BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:10 pm
FN's point was that you're fine with agendas, going so far as to polarize this issue between trivial features and political misrepresentation. And... more importantly, the agenda brought specifically for games like CoD is more subliminal or obfuscated, unlike AA.
First thank you for giving me an answer that is difficult to answer. But I think Fuzzy and I are more being side tracked.
Let me see if I can explain. Battletech, recent entry is fun and has an interesting character creator that some have accused the creator of being an agenda. It makes the him/her/they pronouns independent of the profile picture. Also accusing the profile pictures for not having effeminate females or blonde hair. While I never quite liked the looks I got out of the character creator. You never played that character. It was basically a profile picture. It also had no dating or love mechanics to it. But it did have such a faithful reproduction of the original table top game that my 3025 stat book was one for one with what they generated. I thought it was great.
What is harder is pointing out a game with drivel. I don't get to play as many games as I would like. So I have to be more theoretical. Basically if say a Star Wars game decided that all that Force stuff and the rest was less important than altering your gender and being with X gender. That would be writing a personal political view. Not a game for Star Wars.
Am I making sense? Because it is hard for me to describe.
It sounds like your idea of what is "too political" is largely hypothetical/theoretical, and more something to play devil's advocate on, rather than something you are concerned about as a clear and present force in the art form.
"Believe me, there’s nothing so terrible that someone won’t support it."
— Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:10 pm
EA Sports is more about franchising simulation and not direct gameplay.
I have to agree there. There's almost no difference between, say, NFL 08 and 07, just a different lineup of players, which is part of the appeal.
It's in the game.
Honestly all I've ever played is exhibitions, but it's not just the lineup, at least as far as I've seen in Angry Joe reviews. It's basically like being a general manager in some games, playing through season while you do stuff ranging from trading players to setting ticket/concession prices.
BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:10 pm
FN's point was that you're fine with agendas, going so far as to polarize this issue between trivial features and political misrepresentation. And... more importantly, the agenda brought specifically for games like CoD is more subliminal or obfuscated, unlike AA.
First thank you for giving me an answer that is difficult to answer. But I think Fuzzy and I are more being side tracked.
Let me see if I can explain. Battletech, recent entry is fun and has an interesting character creator that some have accused the creator of being an agenda. It makes the him/her/they pronouns independent of the profile picture. Also accusing the profile pictures for not having effeminate females or blonde hair. While I never quite liked the looks I got out of the character creator. You never played that character. It was basically a profile picture. It also had no dating or love mechanics to it. But it did have such a faithful reproduction of the original table top game that my 3025 stat book was one for one with what they generated. I thought it was great.
What is harder is pointing out a game with drivel. I don't get to play as many games as I would like. So I have to be more theoretical. Basically if say a Star Wars game decided that all that Force stuff and the rest was less important than altering your gender and being with X gender. That would be writing a personal political view. Not a game for Star Wars.
Am I making sense? Because it is hard for me to describe.
Just to be frank, I think we are on the same page, given that it's more your book we're looking at and I here think your post is appropriately reflexive of what I was saying.
I think an issue I was circling around your sentiment has to do with accepting a game that makes lgbt implementation arbitrary and pedestrian, but lamenting the effort otherwise, as the only other step from there is trying to turn Need for Speed into the Zoe Quinn depression game. If you find that unfair of the concern you have for the game you're spending $60 on, just know that it's intentional hyperbole. Perhaps though I just find it hard to imagine that being the case, at least for Star Wars I think at least they can't be doing that bad with it.
The middle ground I see in that case would just be essentially confining gender aspects to the character outset, making but only responsive elements to the NPCs and story plot but not to stifle them. It just doesn't seem that impractical of an idea and seems totally inline with what progressive gaming fans are respectably looking for. Really it's like I feel like if you're not shooting for that as a game writer or whatever then there's likely more going on stifling creativity than the effort to be inclusive. That might just be projected takes that I have on the Bechdel test implications.
You know what would be a great approach? Do something like what Dragon Age did with character origins. Certain dialogue options come up if you're an elf. You could also make it a difficulty setting, like you can change it so it's just a cosmetic/internal choice, or so it affects the barriers you deal with in the game. Like, you can set it so you deal with bigoted characters or not, optional subquest where you gather 100 butterfly cocoons for a transition spell or whatnot. Make it like being a City Elf or a Mage or being the heir to Highever.
"Believe me, there’s nothing so terrible that someone won’t support it."
— Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
Winter wrote: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 11:01 pm
Yes. Last year Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War included a third option for players which was that of Non-Binary this everyone would refer to said character in they/them pronouns and it made me realize how other games haven't included this option.
I thought that was nice of them. The only weird thing about it is that you were working for Ronald Reagan and his administration that, uh, wouldn't exactly be trans friendly.
Winter wrote: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 11:01 pm
Yes. Last year Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War included a third option for players which was that of Non-Binary this everyone would refer to said character in they/them pronouns and it made me realize how other games haven't included this option.
I thought that was nice of them. The only weird thing about it is that you were working for Ronald Reagan and his administration that, uh, wouldn't exactly be trans friendly.
Agreed but Call of Duty is not exactly known for being super realistic (I think at least one game in the series is set in space with Jon Snow as a lead character) so I don't see this as a big issue with this series. COD is clearly just meant to be a game were you play a Kick@$$ solider doing Kick@$$ things and the "Story" is more of a side thing. That's not a criticism it's comment.
