Unfortunate Implications/Video Games: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"All those who feel that stereotypes aren't an issue when creating fictional groups for game purposes are free to take part in playtests for my new game '''''Sambo''': The RPG of Stealing Chickens and Eating Watermelons.''"|JellyRoll Baker, in an RPG.net discussion of why one needs to be careful when dealing with [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|fantasy counterpart cultures]].}}

 

 

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** Also, the one guy who can actually talk to Pokémon sides with Team Plasma, but they're still shown as being wrong. Basically in order to progress in the game you have to ignore your best source of information on what Pokémon actually want. To help you feel better about this you keep running into trainers saying they love their Pokémon and would never want to hurt them. So, if you have power over people don't bother asking them what they think of how you treat them, as long as you mean well you must be doing fine. Somewhat mitigated when N later reveals that {{spoiler|the player character's Pokémon said that they wanted to be with the player character the first time they met N, and other trainer's Pokémon have been saying similar things}} but the player character had no way of knowing this until they're pretty far into fighting Team Plasma.

** Also, the games in general have been accused of "encouraging" animal abuse by pointing out similarities between Pokemon battles and "cockfighting"/"dog fighting".

** The Pokemon universe's only known Italian is a Mafia Don. ''Ouch.''

* ''[[Metroid: Other M]]'': Several reviewers have taken issue with the fact that the game has Samus - [[Action Girl|a strong and independent bounty hunter who just happened to be female]] - now going on about her feelings, taking orders, and seeking approval from male authority figures. And she can't use her equipment until a man authorizes her, even if that equipment would save her lots of damage.

*** Take also into account the fact that Samus has killed Ridley ''four times'' before ''Other M'' - and not frozen up on any of those occasions. The makers of ''[[Other M]]'' say they didn't take the stories of the ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' games into account, which still leaves two times. Defenders of the game claim that a) she thought that the last time, he was dead for sure, b) she was emotionally vulnerable after the events of Super Metroid, c) she realized that {{spoiler|she was partially responsible for this Ridley's development}}, or d) some combination of the above.

** Various reviewers accused the game of sexism, including [[He-Man Woman Hater|Yahtzee]] of ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' and [[The Spoony Experiment|Spoony]]. Others, such as [[Moviebob]] in his Game Overthinker persona, accused the critics of the game of being oversensitive or sexist. As you can probably tell, the issue is a bit touchy...

** Many of the people bashing the game often mentioned "Japanese culture" being a factor in the direction taken with the game. While Japanese gender relations are... complex, critics are using it both to attack the game's portrayal of Samus, while other critics are using it as a defense. The problem is, they're ''partially'' right. It can get even more uncomfortable if detractors say that [[Retro Studios]] should have stuck with the games not necessarily because they were more skilled with their handling of the series (a much more valid argument), but because their "American" approach automatically makes it better.

** During a flashback, we find that Adam would end briefings by going (rhetorically) "any objections, lady?" Samus is the only female member of her squad, so Adam was deliberately singling her out by her gender. Repeatedly. Samus seemed to be the only person who found any problems with this (at the time), but somehow recollects it fondly, as Adam's little joke. Samus even notes that it would sound sarcastic from anyone else. [[Unreliable Narrator|There is nothing in the cutscenes to distinguish it from sarcasm or mockery]]. By contrast, Anthony's repeated use of "Princess" is clearly an affectionate nickname, and the game lets the viewers ''infer'' that they are [[Like Brother and Sister]], compared to the ham-handed approach to the Adam-Samus relationship.