It's odd that the sever issues are factored into the review score. Why didn't they do that with Diablo3, or Diablo2, or any MMO ever? I realize the game is broken, but that's just bad managment, doesn't really have anything to do with the core design. Btw, I think EA is retarded.
I appreciate that this article was written at all. I'll listen to any point of view. However, to me, this one feels just a touch hypocritical.
On the one hand, this piece attempts to criticize characters and the plot lines for buckling under the pressures of social expectations and traditional gender roles, while at the same time stating that only the subject itself can define it's own gender. The problem with this, I feel, is that the subject would need to already have concrete definitions of what it is to be a man or woman planted firmly in place.
Physically, the differences between the average man and woman are obvious, psychologically however, the differences are complex puzzles that have been baffling entire fields of medicine and psychology since the beginning of time, and whose recent discoveries continue to blur the line more and more.
Therefore, it is my belief that if one endeavors to define one self as only a gender, they have already fallen prey to some kind social expectation. I think Naoto probably had it right when saying, "What I must strive for isn't to become a man (or a woman). It's to accept myself for who I really am."
CageFury's comments