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This Week in Games - Tilting at Windmills Instead of Dragons

Sadly, Xenosaga was too ambitious for its own good; the five-part series was condensed into just three and hasn't really been seen since the PS2 days.

"There will be six episodes planned in all, all of which are divided into three major parts. I already have the story plotted until the middle of episode five in my mind, but certain ideas may be perceived as old-fashioned as time goes, so we'll try to be flexible to changes."
- Tetsuya Takahashi (Interview with GameSpot, Jun 8, 2001)

Also the Disney film Song of the South has not been legally shown in public or available commercially in the United States since 1986.

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Sadly, Xenosaga was too ambitious for its own good; the five-part series was condensed into just three and hasn't really been seen since the PS2 days.

5? History and the creator themselves seem to disagree;

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"There will be six episodes planned in all, all of which are divided into three major parts. I already have the story plotted until the middle of episode five in my mind, but certain ideas may be perceived as old-fashioned as time goes, so we'll try to be flexible to changes." - Tetsuya Takahashi (Interview with GameSpot, Jun 8, 2001)

So yes, people on each side of the culture war are going to express their views. That is all that is happening.

In a game like Dragon Quest, it's kind of benign-but-dumb to be saying "Type A/B" when it's clear the intention is either dude or gal. It makes sense in a game like Phantasy Star: New Genesis where you can literally pick & mix and match shapes and parts to come up with whatever you want, but I do worry that retroactively applying a "Type A/B" sort of removal of gender to DQ3 might additionally remove narrative moments - DQ7 being a good example, as a big part of Maribel's story is that she's a "tomboy" archtype and her lack of liking anything lady-like is driving her parents insane. Then Kiefer as the king's son & heir, is causing worries that his succession to the throne is going to be messed up because he's an "unreliable son". The gender dynamic among the party is key to how the three main characters relate to each other, and also marks how the story expertly shows everyone growing as you progress farther into the game.

In a game like Dragon Quest, it's kind of benign-but-dumb to be saying "Type A/B" when it's clear the intention is either dude or gal. It makes sense in a game like Phantasy Star: New Genesis where you can literally pick & mix and match shapes and parts to come up with whatever you want, but I do worry that retroactively applying a "Type A/B" sort of removal of gender to DQ3 might additionally remove narrative moments - DQ7 being a good example, as a big part of Maribel's story is that she's a "tomboy"

I have almost zero interest in fighting games and only know about Max from friends posting clips of him, but that scream has already been memed to hell.

LinkTSwordmaster wrote:

In a game like Dragon Quest, it's kind of benign-but-dumb to be saying "Type A/B" when it's clear the intention is either dude or gal. It makes sense in a game like Phantasy Star: New Genesis where you can literally pick & mix and match shapes and parts to come up with whatever you want, but I do worry that retroactively applying a "Type A/B" sort of removal of gender to DQ3 might additionally remove narrative moments - DQ7 being a good example, as a big part of Maribel's story is that she's a "tomboy"

Giving a player character agency over identity doesn't mean other party members have to be neutral, though. If the devs decided that they wanted to let the player design the protagonist, then it's just the protagonist, innit? There's still plenty of room for other characters to have their own stories and identities.

Culture wars are generally executed by people taking issue with made up problems like rock n roll music. It's kind of hilarious to call companies making the most profitable choice "one side" of a cultural war. People have regressive attitudes that become unpopular and companies decide it was a bad look so they listen to all the neediest parents who don't trust their kids to understand complicated subjects like the history of racial caricatures and make media unavailable to maintain brand image. Then somehow that is all put on the opposite side of a "war" by people being in opposition to choices they dislike.

One side of culture wars is always regressive, they want things the way they were and not they way they are, and they usually have a social ill to blame for why things got messed up. The other side of the culture war is mostly people confused why something is being attacked and defending the usually benign choices made in the thing they care about. Even the "rating boards that have become increasingly strict on the content that is deemed appropriate" as someone else mentioned would be the result of parents wanting to impose regressive appropriateness standards on game media.

If someone just said "give up the sexy character or I'm not playing" and left it there it wouldn't even be a culture war, it would just be a fan-company interaction. Tying the desire for the way things were into a boogeyman social ill while longing for the standards of the past and trying to argue for bringing back those standards by removing the boogeyman is what makes it a culture war. The only sides I have seen in a culture war are the Regressivists and the surprised fans minding their business, I think we should call them Culture Invasions or Attempted Cultural Regressions. Calling it a war is a term made to imply there are two equals sides in equal exchange and not the tidal wave of vitriol couched in principles that are often excuses for personal taste (see anti-porn advocates admitting to using children as an excuse to restrict porn for everyone as much as possible).