Feministing dislikes Noblegarden.
(I do too, but only because it’s really tedious.)
To be a bit more serious, they do have a valid point, and one that could have been minimized very easily with intelligent design (for example, requiring both players to trade an item to activate the bunny state). But Blizzard has shown time and again that not only do they tend to encourage their community to minimize social concerns, they also tend to respond childishly when those concerns are brought up.
And yet, hey, 12 million subscribers!
#1 by JuJutsu on April 30th, 2009
“I demand the right to define my own oppression!”
Me too!
#2 by William Purvis on April 30th, 2009
I think my Blood Elf DK looks HOT in the bunny ears… I don’t get it.
#3 by Merc on April 30th, 2009
Men and Women are different. Film at 11:00.
#4 by geldonyetich on April 30th, 2009
You can define your own oppression or claim to be a female gamer who is okay with this until the cows come home. Either way, you’re not setting a global definition, and the question isn’t whether someone will be offended by this – someone will be offended about anything – so much as what (if any) actual harm this is doing.
#5 by Sullee on May 1st, 2009
I think this is much ado about nothing. Not that your complaints don’t have merit moreso they just need to get in line behind the fact that this very poorly designed content.
Everyone gives blizzard credit for such quality but this was shit. So is the bulk of the achievement system. I am tired of the industry insiders occasionally taking half-hearted swipes at these chuckle heads and then going back to giving them money and trying to copy them.
This holiday event was utterly and entirely crap design. It wasn’t even amateur level. Blizzard should get blasted to hell and back every time they they try to get away with something like this.
Having poorly designed achievements that encourage the wrong type of play because of an irresistable carrot is reprehensible. This little event alone had achievements that to complete required waiting out the RNG and unhealthy camping. You folks should start self policing some of this bs or it will be bad for everyone.
#6 by AMIB on May 1st, 2009
@tmp
Because the female head is such an object of sexualization.
#7 by Longasc on May 1st, 2009
Well said, Sullee.
I actually think it was also casually sexist and a sign of the usual Blizzard ignorance and double standards, but I absolutely agree to your comment regarding achievements:
Crap achievements and dangling a carrot for people that they get if they do the most hilarious crap in shitty designed events.
Unfortunately, we have many games out there that share the achievement craze, basically to-do lists with hilarious objectives to gain something special in the end.
http://worldofwarcraft.mmocluster.com/achievements
I suggest creating this achievement:
http://worldofwarcraft.mmocluster.com/img_achievements/e9e4d11965f67335f3070bc3b8836659.jpg
#8 by harl on May 1st, 2009
Actually I was commenting on “I think it’s ridiculous to implement an achievement that has a chance of offending -anyone-.” The only outcome of that position is no one gets anything.
#9 by DrDre on May 1st, 2009
I think that there’s one thing that we can all agree on, and that’s that bitches ain’t shit but hos and tricks. I for one am tired of the victim culture mentality perpetrated against hot girls who flaunt being hot by ugly girls who are mad that they’re ugly. Every womens’ studies class I’ve ever seen has been full of chubby, pasty, white girls who are always sick and complain about everything. All the internet has done is make it easier for them to complain and blame everything about their lives that they don’t like on a man.
Ship ‘em off to Saudi Arabia.
#10 by TPRJones on May 1st, 2009
I would think it should be fair as long as there’s also a clamstamp achievement, then everyone gets a chance at the prize.
#11 by tmp on May 1st, 2009
@TPRJones
Fair, even that is debatable given there can be quite different attitudes towards having someone else’s body part pressed into one’s face, depending if that other person is male or female. But –which was the point– such “content” getting accepted without any complaints how inappropriate it is for game developer to encourage this sort of interaction… unlikely.
#12 by TPRJones on May 1st, 2009
I don’t disagree, I just wanted to use the word “clamstamp”.
#13 by Capn John on May 4th, 2009
Wait, the bunny ears are demeaning and promote violence against women? I thought it was a nod to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time.
If I see bunny ears and think “tribute to a legendary video game” while you think “violence against women”, who really has the problem here?
#14 by Female Gamer on May 4th, 2009
If it’s okay with you, I’d prefer not to be gratuitously called a liar. Why qualify my statement of who I am when you don’t do the same to everyone else?
Pick a time and a Vent server and I’ll drop in and say hi. If, of course, you don’t believe the pitch of my voice is a lie, too. Or ask Lum. He knows a few things about me, like my real name, and he knows people who have met me in person he could confirm it with if he needed to.
Or, of course, you could just grant me the same courtesy you do others and assume that I’m not actually lying all the time. That would be kind of a nice thing.