Aug 27, 2010
Welcome to our weekly Community Q!
Once a week we flip the tables and listen to what you guys have to say . . . rather than sitting back and make you listen to us!
Earlier this week, Kokatu reported that SEGA were offering a pre-order incentive for Japanese pre-orders of Cyber Troopers Virtual-On:Force. Reserve orders will ship with the ‘Fetish Unlock Code’ that “enables players to change the breast size of the Virtuaroid robots Fei Yen and her sister Angelan”.
Community Q: What do you think about this kind of incentive? Is this just a bit of harmless fun, or do you think it’s deliberately misogynistic, hinting – again – that some publishers and developers fail to appreciate (nor regard) the female gamer demographic? And how do you feel about Kokatu’s reporting of it? Is it meaningful gaming journalism or another example of a sexist industry?
Tell us your opinion – and your reasons behind it – right here!
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Personally, this would not make me preorder a game, I would find the whole thing a bit wierd and make me feel like a voyeur! However, I know that there are enough people out there who would want this sort of thing that offering it as a preorder bonus could definatly work. Yet I think some of this comes down to cultural differences, and I don’t think that the intent is to be deliberatly misogynistic.
I somehow doubt this sort of “bonus” would ever be offered in the US or Europe purely because they know there would be a greater outcry over it.
As for Kotaku’s reporting of it, they seem pretty factual in their reporting style, and as they cover US/European news as well as Japanese news its not entirely surprising they cover this. I think they too are trying to open the floor to some discussion, and their community has a good number of females so I think they would know better than to do something if they thought it was sexist.