Brianna Wu / John Flynt - Original Thread

[FatNero]

DIVERSITY!

[MEDIA=twitter]623665916333674496[/MEDIA]
Someone wanna report him?

[MEDIA=twitter]623665214580506624[/MEDIA]

What only white cis people are fat? What a bunch of fatphobic racist bullshit. Where's the fat POC?

This is some class A sickening privilege and you should be ashamed of yourself for supporting it Brianna. Fucking Shamed.

 

[zedkissed60]

John is a powerful advocate for racial justice, particularly when he's yelling "sand n****r!" at professors.

 

[Cubanodun]

Really?

[MEDIA=twitter]623665214580506624[/MEDIA]

very curious that the comic uses the same color pattern as some of the characters from refail 60 i dont know if the original looked like that but i can see why he is sperging about it , sadly my american pop culture is lacking i dont know what the misfits is, time to do some arcane studies

Innuendo Studios is the idiot who made a video series white knighting Anita Sarkessian, for those who haven't seen it.



How Brianna gets allies, he shamelessly shills for them

"My circles" pfffffffftt

 

[Rin]

very curious that the comic uses the same color pattern as some of the characters from refail 60 i dont know if the original looked like that but i can see why he is sperging about it , sadly my american pop culture is lacking i dont know what the misfits is, time to do some arcane studies

It's from Jem. Based on Brianna's age, it's possible that the original influenced her to some degree.

 

[Cubanodun]

It's from Jem. Based on Brianna's age, it's possible that the original influenced her to some degree.

"The animation for most of the episodes was provided by the Japanese animation studio Toei Doga (Toei Animation)."

TIME FOR TORRENTS AND DO BAD JOKES ABOUT HOW IS BETTER THAN PRECURE thanks m8

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

Blond in the middle there is smuggling a juvenile beluga in her jeans.

Yikes!

When Jonny made a self-insert character he didn't hold back but made it true to life.

 

[Jaimas]

Should someone inform Wu that cultural change does not happen in the blink of an eye?

There are several different factors to how and why events occur and, while there is police brutality and racial discrimination still, there are very few events that are clearly black and white. For every Travyon Martin, there's about five different stories of "black oppression" that conveniently leave out the part where, you know, they had fucking guns.

But you know, boil down the narrative into "police are evil and the gallant SJWs are here to save the day by typing on a fucking keyboard." MLK would tell this bitch to shut it unless she was gonna do something more substantial than a 140 character pity tweet.

So, here's something that's always kinda bugged me. For all of Wu's talk of female empowerment and how she dislikes women being portrayed as shit in video games, her designs are... kinda fetishized and, well, fucking sexist. I mean:

1) Long hair is actually impractical for combat situations, since it's something that can easily be grabbed and, you know, exploited. Usually averted with "rule of cool" but... ummmm... JUST LOOK AT SOME OF THAT SHIT. How much hair gel is needed to keep some of that stuff up?

2) All of her characters, with their thin bodies and weird proportions, look like they all suffer from anorexia. If you twisted one of their arms it looks like it would pop out of the socket.

3) Skintight jumpsuits are horrible in ANY situation. They don't breathe well so they get hot as fuck and their very idea limits free-flowing mobility, so you are fucked beyond belief if you're trying to avoid getting hit or something. This might also just be me, but it looks kinda like latex from my perspective and I think latex also has a tendency of fucking squeaking.

4) What the fuck is that makeup?

I guess the argument is that you want to make some kind of pro-feminist design that at the same time shows that the character is still female and exhibits feminine traits, but uhhhhh...

Spoiler: That shit ain't hard, ze~.

Actually, that's one area I'll differ from a lot of other critics when it comes to Revolution 60 - that I won't go after the game for its character designs. Instead, I'm going to use them fucking mercilessly. To quote a passage from the article:

The graphics of Revolution 60 are sharp and colorful, making use of the Unreal 3 engine. The character models are extremely stylized, and clearly done to embrace a sense of 1960s sci-fi kitsch, harkening back to old space serials with silvered outfits and references to weird science. A number of these are easily apparent (Minuette's bio-mods for example). Many modern games use similarly unique styles to achieve a level of identity all their own, and in this fashion, Revolution 60 does have its merits; a unique look all its own, with the characters having both extremely expressive and stylish designs. Games like No More Heroes, Team Fortress 2, and Dragon's Crown similarly use stylized character designs in order to give their games and world a unique feel, so the designs, which have been criticized by some, are in good company here.

I do this for several reasons. One, I feel anyone making games has free reign to make their protagonists however the fuck they want, but more importantly, to get across a critical point: That there's nothing wrong with this. By forcing this issue out of the limelight and pointing at it being a stylistic point, it essentially forces Revolution 60 to run interference for other games with stylized character designs. Wanna go after Dragon's Crown some more? What about No More Heroes or Catherine? Why do you hate stylization, bra? It was fine when Revolution 60 did it.

By linking it this way, it makes it almost impossible for Wu's allies to go after other games, since - hey - we defended it just as hard when Wu did it.

And I mean what I said here: I don't really see anything wrong with the character designs. Are they unrealistic? Absolutely. Are the models too lanky? Definitely. That doesn't mean they're devoid of artistic merit: Wu designed them to be equal parts 60s sci-fi and references to things she liked (Sailor Moon, et al), and there is a few upsides to this char design, all things equal - it makes the characters surprisingly emotive when they make expressions, which is genuinely a good thing in a narrative game like Revolution 60, and makes several of the character models genuinely entertaining to watch, which sort of surprised me.

Worry not, though - I call the graphics to task even when I defend these character designs:

Unfortunately, whilst it has a unique style and look all its own, Revolution 60's other visual aspects are far from great. The game features incredibly poor use of lighting effects, to the point that often the only shading going on is used to establish character and environment shadows. Whether this was a stylistic choice (such as trying to make the game maintain cartoonish visuals or a cel-shaded look) or one done due to limitations of those working on it is unclear, but it makes the characters look jarring and awkward in some of the environments, especially darker and more industrial ones.

The environments are colorful and bright, with interesting use of assets - at first. As the game progresses, more and more of the battlegrounds and environments look painfully similar, until you get to the point where almost every battle takes place in frighteningly similar environments, putting the initially-solid environment design to waste in short order and further getting across how disjointed the character models are in the world they're in.

Character models in Revolution 60 tend to be extremely simple and re-use of character assets is painfully frequent (many of the characters use the same overall mesh, with different textures and add-ons for each character model, periodically with a scale change). A number of enemies late game shamelessly use the same character model as one of the protagonists. Character animations tend to be extremely twitchy, mostly due to the lanky nature of the character models and unpredictable framerate, which makes the character movements seem janky and off-kilter. This is augmented by the game's almost-complete-lack of trailing effects (see below). Many weapon models used by various characters appear to be modified versions of stock Unreal Engine weapon assets, such as the rifles and miniguns used by Fifth Column.

The framerate is incredibly unstable, especially when action gets heated. Any time the character must interact with a scene with any real number of particle effects, the framerate gets worse in a hurry. This is especially notable in the introductory cutscenes, where Holiday attacking the Fifth Column fighter causes such a drop in performance that it causes the audio to desynchronize. This level of loss in performance is a baffling development to those familiar with other games made using Unreal 3, as Giant Spacekat Studios released this game for what is, in essence, a static console on IOS. Some performance loss in some situations isn't unheard of in modern games, but in a game as focused on visuals as Revolution 60 is, this is an area where the game suffers.

In direct relation to the above, particle effects in Revolution 60 are exceedingly poor. Many graphic effects, including explosions, smoke, fire, and steam effects are extremely lackluster and are either too thin or too heavy, resulting in grenade blasts that look exceptionally weak and gunfire effects that lack impact. Muzzle flash effects lack any style or effect whatsoever, and almost all enemy weapons fire projectiles that look, essentially, the same. Enemy projectiles are occasionally desynchronized for their hitboxes, resulting in dodged attacks striking you anyway or attacks that appeared to hit missing entirely. On the rare occasion that new enemy weapons show up (such as when Dark Leopards begin appearing), the new graphic effects (such as their lasers) are notably even worse, resembling nothing so much as animated overlay to represent the laser effect with an extremely minimalist particle effect for the discharge. This is a design tactic that was outdated almost a decade ago, and is exceedingly jarring when first seen because the effect is directly at odds with the quality of the rest of the game's visuals, making them look incoherent and disorganized.

A major issue that the game has is that no use of trailing effects is used in the game at all. For the uninitiated, trailing effects are effects in which a particle trail or after-image is used to accompany in-game motions to make them seem more fluid and visually appealing - most commonly a "trail" following a sword slash or a bolt of energy being followed by a soft glow to indicate its direction and momentum more clearly. Revolution 60 has virtually none of these. Indeed, the only things resembling trailing effects in Revolution 60's IOS release is smoke and thruster effects, which are simple particle and overlay effects.

The vehicles and in-game props are simultaneously very complex - and extremely simple. Many of them are ridiculously elaborate, with a lot of care and effort put into them, but they are completely out-of-place with the world they're set in. Holiday's motorcycle, the Hyperion, is an especially notable example, featuring extensive use of gold coloration and embellishment for what should, by all accounts, be a Chessboard fast-attack vehicle. Most Fifth Column weapons and vehicles feature a profusion of blades, spikes, and similar adornments, seemingly for no reason. Almost no object model in the game features moving parts, with the Hyperion's wheels being visibly stationary during cutscenes and the miniguns of the Plague leopards being completely stationary outside the same.

The biggest problem with the visuals of Revolution 60 is not merely the above mentioned technological shortcomings, though they are noteworthy, but, equally due to the schizophrenic design of the game's assets. Whilst much of the game seems to want to call homage to the aforementioned 60s sci-fi cliches, the bulk of the plot takes itself extremely seriously, portraying a dystopian future and featuring a dark plot. These two objectives are directly at odds, and the game's assets reflect this, essentially being unable to choose a consistent tone. Characters like Minuette wear checkerboard dresses and feature deely bobbers as part of a communications implant, whilst their opposition features countless identically cloned mercenaries and assault rifles that look suspiciously like the default AK-47s used in the Unreal Engine asset packages. These bizarre combinations of questionable design choices, atop the above mentioned issues with Revolution 60's visuals, drag down the game's appeal, and whether the results of intentional design choices or problems in development, they are notable strikes against the game as a result.

These issues are why many critics have chastised Revolution 60s visuals as being shockingly lackluster, in spite of several good design decisions, since the game was released in 2014 but has graphics that are notably behind-the-times and significantly poorer than games that came out years previous. Many games, launched by much smaller groups with much less capital behind them, show substantially better visuals than Revolution 60 was, further adding compounding complaints about the game's visuals.

 

[vertexwindi]

I hope the Steam port comes quickly. I need to have those models for my top secret project: Revolution 69.

 

[GleamingTheQ-Bert]

Bravo, Jaimas.

You've made me entirely rethink the sexist attack on Wu's character designs. It's obvious you've put thought into this, and I think it's the right way to go.

The only addition I would make to the subject of designs is that, for all the obvious stylization, Wu seems to only have this one way of drawing. I mean, it's likely the 60s kitsch was intentional, along with the Sailor Moon callbacks, but....

Everything Wu does (or Frank fixes for her) looks this way, essentially. Election Eve, the female KKKs attacking Terminator Luther King, the Astonishing Tales "spoof".

Either Wu's tastes are arrested at this specific style for some reason, (perhaps the connection of 60s female hypersexualization to the tranny tendency towards "uber-woman" exagerration? not sure) or, and I think this is likely, she's excusing an egregious lack of talent with claims of stylization.

perhaps a bit of both? Excellent analysis in any case.

 

[Henry Bemis]

excusing an egregious lack of talent with claims of stylization.

Not an uncommon tactic among creatively inclined lolcows.

 

[Cubanodun]

And I mean what I said here: I don't really see anything wrong with the character designs. Are they unrealistic? Absolutely. Are the models too lanky? Definitely. That doesn't mean they're devoid of artistic merit: Wu designed them to be equal parts 60s sci-fi and references to things she liked

in his word he says R60 is "anime styled", still trigger me everytime i read it

 

[Cynical]

Translation: Only that which I wished to answer:


Brianna Wu cherry picking for sympathy


Behold the Dunning-Kruger:

http://interviews.slashdot.org/story/15/07/22/1317222/interviews-brianna-wu-answers-your-questions

 

[iceman2kuk]

Loving how Wu avoids answering the (perfectly reasonable) question about coding languages. Especially when "I know X/Y/Z" would be all that needs to be said. Instead its "Waa waa no-one believes I can code because I've never given anyone a reason to!!"

 

[NeetBoy]

http://interviews.slashdot.org/story/15/07/22/1317222/interviews-brianna-wu-answers-your-questions

I am a "neutral" in the Gamergate debacle, preferring to observe more than directly interact

First of all, if you are “neutral” on the horrific abuse many women have suffered at the hands of Gamergate, you are a part of the problem. Being able to lean back in a chair and talk about Gamergate as if it’s a fun controversy isn’t a privilege I have, and it’s not a privilege women in the game industry have. This is about being able to continue working in the field I love.

Being neutral about threats to murder, rape and intimidate women with opinions is a character defect.

God damnit, Brianna...

 

[GleamingTheQ-Bert]

God damnit, Brianna...

There you go. As if we needed more proof, The Giant Spayed Kat just proved that anything less than bowing and scraping at the feet of anti-GG will necessitate open hostility and slander.

Does anyone else see her response as baiting? We all know Wu loves her "righteous" victimhood, and this kind of preemptive strike seems to be begging for the sort of angry defensive reponse the SJWs would term harassment.

She has this victimology down to a science.

 

[zedkissed60]

One of the biggest misconceptions about me is that, professionally, I was unknown before Gamergate.

Yes, John, you were hugely famous before you and Frank decided to cut the ethical cord by faking dox and death threats against yourself for publicity.

You had 2,875 followers a year ago. Truly a massive following.

 

[autism420]

I still want to know how the fuck Wu got Geth banned from Twitter. I demand answers.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

There you go. As if we needed more proof, The Giant Spayed Kat just proved that anything less than bowing and scraping at the feet of anti-GG will necessitate open hostility and slander.

Does anyone else see her response as baiting? We all know Wu loves her "righteous" victimhood, and this kind of preemptive strike seems to be begging for the sort of angry defensive reponse the SJWs would term harassment.

She has this victimology down to a science.

Brianna has been hankering for some victim points all month. She's tard raged, she's blown things out of proportion, she throws out loaded statements left and right, and there's the whole response to Geth's criticisms earlier this week. Problem is that nothing has even come close to providing her a real incident she can milk for hipster welfare and publicity. She's going to do something real stupid soon, I can feel it.

 

[Cynical]

I still want to know how the fuck Wu got Geth banned from Twitter. I demand answers.

I suggest demanding Twitter cough them up.

We already saw piling the shame on Gawker had results, maybe sending Twitter tons of reports on how he got railroaded by Wu and his cronies could help.

 

[GleamingTheQ-Bert]

I suggest demanding Twitter cough them up.

We already saw piling the shame on Gawker had results, maybe sending Twitter tons of reports on how he got railroaded by Wu and his cronies could help.

What could they give as an excuse?

Implied tone? The mere suggestion of transexuality?

He was so careful to extreme gentleman, I can almost see them remaining mum rather than parsing the veeeery subjective idea of his "tone".