Microsoft is vowing to take action against the “objectification” of fictional female characters in gaming under the pretext of its “Gaming for Everyone” Inclusion Framework.
As the gaming industry increasingly prioritizes ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investment over raw customer sales, many major game developer and publisher are emphasizing inclusivity and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives.
This often involves reducing the femininity of female characters in video games, giving them a more masculine or androgynous appearance. Microsoft, one of the largest companies in the video game landscape, is now encouraging developers to avoid creating female characters with “exaggerated body proportions.”
Because of course, games need to be more inclusive, they need to feature characters that better represent marginalized groups, races and sexualities while at the same time in the current year men can apparently be considered women and vise versa, it’s considered derogatory and misogynistic to portray fictional women as being feminine.
So it comes as no surprise that video games developed by ugly and resentful women bastardize their product and erase femininity as a whole because attractive women apparently do not exist.
Despite the controversy surrounding it, “Stellar Blade” has garnered significant attention, both in terms of criticism and praise. This is largely due to the fact that the South Korean studio behind the game, SHIFT UP, boldly portrays its main protagonist as a real woman, and an attractive one at that.
As Alex Battaglia from Digital Foundry asserted, the depiction of attractive women in video games belongs to a “bygone era.” He argues that video games should strive for “realism.”
Unlike some Western developers who argue that depicting women in games as being feminine / attractive is “unrealistic,” SHIFT UP chose to base their main protagonist on a real-life model, further highlighting the fact that it’s possible for game developers to accurately scan models and cast their actual likeness into a video game without the end result being an overly masculine ugly she hulk.
It’s not shocking that a corporate giant like Microsoft is taking a stand on the portrayal of fictional characters’ bodies in gaming, evident in their “Product Inclusion Action” guidelines for game developers.
Over the past decade, the XBOX brand has experienced a decline, while its main competitor, Sony, has implemented mild censorship policies for games developed in Japan throughout the PlayStation 4’s lifespan.
Microsoft itself has been aggressively advocating for similar censorship measures, as evidenced by the canceled release of GalGun Returns for the XBOX ONE system. Inti Creates, the developers, opted out of releasing the game on Sony consoles due to their Western-centric policies against fanservice, instead prioritizing a release for the Nintendo Switch, PC, and XBOX ONE.
However, it appears that the XBOX version was canceled by Inti Creates because Microsoft would not permit the game to be released in its original form. Rather than compromising their vision by releasing a censored product, Inti Creates chose to release the game on platforms that allowed them to preserve their artistic vision, namely PC and Nintendo’s handheld console and scrapped any plans to release the game on XBOX.
Microsoft’s guidance aims to assist game developers in “making customers feel acknowledged” through inclusive actions, drawing from surveys and studies that may be biased and flawed.
For instance, Microsoft references the New Zoo DEI study regarding the percentage of consumers who actively avoid playing games that don’t cater to them. It’s worth noting that New Zoo previously conducted a survey on behalf of the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) regarding harassment.
Stating that 23% of gamers have encountered extremist ideology and indicating that a substantial 12% have fallen victim to “swatting,” with 17% experiencing doxxing, implies that millions of PC gamers alone have faced such issues if the numbers were remotely accurate. However, this seems laughably unrealistic.
Microsoft also references the Geena Davis survey, which focuses on the issue of violence in video games. One of their findings within their “The Double-Edged Sword of Online Gaming: An Analysis of Masculinity in Video Games and the Gaming Community,” hit piece involves examining Twitch for occurrences of the supposed ableist slur of the word “crazy.”
In addition to making outlandish claims about the depiction of female characters in video games, suggesting that it not only perpetuates sexism but also fosters it by asserting that boys who play video games extensively are less likely to empathize with women in real life, potentially harboring animosity towards the opposite sex.
Instead of prioritizing fun and enjoyment in video games, Microsoft appears to be more focused on promoting progressive narratives by relying on biased and flawed studies and surveys to advise developers and potentially influence their game design decisions.
This includes considerations such as the percentage of screen time allocated to diverse genders and races in video games, which is yet another issue that Geena Davis has mentioned previously.
Microsoft prioritizes pushing agendas over profit, mirroring Sony’s PlayStation division, which is also experiencing significant declines and resulting in widespread layoffs globally.
XBOX Game Studios relies heavily on ESG funding, as evidenced by the controversial announcement for Fable featuring one of the most hideous game protagonists of all time . It’s worth noting that Microsoft is a major client of Sweet Baby Inc, the notorious bureau of DEI pushers and anti-White racist activists.
This situation showcases the hypocrisy of Microsoft. They recently appointed Sarah Bond, a black woman, as head of the XBOX brand. However, they paradoxically promote the notion that it’s acceptable only to be gay.
This is evident in their promotion of exaggerated male character traits, as demonstrated by the official XBOX Twitter account responding to Dragon’s Dogma 2. The game’s post, proclaiming “Rated M for MORE,” was accompanied by in-game footage highlighting the ability to customize and enlarge a male character’s ass.
Many Western game developers are averse to depicting women as being attractive in their games as the entire console industry is focused entirely upon LGBTQ+ representation and political pandering rather than actually producing quality first-party products that generate excitement and profit and now they’re pushing their own agenda upon others with their “Product Inclusion Action” initiative.
