lilbuddhaman wrote:It is one thing to challenge a child, another to throw something at them that has so many adult + obscure themes all together with no explanation or context.
Isn't that why you're there, as the parent? To guide and explain? You know, "challenge" doesn't have to be merely "game difficulty".
Challenging can also refer to emotionally, morally, or intellectually challenging (whereas games are usually just challenging in terms of execution; that is, hand-eye coordination and reflexes, or to put it another way, physically challenging.)
Interestingly, in my experience, kids tend to have no qualms at all about doing horrible things to virtual characters and usually seem to take quite the glee in doing so. Food for thought.
lilbuddhaman wrote:I won't go any further though because when I see someone with your choice of language and excessive use of ascii characters, I only see downhill discussion, disguised as "But i'm just trying to be civil, why aren't you..."
Well, frankly, it seems to me like you're the one trying to tease out that response. Making discriminatory remarks based on the way I post and then using said remarks as a basis for discarding my entire point of view is pretty inflammatory. Not that I really care; nobody ever sees eye-to-eye with me on anything, really. Maybe because I'm short. ┐(´∀`)┌ヤレヤレ
lilbuddhaman wrote:tldr: Dark Souls isn't for kids.
It's really exactly this kind of viewpoint that I'm railing against. There's just no reason
Dark Souls can't be for kids, even little girls. It's a little violent, sure, but there's no point sheltering kids from it in any case anyway (I personally think a little more violence at an early age would help kids understand the cruel reality of the world so they don't become disconnected from it and start railing on about animal rights for food animals.) There are almost no sexual themes at all, and the language is downright clean, by modern standards. Boys will enjoy the hack-and-slash aspects of the game and the "conquering father" aspect might cause them to take a step back and think about life. Specific to my feminist viewpoint, a female player character can be built in all the same ways as a male player character, which I think is a good message, as is the more subtle message that the game implies:
"most people aren't very pretty, and that has nothing to do with how capable you are" -- a very sharp contrast from the way the rest of society informs girls' perceptions of themselves. (」゜ロ゜)」
To digress a bit,
you see it all the time, in games; look at World of Warcraft for the perfect example. The sexual dimorphism in the races in that game is astounding; the male
Draenei are gigantic bulks of muscle, and the female
Draenei are svelte, slender beauties suited for any catwalk. The male
Trolls are massive, hunched-over beastly creatures, and the female
Trolls are curvaceous human women with two toes and tusks. Even the
Worgen, bestial wolf-people, aren't exempt from this bizarre dimorphism: the males are hulking brutes, and the girls are, well,
prime furry fantasy material.(ノ´д`)
I realize sex sells and the majority of players are male -- I also realize that, sadly, most female players would rather be pretty than realistic -- but it frustrates me that such a big company with such impact like Blizzard didn't take the chance to stand up and do something different,
because they might have made a difference, if not in the market or society as a whole, at least in the minds of a few young girls who are
not pretty and feel worthless because of it. The female players feel that way
("would rather be pretty than realistic") because our society teaches that being beautiful is more important than being capable; after all, the point of a woman's life is to simply snare a successful man, right? щ(゜ロ゜щ) Women are judged solely on the basis of appearance in many areas that don't make any sense at all; I've felt this pressure myself despite usually being outside the typical bounds of society for personal reasons I shan't discuss here. After all, I'm decidedly not looking to attract anyone, and yet I still buy cosmetics, and wouldn't dream of going to work without my 'face' on. 「(°ヘ°)
It's easy to say
"That's just how our society is..." and hang up your hat and go home. This is what most people do; hell, it's what I've done most of the time. One person can't change anything, right? ( ̄~ ̄;)
Well, I don't think that means we should stop trying.