"...a realignment of company focus"

[V-Mink]

This seriously depends on where you are, what kind of jury you get, how good the prosecutor is, and how good your lawyer is.

Pretty much this.  And one can count that the defendant would be bringing a massive(ly expensive) legal team to defend their right to put this out in US.

All I can do when I see the lolis is facepalm and think, "THIS is what they wanted to replace CoH with?  That just makes me want to go redside." 

[Atlantea]

It's not so much that I think we can STOP them or bring them to court.

What we can do is SHAME them. And make it a STIGMA to play Blade and Soul.

"Oh you play THAT game? What're you, some neck-bearded weeaboo living in the basement? YEeesh..."

We don't HAVE to win in an actual court. I'm more than happy to rake NCSoft over the court of public opinion. I already think the game is going to fail and fail hard. I'd just be happy to give it a little "push".

[TimtheEnchanter]

There has to be SOME way we can take advantage of the name Blade & Soul and make an innuendo from it.

[Quinch]

There has to be SOME way we can take advantage of the name Blade & Soul and make an innuendo from it.

Personally, I'm just calling it Breast and Skin.

[Atlantea]

"Boobs and Shame" is mine. 

[Quinch]

I just realized a rather hilarious thing about BS;

If the visual draw is supposed to be the hypersexualized Leifeldian parodies of females - who exactly is going to play them?

[Victoria Victrix]

Boobs and Sluts is mine.

@Quinch, I am told that in the Korean market, men playing this hypersexualized avatars is HUGE.  The game market is heavily male over there.

The truth is, no one who is in Korea at NCSoft is going to understand the fuss.  This is business as usual for them.  They are not even thinking, they are merely going "this sells hugely in Korea and China, it will sell hugely in the US!"  We're not going to shame NCSoft over this; they simply will not understand why they should feel ashamed.  However, that said, we can generate a lot, and I mean a lot, of negative pressure on them.  They may not understand why they are getting it, but they will understand it is happening, and a quick check by their PR firm will show them exactly who is behind it.  The message should be plain: this is going to continue to happen until they sell or lease the IP of CoH.  And if the message isn't plain, some simple internet sleuthing will lead them here, where we spell it out in blatant black and white.

However, the hypersexualization of children in Boobs and Sluts, and portraying it as kiddieporn is going to be a really tough sell when virtually every episode of Toddlers and Tiaras and Here Comes Honey-Boo-Boo has real live toddlers who are every bit as tarted up and hypersexualized, and that's playing every week in primetime on "respected" cable networks.  I wish I could say otherwise, a couple of those costumes are far, far from innocent, but there it is.  I don't think we can get that particular dog to hunt, so we should probably concentrate on the one that will.

[DrakeGrimm]

However, the hypersexualization of children in Boobs and Sluts, and portraying it as kiddieporn is going to be a really tough sell when virtually every episode of Toddlers and Tiaras and Here Comes Honey-Boo-Boo has real live toddlers who are every bit as tarted up and hypersexualized, and that's playing every week in primetime on "respected" cable networks.  I wish I could say otherwise, a couple of those costumes are far, far from innocent, but there it is.  I don't think we can get that particular dog to hunt, so we should probably concentrate on the one that will.

...did you have to remind me those programs exist? Ngh. I need fifty showers now.

[Knightslayer]

...did you have to remind me those programs exist? Ngh. I need fifty showers now.

It's things like these that make me glad I cancelled my cable...

[Victoria Victrix]

It's things like these that make me glad I cancelled my cable...

I have to admit, I watched an episode of Honey Boo-Boo when it came on Discovery Channel (or TLC, I forget which) because once it was on, it had that horrifying fascination of a slow-motion train wreck.  You know you probably shouldn't be watching it, but it's impossible to look away.

[DrakeGrimm]

I have to admit, I watched an episode of Honey Boo-Boo when it came on Discovery Channel (or TLC, I forget which) because once it was on, it had that horrifying fascination of a slow-motion train wreck.  You know you probably shouldn't be watching it, but it's impossible to look away.

That just encourages them to keep making episodes. D:

[Quinch]

Boobs and Sluts is mine.

Yeah, it's the "sluts" part that irks me somewhat - I've got nothing against promiscuity per se, so using the game name in an insulting context like that implies negativity on sluts? Skin, on the other hand, is pretty straightforward and carries the image of an approach to clothing that's perfunctory at best.

Boobs definitely rolls off the tongue better than breasts, though. Boobs and skin? How about skanks? I think the word's usually implied as an unhealthy/irresponsible slut?

[chaparralshrub]

[Segev]

Maybe I'm just one of those people who can't see anything sexual at all in a kid, but other than the one outfit that has a tube-top on the "forest sprite," none of those seem to be sexualizing, let along hypersexualizing, the little characters to me.

I'm not saying this to discourage people from feeling offended nor horrified by it. I am saying this to point out that this is going to be a tough sell, because they aren't posing the "kids" in the same overtly "sexy" way that they are the women. The game's main emphasis for sexualization also seems to be breasts, which these small fry don't have.

So I think trying to make a "child porn" case against it at this time is only going to dilute the message we're trying to sell. My first thought on seeing the initial "forest sprite" image - aside from reacting to "one of those is a boy" with "well, that's tricky to pick out, but I'll guess the one without pigtails" - was "huh, that seems an awfully innocent image for B&S."

The later images of costumes are edging into the "oh, that's why it's upsetting" territory, but without the context I'd just have shrugged because it doesn't seem sexual to me. The tube-top one's trying to be, but failing. And if I'm reacting to it as if it's a stretch, then we're probably going to have to work very hard to sell it to more than the professionally offended in this category. (I use the term less critically than usual, here; in this case, "people who are constantly on the lookout for the slightest hint of child exploitation" and "people looking for any reason to be mad at NCSoft/B&S.")

In short: While maybe this could be an evolution of the story if the pressure needs to be kept up and it goes a bit further in the offensive direction, I think we should not even bring this angle up for now. Focus on the indisputable part of the message.

[Vulpy]

In short: While maybe this could be an evolution of the story if the pressure needs to be kept up and it goes a bit further in the offensive direction, I think we should not even bring this angle up for now. Focus on the indisputable part of the message.

This would be a wonderful thing for some interested news agency to discover independently, though. Preferably about two days after the initial story gets traction. That would be ideal for our case.

[Quinch]

Eh, maybe, maybe not. Even if none of us goes to the press with it in secret, it'd be far too easy to be accused of it regardless, especially with open posts like these.

Let's just keep to the moral high ground for now.

[pandora114]

You know, I was thinking, just like "City of Hero" flopped in Korea,  I'm betting Boobs and Camel Toes will flop here.  Especially if we keep making a stink about "Hey only Pedo Weeaboo neckbeards play this stuff!"  >.>

[Quinch]

Honestly, even without City of Heroes, that thing is enough of an abomination to fail on its own merit.

[Mantic]

Ugh...  Am I wrong? Am I over-reacting? Or am I right that this looks like friggin borderline KIDDIEPORN here? Is NCSoft just sort of giving the "wink wink nudge nudge" to the absolute WORST in human degradation here?

Yeah, we all know there's a big pedophile subculture in Asia... and sure, I can see how that tilted hip stance being applied to a prepubescent girl is slightly inappropriate. Still, I don't think we're quite in the realm of 'lolicon hentai' (not until players come along and use those characters for their cybersex "roleplay").

This may read wrong, but I like how you all are pushing this angle out in the wild mostly because it is a tiny bit disingenuous, and plays on the ignorance of the general audience. After all, the female form in CoH is not nearly as flexible as the male(s) (you get a slider between buxom and waif, essentially), and if you put a female in walk mode she may not move quite as contortedly as the ones in B&S, but it's anything but conservative. Damned if I don't appreciate the effect of juxtaposing a superhero draped in the American flag against a bunch of unwholesome-looking manga-barbies, though.

[therain93]

I have to make this brief as I am about to head out of town without internet access for the next week -- I've read the first 3 pages and there's some interesting commentary and hopefully I won't repeat anything.  I see about 4-5 different campaigns here --

1.  Get stories from gaming parents to vouch for the family values playing the game with their kids (past and present) as well as kids that gamed witht heir parents (on CoH, naturally).  Collect them to use as a reference source.
2.  Similiarly, reach out to GamerDad.com to raise awareness fo the shutdown -- not sure if an equivalent gamer mom website exists.  The upshot is, NCsoft gains positive spin if they keep the game going.
3.  Reach out to Huffington Post, crafting a message about the loss of a game that well-represented women.  The slant here would be the abillity to portray women in les than objectified way -- Heroines like Valkyrie and even Battle Maiden would be places to point to, as well as player made heroes...the stories to reinforce player influences.  Positive spin for NCsoft to keep it open is that they do believe in positive values too.
4.  Reach out to Fox news about the end of an era, informational only -- again it's important to emphasize all that can be done to portray a positive light, versus the relatively static, overly sexualized nature of Blade and Soul.  Do not editorialize it, let them do that.
5.  Start leveraging some of our oustanding videographers to make youtube videos about these themes with hsolid voiceovers and well-crafted messages.

I can't champion any of this, but hopefully it can help.