And I thought Wyll was hypocritical.
Is that directed at me? If so, please feel free to explain (either here or by PM if you’d prefer) where I’ve crossed the lines I’ve set for others. I know I’m not infallible and have my own blind spots due to my own views, as anyone else does.
But in case anyone has taken it that way, I am definitively not saying we can’t discuss this topic, but that in so doing we should do our best to be constructive, avoiding insulting those with views other than our own and keeping it relevant to the game rather than wandering off into more general theorising about gender or politics. I don’t
think I’ve crossed those boundaries but if I have, then please do point out where and I’ll try to do better in future.
No.
The topic reminds me of the queer stuff which is a bit alien to me since I'm lucky enough not live in a surrounding that full of that kind of vanguard culture overly manipulative on populist movement. A decoy, a distraction, focused, and incited by whoever they are in some societies to overshadow the actual crisis they have. What's ironic, all those gender identity chaos supported by their authority was for some petty votes in the end. And even more ironic, their people are actually buying it. Then comes the ultimate ironic, since the actual crisis was ignored by the most, from elites to commoners, the actual crisis is still quietly snowballing along with the far-right ideas sharing the same shadow, by the time the overshadowed crisis broke the veil, the hound of hatred will also break the chain. Who will suffer the most then? Those minority folks. All that, is the real hypocritical.
And then I look at my good old Wyll, the Blade of Frontier, from as innocent as those tiefling kids to as wicked as Kagha, they all know his title rather positively, but at least Wyll did trying hard to protect the people and help the people. And what he is overshadowing using such title was merely his own misery which won't backfire those he once protected or helped at least.
So, no, it was not directed at any of you as long as you don't happen to be a manipulative politician who plays gender/sex orientation/gender identity/ethnicity/skin color/minority cards to win position.
As for the whole identity thing, I just don't get it. A trans is a trans, and this is a game! A trans who wants to be a women can simply pick an in-game gender called "female", as simple as that, no surgery, no pain, no bleeding, no life risking. A trans who wants to be a dude can simply pick an in-game gender called "male", as simple as that, also no surgery, no pain, no bleeding, no life risking. Magic, jobs done in one single mouse click! It's not like the game has full nude option that displays what's under the underwear. But no, the game has to use the term "identity". I understand it's business, no point to mess up with some pc crusaders who could throw a crusade on you making you lose sells, so I kept my mouth shut for as long as I could because I wish this game to success as long as it provides decent gameplay.
Speaking of which, it reminds of Gale, a sacrifice of such compromise-ish business decision. Why can't the developer leave him alone, letting him to have a more consistent character? Why can't he be Mystra's loyal simp puppy virgin? Why has he to seek nighttime companionship from Tav? In Cyberpunk 2077, that punk girl who only interested in girls, I tried romance her once and got rebuffed, which is great! You don't need to make every key NPC to be romance-able for just everyone. A good RPG storytelling need to have vivid NPCs. Making them mechanically accept having sex with every player character with no condition at all will only make these key companions become closer to some lifeless sex toys which is the quite opposite of "vivid". And then Wyll, the try hard playboy, why would he want to share that night with a dude Tav? If a dude Tav wish to even start a conversation which may directs towards intimacy beyond friendship with Wyll, this Tav should need to roll 3 d20 in a chain to win it! And if Wyll didn't share that night with Tav, then he should wake up with SH or LZ or that tiefling bard couple, or that parrot whispering druid girl. That's more like his character. That's something the player would say, hey, that's my Wyll, that's the Wyll I know, he is so good at it!
And there is the race/class problem, another example of how "compromise-ish business decision" ruins the gameplay. Letting every race to pick just every class is just bluntly ruining the roleplay experience. If you look back at the previous BG, playing a half-orc means I am unable to pick paladin, how wonderful is that! But now if I play a githyanki, in a blink I got qualified to be a paladin of Faerun!? If stereotype was so bad even in harmless fantasy such as DnD, then why don't just ditch tieflings, drows, elves, dwarfs, gith, halflings, gnomes, orcs, goblins as well? Let everyone play Human only, and fight only human?
