighting style or the legacy of the Street Fighter series quickly crumbled into dust. Really creepy dust.
This trip into unsavoury corners of the internet raised some questions. If I ever had the chance to sit a few of these dudes down over a cup of tea and some biscuits, I would want to know a few things. For example, keeping the news of R. Mika’s sexualisation making some people uncomfortable in mind, let’s turn it around a bit. If the combination of her teenaged face and watermelon breasts didn’t make you uncomfortable, what does? What is it that creeps you out? When you feel that rise of bile in your throat or feeling of disgust so powerful that your eyes nearly roll out of your head, what causes it? Can I take a guess?
It’s F.A.N.G. isn’t it? I’ll bet dollars to zenny that’s it’s F.A.N.G.
Here’s where the second tsunami of rage happened. In December of 2015, another character was announced. A brand-new fighter, F.A.N.G is chief villain M.Bison’s second in command. A rake-thin Chinese man with flowing robes, bizarre moves and an extreme level of confidence. Completely different from a lot of the Street Fighter roster with a lack of muscles or angry shouting. He also sported a high-pitched voice and effeminate dancing.
Immediately, some people exploded. Not only was F.A.N.G. ‘taking the place’ of Sagat (Bison’s previous lieutenant) but he also didn’t fit the mould of Street Fighter, they claimed. More specifically, his effeminate style made people uncomfortable. But this time around, it was the same type of people who wanted to keep R. Mika’s butt slap that were angry at F.A.N.G. Again, I went deep into this tunnel of horror to see what the problem was. And the only thing I found at the end was towering homophobia. Dudes were outraged that they were being subjected to this feminine character who was obviously, in their mind, created to appease those same people who were never Street Fighter fans in the first place. The amount of raw nerve hatred for F.A.N.G. was staggering and it was only matched by the sheer vitriol people used when delivering gay slurs. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that the most basic and predictable thing to do is to remove one letter from this character’s name and the unchained bigotry is off and running.
More yelling into webcams, more forum posts, more hatred for what was perceived to be something that made them uncomfortable. All with the most stomach-turning insults towards gay people you can imagine. And once again, I followed the breadcrumb trail back through the hate. Finding subscriptions to gun manufacturer videos and groups of multiplayer teams who have black marks against their name in the PC community for griefing and disruption, it was clear these people weren’t going to be fun at parties. I even found plenty of talk of ‘SJW’ murder. Jokes about M16 rifles, hammers and recommendations for school shooters on where to focus their fury. They were sick of making compromises for feminists and F.A.N.G. was just another slice of the pie that they were being forced to eat. Pages and pages of stuff I never want to read again. Outrage at the lack of R. Mika’s bare ass and even more outrage at F.A.N.G’s attempt to make them question their sexuality.
It occurred to me that if I was to have another one-to-one chat with these guys, I would ask about this new fighter soon after we finished discussing R. Mika. For instance, I would ask why are you getting so worked up over some dancing? Or is it his voice? He’s pretty weird looking, right? Why do you start to turn red when you watch him dance? Wait Don’t you remember Gill and Urien from the Street Fighter III series? Both of those dudes wore nothing but tiny speedos! Hey, let’s talk about Gill’s perfect physique! You could tenderise a sirloin steak on those abs! What’s the problem? Wait bro, where are you going?
Back in the early nineties, at the time of Street Fighter II, airplanes and hospitals were still filled with smokers. You had to wait around for TV networks to decide when and how to deliver your entertainment. Political corruption and police brutality weren’t under the ever watchful eye of up-to-the-minute social media. But it was the world that those schoolkids at Funzone inhabited. The kids who wanted to avoid Ken because his hair made them feel uncomfortable.
Surprisingly, some people are still like those kids. Thumping their fists against any kind of progress or change in video games. The attempt to get as many people as possible to play Street Fighter V is a bold move by Capcom considering their track record and some of their audience. But they feel that it is needed. Unlike angry Youtubers, Capcom want to make a small step towards getting more people involved, not less. And let’s not kid ourselves here, it is a VERY small step considering how women fighters are portrayed in Street Fighter V. However, their attempt is has not gone unmarked. They could have easily been silent and stood firm with R.Mika. But they didn’t. They reserved that response for F.A.N.G. But the anger, name-calling and harmful ideology continues despite how insane it looks from a few steps back.
Amazingly, Funzone still exists and from all reports, still turns a profit. I’d like to find out if they still have a Street Fighter II machine there and if kids these days line up to play it. I would like to think so but they are probably more excited to play in the nearby laser tag centre now. Regardless of whether Guile and Honda are still doing their thing in that arcade, hopefully the kids I knew back in those days grew up and left that country town to see a wider world for themselves. Because all the rage and anger I saw in the midst of Street Fighter V reminded me of what I heard in that arcade way back in 1992. Only these days it’s a lot more hateful and does way more damage.
The same kind of intolerance and loathing a quarter of a century apart. Ken’s hair had the same effect as F.A.N.G’s celebratory dance. The same unstoppable hormones that were present in your typical teenage boy are still present in all these people who refuse to buy a game under the argument of censorship until they can bear witness to ALL of R. Mika. If both of these groups could somehow sit down to have a chat with each other, hopefully they could reach a consensus. That these viewpoints need to be left behind in the early-nineties in that small arcade in that country town. That we should be forward-thinking enough to see that tradition isn’t always for the best and we should outgrow ignorance in favour of progression. That after all this rage and hate, it’s time to grow up, be an adult and play some Street Fighter.
Comments
71 responses to “It’s Time To Grow Up, Be An Adult And Play Some Street Fighter V”
Please tell me that’s your birth name????
Pew pew!
Pretty sure his full name is fictionaldirectedenergyweapon.
I can see why they shortened it, imagine trying to fit that one on a birth certificate.
As somebody who occasionally plays but has no real passion for Street Fighter, some of the furore around it recently has been… odd. I understand that it’s terrible that they’ve released an essentially incomplete game, but even then – chill out! It’s a game. It’s meant to be fun. Telling them to “grow up, be an adult and play some Street Fighter” is a nice summation of how I feel as an observer.
But then again, that’s how I feel watching most Internet furores, whether it’s game-related, or deputy mayor of Auburn related, or Sex and the City on Sunrise related. Chill out guys. Grow up, be an adult, play some Street Fighter.
Look respectfully I can agree to disagree on the first 2 talking points of R Mika and FANG.
But I cannot ever agree or compromise on the craptastic handling of the release and “chill it’s just a game”. When I buy *any* product be it a game, an appliance or a fast food burger I expect what I pay and buy for to be “complete” for the price I pay
I don’t pay for a “cheese burger” and not get cheese or the beef patty, I don’t pay for a car w/ just 3 wheels and it’s the same w/ games. Sure you may not care too much about the missing features but as someone who purchases *anything* how in the world would you accept being sold a half finished product on *anything*?
It boggles the mind how gamers are the only consumers willing to defend half assed products as a *positive* thing at worst and just let it go at best. I mean look there is a fine line between nitpicking at minor ommissions (ONOZ! I didn’t get my favourite palette swap color or character) as opposed to flat out being shafted for completely incomplete releases. This really has to stop both the practice of half assed products and the actual community condoning said practices =/
Sooo… don’t buy it in the first place? Wait a few days till reviews and/or friends’ impressions are available before deciding whether to buy it?
I’m not defending anything. If there’s a legitimate complaint that complaining will fix, I complain with the best of them. But after that I find that the best option is to remember such incidents and then either wait to or refrain from purchasing from these companies in the future. The 3 (4?) different versions of SFIV is one good lesson why some people may choose to wait before buying it immediately. If I received a burger without the cheese that I paid for, and it’s not fixed by a polite complaint, then I’d simply not return to that vendor.
For the scale of the things we’re talking about here, chilling-out is a perfectly valid response.
Yeah, that’s fine if it’s only a couple of bucks that you spend. The thing is, Street Fighter is being sold up to around $100. You don’t buy it and then simply not buy anything from the creators again. That is some serious cash.
The worst thing about SF5 is the fact that it doesn’t have things that are pretty much needed in a fighting game. Hell, it even grayed out modes on the main menu telling you that they’ll be available in an update. It’s pretty much like saying “Oh, hey. You wanna use this feature? Too bad. We’ve got your money now and we’ll add this in when we get around to it.”
This is a silly standpoint tbh.
Firstly the idea that everyone that voices displeasure at something is somehow freaking out makes no sense.
Secondly, you are taking the “don’t like it, don’t buy it” defense. I didn’t buy it, I’m also able to voice my complaints about the game.
Capcom are sure to be very aware of the backlash that it’s created, and despite what this moron of an author says, it’s not because of RMika and FANG, it’s because you released a fighting game without arcade mode, story mode, training mode….pretty much everything people were expecting would be in the game. This backlash has MUCH more effect on their company than if everybody just “chilled out”, said nothing and they carry on doing the same thing next time because they didn’t get any backlash from it. Voicing an opinion alone might not mean anything, when thousands tell them they screwed up though? That is worth something to them and other games companies considering pulling the same stunt.
I’m an observer as well, so I may be wrong here, but isn’t the big issue that people *cant’* actually play the game? Like, constant disconnection, broken and unavailable modes, and online only access? That’s been, like, 99% of the criticisms that I’ve seen.
*that* is a very good point. Maybe it needs to be modified to grow up, be an adult and, I dunno, read a book 😉
And here I was thinking that most of the complaints were about the game being released in an unfinished state.
I didn’t even realise these other “problems” were actually a thing lol. All I knew was yeah, the incomplete state the game was released in.
I’m a little down on some of the design changes they’ve made to the characters and art style in this iteration, but Fang is great. I love his victory dance.
It seems odd that people are worried about a new, camp character when Vega continues to preen his way through the entire series.
Huh? What did I just read?
…
Were people ever avoiding Ken because of his girly hair? Not my recollection. EVERYONE played Ken, almost exclusively. Dragon uppercut for days.
I feel like I live in a different planet to this author. Personally I’m against any form of censorship because it isn’t the game as it was originally designed. I don’t care what it is. I don’t exactly get the homophobia stuff … but maybe we run in different crowds? I’m not saying they don’t exist they most certainly do if you look hard enough. But do we really need to be searching out these weirdos and writing articles about them …
Country towns are weird mate
Only problem I have with Fang is he’s too thin, it looks too weird for me. Haven’t seen his dance so dunno about that.
Regarding Mika, having large boobs shouldn’t be a problem, but the posing and outfit well, only people on the internet it seems would be fine playing with her where friends and family are watching. The fact that they genuinely can’t seem to tell why others would not be comfortable shows just how much out of touch with reality they are.
Personally I couldn’t care less about her appearance and posing but when you want to play this with other people you gotta consider what THEY consider reasonable too.
For those who haven’t gotten a look at F.A.N.G in action
I’m not particularly perturbed by the over-the-top sexualisation of Mika – She’s been a silly cheesecake character since the she first popped up in Alpha 3 and the series isn’t exactly short of those, but the changes to the costume in SF5 have just made for an all round weaker design.
Capcom were always a great reference for pure design in characters, particularly in terms of colour theory. See: http://i.imgur.com/XuGHCwj.png
It feels like they’ve lost some of that with the new game. It’s far from an unattractive game, but it generally feels a bit more muddy and less punchy across the board (and if there’s anything Street Fighter should be, it’s punchy).
This is really all game-artist wank and is probably of little concern to anyone. I just wanted to get it out of my system.
Could not.
Couldnotcouldnotcouldnot
Sorry. Carry on.
Woops, fixed
These comments are going to be good.
I thought people didn’t use Ken in SFII because he was a “poor mans” Ryu…….never really put any more thought into it than that.
In fact I had one mate who would only play as Ken because he wanted to be different to everyone else.
Sometimes I think these internet wars are just a vent for peoples rage due to the controlled nature of the rest of their lives (eg must work, must pay taxs, etc). My life is full of enough drama as it is….I don’t need to add any more.
i remember in my town no one would ever fight a person playing as ken because they were usually scumbag dogs who just keep you in the corner and whale on you while you had no chance to fight back.
then almost everyone played as either Ryu or Sagat would be rare to see someone play as blanka, dalsim or even guile
I thought that’s how everyone played SFII back in the day, Just button mash and try to pin them in the corner.
Its funny you say that because in my little country town pretty much everyone used Ryu, Chun Li or blanka (occasionally Honda)….except that one guy who played as M Bison and would just spam his spinning flame move allllllllll day long.
That’s right. The only reason I remember avoiding Ken was because he was clearly a less-karate Ryu.
Or be like me and save your money. Maybe put it towards a real fighter like Smash Bros on Wii U – more modes than SF5 has characters.
I’m sure people would if it wasn’t a broken mess that suffers constant mid-session disconnections. I never got into multi-command fighting games, but I feel bad for those that bought it expecting a polished game only to be disappointed again that a studio would release an unfinished product.
As for the whole Mika controversy thing, I didn’t like it at all. Not because of missing out on a butt shot (seriously, we live in a world with easy access to HD porn and you get your jollies off to that?), but because of the rabbit hole that this type of censorship leads towards. Small vocal groups outcry for change and companies caving has led to some awful changes (the Derpy fiasco in MLP a few years back was a fine example), and then there’s outcry from misinformed individuals demanding change without confirming that what they’re yelling about is factual (Soleil’s scene in Fire Emblem Fates being touted as gay conversion when she’s not gay and is just the female equivalent of Lon’qu from Fire Emblem Awakening).
On the topic of Fire Emblem Fates, my God, from everything I’ve seen so far it looks like on of the worst localisations I’ve seen in a while. Cut content, removed costumes to the point of a list being redundant as there’s only one choice, rewritten characters, and scene dialogue altered to lose its meaning at the cost of adding meme references. I thought what was done to Henry in Awakening was bad, but this is a whole new level. It’s making me rethink my preorder, but I’m holding onto hope that the NoE version will rectify the ruined translations.
Editing is not censorship. No one has censored anything.
Pre release footage was shown, Capcom made an internal decision to tweak the final product before releasing. Editing makes content better.
It’s kinda funny…content gets cut or altered from games all the time during development and usually nobody cries foul over that, but as soon as that content has any modicum of sexual nature to it, it’s suddenly censorship.
Thing is, if that pre-release footage of the butt slap was never shown, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
Like duhhhhhh. Of course there would be no outrage if there was nothing shown to get outraged at. This isn’t exclusive to SFV, I see rabid fans everywhere complaining about changes from pre-release that or demo this. It’s guaranteed if there’s multiple versions of anything shown.
I really don’t understand your logic in saying it’s not censorship. By definition censorship is the suppression/removal of content that could be/is considered objectionable by groups/authorities/outlets. In the first example with Street Fighter, we had content that was altered after a vocal group cried sexism for a butt-slap shown in a trailer. That fits the definition of censorship. In the second example with Fire Emblem the game was severely altered by the localization team beyond simple translation by altering character personalities, unlockables, and mini-games under the belief they might be deemed inoffensive. Again, that fits the definition of censorship.
If you believe the changes made are great and you don’t see the big deal, then you can believe that. But do not say it isn’t censorship when it fits the definition of the word.
EDIT: WhitePointer in his reply brought up a good point, which is “if that pre-release footage of the butt slap was never shown, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.”. That is very true. But because it was shown, and the ensuing furor led to its alteration it is censorship.
It’s not censorship because it hasn’t been censored by anyone. It’s not like it’s been through a censor’s office and excised, it’s that during development the creators had a think about what might be offputting and tweaked it.
I’m sorry, but what logic is that? I really have no idea what you’re saying. “It’s not censorship because it hasn’t been censored by anyone”? What does that even mean in regards to my examples?
If people change a game animation pre release based on feedback from the public, that’s a very, very long bow on censorship, is essentially my point. It’s not been imposed, it’s not been insisted upon as a condition of release, it’s a (minor) editorial decision.
Pretending it’s otherwise is making a himalayas out of a molehill.
Being able to admit that something is censorship isn’t making a mountain out of a molehill, it’s just being willing to identify something for what it is. This example is only getting this much attention because the media has latched onto it.
@redartifice is right in that censorship must be enforced by an external authority. You can argue that it’s self-censorship, though that’s a different and slightly fuzzy concept. If the developer feels that the changes bring the product more in-line with their goals than it wasn’t censorship, it was just them listening to feedback and making changes that they believed were an improvement.
I’ve been reading about Crash Bandicoot’s development recently. For the Japanese release they changed one of their death animations that involved Crash exploding and his smoking shoes falling to the ground. Apparently there was a serial killer in Japan who left feet behind, and they didn’t want Crash associated with this.
I’d argue that this wasn’t censorship either. The intent of the animation was wacky fun. If it was going to be interpreted differently by the audience then editing the content out actually brings the work closer to the creator’s original intentions.
I don’t know a lot about Fire Emblem, I’m afraid, so I can’t really comment on it.
@badger: *cough* self-censorship *cough*
Whilst it may not be imposed by a “higher authority” changing one’s own works due external pressures is still “censorship”
Just a different variety =P
See, this is where I start calling it censorship. They removed the content as to not upset anybody so they could sell more copies. If they said they removed it because there was a graphical glitch that couldn’t be fixed or the proportions were wrong or any actual technical reason, I’d be all for it. When you start removing things so people don’t get upset, that’s when it becomes censorship.
If the butt slap is still there, how is that censorship? They didn’t remove any content; they just showed it from a different angle. Not censorship.
Wow, this is insane. As someone who doesn’t really play fighting games, this seems really crazy. Doesn’t surprise me much though in this culture of outrage we’ve created for ourselves.
It would be awesome if you COULD have a discussion with those people, is it possible to organise an interview? I would love to read that. Surely you can contact some of them from their YouTube profiles?
Also, Ken is the best. Always has been. Shoryuken!
I don’t know about the arcade version but most of my SFII days were on a megadrive (wireless 6 button controllers, yeah!) Ken was the go-to guy because his dragon punch had more horizontal movement. I just played Ryu because he was the underdog.
A half decently written ray gun brown article and a lack of toxic MRA comments on an article discussing gender representation issues?
WHERE IS MY KOTAKU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO IT
Though I’m sure the local I’m-not-an-MRA MRA’s will be here soon.
What’s an MRA?
Men’s Rights
ArseholeActivist. the ones that go on about the “SJWs and Feminazis” etc.Lots more people then them who talk about SJWs and Feminazis, you’ll have to be more specific 😛
Not everyone talking about SJW’s and Feminism in a negative context is an MRA. There are those who want to protect the basic human condition of expressing an opinion without being harassed and bullied to follow these hivemind groups, whether it be Feminism, MRA or SJW. While there are those who do not agree with what you say, they will defend your right to say it.
Ah, bollocks. Free Speech is not a right to consequence free speech. If you’re going to say something that may offend people, you can hardly be surprised when people call it out for being offensive and ask that you not do it. You can’t just fall back on that Voltaire summary.
I agree with that. What I’m saying is that not everyone who disagrees with Feminism/SJW mindsets are MRA. Some people just want to argue for people’s rights to say whatever they want regardless of viewpoint. Some are interested in listening to both sides and arguing for both sides right to be right or wrong.
As mentioned constantly, the most vocal group is the toxic community. They do nothing but complain and fucked it up for everyone other gamers.
They are either those people that will never play the game, had not played the game before, never planned to get the game, or just conformist and follows the trend of hate when someone started it. Just trying to make a scene out of nothing.
Literally worst toxic community to be honest. The exact reason why we are getting constant censorship in the west is these vocal toxic group.
Huh. I hadn’t even heard of Fang til a couple of days ago, and definitely haven’t heard of any outrage over him. It’s all about the butt-slap, which… well, to me it seems silly to feel the need to cut it. Though the amount of outrage it’s generated is even sillier. As is the counter-rage that rage has generated.
I think F.A.N.G as a character looks cool as fuck really.
unique looking characters in fighting games is always good in my book. Voldo was my go to fighter for soul caliber 3, that goofy motherfucker.
Yeah nobody hates on my man Voldo!
At the moment its Soul Calibur 2 being played by both parents and their children at Funzone. We occasionally swap it out with Tekken5.
>Instead of playing my copy of the game, I’ve been spending my nights disappearing down the black holes of forums, comment sections and Youtube videos.
That’s your fault. You’re the one glued to the screen instead of playing the actual game.
>What was a collection of nicely-drawn sprites in 1998 was now bursting at the seams in three dimensions for PS4 and PC. Quite literally. R. Mika’s costume was barely holding her in. Her colossal breasts were matched only by the size of her head and judging from what angle she was standing at, her backside may have outsized them both. Sitting in juxtaposition with these enormous assets was something else even more glaring. Her body may have had the proportions of a veteran bodybuilder but everything about R. Mika’s face looked like a twelve year old girl. Like it was as if her head was grafted onto someone else’s body. And the pigtails didn’t help either.
Meh, so you don’t like the design. Big deal. Other people do. No reason for you to cramp their style.
>Regardless of fans defending her revealing outfit and disturbingly young face by saying that this is the way she’s been since Alpha 3, the fact remained that R. Mika didn’t exactly have an announcement video that you could fire up at your place of employment and expect everyone to be cool.
First, why would I be watching a fighting game trailer at work? That isn’t the place. Second, if people want R. Mika to be the same as she was in Alpha 3, well, congrats, you break the canon of the series by changing it. That’s more important to people than your feelings.
>A month later, some aspects of R. Mika were changed. A camera angle slightly shifted to no longer highlight the butt cheek wiggle from her own slap and also… well, to be honest, that was it. There were slight graphical lighting variations on one of her finisher moves but it was imperceptible at best. Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono stated at the time that the changes were made because “we want the biggest possible number of people to play, and we don’t want to have something in the game that might make someone uncomfortable.” A change was made for a more broad appeal to gamers and development on Street Fighter V continued. R. Mika’s massive breasts and schoolgirl face remained untouched.
And this is where Capcom failed. Giving into “diversity” instead of catering to the fans who actually liked it. Instead of letting people continue having something they liked, they changed it for no reason other than to coddle people who can’t handle a virtual ass slap. Because people are suddenly incapable of handling a virtual ass slap.
>They claimed that feminists were ruining Street Fighter V and anyone who had a problem with R. Mika aren’t real fans anyway because she was exactly like this in 1998.
This is actually true. She was this way in 1998 and no one gave a shit then. Nothing changed because there was nothing to be gained from complaining about something as niche as Street Fighter at that time.
>They said sexism doesn’t matter in this case because the character is fiction.
It’s not sexism to have a cute character slapping her ass.
>Just to be clear, the game wasn’t even released yet and Capcom’s decision to slightly move a camera angle (and not change anything else about R.Mika) was as a result of, in their words, trying to reach as many gamers as possible when Street Fighter V finally hit shelves.
This can’t be the actual reason, since Street Fighter V actually launched in a terrible state. No tutorial mode, no Arcade mode, and a terrible Story mode. Street Fighter V in its current state is NOT beginner friendly. If they wanted to be beginner friendly they’d have more than what the game has. The buttslap change came because people who never actually give two shits about the series complained.
>Alright mate. I’ll mark your words. That was last year and I don’t see games with one foot in the grave in 2016. What I do see though, is some pretty dark portals on the internet. Alongside people raging about ‘SJWs’ and ‘feminist censorship’, I’m seeing outright desperation to see some boobs. Looking back through these forum users and Youtube commenters, their internet history is a long road of talking about women as if they were the most depraved subservient animals to be used and thrown aside. None of these men displayed any evidence of regularly talking to women in their daily lives. You know, like people. No, it’s either rage or sexual frustration. Site after site of it. Coupled with ‘likes’ of Fallout nude mods and revealing Lara Croft fan art, this went against any cries of fighting the good fight against censoring art or defending the realistic depiction of wrestling moves in a video game. I fell down the rabbit hole of every one of these people’s backstories and it was all a dark circus of goblins whose obsession in their internet life was devouring more and more bare skin. Any excuse used to defend R. Mika’s fighting style or the legacy of the Street Fighter series quickly crumbled into dust. Really creepy dust.
You don’t actually link any of these supposed women hating websites, so I can’t take your word for it if they’re actually “dark corners” or just people legitimately frustrated that people who don’t know them or don’t care about them seem to want to take away things they like for no reason outside of it hurting people’s feelings. That, and I don’t trust ideological bigots to tell the truth about the other side, as most that I’ve encountered have lied before.
>Here’s where the second tsunami of rage happened. In December of 2015, another character was announced. A brand-new fighter, F.A.N.G is chief villain M.Bison’s second in command. A rake-thin Chinese man with flowing robes, bizarre moves and an extreme level of confidence. Completely different from a lot of the Street Fighter roster with a lack of muscles or angry shouting. He also sported a high-pitched voice and effeminate dancing. Immediately, some people exploded. Not only was F.A.N.G. ‘taking the place’ of Sagat (Bison’s previous lieutenant) but he also didn’t fit the mould of Street Fighter, they claimed. More specifically, his effeminate style made people uncomfortable. But this time around, it was the same type of people who wanted to keep R. Mika’s butt slap that were angry at F.A.N.G. Again, I went deep into this tunnel of horror to see what the problem was. And the only thing I found at the end was towering homophobia. Dudes were outraged that they were being subjected to this feminine character who was obviously, in their mind, created to appease those same people who were never Street Fighter fans in the first place. The amount of raw nerve hatred for F.A.N.G. was staggering and it was only matched by the sheer vitriol people used when delivering gay slurs. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that the most basic and predictable thing to do is to remove one letter from this character’s name and the unchained bigotry is off and running.
Again, you don’t link any of this supposed bigotry, so all I can safely assume is that people were upset that Fang was replacing Sagat. Hell, I was following a lot of Street Fighter V news and I never heard about any of this backlash against Fang, but I guess if one person gets upset about it, it’s enough for someone to blow it out of proportion.
>Finding subscriptions to gun manufacturer videos
There’s nothing wrong with watching gun manufacturer videos, for gods sake. Next you’ll be telling me anyone further right than far left is a bigot no matter what.
>Jokes about M16 rifles, hammers and recommendations for school shooters on where to focus their fury. They were sick of making compromises for feminists… — Pages and pages of stuff I never want to read again. Outrage at the lack of R. Mika’s bare ass and even more outrage at F.A.N.G’s attempt to make them question their sexuality.
It would be great if you could actually link all this so that we could see the context behind it. Best way to prove these people wrong is to hoist them on their own petard.
>Back in the early nineties, at the time of Street Fighter II, airplanes and hospitals were still filled with smokers. You had to wait around for TV networks to decide when and how to deliver your entertainment. Political corruption and police brutality weren’t under the ever watchful eye of up-to-the-minute social media. But it was the world that those schoolkids at Funzone inhabited. The kids who wanted to avoid Ken because his hair made them feel uncomfortable.
What is it about hair, which is natural, that’s okay in your mind, but boobs, which are also natural, aren’t?
>Surprisingly, some people are still like those kids. Thumping their fists against any kind of progress or change in video games. The attempt to get as many people as possible to play Street Fighter V is a bold move by Capcom considering their track record and some of their audience. But they feel that it is needed. Unlike angry Youtubers, Capcom want to make a small step towards getting more people involved, not less.
>And let’s not kid ourselves here, it is a VERY small step considering how women fighters are portrayed in Street Fighter V.
What? Beautiful women who are entirely capable of kicking ass is a bad thing to you? And you go on to call US insane for liking looking at beautiful women?
>If both of these groups could somehow sit down to have a chat with each other, hopefully they could reach a consensus. That these viewpoints need to be left behind in the early-nineties in that small arcade in that country town.
See, you say that we should sit down and have a chat, then you immediately go onto the reason why that won’t work – you refuse to understand that you might actually be wrong by assuming that the entire of the opposing viewpoint is wrong, no questions asked. Yes, YOU. You might be wrong with wanting to remove a character’s taunt, just because she flaunts what she’s got. You might be wrong with wanting women to be more burkafied. You might be wrong with taking away what people actually like about this series, or Dead or Alive, or even Mortal Kombat – beautiful people beating the shit out of eachother. Are you really so self conscious as to not want beautiful women on the screen?
I guess it’s how we all look at the problem though, isn’t it? A regular person watching a Street Fighter V match just sees people beating the shit out of eachother. A person who’s playing for the first time might sit back and enjoy the sexy for a bit. A high level player sees nothing but arms, legs and the space inbetween them. Someone who doesn’t actually care about the game notices that the women have revealing costumes, not the fact that despite this, they can kick ass and look amazing doing it.
>That we should be forward-thinking enough to see that tradition isn’t always for the best and we should outgrow ignorance in favour of progression. That after all this rage and hate, it’s time to grow up, be an adult and play some Street Fighter.
The only change that was made to Street Fighter V’s animation was a regressive one. It hid a character’s behind from view after a taunt she commited willingly. What’s next? Putting more clothes on them? Might as well just strap an impactproof burka over the top.
You need to grow up and learn to accept people like sexy stuff.
YEAH WHEN ARE WE GONNA GET OUR LOLI PORN STREET FIGHTER
YOU NEED TO GROW UP AND LEARN PEOPLE LIKE PAEDO STUFF
Nice strawman. Something something argument’s best proof something argument made poorly?
I’m sorry, does your argument only fit those circumstances that you feel comfortable expressing it in?
Do your grandiose statements actually only apply to narrow and cherry picked definitions?
Awww. That is a shame 🙁
The projection. It burns.
there’s “sexy stuff” (like a woman with a few tattoos, a wicked sense of humor, intelligence & strong sense of self who like punk-folk bands), and then there’s this character designed by middle-aged men; she’s a product of male fantasy – nothing about her is empowering to women. she’s as close to the designer’s porn collection as they could get away with in a T-rated game.
honestly. why the skimpy outfit? why is there the ass slap to begin with? why would anyone do that in real life?
what is this character? does this character even have character? or are they just a weirdly proportioned idea? like really… anyone who isnt at least a little bit creeped out by this design needs to stop thinking of the world in terms of fantasy, grow the fuck up & start showing respect for a) half the human race, b) what femininity actually is, and c) women.
First of all…what? How is this relevant?
Second of all, subjective sexual opinion. This isn’t a bad thing until you try to force it on others.
Subjective; again.
I’m probably the wrong person to ask. Here’s a few right ones. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=r.+mika+cosplay&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK0Na134rLAhVJmJQKHU2WBQoQ_AUIBygB&biw=1152&bih=628
http://capcom.wikia.com/wiki/R._Mika
Personality, hobbies, likes, dislikes. What else do you need?
Either way, it doesn’t matter. The members of a fighting game are there to beat eachother up, not share their life story before each bout.
Then again, I bet you wouldn’t do the same level of critique towards a man? http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles/1/7/7/8/4/6/4/street-fighter-5-alternative-costumes-give-ryu-a-lovely-beard-144111472811.jpg/EG11/resize/600x-1/quality/80/format/jpg
People aren’t creeped out by this because they can tell fantasy from reality. Assuming people can’t makes you sound like you have a mental disorder. Are YOU capable of telling the two apart? Guess what, I can respect women while also enjoying a pretty one slapping her ass in front of me, because I’m actually capable of seeing the half-naked, pretty, playfully taunting FICTIONAL woman as both fictional AND not representative of all women.
Opinion.You don’t get to claim this. That’s purely up the interpretation of the audience, so once again – your opinion. I can claim the opposite solely by looking at her and coming to the conclusion that:
– she validates wresting as a activity for everyone, but especially women because we have unconsciously acknowledged that wrestling has a strong male image.
– she’s confident. Doesn’t care what anybody thinks and doesn’t use her attitude as a shield for her emotions (actually who knows? but hey that would give her more depth!)
– she’s got a positive body image. yeah scoff all you want, “they made her that way!” that’s a non-argument because no matter how skimpy a character looks, there is no downside to making it clear that the character doesn’t hate her body.
Have you seen clowns? Or even ‘professional wrestling’ (y’know the one that’s not real and just entertainment) Why would anyone act like that? That’s weird. Go home clowns. She’s an entertainer. Likes to show off and have a laugh.But hey, it’s not like the entire cast of SF are exaggerated strange and kooky characters?
Wow. I just said in another post… everyone is wondering why we’re getting so defensive, when the literal argument for liking a fictional character design is that we’re just terrible people. I mean what could we possibly say to resolve the argument, but to admit self-righteous defeat and apologise.
Have to agree with @BlueMaxima on this one.
The writer targets unquoted boogeymen who I would hazard a guess don’t particularly… exist – we have not one single link to any actual sources on the matter, just a bunch of classic “anime avatars” and “ragers” from “the internet’s darkest portals” which is a handy way to smear anyone who might think the change is an example of political correctness gone bonkers.
I’ve never seen anybody complain about FENG since his announcement apart from the fact that his thin-ness looks like he was resized in photoshop with the aspect ratio configured incorrectly, you’ve only got manufactured outrage there.
Lastly, the idea that R.Mika has the face of a schoolgirl is ridiculous, she looks like an extremely proportioned caricature of wrestler, in a game of extreme character design and extreme fighting styles. Canon seems to assign her no specific age regardless.
So there we have it, another fantastic article from Kotaku’s journalist in charge of fake premises, imaginary boogeymen and admonishing adults for not acting like the world’s most progressive man: the great and pure Raygun Brown. Time for him to grow up, be an adult, and play some street fighter v, if he can bear to see someone’s bottom for a few seconds every now and then.
Just got SFV delievered today ($60 from Mighty Ape!) and am looking forward to a bash tonight. I’ve read the negative reviews and heard all the bitching and honestly I’m even a littled pissed that Blanka is a no show (The big green guy is my favourite!).
But guess what – WHO GIVES A FLYING #$%
It’s a new Street Fighter and that alone makes me smile.
Any series must evolve and time will tell with this one. Bring on butt slaps (or not) and F.A.N.G.
My mates and I will still have epic fights full of beer induced gloating, laughs all round and the occasional Holy @#% moments. And that’s what I love about this series.
Aww hell no. I’m gonna be baited by this hyperbole of an article? (I suppose so huh…)
Seriously, grow up? You so perplexed about why people are so vehement in their arguments when every retort is a baseless question of their maturity? What the hell do you expect?
You keep on wondering ‘what it would be like to have a calm sit-down talk’ with your opponents but nobody is going to do that when you’ve already cast judgement on them as smelly nerds whose concerns are by default: meritless. There will be no forward momentum with articles like this except for the clickbait views.
On R. Mika. Just let people like something, or not like something. You don’t get to use your own subjective criticism of her design as an objective appraisal.
Certainly not teenagers, certainly not breasts.
How about gruesome violence? How about predatory business practices?
Here’s a good one: Super Mario
Seriously, why in the world do we think a fat middle-aged Italian stereotype plumber is a good character design to be marketed towards children? Isn’t it just weird?
Now I love Mario, and I can explain what makes him a cool mascot and justify how he makes sense in the Nintendo brand. We can also do that with R. Mika. Butt-slaps are a personal preference, they should just have put in an option (mods have already solved this.)
But you want less creepy. You want to take away. When it would just make more sense to add wholesome, more diversity, please everyone. Which – surprise surprise – you got! F.A.N.G.
But then people were upset at a new thing! When does that not happen? I remember plenty of arguments every damn time a new SF character was shown off, so it’s not exclusive to F.A.N.G.
I am grown up. I do be an adult. But I won’t be playing SFV. Because a) I’ve barely scratched the surface of IV, imma take my time. and b) They released like half a game (no single-player story, arcade, challenges, party modes, unlocks) and put it on the shelf like it’s the whole deal. That’s the real crime here: that we’re oh so happy to defend the modern games business on full-priced, incomplete products with promises ‘on good faith’ that have been shown to be broken time and again.
If you’re taking objection with R.Mika’s look and mannerisms in any form, then you probably haven’t watched prowrestling in any country ever. Females in wrestling have always had some form of sexuality in their look, same with the males too.
Skimpy outfits and sexual style posing is extremely common place. Guy prance around in underwear or tight shorts flexing their muscles, girls wear tight covering outfits that enhance their secondary sexual features. Even going back to the days of The Fabulous Moolah &Mae Young, for their time those two were sexualized icons.
America has gone with the sexual look in the 1990s during the “Attitude Era” were the whole time was built on the idea of “sex sells”. Today things are still like that but there’s more focus on getting the women to actually wrestle and have personality. However, the sexualized nature of the females looks in Japan have been like that since the inception of females into wrestling, they just have the guts to keep that like it is while pushing the skills for their wrestlers.
All Street Fighter V does it use a popular medium and makes a version of it for the video game, complete with the outfits and mannerisms that are still very much used in wrestling companies all over Japan. But the “toxic vocal community” that has become too much of “the voice of a generation” in the West has that much control and influence over Western media that Japanese developers either bow to pressure from these groups, or will self-censor to avoid bad press in the West; while those with the guts to take a stand will say “Screw you, either buy it as it or don’t complain” or just won’t bother releasing in the West at all (aka Dead or Alive Xtreme 3)
This article is nothing more than an example of the problems with today’s “progressive outrage society” that will not listen to anything unless it 100% conforms to their personal viewpoint.
eh just gunna have to pull up on the attitude era female wrestlers. while Sable was pure eye candy, she actually had a huge amount of character, and Tris Stratus started of being literal T&A ( the first time we actually saw her on TV was a slomo shot of her tits and arse as the Manager of the tag team of Test and Albert) and had no wrestling ability at the start, she quickly turned it around and her matches with Lita were fucking fantasic. And then theres Molly holly,Stacey Keibler, Chyna, Ivory, Torie Wilson, Lisa Marie Varon, Dafney.
If anything it was between 2006 and 2013 that the quality of Female Wrestlers took a dive with WWE just wanting the women to be seen as Bathroom break matches despite having talent like Michelle McCool, Layla EL, Beth Phoneix and AJ Lee.
Of course there are standouts like Trish & Lita that evolved during that era, but the marketing behind women in wrestling during the time of 1996 through 2003 was that they were there to be eye candy. After 2003 we saw more focus on bringing in women from not only the bikini & fashion worlds (remember the Diva Searches?) but also the indie scene, which is where women like Molly Holly, Victoria & Ivory came from.
“Surprisingly, some people are still like those kids.”
I think the thing is that many of the people the author is talking about /are kids/. Teenagers that were rejected two or three times and developed a vicious hatred for all womankind and whose brains are still too muddled with hormones and a desperate need for validation to realise they are being horrible.
As for R. Mika’s butt slap… I don’t know man, I know chicks that do that stuff quite happily? One of them happens to be one of the most (in)famous music artists in the West, mind you. And I find that the people who jump too quickly to label a design like this as “sexist patriarchal pig-catering” are also the ones that jump to defend the real-life women that do it against “slut-shaming” if someone dares commenting.
Changing a product to suit your public needs cannot be considered censorship in any way. It’s like saying they censored the RPG part of Fallout 4.
The thing about your article is….
those are not just men complaining. Except for the many female, gay and trans gamergate supporters my girlfriend is (in her private life) one of the most vocal persons about removing sexy content.
On the other hand the same points you bring out about feng and mika can just be reversed on you.
One could sit you down with a tea and biscuits and ask why the sexualization of an adult female with just young facial features makes you so uncomfortable. Those big buns of hers together with cheeks as soft as a rose pedal…
and why do you like zang so much? Do you want to stare at his abs and objectify the poor person? Just you can satisfy your sense of social justice and have a seemingly gay character in the game? Just grow up and accept different viewpoints.
Also your argument only really works when it’s exactly the same guys complaining about mika and zang and I’d like to see that. It may be that they are from the same group, but it is still possible the ones complaining about mika are a completely different subset than the ones complaining about zang.
Soooo, you only JUST found out that the gaming community is loaded with loud-mouthed, hateful, disgusting, vile, repulsive, misogynistic, homophobic douchebag assholes?
Gee, where have YOU been hiding for the last few years?
People, people, please, let’s focus on the most important thing that’s not mentioned in the article:
Funzone has F-Zero AX! The tilty, movey cabinets, too!
Plus their laser tag is great. Plus they have F-Zero AX!
Holy shit are you kidding me?
SOMEONE BOOK ME A TICKET TO WHEREVER THAT PLACE IS
I’m a die-hard fighting game fan, and I can’t think of anything less important to me than the way a character looks. Unless it changes the size of their hitbox…
Wow. This article is some real trash.