That’s awesome.
I dunno, I kind of like the game. I probably won’t buy it, since I prefer 80+ hour RPGs, but if someone gave it to me (hint, hint) I’d certainly play it!
Darn you!
Sorry. You’re the OP, but that doesn’t mean you get to steer the thread.
There are a variety of game modes. A standard game is 16 vs. 16 capture the flag where each side is trying to rescue their princess from the other castle. If you don’t feed the princess regularly she gets lighter and her rescuers can run faster while carrying her.
You can also play straight on combat games where the goal is just slaughter the other side. Plus some other multiplayer modes that haven’t been locked down yet. You can also have AI players so you can play a single-player game or a multiplayer game with less than 32 players.
There are five different character classes and the gameplay is designed to encourage teamwork. For example, a team of a priest, a warrior, and an archer that work together is much more effective than three players working alone.
There’s also a strategic element involving gathering resources and improving your castle. You have to balance the time you spend killing the enemy with the time you spend builidng up your defenses.
Pochacco, I am giggling my head off at the very thought of my enemies trying to carry off my 400 pound [del]behemoth[/del] Princess over their heads.
I do like “build 'em” games such as Warcraft (before it got morphed into the monstrosity that is World of Warcraft) and Age of Empires.
Your game sounds like an adorable twist.
Enrichment Center regulations require both hands to be empty before any cake is served. Simply assume the “Party Escort Submission Position” and a party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party.
mmmm, fish-shaped ethyl benzene…
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip]
[li]The word “heternormative,” which I’ve never heard before, but whose application to this videogame I’m at a loss to understand (they’re pissed because the Fat Princess, in addition to being obese, isn’t a lesbian/transsexual?)[/li][/QUOTE]
In this context heteronormative means “assuming typical straight sexual views are the only normal or acceptable ones.”
So help me, I thought “fat-hating heteronormative assholes” was funny. I think it’s the shift from plain English to a sociology term to a good old-fashion angry curse word.
But based on what I’m reading here, I think the feminists are in the wrong on this one.
If nothing else, I learned from this thread that Ana is a gamer. Cool. I am the fan of the 80+ RPGs myself.
I think the game looks cute. I am not sure how I feel about the fatness angle. Is it derogatory to fat people? Maybe. I’d have to play the game.
But what I definitely don’t get is why certain feminists are outraged and not just people in general. That fact that she’s female seems rather irrelevant in the context of the game. It’s not a game that’s derogatory to women, per se. Her femaleness seems to be only a natural consequence of being The Princess. And I’m not offended by her needing to be rescued, either. She’s a princess. Princesses get rescued. I don’t interpret that to imply that all women need to be rescued. It’s fantasy.
Just my 2c.
I didn’t know people didn’t know! Yes, everybody, I am a female gamer, and I love video games. I have three game systems at home, and no, they are not just my SO’s, we share them. Well, the PS2 is really mine. As is the Gamecube. So I guess we share the XBox. I am the big console gamer; he prefers PC games.
I still don’t understand why it’s derogatory, though.
Is it insulting to fat people:
- Is merely being fat insulting? Some of us are fat, yes. So if someone points it out - not in a mean sense, just “she’s fat and happy” what the heck is wrong with that? Are we not supposed to notice? This is akin to commenting on a black person and doing everything we can to avoid saying “black”.
- Is the fact that being fat makes it harder for people to lift you and carry you off insulting? That’s a true fact.
- Is the fact of stuffing her face insulting? But from what I can tell, she WANTS to eat. It’s not as though you’re forcing her, right?
Ok, so is it insulting to women?
Like it or not, in our culture, it’s always been the Princesses who have needed rescuing, not the Princes. So ok, maybe that’s sexist, but until only a few dozen years ago, that’s the way it was. Not just rescuing from a monster either. Today if a man says something insuting I can respond. If he touches me inappropriately I can hit him. Even 40 or 50 years ago that was considered “unladylike”.
This is just a riff on all of those “Save the Princess” games. I have a hard time seeing how it’s sexist on its own. Seems to me the Fat Princess is…basically a plot device.
Seriously, what’s your beef against puns? Ok, I’ll quit being a jerky.
Yep, I pretty much agree with you completely. Fat can be descriptive or it can be insulting depending on the context. It’s kind of hard to tell here.
I’m not particularly offended by it – though I’m neither an overweight woman nor a feminist – but I do have trouble figuring out how someone – multiple someones, in fact – thought this was a good idea. To me, it does have a whiff of [del]cake[/del] mockery and stereotyping, but it’s a bit hypocritical.
A) The main character is a human female
B) Who is fat
C) And generally wins the game by scarfing cake to make themselves so fat that they can’t easily be hauled off by the opposing team.
Substitute A) with, say, a cat, or a dinosaur, or Bill O’Reilly, and I guarantee the controversy would go away even though the putative object of rage (obesity) is still there, because it’s not obesity they’re pissed about. It’s the depiction of obese women, and probably the perpetuation of the stereotype that fat women are fat because they eat lots of cake (or rather, unhealthy food in general). I’d bet they wouldn’t put up such a stink if it was called “Fat Prince” either.
Now I want a piece of cake.
I would find it mean and hurtful if it was the opposite…i.e., she had to lose weight to some obnoxious number in order to _____.
I don’t know, simply being fat and eating a lot doesn’t ping my offensiveness meter much.
Oh yeah - Bill O Reilly???
Amazingly, outcry over this is weirder than those people who thought WALL-E was about how fat people are destroying the world. This game is just silly, and seems to just be making fun of the typical “go rescue the princess” quest that’s already existed in about a million other stories, movies, and games. I fourth or fifth the idea that really, I’ve got more important stuff to worry about.
(What might be degrading is if had to keep her from eating tons of cake in the dungeon so she wouldn’t disgust some would-be rescuers, or if you had to primp her up and give her plastic surgery and teach her how to give blowjobs so the most handsome prince would rescue her.)
On preview, Anaamika beat me to it. ^^
PIMP MY SISTER!
(robot chicken episode)
Missed the edit window:
The name Fat Princess gives me the giggles. It’s so innocent and blunt. Kudos to the person who picked it.
“What are you playing?”
“Fat Princess.”
“What’s it about?”
“A fat princess.”
“Oh.”
Also, to clarify: Fat is just an adjective here, not a value judgment. It’s insulting when people use it as a metric of someone’s moral character, etc, that isn’t directly related to being fat. That a fat princess is going to be heavier than a thin princess is just a fact. Using that fact in a game without adding any other value judgments onto “fat” or “thin” is whimsical, not insulting.
Also, I need to start recording Robot Chicken again.
Never! I will not be cowed!
Yeah… still not really seeing how the theme of this game evinces any sexual view whatsoever. Maybe there’s a level where you earn points by bashing gay elves with a golden hammer? (Pochacco?)
Incidentally, I hope you weren’t offended by my “throwaway Flash creation” remark. The screenshot graphics in that article—which of course don’t provide much hint as to gameplay—look pretty cartoonish, and not what one would expect from a new PS3 game.
I dunno, I don’t have a PS3 but this game makes me wish someone ports it to PC. It looks cute.
I’ll ask my wife, the angriest feminist I know, if it’s offensive. I’m already sure she won’t say it’s heteronormative simply because the rescuers can also be female, but I bet she’d like a randomized prince or princess as the “flag” instead of just a princess, if nothing else to break the cliche.
Throwaway response: Vinyl, I’d imagine that there would be things like view distance and simultaneous objects-on-screen–cartoony can still be technically demanding, after all, especially in a 32-player multiplayer scenario where the server is potentially also dealing with bot AI.
Uh … no. Not unless the developer has been hiding things from me … .
It’s a deliberate design choice. Things get pretty chaotic with 32 characters on the screen and simple graphics are easier to read. Plus we liked the cute + bloody vibe.