Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[BIONIC]

Not to divert attention from CDPR being gross but while we're talking about banned topics, is it acceptable to use language like "that wizard game," etc, to skirt the ban on Hogwarts Legacy?

I'm assuming it isn't, but I've seen a lot of folks use that verbiage lately and I feel like I missed something. To be clear, I'm 100% behind nuking discussion about the game and ofc the entire IP. I don't report basically ever, and I'd love to do so for stuff like that.

It probably depends on the context it's being used, when I see this it's usually not on a positive light

Searching for it shows a bunch of people posting "The Wizard Game" in the "What big games did you miss out on in 2023" thread talking about how well it did. There's a few for the goty thread saying they're glad it didn't get nominated, but I'd say on the whole most of the posts talking about "The wizard game" are positive of it.

Yeah I have seen a good amount of posts like that with people trying to skirt around it.

To echo what folks are saying, I've unfortunately seen it used more in positive descriptions of the game lately. At first, yeah, I even saw outlets deride it using that language, all while promoting other non-problematic games featuring magic.

That said, you're right and it can depend on context.

It's not like the actual words "Hogwarts Legacy" are banned. So just using a different descriptor such as "The Wizard Game" isn't really helping/or protecting anyone...
For the most part I see it as people not wanting to acknowledge it fully.
The odd poster saying they haven't played it yet, seems kinda benign to me to be honest...

That mod is sounding awfully genocidal to me

[Uncle]

1699991895[/url]']

1699989994[/url]']
Crazy that the entire CP 2077 topic is banned to an OT because 1-2 people interpreted one in-game fictional ad as transphobic and went on a Jihad on the forum for months until the mods bent the knee. An ad, by the way, where it is actually transphobic is very much up for debate.

But Kyuuji will never let this go. As sad as it sounds, she probably feels getting CP 2077 banned was her greatest "achievement."

At this point someone should ask what even the point is of banning the game. This clearly isn't about anyone's well being but instead a childish punishment

What has it been since release? Two, Three years?

Certainly, this bitchy prima donna can point to one, ONE, demonstrable impact alleged transphobia has caused. 

I’d say I’ll wait, but I don’t have days to wait or the patience enough to read through whatever ridiculous stretches of logic or facts she’d used to justify.

well you see, it's not about concrete events, but a cosmic confluence of microaggressions experienced vaguely by all

there was some trans woman out there, who was in the closet and suffering, not embracing her true self, and on top of what republicans are doing...on top of how they are treated in society...on top of the personal risk and danger, she also had to see the "mix it up" ad.  ironically it was one of many things "mixed up" in the messaging we are bombarded with every day, and may not have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but nonetheless it was one of many infinitesimal influences that led to her suicide, rather than being able to feel comfortable in her own skin

who can say how many such influences it might take to tip the scale either way?  if you experience 643 transphobiaggressions each day and that's enough to keep you down, for some if we can eliminate a few of those, get that down to 603 transphobiaggressions, that might be enough to make a difference in someone's life

every single "mix it up" eliminated from public eye helps

[benji]

Some interesting stuff in constructive:
Wanna guess which shit head immediately pounces on this with a multi post rant?

Hopefully. Unless I missed an apology from them, some sort of recognition of their bullshit, or the removal of transphobic garbage from their game. Instead there seems to be some shit in Phantom Liberty that others found less than savoury from a trans perspective.

Yeah...not sure what has changed to warrant an unbanning.

It's hard to gauge the sincerity in this when your recent post was this:


What's there to wait and see about. There seems to be sus-at-best shit in Phantom Liberty. They never acknowledged or made moves to address the problematic elements in Cyberpunk 2077. Why is it that we forgive and forget by lifting the soft ban which has – up until this move of wholesale dumping blocks of post into the thread – worked reasonably well. Whenever I've had cause to poke my head into the thread people have been discussing Cyberpunk normally and the thread has some 36,000 posts of discussion in it. An average of like 33 posts a day since the game released.

If you need or want some new thread that acts in the same way for the eventual release of their next Cyberpunk project, cool, I get that. This weird "ban CDPR entirely then" whine is stupid though, since we've had discussions around The Witcher without issue in the years since the soft ban was implemented. It's not a clean solution in all instances, I get it, but it's worked well enough over the past 3 years to where one instance of a thread being dumped into it – over a locking and redirecting as [USER=1776]Uzzy[/USER] mentioned was the former protocol – causing someone to suggest an all or nothing ban is impulsive at best.

Let's not get it twisted either though, such threads when left invariably turned into people gushing about the game and the focus was drawn away from financial reports and the like. The conversations in them ended up less "CDPR's financial stability seems to be in a good place" and more "How is Cyberpunk these days?". This was the case with one of the most recent ones and others before it. I can't speak to the new thread though as, well, all the posts got dumped from it into the OT and I'm not gonna go wading in to untangle one from the other. It would surprise me if it didn't fall foul of what I just said had it run its course, but I'm not gonna state anything on it as I didn't see it y'know.

A clear distinction between CDPR and Cyberpunk relies on forum members not then using threads about CDPR as a proxy to skirt the soft ban and just start a Cyberpunk discussion in it, which has been a common thread in those cases. That's less on staff and more on the community.

Let's see, we have Kyuuji's insane claims that a joke tweet by a fired person is evidence of CDPR's relentless transphobia. We have this "sus shit" post by a paranoid narcissist trans lesbian followed by the gang:

The last thing I'll add is there is a side quest where a cis man becomes convinced he's a specific famous female actor after spending too much time in said actor's brain dances (CP2077's version of super realistic VR, think the matrix). The man dressing in the actress's skimpy clothes and talking/walking around like her is played for laughs.

I played the game again hoping it was better, and the entire time I was going through that quest, I kept thinking "Is that what they think we are?"
Like, it is possible that wasn't the intention, but it felt targeted, like they were trying to play me and my fellow trans individuals off as jokes while having plausible deniability and I don't like it.
It's really sad that what could've been a good game to me is held down by some really disgusting choices relating to a community I am a part of. At least my Steam account is a Press account so I didn't pay money to play the game, it is just a shame that now, having found myself and escaped some of my horrible worldviews, now realize what CDPR thinks is okay, and just how disgusting and unokay it is. Glad I found myself.

Thanks for sharing. And yes, this is why drawing attention to this stuff is important. The people who are most harmed by this stuff are the ones who are most likely to notice it in the first place. We need voices like yours to bring attention to why it's problematic so that companies like CDPR can do better. Although I understand why some have given up on them entirely.

....why? Just... not surprised at all at this point.

The way the game seems to have some positive elements but also has bullshit like what is talked about above, reminds me of how people tried to excuse the wizard gsme because it has a trans character (even one of my queer coworkers said that).

For every decent gesture in the game, there's some shit to balance it out. Though I don't consider The Sphere Hunter, an influencer who has been promoting the game, to be a big gesture. No ill will against her but she's being used as a prop. Especially if we can't get past the "don't discuss labels and actual issues trans people deal with" phase in such media.

Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to post in you again.


Haven't fucked up at all, appreciate you reading it and for the kind words.
As far as I'm aware they never acknowledged it and never amended or removed the various bullshit in the game.

Hiya Kyuuji!!!

It feels strange to be back here but I felt compelled to join in. Really a bit ick, and not good memories from some of the knock on of joining in here, but then again it was kinda when I came out too, and that was a good thing so.... yeaaaahhhh.

I did finally try things for myself after a big sale.. As far as I was aware, (and people seem to have confirmed) the initial issues we discussed way back were just quietly ignored easily swept under the rug while people were much more annoyed at the "real" issues of bugs, lack of polish etc...

Someone chided me in a discord group a while back that the Advert wasn't even used that much, and I don't know if its just something that person didn't see, but while playing I just saw it everywhere. Like stupidly everywhere, like my 5 year old who is so proud her "Jellycopter" joke made me laugh once has to tell me multiple times in a hour.

Anyway the fallout from this thread is what made me move away from ERA really, so it was nice to see some of you all again, and hope you're doing well.

This was a tired point back then and remains so now. I'd hope the factors external to the game in conjunction with elements like Vonocourt posted above and the fact there is no meaningful critique of the advert in the game, no structured framework around addressing how trans imagery is being exploited, would make it clear that it isn't some deep attempt to address such issues and is instead a part of the juvenile streak that runs through the game often at the expense of anything interesting.

That there is no meaningful critique when the billion dollar company behind the game, itself having a history of transphobia, leans into the imagery by plastering it around during promotional events and congratulating a cis woman for sticking a light-up dildo down her pants. Especially when said company is based in a country that was actively hostile to trans people at the time. Any benefit of the doubt was exhausted long before the game, and remains so long after following the complete silence and inaction over these critiques in the years since.

Wanted to chime in that Claire Russell's database entry in the game itself calls her a "transwoman", without the space between trans and woman. Could be another case of people writing the database stuff being ignorant, but not sure.

Stay safe.

Also don't worry even if there's nothing in the game at least it really totally seems like it must be there after all they're transphobic bigots:

So whatever the Actual Alt-Right Meme is, it's still in there? Not that removing it would justify all the other trash they've done/not done.

What meme? As I said, not heard of this but would like to know more if you know anything. Do you know what it's supposed to be about?

i'm starting to think it was that initial transphobic 'joke' tweet and i got it twisted

i was JUST reading thru this thread and coulda sworn i saw something about some alt right meme actually being in the game, now i can't even find which part of the thread it was in

my bad if so, although it wouldn't be the most unbelievable thing. can i be blamed for being like oh of course some 4chan pepe whatever is plastered somewhere in this thing

BossAttack of all people dissented on the trans interpretation of that mission and was ignored since nobody else had actually played it:

The last thing I'll add is there is a side quest where a cis man becomes convinced he's a specific famous female actor after spending too much time in said actor's brain dances (CP2077's version of super realistic VR, think the matrix). The man dressing in the actress's skimpy clothes and talking/walking around like her is played for laughs.

I don't think the intent here was out-and-proud transphobia, but it definitely felt dated, like watching early episodes of The Office or something.

This quest was more about exploring the dangers of celebrity worship and its new dangers in the future. It's also meant to slightly hold a mirror to your own relationship with Johnny.

But that's just my two cents.

And then we have plenty of other trans people (to pick a recent example I posted) who seem to love the game. Such as Kyuuji who change console locations to start the New Game+ playthroughs a few hours early.

You want to clean up the authoritarian shit you claim to hate you deliberately created on the forum you claim to run, B-Dubs? End the idiotic CyberPunk 2077 ban you instituted to cover over staff actions you were uniquely scared to ban people for exposing and definitely don't continue to extend it to the "franchise as a whole" when this argument has never been supported by the lunatics who had to twist a queer woman's art in the first place to get to their dishonest claims to justify the Inquisition to non-lunatics.

[Eric Cartman]

There's a video of Doom ports that Jobst misgendered Becky, the sole developer of the 3DO Doom port. Ever since then I stopped watching him.

UPDATE: Dismissing concerns:

Becky's pronouns are she/her? That's what is used in the video.

He's using the right pronouns there. The one he uses he/him pronouns to refer to is Randy Scott.

fuck jobst.

edit 2:
wait he doesn't misgender her at all. why lie Linkark07

Yes, Becky uses She/They. At least the timestamp I added Jobst uses 'he' to refer to Becky.

If Jobst corrected himself after that I don't know. Just listening that made me stop watching his video.

Will have to rewatch when I return to my home since I'm driving right now.

But I was sure Jobst was referring to Becky in that instance.

FUCK THIS NAZI

It was important to have the conversation tho

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

It's understandable why Kyuuji is upset. The forum has been focused on Palestinians for a month now and it's time to course-correct back to the real issue of trans genocide. It's mentally tiring work but someone has to do it.

[benji]

It was important to have the conversation tho

It's never the wrong time to raise awareness of potential transphobia. 🙏

[Eric Cartman]

Everybody hates me just because I'm smarter than them!

Derailing a thread about the GOP's run to fascism by blithely targeting some of the very minorities in their crossfire, who still may not want to vote because supporting their own genocide is morally untenable, absolutely deserved the ban. The length of time was a standard escalation given their history. In general, mitigating the behavior of vote shaming is something we are discussing behind the scenes in regards to the upcoming election season, but considering these discussions were not public, they did not necessarily influence the ban. It was an asshole post in general.

As an aside, it is just more general proof to me as I've been trying to stand back, observe, and read more books (not social media; books, essays, first hand accounts), that ResetEra in general just is not a great place for political discussion because the historical context and the ability to use that context to derive meaningfully nuanced takes is sorely lacking. Most people here haven't the faintest idea of the various philosophies borne from the fights of minority groups they claim to champion, and then they get pissed off when someone displays knowledge, experience, and context outside of that general ignorance.

Like, superficially being against bigotry does not necessarily make you a good person. Merely picking the right side doesn't mean you are truly knowledgeable. Reactionary drive-bys, a lack of reading and strong media literacy, and chauvinistic presumptuousness towards minorities you believe you know better than are universal faults of us all in this shitty world, but particularly so for Americans, and they are things we should all be working on, myself included.

Who writes like that?  Who is she trying to impress?

[Daft Hand]

The Marvels is so shitty, not even the trans folx want to ship the characters as trans when they do it for everything else.

who the fuck is Iron Heart 

A non-cis enby probably with lame powers from the C team. But he's *insert minority*! So fun!

I'm starting to feel like a broken record on this but Riri Williams/Ironheart and a lot of the other diverse replacement characters are a lot more interesting and well-rounded in the comics than they have been in the MCU. Riri started out as black teenage girl Iron Man but later got aged up and became one of Tony Stark's closest allies, second only to Rhodey. She's one of the only people who hasn't distanced themselves from him because of his substance abuse issues. However she's implied to have a bit of a megalomaniac streak, and is currently sitting on an extremely powerful cosmic weapon that may be subtly warping her mind and is driving a wedge between her and Tony. Pretty far cry from her origins.

Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is likewise in a whole different ballpark compared to the MCU. The film version of her seems to be based on the early 2010s 3rd-wave feminist take on her, but since then the comic writers have fleshed her out quite a bit and made her a legitimate tentpole for the Avengers. One of the recent comics had some other character take a swipe at Captain America, and she basically tells them to shut their mouth and show some goddamn respect for the flag. No way would that ever fly in the MCU.

[benji]

It's not like the actual words "Hogwarts Legacy" are banned. So just using a different descriptor such as "The Wizard Game" isn't really helping/or protecting anyone...
For the most part I see it as people not wanting to acknowledge it fully.
The odd poster saying they haven't played it yet, seems kinda benign to me to be honest...

Uh, pretty sure I saw some bans that would suggest otherwise.

What about the odd staff member playing it for many hours, is that kinda benign? Especially now that we have another staff member downplaying saying the name of The Game That Shall Not Be Named despite the harm it does to the trans community? Especially especially when we know what people really mean with it and are just trying to have plausible deniability that they were "just mentioning it" which is a well known chud genocide tactic?

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-ongoing-israel-palestine-conflict-news-thread-see-staff-posts-for-posting-guidelines.772478/page-200#post-114917279

Yes, excelsiorlef, you can extract sperm from a dead body for a short period of time. I don't know how this is funny or a bad take? I guess a grieving wife wanting to continue a family with her recently deceased husband is bad PR.

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

It's not like the actual words "Hogwarts Legacy" are banned. So just using a different descriptor such as "The Wizard Game" isn't really helping/or protecting anyone...
For the most part I see it as people not wanting to acknowledge it fully.
The odd poster saying they haven't played it yet, seems kinda benign to me to be honest...

Uh, pretty sure I saw some bans that would suggest otherwise.

What about the odd staff member playing it for many hours, is that kinda benign? Especially now that we have another staff member downplaying saying the name of The Game That Shall Not Be Named despite the harm it does to the trans community? Especially especially when we know what people really mean with it and are just trying to have plausible deniability that they were "just mentioning it" which is a well known chud genocide tactic?

Didn't they ban people in the JK thread of even mentioning the game while telling others to move on from it and threatening more bans if they don't? FliX just straight up lying here.

[Besticus Maximus]

I have surveyed a vast sprawl of internet in my two something decades of adventuring forth online, and never in all of my days have I encountered a more aggravating cunt than Kyuuji. uwu himmler.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/us-poliera-2023-ot-2-tapping-the-sign.768689/page-127#post-114885686

Next year's election determines if the US will become a global dictatorship or not.

[Averon]

It wasn't that long ago that Melody Shreds got like half the people in a thread banned for having the audacity to even acknowledge Hogwart's Legacy's existence. FliX is straight up lying right there.

[HaughtyFrank]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/us-poliera-2023-ot-2-tapping-the-sign.768689/page-127#post-114885686

Next year's election determines if the US will become a global dictatorship or not.

Weird, could have sworn that was the 2016 election

[Nintex]

She's one of my professors right now - considering how much of campus already despises her (and with how tense the environment is considering we're at the epicenter of it all in NYC), I am interested in seeing how she's confronted for this shitty, jingoistic rhetoric.

There's already been protests/walkouts from her class - I'm looking forward to seeing how she even attempts to defend herself here....though once a war criminal, always a war criminal...

Thank you for helping us defeat Hillary Clinton and her deep state cabal patriot

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/playstation-portal-review-thread.784778/#post-114848840
[tweet]https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1724067724031103085?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1724067724031103085%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=[/tweet]

Tom Warren doesnt have kids (or have multiple PS5 with multiple TVs in his house) confirmed.

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

It wasn't that long ago that Melody Shreds got like half the people in a thread banned for having the audacity to even acknowledge Hogwart's Legacy's existence. FliX is straight up lying right there.

please don't mention that poster, we don't want to tip them over the edge again. Think of everyone's bank accounts. 

[Besticus Maximus]

The mafia has got them squarely fucked. Sorry Bdubs but you're actually going to have to hand over control to the ascended beings, it's already happened really, you're just the last one to know.

[benji]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/us-poliera-2023-ot-2-tapping-the-sign.768689/page-127#post-114885686

Next year's election determines if the US will become a global dictatorship or not.

It's not already?

https://www.resetera.com/threads/playstation-portal-review-thread.784778/#post-114848840
[tweet]https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1724067724031103085?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1724067724031103085%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=[/tweet]

Tom Warren doesnt have kids (or have multiple PS5 with multiple TVs in his house) confirmed.

Then why would you need this shit?

[wsippel]

Did the crypto-connoisseurs at Era already notice that their beloved Walt Disney Company is entering the field? A couple years late, but I guess that's very much on brand for modern Disney. Are NFTs good now that the House of Mouse sells them? I'd say the company is getting desperate, but I think it's mostly just Bob - he apparently lost a lot of money investing in a dubious NFT company, and that very company is related to the crypto company Disney teamed up with now to handle their "Pinnacle Digital Collectibles". Can't wait for the Coffeezilla episode...

[Nintex]

Bob the Slob failed to run for President because nobody likes him and now he is back to destroying Marvel and Disney. 
The board of Disney needs to get smart and get Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter back on the job.
He knew Feige and the gang were talentless hacks long before anybody else. I LIKE IKE! 

[PogiJones]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/playstation-portal-review-thread.784778/#post-114848840
[tweet]https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1724067724031103085?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1724067724031103085%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=[/tweet]

Tom Warren doesnt have kids (or have multiple PS5 with multiple TVs in his house) confirmed.

Then why would you need this shit?

No, he's saying that either Tom doesn't have kids, or if he does, then he must have multiple PS5s and multiple TVs.

When benji makes me defend a RE's bad take 

[benji]

Why would alt-right chud Tom Warren have any PS5's at all?

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

Ya'll know PS5's should be prioritized to POC 

Capitalism makes sure they get in the hands of white scalpers first. Have some empathy for a change.

[benji]

I stopped listening to Tom Warren when he said "all trans people should be exterminated" in this video:

[benji]

Sorry, I can't timestamp the exact moment when he said it because I'm doing open heart surgery while driving a bus that can't go under 50 mph or it explodes. But I vividly remember him saying it because I immediately closed the video when I typed "tom warren" into YouTube and grabbed the first short result that came up because of how outraged I was that he said it.

[Uncle]

The Marvels is so shitty, not even the trans folx want to ship the characters as trans when they do it for everything else.

who the fuck is Iron Heart 

A non-cis enby probably with lame powers from the C team. But he's *insert minority*! So fun!

I'm starting to feel like a broken record on this but Riri Williams/Ironheart and a lot of the other diverse replacement characters are a lot more interesting and well-rounded in the comics than they have been in the MCU. Riri started out as black teenage girl Iron Man but later got aged up and became one of Tony Stark's closest allies, second only to Rhodey. She's one of the only people who hasn't distanced themselves from him because of his substance abuse issues. However she's implied to have a bit of a megalomaniac streak, and is currently sitting on an extremely powerful cosmic weapon that may be subtly warping her mind and is driving a wedge between her and Tony. Pretty far cry from her origins.

Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is likewise in a whole different ballpark compared to the MCU. The film version of her seems to be based on the early 2010s 3rd-wave feminist take on her, but since then the comic writers have fleshed her out quite a bit and made her a legitimate tentpole for the Avengers. One of the recent comics had some other character take a swipe at Captain America, and she basically tells them to shut their mouth and show some goddamn respect for the flag. No way would that ever fly in the MCU.

I genuinely appreciate this information, it feels hard to get quick summaries like this with the specific context of comics vs. movies

[Potato]

The mafia has got them squarely fucked. Sorry Bdubs but you're actually going to have to hand over control to the ascended beings, it's already happened really, you're just the last one to know.

How can the trans women NOT have superior knowledge to everyone else?

They have the experience of being an actual man AND and an actual women!!!!!

[Orange Juice Box]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-ongoing-israel-palestine-conflict-news-thread-see-staff-posts-for-posting-guidelines.772478/page-201#post-114927239


A widow tried to recover sperm from her dead husband and Israel actually has a program for that.  Excel posts it without comment and it becomes and issue.

Some of you guys seem really unnecessarily judgmental towards the actions of people whose significant others were just murdered. Hm.

It's more on the "why is this being broadcasted to the world by an official state mouthpiece." Frankly, this person while suffering immense tragedy and trauma will get the full support from the state to help move on and rebuild their lives.

Meanwhile in Gaza there are entire families being executed with the drop of a bomb and will only be remembered by a blanket statement of "Hamas was there."

She's got insurance in other words. 

It was pretty gross when Era spuriously picked Deep instead of Heard and issued a soft ban on those who disagreed.  And now, because Excel and Nepenthe have chosen a side the rest of Era has to abide.