However most things of which you stated, I can't entirely get behind. Like how intimate they are with each other. That's an actual thing men in real life tend to do and have done for centuries. We call it "bromance" it's nothing new. And Ignis's behavior is not exclusive to mothers. Fathers take their children's health just as seriously. Your heart is in the right place, but you might need to reanalyze a bit.
Hi XvoltaireX,
Thanks for joining the conversation! Conversations are always good and should happen, and that was my goal in writing this article. Dissasterrific has responded with a super great response that captures my thoughts, but I'll elaborate.
I have to ask the question: how come you have to call it "bromance"? It's something that I see that happens very often, and it's not like women call our friendships with each other "femmance" or something like that. Don't get me wrong - it's a harmless way of referring to a strong friendship between men, but it also can't be denied that it's similar to the phrase "man tears" - which are just, you know, tears from men; but there's the nagging sense to call them "man tears," whether the guy saying it is joking or not.
It's the same thing with "bromance"; it's just a way of referring to an intimate platonic relationship between men. But there's this tendency to label those things as "man tears" and "bromance" because of masculinity; because men constantly have to reassert it. I, and the rest of the world, know that "bromance" has been a thing in the daily lives of men for centuries upon centuries, but it's not something that is healthily portrayed in the media all that often - especially video games - as simply being an intimate bond between two men.
A similar thing goes to your point about fathers. If I were to sort of use an analogy, it's like saying that nobody should be racist. That's a great and true statement in itself, but we have to recognize that society isn't there yet as a whole, so we must recognize the different inequalities that exist in society. Caring for a child's health is not something that is exclusive or inherent to mothers because not only would that be limiting towards women, but there are many fathers - both single and married - that are wonderful parents. However, it's not like we see single fathers being portrayed all that often in the media - and if we want to get specific,
especially in video games. It has always been women who have been naturally portrayed in that way despite the fact that there are many women out there who don't really like kids and may not even want to have them, as well as fathers who really care for their children or would prefer to play a more domestic role in their family lives.
Not sure if it's the best analogy but my point is that in spite of your progressive thinking we aren't there yet as a society, so I wrote the article while taking this into account. And this is without specifically considering the game industry and its extremely rigid views on gender as a whole, as well as the cultural differences between East Asia and the West, as this is a JRPG. Maybe you might want to read up on those differences sometime, as it's definitely interesting to know how other cultures view things differently from our own! I know that I was definitely specific in that healthy and intimate platonic relationships between men is something that hasn't been portrayed in *games* enough, and that the motherhood role is one that has been
traditionally given to women - meaning that some women may not enjoy it while other men (like perhaps Ignis) do, and they should be portrayed in those ways a little more often in contrast to the abundance of men who are shown to only shoot guns, forsake emotions, and have only their romantic relationships with women valued in a story. That portrayal happens every now and then, but not as often as some would like to see.
I think we have similar ideas, but I looked at things while taking this context into consideration. You may or may not agree or see my point, which is fine, but I just wanted to give you a response and hopefully clear things up a bit more. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Only a certain a certain type of people in the gaming community will respond negatively to the aspects of the character's personalities and relationships that are pointed out in the article. For the most part, they're gamers who aren't interested in Final Fantasy or Japanese games anyway. That's basically going to be some of the FPS community who's bread and butter are games like CoD, Gears, Halo, etc. People like us are used to this type of cast in games because JRPGs have featured characters with these same personality traits for forever now. I realize that she did point out that this isn't an overly new thing in the article and that it's basically being spotlighted because FFXV is bigger JRPG, but it still simply comes down to different types of people. I don't think that FFXV is going to change many of "those" types of people's minds; Firstly because they probably won't buy the game to begin with and secondly because those people are who they are and if anything changes them it probably won't be a videogame. I agree with what XvoltaireX said, "bromance" is nothing new in real life or in games. All of my real-life friends are like this, and any guy that I met in real life who had something negative to say about it, well, I would immediately classify them as some overly macho douchebag.
The article was well written for sure, and I thought it was interesting to read, but I think the author is placing too much importance on the general opinion of gamers who don't really make for any of the Final Fantasy or JRPG fanbase and, quite frankly, who's opinions aren't worth shit anyway.
Hi Zero! Thank you for reading and commenting.
It is only a certain part of the gaming community, but it is a big one. The gaming community has some nice counter-examples to traditions, especially with the ever-increasing indie scene, but it is still predominantly white/male/cisgender/straight, etc with those titles that you have listed as some of the titles with the most revenue and sales. My target audience wasn't just the people who play Final Fantasy; I know people who grow up playing games with wonderfully written leading ladies and men like Tidus and all sorts of awesome things are probably a bit more generally progressive.
If anything, the general Final Fantasy community probably wasn't my intended audience at all. My main audience intended for this article was the general gaming community, as the gaming community as a whole is accepting of very specific and narrow definitions of gender. I know we're used to seeing these types of things explored because Final Fantasy has always been pretty progressive for the most part; it's the overall gaming community and culture that isn't as a whole.
Perhaps you're right; it's unlikely that this will directly change the minds of most people who play it, and most people who have this mindset might not even have much of an interest in the game. But the more these types of things are portrayed, the more open people will generally become over time, and it might influence some developers to be more open and accepting to this type of thing. Maybe some will start to think something like, "Hey. This game did this really well, and this is clearly something a lot of the fans really enjoyed. Why not do this with one or two men in our game?"
People who consume said game might become more open to the idea, etc.
Phew, super long post, sorry! But thank you for joining the conversation despite whether you agree much or not. Again, I think conversations are great things to have as long as they're respectful.
This article was written in order to contribute in improving this type of situation until society upholds what both of us believe in..
And a big ol' thank you to my friend Dissasterrific for really summarizing my thoughts accurately in their replies, as well as adding new perspectives to the conversation. This was definitely my intention. I think we all want to see what is happening in XV as upheld in society as a normal thing regardless of what the genders of the people involved are; sadly, we're just not there yet.
