I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Insane

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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby Twistappel » Fri Jul 22, 2016 1:15 am

Grimstone wrote:
Spoiler: show
Image

[three hours later]

... sorry, what were we talking about?


Also, not really a trans issue, but has anybody ever wondered why the Sylvari in GW2 have secondary sex characteristics, even though they appear to reproduce asexually?

Or is that just me?
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby octoberpumpkin » Thu Sep 08, 2016 6:54 pm

Bromo wrote:Remember the early days of Metroid, when it shocked everyone as the ending of the first game revealed Samus is a girl? She was already an established badass who slaughtered aliens and her sex wasn't the main focus of her character (at least in the early games). I would like to see something similar done with a transgender character.


OMG SPOILERS
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby NathanLoiselle » Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:01 pm

Remember how we said Samus was a girl like ten years ago? Well, BAM!, Samus is really a girl who thinks she's a boy! Trans-fuckery baby!!
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby D-LOGAN » Thu Sep 08, 2016 8:57 pm

I pronounced Samus as Sa-Moo in my head for an embarrassingly long time before I heard someone else say it out loud.

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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby sunglasses » Thu Sep 08, 2016 9:02 pm

NathanLoiselle wrote:Remember how we said Samus was a girl like ten years ago? Well, BAM!, Samus is really a girl who thinks she's a boy! Trans-fuckery baby!!


Nah, that's Brigid.
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby AboveGL » Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:04 pm

So out of strict curiosity, I clicked on the article. Am, I missing something with the Baldur's Gate example?

Image

Is that all there is to it? The player character asks why her name sounds a little unusual and she merely explains how her past has shaped it in a few sentences?

Trans people make for less than 1% of the population, so throwing in a single NPC who happens to be trans (okay, I heard there's possibly another. That makes two out of all the characters in the series. That's besides the point anyway) is hardly pandering. If anything, a young trans person who has to deal with a sea of bullshit and mistreatment will come across a character like her and realise that hey, maybe they aren't gross freaks.

I'm actually struggling to see the issue here. I opened that article expecting Cracked.com to have handled a social issue poorly (they have PLENTY of fucking history for doing that) but I don't see anything which justifies the visceral reactions I've seen in this thread.

EDIT: I mean, you can literally play the whole game and never even come across her. How does throwing out the fact she was assigned male at birth as an aside akin to shoving it down people's throats? I seriously don't get it.
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby Marcuse » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:34 pm

Is that all there is to it? The player character asks why her name sounds a little unusual and she merely explains how her past has shaped it in a few sentences?


Without wanting to advocate for the devil too much, because I think the reaction was definitely overblown in the wider internet, and there's no need to blow fuses about, I think the main issue is how this doesn't fit the pattern games like this follow at all. Gis said this way upthread, but I think it's worth mentioning that it adds that facet to the character, but doesn't have the courage to add in the negative responses for evil characters that every other line of dialogue gets.

Because of that, it exists in a strange space, where there's a random trans character in the game adding nothing to the experience except for someone's political views about demographics, but then doesn't allow the same options to respond to them either. In a game that's big on choice and the impact that has, it seems stunted and cursory. The player is also forced to respond in a particularly bland and positive manner for no obvious in-game reason.

The thing is, in the grand scheme of things it's pointless, but if you look at this particular bit of the game in isolation as the article highlights it, it feels a bit rubbish. It would be like having someone in Neverwinter Nights saying "We have to elect Lord Tronald Dump our leader. He's the only one who would make Neverwinter Great Again", then the only response being "I hope that goes well" or "Okay, I'd like to ask something else".

Now I'm sure some people out there would already say "but that's saying that unless you allow a transphobic response in your game, you're not being authentic" and...well sorry but yes. Games allow you to play a character who's not a good person. In my recent NWN2 game I straight up murdered a wounded druid stuck in the form of a wolf. The game let me do that, and while in the real world we would never condone that, it's not real in game, and laws and politics don't really apply. There were consequences to that though, a massive influence loss with the druid in my party who literally said I was insane for doing that. I got the chance to be more of an asshole in telling her that I killed him because he was of no use. That's the kind of level these games usually go to, so refusing to even add a "huh" or "I don't care" response feels like a softball set of options in order to pat the character on the back for being assigned male at birth. A lot of people think that has no place in a fantasy about wizards and orcs, at least where that's not accompanied by the full range of options and the accompanying consequences.
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:10 pm

I can't really bring myself to be outright evil in video games outside of maybe the first two Mass Effect games (3's too depressing to be evil, what with stuff like the Genophage and shooting Mordin). And then there's issues like Fallout 3 and Fawkes and Megaton being more convienient than Tenpenny Tower and New Vegas and Veronica and the BOS bunker. And I just can't have Max Caulfield be a jackass considering how events unfold.
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby Grimstone » Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:33 am

Marcuse wrote:Without wanting to advocate for the devil too much, because I think the reaction was definitely overblown in the wider internet, and there's no need to blow fuses about, I think the main issue is how this doesn't fit the pattern games like this follow at all. Gis said this way upthread, but I think it's worth mentioning that it adds that facet to the character, but doesn't have the courage to add in the negative responses for evil characters that every other line of dialogue gets.


Unfortunately, even in these types of games it isn't rare to find yourself missing an appropriate evil response/course of action.

It would be like having someone in Neverwinter Nights saying "We have to elect Lord Tronald Dump our leader. He's the only one who would make Neverwinter Great Again", then the only response being "I hope that goes well" or "Okay, I'd like to ask something else".


I don't see a problem here(besides breaking the 4th wall a bit). Unless you're expecting them to put the dialogue in the game so that you can go on a whole anti-trans tirade/ political rant then a simple "yeah, whatever" or a "get lost" response is good enough.
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Re: I Put a Trans Character in a Video Game/ Gamers Went Ins

Postby Anglerphobe » Sun Feb 12, 2017 6:15 am

I would be more than satisfied with a *back away slowly* option.
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