3 ms·

Toxic positivity is just a new way of saying it was a "Emperor's new clothes" situation. Everybody could or should have been able to see that the emperor had n

Toxic positivity is just a new way of saying it was a "Emperor's new clothes" situation. Everybody could or should have been able to see that the emperor had no clothes but was too scared to speak out. Only somebody not constrained by the system, a naive child in the story or in this case consumers who weren't in the corporate structure, was able to point out the obvious truth. I still think people are tip-toeing around this a bit though. Suggestions that Concorde failed because the genre isn't popular anymore seem like they're trying to avoid some hard truths in particular. I am uninhibited though so I'll say it. Overwatch has characters people want to fuck or see themselves as, and gamers like that. Concorde has characters designed to make people squirm uncomfortably, daring people to criticize their design so they can be called toxic gamers. The character design is deliberately offensive to gamers, defying them instead of pandering to them.

throwaway9524 2y ago
Agreed in general. Though the points on character design may be a bit too reductionist. Concord didn't really need characters with clear sex appeal. Or even characters people immediately want to be like. The original characters aren't that bad! At least judging from the concept art. They just suffer from extremely poor and downright unprofessional execution. Take this redesign for example https://www.reddit.com/r/TopCharacterDesigns/comments/1fdz1m7/actual_concord_redesigns_kevint_comm/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TopCharacterDesigns/comments/1fdz1m.... The results are pretty close to originals and do not pander to any specific demographic. But there are just enough interesting and unusual details in the new designs that make you want to learn more about those characters. That's what the released game is missing entirely. My pet theory is this had to be nepotism in hiring. I struggle to find another explanation for how they botched the execution so badly that the characters can be legitimately seen as "designed to make people squirm". Which I don't believe could be any executive's intention.
- lupusreal 2y ago
  Is any of the original concept art public? I've seen some images purporting to be that but if you track them down they're actually redesigns made after the game flopped to show how it could have been done better. The first redesign you link to isn't really "my type" but even so I think that's a viable character with sex appeal. They ditched the ugly lipstick, redistributed her mass to give her wide hips, and swapped out her depressed "I just want to die" facial pose with a big smirk that's full of life. They changed the gross loser into somebody who looks fun and lively.

throwaway9524 2y ago

Agreed in general. Though the points on character design may be a bit too reductionist. Concord didn't really need characters with clear sex appeal. Or even characters people immediately want to be like. The original characters aren't that bad! At least judging from the concept art. They just suffer from extremely poor and downright unprofessional execution. Take this redesign for example https://www.reddit.com/r/TopCharacterDesigns/comments/1fdz1m7/actual_concord_redesigns_kevint_comm/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TopCharacterDesigns/comments/1fdz1m.... The results are pretty close to originals and do not pander to any specific demographic. But there are just enough interesting and unusual details in the new designs that make you want to learn more about those characters. That's what the released game is missing entirely. My pet theory is this had to be nepotism in hiring. I struggle to find another explanation for how they botched the execution so badly that the characters can be legitimately seen as "designed to make people squirm". Which I don't believe could be any executive's intention.

lupusreal 2y ago
Is any of the original concept art public? I've seen some images purporting to be that but if you track them down they're actually redesigns made after the game flopped to show how it could have been done better. The first redesign you link to isn't really "my type" but even so I think that's a viable character with sex appeal. They ditched the ugly lipstick, redistributed her mass to give her wide hips, and swapped out her depressed "I just want to die" facial pose with a big smirk that's full of life. They changed the gross loser into somebody who looks fun and lively.