Editorial Tranny Grimdark - Hyperreality in Bloodlines & Dragon Age

[Jason]

Tags: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

<p>There's an <a href="http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=6111" target="_blank">article on The Border House</a> calling into question the version of reality presented in gritty and mature games like <strong>Vampire: The Masquerade &ndash; Bloodlines</strong> and <strong>Dragon Age: Origins</strong>.</p>
<blockquote>I chose one- the auction block or meat market atmosphere of all this &lsquo;simulation&rsquo; was not lost on me- and slept with her to see what would happen. In a short cinematic before each session you&rsquo;re treated to the sex worker lounging on the bed in their underwear making a quip before the scene fades to black. For the trans sex workers, the ones whose gender was called into disrepute by the quotation marks put around &lsquo;female&rsquo; in their floating text nameplates, there was often a lot of making light of what is actually a very serious trauma for many trans women: revealing that we are trans in a situation where power is thick in air around us. As she lounges there she is shown talking in a deep and clearly male voice set, the sight of a bulge in her panties, and some quip about how the player &lsquo;shouldn&rsquo;t act surprised.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s a reiteration of the old &lsquo;deception&rsquo; trope about how trans women deceive cis men into bed with them, revealing their genitals as sort of a &ldquo;gotcha&rdquo; surprise.<br /><br />In that moment I realized this was what Bioware thought of me.</blockquote>
<p>Pretty sure we've all had that moment in a BioWare game.</p>
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<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.critical-distance.com/">Critical Distance</a></p>

 

[Satan]

DAO was mature in a teenager way.

 

[SCO]

 

[Spectacle]

Quinnae Moongazer, a pizza loving feminist sociologist and amateur slug herder, spends her time writing about feminism, transgender politics, and the vidya. A Latina trans woman in her 20s, she oft runs between worlds in real life and her beloved RPGs. When none of that is going on, she's either reading, attending class, volunteering for something, or doing work for her university's women's rights club. Gaming gets squeezed in where ever possible. Her blog can be found at the link below and her writing has appeared here, on Questioning Transphobia, and Kotaku. Along with Heather Chase, she is cohost of the feminist podcast A Show of Our Own.

Sounds like she'd fit right in here.

 

[Terpsichore]

Quinnae Moongazer, a pizza loving feminist sociologist and amateur slug herder, spends her time writing about feminism, transgender politics, and the vidya. A Latina trans woman in her 20s, she oft runs between worlds in real life and her beloved RPGs. When none of that is going on, she's either reading, attending class, volunteering for something, or doing work for her university's women's rights club. Gaming gets squeezed in where ever possible. Her blog can be found at the link below and her writing has appeared here, on Questioning Transphobia, and Kotaku. Along with Heather Chase, she is cohost of the feminist podcast A Show of Our Own.

Sounds like she'd fit right in here.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Some good points, some ridiculous points. I guess I haven't read enough post-modernist and feminist literature to understand.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Moonbeam Starshitter my ass.

sir I regret to inform you that you have just placed a wiccan curse upon yourself

 

[Excidium]

This shit again?

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Naw that was just some organic granola.

the curse will probably take 6 hours to begin its dark magic then

 

[Quilty]

How the fuck did we get from the GAMES FUCK YEEEEAAAAHHH carefree mentality to this whole retarded "Games are vessels for politics/artistic statement/psychological exploration into the mind of whining transsexuals" argument? When I was a kid I played games to explore alien worlds in Outcast, build entire dungeons in Dungeon Keeper 2, run a criminal underground in The Gangsters, carry out dangerous missions in Shadow Watch, save civilians in Swat 3, and all this without a single fucking mention of gender equality or any OH GOD IS THIS ART contemplation.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

How the fuck did we get from the GAMES FUCK YEEEEAAAAHHH carefree mentality to this

well son videogames are a relatively new entertainment medium and it looks like the industry is entering its college student activist phase

 

[Mangoose]

The main point of the article is pretty good though. That devs often try for and hype realism in their games, and then instead of doing research and simulating the real world (as any typical novelist would...), they implement what they think is real - hypereality.

The rest of the article is author getting tremendously butthurt over minor details. Yet again.

 

[Roguey]

Good golly she certainly wrote a fuckton of words in the comment section. I laughed out loud when even Gillen popped up to defend himself.

Also Why Kreia is an intelligent character

 

[Angthoron]

Looks like after Bio was scheduled for a corrective label surgery, even the trannies began to turn away from it.

 

[Jools]

That site/blog is as retarded as the internet can get, anyway. Currently ranked 4th in my list of retarded sites, just after fecesbook, twatter and 4square.

 

[Mastermind]

Quinnae Moongazer,

If Tolkien knew what he would spawn he would have shat on the first Hobbit manuscript and set it on fire.

a pizza loving feminist sociologist

So no education? It shows.

A Latina trans woman

Also known as a man.

Gaming gets squeezed in where ever possible. Her blog can be found at the link below and her writing has appeared here, on Questioning Transphobia, and Kotaku.

A Pulitzer worthy resume if I ever saw one.

 

[Drakron]

The main point of the article is pretty good though.

No, its not, its just "they are people too" drivel.

That devs often try for and hype realism in their games, and then instead of doing research and simulating the real world (as any typical novelist would...), they implement what they think is real - hypereality.

I am going to go with Bloodlines because its what I can work best to explain things.

Tremere weakness in the game rules was "the player must pick a restriction on the type of blood their character can feed upon", they had to adapt it to the game in order to be in line with the other clans just like Toreador was changed from "such things as paintings, neon signs, or even sunrises can captivate them. It requires a successful Willpower roll to break the fascination quickly; otherwise, the Toreador will stand, awed and helpless, for minutes or even hours" to " when they commit an act that reduces your humanity the effects are doubled".

Then come the whole "Jack says it too" when its referring to a blood pool mechanic, the game makes it easy to feed on people but in order to keep things fair it makes it so you cannot abuse the homeless and prostitutes to replenish your blood pool.

When realism faces game mechanics its realism that have to take the hit, if Troika wanted to keep out of the fire they would just keep the hobos and prostitutes out, many companies do that.

All the tirade eventually bogs down to "NPCs are people too" except they are not, they are background ... extras, like those people in the movies that only exist to walk around (or be killed in disaster movies).

The developers are not trying for "Realism", we do get various attempts at being mature that often fall into inmature category and even if we occasional get preached about something when a developer gets in a soap box the result is usually Fallout 3 "FATHER" or "3 and half hours about what values we want to leave for our children" MGS2:Sons of Liberty.

The rest of the article is author getting tremendously butthurt over minor details. Yet again.

I suppose because no publisher have been drunk enough to put out a game were you play a transexual and the entire game would be BAWWWWWW fest about gender issues that would only be interested for feminists psychiatrists who's parents (or grandparents" were hippies back in the 60's.

 

[Mangoose]

Lol, what. I wasn't talking about realism wrt game mechanics. The subject is developers hyping realism and maturity when they throw in big boobies, lots of blood and gore, and their juvenile sex fantasies.

 

[Antihero]

The main point of the article is pretty good though. That devs often try for and hype realism in their games, and then instead of doing research and simulating the real world (as any typical novelist would...), they implement what they think is real - hypereality.

The rest of the article is author getting tremendously butthurt over minor details. Yet again.

On the other hand, I think people like fantasy in a game. For the social setting, it doesn't have to be real, as long as it's believable enough in the game world. Anyway, the article is kind of reaching with its complaints about VtM:B - the World of Darkness wouldn't really be itself if it were all for social, class, gender, or whatever equality - that would be a real fantasy world. The game's not supposed to take place in some sort of Utopia (or ninth circle of Hell, depending.)

 

[JagreenLern]

Butthurt detected! Deploy Rationalist Crime Squad!

The tranny is butthurt. I understand her being offended at a negative portrayal of trannies, but she should realize that there a people that find transexuality, as well as homosexuality, to be a source of amusement, and people have a right to make jokes, but as far as I'm concerned, people don't have a right to not be offended. If you see or hear something that offends you, than try avoid it. The more important issue, however, is that if someone cares what Bioware thinks of them, their problems probably go deeper than being easily offended. If Bioware were to make a game that stated than anyone who is an agnostic, a Marxist, or a Kwan of Irish or Italian descent is invariably a degenerate who should be necklaced, I wouldn't give a fuck, because Bioware is shit.

As to the inevitable reactionary complaints about the OP, how, reactionaries, does some tranny with a bullshit name bitching about a shitty game affect YOU, in any way?

Also, Quinnae Moongazer? Fuckin-A. I have no issue with trannies, but I fucking hate those new-age unicorn-pissing-moonbeams names. If someone wants to be taken seriously as a writer, they should pick a name that isn't fucking ridiculous. And if someone is actually some sort of lunar cultist, they should just use the name Moon, because Keith Moon was fucking awesome, and be prepared to assure those around you that you have no relation to or association with a certain Korean cult leader.

 

[Mangoose]

On the other hand, I think people like fantasy in a game. For the social setting, it doesn't have to be real, as long as it's believable enough in the game world. Anyway, the article is kind of reaching with its complaints about VtM:B - the World of Darkness wouldn't really be itself if it were all for social, class, gender, or whatever equality - that would be a real fantasy world. The game's not supposed to take place in some sort of Utopia (or ninth circle of Hell, depending.)

Again, this is in response to when people go "HURR DURR my game is so much more MATURE than yourz." The subject, again, is developers intending and/or hyping reality when they end up with fake reality instead.

Though it seems like the VtmB rant was in response to some random reviewer.

 

[Mastermind]

As to the inevitable reactionary complaints about the OP, how, reactionaries, does some tranny with a bullshit name bitching about a shitty game affect YOU, in any way?

It doesn't anymore than the opinion of dipshits who use words like "reactionaries" matters. The codex rages and bitches because it's a way to let off steam. That's all. I don't really give a fuck about leanna unicorn fucker or whatever her name is.

 

[JagreenLern]

That site/blog is as retarded as the internet can get, anyway. Currently ranked 4th in my list of retarded sites, just after fecesbook, twatter and 4square.

What about 4chan? I don't think you can make a list of retarded websites without mentioning that shithole. Last time I checked that site out, it seemed like it would make GD look classy. It's the internet equivalent of Shub-Niggurath's cunt.

 

[Antihero]

On the other hand, I think people like fantasy in a game. For the social setting, it doesn't have to be real, as long as it's believable enough in the game world. Anyway, the article is kind of reaching with its complaints about VtM:B - the World of Darkness wouldn't really be itself if it were all for social, class, gender, or whatever equality - that would be a real fantasy world. The game's not supposed to take place in some sort of Utopia (or ninth circle of Hell, depending.)

Again, this is in response to when people go "HURR DURR my game is so much more MATURE than yourz." The subject, again, is developers intending and/or hyping reality when they end up with fake reality instead.

Though it seems like the VtmB rant was in response to some random reviewer.

You'll get no argument from me there, but with vampires in the mix, I think we can safely throw any pretense of reality out the window. What was the article's claim about it being based on reality exactly other than some reviewer's praise of Brian Mitsoda's writing talent? At least skimming through the drivel in the article, it doesn't deliver. They wanted to latch on to and misinterpret what was written to make their point.

 

[Mangoose]

I dunno. I like the main point but the specific arguments are of course pretty dumb.