Yeah, but there was just no way that they were ever going to make a main roster character explicitly gay. I mean, there would be a certain degree of positive development in that, but the fact of the matter is that large segments of their target markets are pretty conservative when it comes to that sort of thing, and there's only downside to making a character expressly homosexual in this kind of genre, because people in the fan base for pop-fantasy stories who like to imagine this or that character gay will just headcannon "ship" them together in their minds, or fanfiction or art; the segments of the community that are open to LGBT characters already aggressively serve themselves content in that fashion. So I'm sure a company like Namco (especially when it comes to a series that has traditionally leaned very shonen in many respects) sees very little benefit and plenty of potential blowback to making a male character explicitly gay.
I couldn't agree more. Not to point fingers at anyone in particular (which would just feed back into the negative energy further), but sometimes there is way too much gravedancing here, and an inability to let things go even years after there was last any realistic debate on a subject, or to perpetuate jokes about past blunders loooooong after they ceased to be even remotely funny. There's been a couple of, shall we say, "big" personalities here who went full throttle on their ideas against all common sense (and sometimes against any contrary opinion) and that partly explains why people feel inclined to hold their faces in the mud forever (even long after they've been active), but at a certain point, the endless return to that well of petty mockery just gets even more obnoxious than the original asshole(s)/silly folk who inspired it. That's why I am so done with the endless 'lesbian barbarian' jokes. But I say that without any real hope that they are going away any time soon. But anyway, my point is, I get what you mean when you say picking on Vergeben feels mean. I think much of what he said was silly and at the same time a little too self-serious, but as you say, there was no indication he was out to dupe anyone, exactly. He just got a little full of himself.
Well, as you know, I have long had my doubts as to how many of those leaks are genuine and how much it has just become their apporach to viral marketing for the series, since they are clearly aware of the work of dataminers such as yourself getting into the industry press. In fact, now that you mention it, I think the fact that the guests do stay a secret is yet more evidence (in an already pretty substantial case) for how the dataleaks are unlikely to be unintentional; there are business/licensing/respecting the borrowed IP reasons for PS to keep the guests secret until they are ready for an announcement, and the fact that they unerringly manage to do so with those characters is yet more indication that their failure to do so with their own characters is not down to mere sloppiness but rather careful cultivated reveals that make the fanbase feel like we have sniffed something out. Even if in reality that work is done by a very small number of members of the modder community such as yourself, whenever that info gets released, it becomes a serious source of fan-engagement and discussion. I'm pretty sold on the idea that at least the last several leaks have been planned, if not all of them. I still think they would be better off just announcing shit at the front end like Tekken, but clearly the PS marketing team feels the current strategy is working for them.
YELL = Hilde
I'm still skeptical of YELL being Hilde since there's nothing in her name that relates to yelling/cheering, but since there's no other characters who match that description, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Also, STAR could possibly be Algol instead, but I do understand where you got Yun-seong from.
Yeah, my thoughts run roughly in the same direction: Amy may very well have been an honest mistake born out of sloppy coding/prep for a near-future update, but with each subsequent release doing the same exact thing, it's become increasingly difficult to imagine this isn't intentional. There's actually a fair bit of additional contextual evidence to suggest this is their approach to viral marketing, which I won't belabour yet again because I fear I am beginning to sound like a broken (and verbose) record on the subject, but really it suffices just to point out that there is no possible way they are unaware that people are noticing the reference names and character IDs. I mean it already strained credulity to assume they wouldn't be aware of what as programmers themselves with even the initial data leaks, but at this point there have been numerous industry articles discussing these "unintentional" reveals and countless times where the devs have been directly tweeted at about them. They certainly know, so at a minimum, they are unconcerned about this information getting out.
I have the same doubt. There's always the possibility that the names were teasers and that some of them did not end up having a direct link to someone eventually added. Or that yell was Haohmaru, or someone else entirely. But I will say there is a certain symmetry involved in the codenamed six end up being the returning legacy characters for seasons 2 and 3. And even if those names had never been leaked, I think we'd still have recognized that Hilde, Setsuka, Hwang, Aeon, Rock, and Yun-seong were the most likely characters to be added for those two seasons, so it does all fit together fairly well from multiple angles.
Yeah, that's more of a Sophitia style.
maybe because I barely talk about Ivy, besides how I definitely hate her SC 4 1P.
besides how I definitely hate her SC 4 1P.
It was "Raphael fans might wind up having some stress sweat," as disgusting a phrase as that was. I still am not sure what was meant by that.
I bet that's a reference to another Namco game, like how Sophitia and Cassandra have Ki's and Valkyrie's costumes (and weapons!) respectively. Taki's costume is from Bravoman, but I can't remember the character's name lol
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I'm amazed how a person can be THIS wrongmaybe because I barely talk about Ivy, besides how I definitely hate her SC 4 1P.
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