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I am now 100% recovered from my stomach flu. So I’m now finally able to work like I did before I got sick, and with that said. I’m starting off by taking a swing at Waypoints nonsense post about Atlus and “Catherine: Full Body”, and it’s called “Atlus, We Haven’t Forgotten Your Mishandling of LGBTQ Characters” (Waypoint published that post on the 24th of December, and it was written by Carol Grant). In a way, I guess that you could say that Waypoint took over from where Kotaku and Polygon left us with their “Catherine: Full Body” posts.

Any ways, so what’s so “bad” about that one article by Waypoint then? Well, for starter, the whole post is nothing less than one big Atlus hit piece. You don’t even have to take my word for it either, just check out the very beginning of Waypoint’s post:

Headline:

“Atlus, We Haven’t Forgotten Your Mishandling of LGBTQ Characters”

Intro:

“Atlus has a history of mishandling LGBTQ characters. The new ‘Catherine: Full Body’ trailer doesn’t inspire hope for a course correction.”

“Content-warning: transphobia, and graphic descriptions of transphobic violence”

Furthermore, Waypoint pushes the same exact fabricated outcry and controversy as Kotaku and Polygon did with their recent posts about “Catherine: Full Body”. However, I would say that Waypoint has managed to top both Polygon and Kotaku with ease. As Waypoint went even further with their transphobia and LGBTQ rant against Atlus:

“There are two defining images in the reveal of Catherine: Full Body’s newest character, Rin. The first is in the trailer, which ends with protagonist Vincent waking up next to a naked Rin and getting a good look below her waist, eyes going wide with terror as he lets out a horrified wail. The second image is in a poster with Rin lifting her skirt to show us her genitals, which are obscured in shadow while Vincent’s traumatized eyes stand right in front of them. Ads with the other Catherine girls also covered their genitals for titillation. Rin’s ad is not titillation. The framing, the contrast of colors, Vincent’s eyes, all convey a specific visual language of dread, of an unspeakable horror hiding in plain sight, a monstrosity in the guise of a girl.”

“This is perhaps the most commonly used transphobic trope in media: the deceptive trans woman, tricking hapless heterosexual men into having sex with them. It’s a lazy, regressive device on its own; but with Catherine’s developer Atlus, it comes with a storied history of degrading their trans and queer characters.”

The last part is extra interesting, because just like I pointed out in my post about Polygon and Kotaku, we do not know for a fact if Rin is trans character or whatever. I mean, Rin could be an angel for all we know. That’s also why I thought that Eliza Yuriko (said professor and Game designer in training) made some really good points on the said matter via Twitter (as seen in the pictures down below). Because she (just like me) also pointed out that there is a chance that Rin isn’t a trans character at all, and yet Waypoint didn’t pay all that much attention or thought to that option…

I shouldn’t be surprised though, because that was never the idea with Waypoint’s post about “Catherine: Full Body” and Atlus. I mean, it simply takes you a couple of minutes to realize that the post is just a ragebait/clickbait/hit piece that’s meant to cause fabricated outcry and controversy over something which hasn’t even been proven to be true yet(the idea would be to bash Atlus and give them a bad reputation). Furthermore, why did Waypoint even bring up Naoto? I mean, she’s not even a trans character. So I take it that Waypoint just used her as a way to push their own “Atlus = Transphobia twats” agenda?

It’s also worth pointing out that Waypoint (Vice) is no stranger to posts of this kind (you know, posts that are of really low quality?). In the matter of fact, we have written quite a few posts about Vice in the past (posts such as “Keep your social activism and fascism bs out of our games!“, “Vice’s vice with the lovely ladies of Final Fantasy XV ” and “Heat Street´s Forza Horizon 3 response to Vice Gaming“).

Well, I think you get the point, and fair enough. I may not be an expert when it comes to trans questions, but even I understand that it’s better to wait and see what Atlus have in mind for Rin in “Catherine: Full Body”, then it is to fabricate outcry over something that hasn’t even been proven to be correct yet (I guess that cross dressing = Trans in the eyes of Waypoint?). I would also like to point out that there is no better recommendation for a game developer to be hated by sites such as Kotaku, Polygon and Vice. Because that’s like the “seal of approval” when it comes to great games. Simply put, when sites of that kind start to talk trash about a game like “Catherine: Full Body” then it’s almost a golden rule that the said game is a must buy on release.

And with that said, what’s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Credit:

Oiran Chloe

KRS



Source:

Waypoint (“Atlus, We Haven’t Forgotten Your Mishandling of LGBTQ Characters”)

Waypoint

Variety

NY post

NY times

Telegraph.co.uk

***Disclaimer***

This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

***Disclosure***

I’m not a fan of Waypoint or Vice.



Robin “V-Act” Ek

Editor in chief

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

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Tags: Atlus, Catherine, Catherine: Full Body, Full Body, Gamers, SJWs, Vice, Waypoint