Useless gaming news & chatter

[Hawkbit]

http://www.tyrannygame.com/

These old man eyes had to do a triple take on that url.

[Sky]

 

[Fabricated]

Hulk Hogan is award $115 million in his case against Gawker. This is before punitive damages

This is one of those things where we really should be concerned about freedom of the press or whatever but man I just cannot muster a fuck to give.

[Fabricated]

Imagine sitting there at a resume writing service website, thinking about what you've been doing with the last decade or so of your life.

[Kail]

Imagine sitting there at a resume writing service website, thinking about what you've been doing with the last decade or so of your life.

I call those days "weekdays"

[Fabricated]

Imagine sitting there at a resume writing service website, thinking about what you've been doing with the last decade or so of your life.

I call those days "weekdays"

You might have more to write on your resume than "Wrote clickbait articles about videogames".

[schild]

If Gawker goes out of business I will be so happy. SO HAPPY.

[Khaldun]

It's not gonna go under. They saved up money for about this scale of judgment. But they will be a lot more cautious in the future, at any rate--that's why they shifted to "political coverage" even though none of their alleged 'writers' have even the least bit of experience or understanding with politics--because the legal standard for "public figure" is so much less likely to be litigated in "politics".

[Merusk]

Even if the punitive were an additional $115 mil, they'd appeal it down to tens if not ones of millions.

[Brolan]

Even if the punitive were an additional $115 mil, they'd appeal it down to tens if not ones of millions.

Yup, we are at least a year or more of appeals court activities before we know the final award.  And even if the final award is made public the media will be bored with it and be working the then current scandals.

[jakonovski]

I'll just sneak this in here. There's a new porny game coming from the Huniepop people, Huniecam Studio (NSFW in case you're dense). It's literally coming tomorrow in fact. This time it's a cam girl management sim.

[Rendakor]

Didn't realize that was dropping tomorrow, thanks.

[Gimfain]

I'll just sneak this in here. There's a new porny game coming from the Huniepop people, Huniecam Studio (NSFW in case you're dense). It's literally coming tomorrow in fact. This time it's a cam girl management sim.

The courtesy warning cracked me up.

"The sexual themes in this game are mostly for fun/humor and don't make for particularly great fapping material. "

[Rendakor]

It's not going to be as lewd as Huniepop was; the art style doesn't lend itself to that sort of thing.

[brellium]

http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/972903-gamers-flood-baldurs-gate-expansion-negative-reviews-introduces-transsexual-character

um, wow.

Amber Scott, a writer on the game, responded to these criticisms by saying: "As I've said before (and I won't say much more on this subject other than to get my perspective out there): I'm the writer and creator. I get to make decisions about who I write about and why. I don't like writing about straight/white/cis people all the time. It's not reflective of the real world, it sets up s/w/c as the "normal" baseline from which "other" characters must be added, and it's boring.
"I consciously add as much diversity as I can to my writing and I don't care if people think that's "forced" or fake. I find choosing to write from a straight default just as artificial. I'm happy to be an SJW and I hope to write many Social Justice Games in the future that reach as many different types of people as possible. Everyone should get a chance to see themselves reflected in pop culture."


Read more at http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/972903-gamers-flood-baldurs-gate-expansion-negative-reviews-introduces-transsexual-character#gYiodyjsSE3KW143.99

[Falconeer]

Wonderfully said and wonderfully done, Amber Scott.

[Merusk]

That 2nd steam review has a valid point. If it's the first thing a character says to you, it's pushing an agenda and hack writing. People don't go around introducing themselves by their sexual identity.

However, as it's presented in the article that doesn't seem to be the case. You have to follow a conversation tree about the character's name, then ask for further clarification. The outrage is a hell of a lot of uncomfortable boys being uncomfortable. No surprise there.

[Mandella]

Amber Scott, a writer on the game, responded to these criticisms by saying: "As I've said before (and I won't say much more on this subject other than to get my perspective out there): I'm the writer and creator. I get to make decisions about who I write about and why. I don't like writing about straight/white/cis people all the time. It's not reflective of the real world, it sets up s/w/c as the "normal" baseline from which "other" characters must be added, and it's boring.
"I consciously add as much diversity as I can to my writing and I don't care if people think that's "forced" or fake. I find choosing to write from a straight default just as artificial. I'm happy to be an SJW and I hope to write many Social Justice Games in the future that reach as many different types of people as possible. Everyone should get a chance to see themselves reflected in pop culture."

I do take some issue with her second paragraph, though. It takes more than good writing to qualify as an SJW. You also need to be spending a good part of your day surfing around policing the internet and otherwise supporting the cause to qualify as a warrior.

Creative writing with diverse and interesting characters hardly makes the SWJ grade.

[Jeff Kelly]

Excuse me for asking but why is having a diverse set of non-playable characters in a game bad?

Those people act as if being a heterosexual white male had been outlawed last week and we're forcing them all to become genderqueer transexual otherkin wearing ultra pink.

[MahrinSkel]

My main comment is that this is all predicated on around 30 or so bad reviews (there were only 130 Steam reviews *total* for the game, when I checked). This is hardly a cultural crisis, when the 'backlash' we're talking about is a few dozen people trashing a game because they are afraid of sexual ambiguity.

--Dave

EDIT: And when I read the reviews, the first ten say nothing about this 'controversy', and instead are complaining that the game is so buggy that it is unplayable. Had to go down to the 8th before I even saw the writing mentioned (just as a general 'it's bad'), and 11 before it became at all about that particular writer or character.

[penfold]

Gather round my fellow travelers and let me tell you the tale of #Baldursgate

1. Ian Miles Chong The Redeemed tweets that Minsc has a line about "Ethics in heroic adventuring"
2. The Eye of Gamergate focuses on Beamdog. The Armies of the Alt Right march forth. Thousands of trolls attack.
3. They cast Identify:Social Justice on the game.
4. It's a hit.
5. They find a shitload of bugs and mods issues, and bad writing too, Amber re-writes Jaheria so she's not a moaning housewife trope, and deslutifies Safira because Sex Is Now Bad™ and a whole bunch of tumblr identities were shoehorned in too.
7. Bad reviews storm the bastions!
8. Beamdogs 10gp Minsc comment turns into a 100,000gp nightmare.
9. Beamdog try and make out its about trans issues and identity politics.
10. It wasn't. It was troll butthurt over Minsc. This entire issue wouldn't have happened if they didn't include that silly little line.


Maybe if devs don't write gamergate/alt-right bait into their game, and writers shoehorn contemporary tumblr into the NPCs then people would just be concentrating on what is a rather acceptable BG1 expansion and sales would be better, but I don't know, perhaps a huge PR firefighting exercise and turning it into another facet of the identity politics war makes more money than sales of the game? I say it probably doesn't. The Beamdog community manager ran to FemFreq and Jezebel, so I guess he's decided what his priorities are.

[Nija]

Wonderfully said and wonderfully done, Amber Scott.

Bro, you forgot your green.

[Merusk]

Who's Safira? I don't remember that NPC.

[penfold]

Safana spelt wrong.

http://baldursgate.wikia.com/wiki/Safana

[Falconeer]

Wonderfully said and wonderfully done, Amber Scott.

Bro, you forgot your green.

You know very well I'm serious. That's actually why you are baiting me 

[lamaros]

I made the mistake of buying BG:EE because of the sale. It's an ugly game with the only changes and additions from the original pretty much best be as far as I have seen.

I'll stick to conventional modding.

[Nija]

You know very well I'm serious. That's actually why you are baiting me 

This explains so much.

[Margalis]

That Minsc line (disclaimer: I have no idea who "Minsc" is) is just so fucking lazy and memetastic.

If you are going to try to make political points in games at least make real ones rather than just crack wise. I mean...an "it's about ethics..." joke? What kind of idiot finds this stuff amusing?

That said, freaking the fuck out about it is also silly.

I say we take all these culture warriors and shoot them into the sun - the world will instantly become a much better place.

[Kail]

That Minsc line (disclaimer: I have no idea who "Minsc" is) is just so fucking lazy and memetastic.

Minsc is the berserker from the first two games who says "wacky" shit.  He's got a pet "giant miniature space hamster" named Boo and his lines are split 50/50 between talking to his hamster and saying things like     "Butt-kicking for goodness!" and "Jump on my sword while you can, evil. I won't be as gentle!"

So, I mean, it might not be high art, but it's not like they had Aragorn turn to the camera to deliver a five minute criticism of Obamacare or something.

[Jeff Kelly]

Demanding well written characters seems awfully arbitrary in that particular case. Most video game writing is utter, utter drivel yet there's somehow never the same blind fervor and urge to point it out when the cast is mainly stereotypical white male bland faces. Gaming is rife with all kinds of stereotypes and story beats and plots that would fail you in a creative writing 101 class and nobody gives a fuck about characterization, plot or background story or if any of the things even make sense.

Unless of course a game introduces a non-traditional character into the mix at which point most of the the hardcore gamers suddenly turn into literary critics.

The Division's shitty writing and tone deaf setting for example turns their entire player base into henchmen of a proto-fascist and authoritarian regime that values order and the restitution of ownership more than the lives of the people stuck in a postapocalyptic shithole yet only a few game critics even mentioned it. God forbid though if a game writer attempts to write a non-cis character because people suddenly act as if this has to be akin to War and Peace to pass muster.

We could talk all day about how writing for games and comics is still creatively stuck in the 1970's and features story beats and stereotypes that would get you laughed out of hollywood and that are most of the time so horribly stereeotypical and accidentally -ist that it's embarrassing really. Especially for a sector that prides itself on being at the forefront of technology. I recently started up Skyward Sword again for example which features a villiain that is so over the top camp and flamboyant that they could have almost put up a sign that said "gay == evil" and be done with it. (which is btw a common theme of japanese fiction)

There's lots and lots of shitty game writing and companies usually get away with it and this makes holding writers to a much higher standard when they attempt something different almost seem disingenous by comparison.

[Sky]

My thing about politics in games is that there needs to be a choice to disagree with the writer's politics.

I see this CONSTANTLY in games where you're rebelling against The Man as some hoodie-wearing spray-can-toting hipster piece of shit. You know what, I like wearing a suit and speaking like an adult and I'm a-o-k with The Man. So when I get into a game where my option is to follow the story of trying to fuck over the man, I'm tuned right out.

So I totally get how trans people feel about this kind of thing. 

But to be a bit more serious than that last line, if you're going to write in over-the-top tolerance, give the player agency to be a dick, too. Otherwise, go self-publish a novel.

[Kail]

My thing about politics in games is that there needs to be a choice to disagree with the writer's politics.

Ehhh, I disagree there.  There's always the option to not play the game if you find it obnoxious, but I don't think the author is under any obligations to provide equal or unbiased treatment of every topic.

I know there's a big "are video games art" question lurking around here that I desperately want to avoid rehashing for the billionth time, but a lot of people put together games specifically to advance a viewpoint or present a certain perspective.  A lot of smaller studios especially, there's a certain message they want to present or a theme they want to convey and being able to just opt out of it would defeat the entire point.

Like, look at Spec Ops: The Line.  You play an army guy who gradually over the course of the game does some pretty horrifying stuff.  The game is all about someone who tries to make the best of a bad situation but, because of his approach, every decision he makes that looks like "the right thing" to him ends up causing huge amounts of destruction.  I've seen A BUNCH of people say things like "I don't think that reflects on ME, though, because the game didn't give me a choice not to do it."  But that's the whole point.  The character in the game is doing this stuff because he doesn't think he has a choice, he sees it as the only option he has.  If the developer gave the players a choice and let them choose a good ending where everything turns out well, that undercuts the entire point of the story.  I mean, it's a situation where the players are playing a character who's saying "this terrible thing isn't my fault, I didn't have a choice" and the players are controlling his actions AS HE DOES IT and SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING.  Like, I KNOW you disagree with his politics, the whole point is that you're disagreeing and doing it anyways.

And how far do we take this?  It's pretty hard to write any kind of story devoid of any personal politics.  If I find killing to be morally wrong, does that mean that every video game ever should have a pacifist option?  As a pacifist, do I demand a version of Street Fighter where we use our words to resolve our differences?  If I'm a bigwig in the KKK, can I seriously expect a big multi-billion dollar studio to put out a title that's going to cater to my political views, that's going to include the option for the main character to be a violent racist?  Plus, I think Sid Meier would have an aneurysm trying to write a Civ 6 that doesn't say anything about politics.

[lamaros]

Shadowrun Dragonfall had a few moments where the writing and decisions offered to me weren't horrible drek, and I was very surprised.

Game writing, hell even most books, isn't very good. I mostly ignore the crap bits for the other parts that I do enjoy (yes, Peter F. Hamilton is a sexist adolescent in a creepy way).

The issue here is people are responding to a new thing. Once they get used to this extra layer of bad writing they'll filter it out too. Some will just do that while complaining for a bit.

And everything in life is political, implicitly or explicitly. People who talk about "not putting politics" in stuff usually just mean "don't change anything".

[MahrinSkel]

Trent Oster does about as well as you can, when you find yourself in the middle of a troll-infested shit-slinging contest. tldr; The Minsc line was waving the red flag in front of the bull, and is going away, Mizhena will be fleshed out into a real character (still trans) instead of a 5-line token.

--Dave

[Fabricated]

My question is if we really needed a Baldur's Gate semi-expansion.

Also the enhanced editions of BG1/2 kinda suck. I tried playing through BG1 and kept running into script bugs that required that I use command-line stuff to try and fix my game so I could continue.