If you followed E3 announcements, you may have seen the reveal for Dead Island: Riptide. No details besides a $50 price point and a promise of details this summer were shared at E3, which caused many to ask questions. When confronted with the possibility of being a remake ala Dead Rising 2: Off the Record at the lower price, the developer stated that it was an entirely new game. When probed further about the discounted price, they stated that the price was set according to the end of the console's life cycle... Speculation begin!
Kat's Korner- Episode Four
Editorial | June 12, 2012 5:05 pm
By Moo Lissa
Welcome back to Kat's Korner!!!!! After bringing my doctor's note to Hektic, my recent hiatus has been forgiven and it's time to get back in the swing of things. Today's episode has quite a few stories on the same topic lines- speculation about the next Microsoft console. It's funny, after E3 is said and done, these are the topics that are still trending.
But first, before I get into that...
Have many of you heard of this Anita Sarkeesian? She's got a kickstarter project set up, called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. Her goal is to make a miniseries talking about the way women are portrayed in games. While her initial goal was simply $6,000, she hit that after just a couple of hours, and is now up to $67,000 with 3 days to go. UPDATE: $128,000.00 with 36 hours to go...
Her idea is simple- women characters are portrayed in a number of what she calls tropes (I assume she's using the word to mean clichés or plot devices), and she planned to discuss the main 5 in a 5 video series. With all the funding she's received, she's been able to extend her plans to create 12 videos, covering a few more archetypes as well as some positive female characters in games. The Topics for her videos are as follows:
• Damsel in Distress - Video #1
• The Fighting F#@k Toy - Video #2
• The Sexy Sidekick - Video #3
• The Sexy Villainess - Video #4
• Background Decoration - Video #5
• Voodoo Priestess/Tribal Sorceress - Video #6
• Women as Reward - Video #7
• Mrs. Male Character - Video #8
• Unattractive Equals Evil - Video #9
• Man with Boobs - Video #10
• Positive Female Characters! - Video #11
• Video #12 - Top 10 Most Common Defenses of Sexism in Games
Besides the nearly $70k, she's gotten thousands of comments from people speaking out against her, and has a flood of hatred directed right at her. In her own words:
The intimidation and harassment effort has included a torrent of misogyny and hate speech on my YouTube video, repeated vandalizing of the Wikipedia page about me, organized efforts to flag my YouTube videos as "terrorism", as well as many threatening messages sent through Twitter, Facebook, Kickstarter, email and my own website. These messages and comments have included everything from the typical sandwich and kitchen "jokes" to threats of violence, death, sexual assault and rape. All that plus an organized attempt to report this project to Kickstarter and get it banned or defunded.
So... Kat's take on the topic... and GO!
I do disagree with Anita's take on females in the video game industry. I think she's confusing the term archetype with the term stereotype, and all narratives are essentially written about various archetypes- both male and female. There's no getting around it, because people initially do try to label everyone they come across as an archetype, even in real life. It starts in school with jock and cheerleader, and it self-perpetuates throughout life, all the way to grizzled warrior and old crone. I don't think the industry should change any more than I think we should start casting movies and TV shows with fat, ugly people.
Anita's revised versions of Zelda and Peach, in sticker form. I think they fall under Mrs. Male, or man with boobs, but whatever.
That said, I'm disgusted (although not surprised) by the response she has gotten. What an overwhelming task these trolls felt called to do. It's one thing to disagree with her, even to enter in an intelligent debate with her over her findings. And I admit, I'm a fan of a good "sandwich and kitchen joke," whether she is or not. But threatening to murder or rape someone because they feel that an industry is geared towards men is beyond insane.
Anita's response was this, "The sad thing is this kind of backlash happens all the time whenever women dare to speak up about gender and video games." I disagree once again. The sad truth is that this kind of backlash happens all the time when men get frustrated. Even the way women speak to each other has become more adversarial. I don't think it's just the internet, either- this whole attitude is reflective of the way women are continually being devalued. In the case of the people threatening her physically, I know from personal experience how frightened and vulnerable it can make you feel, and I admire the tough front she's showing. I hope she has law enforcement involved in this situation, and I hope this can be a lesson for some of the anonymous that are out there... Because all those guys are doing is proving her right, and showing that not only does the video game industry not take women seriously- neither do the male consumers in that industry!
OK, then, that's enough of that... there's a bunch of happy stuff to discuss!
From an outsider's standpoint, E3 looked to be kind of a dud this year. Not that a lot of good games aren't on the horizon- because they certainly are, but the conferences largely just seemed to leave people feeling lackluster and less than excited. Part of that might be the fact that people are beginning to suffer from sequelitis, and nothing feels new anymore. Another part is probably that all the buzz surrounding video games lately has been about rumors and theories about the next generation of consoles. Steven Totilo, of kotaku fame got some face time with the head of Microsoft's game studios, Phil Spencer, and Sony's director of hardware marketing, John Koller, and asked them both a few very direct questions about the Durango and the Orbis. Now, I'm not going to copy and paste the whole interview, because it's linked, but a few pretty entertaining excerpts come up:
ST: "What do you want to tell me about Durango?"
PS: "Uh, I've been to Durango."
ST: "Are you allowed to say the words 'PlayStation 4'?"
JK: "We're not talking about any of that. [laughs] Good questions, though!"
In fact, the only one who seems ready to discuss the next gen at all is SCEA president, Jack Tretton. When Geoff Keighley asked Tretton about the future of Sony's consoles, and got the reply, "I think, if you look back again on history we've never been first, we've never been cheapest. It's about being the best. And I think if you can build a better machine and it's going to come out a little bit later, that's better than rushing something to market that's going to run out of gas for the long term. I think, ideally, in a perfect world, you want the best machine that ships first, that's cheapest. But the number one goal is to be the best machine, and that's what we're always focused on."
Ummm... Sorry, Mr. Tretton- you've never been first, and you've never been cheapest... and since the PS2, you've never been the best, either. Time to rethink some of that plan.
While keeping quiet about the next generation of consoles at E3, one thing Phil Spencer was not keeping a lid on was his excitement for the Xbox 360.
It's a platform that has really reached scale; this is the time when you really see the great content showing up. The future in a lot of ways is always tomorrow: [things like] the SmartGlass technology and Windows 8 [show that] things are going to constantly evolve.
The world where everything gets centered around one console and when that comes out--we kind of have to evolve away from just thinking about that, [especially] with the service-based nature of games today. Right now the Xbox 360 is really healthy and it's doing incredibly well. I think the 360 has a lot more than two years
. It has legs for a long time. -Phil Spencer
While there are a few different ways to interpret this, it sounds to me like he's promising that they won't be doing things the same as when they launched the 360... pulling the old console off the shelves months in advance, ending game development cold turkey, and dropping server support. So regardless of when the next generation of Xbox comes out, those who can't or don't want to make the switch immediately won't be left out in the cold.
Deep Silver recently announced that Dead Island: Riptide (NOT Dead Island 2!) was in development. Retailers have already begun listing it on their websites, although there has not been a release date set. Amazon lists a placeholder release date of Dec. 31, 2013, but I'm sure we'll find out more as the months go by. The price listed online, however, is not a placeholder. The retail price of the new Dead Island (not an expansion, not a remake) is set at $49.99. Deep Silver's PR/ Marketing manager, Aubrey Norris (@Cupacaubrey) tweeted, "It's the end of a console cycle- we think this price makes a lot more sense given that." While some media sources are jumping on her words as an acknowledgement of the rumors that the next Xbox will be hitting shelves at the end of next year, and we'll all be using our smart glass devices to play on our Durangos by the end of next year, I'd like to remind everyone that there's not even a set date for DI:R's release...
Bethesda received an overwhelming response to their call for beta testers for the upcoming Skyrim DLC, Dawnguard. So many people wanted to be a vampire hunter, that the total number chosen from the applications came out to less than 1%. If you were chosen, you'd most likely know by now, as the first batch of emails was sent out last night, and all notifications will be sent by the end of today. I, for one, was not chosen, although I truly hope that one day they let us know exactly what they were looking for in their application process. I've applied to many betas in my day, and this had some of the most specific questions I've ever seen. Congratulations to those who had the "magic combination!"
Maybe the most shocking news I've heard in months comes from Microsoft. The first run of the "Xbox subscription," offering a 4 gb console with Kinect and 2 years of LIVE for $99 up front and a contract of $15 a month for the next 24 months, has been a wild success. So much, in fact, that Major Nelson has announced that they're expanding the program to Best Buy and select Gamestops. He suggests calling before heading out to purchase yours, however, because Microsoft foresees more consumer interest than they have consoles available. Really? Wow... As I originally reported in an earlier Kat's Korner, while customers who take advantage of this program are not saving any money, they're also not losing too much. The contract price comes out to around $40 more than just buying the console outright at MSRP. Of course, who pays MSRP for anything these days? I think my issue with the whole thing is just the principle, and how short sighted everyone is becoming. Oh well-you know who would never complain about this? Hulk Hogan.
Well, anyway, believe it or not, I'm out of time! Look out next Tuesday (or Wednesday, haha) for more news served with so much Kat on the side that you'll think you're at a cheap Chinese restaurant!
Fine print:
As always, the views expressed in Kat's Korner are mine alone and not meant to be representative of the staff or members of xboxamerica.com. Feel free to agree or disagree and discuss with each other, but there will be absolutely no flaming or personal attacks. Yes, even if they really are stupid, fornicate with their mothers and have several children with their siblings. Suggestions or subject tips are always welcome, and can be left here, in my shout box or pmed to me.
Keywords: Anita Sarkeesian, Dead Island Riptide, E3, durango
