Baldur's Gate expansion flooded with negative reviews due to presence of transgender character
Traumatized gamers forced to click through NPC's backstory respond with vitriol, Internet posts.
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, an expansion for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition developed by Beamdog, marks the first new entry in the beloved RPG series in over a decade. So what better way to celebrate than by a pack of gamers revealing their deep-seated fear of otherness?
Siege of Dragonspear debuted on assorted PC digital platforms on March 31. The expansion adds 25 hours of new content ranging from 70 new areas and four new companions, to the option to import your characters from the base game as well as a new class, the shaman, who can summon monsters to his aid. Another addition, and a major point of contention for some players, is the presence of Mizhena, an NPC who reveals that she was born and raised as a boy but later gave herself a new name after realizing she was meant to be a woman.
The revelation occurs during dialogue with Mizhena, who provides players with her background if asked. And that's the key phrase: if asked. "I would like to start out by saying I don't hate gays or transsexuals in any way," wrote one user. "What I do care about is when this is shoved down my throat and I am forced to mingle with it instead of letting me discover it for myself."
Another user chimed in by asking Beamdog to "please keep your ideology out of a classic game. Don't force us to buy into controversial topics. We are trying to ESCAPE that crap."
Mizhena doesn't flaunt her orientation, and to be fair, Siege of Dragonspear is a brand new expansion, not a port or remaster of a "classic" game with altered content. A few clicks of the dialogue tree that shows the player's willingness to learn more about the origin of her name, and Mizhena will tell you how she created it from a hodgepodge of syllables gathered from various languages to show "the truest reflection of who I am."
Amber Scott, writer and creator on Dragonspear, responded to critics on Beamdog's forums, stating that it is her purview to decide who and what to write about. "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 [social justice warrior] 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."
There's some concern from the Beamdog camp that the onslaught of negative reviews, which as of this writing have mired Siege of Dragonspear's ratings on Steam, Metacritic, and other outlets, may hinder the success of future Baldur's Gate games. Beamdog founder Trent Oster asked players who are enjoying the game to "please consider posting a positive review to balance out the loud minority which is currently painting a dark picture for new players."
Source: Crave Online
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Shacknews
replyDavid Craddock posted a new article, Baldur's Gate expansion flooded with negative reviews due to presence of transgender character
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If it ain't white, it ain't right. #Murica
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Welcome to the Internet. You, FEMALE, are in for a wild ride. :(
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Or have just experienced so little discomfort in their lives that this stuff is worthy of outrage.
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Reposting what I said in the other thread:
Having played through that part of the game yesterday, I found it pretty much unremarkable. This is a lot of angst over nothing.
The character doesn't run up and tell you that she is transgendered. You have several dialogue options, and one of them mentions that her name is unusual. If you use it, she then says that her old name didn't fit, so she changed it. If you then press her and ask why her old name didn't fit, then she mentions that she was initially treated as a boy by her parents, but that didn't fit her. She doesn't explain in further detail, and she doesn't get in the player's face about it. It is up to the player to make this dialogue appear.
Then, having induced the NPC to reveal this information, it is then dropped, because it's irrelevant to anything going on--just like the biographical details of so many other NPCs you meet in the game. I don't see why this particular bit of color is any more distracting or weird than learning that this NPC is seeking revenge, or that one was an orphan, or whatever.
Also, a repost of my thoughts on the game so far:
It's good! They have made a ton of tweaks to the Infinity Engine. I think they're improvements. There seem to be some new graphical tweaks--fog, lighting, and particles. Also, they've given the characters the slightest outline--sort of like cel shading--to help them stand out a bit from the background. It looks great. The interface is improved, too. The map view is now literally a zoom-out of the regular gameplay map, and you have the option of making the map show walkable areas (so that you aren't left wondering if there is some way to reach that flat area on the other side of those trees). There are lots of difficulty tweaks, and saving the game is now instantaneous, without the hiccup from previous games.
The gameplay itself is simply a good Baldur's Gate game. My only complaint so far is that AI was turned on for all the characters, and while I'm sure it's a reasonably good AI in combat, I prefer to give all my characters explicit instructions, rather than let the game manage them. I had to turn it off for each of them, one by one--there's no global setting.
Oh, one other issue: pathfinding still kind of sucks. There are a ton more NPCs around on some of the maps, now that computers can easily handle them, but this sometimes results in it being difficult to get one's character across the screen. It can be tedious.
Overall, it's very good. I'm not far enough into the story to tell whether it is any good. I like it so far--definitely better than Pillars of Eternity.
Most importantly, they got a lot of the original voice actors to return! There are plenty of new lines from Minsc, which is probably all anyone cares about.
Buttkicking, for goodness!-
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I can imagine it as thus:
"Ooh she is hot. I am looking forward to seeing pictures of her online later!"
*reads the reveal*
"SHE IS A DUDE!?! HOW DARE THEY TRICK ME INTO THINKING SHE IS A HOT WOMAN!"
*goes on the internet and complains about how the developers of the game confused their dick* -
Holy shit just go look at the reviews for this game. Out of the thousands of reviews, try to find more than 10 complaining about the transgender character. You won't be able to.
This expension is shit and the devs are getting shit for it, but rather than own up to their mistakes and try to fix things, they'd rather blame it on stupid shit that nobody care about.
It literally take 5 seconds to look at what people are actually complain about and see that nobody give a fuck about the trans character, but unfortunatly 5 secs of fact checking is too much for a lot of journalists apparently.
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The story in Pillars of Eternity didn't grab me at all. I was just not interested in it. Combat didn't seem as deep, either, though the game was very polished.
Or maybe I'm blinded by nostalgia when I play a Baldur's Gate game. I wouldn't rule that out.
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Re: the AI, I wish all games of this type had the programmable party elements like the original Dragon Age. I find that stuff satisfying, and it strikes a nice balance between manual and fully automated.
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There is some programmable stuff--you can choose from a variety of A.I. settings, and control auto-pause. I don't remember how programmable Dragon Age was, though, so Siege of Dragonspear may not be as flexible or powerful.
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If it's like I remember, the AI settings you're talking about are just choosing one preset from a series of presets? In Dragon Age, it's basic rule creations, prioritized. It's been years, but I think it was stuff like:
If enemy is frozen, backstab.
If health is below X%, take potion.
If friendly health is below X%, cast Heal.
So you created a bunch of rules like that, and then ranked them. I enjoyed fine tuning that stuff and then watching how efficient I could make my crew. I'd love to see that concept iterated on, but I get the feeling it wasn't a super popular mechanic.
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There's no transgenders in the Baldur's gate universe. You can use a potion which make you become the other sex.. You aren't a 'transgender'. You literally become the other gender.
The writer for this expension would know that if they had any interest in the game, but they don't. They rather push their agenda rather than make a good game (not completely broken) with good writing.-
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I'm probably going to regret replying to you, however, yes, you are correct on Faerûn and the realms greater, D&D, Planescape, etc... there exist magical means by which to alter one's body, even in a permanent form.
However that still would imply the character at one point in their life made the decision to make that change (or had it made for them) which means that they would have experienced life differently. In the case of this character, who probably did have have Gender Switch cast permanently upon her, experienced life for a time with discordant body/self-image and then rectified the situation while adopting the new name. It's not like her parents would have known the moment she was born.
Now the only thing that stands out odd about her is her name, because she is in every other way just a human woman on the Sword Coast who adds a little more detail to the world by offering conversation. -
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"There's no transgenders in the Baldur's Gate universe."
It is not clear to me how you would know that there are no transgender people in Faerun.
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Steam's seem pretty tame with legit complaints.
And honestly, who gives two shits about user scores on Metacritic? They're always garbage and have 2 scores: 0 and 10. The whole user scoring system should be outright removed from that site, and if developers actually pay these unintelligent neckbeards any attention at all, they're doing themselves a disservice. -
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Ha. Looks like this article caught the eye of r/KiA. That means you're doing something right.
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I took that subreddit literally and am now considering purchasing a KIA. ;) https://www.reddit.com/r/kia
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KotakuInAction. It's the main GamerGate subreddit.
I'd gone to look and see if this Baldur's Gate thing was blowing up there, and was surprised to find them bitching about a Shacknews article right at the top.-
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Yeah I assumed the shack along with every other gaming site on the internet was already blacklisted.
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if they have a problem then don't buy it..i don't see the problem.
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Marketing ploy successful!
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#BaldursGate
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This is the greatest.
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You're fired
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I enjoyed this tweet
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Notch is trying to steal your joke: https://twitter.com/notch/status/717414543463489536
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#baldursgategate
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lol YES
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To be honest, I've felt torn on this story since I wrote it, and would like some feedback. On one hand, users on r/KotakuInAction complained that I didn't point out legitimate complaints in the flood of user reviews: bugs, insipid storytelling and gameplay, etc. Most of that is subjective, obviously. Even so, I get where they're coming from. Part of me worries that I was too one-sided.
But on the other hand, I honestly believed (and still do) that I reported on the real issue: a bunch of people acting horrible on the Internet by manipulating review scores to, ironically, push their agenda--the very thing r/KIA accused me of doing.
Despite the legitimacy of some complaints targeted at game mechanics, storytelling, and technical composition, I felt most of that was lip service. The real issue was people excoriating game designers for crafting content they didn't like, so that's what I chose to write about.
Was I wrong?-
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I agree with you. I just want to make sure I'm doing my job to the best of my abilities.
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and a game getting low reviews for being buggy wouldn't be a story either
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http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/dark-souls-ii/user-reviews
Welcome to the wonderful world of user reviews, where the huge majority of users rate everything a 9/10 or a 0/1. -
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Welcome to shacknews, Vatrak. I see you're new here and have found that this thread is worthy of your attention.
I hope you stay around. You should visit the chatty: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty
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Have you played the expansion? If so, what are your thoughts on the mechanics, storytelling, and so on relative to the base game?
One of the problems with these sorts of "discussions" on the internet is once there exists an angle for bigots to hate something, no one is allowed to dislike something without being considered a bigot even if their position is reasoned and justified. Anything you say to criticism the item will be dismissed as some form of -ism regardless of merit.
In your position, if you want to be "right" you would have to play through the game on its own, weigh your experience vs. what is being said, and make the decision on whether or not to post the news story at all. Unfortunately, trying to craft a more nuanced piece discussing the controversy vs. the product will fall on deaf ears. -
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Looking at the ratings, a vast majority of the "0" ratings on metacritic reference the game's "political", "liberal", or "SJW" agenda, so I don't think you're wrong about the way that you are writing a story about the game's reception. Even those that don't mention the transgender issue talk about how some characters have been de-sexualized etc.
I haven't played it, but the questions you are asking here could only be answered by doing so. Based on the dialogue in question, I'd agree that the writing isn't spectacular--but I can't recall a large amount of public outcry about any of the many supporting characters who say a few lines here and there in the worlds of Skyrim, Morrowind, The Witcher, etc., with one the exception of the occasional criticism that it's very repetitive. Here is someone trying to reflect the depth and diversity of the fictional world that they contributed to and they are getting shit for it. Whoops. Better make sure that next time they all say stupidly predictable things like "Be gone, traveler." "Huh?" "Move along." or whatever.
Personally, I think it's really sad that some gamers interpret anything outside of 'white male protagonist walks around killing half the things he sees and fucking the other half' is "political". -
Let's be clear here, if someone starts presenting their argument with "I don't hate X but..." - well, fuck this someone. I'm not racist, but... I'm not saying it's aliens but... IT'S ALIENS!
Maybe you should have said more clearly how stupid and terrible these complaining people are, but on the other hand you have presented their idiotic "arguments" in all their retarded glory, for everyone to see, so I guess that's good enough.
This is not about any "legitimate" complaints, it's about gamergaters shitting on their new victim. Your take on the story is fine. -
Thanks for the feedback, Shack. Just wanted to make sure I'd zeroed in on the real story.
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So have you zeroed in on the story or did you miss it? Do you think people are upset about a trans character or is it a combination of what is mentioned in this article?
http://nichegamer.com/2016/04/03/beamdog-addresses-problematic-content-baldurs-gate/
Do I think it's fair that they are getting 0's in reviews by people who didn't play the game, no, but those scores are as others mentioned pretty much empty, and I, like most, go buy word of mouth and what others are playing, not score.
I also think that rewriting well established memories such as Baulders Gate is asking for nothing but trouble, you can't win. This is probably why Half Life 3 will never come out.
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Ok but it's still an issue on GOG where you don't need to own the game either. Plenty of Gamergaters there
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I just looked at the first four pages of reviews on GoG. Out of those twenty reviews, eighteen of them complained about the game's 'social justice', 'identity politics', 'progressive ideology', and the like. I think you're being disingenuous to suggest that this is solely due to bugs and writing.
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It isn't as bad on Steam. There are twice as many positive reviews, as there are negative ones. Also, I think Steam requires that you own a game before you can review it.
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Bullshit. I was trying to look up information about the save game editor that works with the Enhanced edition, and the GoG forums are chock full of stupid, baseless complaints about the trans issue, along with the general anti-"SJW" sentiments.
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Others have mentioned this, and you're spot on. It wasn't my intention to write about the expansion itself, but a particular story involving reaction to particular content in the expansion.
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lol KIA is a cess pool, ignore anything coming out of there
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/4dh6mt/destructoid_claims_bg_fiasco_is_all_about_the/d1qv1a7 -
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Are you sure you're correct there is nothing factual? I see a number of facts in the article, including direct quotes from user reviews.
Here's two of them:
"I would like to start out by saying I don't hate gays or transsexuals in any way," wrote one user. "What I do care about is when this is shoved down my throat and I am forced to mingle with it instead of letting me discover it for myself."
Another user chimed in by asking Beamdog to "please keep your ideology out of a classic game. Don't force us to buy into controversial topics. We are trying to ESCAPE that crap."
It's interesting that the first one mentions having it shoved down his or her throat. That seems at odds as the dialogue requires the user to actively speak to the NPC. Then ask about their interesting name. Then ask about the significance of that name. Seems that review is the least factual part of this article. I'm curious about your thoughts on this. -
You haven't actually read a lot of the reviews have you?
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Ignore them.
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I wasn't kidding with what I said above.
If someone has taken the time to write a post about how wrong you are on #GG's main subreddit, you're clearly on the right path.
There isn't a group more disingenuously critical of anything than them. Taking them at their word is a mistake, and your article didn't ignore any important voices in this conversation. -
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can i geek out a bit here? first, this isn't really about the topic at hand. i don't want to disagree about that, but i've been doing a ton of writing for my job about this kind of shit, so i am sharing.
"unbiased" is a bad word to use here. it's impossible to be unbiased, even if we try. instead, we should use the words like "fair" and "just". i actually got this from a lawyer because i kept trying to use words like "objective" and "unbiased" which is, of course, what we're aiming for - but not something we can attain, even if we try.
so craddock wants to be fair and just, in your opinion (maybe?) - i'd argue that's not something an editorial has to do, a factual lawyer, sure, and for the work i do, probably definitely mostly always, but unbiased isn't really something that's possible and saying you are that is a dumb construct.
which is hard to wrap my brain around since i've been trying to attain being unbiased forever and now i realized i was going at it the wrong way. i still do things the same way, now i just have a clearer picture of how to speak about it.-
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I know what youre trying to say bradsh, but the shack is super hoighty toighty about SJW topics and anti-gamergate positions.
Youre saying information should be displayed in a bipartison neutral position that both sides of an issue should consume as to not point either side negatively.
Where you were wrong was that maximum SJW is the only shacknews position, and that makes your opinion invalidated and false you shitlord. /s-
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Why is ad revenue the only thing you care about? What's wrong with having principles?
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So what? That means he shouldn't have principles or state his opinions on things that others might disagree with? This is the dumbest possible stance you could take on this.
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GG is calling for boycott and gang low ranking this game because it has a lone transsexuals npc.
How is that not regressive and authoritarian attempts to silence viewpoints they disagree with?
The fact that people even consider that they still have any leg to stand on is fucking amazing.-
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If you to on reddit, there are entire SJW mod groups that have bots auto banning users who post in subreddits like "/r/kotakuinaction" regardless of the context. Thats what you call authoritarian and group think. Things are beginning to get way too close minded lately, everyones on edge.
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Groups, by nature, are contentious to those not in the group. We're all varying degrees of assholes. Probably even the most altruistic of groups, like those who clean up oil covered birds after a spill, have some degree of it. I don't think it's a "lately" type of thing, it's just human nature
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All journalism is a business. That doesn't somehow invalidate editorials or trying to make a point. One of the worst things about modern mainstream journalism is the nonsense idea that both sides should be presented as equals even when that's clearly not the case.
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You can be objective and still point out where one side's claims are bullshit. Pretending they're not or trying to be clever about it isn't doing anyone any favors.
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Gone but not forgotten.
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That's not what I was referring to. I mean more like when vaccines are in the news and the two guests are an accomplished Doctor and Jenny McCarthy and the anchor acts as if these two sides are somehow equal.
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Well, no, that doesn't really address the issue though. There's nothing wrong with giving it airtime, it's the mistaken notion that the anchor can't call bullshit on someone if they say something ludicrous that I have a problem with.
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For example, Anderson Cooper asks his guests questions that expose their arguments all the time and it's fantastic.
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I disagree. True, anti-gg people have been annoying at times but they don't organize boycotts or fly off the handle to this degree. Both groups may be bad but one is significantly worse. They represent so little in page hits and so much in negativity and toxicity that their presence here would be a net negative for the site. imho.
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Eh, the GamerGate audience is probably one that's worth losing. :p
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Yup. What Gamergate fails to grasp is that "anti"-GG is literally everyone else.
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additional content is reported on a bunch - i guess it's up to the person reading or writing to decide what warrants coverage but i've seen folks cover skins for HOTS (and i read the SHIT out of ones about azmodunk and i have no shame). this seems more than a "shitty mod" to me, but that's just my view of the content. some folks hate all add ons.
this doesn't feel like "just" internet outrage to me, either, but i write a lot about how we change the standard level of discourse on the internet so stuff like this, i feel, is contributing to the toxicity online and i do believe that discussions like the one we are having will help make that kind of low-quality hate become less welcome online. -
Well, this is much more than a mod -- it's the first official expansion to Baldur's Gate in 10+ years, a fact I mention in the article.
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No worries!
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The majority of the reviews are about the quality of the game overall (bugs, poor dialog choices, poor characterization of established characters) and not about the LGBT character but the ones about the LGBT are especially vile to dig into. I saw a number of the reviews saying they didn't play the game but don't want LGBT or 'modern concepts like transgender people' in their games which is just ignorant to history in general.
That is something that could be part of another story. Why does Steam let people write reviews if they don't own the game?
If one throw-away conversation is what triggers you then you have way more problems in your life...or not enough problems I'm not sure.
I'm not planning on picking it up because I don't really like the interface. It looks very dated (on purpose) when compared to Pillars, Divinity or even Shadowrun.-
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For me it just boils down to this:
Did the writers add this character to make a political statement? Yes. The writer said she would and she did.
Is it their prerogative as writers to make whatever statement they fucking feel like? YES
Does it fit with the Baldur's Gate universe? it's in the game now so the only answer is yes. It's there and it's part of the lore now.
Does any of this matter? NO. Baldur's Gate is still there, the world is still there.
If you don't like the transgender lady for whatever reason, roleplay it like you're supposed to and don't add her to your party. If you think someone wouldn't be that forward in this particular time in the Baldur's Gate universe, then make your *character* think that and end the convo. -
On the Steam reviews page, there are twice as many positive reviews as negative ones but ONLY the negative reviews are showing up by default because of the massive flood of people clicking thumbs up on the negative reviews and clicking thumbs-down on the positive reviews. It sucks they are able to game the system like that.
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The problem it's not if transgender is acceptable or not, thats debatable.
The problem is that when you ask an npc about her life, you don't expect that the writer wrote some out of place crap about his / her gender, you expect things like how he / she ended at the place the character is in the game or what he / she does for a living, recent adventures, etc.
If you want to reivindicate things about transgender, a game is NOT the place to do so, and the writer should be proffesional enough to know that, but seems shes not. -
"I don't like writing about straight/white/cis people all the time. It's not reflective of the real world..."
It's reflective of your audience though, if you're writing for a western videogame, and especially a crpg, and some people just aren't interested in modern sociopolitical issues cropping up in forms of entertainment where they don't belong.
Also I'm not sure why SJWs always blame "the white man" for any and all criticism they receive. There are other ethnic groups out in "the real world" who are way less tolerant of this sort of thing.
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