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poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

PeachHat! posted:

I absolutely loved Sera and can't really figure out why she seems to get such a negative reaction.

She's a greasy little poo poo without any character development who constantly whines about the rich and emotionally blackmails you if you're in a relationship with her.

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Judge Tesla
Oct 29, 2011

:frogsiren:

poptart_fairy posted:

She's a greasy little poo poo without any character development who constantly whines about the rich and emotionally blackmails you if you're in a relationship with her.

Well the Rich are mostly made of poo poo people who deserve to be thrown into a volcano in the DA series, so for me, Sera is the best party member.

Stick Figure Mafia
Dec 11, 2004

poptart_fairy posted:

She's a greasy little poo poo without any character development who constantly whines about the rich and emotionally blackmails you if you're in a relationship with her.

It's a video game.

Kanfy
Jan 9, 2012

Just gotta keep walking down that road.

Stick Figure Mafia posted:

It's a video game.

Surely fiction must be pretty boring if you never have any opinions or emotional response to fictional characters.


On topic, one little thing I like about Legend of Grimrock 2 is how well they integrated Mimics. In most games they're an annoying bother but in LoG 2 they're pretty terrifying because the game is played from the first person perspective, and whenever you open any chest the camera (your "face") instantly zooms inside of it to see the loot.

Normally you see a bunch of items, but sometimes you're staring down a fleshy throat of one of these with only a moment to react before it shrieks and bites you.



After the first one you never trust a chest again.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Stick Figure Mafia posted:

It's a video game.

She's a lovely character inside a video game hth.

Ms Adequate
Oct 30, 2011

Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling



Judge Tesla posted:

Funnily enough Sera's accent is her VA's actual one. :v:

I live like 30 miles away from Derby, it's horrific :gonk:

Horrible Smutbeast
Sep 2, 2011

poptart_fairy posted:

She's a greasy little poo poo without any character development who constantly whines about the rich and emotionally blackmails you if you're in a relationship with her.

On top of being a manic pixie girl from the 90's-early 2000's where she just screams random things out and hopes something sticks. She's also, hilariously, a huge loving racist who hates elves and demands you denounce all elves if you are one despite being an elf herself which nobody points out yet lambastes Solas and the others for.

Judge Tesla posted:

Well the Rich are mostly made of poo poo people who deserve to be thrown into a volcano in the DA series, so for me, Sera is the best party member.

This is also the series that has a quest named "The Final Solution" made up by a crazy templar to murder a bunch of crazy blood mages which the devs have said are supposed to be some sort of gay allegory/metaphor. Oh and the elves are supposed to be like slaves but not "real (black)" slaves, they're supposed to be white jews.

The DA series does not have good writing if you look at it any deeper than face value or dumb sex jokes being screamed at you while you transverse open fields.

1stGear
Jan 16, 2010

Here's to the new us.

Horrible Smutbeast posted:

This is also the series that has a quest named "The Final Solution" made up by a crazy templar to murder a bunch of crazy blood mages which the devs have said are supposed to be some sort of gay allegory/metaphor. Oh and the elves are supposed to be like slaves but not "real (black)" slaves, they're supposed to be white jews.

Oh man, this quest. So one of your party members in Dragon Age 2 is Anders, a rogue mage who strongly believes in freedom for all mages (mages in the DA setting being extremely dangerous and so are usually kept under tight control). In the second Act of the game, he brings you proof that the Templars (the order charged with keeping the mages under control) are planning to Tranquil (strip the emotions of) all the mages in the city. This is subtly named "The Tranquil Solution."You do a quest with Anders that proves it was only one crazy Templar who was pushing the Tranquil Solution and you kill him.

The best part is that once you complete these quest, if you take Anders and another particular character around questing and their party banter triggers, one will tell Anders, "So I guess your Tranquil Solution wasn't quite the holocaust you imagined?"

Anders later does 9/11.

Alaois
Feb 7, 2012

sera also throws a "BOY TRANS PEOPLE SURE ARE poo poo AYE?" line in the middle of a conversation out of nowhere, which leads to nothing in particular and just exists to be offensive

RenegadeStyle1
Jun 7, 2005

Baby Come Back
Most likely because they have to have some people disagree with it to be realistic (unless you disagreed with it in character, I actually can't remember if you even get a chance to tell your views about it or not)

Alaois
Feb 7, 2012

there's a reason Sera is the only party member in the game who has the option to tell her to gently caress off and leave the party at any point in the game you talk to her, even during her recruitment quest

Kumaton
Mar 6, 2013

OWLBEARS, SON
I'm playing a budget rhythm game on Steam called 3...2...1...Kick It! Drop That Beat Like An Ugly Baby and there's a couple of little things that I appreciate. For one, the soundtrack that the game uses when you aren't able to use your own music is actually quite varied. Instead of all being techno and glitch hop, the first level in the game is set to a really catchy pop song and a level after that is a pirate radio broadcast from the year 2030 something that was actually pretty funny. Also, the objects in the game that you have to get close to and press a button on aren't actually physical andyou pass right through them without loosing health, which is a great frustration saver.

Acute Grill
Dec 9, 2011

Chomp
The first time I saw gameplay footage with Sera in it, I thought she was supposed to be mentally disabled.

My favorite little thing in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is that when you play on True Vault Hunter Mode (essentially new game plus) the framing narration switches from Athena being interrogated by Lillith to Athena retelling the story to Brick and Tiny Tina who are far more interested in the merits of jump pads, nitpicking minor details, and prying into Athena's personal life.

Arstan
May 30, 2012

Thanks Cinco
The only thing I liked about Sera was the tavern song about her. It's catchy.

Lord Lambeth
Dec 7, 2011


I like Sera but I also liked DA2 Anders so I am probably a broken individual.

Strudel Man
May 19, 2003
ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

RenegadeStyle1 posted:

Most likely because they have to have some people disagree with it to be realistic (unless you disagreed with it in character, I actually can't remember if you even get a chance to tell your views about it or not)
Only positive views. The closest to disagreement you can get is blank confusion, if I recall correctly.

Horrible Smutbeast
Sep 2, 2011

Alouicious posted:

sera also throws a "BOY TRANS PEOPLE SURE ARE poo poo AYE?" line in the middle of a conversation out of nowhere, which leads to nothing in particular and just exists to be offensive

To be fair the game has the only non-important but still has a name and isn't a shopkeeper trans character explain MAGICAL SEX CHANGE SURGERY to the player. Why yes random friend, do inform me about your reasons for not wanting to transition as a trans person in this game about people cutting open their necks to summon meat monsters. The whole game's treatment of the trans issue is pretty baby's first tumblr post about trans rights.

Alteisen
Jun 4, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

Horrible Smutbeast posted:

To be fair the game has the only non-important but still has a name and isn't a shopkeeper trans character explain MAGICAL SEX CHANGE SURGERY to the player. Why yes random friend, do inform me about your reasons for not wanting to transition as a trans person in this game about people cutting open their necks to summon meat monsters. The whole game's treatment of the trans issue is pretty baby's first tumblr post about trans rights.

And if you insult her you take the biggest hit of approval in the entire game.

People live or die based off your choices and you don't get an approval hit as bad if you insult the trans person.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich
Seriously. Krem was a great character, and probably my favorite bit in DA because of how understated his transsexuality was...and then that's basically undone by the single most patronizing, face-to-camera explanation (complete with super special fantasy terms) possible with that daft approval hit if you're even slightly mean to the guy.

Bioware got a lot of deserved flak for those loving weird "lol tranny" jokes in DA and DA2, but seriously guys there are better ways to make amends than that.

Cleretic
Feb 3, 2010
Probation
Can't post for 4 days!
Sounds to me like Bioware is exactly as skilled at dealing with morality as their games imply.

Len
Jan 21, 2008

Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!


How does transgender even come up in a game about killing goblins/dragons/bugbears? Don't you have more important things to do than worry about the bits people have?

Alaois
Feb 7, 2012

Len posted:

How does transgender even come up in a game about killing goblins/dragons/bugbears? Don't you have more important things to do than worry about the bits people have?

this may blow your mind, but in most bioware games you talk to people

a lot

(by most I mean the only exception is MDK 2)

Len
Jan 21, 2008

Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!


Alouicious posted:

this may blow your mind, but in most bioware games you talk to people

a lot

(by most I mean the only exception is MDK 2)

But like how does talking to them about their gender help you kill baddies better? How is that pertinent information?

CJacobs
Apr 17, 2011

Reach for the moon!

Len posted:

How does transgender even come up in a game about killing goblins/dragons/bugbears? Don't you have more important things to do than worry about the bits people have?

The same way it does in every other video game that's "sensitive" (read: pandering) to that kind of thing: There is no logical reason for it to ever come up without the player character directly asking about it so they instead have the character go out of their way to mention it just so the devs can go "look our game is PROGRESSIVE" as if transsexual and gay people just go around yelling about how transsexual and gay they are all goddamn day; so to ACTUAL gay (me) and transsexual people it just ends up being more insulting and the message is lost while straight white men and women applaud the game for being inclusive.

PeachHat!
Nov 27, 2009

Spider-Man LOVES milk!

Lord Lambeth posted:

I like Sera but I also liked DA2 Anders so I am probably a broken individual.

Broken individuals unite, then! I loved DA2 Anders to pieces. My only problem with his Blow up the Chantry scheme was that he didn't let me in on it in the first place. So I'll fairly admit I might just like poo poo characters. I never got 'manic pixie dreamgirl' from Sera, though. Even with her shouting of inappropriate things just because schtick, she always came off to me more like a 'dirty, angry, Occupy Fereldan' sort. Driven and with a sort of gold-plated heart underneath everything, but also bull-headed, overly simplistic and prone to flipping her poo poo at the stupidest things. I only bring it up because she's the only companion you really tend to see a lot of ire over, even though you get a good handful of others that have equally questionable views, attitudes or personalities in the Inquisition. Solas is a condescending, lying prick, Vivienne is a stone cold social climber, Iron Bull is a hypocrite, Blackwall is...Blackwall, and Dorian is shut up Dorian is perfect just the way he is and I will never hear words otherwise.

It's all a matter of personal preference to a degree, I think. I'm certainly not saying my preference is the right one, and the only reason I bring it up is because it kind of highlights one of the little details I did really love in the game. And that's the interesting little quirks in direction the B plot at least of the story can go when you make different decisions. My fiance and I both bought it at the same time. He played a female Qunari mage and I played a male human mage. His character was more aggressive and no-nonsense, where mine was more charismatic and soft at heart. We would leap-frog story missions the first time we played it. He'd do a big main quest mission, then I'd play through the same mission and then get to be the one who played through the next big main quest mission first. It's actually really noticeable how little decisions you make in Act One can have impact on things that occur in Act Three. He'd say one thing to an NPC and have missions show up on the war table that I never saw, and vise verse. Most notably that I can remember He was never able to talk Leliana down from killing Sister Natalie no matter what dialogue option he chose because of something he said to Leliana in one of the first conversations he had with her. Did it really matter to the main plot? No, not entirely. But it's an attention to little details that I really like.

...and also, I will never stop thinking that the Roof Cookies conversation is absolutely adorable.

edit: This is a lot of stupid words to write about a video game. Forgive me. I really liked it.

PeachHat! has a new favorite as of 14:20 on Mar 1, 2015

Alaois
Feb 7, 2012

CJacobs posted:

The same way it does in every other video game that's "sensitive" (read: pandering) to that kind of thing: There is no logical reason for it to ever come up without the player character directly asking about it so they instead have the character go out of their way to mention it just so the devs can go "look our game is PROGRESSIVE" as if transsexual and gay people just go around yelling about how transsexual and gay they are all goddamn day; so to ACTUAL gay (me) and transsexual people it just ends up being more insulting and the message is lost while straight white men and women applaud the game for being inclusive.

these poorly written gay and trans characters just can't stop talking about how gay and trans they are BY THE WAY HAVE I MENTIONED I'M GAY

CJacobs
Apr 17, 2011

Reach for the moon!

Alouicious posted:

these poorly written gay and trans characters just can't stop talking about how gay and trans they are BY THE WAY HAVE I MENTIONED I'M GAY

Every time I make a post like that and don't include that I am also gay people respond with "SO YOU HATE GAY PEOPLE IN VIDEO GAMES I SEE HOW IT IS YOU GROSS BIGOT" because they're loving retards who don't use their brains, so it was a necessary inclusion

fatherboxx
Mar 25, 2013

Len posted:

But like how does talking to them about their gender help you kill baddies better? How is that pertinent information?

How does Minsc having a pet hamster helps you, why Sulik talks to spirits, why there are skooma-addicted Khajits etc

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

CJacobs posted:

Every time I make a post like that and don't include that I am also gay people respond with "SO YOU HATE GAY PEOPLE IN VIDEO GAMES I SEE HOW IT IS YOU GROSS BIGOT" because they're loving retards who don't use their brains, so it was a necessary inclusion

I remember the last time that happened and you got accused of being a homophobe. Same happened to me when I mentioned someone not shutting up about their sex life in WoW. :laffo:

flatluigi
Apr 23, 2008

here come the planes

CJacobs posted:

Every time I make a post like that and don't include that I am also gay people respond with "SO YOU HATE GAY PEOPLE IN VIDEO GAMES I SEE HOW IT IS YOU GROSS BIGOT" because they're loving retards who don't use their brains, so it was a necessary inclusion

You probably shouldn't post like you're morally against anything like that being in games then

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


flatluigi posted:

You probably shouldn't post like you're morally against anything like that being in games then

He didn't though?

flatluigi
Apr 23, 2008

here come the planes

Tiggum posted:

He didn't though?

If you take out the thirty times he said he was gay it's a lot of "games never do this right and should never do it because it's always awful and nobody cares if it's in a game and it's always for brownie points" etc etc etc. Flipping out about it existing is a good way for people to mistake you for someone who flips out about it existing, shockingly

Signed, a gay dude who likes seeing representation in videogames

The Sezza
Feb 18, 2007

CJacobs posted:

The same way it does in every other video game that's "sensitive" (read: pandering) to that kind of thing: There is no logical reason for it to ever come up without the player character directly asking about it so they instead have the character go out of their way to mention it just so the devs can go "look our game is PROGRESSIVE" as if transsexual and gay people just go around yelling about how transsexual and gay they are all goddamn day; so to ACTUAL gay (me) and transsexual people it just ends up being more insulting and the message is lost while straight white men and women applaud the game for being inclusive.

Perhaps you shouldn't presume to talk for all actual gay/transexual people? For many, the fact that a character is trans and isn't: 1. an offensive one-note joke, or 2. a murder victim, which is usually the case in most forms of media, is a pretty nice thing. Especially if you're punished for being lovely to the guy, I have no idea how effective it is but maybe people could stand to learn not to be an rear end in a top hat to minorities?

CJacobs
Apr 17, 2011

Reach for the moon!

flatluigi posted:

You probably shouldn't post like you're morally against anything like that being in games then

You're an idiot.

flatluigi posted:

If you take out the thirty times he said he was gay it's a lot of "games never do this right and should never do it because it's always awful and nobody cares if it's in a game and it's always for brownie points" etc etc etc. Flipping out about it existing is a good way for people to mistake you for someone who flips out about it existing, shockingly

Signed, a gay dude who likes seeing representation in videogames

edit: You're an idiot who can't read context.

The Sezza posted:

Perhaps you shouldn't presume to talk for all actual gay/transexual people? For many, the fact that a character is trans and isn't: 1. an offensive one-note joke, or 2. a murder victim, which is usually the case in most forms of media, is a pretty nice thing. Especially if you're punished for being lovely to the guy, I have no idea how effective it is but maybe people could stand to learn not to be an rear end in a top hat to minorities?

Maybe so. I'm still mostly salty about the way Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel handled it.

CJacobs has a new favorite as of 14:57 on Mar 1, 2015

Thinky Whale
Aug 2, 2012

All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Fry.
Can we all just agree that more games should let you gaybang mustache wizards?

Kugyou no Tenshi
Nov 8, 2005

We can't keep the crowd waiting, can we?

Thinky Whale posted:

Can we all just agree that more games should let you gaybang mustache wizards?

No. All games should let you gaybang mustache wizards. 100% segment penetration (:pervert:) or bust. Or is that "and bust"?

flatluigi
Apr 23, 2008

here come the planes

CJacobs posted:

You're an idiot.


edit: You're an idiot who can't read context.

Dude apparently people have blown up at you multiple times for the same thing where you felt you had to preload your excuse into your argument, maybe you should focus instead more on why people blow up at your argument. Makes sense to me!

Anyway, to bring it back onto the subject of the thread, I'm always a fan of when LGBT stuff is treated well in games, and I felt that The Last of Us did this really well. Bill was a good character and I felt that the introduction of Frank was a decently subtle way to introduce it (even though it centered around Frank being dead which happens way too often) -- but the part I really liked was in the DLC, where not only did they do a fantastic bit of storytelling with Ellie and Riley getting close and forming a relationship but it's probably the first time I've played an AAA game with a main, playable character that is gay and is treated well. It's still really few and far between when that happens, and I have hope more comes around in the future.

The Sezza
Feb 18, 2007

CJacobs posted:

Maybe so. I'm still mostly salty about the way Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel handled it.

Fair enough. But the more it's done, even awkwardly and fumblingly, it still opens the door for further, hopefully more competent and tactful inclusion. Otherwise I imagine it's just 'those people aren't happy with anything, so we may as well not bother'.

Fwiw, here is an article about the character in question and the process of writing him. I think it all sounds pretty reasonable.

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


flatluigi posted:

If you take out the thirty times he said he was gay it's a lot of "games never do this right and should never do it because it's always awful and nobody cares if it's in a game and it's always for brownie points" etc etc etc. Flipping out about it existing is a good way for people to mistake you for someone who flips out about it existing, shockingly

Signed, a gay dude who likes seeing representation in videogames

I read it as "When a character is made explicitly gay for no reason other than to show how progressive the writer is and it's not actually relevant to the plot or character development, it comes across as pandering, and I hate that." And I agree entirely with that. If you're writing a story and decide that it's dumb to pretend gay people don't exist so you make some of the characters gay, that's fine, commendable even. If you then have those characters go "HEY LOOK EVERYONE, I'M GAY AND THAT'S TOTALLY FINE!" then you're being obnoxious and should cut it out.

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flatluigi
Apr 23, 2008

here come the planes

The Sezza posted:

Fwiw, here is an article about the character in question and the process of writing him. I think it all sounds pretty reasonable.

Yeah, I've read this article before and it's a really good one. I'd recommend people read it!

Tiggum posted:

I read it as "When a character is made explicitly gay for no reason other than to show how progressive the writer is and it's not actually relevant to the plot or character development, it comes across as pandering, and I hate that." And I agree entirely with that. If you're writing a story and decide that it's dumb to pretend gay people don't exist so you make some of the characters gay, that's fine, commendable even. If you then have those characters go "HEY LOOK EVERYONE, I'M GAY AND THAT'S TOTALLY FINE!" then you're being obnoxious and should cut it out.

I was reading a lot of "it never occurs in games unless it's for showing off how progressive the writer is" between calling it "pandering" and talking about all the straight people applauding for it. It's a really cynical way to look at it and kind of patently false given what I knew of the development of the character in question + just in general following development of a lot of games.

flatluigi has a new favorite as of 14:59 on Mar 1, 2015

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