You can, completely. But why make such a big deal about it? If you're going to criticize it, you want a change. Otherwise why talk about it? Also I'd argue historical backgrounds are something completely different from a sniper with her boobs hanging out, it's a FICTIONAL game. history could be different dude. Off topic, please explain the "Better representation" part. (Truly, not asking in a trollish matter)
To state your opinion, ask people for theirs, start a discussion that might make everyone a bit wiser, even if it won't change the problem at hand, at least for the time being. There's value in simply discussing issues, even purely theoretical ones.
How can a sculpt be sexist? It's just a piece of metal. And I know female gamers who *enjoy* the relatively sexualized depictions of female characters in the game. I think you're mistaking wishes for truth.
Yeah I think at this point it's going to be an uphill battle to portray CB or their product as sexist, as much as I love it when the forum devolves into that particular shitfight.
Corvus Belli can be applauded for their positive attitude towards female employment and their strong stance on equal pay and women's rights, while also being criticised for overly sexualising some female miniatures. Those are not mutually exclusive positions to hold. I wish that they wouldn't overly sexualise some of their miniatures and will criticise them when they do so, that's perfectly fair. Anyway, I think that we've come to the conclusion that the Kempetei are fair game for CB, so long as they are careful to not portray them as heroes, but rather as rather brutal secret/military police, which they have. Furthermore, I think Gutier is a smart bloke who will have ensured that the JSA are not so simplistic as the obvious good guys, he likes his shades of grey after all.
I meant JSDF Military Police, not Japanese Members of Parliament. SDF grunts don't mind when you say they belong to the Japanese Navy or Army. They know it's just word-games. Met a couple guys who were SDF veterans while I was there in college. And like I said, the word Kempei, even though "all" it means is Military Police, ist verboten because of the baggage of the original unit's activities. So the Human Sphere version of the Kempeitai were a bit of an odd in the universe, since they were basically an organization of soldiers who would frag officers for needlessly wasting lives. Part of my job in the Navy was teaching junior officers. And I taught them that they needed to treat the troops under them with enough respect that they would stop the disgruntled psychotic from rolling a grenade into the officer's tent. Historical names carry baggage. My family on both sides were Border Rievers, raping cattle and sheep, and stealing women from each other since before Christ. My family gave the English Language the word "blackmail". If CB named a new unit of Caledonians the Border Rievers, I'd be offended. Not because CB was using my family's dark past. But because the Border Rievers were a bunch of murdering bastards who stole because the other guy had more/better sheep/cattle/women (delete as appropriate). Apparently the Securitate were some pretty nasty bastards in the 20th century, there are people here on the forum whose families may have been harmed by them. (That was new info to me as of this thread, BTW, I thought they were just properly paranoid police.) So you'd better expect that those forumites might want to let CB know they're stepping on sensitive toes. As for "Weird Nazi analogies"? Do us all a favor, go read the Wikipedia entries on the Kempeitai, the Gestapo, and the Stasi. Compare their behaviors and reported crimes. Then tell me that I'm over-reacting about portraying a group taking the name of a bunch of Class A War Criminals, many of whom were hanged by the Americans, as heroes. Class A War Criminals are people on par with Mengele, FFS.
Running joke, mostly. The usual line is raping the women and stealing the cattle/sheep (and sometimes stealing women). But we all know that Scots wear kilts because sheep can hear a zipper from a mile away... :D Border Rievers are a bunch of murdering assholes who stole because the other guy had nicer stuff than they did and killed anyone who got in their way. Or who stole to show that the other guy couldn't stop them. It was a game to them! It's why they got sent to Ireland (as Scots-Irish), to fight the Irish instead of the English. So I'd loudly protest a treatment of Border Rievers as 'good guys' by CB. One thing to steal because you're starving. It's another to steal because the other guy just bought a new 65" flatscreen. Same applies to the Kempeitai. It was a little weird to see something called the Kempeitai start out as semi-respectable**. But now it's an appropriate fit for the unit. So I'm only going to protest if CB's Kempeitai are somehow good guys protecting the Japanese from the evil hordes of Yu Jing. ** Semi-respectable because it's never a good thing to frag an officer. It's murder. If he's sufficiently dumb and risking the entire unit, it might be justifiable self defense. But it's almost always covered up instead of investigated thoroughly, since none of the superior officers want to admit that they screwed up and didn't see how bad the fragged officer really was before it came to the point of fragging.
Words a never sensitive nor is history. Why are we talking politics? Is infinity realy the right platform for this discussion?
You realise that what you just wrote drips heavily of politics? Nothing is free from politics, everything is politics - even inactions. Statements that something is apolitical is highly political (typically enforcing status quo)
Full agreement with @Mahtamori , but I'll grant that there CAN be apolitical things: yes, 'words' and 'history' are never sensitive. They're sounds, they're events, they have no inherent meaning. People ascribe meaning. That's politics. People play games. You can only remove meaning, and thus politics, if you remove people. I don't want to remove people, since I'm pretty sure I'm one of them, and I need at least one more besides to play Infinity the miniatures wargame, which is a thing I like to do. Assuming no one is arguing for the game to be detached from all of us and placed in the realm of pure Platonic forms where we cannot taint it with our involvement, we all want politics involved in our game, we all express politics when we discuss it and play it. Looking at a thread like this, its wonderful not because it brings politics into Infinity but because it acknowledges the existing politics, and has seen a discussion of that politics, of the various perspectives and possible meanings, of problematic elements. Regardless of if CB presents the Kempeitai as a brutal secret police or as brave heroes saving Japanese babies from evil Chinese Invincibles, that we can come together as a community and have a discussion of the politics of their decision is a great and important thing.
That doesn't make them less sexist. Women can like things that are sexist. No, I definitely agree CB pretty much trounces their competition here. Their relatively progressive stance compared to other companies like GW is among the reasons I like their products so much.
Well, the SRU liked the name well enough that one of the original Celtic League teams was the Reivers... of course, that was the team that folded, so...
What's wrong with wanting to change things I like to make them even better? A number of threads in the rules forums end up with "it would probably be better if the rules said X, but they don't". We can also have a thread that comes to the conclusion "it would probably be better if there weren't a unit named Y, but there is".
Because changing them would be changing them for everyone and what you may think is better someone else may not think that. Let the artists and creators do what they want. In general I just don't get the whole being offended thing. Why would you allow something like the name of a unit in a game make you feel a certain way to compel to want to change it? I've never understood giving words and symbols that much power over me. I don't say this be arrogant so I hope it doesn't come across this way but in 28 years I honestly can't think of any time I've ever said I was offended. I'm not saying that makes me better or worse than anyone but I just usually don't let things like that get to me. I don't think I posess a particularly thick skin or any kind of special abilities or mental talents. I say let cb call whatever units what ever they want, give them what ever fluff they want, and design them how ever they want.
If you were my friend, I would buy you this T-Shirt as a gift: And I need to buy another one for me :p
Because we are talking about the intersection of real-world politics and our favorite fictional world, which is what happens when someone uses currently-existing unit names. The question we need to ask CB is more along the lines of, "Did you intend for the modern-day baggage of this name to attach itself to the unit in Infinity?" I've seen it in Author Notes from people like Masamune Shirow that when he calls a unit in his world the FBI or CIA, he does so intentionally, wanting the modern-day baggage. Assuming that the Japanese Secession has been an established thing in Infinity since the beginning, it's looking like Bostria also intentionally wanted the modern baggage on that unit name back then. And the Secessionist Kempeitai have definitely earned the baggage, given their new unit fluff.
I don't think anyone is saying they want to compel Corvus Belli to alter things. That's only being brought up by people who are trying to argue against the idea of recognizing potential harm/offense/whatever in the naming of units.
