Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[Nintex]

They're just doubling down on this shit. I'm pretty sure this is the last AAAA+ gaming generation any of us 30-something millenials will engage and participate in when it comes to games produced in the west. It's not like we'll magically get a new batch of developers, designers and HR staff who aren't woke af. Activists and incompetent nincompoops is all that is left at these corporations and all hiring programs encourage this type of shit.

The damage of DEI cannot be undone in the gaming industry at this point.

On a different note, why are non-binary characters always women?

Because like on ResetEra, that's who they/them/wlw want to fuck.

[Greatness Gone]

Thankfully it seems like the most egregious person of gender shit can be ignored outside of one character's companion quest. I'll keep my preorder, but I don't think Bioware is ever going to return to their heyday.

Hopefully Exodus is good. WRPGs need a win outside of Larian and Owlcat.  :-/

[Steven Snell]

Remember that new main character who started shit with that guy from IconEra and then deleted their account after a while?

I think this is their new account:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/dragon-age-the-veilguard-review-thread.1020987/post-130779186

Joined October 6 and pretty much identical type of posts and similar avatar

Deleted member 180285 aka Valkaria, eh? Imma keep a lookout 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

She/her and some creepy little girl anime avatar. Alarm bells are going off.

[malfoyking]

Thankfully it seems like the most egregious person of gender shit can be ignored outside of one character's companion quest. I'll keep my preorder, but I don't think Bioware is ever going to return to their heyday.

Hopefully Exodus is good. WRPGs need a win outside of Larian and Owlcat.  :-/

Yeah it can be easily ignored. However, I legitimately am not looking forward to whatever Mass Effect becomes.

[DavidCroquet]

They're just doubling down on this shit. I'm pretty sure this is the last AAAA+ gaming generation any of us 30-something millenials will engage and participate in when it comes to games produced in the west. It's not like we'll magically get a new batch of developers, designers and HR staff who aren't woke af. Activists and incompetent nincompoops is all that is left at these corporations and all hiring programs encourage this type of shit.

The damage of DEI cannot be undone in the gaming industry at this point.

On a different note, why are non-binary characters always women?

Because like on ResetEra, that's who they/them/wlw want to fuck.

I still maintain that all of this is eminently doable in a way that isn't...y'know, this.

BG3 was woke as fuck and is universally beloved by everyone in the world. The stuff isn't hidden, hard-to-find, or even particularly subtle.

I don't get why writers can't be more creative than having a fantasy bull-woman sit at the dinner table and declare explicitly: "as an AFAB non-binary genderqueer pansexual, my chosen pronouns are they/them". 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Since I am careposting, I'll mention I recently finished Anodyne 2 which is made by a two-person team. One of these two is a transwoman, and the game itself has lots of "egg" imagery and mentions throughout. But that game is somehow still more subtle than these Dragon Age screenshots, and conveys its themes in a way that is not limited to JUST people who 1:1 identity match with the in-game characters or creators. We don't have to judge stories on a curve: the venn diagram of a "good LGBTQ+ story" and a "good story" is just a circle.

I will say the "friendly neighborhood necromancer" idea is pretty cool, and think it is unfairly getting scooped into complaints about the rest of the stuff.

[garamonde]

I still maintain that all of this is eminently doable in a way that isn't...y'know, this.

BG3 was woke as fuck and is universally beloved by everyone in the world. The stuff isn't hidden, hard-to-find, or even particularly subtle.

I don't get why writers can't be more creative than having a fantasy bull-woman sit at the dinner table and declare explicitly: "as an AFAB non-binary genderqueer pansexual, my chosen pronouns are they/them". 

True

You can have good writing and good stories that revolve around these characters, it's all about execution. TLoU2 also wanted to have a trans character, but everything felt ham-fisted, because the truth is that a lot of these writers are terribly afraid of offending who they are trying to represent so it comes as purely performative and without any soul to it. Doesn't feel genuine.

[NekoFever]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a great movie all these years later, haven't seen the sequels though.

I frequently think of the weird uncle who takes credit for the Greeks inventing everything good when reading Nepenthe’s posts.

Nepenthe is an ancient greek word 

Only because they colonised the Africans in Egypt and stole their culture

[Uncle]

what bugs me is these games are about important world-ending shit, even outside of the main quest urgency the world is always a shithole where you die if you leave the main cities (and often when you stay in them too)

no one has any time for gender shit, no one in this world is high enough on maslow's hierarchy of needs to get into this

and you play fantasy to ESCAPE all this, to pretend you're on an adventure far removed from our world, it'd be just as off-putting if every game had a trump expy in them, I don't want to think about all that now

[DavidCroquet]

Dragon Age 5: Democracy Dies in Darkness

[Greatness Gone]

Thankfully it seems like the most egregious person of gender shit can be ignored outside of one character's companion quest. I'll keep my preorder, but I don't think Bioware is ever going to return to their heyday.

Hopefully Exodus is good. WRPGs need a win outside of Larian and Owlcat.  :-/

Yeah it can be easily ignored. However, I legitimately am not looking forward to whatever Mass Effect becomes.

Mass Effect 5's narrative director is the woman who wrote Guardians of the Galaxy (and also Deus Ex Human Revolution)! That had wonderful writing, so I'm optimistic. But I wouldn't be surprised if Bioware's DEI mandates fuck it up.

[malfoyking]

Thankfully it seems like the most egregious person of gender shit can be ignored outside of one character's companion quest. I'll keep my preorder, but I don't think Bioware is ever going to return to their heyday.

Hopefully Exodus is good. WRPGs need a win outside of Larian and Owlcat.  :-/

Yeah it can be easily ignored. However, I legitimately am not looking forward to whatever Mass Effect becomes.

Mass Effect 5's narrative director is the woman who wrote Guardians of the Galaxy (and also Deus Ex Human Revolution)! That had wonderful writing, so I'm optimistic. But I wouldn't be surprised if Bioware's DEI mandates fuck it up.

Ok. Guardians was great. Definitely feel better about that one then. But I'm sure the game is still gonna suffer from their cult shit though.

[HaughtyFrank]

Yeah it can be easily ignored. However, I legitimately am not looking forward to whatever Mass Effect becomes.

Mass Effect 5's narrative director is the woman who wrote Guardians of the Galaxy (and also Deus Ex Human Revolution)! That had wonderful writing, so I'm optimistic. But I wouldn't be surprised if Bioware's DEI mandates fuck it up.

Ok. Guardians was great. Definitely feel better about that one then. But I'm sure the game is still gonna suffer from their cult shit though.

This reminds me that recently a Mass Effect board game added pronouns for no good reason and even pretended that Liara goes by "she/they" when she has never been referred to as anything other than "she".



I really don't get why they're so desperate to cram it everywhere.

[Polident]

fwiw the more interesting or damning part is the tone and story is reportedly lighthearted do better-isms with generic stock characters and unconvincing banter. Whether you want to call it influenced by Ted Lasso or those dungeons and dragon podcasts deals. Like, it's meant to be escapism. Which is fine. That's fine. Our uncanny character models are chuckling at this quirky skeleton sidekick, who--get this--wears freakin' gems in his eyes like sunglasses. Oh my days.

[DavidCroquet]

I am disappointed about the MrMattyPlays drama.

Mainly because the X hall monitors do this thing they love to do where the entirety of the accusation is: "<name> did something bad." + contextless screenshot

How is someone who is not fully twitter retarded initiated supposed to enjoy the entertainment protect themselves from the dangers?

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/shawn-layden-japan-studio-closure-wasnt-necessarily-a-surprise-and-japanese-devs%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98legacy-malaise%E2%80%99.1018350/page-9#post-130780191

I am saying there should be games of Astro Bot's scale every year. Astro Bot isn't a counter-example, it's proof of the value that reliable teams not working on massive blockbusters provide. I don't think its controversial to suggest games like Spider-Man 2 are unsustainable. It was a huge hit but it cost three hundred million dollars, its break even point was over 7 million sales. That's unsustainable. Sony's audience on Console is getting smaller, the consoles themselves are getting more and more expensive, the number one cultural awareness point about the PS5 is that it has no games.

But Astro Bot isn't the only game that Sony has made that isn't a $200M+ blockbuster. Sackboy, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal and Lego Horizon are smaller scale games than Spider-Man 2, GOW:Ragnarok, etc.

If Spider-Man 2 is profitable then it's sustainable. If Spider-Man 3 comes out and loses money despite selling a big amount, then you can say that it's unsustainable.

Can I get a source on number one cultural awareness point about PS5 being that it has no games?

It's a joke 

I feel like I see people joking about it so often that it's been completely run into the ground, it comes up all the time. Like it started out as people just riffing on the PS3 gag that's been funny for decades but I do see people post the 20 odd game long PS5 Only Games wikipedia page all the time. A fuller line up of more games of Astro Boy's scope would obviously be a good thing. You bring up Ratchet and Clank and I agree but when's the next one? 2029 was mentioned in the leak and there's been more recent comments suggesting that it might have been cancelled outright. So who knows. But I don't feel like it's unreasonable to say that the megabudget playstation games are getting unsustainable, even while many of them are profitable for now. There's only one way ballooning budgets and sales expectations can end.

Jokes and posts on the on the internet about PS5 having no games is not a good source. It's nonsense.

I don't know when the next R&C is coming or if there are more of those smaller scale games, but also, nobody was expecting that Sony is gonna make a LEGO Horizon game and yet it was announced and is releasing this year. So we'll see.

I'm sure that Sony is aware of the ballooning budgets so they are gonna try to make it work, they are not gonna stop making the type games that are making them a lot of money. And Spider-Man also has a licesnsing fee so it will need more to break even, whereas something like God of War doesn't so it wouldn't need to sell as much to break even.

[books]

Frontline of the genocide has been moved to Thetas. I'm anxious how this will all go. Will they stan becasue its a crappy game but has representation, or will they say its not enough and that people are dying everyday because you can't rim the rook's asshole?

[Greatness Gone]

fwiw the more interesting or damning part is the tone and story is reportedly lighthearted do better-isms with generic stock characters and unconvincing banter. Whether you want to call it influenced by Ted Lasso or those dungeons and dragon podcasts deals. Like, it's meant to be escapism. Which is fine. That's fine. Our uncanny character models are chuckling at this quirky skeleton sidekick, who--get this--wears freakin' gems in his eyes like sunglasses. Oh my days.

What's sad is that there actually is a way to write a palatable mildly retarded do-gooder with reddit humor...it just takes a a bit of finesse to do well without being grating. See:

[DavidCroquet]

Apparently Veilguard also has a "we can't kiss because my nature makes it dangerous for you" romantic option too. So the comparison is actually extremely super duper apt.

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/odessa-tx-just-put-10-000-bounties-on-trans-people-using-the-bathroom.1021248/#post-130783299

In a word: Monstrous.
Othering normal people of the world for some bullshit moralistic cause that's honestly none of their business. Texas laws can be so inhuman

Ironic when Ree encourages kids to be trans via grooming.

[HaughtyFrank]

fwiw the more interesting or damning part is the tone and story is reportedly lighthearted do better-isms with generic stock characters and unconvincing banter. Whether you want to call it influenced by Ted Lasso or those dungeons and dragon podcasts deals. Like, it's meant to be escapism. Which is fine. That's fine. Our uncanny character models are chuckling at this quirky skeleton sidekick, who--get this--wears freakin' gems in his eyes like sunglasses. Oh my days.

Yeah, that's my biggest turn off so far. I'm getting pretty sick of this overly over the top "wholesomeness" a bunch of AAA games have started to strive for where the dynamic is more like a saturday morning cartoon than an HBO prime time show. Concord(RIP) was maybe the absolute poster child of this.
And while I don't want to blame everything on "woke" I wonder if it plays a bit of a role, especially considering how D&D is now all about never declaring any race or culture as evil. From what I remember the Qun in Dragon Age 1 and 2 are like a hardcore warrior race with super strict honor codes and no regard for anything weak but this seems to have been progressively sanded down to them actually not being that bad with each new entry so that we can respect them as just an alternate form of belief.

[Taco Bell Tower]

Former Ree mod with a racist kid

[Eric Cartman]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/odessa-tx-just-put-10-000-bounties-on-trans-people-using-the-bathroom.1021248/#post-130783299

In a word: Monstrous.
Othering normal people of the world for some bullshit moralistic cause that's honestly none of their business. Texas laws can be so inhuman

Ironic when Ree encourages kids to be trans via grooming.

Because of thise, Erin also raised the trans threat level up to the maximum in Texas to match Florida. If Trump wins, the entire map will also become that.

THREAT LEVEL: MIDNIGHT

[Snoopy]

Watching those absolute clowns jumping into the thread to bitch about Skillup was hilarious. They don’t give a fuck about his past. All they cared about was getting his negative review removed because it hurt their fee fees.

[Nintex]

Perfect with the Xbox Retard Controller

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/odessa-tx-just-put-10-000-bounties-on-trans-people-using-the-bathroom.1021248/#post-130783299

In a word: Monstrous.
Othering normal people of the world for some bullshit moralistic cause that's honestly none of their business. Texas laws can be so inhuman

Ironic when Ree encourages kids to be trans via grooming.

Because of thise, Erin also raised the trans threat level up to the maximum in Texas to match Florida. If Trump wins, the entire map will also become that.

THREAT LEVEL: MIDNIGHT

absolutely crazy seeing these two thread titles so close together

I wish for the safety of all endangered people in the US!

[DavidCroquet]

Watching those absolute clowns jumping into the thread to bitch about Skillup was hilarious. They don’t give a fuck about his past. All they cared about was getting his negative review removed because it hurt their fee fees.

He doesn't even touch on the identity politics at all, which makes it all the sillier. It's a very straight-up review.

[DavidCroquet]

Perfect with the Xbox Retard Controller

literally the convo I have with my actual kid and his friend when one wants to play hide and seek and one wants build legos.

[MMaRsu]

Thankfully it seems like the most egregious person of gender shit can be ignored outside of one character's companion quest. I'll keep my preorder, but I don't think Bioware is ever going to return to their heyday.

Hopefully Exodus is good. WRPGs need a win outside of Larian and Owlcat.  :-/

Keeping the pre-order?

After SkillUp and MrMatty confirmed you cant even be MEAN to other party members?

Let alone be mean to other ppl?

[Averon]

Review thread locked

[HaughtyFrank]

It honestly makes me upset how much work went into something like this only for the writers to be braindamaged. Who writes this and pats themselves on the back afterwards.

Is this Bluey's fault? Is everyone in California just watching Bluey now thinking a show for pre-schoolers is high cinema?

Edit: This is where I would have put a sexy Bluey halloween costume for the top of the page but apparently this doesn't exist. I'm probably also on a list now.