No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby TitleGuy » Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:01 pm

Askias wrote:Firstly, does the fact that we now have a member named 'titleguy' means we can't say insulting things about 'the title guy' anymore?


Say your worst, I deserve it some days.


edit:
as far as clickbait headlines and other things being discussed, this is how I feel:

Clickbait to me means a headline like "31 reasons titleguy is the worst. you won't believe number 15" or "She found the secret to great titles with this one simple trick"

When I select titles, I like to think about something fun or interesting from the article that can serve as a sort of appetizer in the title. So I'll select a small taste of something interesting (in this example, I really liked the part with the trans character) that shows you the value. Of course we want clicks, so it has to make you interested in clicking, but I don't feel it is dishonest.
Sometimes things get cut the night before it goes live, and I won't know till I wake up and check the site. So I'm not trying to use a minority to gain revenue, I'm trying to show you what I found interesting in the article so you read it too. Had I kept the title as it was when the part I liked most was bumped, then it would be dishonest, trying to get you to click on something that has no relevance to the title.

Sometimes a title I really like that I feel describes the article well doesn't do well for audiences, so we try some alternates to see what works better. That's why sometimes you'll see the article title change 2 or 3 or 5 times. I'll think "This is it, the perfect title!" and it is descriptive, maybe has a small joke, and I feel like it is a winner. And then it is getting half the amount of views it should be getting because people see the title and think "meh", so I change it to something like "5 Bizarre Bugs That Will Give You Nightmares" and more people view it, and stay on the page longer (meaning they are probably reading all of the entries instead of just browsing the topic headings)

It's a tricky thing, and a lot of thought goes into it. I've never tried to mislead anyone with any article title, but sometimes things happen and the title is incorrect when it goes live.

Also I heard title guy couldn't title his way out of a paper bag.
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Last edited by TitleGuy on Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby DamianaRaven » Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:16 pm

TitleGuy wrote:Say your worst, I deserve it some days.


I've always appreciated your labors, even when the results suck. Some of those titles are very clever, particularly when compared to the original URL. Occasionally, there'll be an exercise in WTFery, but I happen to think that sort of thing is good for the human brain.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby NathanLoiselle » Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:18 pm

Matthew Notch wrote:A prominent grocery chain ...
The moral of the story is, if you don't like a product, it's probably a black Jewish baby boomer's fault.


I prefer to blame Title Guy.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby Tesseracts » Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:38 pm

Guys... we have the real, actual, confirmed Title Guy on our forum. The guy who actually writes the Cracked titles.

Not that that's a bad thing! Some of my best friends are Title Guys. I definitely don't have anti-Title Guy propaganda posters all over this website, or anything remotely similar to that.

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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby gisambards » Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:44 pm

TitleGuy wrote:When I select titles, I like to think about something fun or interesting from the article that can serve as a sort of appetizer in the title. So I'll select a small taste of something interesting (in this example, I really liked the part with the trans character) that shows you the value. Of course we want clicks, so it has to make you interested in clicking, but I don't feel it is dishonest.
Sometimes things get cut the night before it goes live, and I won't know till I wake up and check the site. So I'm not trying to use a minority to gain revenue, I'm trying to show you what I found interesting in the article so you read it too. Had I kept the title as it was when the part I liked most was bumped, then it would be dishonest, trying to get you to click on something that has no relevance to the title.


Did, in the section you liked, Mark Hill or the game writers actually explicitly say that "no trans characters" is a rule in the video games industry? If so, they're either outright lying - so it's dishonest - or clearly exaggerating their own insider knowledge (particularly given that one of them worked on AC:Unity, which has a trans character in it), but I guess you couldn't have known that so it's not your fault.
But if they did not, then yes, it absolutely is dishonest on your end.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby sunglasses » Fri Apr 15, 2016 12:08 am

Wow. There really is a title guy.

Here I thought it was just a random word generator.

(No, really)
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby TitleGuy » Fri Apr 15, 2016 12:54 am

gisambards wrote:
TitleGuy wrote:When I select titles, I like to think about something fun or interesting from the article that can serve as a sort of appetizer in the title. So I'll select a small taste of something interesting (in this example, I really liked the part with the trans character) that shows you the value. Of course we want clicks, so it has to make you interested in clicking, but I don't feel it is dishonest.
Sometimes things get cut the night before it goes live, and I won't know till I wake up and check the site. So I'm not trying to use a minority to gain revenue, I'm trying to show you what I found interesting in the article so you read it too. Had I kept the title as it was when the part I liked most was bumped, then it would be dishonest, trying to get you to click on something that has no relevance to the title.


Did, in the section you liked, Mark Hill or the game writers actually explicitly say that "no trans characters" is a rule in the video games industry? If so, they're either outright lying - so it's dishonest - or clearly exaggerating their own insider knowledge (particularly given that one of them worked on AC:Unity, which has a trans character in it), but I guess you couldn't have known that so it's not your fault.
But if they did not, then yes, it absolutely is dishonest on your end.



Those interviewed obviously can't speak for the entire games industry. Different studios have different rules and guidelines, and different teams in those studios can even have different rules and guidelines. I can't say what the article said as it isn't my place to do so, however I can say that this team on this game was told they could not have a character be trans. It wouldn't have drastically changed the game other than having more representation for trans people in our media, but there was a decision made that it would be safer to not include trans characters.

In this series of anecdotes, that one stuck out to me. If I had the room, I probably would have said "My Boss Made Us Turn A Trans Character Cis As A Safer Alternative For Sales And Profit: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games" but I only have 60 characters to work with, 24 after I include the secondary part. So it gets shortened to "No Trans Characters:" Had the cut material stayed in the article, it would have been clear what the title was referring to.

But it is possible that they were exaggerating, or it didn't fit with the rest of the article, or who knows. It was cut by the editors between titling and publishing.

So if my title choice offended you, I apologize. It was never my intent. I only wanted to highlight the part of the article I liked best. It was quickly changed after publishing to reflect the new nature of the content. There were no sinister alternatives.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby D-LOGAN » Fri Apr 15, 2016 1:00 am

O! be some other name: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby skooma » Fri Apr 15, 2016 3:16 am

Welcome, TitleGuy, it's very impressive to show up where you're already under attack and be so chill; please hang around for all the other stuff too.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby Kate » Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:00 am

D-LOGAN wrote:O! be some other name: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Though I am allergic to roses, so if you call a rose a lily and have me take a big whiff I have every right to sneeze all over you. And I'd do it, too!

I think it's fair to say we live in an age where we are bombarded by information every day. Everyone and everything is vying for our attention and we only have so much time; it's hard not to be cynical about intent when something seems like it was purposely intended to catch our attention and then give us something else.

On the other hand, titles are the advertisement for an article. Their entire purpose is to draw us in and say "This is what you want to read; this is worth your time!" So something bland but entirely accurate isn't always the best representation of the product. A fantastic article will be ignored if its title doesn't convince you it's fantastic. It's a fine line.

And I mean, that is the issue: reading an article takes time and the title is how you figure out whether it's worth a gander. Readers understandably feel betrayed if they feel a title doesn't accurately portray what they end up reading, especially if it's politically charged or otherwise catchy. I don't know if this would be the case if there weren't companies like Buzzfeed and that one happiness one (I forget the name, but you know which one I mean...) that purposely do this to grab readers. If you had asked me 5 years ago whether I thought Cracked was engaging in this practice, I would have said no. 5 days ago, I would have said yes. And there haven't really been substantial changes to the title matching, beyond the title changes becoming slightly more frequent I think.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby TitleGuy » Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:41 am

skooma wrote:Welcome, TitleGuy, it's very impressive to show up where you're already under attack and be so chill; please hang around for all the other stuff too.


It's nice that I don't feel like I'm under attack. Everyone has been civil, and that's pretty cool.

I understand the feeling of betrayal for seeing a title that doesn't match the content. I hate that when I'm browsing the web or facebook. buzzfeed, upworthy, and a trillion other sites now have ruined titles forever. It sucks on my end because I have to emulate them somewhat or we lose out on competing views on facebook or other aggregate sites. So I try to do it with integrity, and with humor when I can. Had I seen the edit before titling, I probably would have gone with something silly like "We Saved Christ's Foreskin: 6 Realities Of Writing For Games"
It has the nugget of interest, and then the description. So you know what you are getting into (an article about writing for games) and also it has something ridiculous but intriguing. It'd probably get changed by 9AM to the more generic and better playing "6 Things You Learn Writing Blockbuster Video Games" because it gets more hits on facebook, and doesn't upset the religious crowd.

So that's me. Feel free to let me know why I'm wrong, or a monster, or anything else you'd like to get off your chest. I'm a big boy, I can handle it, and it is cathartic to unload sometimes.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby SandTea » Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:19 am

TitleGuy wrote:Feel free to let me know why I'm wrong, or a monster, or anything else you'd like to get off your chest.


I feel I obligated to point out the profile gif now.

I mean electric guitar skeleton doesn't even have it plugged in. Also, when it's only in my peripheral, Mr. Skely looks to be doing something quite different.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby skooma » Fri Apr 15, 2016 9:24 am

Actually, the titles never worried me, maybe probably because I'm old enough to have more immunity to media bombardment. I'm just still not over Felix Clay writing about social issues and not being funny. The content is what's losing me, the titles are working fine.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby gisambards » Fri Apr 15, 2016 10:09 am

TitleGuy wrote:Those interviewed obviously can't speak for the entire games industry. Different studios have different rules and guidelines, and different teams in those studios can even have different rules and guidelines. I can't say what the article said as it isn't my place to do so, however I can say that this team on this game was told they could not have a character be trans. It wouldn't have drastically changed the game other than having more representation for trans people in our media, but there was a decision made that it would be safer to not include trans characters.

In this series of anecdotes, that one stuck out to me. If I had the room, I probably would have said "My Boss Made Us Turn A Trans Character Cis As A Safer Alternative For Sales And Profit: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games" but I only have 60 characters to work with, 24 after I include the secondary part. So it gets shortened to "No Trans Characters:" Had the cut material stayed in the article, it would have been clear what the title was referring to.


I still don't really think this is an excuse, because the fact is the title implied that either the industry as a whole or the specific company in question was transphobic. Given that the evidence suggests the game in question was AC3 (Mark Hill mentioned in the comments that the character in question was a multiplayer character, and Yephalem wrote the biographies for AC3's multiplayer characters) that would be accusing Ubisoft of transphobia for not putting a trans character in a game 5 years ago, when, as I've said earlier in the thread, transgenderism was so not in the public conscious then that it's hardly surprising - despite that they've had one in AC:Unity and AC:Syndicate each since then.
I don't think the fact you had to simplify it is fair enough. I think if you could only shorten it to that, which was not true and probably twists what the writer actually said, you should have picked something else. You clearly like to see yourself as an "ally" of trans people:
It wouldn't have drastically changed the game other than having more representation for trans people in our media,

but I, for one, don't feel comforted seeing people falsely accused of things in our name - quite the opposite, in fact. And equally, I personally don't feel actually represented by a shoe-horned-in token trans person in a game - quite the opposite. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a trans person who is outraged by the lack of a multiplayer character "representing" us in a five-year-old game, so I don't think you can claim to be sticking up for us when you feign outrage at that.
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Re: No Trans Characters: 6 Realities Of Writing Video Games

Postby CarrieVS » Fri Apr 15, 2016 10:37 am

Good titles are hard.
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