I am going to elaborate on some recent forum posts. But, I would NOT like to think I am speaking for everyone here. These are simply opinions and MY OPINIONS ONLY! If you happen to disagree, no problem, I was not trying to speak on your behalf anyway. If you happen to agree, great, it's a happy coincidence! Either way, I would love to hear your opinion, get some feedback, what have you. NO FLAMING! The Capcom-unity is a place where I feel like I can express myself without being chastised for my opinions. Please, nothing hostile, angry or inflammatory (like what I did there?). I am just ranting, so please don't make me feel hated for my opinions. Just give me your side of it with the same respect to the art of communication with which I present this blog. And, please keep cursing to a bare minimum, the forum is full of curse words and I simply ask that my personal blog be kept as clean as possible, thank you. :)

To start things off, I am extremely happy with the result of SFIV. Like all of you, I have been reluctantly playing since launch on-line and off and will be playing until the launch of Super, which I am also looking forward to. That being said, Capcom should really use their energy and resources to make Street Fighter V. Honestly, at this point, I'm really tired of the updates. Even though I grew up with SFII, it's constant flurry of updates, the Alpha series, the EX series, the Vs. series and when they finally learned to count to III (awe, our little Capie is growing up). However, I would have preferred another year or so with SFIV, skip Super IV, then announce SFV for a late 2010 or so release. Well, I'll have to move on and accept it, and in coping with the news of Super, I am quite excited and relieved that it will not be full retail price. :D

For Super Street Fighter IV, I would just love for Capcom to go all out and include more female characters this time around. There are only 5 female characters in SFIV out of 25 characters, and with the inclusion of the 3 confirmed characters for Super, it kicks it up to a 'WHOPPING' 6 females to 22 males. That's only a 1% increase in the female-male ratio. (The fact that the percentage increased AT ALL surprised me, to say the least, but I'm not so good with math if I don't have a calculator at hand).

With at least 5 more characters to be revealed, adding 5 females to the currently confirmed 6 would make 33 characters total, bringing the female-male ratio to 33% female - 67% male. Way better than the current 21/79.

On the subject of female depiction in video games, I have noticed that many people are accusing us male gamers of wanting more female characters strictly to appease our lust for hot, over-sexualized women fighters over which we can ogle. That downright pisses me off.

However, because female characters have been so overly sexualized in almost every aspect of fighting games, I really can't blame those people who tend to get the wrong impression about why we want more female characters. Now, while I agree with the "We don't need more sexist depictions of women in video games?" ideal, I simply hate how it is stereotypically (and quite sexistly) aimed toward the general male-gaming population assuming it is because we ask for it. We just asked for more females. We didn't ask them to be sexy and under-dressed. Well, at least I never did.

I respect Sega more so than other developers for their depiction of female characters in their Virtua Fighter series, and I think that other game companies can really take their example on how to create female characters who are good looking but not overly-sexualized to the point where their physicality seems forced and unnatural. Street Fighter has its share of female characters who exude this non-sexualized physical appearance; Makoto instantly comes to mind due to how ambiguous her gender is at first glance (although I love her character design), but Ibuki, Juli and Juni are also very good examples. To me, Karin walks a fine line, because she's really in the same boat as Sakura (as you'll read below) due to her sexy school-girl outfit showing a fair amount of her body but not to the same extreme extent as she wears those spandex shorts under her skirt. The thing is....those characters are the only ones I can think of from my most beloved series of ALL TIME!

Yes, Street Fighter's female population is not nearly as exaggerated as Dead or Alive, Tekken, SoulCalibur or Mortal Kombat, but they have had their fair share of sexualized females over the years. Sakura sates that oh, so popular sexy school girl fetish. Yes, it is accurate to what actual girls wear to school in real life in Japan, but her panties are prominently revealed more than should be from both her move set and her winning animations. Chun-Li has her thunderous thighs with the same panty-revealing shtick as Sakura. R. Mika has those MASSIVE BREASTS! Along with that thong-type bottom to her "one-piece" outfit (same with Cammy) to show off her GINORMOUS ASS! If there were ever a DOA character in Street Fighter, it would be our favorite Rainbow. And, now there's Juri. I love the character from what I've seen so far, and the design is bad-ass, I'll admit, but it further perpetuates what I've been talking about. I just don't want Street Fighter to fall under the same ridiculousness that SoulCalibur has come to (Ivy in SCIV is simply unnecessary and wrong, no matter how you look at it) and which Dead or Alive has always (sadly) been.

A lot of the characters listed above have become some of my favorite characters over the years. In fact my favorite characters in new fighting games have instantly become the female characters, yet not for their physical appearances. I instantly gravitated towards Vanessa when I got into Virtua Fighter heavily for the first time with 4: Evolution; even more so in 5 with the inclusion of Eileen, whom has instantly and officially become my favorite character in the series' history. In Super Street Fighter II Cammy became my instant favorite only being matched by Guile and although she is wearing what is essentially a one-piece, thong swimming suit, her personality and move list are what attracted me to her above all because those aspects set her apart. She did things for me as a Street Fighter player which Chun-Li just couldn't. Felicia is my all-time favorite Dark Stalkers character for the same reasons. MK Vs. DC = Kitana and Sonya (I never even like them that much before). In Street Fighter III; you guessed it, my friends, Ibuki and Elena. It isn't just physical appearance that attracts me to certain characters over others; their overall move set and my personal comfort while playing come into the equation above all.

With that said, not every female has to be under dressed and overly-sexualized. Learn from Sega and create Eileen- and Pai-type characters. I love the character design of Tessa from Red Earth and I think a lot of interesting things can be done with a character who is like her in the Street Fighter universe. I'm not saying to copy characters, either, just to think outside the box of 'school-girl' or 'bikini-clad' or 'bad-ass biker thug (Poison/Roxy)'. How about a revamp of the whole biker thug thing and make a rugged female version of Birdie without the ridiculous hair? She doesn't have to be ugly or overly-masculine. You can design a female character like that without making her overly sexualized and still keep a certain sex appeal. How about a Samurai character who breaks tradition by utilizing a Wakazashi as her main sword and tanto as a backup she uses for throw attacks? Not every strike needs to be a slash, the butt of the hilt can be used for shoulder and face strikes and she can sweep with feet. Ultra combos galore come to mind with a character like this. *Edit* I just realized that a character like this can be compared to Hibiki as a copy-cat, but enough can be done differently. Think about the difference between Dudley and Bison. Plus this would be a first for the main Street Fighter series and Capcom has done a great job in translating Samurai Showdown characters in CVS2 that they could easily design a character of their own who differs enough to be completely original and who can add another dimension to the overall strategy.

I have yet to mention a very beloved character. Elena. Now, Elena is a bit of a conundrum for some. On one hand you can argue that it is a bit excessive to wear nothing but a cloth bikini and prominently spread your legs in the fashion she does. On the other hand, you can argue  that you've seen worse on Discovery shows taking place in her very continent of origin, and given the circumstances, her character design is actually a step up. I love the character design, personally and it not only conveys her natural beauty, but is an example of how Capcom can utilize certain cultural aspects without making them seem over-done. She actually manages to not make me NOT feel like perverts for enjoying her character design, and the fluid, graceful and downright gorgeous animation adds to her bubbly personality. She is a perfect example of which direction to take this 'new-female-character' aspect of design.

I am not saying that Super Street Fighter IV will only achieve this by adding in only female characters. The other 5 or 6 more characters could very well all be male, and the same effect can be had. I am simply stating that it seems fairer to achieve this by adding in more female characters to balance out the ratio of male characters to female characters, because, honestly, as it stands the current math just doesn't cut it. With that said, I am not asking for more female characters simply for the sake of even out the ratio, it is just an inevitable outcome from adding more females, and I say if the game can be better for it, then why not? If it can't, then that's fine, too.

This is just my 2 cents. Well, it's really more like a 50 cent piece. Keep the change! ;)

Seriously...IBUKI + ELENA FTW!

O_o zach o_O