Dragon Age Inquisition, Act 2

(remember, massive spoilers, I'm just trying to record my rambles here. I may make mistakes, this is all as best as I remember it)





So, Act 1 ends with a bang (to Evie's great dismay, she got Flissa out but was too slow to save Minaeve. Like, was literally standing on the fire trying to disarm it when it blew up, leaving a charred corpse, which was kind of traumatic, and she was my favorite of the Havensfolk too. Saved Threnn at least. But I was way too caught up to savescum so what happened happened.) Lots of big emotional scenes, dramatic stands, charging out to defy the Big Bad, potential heroic sacrifice to save the others... although I don't think Evie really thought she would die. She was kind of too angry to be scared, and as the player of course I knew the game wasn't over yet. And then the big stirring scene and the plans for the future.

By this point, Evie was absolutely ready to lead the Inquisition... not for religion, but to do what was right. It was her duty, and no one else could do it better. If people were going to make her a creature of myth and legend, she was going to use it. Maybe she was chosen, after all. (She'd lived through that craziness and come out with superpowers, hadn't she?) Maybe she really was the Herald. Maybe she would be Empress. There was no more reason to deny her destiny.

So emotionally, Evie was riding a high.

On a meta-level, I'd stopped thinking of all the heart options as necessarily flirtatious, since many of them just seemed NICE (After all, I was hearting on Cassandra all the time and it wasn't really being more than friendly) so when the option popped up to tell Cullen I was glad we'd both made it out of Haven alive, of course I picked it. I was glad we were both alive!

And then his voice drops, and with this painful intensity Cullen swears to protect Evie from anything like that ever happening again.

In her heart, right then, something went ping.

But it was silly, of course. He was just some boring old ex-Templar and she was pursuing an elf girl, when she wasn't flirting madly with Dorian or palling around with Cassandra. They parted ways. Meta-level, I didn't even figure out where Cullen's position on the Skyhold map was for a good while and couldn't visit him if I'd wanted to.

Evie went back to hanging out with her friends. Met up with the Bull and his Chargers. Started getting to know Varric a little better, and mediating between him and Cassandra. Preparing to find Hawke and the Wardens.

(Oh yeah Blackwall happened at some point but Evie found him a little unnerving, she mostly only hung out with him to try and find out info about the Wardens.)

At some point, still chatting up Sera, I got the pranks quest, and Evie set out to have a little fun... only to be dragged into Cullen's office and told to play a joke on him.

She couldn't do it. Josephine, sure, but Cullen? She could not bring herself to diminish or discomfort that man in any way, not even for a moment, not even for Sera. It was unthinkable.

And that's when she knew she was in love.

(Meta level, from checking the wiki it looks like this may actually be the last step with Sera before you start a romance properly. I honestly didn't know, because it pretty much happened just like this - after that point i went for Cullen with no hesitation, and never even had a conversation with a flirt option in it that I can remember until after Evie and Cullen were a couple. That kiss just about killed me.)

Dragon Age Inquisition

I've been talking about this a bit on Tumblr but since this was originally a gaming blog, I may as well put my long rambles here.

I successfully avoided the spoilers and was surprised by everything! This is your warning to look away now.


I rolled a human (double-dagger rogue, my standby) and went with the default name because Evelyn is very much a name I would pick for a character.

Face isn't far off default either, though I did tweak some things and she doesn't look QUITE like the youtube girls.

Went in as Andrastean-by-default who didn't really believe in much, and was VERY uncomfortable with being called the Herald. If there really was an Andraste, claiming to speak for her would be wrong, and if there wasn't, letting people believe there was would also be wrong. On the other hand, she's a noble and understands the need for leadership, so she was willing to go along with it to a point, while questioning religious fanaticism and blind devotion at just about every step. She wasn't too keen on the Inquisitor title not because she rejected power, but because she was uncomfortable about setting up ANOTHER major religious power when Thedas has enough trouble with the Chantry and the Templars. After the attack on Haven, however, she was more than ready to take up the reins of power. It needed to be done, and she felt herself more capable than others of controlling the situation - and of being willing to shut the whole thing down when the job was done.

On a meta level I created a human because I intended to pursue Sera as my romance. This didn't quite work as planned. As a rogue herself, Evie appreciated the sneaky side of life and didn't mind taking fellow nobles down a peg, especially if they had it coming. On the other hand, Sera kept coming across as a shallow kid with no head for larger issues. Evie has a sense of humor, sure, but she is quite serious at heart, and sometimes mistrusted Sera's motives (worrying that she was only into having fun with no care of the consequences). They became friendly easily, but it wasn't clicking.

Evie and Cassandra started off with obvious antagonism, both because Cass thought she might be evil and because Evie did not approve of Seekers and fanatical religious types in general. Things quickly developed into a calmer mutual respect (Both being nobles who weren't quite what their families wanted, after all, and Cass being more open-minded than she first seemed). Evie admired Cass's strength. (On a meta-level I knew she was straight and never pushed hard enough to get the rejection scene, though I did pick a lot of flirt options when they seemed appropriate.) Even before the end of Act 1, they were on pretty good terms.

Cullen was someone Evie had little time for in Act 1. He seemed very busy drilling the troops and she had more interesting avenues to pursue. (Meta level, I incorrectly thought he was a 'chaste romance' and was even less interested.)

Solas, Evie found intriguing. She was very curious about all the magic shit going on and he seemed to have lots to talk about. She was always happy to hang out and listen to his opinion on things, and generally deferred to his judgment on anything to do with spirits or the fade. She trusted him. However, not being an elf, romance wasn't possible here.

Vivienne seems like a waste of a character (she never had much to say, other than vague comments about fashion) and isn't romanceable so eh. She's mostly only relevant because she was an example of a mage who behaved herself, which Evie appreciated, considering...

... that she sided with the mages and then spent In Hushed Whispers tearing her hair out and wanting to beat Fiona's head against the floor. YOU STUPID WOMAN LOOK WHAT YOU DID HOW COULD YOU SELL YOURSELVES TO BLOOD MAGE SLAVERS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU I WAS DEFENDING YOU. I've heard that some people hated Fiona before the game (from the books) and felt sorry for her after this quest because she ruins her relationship with King Alistair and all. Nope! I didn't hate her before, but she's on my shitlist now. Largely because the game never really gave me the opportunity to chew her out as hard as I wanted to. Anything that happened to her was her own fault and she wasn't nearly sorry enough. By the end of the quest, Evie was pretty ticked off at the rebel mages. She doesn't hate all mages and certainly doesn't want them to be abused, but the rebels had, in her estimation, proved that they could not be trusted to make wise decisions on their own. So of course she conscripted them and agreed with Cullen and Cassandra that they needed to be watched. (This would have annoying consequences later.)

Hushed Whispers was also Dorian's introduction. Exciting stuff, and poor Evie did get a bit swoony over Dorian, who is quite charming and a huge flirt and gave her no reason to guess he wasn't serious, and they pretty much went through hell together during that quest. It was hard for her to trust a Tevinter, since she really did think they were all ridiculous villains at first, but the circumstances bonded her to him and gave her firm trust in him personally, after which she was curious and chatted a lot more about his homeland and problems.

Varric, Evie didn't have much to do with in Act 1. He was there, that's about it.

Iron Bull, Evie agreed to meet with but after he admitted to being a Qunari agent, she put him on the list of people never to be trusted. A useful ally, perhaps, but only as long as their interests were aligned, and certainly not someone to share secrets with. She was perfectly friendly with him, but would never take him along on anything important.

Josephine seemed pleasant but not very interesting. So much so that I almost forgot to list her here, adn can't remember ANYTHING she did during Act 1, or even where she was located. I kept desperately trying to talk to Leliana instead and getting brushed off a lot and feeling sad because I missed the friend I knew from previous games, who was obviously badly hurt by all that had happened... but of course Evie had none of that backstory and eventually it seemed like talking to Lelly was just annoying her so I had to stop.

So, leading up to In Your Heart Shall Burn, this is where I was. Plenty of people I liked hanging out with, some I gently tolerated, none that I had any real romantic inclinations for, and the people Evie was most interested in were the two that could never reciprocate. That would soon change.

(huge ramble should be broken up into multiple posts now!)

Little Witches

edit: This post now semi-irrelevant because they apparently are using the PS2 graphics, so yes, all the art has been redrawn. That's a lot of redrawn, but it's already done.

And the second issue, that of people getting confused about what kind of game it is - it's unfortunately too late for that, with all the other "all ages" games hitting Steam and creating exactly the sort of thing I was talking about, customers who didn't want porn games being referred to porn games and customers who DID want porn mistakenly thinking every game has a secret porn version that's being denied to them. Ugh.

On the bright side, it hasn't yet created any legal problems, that I know of...

Original post follows

----

WARNING: somewhat NSFW - no actual nudity but suggestive graphics ahead!

tl;dr - I like the game but don't think an "all ages" release is a good plan

So, I've been spending a lot of time the past few days playing with Littlewitch Romanesque. On balance I'd say I enjoy it, there's a lot to like, and I'm mostly good with the art style. Some people pick on the faces, I'm occasionally bothered by those long torsos, but overall it's fine. Gameplay-wise, there are some things I think they've done well and I want to learn and steal from, and some things I think they've done poorly and should be avoided. But a mixed response is good, it means I would never be tempted to clone it exactly.

Unfortunately, after playing through the game and getting a couple of endings, I have to say that I am no longer in favor of the Greenlight campaign. Even if you remove all the explicit graphics (and you can't remove all the h-scenes without breaking the plot, so I guess a lot of black screens would be involved?). Originally I thought it was just going to be a raising sim with romantic endings and that one character whose design is going to raise some eyebrows.

After all, I've seen some moral crusaders denouncing Princess Maker as "filthy pedobait" because of a few optional bits added on. I figured this was the same thing.

It's... really not.

Over and over and over again, the learning of spells turns into an excuse for another wacky scene in which you see your (clearly underage) students either naked or in their underwear. "Oh, look, I learned a water spell and now I'm wet so I must raise my skirts to wring them out! Oh, look, I learned a fire spell and set my dress on fire so I have to take it off! Oh, look, I learned a spell to walk through walls and now I'm stuck halfway-through with my panty-clad butt in the air and everyone is poking it!" Many of these have unique CGs. Every spell learned has a little scene that plays after it. They're not all naughty, but a LOT of them are.

EVEN IF you cut out all the h-scenes and all the plotlines relating to sex and all the spell-learning scenes (and frankly we are running out of game at this point), the very spell cards themselves are often extremely suggestive. Several have nudity, usually undetailed but occasionally very clear, even to nipples. Some have panty shots. Some have art that...

... yeah.

Basically, this is exactly the sort of thing the anti-anime crowds accuse anime games of being. It is absolutely, totally, wholeheartedly a game about doing naughty things with little girls. It is not possible to censor this game enough to remove that and have any game left whatsoever.

Now, I don't object to the game. I bought it as an 18+ game. I knew exactly what I was getting into.

I object to the idea of selling ANY version of this game as an "all ages" title. It isn't, it never was, and trying to sell it as if it's just Princess Maker or Long Live The Queen is doing a disservice to the customers, the game, and the industry as a whole.

Customers will be misled and upset that they did not get the cute, harmless raising sim that they were advertised.
The game will be butchered - I have no idea how much content they think they're going to chop out of this, but even just removing the h-scenes will leave a lot of holes.
Everyone who makes and sells anime-styled games may face setbacks and backlash.

There will be a shitstorm.

Please, JAST, if you're reading this, DO NOT market this as "All Ages". If you must sell this title on Steam, label it as what it is - a game primarily about fanservice. EVEN IF you've removed all the sex graphics. AGE GATE THIS.

Hella Yuri

For the fun of it, I'm building a curation list of games on Steam with lesbian content.

If you know of any I've missed or want to correct any of my information there please leave me a note!

meaningless and terrible statistics

/v/ took issue with the complaints about lack of female protagonists and decided to assemble a list.

Their conclusions:

I have to be honest. There ARE more guy protags. That’s just a fact. But honestly, so many of them are unmemorable at best, or fucking awful at worst. No one’s saying they’re not. We’re saying there are also a healthy sample of female ones.

I don’t think anyone is arguing there’s the same number. But the line is usually “there are only a few games” or some shit

Which we've clearly just proven wrong.

Well I’m really proud of everyone that contributed, great job, everyone! Sure, there are gonna be more male protags, it happens, but it’s dumb to say that this is some work of discrimination, it’s simply what a lot of people decided to make games about, and you can’t shame people for making whatever they want to make. There are a lot of great examples of female protagonists out there as this list contains, and that’s good enough.

Now, while I'm not going to make any comments myself about the actual preponderances or what they say about gaming, or the fact that /v/ missed entire genres of games because /v/ either doesn't know they exist or doesn't think they count as games (casual games, otome games), the list they DID come up with is interesting because

1. It covers at least 25 years worth of gaming, based on the titles listed.
2. It covers PC, main console, and handheld titles.
3. It wasn't dupe-checked, some entries are on there more than once.
4. Some of the characters listed are shared protags (you get a choice of multiple characters in the game, or are required to play multiple characters throughout the game, or the girl PC is only an unlockable bonus after finishing as male)
5. Some of the characters listed are not even playable characters. Period. (Akane? Really?)
6. With all that, they came up with a list of less than 500 entries.

(Again, hardly a scientific survey, not something you can draw much conclusion from other than eyeing the anons in the particular thread.)

'Better than Bechdel'

Feel free to skip this, as it's nothing new if you've played the game already. For curiosity's sake I wanted to go over the proposed characteristics in this post and see how Long Live The Queen would hold up. So unless you're interested in that sort of thing, there's nothing to see here.

That said, how DO we score?

Gamers commonly refer to a female character in a way that highlights they are a female variant of a male character. If there is no named female character, these points are still lost.

I've never seen anyone refer to Elodie in such a way.

The most prominent Female Character in the game wasn’t important to the plot. The plot could have happened without them.

Elodie is the plot.

Prominent Female Characters in the game are primarily there as kidnap victims, general victims, prizes to be won or healers/ non combatants in combat games.

You could frame the story as one in which Elodie is a victim, since the bad ends involve her dying and you're trying not to let that happen, but you could say that about almost all video game protagonists. She's never kidnapped and she definitely does fight.

Charlotte falls into more of the traditional girly role, although she's less distressed than she seems to be in most people's first playthroughs. Several other female characters never have any of those traits at all.

Female Characters don’t feel like they might have believably picked out their own outfit. To clarify, skimpy outfits are still okay as long as it fits in a narrative context and seems easily justifiable. (Example: a woman going undercover as a prostitute would likely choose a revealing outfit of her own accord).

Women Wearing “Boob Sclupted Armour”. These points are lost in a non Armour game if women are wearing needlessly sexualised outfits without narrative purpose.

Anyone who wants to argue with me about the tutu has clearly not watched enough ballet.

There is the magical girl outfit, which is a little on the skimpy side (for those who haven't seen it - midriff-bare and very-short-skirt, with high stockings). I have honestly heard a lot more complaints about it from male players uncomfortable with seeing a young girl dressed like that than I have from female ones (I don't have a large pool of very young female playtesters to draw on; the only comment I have specifically heard from a young girl about that outfit was 'Pretty'.)

I don't think there's any real problem along these lines with the rest of the outfits?

A) Female is a never selectable playable character option.
or
B) Female is a secondary playable character option
or
C) Every playthrough requires you to play as a female character at some point, but the vast majority of the game you play as a male character.

Elodie's female, you don't have any other option.

Previous Bechdel test involving two important female characters talking to each other about something other than a man

I watched an LPer get slightly exasperated at the point where he was trying to voice four female characters having a conversation together at once (and it wasn't about men). While your playthrough might not get that particular scene, you can't avoid having women talking to each other.

A female playable lead is restricted to melee weapons if they take part in combat. If men take part in combat but women do not, these points are also lost.

Elodie has a range of options for attacking people: swords, staves, bows, and BLOWING YOU UP WITH FIRE.

No female character can be described using words that are antonyms to Pristine. (grizzled, battle scared, flawed, manipulative, evil ect). Basically this requires them to be a flawed character, without relying on stereotypical female flaws (Vulnerable, emotional ect).

There are manipulative and evil women. Not a lot of grizzled or scarred, though, other than by age and having had a lot of children (hi, Arisse).

Uses Gendered Identifiers prominently to denote Female Character(s)

In the context that this was meant, no.

A Female Protagonist is not prominently featured on the game box art (specifically the front cover).

Elodie is prominently featured.

In a game where you choose your protagonist gender, Male is the Default. Side note, you also loose these three points if you have no choice but to play the whole game male.

Again, she's your only character.

No Female character, portrayed as straight and Cisgender, enjoys a stereotypically Male pursuit or, if they do, it’s made into a big deal.

What exactly counts as a stereotypically male pursuit in a fantasy setting?

Well, Elodie can joust and fence if she chooses to and no-one in game thinks this is at all unusual. Several players have been upset by the idea of a young girl being challenged to a duel, though.

A Cisgender Woman does not at any point appear as an enemy/ villain . If they are an enemy or villain, it’s for reasons related to their gender or the actions of a man.

Depending on your playthrough you may or may not encounter them, but there are at least two major female villains/antagonists and their reasons are not about their gender or the actions of a man. (Not counting the Queen of Shanjia who only goes after you if you kill her husband.)

The most prominent female character’s story is highly dependent on that of the most prominent male character.

Elodie's poor dad is often considered by players to be the most useless video game father in existence - he does very little in many playthroughs except sigh and go along with whatever you say. The story is definitely about her, not him.

The game is a spin off from a series that features primarily Male protagonists.

Nope.

Mood Whiplash

Yes, I bought a copy of 'If My Heart Had Wings', yes, I know about the controversy and you don't need to get into that with me. I wasn't really planning on playing it any time soon but I've been sick for two weeks now and a relaxing visual novel sounded like it would kill some time.

It's a pretty game at a high resolution and it's about following your dream to have a flying club so it should be uplifting, right? Like The Place Promised In Our Early Days?

So I got a lovely atmospheric intro with windmills and gliders and hints of bitterseet backstory and only a little bit of wacky anime (a pet duck with a hat). The introduction of Kotori in her wheelchair is a little too Datable Heroine Moe to be believable but it's okay, a few heavy-handed tropes on first meeting help you set things up.

... And then we slammed into the farcical anime plot.

Look, I know it's a classic trope. Boy somehow has to live in a girls' dorm (sometimes even passing himself off as a girl), hijinks ensue. But everything about it is stupid, especially in this case. The 'Dorm' is practically the size of Downton Abbey and is decked out inside in the same luxurious Olde English style. It takes an army of servants to maintain that shit. I'm supposed to believe that this building is being used to house a sum total of FIVE schoolgirls, and the only staff person onsite is one single schoolboy, the protagonist? And that he's not even taking time off school to do this job?

I can accept this in a ridiculous slapstick comedy because things aren't supposed to make a whole lot of sense. I understand that unrealistically spacious living arrangements are a common fantasy in Japan precisely because they're so crowded. I understand that many people just want to handwave how the eroge protagonist gets close to all the lovely ladies so we can get on with the dating.

But this thing was pitched like a drama! The dream of flight! Rising above your limitations!

... And then a goddamned duck wearing a hat came running across the plush red carpet carrying a pair of panties.

SIGH.

Toki to Towa

No, I'm not playing it, I don't do consoles. However, some interesting elements came up in a review, so I'm going to muse on them even though I haven't played the game. If you're trying to avoid all spoilers, skedaddle.

The storyline involves a guy who dies on his wedding day and his wife trying to change the past to save him. It also happens that she has some kind of split-personality thing going on, so there are two of her with different skills that get switched back and forth between.

However... who, exactly, is the player meant to be empathising with? "Girl tries to save her man" sounds like you'd think she's meant to be the protagonist. Let's look at a few of the bits from the IGN review.

Sidebar text:

You will witness your own death at your wedding before traveling back in time with your wife-to-be in order to track down your killer!

So the sidebar seems to be going for "you're the guy".

However, the gameplay instructions seem clear that you are controlling Toki/Towa.

... Most of the time, anyway. Then there's:

the flimsy dating-sim sequences, in which you assume control of her fiance/dragon

Reviews talk about him as a pervert trying to see multiple girls naked, so I have no idea if these "dating" sections are just interacting with the dual Toki/Towa, or if he's taking a break from his wife trying to save his life to run around and score with other babes.

Nonetheless, the inclusion of this element seems to make it pretty clear who they think the player REALLY is.

Batman games are not generally interspersed with sections where you play Silver St. Cloud trying to decide between the "Batman" and "Bruce Wayne" personas. (Should they be?)

Even the IGN reviewer, who was complaining about this perspective issue, slides a little bit in that direction:

What's more, which of the two you end up with boils down to one ultimate decision anyway, making the smaller ones you make along the way meaningless.

Who you're with. Not who you're playing.

Looking over on Kotaku, they mention that the rest of the cast is pretty much cute girls, and that:

Due to Zack's predicament (namely being trapped in the body of a baby dragon), he is relegated to a computer-controlled support role in battle, while the player fights monsters with gun, dagger, and magic as Toki or Towa. This is an interesting reversal of the normal knight/princess relationship, as it is Zack who must be protected.

Yet it is Zack who is the narrator and player proxy character, not Toki or Towa. He's the only character whose thoughts the player is allowed to hear, and the player is occasionally allowed to choose how he interacts with Toki and Towa as well. And while Zack is the butt of the occasional joke, it is his excellent dead-pan humor in the face of danger that makes him capable of carrying the story—even if he is a bit of a pervert at times.

At its heart, is this game really a standard bishoujo romp with a perverted male lead and a cast of hot babes, faintly protesting "Oh, but the girl is the hero!" as an olive branch to female players / disguise of bishoujo roots from people who fear hentai / sales gimmick to stand out?

Or is it an innovative female-protagonist adventure that got male-pandering elements jammed onto it for marketing reasons?

Or something else completely?

Will those people who scoff that a woman could not possibly be the one doing the saving even notice this thing exists? And if they do, what do they think of it? I can't exactly ask, since it's not like I'd know any of those people!

Fake Geek Guy

So someone who I won't name (please don't track him down, that's really not the point here) is doing a playthrough of Magical Diary and generally moaning about what horrible suffering it is to have to play this thing. However, one interesting bit in the latest post jumped out at me:

Pass Blue Magic class and learn the spell Truesight. It allows magic users to see through illusions in the current area. So basically Dispel Illusion, for us nerdy D&D types, gotcha.

Or, you know, TRUE SIGHT. For us nerdy D&D types.

True Seeing (d20 SRD)
True Sight (Baldur's Gate)

wow, way to suck, 5th cell

Assuming this is accurate:

And I hate hate HATE the backstory. There’s a backstory now. The games never needed plot before, but apparently Fifth Cell decided what this game REALLY needed was a damsel in distress story to drive the so-called action. Maxwell now has a twin sister who will slowly turn into a rock if he doesn’t collect enough starites. Her only jobs are to narrate the opening (vicious waste of your Jennifer Hale, here) and stand in one place looking sad.

I’m told if you find 60 starites, you unlock Lily as an avatar. In the meantime, I can unlock and play ANY ONE of Maxwell and Lily’s forty brothers!

Forty. BROTHERS.

….Screw you, Fifth Cell.

... I now regret having bought as many of their games as I have. What the hell.

Yes, I do resent paper-thin damsel-in-distress stories. I do not hate all damsel-in-distress stories, particularly if there's an actual STORY. But a game which doesn't need a plot and then slaps "save the girl" on it for no reason, I feel like they're either making some weird assumptions about their players or actively trying to send a message.

Your opinions are bad and you should feel bad

Baffled by the people I keep encountering lately who seem firmly convinced that stories are not art unless they cater to a very specific aesthetic. Preferably one that involves as much sex, racism, and misogyny as possible, because only the grimdark holds aesthetic value.

4chan is currently arguing that the English VN market is doomed because there are people who vocally prefer non-sexist stories, and this is inherently antagonistic to 'art' and destroying the entire medium.

Or this guy, talking about how he didn't want to buy a VN with no explicit rape scenes:

If I want great stories where nothing can happen (because age ratings do not permit actually evil characters who do actual evil and actual relationships where people, heaven forbid, actually love and make love to other) there are literally thousands of other games and games companies who do that.

While I have sympathy for his original complaint (buying what he thought was an H-game only to find out it was the expurgated version), I raise an eyebrow at this being described as a story where "nothing can happen". So, you know, traveling to alternate worlds, fighting epic battles against outer and inner demons, making friends, being betrayed, heroes sacrificing their lives, overthrowing a corrupt political system, what have you, all of this is nothing if you can't explicitly see young girls being raped?

Of course, he was probably just annoyed and ranting a bit rather than meaning it seriously. We all do that... (looking up at blog title)

not trying to strike a match here

So I spotted someone on the web describing one of my games as the "WORST DATING SIM EVER." This caught my interest - is this someone who actually plays these games? Why is this game the 'worst ever'? Worst GAME ever I don't usually bother following up with because that tends to mean someone who is totally disinterested in either the graphical or gameplay style, but why worst dating sim? What is it being compared to?

... Of course, I had an inkling of what the actual answer probably was, and was not surprised when he answered and proved me right.

"Because you have to play a girl."

Definitely THE worst ever, huh?

(Note - Obviously I do not demand that people who are not into this stuff suddenly force themselves to play and pretend to like it, what fun would that be? Just... Think of the assumptions packed in there.)

browsing the IGF Entry list

just doing the really shallow quick takes approach to titles as I see 'em

1000 Amps - Puzzly, minimalistic, I'd poke at it for a few minutes but until then I don't know if it'd stick.

A Duck Has An Adventure - I'd play it but I bet that's an iphone game. (checks) Or an android game. Same difference.

A Million Minions - This might be amusing to play the way it's intended, but it doesn't look like it would last more than a few minutes of lols.

Alcarys Complex - See previous discussions about the extreme difficulty that a long story-based RPG is going to face.

Anodyne - I do like the graphical presentation although I'm not sure I'd be up for it over long stretches of time.

ATUM - Cryptic description. I am vaguely intrigued. Watching video, I really want to know what on earth is going on here. I enjoy the animation as well.

Axiom Verge - This looks pretty cool but honestly the aesthetic is probably a little TOO retro for me, and the demo video doesn't explain what the promo text is talking about re: glitches as gameplay.

Big Huggin - A game played with hugs. Less weird than a game played with kissing I guess.

bit Dungeon - aw man do we HAVE to do the Damsel In Distress Man Is Heroic shit again? really? really? From the look of it it doesn't even NEED a plot and said 'plot' will never be mentioned again so why do we have to stick this tired crap on it? PLEASE STOP DOING THIS GUYS.

Bosnobo - Hey, a critters game. I had Creatures way back when, I like training baby AIs. But how does it play? THe video's not very informative.

BUDLR - Neat concept. Does it work? The demo video shows the confused audience immediately dying. This gameplay doesn't really seem well-designed for the mass chaos of EVERYONE trying to enter commands.

Burgle Vs - I was interested enough by the idea to check the video but the video doesn't really show anything interesting.

Camera Obscura - Vague buzzwordy description leads to a platform game with a slightly different mechanic. Not sure it has enough staying power.

Card Hunter - This looks kinda neat. I don't think I'd play it but I'd like to watch.

(More later)

i can't not post that

I must post a link to this UNUSUAL vn screenshot seen on tumblr.

Not exactly porn, but NOT SAFE FOR WORK

(or for having a mouthful of drink)

Unspeakably Epic

While I have somewhat fallen out of the old IF scene, I do occasionally manage to read a game or two, and I have very fond memories of games experienced only through reading reviews.

This review is worth whole new kinds of gold stars. Warning, though, the game in question involves adult content, and the review itself contains some language that will set off a few Safe For Work filters.

Remember Me

No, not the dating sim. This:



I have really confused mixed reactions to this. I often hear people complaining about games turning too much into movies. This is the first time I've noticed seeing a game *really* advertised as if it were a movie... and looking at that, I think I'm going to be disappointed that it isn't one.

Because whatever it is, I can't actually play it... I'm shit at big fancy 3d consoles. So any curiosity I have about the plot will never be answered.

Maybe they'll make an anime of it! (Yeah right.)

(Also unsurprisingly youtube commenters continue to be subhuman trolls and at least one is commenting that they don't want to play any game where they have to play as a female because that's gay.)

oh THAT's what the fuss was about on twitter

Some people assume we all read the same sources and make cryptic references without context!

So, okay, this happened:

A developer of Borderlands 2 has infuriated many gamers after describing a new, easier version of the shooter as "girlfriend mode".

John Hemingway, lead designer at Gearbox Software, made the comments to Eurogamer while on a studio tour.

The 'mode' in question takes the form of a fifth character class, where one early skill called "close enough" lets players with poor aim progress through the game. Designed to help new gamers, and those who "suck at first-person shooters", Hemingway said the "girlfriend mode" essentially makes it impossible to miss a target.

"I want to make, for the lack of a better term, the girlfriend skill tree," Hemingway told Eurogamer. "This is, I love Borderlands and I want to share it with someone but they suck at first-person shooters."

What it is, is a perfectly reasonable feature to add... described by an idiot who makes sex-based assumptions and thinks they're no big deal.

And no surprise, the president of the company jumps onto the internet not to apologise for poor communication/sensitivity skills, but to defend his team and insist that "There is no universe where Hemmingway is a sexist - all the women at Gearbox would beat his and anyone else's ass."

Yeah, you know? That doesn't actually make someone not sexist. (For that matter, getting your ass kicked "by a girl" makes some people more resentful.)

I don't know either of these dudes, obviously. With no further context, it doesn't sound like the guy is a woman-hating kind of sexist. I certainly wouldn't assume that he has ever or would ever hurt anyone. That would be a ludicrous leap to make.

But does he make sexist assumptions? DUH. YES. RIGHT THERE.

Is this a rare thing? No. Heck, even I make those assumptions at times because we're so used to hearing these stereotypes over and over again that we tend to believe them even if we ought to know better. I'll assume that certain games and certain hangouts are "a guy thing" and that anyone present is probably male. But when pointed out that I'm being an idiot? I can say "Oops, sorry."

pride and prejudice and whips and chains

I'm especially amused because I was just in the middle of trying to start a conversation about adaptations of public domain works for romantic purposes, and after posting that I then ran into Christine's tweets about this other thing. :)

seen on gamefaqs

Don't buy it, this game is about dating GUYS.

Like wtf, why would anyone want to play a game where you date a guy????

Hear that, straight women, gay men, and other male-inclined entities of the world? YOU DO NOT EXIST!

On the other hand, while I've had people earnestly tell me that I should be selling a game with a male protagonist because "almost all the people who buy games are male", and a couple things like the above, I still manage to avoid the really nasty stuff like this BBC article on harassment in gamer culture.

today in gamer culture

as seen on the steam forums

Her? As in it was written by a woman? I see... Hm, on second thoughts maybe I'll just skip this title.

It looked good like a good game, but it's not really a game or at least not what I would define as a game.

I'm glad I decided to ask here on the Forums instead of buying on impulse, saved myself a few pounds and a subsequent rage post expressing my dissatisfaction.

Warlock - Master of the Arcane is coming out on the 8th, think I'll just get it when it comes out.

Anyway, a big thanks to everyone for informing me about this game, especially those who dropped that the writer was a female.

Now, obviously, this is just one person, and the post got a lot of "WTF???" followups. I am not claiming that all or even most gamers are like this.

Person tried to justify that most books written by women don't resonate with em. Which is a reasonable preference to have; I find that female authors on average click better with me than male ones do. However, I still read things by male authors - and some of them have exactly the same characteristics I like in my female authors. Because all men are not the same!