sohois
11hr ago
I think Miranda was very much a case of design and/or tech failures meaning Bioware didn't achieve the desired look for her, rather than them actively deciding to make her look plainer
sohois
22hr ago
I want to step aside from the controversy here and ask if the lead artist of a series that's pretty much the poster boy (or poster man if you prefer) for safe horny really called Gen Z? Did she adopt this as a deliberate nom de plume?
sohois
23hr ago
Boxing seems much more driven specifically by the US having no good heavyweights during that time. If there was an American even at the level of an Anthony Joshua it would probably be way bigger
sohois
4d ago
It's certainly a strange inclusion when you look at the rest of the anime list, but if you look at top X lists for media in general it doesn't stand out.
Every publicly voted top list is always a mix of "reddit picks" with actually good content, typically biased towards the former. You need the right set of circumstances for the good stuff to break through, which most properties miss out on. To use a few examples of Anime which are far superior to anything in that list:
- Legend of the Galatic Heroes is too old. Recency bias is a big thing
- Berserk is both a bit too old and suffers from association with many far inferior adaptations
- Mob Psycho is too out there, not quite accessible enough for a general audience
Frieren manages to be recent, high quality in every aspect*, and not too off-putting for a more general audience. Maybe it doesn't trouble your personal top 10, but then none of MALs list would trouble the top 10 of a discerning viewer.
A unique factor for MAL in particular is the tendency for some shows to blow up in popularity and fall off just as quickly - though in part due to competitive voting from different fandoms. The FMA fandom is notorious for voting down anything which threatens its position at the top of MAL (at least until Frieren broke through). I recall shows like Oshi no ko suddenly claiming the top spot, before a combination of a mediocre follow-up with agressive down voting took it off. For this reason, I would be stunned if Re:zero managed to cling on
*I haven't actually watched the anime, I have only read the manga. The manga is excellent, and I understand that the anime is a well done adaptation
sohois
5d ago
Is that going to matter? Trump cares primarily about himself, and maybe to an extent his family members. Does he give a shit about his various hangers-on, the Republican party, or even the US in general?
I would be very surprised if he even bothered to offer support for a Vance campaign, let alone anyone else. Maybe if it came with some form of bribe, but candidates can't offer much until they're elected. Perhaps one of his sons running would bring him out, but Trump loyalty wouldn't be enough to prevent them getting destroyed.
And that's putting aside the question of his increasing senility.
If I might steelman the design of Medea, and the wider concept of 'safe-horny' for a moment:
That twitter post is standard internet hyperbole, but that doesn't mean that the Medea design isn't hot. This is clearly an attractive character, and the AI redesign makes her more titillating, not necessarily more attractive. What it also does is changes the feel of the character. I've not played Hades 2 so don't know this character's role but if I saw the latter, it would instantly strike me as temptress/romance option. The former is more neutral and doesn't set expectations of what the character should do. More widely, the AI design instantly codes as male/teenage bait, and could be off-putting for other audiences. There's a big commercial drive for horniness* to be done in a 'safe' way.
What is the purpose of sexy designs and horny material in games? Unless you're playing Sex with Futa Hitler 2:Goebbling Cock, it is generally not for players to drop their controllers and start masturbating. Sex can be an important part of romance in games. Lust more generally is an important part of the human condition. 'Safe horny' allows you to make use of this in your games and storylines without casting the game instantly into the pornography bucket.
The same exact mechanism is visible in film. There is pornography, and film, and there are plenty of films that straddle the line between the two. Long before woke there has always been criticism of films that rely on crude sexual imagery as being "literal pornography" or "material for teenage boys". At the same time, there are films that are far more explicit which are still considered high art because they are handled in a very 'adult' manner.
To be fair, 'safe horny' typically eschews the overt sexuality that films can get away with; there's still some way to go in how games can present this kind of material. But the important thing for most creators is probably getting away from that 'teenage boy' category while still presenting something that says "this is a hot character and you can have sex with them".
The first Hades did this very well. A character like Megaera is not typically attractive, with harsh facial features. She's also the ex of the main character and a lot of her dialogue is romantic in nature. So how do you get people horny when you're dealing with a character that is practically ugly to look at? Just give her the most sensual voice imaginable. Instantly, the designers have found a way to horny that doesn't rely on shoving tits in your face.
Compare that with something like the FF7 remake. Here we do have Tifa's tits shoved in your face, but as a scene it's pretty teenage**. It's like an anime beach scene, with a flustered protagonist and no actual suggestion of sex, beyond "Hey look at these fat tits and hot bodies".
Imagine a situation where you were playing one of these games in front of a wife or girlfriend. Or recommending to a colleague. I think the majority would feel more comfortable with Hades, despite the fact that the actual content of Hades is more sexual, more mature, than FF7.
i think this is the steelman, that 'safe horny' allows you to communicate and use sexuality in a game without bringing the baggage of 'teenage boys' (and I use teenage boys specifically, because it's not male sexuality that it should be blocking).
That's the steelman, but the reality is that while Hades 1 did was able to tread this fine line, Hades 2 largely fails. Medea, who isn't super hot by any means, is pretty much the only hot character. Hades 1 had hot characters where needed, unique characters where needed, and plain characters where needed. Hades 2 has a bunch of uggos and ridiculous designs like disabled gods. They went so far they completely failed to signal horniness.
*I appreciate that there a few games like Overwatch where the pornography has become an active selling point, but I don't think this is something you can aim for; lots of games have had casts of hot women without getting the impact of OW.
**which isn't a problem inherently. FF7 was a game for teenage boys and not everything needs to be super sexual. The scene is suitable in terms of the rest of the game.
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