So here’s yet another blogger who has taken to their podium to lambaste a game featuring partially nude women (and men) in some shape or form. I’m talking of course, about the completely juvenile and reactionary blog written by Kelley Calkins over at Ravishly. The main issue here is that her blog was reposted onto their blog featured on Huffington Post, which naturally drew in more clicks. ‘Gotta love those clicks, right?
You see, Ravishly is a website for women, and women who want “killer content quickly,” sadly I think with a poorly written of an article as this, they might be killed with boredom if anything. So let’s dive into this and completely take apart why Kelley is completely wrong and pretty much an armchair activist for complete nonsense, if fuck-all.
So first the headline, “Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed May be the Most Despicable Video Game of All Time Ever” leads the uninformed to think that Akiba’s Trip 2 is the birth of the anti-christ or something, that it’ll lead their children, loved ones, and or acquaintances suddenly lose their concept or right & wrong, and begin stabbing random people in the street or something.
Why is it that ultra violence is getting a pass, when sexuality in video games has become the new hot topic for these tumblr crusaders to get offended over? It gets worse, as she compared fans of this game and games like this to men’s rights activists, i.e. men who flagrantly want a return to the time when women had a place, and it was in the kitchen, or changing a baby’s diaper.
She also mentions the Playstation 4 version, and how you can type “panty” in the Twitch or UStream chat and a random female in game will have her panties fly off – which, to be clear, the Playstation 4 version isn’t confirmed for the west. She also mentions typing in “panty jump,” which causes it to literally rain panties from the sky, and a ring of panties surrounds the protagonist.
This is just too real for Kelley to wrap her trigger-warning loving, tumblr coddling, social justice mind around.
She clearly doesn’t “get the joke,” as some other female games journalists did. One of those writers realized that the whole undressing thing and the ludicrous scenario itself was merely the humor end of the experience, as the game also pokes fun at the consumerism mentality in the real life Akihabara, which is remodeled in Akiba’s Trip.
One gigantic piece of information that Kelley seems to just conveniently forget is that in Akiba’s Trip 2, you can also undress the men – they make up literally half of the Synthisters in the game, aka the vampire like enemies that are destroyed by sunlight after being de-clothed. This was, however, mentioned in both the Gamespot and Destructoid (linked above too) previews, both written by women as well.
The sad part is that the original article that Kelley repeatedly just pulled information from, via the Daily Dot, is clearly the source of the misinformation and the agenda pushing. Both Mike Wehner (from Daily Dot) and Kelly are of the same mindset, in that:
“At a time when gaming is struggling to grow up and become a more inclusive hobby, a sexual assault simulator—sorry, ‘game’—like this is a great example of just how much work there is left to be done. ” (via Daily Dot)
Right. So the games industry has to “grow up,” and by grow up, it has to choose one form of fetishizing/taboo media over the other, i.e. ultra violence over sexuality. I hate to keep banging this drum repeatedly, but I’m so very tired of these internet crusaders who very clearly do not play games, they do not enjoy games … they don’t even seem to enjoy anything other than getting outraged over everything.
So in their minds, the games industry has to adhere to what THEY want, what the social justice, armchair warrior, tumblr frequenting spectators want. That’s right – these people are just spectating the games industry, they clearly do not play games for fun, if at all. They just wait for the opportunity to inject their bullshit agenda and make further attempts to hijack the hobby.
Look, I’m not calling for the games hobby to be just for men – that is absolutely not what I’m trying to say. What I am trying to say is that the games industry should move forward and adhere to what the fans want. Is that so hard for people to believe, or wrap their tiny little brains around? Fans of video games generally just look for something that is “fun,” and the very concept of what “fun” is wildly varies from person to person.
Perhaps “fun” to these talking heads equates to just getting pissed off and outraged over everything. Still, for most of us gamers, “fun” is simply playing the games that make us laugh, struggle to win, and what have you. Stop trying to bring your bullshit tactics into the games industry – just because video games are a younger form of media does NOT give you the right to try to change them to what YOU want.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of, and should not be attributed to, Niche Gamer as an organization.
