Is AC: New Leaf reinforcing outdated stereotypes?

[Hong]

Wait, huh? My male character has never been hit on by female villagers. o.o That is why it was a problem to begin with.

[Dangerus]

Maybe just unfair would suffice. Actually, according to my Tumblr, boys get hit on by male NPCs too. I guess you are right on the part with Japan and women which is probably one reason why I may not really want to go there. (That just grinds my teeth whenever somebody decides to remain traditional when it comes to those things. In fact, Japanese women are going through a similar movement American women did in the 60's. I read about it in the Economist.)

[Hong]

Alright, now that is out of the way:

I don't really see verbal ticks being worthy of note since it is a generic mannerism that the villager would use regardless of gender. Now, if you want something that is actually modified by gender, it would be the "smug" (ボク) personality, which was added along with a few dozen new villagers. For what it's worth, New Leaf also has a new female personality in the "uchi". As the name implies, it is a "big-sister" which is more closer to the male "cranky" (adult, like Walt) personality.

Anyways, the smug personality specifically has a fair number of lines that make more deliberate efforts to hit on female player characters. A smug villager has a few lines for both genders that could be considered romantic at best, and those that are shared I would argue are just "brotherly" and a greater number of regions would not consider them flirty. This is not in any way an issue on its own and romantics are not inherently a problem, though it is worthy of note that none of the four female personalities have any generic dialogue that is comparable.

It is also interesting to note that some lines that would value a male character's strength, are replaced to prize a female character's glamour. And it's not like they are even talking about "prettiness", so much as general vanity. Again, a small gripe, but unnecessary.

The dress thing is not really an issue for me. The character model has a different animation group for the legs entirely, and as said, it will change how you run. Wearing a rather ridiculous outfit when I played the Empress in a number of plays, I can vouch for it. Anyways, the character model change kind of invites different animations, which I am fine with.

The biggest culprit is naturally the Able Sister comments. There is not really any way to justify it. Even if you put aside political correctness, it is not fair to deprive the player the benefit of a description of the item just because they don't feel it belongs to their gender. In the case of Label, even if you are the "right" gender for a hat or accessory, she reinforces that it is more fitting for you just because it is "correct" for your gender. I don't want to jump on this any more than we have.

It is all largely a result because Nintendo is a bit of a traditional, long-standing, Japan-based company. Some of its long-standing senior members, such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Yoshio Sakamoto, have been criticized for sexist remarks before, and sometimes their efforts to make "games for girls" have just alienated a large part of their market. I have also heard similar remarks that irked me from the Intelligent Systems and HAL teams... so I have reason to believe the company is still working on it. We will give them time; they are well aware. They are trying to improve.

A lot of the characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening say things that actually genuinely bothered me enough to create dislike. Despite all I have to say on this topic, my feelings on what we see in New Leaf can be summarized as a small gripe. The staff that made the game is a bit better balanced compared to other Nintendo products. More so because were actually responsible for a lot of the new furniture and clothing which is a very well balanced company. So it is largely in part due to regional differences and tradition. As someone who plays a lot of games from Asia, New Leaf is alright in my books. At least women can wear pants.

[Hong]

To be fair, the villager is "white" as far as Mario is "italian". He is human as far as Tom Nook is raccoon or Pudge is a bear. The humans of Animal Crossing aren't really like... Caucasian. They have human characteristics like a face, hands, feet, clothing... but even if you put art style aside the faces and stuff are fairly original. Thus I don't really see them as "white". They are the interpretation of humans just like every other animal in the village. They could have chosen to make the characters quite literally white (as in, egg white), though some kind of pigmentation prevents it from being creepy.

I don't see it changing. It could be an issue for something like F-Zero where they are human-humans and Earth as we know it exists.

[Riseatrance]

[Hong]

I don't think your post is unreasonable. The whole "I should be more affected by this than you but I'm not so it's not a big deal" thing is certainly something I disagree with. By that token I should never fight for gender or racial or class rights as I have because they don't affect me. But I have done it anyways and I see them as a problem.

Since I see a discussion in regards to gender has sprang up with everyone I know who plays this game and how I have seen it on every board related to the game, I would say it is a valid issue. When enough people see it as a problem it generally merits discussion and even if you don't think it does, there is a lot to talk about on it and that is what this board is here for.

I don't think tackling poltical-correctness ever has to compromise a product. While it isn't public knowledge, I will say it here since it is pretty inconsequential: At some point, everyone affiliated with Blizzard received what I can summarize as sensitivity training in regards to things like gender, race and sexuality. After that, the language used in-house, to the customers, and supported products received fair and effective changes. I bring this up because it shows a big and strong company can make changes to please a group, no matter how small or big they are, without the "majority" being any the wiser. Designing good games has never been compromised.

[Riseatrance]

[Hong]

[Riseatrance]

in other words: my immersion is ruined!

I'm sorry, but I genuinely still believe it's an overreaction.

[PLA]

^ Immersion?

[Riseatrance]

[Yoonah]

Hey guys let's do this ap test style

let's reward them for what they did right

and not punish them for what they did wrong


Because Animal Crossing is still miles ahead of other games

[Riseatrance]

and society in general

[Shousa]

[PLA]