Mass Effect Legendary Edition remaster trilogy

[wahrk]

She suspects them BECAUSE they are aliens, and not because they have different political interests.

They have different political interests BECAUSE they are aliens and not humans. These two things are intrinsically linked. That’s the entire point of her human/dog conversation.

That suggests different groups of humans don't have different (political) interests and are a hive mind, though.

No, it just suggests that any member of a species will likely default to putting their species’ interests above another when shit hits the fan.

 

[Tyrr]

Chinese banquet:

 

[Correct_Carlo]

the way Tali treats Legion -- by all accounts an intelligent lifeform that was created by her people -- is far worse than anything Ashley does btw

Bioware's audience tend to hate characters that personally offend them, even when those characters make sense in the context of the game's setting. For example in DA:I, Vivienne is the most hated companion because the audience are offended by her views on the Circle and mages, but imo her views are what make her stand out from the rest of the cast, and she's probably the only realistic companion in the medieval-inspired fantasy world, alongside Blackwall (another unpopular companion).

This is an issue I have with most video games. Their audiences are too stupid to realize that a video game universe can depict racism or homophobia without necessarily endorsing it. Dragon Age's universe is always super sexually progressive because its weirdo, autistic, otherkin fans would scream homophobia if it tried to depict how gays were treated in an actual medieval setting.

 

[Semiurge]

the way Tali treats Legion -- by all accounts an intelligent lifeform that was created by her people -- is far worse than anything Ashley does btw

Bioware's audience tend to hate characters that personally offend them, even when those characters make sense in the context of the game's setting. For example in DA:I, Vivienne is the most hated companion because the audience are offended by her views on the Circle and mages, but imo her views are what make her stand out from the rest of the cast, and she's probably the only realistic companion in the medieval-inspired fantasy world, alongside Blackwall (another unpopular companion).

This is an issue I have with most video games. Their audiences are too stupid to realize that a video game universe can depict racism or homophobia without necessarily endorsing it. Dragon Age's universe is always super sexually progressive because its weirdo, autistic, otherkin fans would scream homophobia if it tried to depict how gays were treated in an actual medieval setting.

Some doubtless are, but those who are not think that any representation of racism or bigotry is the same as endorsing. Their mindsets are so extreme, that they want all that to be erased from reality - from the past, present and future. There's no way such themes can be studied without making them uncomfortable. I suspect that what they feel is paranoia, fear that representing such issues leads to others blindly mimicking that behaviour, or seeing it as justified no matter how it's presented to the audience. And with some scenarios, the latter example might be unavoidable, IMO.

 

[Roguey]

Dragon Age's universe is always super sexually progressive because its weirdo, autistic, otherkin fans would scream homophobia if it tried to depict how gays were treated in an actual medieval setting.

There are villains in DA who frown on homosexuality

Also Dorian's father though that was more of a "I want you to breed, reeeeeeee" thing.

 

[J1M]

the way Tali treats Legion -- by all accounts an intelligent lifeform that was created by her people -- is far worse than anything Ashley does btw

Bioware's audience tend to hate characters that personally offend them, even when those characters make sense in the context of the game's setting. For example in DA:I, Vivienne is the most hated companion because the audience are offended by her views on the Circle and mages, but imo her views are what make her stand out from the rest of the cast, and she's probably the only realistic companion in the medieval-inspired fantasy world, alongside Blackwall (another unpopular companion).

This is an issue I have with most video games. Their audiences are too stupid to realize that a video game universe can depict racism or homophobia without necessarily endorsing it. Dragon Age's universe is always super sexually progressive because its weirdo, autistic, otherkin fans would scream homophobia if it tried to depict how gays were treated in an actual medieval setting.

Some doubtless are, but those who are not think that any representation of racism or bigotry is the same as endorsing. Their mindsets are so extreme, that they want all that to be erased from reality - from the past, present and future. There's no way such themes can be studied without making them uncomfortable. I suspect that what they feel is paranoia, fear that representing such issues leads to others blindly mimicking that behaviour, or seeing it as justified no matter how it's presented to the audience. And with some scenarios, the latter example might be unavoidable, IMO.

They don't want it erased. They want every piece of media turned into an after-school special about racism.

 

[True Ukrainian]

the way Tali treats Legion -- by all accounts an intelligent lifeform that was created by her people -- is far worse than anything Ashley does btw

Bioware's audience tend to hate characters that personally offend them, even when those characters make sense in the context of the game's setting. For example in DA:I, Vivienne is the most hated companion because the audience are offended by her views on the Circle and mages, but imo her views are what make her stand out from the rest of the cast, and she's probably the only realistic companion in the medieval-inspired fantasy world, alongside Blackwall (another unpopular companion).

This is an issue I have with most video games. Their audiences are too stupid to realize that a video game universe can depict racism or homophobia without necessarily endorsing it. Dragon Age's universe is always super sexually progressive because its weirdo, autistic, otherkin fans would scream homophobia if it tried to depict how gays were treated in an actual medieval setting.

That's because of Christianity and Islam, which doesn't exist in the DA setting. Worship of the Maker doesn't prohibit gay sex.

 

[Semiurge]

the way Tali treats Legion -- by all accounts an intelligent lifeform that was created by her people -- is far worse than anything Ashley does btw

Bioware's audience tend to hate characters that personally offend them, even when those characters make sense in the context of the game's setting. For example in DA:I, Vivienne is the most hated companion because the audience are offended by her views on the Circle and mages, but imo her views are what make her stand out from the rest of the cast, and she's probably the only realistic companion in the medieval-inspired fantasy world, alongside Blackwall (another unpopular companion).

This is an issue I have with most video games. Their audiences are too stupid to realize that a video game universe can depict racism or homophobia without necessarily endorsing it. Dragon Age's universe is always super sexually progressive because its weirdo, autistic, otherkin fans would scream homophobia if it tried to depict how gays were treated in an actual medieval setting.

Some doubtless are, but those who are not think that any representation of racism or bigotry is the same as endorsing. Their mindsets are so extreme, that they want all that to be erased from reality - from the past, present and future. There's no way such themes can be studied without making them uncomfortable. I suspect that what they feel is paranoia, fear that representing such issues leads to others blindly mimicking that behaviour, or seeing it as justified no matter how it's presented to the audience. And with some scenarios, the latter example might be unavoidable, IMO.

They don't want it erased. They want every piece of media turned into an after-school special about racism.

Well yeah, but it seems like they are offended by depictions of those in fiction if they lack the preachy element of after-school specials. This argument started over Ashley Williams - a fictional character who expresses her distrust of aliens, you as Shepard can ignore them, enforce them or try to change her mind. It's up to you. Yet, the character's inclusion still angered many fans and was possibly one of the reasons her outlook was softened in ME3. Just possibly because Bioware also has the excuse of saying her new outlook is "canon" because of paragon Shepard's intervention. We're in deep shit if even fictional characters aren't allowed to be naughty because they were written to be in order to study a particular theme or just for the fuck of it.

 

[True Ukrainian]

Things have always been this way. If I developed a game a decade or two back where the main character was a satanist and was proud of it, no way the game would be released.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Censorship in video games was very low from about '95-2010. In USA, anyways.
ESRB helped a lot with it. Hurt in some regards because games didn't want to get a higher rating so they'd self-censor. The kookie conservative parents were largely content with it as long as it was kept out of the hands of children.

 

[Semiurge]

Things have always been this way. If I developed a game a decade or two back where the main character was a satanist and was proud of it, no way the game would be released.

It's true that there are few games where your character is expected to be evil, with the mechanics to support that. It's mainly the fault of classical storytelling tradition, where protagonists are usually lawful good despite their flaws, and the temptations faced on their journeys. But of course also the fault of an aim to uphold lawfulness and good morals in works of art and entertainment, enacted by industry gatekeepers.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Things have always been this way. If I developed a game a decade or two back where the main character was a satanist and was proud of it, no way the game would be released.

It's true that there are few games where your character is expected to be evil, with the mechanics to support that. It's mainly the fault of classical storytelling tradition, where protagonists are usually lawful good despite their flaws, and the temptations faced on their journeys. But of course also the fault of an aim to uphold lawfulness in works of entertainment and art, enacted by industry gatekeepers.

There's plenty of games where the main character is evil, lawless, or painted in very dark shades of gray. Rockstar's entire catalog is an example of ones with really high sales figures.

 

[Semiurge]

Things have always been this way. If I developed a game a decade or two back where the main character was a satanist and was proud of it, no way the game would be released.

It's true that there are few games where your character is expected to be evil, with the mechanics to support that. It's mainly the fault of classical storytelling tradition, where protagonists are usually lawful good despite their flaws, and the temptations faced on their journeys. But of course also the fault of an aim to uphold lawfulness in works of entertainment and art, enacted by industry gatekeepers.

There's plenty of games where the main character is evil, lawless, or painted in very dark shades of gray. Rockstar's entire catalog is an example of ones with really high sales figures.

Lots of games let your character break the law and even physically attack NPCs, but that doesn't mean the game's mechanics were meant for an "evil" playthrough. Take the typical quests of RPGs - most of them deal in helping others out or preventing the rise of Big Bad™. Games with immoral or outright evil protagonists are an outlier, true neutrality however, is even rarer. Drama requires that a protagonist is forced into action one way or another, no matter what his true motivations are. Geralt is a neutral character, but forced by the story to make a stand. You could say the same of a certain thief called Garrett, who's saved his world three times now. For the sake of "business" perhaps, but all the same. But I digress...

 

[J1M]

Let's take that discussion to another thread. It will go nowhere productive or interesting.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Let's take that discussion to another thread. It will go nowhere productive.

Such a matter must be decided by the will of Infinitron.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Things have always been this way. If I developed a game a decade or two back where the main character was a satanist and was proud of it, no way the game would be released.

It's true that there are few games where your character is expected to be evil, with the mechanics to support that. It's mainly the fault of classical storytelling tradition, where protagonists are usually lawful good despite their flaws, and the temptations faced on their journeys. But of course also the fault of an aim to uphold lawfulness in works of entertainment and art, enacted by industry gatekeepers.

There's plenty of games where the main character is evil, lawless, or painted in very dark shades of gray. Rockstar's entire catalog is an example of ones with really high sales figures.

Lots of games let your character break the law and even physically attack NPCs, but that doesn't mean the game's mechanics were meant for an "evil" playthrough. Take the typical quests of RPGs - most of them deal in helping others out or preventing the rise of Big Bad™. Games with immoral or outright evil protagonists are an outlier.

RPG genre -- fantasy subgenre especially so -- is different because it's heavily rooted in both Tolkien and D&D.

 

[Daemongar]

Censorship in video games was very low from about '95-2010. In USA, anyways.
ESRB helped a lot with it. Hurt in some regards because games didn't want to get a higher rating so they'd self-censor. The kookie conservative parents were largely content with it as long as it was kept out of the hands of children.

Oddly enough, you are sorta wrong about conservative parents. It was left leaning folks who pushed the industry to label games. People often forget it was Al and Tipper Gore that got music releases labelled and Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl (two Democratic senators) who ultimately got / forced game companies to label their games.

 

[Semiurge]

Things have always been this way. If I developed a game a decade or two back where the main character was a satanist and was proud of it, no way the game would be released.

It's true that there are few games where your character is expected to be evil, with the mechanics to support that. It's mainly the fault of classical storytelling tradition, where protagonists are usually lawful good despite their flaws, and the temptations faced on their journeys. But of course also the fault of an aim to uphold lawfulness in works of entertainment and art, enacted by industry gatekeepers.

There's plenty of games where the main character is evil, lawless, or painted in very dark shades of gray. Rockstar's entire catalog is an example of ones with really high sales figures.

Lots of games let your character break the law and even physically attack NPCs, but that doesn't mean the game's mechanics were meant for an "evil" playthrough. Take the typical quests of RPGs - most of them deal in helping others out or preventing the rise of Big Bad™. Games with immoral or outright evil protagonists are an outlier.

RPG genre -- fantasy subgenre especially so -- is different because it's heavily rooted in both Tolkien and D&D.

And? Even if your party in an AD&D game is all evil, is your ultimate objective in the game also that? I'd think that it's rarely so. Games can paint your protagonist as evil, but rarely let you control it that way, at least not in the way I'd describe as truly evil. Furthermore, RPGs are but a small fraction of interactive digital entertainment, even if we'd be tempted to think otherwise.

 

[Yosharian]

Jellyfish salad is actually an common household dish in Southern China, pretty cheap too since you grow them in fishery. It's got a rather crisp texture to it, definitely not slimy or mushy as one might expect.

To be fair, the Chinese would eat anything. They would eat a half rotten rat and call it a popular dish.

It's pretty good though, simple but good. It's been a couple of years but I recall you could buy those at food stands in supermarkets.

Ah, this must be some strange usage of the word 'good' which I am unaware of

 

[Lacrymas]

The Chinese have a pretty varied and interesting cuisine. I love their tofu dishes and hot pots.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Censorship in video games was very low from about '95-2010. In USA, anyways.
ESRB helped a lot with it. Hurt in some regards because games didn't want to get a higher rating so they'd self-censor. The kookie conservative parents were largely content with it as long as it was kept out of the hands of children.

Oddly enough, you are sorta wrong about conservative parents. It was left leaning folks who pushed the industry to label games. People often forget it was Al and Tipper Gore that got music releases labelled and Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl (two Democratic senators) who ultimately got / forced game companies to label their games.

Yeah, I guess people seem to forget that the main push for censorship of videogames is basically an off-shoot of the liberal crusade to ban the guns. The conservative version of this was the satanic panic movement, which in some ways was pretty dangerous (as it resulted in many cases of people actually being falsely accused of committing crimes, most notably the West Memphis Three case), but also had its hay day in the 1980s, when video games still weren’t that much of a thing. Instead they had this whole "D&D causes demonic possession" stuff going on for some time.

 

[Silverfish]

I don't understand this approach. It's the current year. Mordin should be a queer omnisexual reverse anal-to-oral romance to fit the zeitgeist.

He does enjoy musical theater.

 

[Keyboard Vomit]

One of the most racist games of all time is actually Doom 2. Peaceful demonic people of color move to Earth and for no good reason at all the protagonist, doomguy, goes on a mass murder rampage because he's such a loser. The heart of racism is judging people by how they look and act without questioning your own biases. Who's to say demonic culture isn't as great as human culture for example? Why would it be a bad thing if red skinned guys with horns inhabited the cities instead of humans? Nobody can argue for that without resorting to demonphobia and racism.

The class of demon that gets slaughtered the most - by a puppet of a fascist regime no less, has brown skin. I need not point out how problematic this is, I'm literally shaking here.

Exactly, I want to see Bethesda make their next game about protesting space marine on demon violence. Holding plaques with the Imp Lives Matter hashtag outside of AUC HQ and demanding that they defund the marines while getting some lit and fiery but mostly peaceful protests done. You could even have a quest where you help undocumented demons across the racist dimensional border into our realm.

The Chinese have a pretty varied and interesting cuisine. I love their tofu dishes and hot pots.

You must try fried cat and balut if you haven't already.

 

[Semiurge]

One of the most racist games of all time is actually Doom 2. Peaceful demonic people of color move to Earth and for no good reason at all the protagonist, doomguy, goes on a mass murder rampage because he's such a loser. The heart of racism is judging people by how they look and act without questioning your own biases. Who's to say demonic culture isn't as great as human culture for example? Why would it be a bad thing if red skinned guys with horns inhabited the cities instead of humans? Nobody can argue for that without resorting to demonphobia and racism.

The class of demon that gets slaughtered the most - by a puppet of a fascist regime no less, has brown skin. I need not point out how problematic this is, I'm literally shaking here.

Exactly, I want to see Bethesda make their next game about protesting space marine on demon violence. Holding plaques with the Imp Lives Matter hashtag outside of AUC HQ and demanding that they defund the marines while getting some lit and fiery but mostly peaceful protests done. You could even have a quest where you help undocumented demons across the racist dimensional border into our realm.

The imps were on the frontlines for a reason: The demons sent imps to our solar system to act as emissaries of love, and to greet their human allies and especially those lovely human females. And they got shot at by demonophobic jarheads who wouldn't allow "their" women to (forgive me for using the following crass term) mix with with the imps.

 

[moon knight]

Based Bioware.