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Why Anime related content wont fit into AOC.
BCG
Member, Intrepid Pack
Within the last 5 years, there has been an increased influence of eastern themed trends within western society, especially when it comes to gaming and online entertainment. Anime related content can be found all over western games and eastern publishers push their games more and more into the west on console, mobile, and pc.
So why does anime related content not fit within Ashes, as far as I can recall (and correct me if I am wrong) Intrepid wants to bring back the old school feels of an MMORPG and one big subject of that goal will be immersion. In western fantasy games, the amount of ****, fox girl, or stripper armor is zero and you have more focus on Lore as well as relatable characters.
As we can see on our discord we already have members oversexualizing Ashes related characters like Tulnar and so on, In my opinion, Ashes wants to draw a straight Line in the sand and say we are not Like that. Having things like listed above allows the game to become something that is more like an outlet for fetishes than a MMORPG. We do know **** are not in Ashes, in your opinion should Ashes allow more Anime and eastern trends or should they just straight up, stay away from all that.
So why does anime related content not fit within Ashes, as far as I can recall (and correct me if I am wrong) Intrepid wants to bring back the old school feels of an MMORPG and one big subject of that goal will be immersion. In western fantasy games, the amount of ****, fox girl, or stripper armor is zero and you have more focus on Lore as well as relatable characters.
As we can see on our discord we already have members oversexualizing Ashes related characters like Tulnar and so on, In my opinion, Ashes wants to draw a straight Line in the sand and say we are not Like that. Having things like listed above allows the game to become something that is more like an outlet for fetishes than a MMORPG. We do know **** are not in Ashes, in your opinion should Ashes allow more Anime and eastern trends or should they just straight up, stay away from all that.
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Regardless, I'm sure Steven is well aware of the fanservice trends that tend to crop up and will not let Ashes slip too far.
Since I reduced my interactions with the discord by at least half compared to the earlier years I doubt this is the case. Otherwise the people that you think I am referring to would be the biggest trolls on the discord. :P and between you and me I see stuff on the discord sometimes that just turns me off from even getting involved.
Agree, I hop it wont slip at all
I would argue that berserk has his inspiration from other things, like the Viking and eastern European lore and so on.
agreed it does take inspiration from other things but the golden age arc is mainly based on the 100-year war. The point I was making is not all anime is bad in some cases it can epic.
I would agree but, as I stated in recent years the trend has gone in the other way.
Anime, just like any other cartoon form draw from a place of imagination and stories and there are plenty of ways that elements of the genre can be incooperated without it needing to be sexualisation or fetishisation of certain groups of people.
I am a huge fan of the anime movies made by Studio Ghibli, especially Howl's Moving Castle, as there are so many fantastical and whimsical elements that I find myself enjoying in MMO's also. Both anime and online videogames often provide an escape from the real world and should most certainly be able to draw inspiration from one another.
I blame the fans more than anything else to be honest
I mean yeah of course, no doubt about that.
So, what I'm getting from this is that you aren't adverse to anime itself, but rather to very specific trends found in some anime.
bingo and those trends making it into games since it increases a possible player base.
Which anime trends do you think would work in Ashes?
the in-depth world-building I would say is the number one thing but the character design in some cases
If that case would ever present itself maybe, but since Ashes is going for more western type of look i highly doubt this will happen.
None.
If you can find something that has not been done before or isn't based on something from the past maybe.
so if we had oni or kappas in ashes near the Ren'Kai to fit in with that theme would that be ok
I'll give you the fox girls tho.
It's not about influence, it's about presentation. Eastern influence has nothing to do with the motto sex sells. If people respond to cute animal ears, then it will be exploited by companies for a cheap thrill.
I can be a life devouring nightmare. - Grisu#1819
So you are saying eastern games do not over-sexualized their games to appeal to a certain focus group, compared to western games?
he's saying both east and west sell games based on sex appeal
If I am saying anything then that it has been there forever not imported somehow recently in the last 5 years.
Wether they do it more than the west is beyond my personal grasp, I just picked 3 older very well regarded games I know from the west that would fall into your category of overly uneccessery sexualising representation.
The West made elves sexy, they made dark witches sexy, they made a grave robber/explorer sexy, they literally made a race that's commonly known as a sexy stripper slave aka. Twi'lek. All the formfitting top model body spandax certainly doesn't help in that regard either.
I don't know what you think about when you say "anime in ashes". Anime isn't a genre or a style, it's a medium like paper is. That might be an interesting point to clarify. What is "anime" to you?
I can be a life devouring nightmare. - Grisu#1819
I’m glad that AoC will stay firmly in the west, aesthetically and otherwise. It will be refreshing.
However, there is a personal irony. With all that said, there is one big exception to all of that. My favorite anime of all time is Sword Art Online. There was a feel to that show, of everyone working together from launch to try to succeed and survive within an MMORPG. To build a reputation, survive deranged player-killers, and over time become legends. I think AoC, more than any other game, has the potential to feel like that. So as much as I rail against anime influences, I hope more than anything to be able to play an online game that feels like a particular anime.
(To be fair, SAO had an aesthetic very much like western RPGs so avoided a lot of visual anime tropes. And I can do without the whole “can’t log out of the game and if you die in the game you die in real life” aspects...)
But I think I got the meaning behind the message from the rest of the posts.
Seems like the main issue is sexualization of characters/waifu related content. Might be wrong though, but that's what I got from what was said.
Based on what's been said, shown, and discussed over the forums about female armor and design it seems they are taking a more realistic approach that still has an appealing design. It seems that they're goal is not to over-sexualize their content and instead base it more in realism. (So no stripper armor)
Keeping that in the mind, the character that a person creates will still fit in with the aesthetic of the world, but that's not going to stop people from making "waifus". I also don't see the harm in it. If that's how a person wants to play then more power to them. If a person wants to make a fox girl and it fits in with the theme and style then I have no problem with them doing that. It's just a personal preference.
However, I do hope they keep any "Japanese" inspired themes to a minimum if possible because yeah....that's in every game and it's...just a lot...all the time...
I also missed one of the examples a few of y'all said. I don't know if I have a filter on or it got censored but all I can see are stars and I can't piece together what it was supposed to say.
If you're just worried about the over-sexualization of races then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. There will be costumes that sexualize a player's toon. Now sexualization is open for interpretation as with most things.
Someone with a prudish view could argue showing shoulders or necklines are too sexual. There are even religious groups who view a female wearing jeans or shorts is too sexy. Also the reason pedophiles don't see themselves as perverts.
The problem with censorship, while you're catering to one group of people you're also isolating another. The cycle is endless. So in order to appease all parties you have to incorporate practical clothing as well as form-fitting or semi-revealing ones. Another solution would be a toggle option.
As for if Anime things should be allowed into AOC, Idk. The reason being that a lot of good stories dealing with political/social and economic atmospheres come from anime. Even some of the fashion, hairstyles, weapon styles, worlds, creatures, and fighting styles can be an inspiration.
It´s not like EVERY ANIME only has cat ears, small oversexualized female armor, and weapons too big to be wielded,