Tropes vs the Recently Released

I'm a bit surprised Laura Kate dale didnt highlight that in her review. Figured if anyone did it would have been her. Maybe it's one of those things with an alternate route and could be missed?

There's also a pretty homophobic character by the name of Bolson that shows up in Hateno town IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/QabH7Ef.jpg)

At first I got the sense that the character was worse before the translators got to it but nah it's still pretty homophobic in the US release.

I think the most disappointing thing about all this is that the only thing I've heard about any of this is being talking about how cute Link looks in the outfit completely divorced from the gross context.

I'm less then surprised that nobody has talked about it reviewers and commentators love to fawn over Nintendo but when you point out how genuinely (though not uniquely) awful they are on LGBTQ issues the most you ever get is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pyxistyx wrote:

I'm a bit surprised Laura Kate dale didn't highlight that in her review. Figured if anyone did it would have been her. Maybe it's one of those things with an alternate route and could be missed?

It can't be missed as far as I know. Not if you want to do all the dungeons anyways.

IHateDRM wrote:

I'm less then surprised that nobody has talked about it reviewers and commentators love to fawn over Nintendo but when you point out how genuinely (though not uniquely) awful they are on LGBTQ issues the most you ever get is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This. Nintendo does some great stuff, but they have some equally big problems—and friend codes and dead pixels aren't the worst.

How Breath of the Wild Failed Us When It Comes To Trans Identity
By Jennifer Unkle

If you want press coverage of it.

I'm glad to see some coverage but it should be something everyone is talking about and not left to the few trans writers that are working in the industry.

Waypoint should have covered this not just retweeted that article.

So, Outlast 2 got 'banned' in Australia (i.e: not given a rating therefore not able to be sold in stores) primarily due to one particular scene in the game. It's worth posting a warning about it up front I think.

Non TW/ light spoiler version:

Spoiler:

The main character is sexually assualted during a crazy mutant orgy.

Full spoiler/TW for description of sexual assualt version:

Spoiler:
In one cut-scene in the game ... a female creature prepares Blake for a ritual. She says, "I want to see your true face. Your seed will burn this world." Shortly afterwards, he objects to having psycho-active dust blown into his face, yelling, "Nope! Nope!" before he stumbles into a forest clearing.

His vision blurring, he witnesses what appears to a ritualistic orgy. His wife, Lynn, calls out for his help, saying, "It hurts! Oh god!," as she hangs from chains on a raised platform at the front of the clearing. Humanoid creatures, their skin grey, spattered with blood and scarred, implicitly have sex as others pray, or chant, or gesticulate.

One creature has another bent over a rock, thrusting as they implicitly have rear-entry sex, another sits astride the pelvic region of a creature prone on the ground, moving their hips rhythmically as they too implicitly have sex. Two other pairs of creatures in the clearing are also implicitly having sex.

As Blake yells for the creatures to "Get away from her!" a female creature, her greyish breasts bared, pushes him onto his back, holds his arms to the ground and repeatedly thrusts her crotch against him. As Blake protests, saying "No! Stop that!" the creature thrusts again, before placing its face over his midsection and then sitting up and wiping its mouth.

Although much of the contact between the creature and Blake is obscured, by it taking place below screen, the sexualised surroundings and aggressive behaviour of the creature suggest that it is an assault which is sexual in nature. The Board is of the opinion that this, combined with Blake's objections and distress, constitutes a depiction of implied sexual violence.

I guess they felt the need to try to one-up themselves after "That scene" from the Whistleblower DLC

That's... horrifying. I can't even begin to understand why someone (or group of someones) would think that was a good idea.

Oh my gosh, I'm regretting reading that spoiler. That's not just bad, that's puke awful. (you did warn us). This is me:
IMAGE(http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/02/nope.gif)

ahrezmendi wrote:

That's... horrifying. I can't even begin to understand why someone (or group of someones) would think that was a good idea.

Agreed, I just can't even begin to understand that either... Who wants to bet it's a group of white, young, cis het, brodudes? (Prejudiced, me? Maybe.)

Really wish I hadn't read that, I was never going to play the game, I hate horror games. Why did I read it?

ahrezmendi wrote:

That's... horrifying. I can't even begin to understand why someone (or group of someones) would think that was a good idea.

The kind of people who say "lighten up, it's just a game!"

Which usually makes me want to punch them in the crotch.

Response here to abide by the rules of the thread.

For those wondering about how Mass Effect: Andromeda would handle trans characters after Dragon Age: Inquisition the answer is:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7XPeGWXQAE7U98.jpg)

So poorly is how they handled it. Very poorly. Here's the tweet that brought this to my attention for more context: https://twitter.com/lonelytiefling/s...

Fair warning though this is getting some traction from the "ethics" crowd as an example of diversity quotas hurting games.

Subtle.....is a thing that that conversation isn't. Yeesh.

Where's David Gaider when you need him. *

*Beamdog, apparently.

That's impressively clumsy.

It reads like someone on the dev team was passionate about representation in the game and told the writer but the writer kinda didn't care and no checked up on it. It's not a great look.

Here's the full conversation in the Giant Bomb quick look: https://youtu.be/lfybbMOWelQ?t=1026

Completely apart from the ridiculous introduction done in a way no trans person ever would introduce themselves EVER...

"filling test tubes in some dead end lab."

Huh?

"Yes, our lab was located in a cul-de-sac. It was horrible."

IHateDRM wrote:

It reads like someone on the dev team was passionate about representation in the game and told the writer but the writer kinda didn't care and no checked up on it. It's not a great look.

It reads like tokenism. Bioware saw a positive response to Krem in Dragon Age: Inquisition and wanted that for Mass Effect but put in the absolute minimal effort. There's a trans character. Check that box. Move on.

Far be it from me to agree with the "diversity quotas are ruining gaming" crowd of sh*tcrawlers, but I think they're right in this instance to view this as a half-assed grab at diversity kudos without any real substance behind it.

I think that's very much also the case sadly.

Wow that is... impressively clunky and bad for a group that saw the response from Krem... where the only real complaint I saw was "There was no option in his discussion of his trans feelings where my Inquisitor could relate and say they felt the same way."

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Far be it from me to agree with the "diversity quotas are ruining gaming" crowd of sh*tcrawlers, but I think they're right in this instance to view this as a half-assed grab at diversity kudos without any real substance behind it.

Thank you for saying what I was thinking, much better than I would have. Stopped clock twice a day etc. but this is an example of clumsily forcing diversity giving us a bad stupid moment in a game. Write it well or we're probably better off if you leave it out.

This is probably a good argument, though, for diversity among writers, because someone trans (or who at least had real-world interactions with trans folks) would have been there to say as much.

beeporama wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Far be it from me to agree with the "diversity quotas are ruining gaming" crowd of sh*tcrawlers, but I think they're right in this instance to view this as a half-assed grab at diversity kudos without any real substance behind it.

Thank you for saying what I was thinking, much better than I would have. Stopped clock twice a day etc. but this is an example of clumsily forcing diversity giving us a bad stupid moment in a game. Write it well or we're probably better off if you leave it out.

This is probably a good argument, though, for diversity among writers, because someone trans (or who at least had real-world interactions with trans folks) would have been there to say as much.

Yeah, I feel like rule #1 any trans writer would have pointed out is "Don't have the trans character deadname/out themself immediately and for no reason whatsoever."

I don't think the issue is with attempting diversity - diversity is great and something every game should aspire to - it is with tokenism (which is not the same thing) and with failing to do homework. It reads as profoundly lazy, like they didn't consult with anyone at all. One of the reasons Krem was lauded was because the DA writing team did their homework and checked in with actual transgender people and solicited feedback.

This is especially upsetting because it is not only an unforced error, it allows people to perpetuate one of the worst myths about diversity in art - that diversity is something thrust upon artists that diminishes quality. The truth is diversity better reflects the world and is the stronger artistic choice, but this is the type of clumsiness makes it easier for internet trolls to conflate tokenism and diversity together.

Makes me miss Krem.

It seems whichever 'writer' thought that was a good idea must have looked at Siege of Dragonspear and though..." Yeah...forget that KREM stuff! That's WAY too much work! This'll do! DERP!" *rollseyes*

Krem was written and created by Bioware writer Patrick Weekes and carefully developed in quite considerable detail for a minor side character.

Talking over drinks at the bar later, we hit two major challenges. First, any conversation about the subject had to come up naturally in-game. A minor character like a shopkeeper would have no reason to explain that she is trans, so either the conversation would never come up or it would come up because her voice was clearly masculine, at which point it would look like a joke to most players, no matter how we tried to write it. Second, the character had to serve a purpose beyond “being there to be a genderqueer person.” Every character in our game serves a purpose—reinforcing the theme of a plot, character, or area—and we do not have the budget for someone who is just there to tick off a box.
Once we had decided what we wanted to do, we tackled the concept of Krem with other departments to figure out how to do it correctly. In doing so, we saw how much of our game’s engine was based on set gender assignments, from voice to face to animation set to localization plan for foreign languages. Every single department stepped up enthusiastically to make sure that Krem was created with respect. Colleen Perman gave Krem his fantastic face using the character art team’s head-morph system, John Epler nailed his animation and body language, Caroline Livingstone and Jennifer Hale found a great voice for a trans man in a world without access to transitional procedures, and Melanie Fleming made absolutely certain that Krem was gendered appropriately in all languages.
On the writing side, I wrote Krem as best I could, and the editing team looked at every line and cleaned up dialogue and paraphrases that could give the wrong impression. I then passed him to two friends in the GQ community… at which point they showed me where I was absolutely messing things up and gave me constructive feedback on how to improve.

In the investigate hub where you can ask Krem about his past in Tevinter, the first draft had him deserting after fighting off someone who discovered his secret and tried to assault him. My friends noted that this played directly into the sad “attacked trans person” cliché, and while it was plausible, it was an ugly event that could well trigger trans people who have experienced harassment in real life. The goal was for Krem to be a positive character who was living his life happily now, and I revised his departure from Tevinter accordingly.

Patrick and a great many of the DA:I writing staff are not part of the MEA writing team....as is now incredibly obvious.

* * *

Also, sidenote: I keep accidentally googling "Mass Effect Inquisition" by mistake....

Favorite Krem detail? Cole referring to Krem as he/him. I really expected THAT to go wrong, but was very good instead.

Fairly sure somebody at EA/Bioware thinks Diversity is an old old wooden ship.

TheGameguru wrote:

Fairly sure somebody at EA/Bioware thinks Diversity is an old old wooden ship.

EA, I could see not worrying/caring as much, maybe. Hard to say, I haven't picked up much from them in the last few years that wasn't also from Bioware.

Bioware, on the other hand, as previously noted, has had, minus a few sh*tty bits occasionally (like the above or the City Elf starting campaign in Dragon Age: Origins)... has had a pretty good record with at least trying.

I mean, Inquisition had one of the first trans characters I saw in a game that didn't immediately have Hypatian in my head telling me why this was bad (being cis, I totally didn't even think of the missing dialogue option on relating to Krem's feelings on the matter).

And one of the last books before the game launched included a genderfluid character too (a Grey Warden during the blight with the Elven warden who ended it and the last blight with the gryphons in their care).

I'd say they do seem to care, or at least generally, before now, haven't gotten in the way of the writers/story leads caring... which strikes me as better than nothing.

Demosthenes wrote:

I'd say they do seem to care, or at least generally, before now, haven't gotten in the way of the writers/story leads caring... which strikes me as better than nothing.

I think that the company ethos is very much in line with caring about representation - though it is important to note that the Andromeda team is relatively new. Judging from the early reviews, Andromeda is didn't take the time it needed to polish and refine a lot of its content. It apparently has a bunch of half-baked systems and interesting ideas not really polished.

It strikes me that that scene suffers in a similar way - it is sloppy. It feels like a first draft where nobody got the homework done and ending up rushing (and therefor not thinking it through.) Which is a shame because a sloppy inventory system is annoying and makes for bad gameplay, but an ill-thought out stab at diversity is actively harmful to many personal level and is certainly harmful to all on a cultural level. Especially with Bioware's reputation for getting this kind of thing right, and what they represent as a result of getting this stuff right in the past.

If this was a small release from an unknown company, I'd have a lot more space for the mistake. Most of the time it is better to try and fail and learn than to not try at all. But if you happen to be Bioware you have a responsibility (fairly or unfairly) to get this right. And it is upsetting that it feels like they pushed it to the side in the heat of the production process.

Polygon just put an article on the trans NPCs in Zelda, ME:A, and horizon (I had no idea there was a trans character in this one TBH and is the main reason I'm posting this):

http://www.polygon.com/2017/3/21/150...

My main take away is we need more trans main characters (written by trans people) and less side characters and that there's an argument that Zelda is slightly less of a trash fire then it first looks.

Was just going to post that but you beat me to it.