Metadiscussion about Nechtronica

I would say it’s an obvious reference to the haunted doll story from japan but I’ve never tried the mod so no idea.

Sorry to interrupt but one thing that has not been mention is that there is no children in the game besides the children zombies.

So the whole clothing is being worn by a adult even if that was the case. I don’t even watch anine or thing but I knew this was not sexualizing children because they are not in the first place.

Maybe you thought such because of the words used? Instead of “girl” it could have been anything else and this discusión would have not happend in my opinion

3 Likes

@faefux I understand where you are coming from, and frankly the source material is very weird, however I do think you are applying a very shallow first impression of what this is about based on some key terms that you are misunderstanding.

Gothic Lolita, as has been pointed out, is not inherently about sexualization of children. It’s a weird term that has a very strange history based on a very strange process of cultural appropriation practiced by parts of Japanese culture (side note, I’m just using cultural appropriation descriptively here, I’m not saying anything bad was done).
“Dolls” within the context of Nechtronica is a term referring to the loss of agency of the protagonists because they were created by and controlled by a shadowy puppet master. I’m not going to lie, it is creepy, but on balance I read it as commenting on and exploring the situation rather than reveling in it, which is a key distinction.

In a similar way, the novel “Lolita” was reviled for exploring early sexualization of children in a similar manner, but on balance history has judged it to be a meritorious work of art. Is Nechtronica high art? Probably not, but neither is it fetishistic smut.

There’s no real misunderstanding about “girls”, it is used to mean “juvenile females” in this context, and it’s really irrelevant whether they’re “real girls” or “just zombies”, rather that’s kind of the whole point.
What is NOT happening as far as I can tell is sexualization of those girls, just because they dress a certain way (side note, one that is not at all sexually provocative) and are under the thumb of some shadowy controlling figure does not amount to sexualization.

If instead it were a game about child soldiers in an African warzone, it would still be control of children, but there would be no question of sexualization.

I read most of the base Nechtronica source books when this mod first came up several years ago specifically so I would know what kind of source material we’re talking about here, and it really is not about sexualization of children.

Unless you have something a lot more damning than the confluence of some terms being thrown around, I need you to drop this.

14 Likes

I feel like you’re way off base here, faefux. I don’t see any “sexualizing children” going on in this mod, though I guess I can see how it could be misinterpreted that way.

3 Likes

I am particularly sensitive to the abuse of children. Though, I guess a lot of people would say that.

I haven’t seen anything blatantly sexual from the mod. From what I can see it’s just clothing, none of which contains nudity or particularly suggestive garments. As has been pointed out, ‘lolita’ is not explicitly sexual.

In anime, it simply refers to a young girl. This often clashes with definitions that appear elsewhere, where sexuality is implied. Almost every anime has lolis in some capacity, most of which are not sexualized. In one of my recent novels, a boy refers to his female friend as a ‘gothic lolita’ because they’re into anime culture and she’s short and wearing an old-timey black dress to their dance. These are examples of the term becoming a regular part of anime culture.

If there was a mod about abusing children, or in which there are sexual references made to children, I imagine that would be cracked down on, probably aggressively, and I suspect the community would turn on them in an instant. I’d be right there with you, holding a pitchfork.

Letting your characters or npcs wear gothic style clothing and having their tiles or whatever look like young girls is not overtly offensive or sexual.

I don’t know if there’s something sinister buried in the mod I didn’t spot, but this is my current opinion.

1 Like

Faefux makes me snicker.

2 Likes

This was a really fun one to read. Such a simple minded way of thinking. You’ll be surprised on how many “Normal” Americans watch anime. I’m in the Airforce and there are PLENTY of men and women who watch Anime. Even people in the marines and navy…though im not sure about the army. Regardless, I can say that the act of killing a small zombie child is gross and fetishistic (sarcasm). I can also say that adding Bondage gear is masochistic and depriving and too sexualized. I could say that adding vibrators to the game is extremely sexist against straight males since there are no pocket p*ssies for Male characters to use, or a standard masturbation mod.
I could say that being able to wear panties as a man is unnatural and disgusting and should be blocked and/or the option removed from the game since it damages my masculinity.
I could cry wolf about stripping a female corpse naked and butchering it so I can use the parts to my hearts content.
Also gotta keep in mind that anime isnt just produced by Japan anymore. It’s all over the world. Alot of Asian countries produce it, same with major European countries, Australia, Africa, and of course all of the Americas.

But…I guess me typing this is pointless. But whatevs. It was an interesting view on another person’s mind and way of thinking. Makes for a good psychology lesson.