Opinion: Koei Tecmo Continues to Protect the Image of Dead or Alive

By now most people know that Dead or Alive has been exploited by a plethora of sniveling con artists out there in the adult entertainment world, and Koei Tecmo has seemingly double downed on getting the police and courts involved with this outrageous idea that people think they can do whatever they want with characters they don't own. Koei Tecmo has "cracked down" on advertisers of adult entertainment using their characters to sell sex and now it's in the form of a body pillow that is in custody.

If we are going to do some pillow-talk here I personally feel no remorse for the individual(s) arrested for this case. Stop using DOA unethically and unauthorized as your hobby horse to get money and get a real job or career like everyone else! If you don't want to work at Koei Tecmo, use your skills with the franchises they create for proper content creations that are within the means of the law! Every now and then I see naked drawings of game characters, or other types of fan fiction such as written relationships with game characters. There is nothing wrong with that if you are doing it as a hobby interpretation, but if you are seeking to profit from sex exploitation of DOA characters then you are on your own and the cops and court system will follow you as made evident by this second-rate fluffer stuffer.

Some people may disagree and say something like "Oh well Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation is exploiting and dangerous to those that would identify as a woman." My response to this idiotic and inane comment would be thousands of people are uploading thousands of photos of beautiful DOA female characters every single day! Over half of the Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation content creators I talk to are FEMALE. So, you tell me how the fuck that's dangerous or exploitative. A social justice warrior's mind is stuffed with more fluff than one of these illegal pillows if this type of "person" thinks DOA is damaging to someone who identifies as a woman.

The photo in the banner of this story is by Rino, one of many content creators on Twitter for DOAX. People can say they don't like the DOA girls in bikinis or that they need to cover up, but bikinis and edgy entertainment can be done tastefully and artistically. Team NINJA in particular excels at this side of entertainment and DOAX is doing better numbers than any fighter out. Am I celebrating this? Absolutely because the reason most fighters don't succeed is because these competitive players have massive chips on their shoulders, alienate players that don't fit the bill for their club house, and make it all about them!

Here at Free Step Dodge we do our best to honor every player that shows-up at a tournament, we don't make it a popularity contest. We don't shit on people trying to make a rise in the scene or look to make cheap puns about their characters! Look at our catalogue of tournament write-ups. WE honor and serve the player and in other communities they might as well have the same tournament numbers as us because they treat everyone else (that isn't in their club house) like a cog that spins their wheel! Now with the numbers DOAX is showing it shows that people fucking love the DOA universe and want to be a part of it and interact with it. "Never taken seriously" my ass.

While I'm on it DOA is not "niche" for being edgier (and better) than the competition. Look at how Tekken Harada has stolen ideas from DOA since the early 2000s. With not only Leo, but Lucky Chloe and NOW even environmental damage and awareness will come into play. The point is DOA is extremely successful and it's NOT Koei Tecmo's fault that they make beautiful female characters and come up with innovations and creations other people want to steal.

Watch Winter Brawl 3D or signup for Winter Brawl 3D and you will see why Free Step Dodge is far from nonsensical and completely literal with how we choose to produce our content in comparison to the competition.

 

This action to me seems more like they are protecting their trademark than they are protecting the image of their characters. This being done on japan very openly is what made them act. There are currently people making paid mods for doa5 and doa6, people that dont do paid mods but have patreons for donations while setting up mods, there are animators and artists making a buck out of the Dead or Alive characters and assets all over the world and not in safe for work ways.

I have my personal feelings about the xtreme games (that they should not exist in the first place), but even ignoring that, doa xtreme 3 and venus vacation have all sets of problems, like the peeking scenes that i was told is actually mandatory, meaning you have to play the part of a perv. The whole owna san is very stupid, and venus vacation is also a gacha game, meaning it has that terrible moneytizarion system. I think the portrayal of characters is very much out of character for a good chunk.

So, what you are saying is: people are using loopholes such as Patreon to legally make money off their work with the franchise. With that said wouldn't it be wise for the pillow makers to do something similar? Instead of making a product that is for sale as if it is their own? I know a lot more of the NSFW ads I've seen for Dead or Alive (that actually have nothing to do with Dead or Alive) definitely gave off a viewpoint that these sexy characters were their characters.

There are always going to be people that don't like the Xtreme games or think they should not exist (even though the DOAX franchise has been around for like TWENTY years) but I think people sometimes also have a holier than thou perspective on it. For instance, I would rather a person with violent tendencies not only be receiving mental help but also seeking video games as a way to help their problem. The same can be said about adult entertainment.

I've always seen DOAX as more campy, soft and humorous than some of the other truly vile shit that is out there for adult entertainment as games. As for the comments about it being a "gacha game" I have not put a single cent into the game itself and I've unlocked all but two characters and have over 30 SSRs. It's simply there for people that want more, and I think this was done a lot better than the paid costumes in DOA6.

Imagine if DOA6 implemented a similar system where people could unlock things on the regular with paid options if you want and non-paid options as long as you are regularly playing. I think there would be more players, a lot more casuals that could eventually start to see DOA as a serious and favorite regular fighter, and more overall appeal.

The characters are on a vacation, and despite this their characters are still very much intact. I've read all the English dialogue.

 

So, what you are saying is: people are using loopholes such as Patreon to legally make money off their work with the franchise. With that said wouldn't it be wise for the pillow makers to do something similar? Instead of making a product that is for sale as if it is their own? I know a lot more of the NSFW ads I've seen for Dead or Alive (that actually have nothing to do with Dead or Alive) definitely gave off a viewpoint that these sexy characters were their characters.

There are always going to be people that don't like the Xtreme games or think they should not exist (even though the DOAX franchise has been around for like TWENTY years) but I think people sometimes also have a holier than thou perspective on it. For instance, I would rather a person with violent tendencies not only be receiving mental help but also seeking video games as a way to help their problem. The same can be said about adult entertainment.

I've always seen DOAX as more campy, soft and humorous than some of the other truly vile shit that is out there for adult entertainment as games. As for the comments about it being a "gacha game" I have not put a single cent into the game itself and I've unlocked all but two characters and have over 30 SSRs. It's simply there for people that want more, and I think this was done a lot better than the paid costumes in DOA6.

Imagine if DOA6 implemented a similar system where people could unlock things on the regular with paid options if you want and non-paid options as long as you are regularly playing. I think there would be more players, a lot more casuals that could eventually start to see DOA as a serious and favorite regular fighter, and more overall appeal.

The characters are on a vacation, and despite this their characters are still very much intact. I've read all the English dialogue.

For every 100 players not spending a dime in a gacha game, there is one spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars every month, thats how the system is profitable, I think it is inheritly evil that a system that targets people that are addicted to gambling or that wont stop spending money until they get everything the game can offer.

About adult entertainment, there is a lot of data nowadays that basically confirms that it only brings harm to people, but I'm not here to argue that.

So you telling me that the reaction of every doa girl when noticing they are being peeked when changing clothes would be: " ahhhh owna san, you making me blush... " or something like that?

Lile you said, the xtreme series are there to stay, and they have their fans, is not my thing, but at least from what i've seen x1 and x2 tried to keep the characters well, in character, and it didnt have the owna san side of the thing, x3 and scarlet has those things but it is still a grind to get content game, with xvv, is just a gacha game and I am pretty much the existence of gacha systems. And i think doa xtreme fans would also be happy to have a less grindy game without gambling their own real money.

 

For every 100 players not spending a dime in a gacha game, there is one spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars every month, thats how the system is profitable, I think it is inheritly evil that a system that targets people that are addicted to gambling or that wont stop spending money until they get everything the game can offer.

About adult entertainment, there is a lot of data nowadays that basically confirms that it only beings harm to people, but I'm not here to argue that.

So you telling me that the reaction of every doa girl when noticing they are being peeked when changing clothes would be: " ahhhh owna san, you making me blush... " or something like that?

Lile you said, the xtreme series are there to stay, and they have their fans, is not my thing, but at least from what i've seen x1 and x2 tried to keep the characters well, in character, and it didnt have the owna san side of the thing, x3 and scarlet has those things but it is still a grind to get content game, with xvv, is just a gacha game and I am pretty much the existence of gacha systems. And i think doa xtreme fans would also be happy to have a less grindy game without gambling their own real money.

To me it sounds like you know very little about the DOAX franchise but want to rationalize adult entertainment and gambling as evil. Do we have scripture coming next? I'd rather somebody get peeked on wearing a bikini than see a spine ripped out of a body like in Mortal Kombat. The point I'm trying to make is that it's entertainment. Entertainment is usually provocative.

 

I agree with Soth. VV is trash and it is predatory by design. Gacha companies have no scruples about stealing money from gambling addicts and worse when they target children.

VV (and DOAX in general) has harmed the DOA fighting game series. TN tried to distance themselves away from that with the whole "I'm A Fighter" marketing campaign but it will forever be associated with that image of a titty volleyball game. The DOAX games never should have happened. If TN was serious about a DOA reboot, they would try to make a Herculean effort to shed that stigma but that would also require to stop supporting VV and never make another DOAX title, which ain't happening.

The voyeurism of VV is creepy and cringe. For example, look at the cutscene whenever you draw a new outfit for Nagisa. She yells at you for peeking her, runs over to the sink counter, bends over and sticks her ass in the air. It's embarrassing.

 

I agree with Soth. VV is trash and it is predatory by design. Gacha companies have no scruples about stealing money from gambling addicts and worse when they target children.

VV (and DOAX in general) has harmed the DOA fighting game series. TN tried to distance themselves away from that with the whole "I'm A Fighter" marketing campaign but it will forever be associated with that image of a titty volleyball game. The DOAX games never should have happened. If TN was serious about a DOA reboot, they would try to make a Herculean effort to shed that stigma but that would also require to stop supporting VV and never make another DOAX title, which ain't happening.

The voyeurism of VV is creepy and cringe. For example, look at the cutscene whenever you draw a new outfit for Nagisa. She yells at you for peeking her, runs over to the sink counter, bends over and sticks her ass in the air. It's embarrassing.

Coming from the same guy that says this in a disclaimer and associates a penis pump to other users:

"Disclaimer: The intended audience for these instructions are for those who are well adjusted, normal humans with normal lives who regularly have sex and have some basic computer literacy. This is NOT for those who are socially inept, terminally online, have severe autistim who cannot function without being toxic to others, who are jerks to others because they are not as autistic as themselves, are unable to attract the opposite sex, shut-ins, those who haven't left their rooms in the last decade, those incapable of touching grass, those who have never seen a vagina outside their mother's. If this is you, STOP reading now and do not reply."

The boys that got mad about a mod have to find their next fixation where they can find it, right?

 

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That disclaimer was an inside joke. What does that have anything to do with what I posted? Where did I associate a penis pump to other users? Are you high right now?

 

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That disclaimer was an inside joke. What does that have anything to do with what I posted? Where did I associate a penis pump to other users? Are you high right now?

No, I'm serious as can be and who wouldn't look at that and think otherwise? Regardless of you trying to opt out of what you said I found your disclaimer alone to be far more embarrassing and ruder than a chick bending over and being peeked at in a video game that people play in private.

I won't even waste my time going over your rants, wild speculations, and verbal assaults - but 90% of your takes are far more offensive than anything put in DOAXVV. Type a Bible and pound the table I really don't care. I'm not going to entertain it. I know the route of you entering a conversation well.

 

Thanks for reminding me that nothing quite embarrasses me more as a DOA fan than the cringe you post, especially as front-page "news". At least when I cringe during the VV gravures I'm not in physical pain.

 

Thanks for reminding me that nothing quite embarrasses me more as a DOA fan than the cringe you post, especially as front-page "news". At least when I cringe during the VV gravures I'm not in physical pain.

That’s quite opposite of what you said in the mod post that you heckled. I think your double standards go beyond anything redeemable. According to you Emery ruined DOA as well. I don’t think you have a real bone in your body and that’s why I can’t take anything you say as face value and never will.

 

I thought my compliment couldn't have been more obviously insincere. But that's deathofanincompoop for you. And yeah, Emery being the social media face of DOA is worse than whatever DLC practices KT will pull in the next DOA game.

 

I thought my compliment couldn't have been more obviously insincere. But that's deathofanincompoop for you. And yeah, Emery being the social media face of DOA is worse than whatever DLC practices KT will pull in the next DOA game.

Say less, brother! Trust me. You will not have to worry about our fluff much longer. Especially mine.

 

the next doa reboot going to be predatory too, so suck it

 

To me it sounds like you know very little about the DOAX franchise but want to rationalize adult entertainment and gambling as evil.

I do think both are evil in nature, yes, specially the latter, there is a GDC talk I believe on youtube, that explains how the devs use psychological tested tactics to get people addicted into these types of games and how they get people to spend money on them, If you think a System like that is better than whatever x3, x2 or xtreme had going for, I am honestly speechless. About the content of the game itself, you can't convince me, for example, that Ayane's reaction to beeing creeply peeked by Owna san would be nothing short of knocking the guy out, but as far as i'm aware you get a generic character blushes and quickly forgives owna san. And then you have a bunch of characters that based on their character types sould never be poledancing, even less so just for one guy, I could see Tina, Christie, maybe Hitomi doing that, but not Kasumi, Helena, Kokoro and so on, but maybe I am just too hung up on character writing.

I am fine with the xtreme series existing even if i dont like it personally, but XVV is not how it should go

 

I have agreements and disagreements with both sides of this discussion at the moment...

the next doa reboot going to be predatory too, so suck it

KT: So first and foremost with the next DOA installment, we believe we should double down on what got us a lot of negative publicity with the previous installment. It may have been the final straw, but surely if we start off at that level of bulltshit, we can get away with much more before fans get too angry again!
TN: Yes, good call! You can blame it on us again afterwards. Any number of us are ready to join Shimbori-san for this!

 

I do think both are evil in nature, yes, specially the latter, there is a GDC talk I believe on youtube, that explains how the devs use psychological tested tactics to get people addicted into these types of games and how they get people to spend money on them, If you think a System like that is better than whatever x3, x2 or xtreme had going for, I am honestly speechless. About the content of the game itself, you can't convince me, for example, that Ayane's reaction to beeing creeply peeked by Owna san would be nothing short of knocking the guy out, but as far as i'm aware you get a generic character blushes and quickly forgives owna san. And then you have a bunch of characters that based on their character types sould never be poledancing, even less so just for one guy, I could see Tina, Christie, maybe Hitomi doing that, but not Kasumi, Helena, Kokoro and so on, but maybe I am just too hung up on character writing.

I am fine with the xtreme series existing even if i dont like it personally, but XVV is not how it should go

No, I don't think it's creepy, but I also don't have "Christian values." Where violence is good acceptable entertainment and everything else is a cardinal sin. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I was raised in a Christian family, and I know how it goes. When I moved to Vegas and got away from that mentality it was very refreshing to see girls dancing on poles, smoking in casinos and gambling with free drinks. I love my vices and freedoms beyond everything else. I thought DOAX2 was a great game, but I do think DOAXVV is a step ahead of DOAX3. Believe it or not anyone is capable of going on a vacation and being out of character isn't uncommon.

 

No, I don't think it's creepy, but I also don't have "Christian values." Where violence is good acceptable entertainment and everything else is a cardinal sin. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I was raised in a Christian family, and I know how it goes. When I moved to Vegas and got away from that mentality it was very refreshing to see girls dancing on poles, smoking in casinos and gambling with free drinks. I love my vices and freedoms beyond everything else. I thought DOAX2 was a great game, but I do think DOAXVV is a step ahead of DOAX3. Believe it or not anyone is capable of going on a vacation and being out of character isn't uncommon.

So you don't think it is creepy to stalk people and peek them changing clothes?

 

So you don't think it is creepy to stalk people and peek them changing clothes?

I think stalking is far different than what’s presented in DOAXVV.

 

If people want to gamble then let them - if someone chooses flush their life savings away on a gacha game then that's their own fault. Part of being an autonomous human being is the capability to make rational (or irrational) decisions for one's self, and to learn from the consequences.

I'll admit that I do find the peeping stuff in VV to be a little gross though. Part of that is down to me being uncomfortable with a lot of sexual content in general, and part of it is down to my belief in respect of the characters. I haven't actually played VV though so I don't pay it much mind.

I'd rather somebody get peeked on wearing a bikini than see a spine ripped out of a body like in Mortal Kombat.

I'll never pick up a modern Mortal Kombat game because of this - it's just disgusting at this point. Sad thing is that MK used to have a sense of humor - I played the first few games for a brief spell years ago (I was never any good at it but I liked the character designs - Cyber Smoke was my favourite). The fatalities used to have a campy element to them and the graphics were primitive enough that it wasn't too disturbing.

 

The way I see it, the only reason Koei Tecmo cracked down on those body pillow sellers was because they were selling them online in plain sight. Easy prosecution, those sellers were being stupid. I've personally also seen wallscrolls/posters/shirts and other merch being sold over amazon of various IPs, without any mention of a license to do so in sight. The fact that they pointed out that the DOA girl images on the pillow covers were nude was an irrelevant thing to do, actually...

This stuff falls under the category of "doujinshi" or "doujin works", basically any fan work that uses someone else's copyrighted IP, whither they be pornographic or the furthest thing from it. It's actually illegal to sell doujin works, but most doujin creators still profit from them by selling them through semi-underground methods, like selling them at comiket (as the most well known example). They get away with it because they sell them in relatively small amounts or because the IP holders actually don't mind and see it as actually promoting their IP (and maybe the IP holders themselves enjoy doujin or have enjoyed doujin works in the past or even made it themselves). Hell, my own pvp here is actually from a DOA doujinshi that's over 20 years old now.

So, this isn't something exclusive to DOA in Japan... pretty much every IP deals with the same kinda thing from Doraemon to One Piece, Mario to King of Fighters. IP holders will crack down if and when they can, as in the case of KT and the DOA dakimakura.

As for DOA's rep... there's 18+ fan work that's long been out there that's imo can be argued to be far more damaging than these dakimakura yet nothing being done about them. I mean, there's nothing inherently disgusting, degrading, or wrong about nudity or even sex, but the way it's done can make a difference. Thanks to the power of sourceforge and the like today, people have been able to turn DOA's and various other video game characters into their own personal pornstar actors. I mean, it was one thing when it was handdrawn manga, but today we can see what looks like official models doing very unofficial things, lol. Not that I'd judge anyone for liking any of that, I can look for what I like just as anyone can look for what they like as long as I don't have to see something I don't want to see myself, and as long as no one is getting money for unofficial content (though with sites like patreon, that can be seen as loopholes for people to make money off of characters that aren't their own). It's more weird when you see ads to porn sites that use DOA girls in them.

That said, while I wouldn't judge, I think there's something to be said for character integrity. A lot of artist out there, like what DOAN was saying, are using copyrighted characters and putting their own interests above things like the series rep or character integrity. If many people today are being introduced to DOA through an elaborate porn movie that uses DOA models and gets millions of views on pornhub or something, I think that's a problem. Even something like applying a religion to certain characters, that's something I've actually seen happen. I've known really religiously devout DOA fans before and none of them went that far to even speculate the religion of any character, yet some random artists have just gone and chosen it for them now. These days I can think of even worse fates to happen to someone's original creations - look what happened to Pepe the frog.

And on the flipside, it can be argued by fans that KT's own Venus Vacation has thrown DOA's character integrity out the window, when you have all the girls swooning over or flirting with the self-insert character "ohna-san" (pretty much turning them all into almost harem characters in a visual novel) and seemingly all have an equal lack of objection when it comes to having to wear venus-tier swimsuits. At least DOAXBV and DOAX2 you could argue it was actually just about DOA girls (the actual DOA girls, with their own characters and behaviors intact) having fun in swimsuits on a beach by playing volleyball and other activities. And that's without even mentioning how DOA's own characters are made to play 2nd fiddle next to a bunch of non-combatant newcomers in a game with DOA in the title. If this is the only current and most popular form of DOA, then it's just a fact that DOA's girls are being seen by most people as "waifus" first and fighters... maybe 2nd, if at all?

There's nothing that can be done about non-profit fanmade content that could affect the series reputation or the rep of its characters. There's only one effective way to fight it and that's for KT to put out their own, good, official content. The more their visions of the series and characters and put out there, fleshed out, and popularized, the harder it is for other people to fill any voids with own self-interests to be effective in using DOA for their own reasons. Right now all the content is coming from either DOA fan content creators, fan works, other works using their IP for their own gain, and KT's own Venus Vacation. If they want the world to see their characters as fighters first and foremost, they have to put out that image upfront themselves, like they did with DOA5. Yeah some people joked about "I am a Fighter" but I think most people bought into it ultimately, despite all the swimsuit DLC. But can they seriously use that line again next time? Or will the next time be "I am a Fighter, remember!?".

So yeah, time for KT to put out their own official "clean" dakimakuras, lmao. Hey, they had official oppai pads being put out there for a while, right...?

Tecmo doesn't go after the Amazon wallscroll sellers because they are based In china and China doesn't prosecute its citizens based on foreign claims and nobody is more hated than the Japanese. Tecmo likely went after the body pillow people because they were based in the US , Japan, or some other country with rule of law.

 

This action to me seems more like they are protecting their trademark than they are protecting the image of their characters. This being done on japan very openly is what made them act. There are currently people making paid mods for doa5 and doa6, people that dont do paid mods but have patreons for donations while setting up mods, there are animators and artists making a buck out of the Dead or Alive characters and assets all over the world and not in safe for work ways.

I have my personal feelings about the xtreme games (that they should not exist in the first place), but even ignoring that, doa xtreme 3 and venus vacation have all sets of problems, like the peeking scenes that i was told is actually mandatory, meaning you have to play the part of a perv. The whole owna san is very stupid, and venus vacation is also a gacha game, meaning it has that terrible moneytizarion system. I think the portrayal of characters is very much out of character for a good chunk.

The bad of the Xtreme series is no different than doing drive-bys in GTA. Both are just fantasy video games made exclusively for adults. If you are cool with drive-bys of game characters but put off by peeking on a none nude game character then your value system and ability to differentiate between real/fantasy is deeply flawed.