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Originally Posted by Sordak
And this is why i dont want Tashas cauldron of everything to be in BG3.

If you cannot feel included without a product that has been pandering to your demographic for ages now (ToEE had one of the first gay romances in video games for games. BG3 specifically features a gay vampire, bisexuality and cuckoldry which are all progressive favorites. And then holy shit all the fucking stuff Crawford put into 5e, if you say the product doesnt specifically try to include youthen you win gold medal in mental gymnastics) beeing changed fundamnetally then maybe the problem is not with the product but with your expectations.

Youre a crybully.
Thats what you are
You are demanding that everyone else change their Product to placate your demands. Demands that are so poorly defined that they can never be met.

Goalposts specifically set so they can be easily moved.


Professional fucking sensitivity

Just fucking write a video game. You dont need a gender studies degree to write people sucking each other off. The Over intellectualization of victim narratives are the death of creativity.


also

>People trashtalking you in competetive video games
Hmmmmmm i wonder...
ever heard of mindgames?
People will find your weaknesses and exploit them. You think these people stalk you and find out your specific identity? they call you names and they keep taunting you with what sticks. because it makes you play worse.
If that didnt work theyd have said theyd fucked your mom. Whatever worked to get under your skin.


And even so.
Even if the gaming community was full of casual racists. How does this impact you playing a single player RPG? Or playing with your friends?
If youve got a problem with casual racism in your single player games maybe the problem is the people you surround yourself with.
but lets not kid ourselves.

This entire argument is constructed specifically as to not require any proof. its just assumed that people on the internet are mean.

You know what?
How about you make a sales pitch why a game should be fundamentally changed to pander to someone who signed up to a forum soley to make bad faith arguments.


EDIT:
And now: To everyone else monitoring this thread:
YOU CANNOT WIN

Do you understand this? You cannot win in a race of moving goalposts.
You can never placate these people. You can never satisfy their demands.
You make every single character bisexual.
Why aren thtey also transsexual? You make half of your characters ethnic minorities. Why is the other half still white?
You specifically make create an entire supplement because some people on twitter cry about racism (and equate black people to orcs, for some progressive reason) - Still not good enaugh.
It will never stop.
You cannot win.

And if youve got a horse in this game: doy ou want this to represent you? This attitude? Do you want to be associated with constant demands?
I wouldnt want that.
I wouldnt want to be associated with crybullying. With showing up and demandign that everything about a product is changed to suit ME.


Maybe the OP should have had a “sensitivity reader” to proofread the post, because you seem super sensitive about it.

Don’t you think you’re overreacting a tad?

Essentially most posts like this are just people asking for the things that may help them or others enjoy the game more (eg a gay person might like their character to be able to have same sex relationships). How is that any different from all the other people talking about what they want in the game? If it fits with the game the devs are making, they might want to include it, if not they don’t have to. Same as anything else.

Obviously there’ll always be a small minority making excessive demands where there’s no need for it. Welcome to the internet.

Not sure I agree with the OP about having the script vetted somehow, the writers should be able to handle it, but whatever. Despite all the doom mongering from some people, I’ve yet to see any evidence that trying to be more inclusive has ruined anything.

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Originally Posted by Apocynum
Your use of phrases like “just trolling” and “just trying to rile someone up,” as well as saying that trolling is “not nice” imply that you view it as a relatively minor problem, and that the only solution you propose being “a team of nannys to guard everyones feelings” would further suggest that you view it as an acceptable problem—or at least, that you see the cure as worse than the disease.

Is this inaccurate?


Yes I do think hating and mistreating people for their skincolor is a worse problem than trolling.
But even if both of them are hust as bad it doesnt change my argument. Trolling and racism are caused by different motivations, if you want to fight either of them efficently you need to differentiate them.

Think of it in medical terms. There are bacteria and viruses that can have the same really bad symtome. If you want to be able to treat the bad symtome you need to know the underlying cause. Will antibiotics work or will they do nothing?

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Originally Posted by Warlocke


I don’t remember any diversity narrative in the new Star Wars movies, though I blocked a lot of it out my mind. There was diversity in casting, sure, but where in the narrative?



You dont remember admiral gender studies? ^^

Anyway if you are unaware of the damage that has been caused to the star wars brand by the latest trilogy you havnt been following the industry. There are lots of youtube channels maping out the state of star wars if you are interested, but the brand is far from in good shape.



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Originally Posted by Skallewag
Originally Posted by Apocynum
Your use of phrases like “just trolling” and “just trying to rile someone up,” as well as saying that trolling is “not nice” imply that you view it as a relatively minor problem, and that the only solution you propose being “a team of nannys to guard everyones feelings” would further suggest that you view it as an acceptable problem—or at least, that you see the cure as worse than the disease.

Is this inaccurate?


Yes I do think hating and mistreating people for their skincolor is a worse problem than trolling.
But even if both of them are hust as bad it doesnt change my argument. Trolling and racism are caused by different motivations, if you want to fight either of them efficently you need to differentiate them.

Think of it in medical terms. There are bacteria and viruses that can have the same really bad symtome. If you want to be able to treat the bad symtome you need to know the underlying cause. Will antibiotics work or will they do nothing?


That is a pretty dubious analogy. Viruses and bacteria are different organisms with different physical properties. Intentions have no physical properties, and are only relevant insofar as how they manifest in actions. In a court of law intentions matter, but we are talking about interactions with generally much lower stakes. So, to use the prevailing hypothetical, if somebody is using offensive language with the intent to discriminate against somebody then they should be rebuked by being ejected from the match and have a proportionate suspension placed on their account, right? Wouldn’t we do the same thing if yes person was “just trolling?” How would you tell the difference?

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Star Wars is in a sorry state because of poor creative direction focusing on nostalgia instead of a cohesive story to pull in fans, despite that not being what star wars fans want at all. it had nothing to do with "inclusivity", if anything star wars did nothing to further an inclusive agenda by sticking to tropes and the mary sue rey plotline. yes there were a bunch of people all up in arms on the internet about some perceived sense of inclusivity, but that happens any time a female lead is introduced into cinema these days.

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Originally Posted by Skallewag
Originally Posted by Warlocke


I don’t remember any diversity narrative in the new Star Wars movies, though I blocked a lot of it out my mind. There was diversity in casting, sure, but where in the narrative?



You dont remember admiral gender studies? ^^

Anyway if you are unaware of the damage that has been caused to the star wars brand by the latest trilogy you havnt been following the industry. There are lots of youtube channels maping out the state of star wars if you are interested, but the brand is far from in good shape.




The original trilogy had Mon Mothma. How is writing in a Mon Mothma replacement with purple hair a diversity narrative?

Lots of damage has been done to Star Wars, but how is that a result of diversity and not just bad writing a lack of cohesive storytelling?

Have you heard of The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda? Star Wars will be fine.

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That’s not quite the question I asked, Skallewag, but let’s go with your metaphor. There are a great many treatments that we apply for disease no matter what the underlying cause is. If someone has a fever, we don’t wait for lab tests to come back before we give them water, rest, and maybe some Tylenol.

The forums we are using right now include blanket rules against flaming (“ abusive, malicious, personal attacks“) , trolls (“deliberately antagonizing other forum users”), and “transmit[ting] any message [...] that is unlawful (including illegal drug usage), harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, hateful or racially, ethnically, sexually or otherwise objectionable.” Do you think this is a bad rule? Do you think the community would improve if it were revoked?

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@Apocynum "What are you talking about with “safe spaces”? In the very real world of employment and labor, if I call my coworkers racial slurs, I will be fired even if I don’t “mean it.” If I start yelling obscenities in a restaurant, I will be asked to stop and then asked to leave. Is this false? And are you arguing that it should be changed?"
> You are right about those rules and I hope they stay. What I wrote was against adapting the game narrative in a way to not hurt those "marginalized communities".

There is a secondary discusion here about trolling vs. racism and so on, that's bit off topic I think.

@Warlocke "I’m all about inclusivity and diversity and I hated the new Stars Wars films and Dragon Age each for being poorly crafted. Do you have any evidence that they “failed” (neither has failed commercially, even though Episodes 8 and 9 underperformed they still made over a billion dollars each) for diversity and not for just being generally a bit crap?"

I just meant when there is a pressure to include someone or something, an outside idea that just must be there suddenly (like diversity for example), then the story/movie/game or whatever other art form, no longer can follow that only path that should exist: to make it as good as possible, to convey that original message freely that started it.

Art starts with a vision, and then becomes a whole, already limited by reality (cost, tech limits and so on). Any further compromise just takes it further away from what it meant to be. Accepting inputs as inspiration and help in creation process is up to artists. Adding further limitations will just result in worse products, and in game creation this means extra cost & time, that is taken away from somewhere else.

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Okay, I don’t necessarily agree with your premise, but let’s run with it: when was diversity forced upon the creators of Star Wars or Dragon Age? The creative team behind each was pretty liberal from the get-go.

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I don't think there was needed any extra "forcing", though the writers & directors can answer that only. I won't reveal the reasons behind the changes, because I don't know and don't have the time to research it, but the style of both changed: they had more "things", larger, with more diversity (both race and gender), but the polish wasn't there anymore. There was no time, or to many cooks in the kitchen (infighting), or other reasons (game engine for sure, that's known for Inquisition DA), but in the end was just so mediocre that was barely worth playing it once, compared to previous higher standards.
The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi were a mess, too many going on at once without anything happening style, but the The Rise of Skywalker slightly improved.
That's just my view, so it's pointless, but there it is. They made money I guess, some parts like the music and many others were great, so wasn't exactly "garbage".

To not make it completely off topic: more is better only if
1. don't have to push something good - from the original vision - aside to fit in, making that feel half baked, and
2. won't dilute the quality of the initial parts, by having to fit it -- while time is running out

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Originally Posted by DrunkPunk
Star Wars is in a sorry state because of poor creative direction focusing on nostalgia instead of a cohesive story to pull in fans, despite that not being what star wars fans want at all. it had nothing to do with "inclusivity", if anything star wars did nothing to further an inclusive agenda by sticking to tropes and the mary sue rey plotline. yes there were a bunch of people all up in arms on the internet about some perceived sense of inclusivity, but that happens any time a female lead is introduced into cinema these days.


Yes...I was in shock! It's like Disney bought a Bagattii, drove a screwdriver into the oil pan, then ran down the road at full speed until the engine blew! Then they lept from the vehicle yelling "YeeeeHawwww wasen't that fun?!!!".

Who in the 9 hells hires a team of directors to play leap frog with the story? Having one successor to George Lucas is tricky enough.

For a single director to accomplish this, they would have had to have taken a hard look at where the story came from, and where it wanted to end up. I wrote my own version in my head after episode 7 (Which was a great movie if it set up for something awesome instead of becoming a train wreck).

I would tell you about it but to fix things I had to lead into 8, with first, a week long mini series (Called "The Outer Rim") to fix plot holes and set up for the story.

The movie itself was a two part story with intermission (One movie but you would have to have an option to view the parts separately for those who can't sit that long).

A two year TV series called "The Outer Rim" that was much bigger than the main cast, but would feature them at least a couple of times each. Seriously, too bad I can't download my brain, cuz its all very audio / visual with the lines and characters reworked to fit the interweaving plots.

The final film was hard to top 8, but managed the best overall scenes in the end.

The end goal...the same as any war...Peace.

The final lines..."Not since the Sith Wars has the Galaxy known such turmoil and upheaval. Many historians endeavored to leave their mark by naming the conflict, but failed. In the end the people won out, as it simply became known as...the Star Wars".

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I agree that diversity shouldn’t come at the expense of something else or dilute the quality of the finished product. I’m just having a hard time thinking of when that has ever happened.

When something like Dragon Age or Star Wars fails to meet expectations lots of people seem very eager to blame diversity, but there is so much else that is wrong with those products that I don’t think less consideration for inclusivity would have made a difference.

On the other hand, I can think of times when diversity for diversity’s sake actually resulted in great quality products.

One time Donald Glover said that he wanted to play Spider-Man. The internet reacted predictably, with lots of consternation about forced diversity and even some death threats for Glover. Brian Michael Bendis caught wind of this, asked himself “why can’t Spider-Man be black?” and then decided to replace Ultimate Peter Parker with Miles Morales. Some years later, Into The Spiderverse comes out and is a critical and commercial darling, widely considered not only one of the best Spider-Man movies of all time, but one of the best comic movies of all time. All thanks to diversity for diversity’s sake.

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Originally Posted by Skallewag
Yes I do think hating and mistreating people for their skincolor is a worse problem than trolling.
But even if both of them are hust as bad it doesnt change my argument. Trolling and racism are caused by different motivations, if you want to fight either of them efficently you need to differentiate them.

Think of it in medical terms. There are bacteria and viruses that can have the same really bad symtome. If you want to be able to treat the bad symtome you need to know the underlying cause. Will antibiotics work or will they do nothing?

I'm not sure how much the law would differentiate (I mean unless the culprit was a known member of hate groups etc but that's a different matter) wherever it is applied; and as many people have discovered to their cost, their online behaviour can and will have them held to account as it is IRL. Even if not a legal matter to begin with, as we know, intemperate behaviour online can often escalate into stuff like doxxing and even swatting and some gamer communities are notorious for this stuff; and while we can split hairs about "bad words", that sort of stuff is unacceptable and definitely very illegal.

IMHO we as a community are doing a pretty poor job of it if we've set the bar so low that we're having to consider what threshold of acceptable behaviour is the legal minimum. I'm not talking SJW stuff here, just basic civility. While I personally may not agree with the concept of "diversity clinics" or whatever we choose to call them, it does not follow that the only alternative is to do the opposite.


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Originally Posted by Raze
Originally Posted by Warlocke
My experience with lots of gamers online has been a lot of casual racism and misogyny

How many is 'lots'? Online gaming is still a small fraction of the gaming community, and if you are referring to trash talk in competitive games, I would discount that anyway.
Literally everything is racist or misogynistic (air conditioners, weather, etc), and those terms have been thrown around so much that they are practically meaningless.

Again, has anyone here required your race or gender, etc, to determine how to interact with you, or referenced that at all?
A statement can be generally true even if there are exceptions (which is why I wrote 'generally' rather than 'universally'). Compared to other real groups, gamers are among the most open and inclusive.


I don't know what term is for Supra-Genius in Wisdom, but Raze has it!


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I'm moving this to the Chat section as its relevance to BG3 is debatable. The appropriateness of some content is also somewhat dubious and ongoing discussion is under review, so as a reminder to nobody in particular, let's please keep it civil and not write stuff that gives me a headache: my "sleep" was barely four hours' worth during which time stuff was reported (for good reason IMHO). I expect to not see further examples.

Last edited by vometia; 22/09/20 11:16 PM.

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What is scary to me, is that very rich and powerful people are promoting hate groups and sharply divided ideas from strait up lies. The whole mainstream media has become the Jerry Springer show.

The great thing is, is it comes with an off switch.

In the case of internet hostility, it is the result of an entire generation being raised with the worst possible examples to follow...like ever in the history of man-kind.

I personally game to enjoy myself and try not to drag toxic ideas and conflicts into the forums. Respect is given as courtesy to all.

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Usually I'm not calling it diversity or something specific, but I always love having more options in games. A larger world than a smaller, if both are same quality, just zoomed out empty doesn't count. Having variety in not just looks but almost everything is a dream that we likely won't have, not with current tech. Maybe if we could live 1,000 year and stay young and healthy.

Now we have to set a limits in expectations and there has to be a balance between quantity & quality, because feature creep can kill a game, unless they have a backing like Star Citizen. That's up to devs and managers/directors and so on up to the chain. If the project didn't include something, that may not get in, because has to be limits. Even if that something is good to have. Maybe for the next project or some add-on. And mod content, that's a great way to give without the need of extra time & cost, if mod tools can be made.

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The point of the medical analogy was simply to illustrate that what works to counter one problem will not work to counter another problem that just happens to have the same symtom. So the analogy holds up well enough for its purpose.

Regarding star wars there was absolutely way more problems than just diversity with it. It still was part of it tho. On thing that is typical of an SJW story is to shove in one of the groups they want to represent, but then also to spare this character from hardship and to always be the bestest at everything (thus preventing character growth). Luke did a traditional heros journey and had to rely on friends and allies who had skills that he didnt. MaReySue was a failed character for being spared the levels of hardship failiure and then growth that Luke faced in his arc. Anyone who wants a more clear cut example of diversity ruining business need only look to the comics industry.

As for the legality of trolling vs making racist statements it ofc differes a bit from country to country. I live in a contry that accepts the UN declaration of human rights so this probably influences my thinking on the matter. Free speech is a human right, and imo should also be a legal right. Being shielded from someone behaving like an asshole is not a human right. I do ofc not think its good when people treat eachother in such a way (whatever their motivations for doing so are) but I do not view it as a matter for the law. At most it can be a matter of breaking some form of ToS for a game/service the people involved are using to talk to eachother.

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Originally Posted by Skallewag
Originally Posted by Warlocke


I don’t remember any diversity narrative in the new Star Wars movies, though I blocked a lot of it out my mind. There was diversity in casting, sure, but where in the narrative?



You dont remember admiral gender studies? ^^

Anyway if you are unaware of the damage that has been caused to the star wars brand by the latest trilogy you havnt been following the industry. There are lots of youtube channels maping out the state of star wars if you are interested, but the brand is far from in good shape.


Haha! This is a perfect example of how ridiculous this argument gets.

No, there was no “Admiral Gender Studies”, there was just an admiral who was a woman.

Star Wars films have been going downhill since the original trilogy. The prequels were a hot mess of overuse of CGI, terrible lines and bad performances. The Force Awakens seemed like a return to form with likable characters, better pacing, better writing and more practical effects, but suffered massively from basically rehashing every single story beat from the original.

The Last Jedi was simply full of nonsense. It had a wonky premise to start with, characters and plot points that were set up as important in the previous film just abruptly killed off, stupid decisions and artificial conflict between main characters, a long subplot that went exactly nowhere.

A woman with purple hair wasn’t the problem, it needed a much better story.

Not seen the Rise of Skywalker yet, but my hopes aren’t high.

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People seem to have a wildly innacurate view of what sensitivity readers are and what they do. But they also seem to have a bizarre view of the creative process. No idea is perfect from the very beginning and it's rarely perfect throughout the process. Writers send books to editors and alpha readers and beta readers to get other people's impressions of their work, to see if they're getting across what they want to get across the way they want to get it across, sensitivity readers are just another version of that. I even have an excellent example.

Brandon Sanderson in his book Mistborn: The Final Empire wanted to write a well-rounded, interesting female protagonist for the book. He succeeded in doing that. But he didn't realize until after things were too far along that all the other main and supporting characters in that book were guys. He as expressed his regret about that fact and wishes he'd noticed sooner so that he could have changed that. Sensitivity readers might have caught that out and thus led to a book more in keeping with his vision and ideals.

Obviously no one wants a creators creative vision to be stamped out, but sensitivity readers job isn't to overrule, it's to point out where a creator's lack of certain lived experiences are causing them to include details that would make their potential audience feel excluded or hurt. They can also point out to creators where their depictions of people unlike them are falling into unintentional cliches and pitfalls, which can lead to those characters being changed in ways that make them more true to life and interesting. And if a creator *wants* to keep those aspects in their work, then in most cases they can, it's not like there's some sort of wide practice of sensitivity readers being able to just demand a change be made or the book won't be printed.

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