It's already been established ad nauseum that the author is ignorant of Japanese culture's personal take on gender identity and homosexuality. And their culture is certainly not beholden to Western subcultures. Neither he nor you have any cause to claim a "phobia" of any kind pervades their media when he's the one who didn't do his research. Pushing his own ideas onto the developers is certainly activism, and as such that's not really a discussion. It strikes as rather authoritarian really.
There's nothing about this article that's common sense. It's just a soap box. And your ad hominem kneejerks don't help his case.
I'm sure that's what you choose to focus on. It makes it easier to ignore the fact that people choose to measure success according to a level of controversy when the product doesn't have enough inherent value to be successful either financially or ratings-wise.
Not that I'm saying that's the case with Persona 4. But you do the game no favors when you say its success is derived from the arguments that surround it--nor do you help the author's case for that matter.
"when it comes to games I consider games that manage to achieve that mixed reaction a success. They managed to provoke people's thoughts beyond the device that the game is being played on and make a lasting impression."
I notice that this particular cop out is dusted off whenever a game gets controversial. I still recall when Ken Levine told me he was a happy man when I pointed out exactly how he chose to misinterpret Ayn Rand.
A lot of media has had lasting success over the years without having arguments over whether or not said media hit the mark in its interpretation of certain issues or history in general.
Apparently all I have to do to make a "successful" game/movie/book is make sure it's in the news.
No one's quibbling with his opinion, but rather the fact that he's passing it off as though it's a fact that's written in stone and should be preached to the masses--as though Japanese culture should conform to his idea of what constitutes a crises of sexual identity or an attraction to the same sex.
Then again, if the author's goal is to have every game used as a soap box for his own opinions, then tolerating this article would be "feeding the beast" as it were.
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