One good thing about Japanese games in the days of sprites

[Mr Khan]

Khuutra said:

FinalEvangelion said:

People just can't realize it is part of the culture and enjoy the game for what it is.

It is nothing of the sort. That completely ignores the fact that there are many, many, many art styles in the Japanese continuum (and the Japanese game continuum) where masculinity is expressed in a way that almost anyone can understand as being masculine. Everything from Fist of the North Star to Ninja Gaiden to the Legend of Zelda is perfectly capable of portraying masculine figures who adhere to more global images of masculinity.

There is nothing wrong with beeing off-put by games where the portrayal of masculinity is not conveyed visually. I have no problem with it myself, but begrudging this in other people isn't reasonable.

The problem being that there *is* room for interpretation as far as Japanese portrayals of masculinity go. This: 

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/291224/major armstrong/

being one of them, but in the West and especially in Western gaming, the above is what you *have* to be as a man, unless you're specifically being portrayed as a nerd or gay, or some other less-than-ideal type of man.

Edit: fucking broken image links...