DOA: Paradise goal was not soft porn

By Robert Purchese Published 26 February, 2010

It does not degrade women, says dev.

Dead or Alive: Paradise director Yoshinori Ueda has told Eurogamer that his PSP game is not supposed to be softcore pornography nor degrading towards women, despite titillating promotional videos and a marketing slogan that reads, "Paradise in the palm of your hand."

"That's certainly not something we're intentionally going for," he said. "From our perspective, we're trying to make beautiful women, that has been the focus - we want our characters to be beautiful. The DOA characters are strong and that they look the way they do is based on trying to bring out the beauty of women."

"We're certainly not trying to degrade women. They have beautiful bodies. We're trying to show off the beauty of their bodies but we're not trying to be degrading about it - we're trying to show that they are beautiful characters."

"It's not that we were trying to make softcore porn. That's definitely not the goal."

In Dead or Alive: Paradise, bikini-clad girls take part in various paradise beach games like volleyball and going to the casino. Players can also have the girls pose for the camera and take photographs of them.

That element of the game irked America's ESRB age-ratings board, which claimed DOA: Paradise was filled with "creepy voyeurism" and "bizarre, misguided notions of what women really want". The ESRB later apologised and offered a more level-headed explanation for the mature rating.

"We know that everyone is going to have a different experience with the game - everyone has their own opinion," shrugged Ueda. "For us, the goal was really to offer a little bit of paradise to the users, and we hope that people playing the game will be able to come away with the feeling that they've visited paradise."

Ueda understands that DOA: Paradise isn't a game in "the traditional sense". "What we offer is a selection of things to play and activities to have fun with. The players have the freedom to play Paradise however they want," he said.

Dead or Alive: Paradise will be released here on 2nd April.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (54) 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • CaptainFantasm #1 2 years ago

    "From our perspective, we're trying to make beautiful women, that has been the focus - we want our characters to be beautiful."

    So not to actually make a game then..

  • Whizzo #2 2 years ago

    "It's not that we were trying to make softcore porn. That's definitely not the goal but we managed it all the same" is a bit more honest.

  • crazyhorse174 #3 2 years ago

    'It's not that we were trying to make softcore porn. That's definitely not the goal - we actually wanted to make a game full of hardcore porn - women and aliens and shit like that - but the publishers wouldnt have any of it, because we showed a bit of bush.'

  • FogHeart #4 2 years ago

    Do they have brown paper bags in Game?

  • HermitArcader #5 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • The_Inquisitor #6 2 years ago

    They don't degrade women... they degrade gamers!

  • sublitterat #7 2 years ago

    ESRB's original comments seem right on the money, shame they apologised.

  • wizlon #8 2 years ago

    Ban this filth... please, it just makes me embarrassed to belong to tarred with this brush through association to the media.

  • Shrike #9 2 years ago

    "We're certainly not trying to degrade women. They have beautiful bodies."

    Emmeline Pankhurst fail.

  • jonbwfc #10 2 years ago

    The players have the freedom to play Paradise however they want," he said.
    One handed?

  • djed #11 2 years ago

    the shooting games degrade human being.

  • Shinetop #12 2 years ago

    I bet someone in an office in Japan, Yoshinori Ueda is reading this article, laughing himself silly and, between gasps for breath, exclaiming "I can't believe they actually took all that stuff I said seriously."

  • Shotaro #13 2 years ago

    I love the fact that in the first game the tits bounced more the higher the age you said you were

  • mazk #14 2 years ago

    Come on guys! Why is everyone being so prudish? Its 2010! DOA: XBV2 was a subtle masterpiece. Cant wait for this.

  • Miths #15 2 years ago

    How the hell did he make the connection from "pornography" to "degrade women"? My porn collection is certainly a celebration of women :).

  • Bigglesworth #16 2 years ago

    "We're certainly not trying to degrade women. They have beautiful boobies. We're trying to show off the beauty of their boobies but we're not trying to be degrading about it - we're trying to show that they are beauti-- OMG BOOBIES LAWL!1"

    Fixed.

  • nakedlunch #17 2 years ago

    I think the dev doth protest too much!

  • DarkMoon #18 2 years ago

    preorders

  • Freek #19 2 years ago

    Yes and CoD is not about shooting people, it's about international politics!

  • Shikasama #20 2 years ago

    Yeah Wizlon, should probably ban all films, all TV shows, all books and all images aswell. I don;t want to be tarred with anything.

    Unless it's a brush Cheryl Cole holds while she's sat on my face.

  • hiddenranbir #21 2 years ago

    So they've given up on the whole fighting thing?

  • TheApologist #22 2 years ago

    The original ESRB descriptions were fair enough I reckon. It's a bit creepy and looks pretty degrading.

    So, Robert, not so much a 'more level headed description' as simply 'less descriptive of the game in order to avoid pissing off a big company with expensive lawyers'.

  • dagas #23 2 years ago

    The DoA girls are not beutiful. They look like plastic toys with faces of 12 year old girls. Beuty is about more than just big boobs.

  • jonsaan #24 2 years ago

    It's not porn. They are video game characters. Get a grip people. You don't have to parade round in no clothes.

  • ianegg #25 2 years ago

    This shit is apparently pretty normal in Japan. I'm pretty sure the guy is being honest here, within his own cultural norms. Which is obviously inferior to our highly enlightened ways.

  • LazyNinjaUk #26 2 years ago

    I've never heard so much shit in all my life, if Tecmo didn't want to degrade women they would have done DOA: Civil Servant or DOA: Community Support Police Officer.

    That is like the creators of Mortal Kombat saying "Our intention was never to make a violent game, but a martial arts simulator." I resent developer's who think their target audience are thicker than week old custard.

    Not that I'm complaining, vitual tits are ok with me!!!! :D
    Edited by 2 at 26/02/10 @ 21:52

  • bonker #27 2 years ago

    Porn doesn't degrade women.

    It exploits and degrades men ...

  • DiscoJer #28 2 years ago

    I don't understand the uproar over this game. Hello, it's the 3rd release in the series, and simply a port of the original Xbox version that came out 10 years ago. Now there's suddenly a problem with it?

  • Shrike #29 2 years ago

    "I don't understand the uproar over this game. Hello, it's the 3rd release in the series, and simply a port of the original Xbox version that came out 10 years ago. Now there's suddenly a problem with it?"

    I think it's perfectly reasonable to remain annoyed/angry/embarassed about a series which is still this crass after 10 years. It's not like doing something over and over again makes it okay.

  • TILT #30 2 years ago

    This shit is apparently pretty normal in Japan.

    No it's not. It may seem normal if you remain fixated on the Japanese anime/gamer geek universe. (Where you actually have far scarier shit in any "adult anime" department.) But no Japanese outside of that circle would think a game like this "normal". In a company full of not-quite-old engineers (= likely candidates, at least over here), we had one guy out of fifty who was interested in this kind of stuff. He was accepted as what he was, but the others would still think him faintly embarrassing or even ridiculous.

  • alcides #31 2 years ago

    I think it's hardly arousing at all. 'Could fuel your fire maybe... But start it? I think it's a funny game because it's so obviously perverse you can't really help grinning and giggling... The coconuts tree-climbing part? Priceless. I might have a go just for kicks. With both hands. On the PSP.

  • Hastur #32 2 years ago

    I get tired of over sensitive dykes, who squeal at the thought of being a lust object. It's what makes our species tick, get over it!

  • ianegg #33 2 years ago

    But no Japanese outside of that circle would think a game like this "normal".
    OK, but over here not many people outside of the gamer circle would consider killing prostitutes after using them or mowing down lines of Hare Krishna to get extra cash as normal, yet GTA is a pretty well accepted game here. (Probably a bad analogy.) I wasn't trying to say it's the norm, but that it's relatively common and acceptable.

  • Retroid #34 2 years ago

    "DOA: Paradise goal was not soft porn It does not degrade women, says dev."

    /Cancels pre-order
    Edited by 1 at 27/02/10 @ 10:22

  • Shinetop #35 2 years ago

    This shit is apparently pretty normal in Japan. I'm pretty sure the guy is being honest here, within his own cultural norms. Which is obviously inferior to our highly enlightened ways.

    Ah yes, so you can't criticize stuff that goes against your own norms, otherwise you're a xenophobic bigot. Thanks for enlightening us.

  • Freek #36 2 years ago

    It's not about wether or not it's acceptable. You wanna make a soft porn game? That's fine. Humans like sex, that's not degrading to either gender, it's just in our nature.
    What's being laughed at and made fun of is the self denial the developer seems to be in, refusing to acknowledge his own game.

  • ianegg #37 2 years ago

    Just saying I think he's being honest.

  • bionutz #38 2 years ago

    /add to most wanted

  • HandOfBeadle #39 2 years ago

    the shooting games degrade human being.
    Only if you wank over it.

  • TILT #40 2 years ago

    @ianegg
    No one in Europe or Japan, except maybe for some religious zealots, considers girls in bikinis not normal. That would be the analogy you were trying to pull with your GTA example, but that wasn't the point. The point was if a game about girls in bikinis would be considered "normal". You inferred that, while it would not be considered normal in Europe, it would be so in Japan. My point was that it wouldn't even in Japan. So there.

  • jonsaan #41 2 years ago

    But it isn't a game about girls in bikinis. It's about a holiday resort where you gamble, play volleyball, jetski and try to keep your volleyball partner happy. It is actually a massive breath of fresh air in amongst the shooters and racing games. It's just a shame Tecmo choose to promote it by focusing on what they know will stir up controversy. Nobody bitches about the orgies in GOW or killing and stripping women in Fallout. This game is Benny Hill in comparison to what goes on in other video games. If you are so sensitive to naked sprite flesh you can always keep them fully clothed anyway.
    Edited by 1 at 27/02/10 @ 14:04

  • Shinetop #42 2 years ago

    "Just saying I think he's being honest. "

    That's not -just- what you're saying. What you're -also- saying is that people who dislike stuff that is outside their cultural norms are xenophobic bigots who think their own culture is enlightened and superior to others.

  • ianegg #43 2 years ago

    @Shinetop: yes I did essentially say that, but it was besides the point i wanted to make and was obviously a silly thing to add. In hindsight I should have phrased the entire comment differently.

  • Mickeman #44 2 years ago

    O RLY!?! That's why I prefer Tekken, it degraders both men and women equally. Shirtless Law, WoW ;)

  • RobotRocker #45 2 years ago

    I miss Itagaki. He would find some way to insult the ESRB and call them prudes. And it would be hilarious.

  • KingOfMyCastle #46 2 years ago

    I am outraged! ... that this is not coming out on the PS3.

  • Nuada #47 2 years ago

    Think I'll stick with Rapeplay...

  • comissars_handgun #48 2 years ago

    @ jonsaan

    Wait I don't remember any orgies in Gears of War or any nudity in any of the Fallout games?? Have I been playing the censored versions or something?

    But yeah Dead or Alive beach volleyball and the like have always been aimed at 14 year old compulsive masturbators, so doesn't seem like anything has changed.

  • jonsaan #49 2 years ago

    God of War. And there's as much nudity in fallout as there is in DOA Paradise/ extreme. Undercrackers basically.
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/10 @ 21:21

  • trip919 #50 2 years ago

    Explain why my dick will be out of my pants the whole time then Mr. developer?
    Edited by 1 at 28/02/10 @ 21:24

  • ianegg #51 2 years ago

    nice, neg rep for admitting i was wrong after nothing for (accidentally!) being a condescending twat :)

  • elephant_stone #52 2 years ago

    I would love the ESRB to rate a proper Japanese Hentia game, that would be a LOL

  • Fletche #53 2 years ago

    "But yeah Dead or Alive beach volleyball and the like have always been aimed at 14 year old compulsive masturbators, so doesn't seem like anything has changed."

    Is there any other kind of 14 year old?

  • Shikishima #54 2 years ago

    I think a lot of the comments regarding this game seem rather extreme.

    If anyone seriously thinks women in bikinis (even if some of them are rather skimpy) is "creepy", I really have to wonder
    what's going on. In my view there's nothing really wrong with this at all, I really can't understand the extreme reactions
    this game gets (or DOAXBV 1 and 2 for that matter).

    It seems severe violence in games is perfectly fine and acceptable entertainment but if the game contains sexy
    women in bikinis the game is portrayed as the work of the devil.

    I'll probably be getting this anyway, as I liked DOAXBV 1.