• As part of the relaunch of Skullheart, ALL previous threads have been archived. You can find them at the bottom of the forum in the Archives (2021) section. The archives are locked, so please use the new forum sections to create new discussion threads.

Lets Talk Skullgirls: Rule 34's Effect on Skullgirls

Is Rule 34 good for Skullgirls


  • Total voters
    101

FunkyHellboy

The nicest Guy
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Messages
611
Reaction score
297
Points
63
Age
28
Steam
FunkyHellboy
XBL
FunkyHellboy
Filia Squigly Big Band
HOLD IT!
This is NOT a "Rule 34" thread to paste pictures for!
This is a discussion thread and should be treated as such!
This thread will be used by me to make the 3rd "Lets Talk Skullgirls" episode
The other episodes can be viewed at the end of this post if you need to see what this is for.


Hey ladies and gentlemen, I want to talk about Rule 34 and the influnce it has on Skullgirls' community, growth, appearence to the FGC, etc...
Honestly I find that Rule 34/Hentai/Porn in general has mainly helped the Skullgirls community grow and it has helped the game directly.
  • Zone-tan being one of the biggest/well-known online hentai producer making the "Filia" game has in my opinion helped out Skullgirls grow as Zone's large fan base, has now been exposed to Skullgirls and the publicity around Zone being hired also helped promote Skullgirls as well.
  • Its not a secret that the art style of Skullgirls leans toward the rule 34, and that helps by allowing the fans of the media to become fans of the game through it.
There of course are negative conotations as well like the image that FGC has on Skullgirls can and has had an effect on the image of Skullgirls as a "real" fighting game
One of the more common ways this is shown is with people disregarding Skullgirls as a "Rule 34" game or as a game only for fans of Hentai in general.

I made this thread because I need to know the community opinion on Rule 34's Effect on Skullgirls and what you all think!
Tell me your thoughts, experiences, and attitude towards Rule 34's Effect on Skullgirls
And if you are one of the people who does make rule 34 of Skullgirls I'm very interested in your opinions of the game and your thoughts, experiences, and attitude towards Rule 34's Effect on Skullgirls.
Also if you do make Rule 34 of Skullgirls I would love to get a video interview with you, to further the discussion of this important topic.

Thank you for reading!
FunkyHellboy
 
Last edited:
Well...

This is some conversation, but not in a very sarcastic way. It seems that Rule34 kinda has a good effect on Skullgirls. I mean 2 porn artists are actually members of the staff (they being Zone and Noil) and even before Zone got hired he/she/it was a pretty big fan of the game itself. To me that's one hell of a thing to think about, considering the fact that no-one would think a company would hire a porn artist to work for them. Hell, even some of the artists who do make porn (like chickenwithtie and toddbella) are fans themselves. I'm sure that Rule34 in Skullgirls point... is a pretty positive thing... as odd as that is to say.
 
its not a bad thing nor a good thing. Porn and hentai exists for everything that is created out there. So while there is hentai of Skullgirls, I am not surprised. Does it help people who are not interested in the game, become interested through hentai? It could, odds are 20% will look into it. Zone Tan is probably the most famous hentai flash creator out there in our generation. It helped that he was widely known and did a flash on Filla. If there was another flash animator that was not as widely known as Zone tan, it probably would exist, but depending on how popular it is, it may or may not even bring in new people to play the game. While I am sure there is some kinky fucks out there who would love to have sex with Double, and resorted to porn and what not, porn of Skullgirls is not the be all or end all of how people get into the game. It may help some, but too busy jerking it to really think afterwards. After all if they are jerking it to filla they probably already know what the game is in the first place.

TLDR: Porn exists for everything, and having hentai for Skullgirls is nothing new. Does this help the scene in getting more people into the game? Yes and no. Overall this isn't the top reason people are getting into skullgirls.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FunkyHellboy
I don't think it helps, but I don't think it hurts, either. People who are bothered by naked versions of Skullgirls characters weren't going to like the visuals of of the game anyway. The art in this game is only a minor wardrobe malfunction away from rule 34, as it stands, so naked Valentine isn't exactly a huge change from just-barely-not-naked Valentine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HeadcrabNinja
Yes, people can be like "oh hey look at this picture of a zombie girl getting a bone dragon shoved in her pooper, I wonder what she's from" and discover Skullgirls, but on the otherhand, it can also breed people who do not play the game and simply "enjoy the artstyle" which (quite frankly) means nothing to the developers who work hard on the product.

But as for my honest opinion

yeah it's okay cause some of that art is really good
 
I hardly would say that this puts the game into either a positive or negative light. As clawmaster stated, porn exists for everything (It's Rule 34 motto after all), and without a doubt, of course you will stumble across Skullgirls hentai eventually. I don't think Rule 34 had any drastic effect on Skullgirls rather then the typical user going "Oh hey it's those one girls from that one game *proceeds to go about their "business"* (<- This is referring to someone who is completely oblivious to the game or only heard about it recently.) If people choose to get into the Skullgirls series because they liked Zone's Flash game with Filia, then okay that's them no problem. People get into Skullgirls for many reasons, good or bad, and I assure you that it usually comes down to character design and what not, among other reasons. Not necessarily a bad thing either, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion of the game. Some may like the game for the design, some may like it because Rule 34, others make like it because bewbs. Either way, it may help the community grow in some light, but not in away where Skullgirls is justified by one perverts imagination.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmashBlade
I have gripes about skullgirls artstyles on some characters but not all. I don't think rule 34 is good for Skullgirls in general. However I do think fan art is good for skullgirls. My issue is that while it's not destroying the community it's giving us a bad image. Skullgirls is getting popular no doubt but not all publicity is good publicity. I have told this story before but my first exposure to skullgirls was an article saying "lab zero hires porn artist Zone-Tan" made my view of skullgirls sour for a bit. I later found out from a mod and re-checked the article that they did not hire Zone-Tan. I would like to point to a game series known as Dead or alive. Dead or alive is seen as a game for pervs even if it is popular. I do want skullgirls to be taken as a serious fighting game but I don't want to look like a prev for liking the game.
 
As sexually charged as some things in Skullgirls are, I'm pretty sure that some people at Lab Zero would be a little offended at you equating it to outright pornography?
.......I know that you really wanted me to say something as dumb like that, but instead I said that it leans towards being sexual influenced (leaning towards Rule 34).
..Are..Are you sure your reading right?
Also please keep the comments to yourself if it doesn't relate to the topic, because if it doesn't than go make something off-topic to discuss that.
Because the way you receive things about what I said about Skullgirls' art style being sexually charged at times.
Please stop trying to make a fuss over your attitude on something that never happen just to derail the thread.

Also please actually read the post if you can, (because what your reply is isn't what this thread is about), instead of making an untrue reply in order to cause chaos...its childish
 
I could be juvenile. But maybe I'll actually address points. I'm in an addressing mood. Edit: You also didn't post links to your other vids.
Honestly I find that Rule 34/Hentai/Porn in general has mainly helped the Skullgirls community grow and it has helped the game directly.
R34 comes from the community, not the other way around. Exposure helps anything, and sometimes R34 is exposure, but I really don't think that's any significant part of the case here.
Zone-tan
had nothing to do with the game until after the IGG. Before his/her appearance, the game had sold it's lifetime expected sales (I believe it did that in it's first week, maybe month), raised $78k for Breast Cancer research (and was (re)exposed to the entire FGC in a big way), and raised the money for Squigly in a day (and all those other IGG feats afterwards; not to say Zone's assistance wasn't greatly appreciated).
Its not a secret that the art style of Skullgirls leans toward the rule 34, and that helps by allowing the fans of the media to become fans of the game through it.
You can find sexy pictures of anything. There are sexy pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog, who is one of the least sexualized-while-not-revulting characters I can think of. I'm sure I can find sexy pictures of Smoky the Bear if I looked hard enough. I mean, the rule is "If it exists, there's porn of it". There would be Rule 34 stuff of Skullgirls even if every character looked like the "What if 4kids censored Skullgirls" depictions. Bringing up that Skullgirls is sexy (which, to me, is a far-cry from "leans towards R34") doesn't seem to be relevant at all.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Datagram
Wonderful, another thread by FunkyHellboy for a video that nobody wants to see. Whatever, I'll answer the question. I'm going to agree with most of the posters here and say that it doesn't really matter.
 
no effect. . . .

I have never watched steamy fire fighter porn and decided "well gee I want to be a fire fighter"
i would kinda think that would go with gameplay

great bait thread also
yo not true

I got into computer networking after I saw a particularly appreciative company vice president thank her IT guy.
Wonderful, another thread by FunkyHellboy for a video that nobody wants to see.
94IJM3V.jpg
 
If there is a effect at all, its probably so small that it doesn't matter. The way I think of it, you have to actually look for the porn. I don't se some random dude ,to just by chance, stumble apon porn from a fighting game that isn't really the most known of thing out there.
 
@Night Phyre, yeah maybe that was a little uncalled for...
I'm still not very interested in any future episodes.
 
@Night Phyre, yeah maybe that was a little uncalled for...
I'm still not very interested in any future episodes.
Then why are you here?
 
I voted yes. Exposure in any capacity is Exposure. Rule34 created by NOT the creators of the product is still advertisement of the product. It pique's interest, whether you think it does or not. This applies for any piece of content created based on any IP or tangible idea.

I'm starting to wonder whether these kind of threads are just to see how many erratic responses you can mock or if this is a legitimate question and you'd like to discuss it. The title is very clickbaity and I know nothing about you so I can't make any conclusion.

Edit
Honestly I find that Rule 34/Hentai/Porn in general has mainly helped the Skullgirls community grow and it has helped the game directly.
  • Zone-tan being one of the biggest/well-known online hentai producer making the "Filia" game has in my opinion helped out Skullgirls grow as Zone's large fan base, has now been exposed to Skullgirls and the publicity around Zone being hired also helped promote Skullgirls as well.
  • Its not a secret that the art style of Skullgirls leans toward the rule 34, and that helps by allowing the fans of the media to become fans of the game through it.
I'm not sure whether or not Zone making mini-loops has helped the exposure of SkullGirls anymore than any of his other mini-loops has? It's a pretty miniscule thing that happened to be at the wayside. The only reason it was actually noticable is because Zone contracted SkullGirls' announcer to do some lines.

As for "leaning towards rule 34", how does one make pornography of itself in itself? If you're saying the game is risque and as a result, it acquired fans... Welcome to anything with any aesthetic ever? Perhaps even more so with any inkling of sexual content (Hello, Tail Concerto).

Not sure how to feel, but I do try to be fair. Cautious optimism that this won't end up on like Kotaku or something.

Edit 2: Also consider the amount of people who express their love of pornography (especially hentai) is probably a miniscule number. I uh... hmm.

Exposure of a thing exposes the thing to more people who would otherwise not see the thing? I think that's about what I want to say
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BallotBoxer
I voted yes. Exposure in any capacity is Exposure. Rule34 created by NOT the creators of the product is still advertisement of the product. It pique's interest, whether you think it does or not. This applies for any piece of content created based on any IP or tangible idea.

I'm starting to wonder whether these kind of threads are just to see how many erratic responses you can mock or if this is a legitimate question and you'd like to discuss it. The title is very clickbaity and I know nothing about you so I can't make any conclusion.

Edit

I'm not sure whether or not Zone making mini-loops has helped the exposure of SkullGirls anymore than any of his other mini-loops has? It's a pretty miniscule thing that happened to be at the wayside. The only reason it was actually noticable is because Zone contracted SkullGirls' announcer to do some lines.

As for "leaning towards rule 34", how does one make pornography of itself in itself? If you're saying the game is risque and as a result, it acquired fans... Welcome to anything with any aesthetic ever? Perhaps even more so with any inkling of sexual content (Hello, Tail Concerto).

Not sure how to feel, but I do try to be fair. Cautious optimism that this won't end up on like Kotaku or something.

Edit 2: Also consider the amount of people who express their love of pornography (especially hentai) is probably a miniscule number. I uh... hmm.

Exposure of a thing exposes the thing to more people who would otherwise not see the thing? I think that's about what I want to say
So you want to say that any publicity is good publicity?
Well then I would agree.
(Also no, this is not clickbait, its so I can gather info on a topic for a video and this is an undisclosed topic so it would be perfect to bring up and make a video on.)
 
There's literally porn of EVERYTHING, and while many of the character designs in Skullgirls are...more conducive to being rule 34'd due to them already being sexualized I don't think this hurts the perception of the game that much. There is MUCH more porn (and fan art) for more popular games like Street Fighter and I don't think that makes anyone think less of Street Fighter (well, maybe it does but I imagine those are the people that think SF is 'dumb anime shit').

If anything I'd say it potentially could bring in more people. I'm sure discovering Skullgirls through finding rule 34 of it has happened more than once, and I doubt anyone would stay away from the game because of the rule 34. Even if for some reason someone DID decide to not buy the game because of the porn, i imagine they were already probably leaning towards not buying the game in the first place due to disliking the art style.
 
So you want to say that any publicity is good publicity?
Well then I would agree.
(Also no, this is not clickbait, its so I can gather info on a topic for a video and this is an undisclosed topic so it would be perfect to bring up and make a video on.)
Yeah, any publicity is good publicity. After all, zinac talking mad shit about SkullGirls (2012) is why I knew about it way back in 2010! Been following it with anticipation ever since!

Also, rad. There's been way too many R34 things for SkullGirls / oh god zone worked on this / oh god these people are perverts that kind of robs it of being discussed in serious light, despite how rife the topic is for bullshit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JinKazama'94
Wonderful, another thread by FunkyHellboy for a video that nobody wants to see. Whatever, I'll answer the question. I'm going to agree with most of the posters here and say that it doesn't really matter.

image.jpg


In all seriousness yes there is porn of everything but I don't think rule 34 brings in fans, the game itself does. Character designs like big band and peacock caught my eye and made me investigate the game further. I've know people who have gotten into games because of their characters, gameplay, artstyle, etc. honestly ask yourself did you get into skullgirls because of the rule 34?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Broseidon Rex
rule 34 is the rule that if something exists, there's porn of it.
what makes skullgirls so special that it shouldn't have porn????
shit happens
and either way, it's got a fanbase.
the porn only gets us more people, tbh. if they don't like the gamelay, whatever, leave and continue getting off to it if you want.
it's sort of like how certain people watch shows, whether they be anime or other cartoons, for the tits and ass
no sweat
 
  • Like
Reactions: JinKazama'94
Well known anyone doing something with Skullgirls is going to get it exposure.

Regardless of what it looks like or what it is, everything gets rule 34. Like I found rule 34 for staplers and tanks yo. The way Skullgirls looks had nothing to do with it getting rule 34d.
 
Man, that stapler shit is too hot. Why would you get me to search for it?
 
I was gonna just say a bunch of stuff everyone else said,
it's kinda exposure but the game has a strong fanbase anyways so it doesn't really matter and most people who get into the game through porn aren't gonna become die hard players of it.
I was GONNA say that, but something more important came up

(they being Zone and Noil)

WHAT THE HELL, Noill works on SG?
How come I never heard of this, you're telling me that's what he's been up to this whole time?
 
Neutral-to-positive stance on it. people would do porn of microsoft word's clippy (the assistant thing in older MS offices) if they had enough free time.

let artists do their art. they're not charging for it anyway. Fair use, no abuse.

it's also a way to filter good and bad gaming press: if X glorified bl... i mean, "game journalists" says SG is sexist because of sexy fanart (or even official art, mind you), you know someone is more busy trying to make a scene than actually knowing the game they're talking about.

Weird similar situation:Ages ago i've seen someone say (facebook, i think) that My little Pony is bad for children because of sexualized fanart out there. Extreme case, BAD case and shouldn't be the norm.

More normal possible situation: someone looks for hentai, find a sexy fanart of a SG character. dig a little more, find more fanart, find official art, find sprites, and finds the game. gets curious, buy it and starts playing. either likes the game and stays or plays for a while and drops it later. either way, one more customer and one more potential community member right?

fanart, even porn, is normally a good thing: who does it is expressing its art and its creative freedom. The "source" material gains exposure and, save for a vocal minority or extreme material, the response should normally be neutral-to-positive.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: FunkyHellboy
I honestly find it doesn't help the community because it's hard to play the game with sticky hands on a keyboard

but in all seriousness i never heard anyone started playing a fighter cause they liked porn from it, how the fuck do you bring that in conversation. "Oh, double just got me so hot and bothered i had to buy this game and start making ryona videos".

yeah, i have no way not to make this sound any less rude.
 
As sexually charged as some things in Skullgirls are, I'm pretty sure that some people at Lab Zero would be a little offended at you equating it to outright pornography?

If pornography offends them I guess they'll get offended.
This is an argument I always laugh at, like people who don't want canonical art to be defined pornography or vulgar when well, it is. Alex Ahad likes to draw beautiful provocative girls, so did Manet, Klimt, Picasso and many others, and that's okay.
 
Imma be straight with ya'll. SG rule34 kinda sucks. There are better things to wank one off to.

Except for you @ToDDaBeLLa, you know what you're doin'. Keep up the good work.

Also...

...but in all seriousness i never heard anyone started playing a fighter cause they liked porn from it...

I specifically recall a dude on the Steam forums stating that the only reason he learned about the game, bought it, and started playing it was because of the adult flash game that Zone made featuring Filia. Just Saiyan.
 
I don't think having porn of this game is going to be negative for it. If someone wants to do naughty pictures, then fan-fucking-tastic, great for them. If people don't wanna see it, they can be like nope and scroll down. If they wanna see it, they can be like yep and not scroll. just in my experience, I haven't heard of people put down other things because some punks drew em naked, those are different people than the dudes making the product.
 
I honestly find it doesn't help the community because it's hard to play the game with sticky hands on a keyboard

but in all seriousness i never heard anyone started playing a fighter cause they liked porn from it, how the fuck do you bring that in conversation. "Oh, double just got me so hot and bothered i had to buy this game and start making ryona videos".

I think the example is more like:

1) Person is browsing through an image gallery.
2) See's image of Fillia (or Beowulf or whomever).
3) Does not know who this character is, but likes her/his design.
4) Looks it up, possibly buys and plays Skullgirls.

The idea is not that the derivative media helps exposure BECAUSE its pornographic; it's that ANY derivative media bolsters interest in the original work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FunkyHellboy