Im surprised this is even an issue
MRY.
But its only "a problem" because its seen from all the wrong angles.
The reason I ask is that it's impossible for me to imagine how PS:T would work with choose-your-gender or with a female TNO. The entire story is a male story -- a male power fantasy painted over (and peeling back from) a tragedy of male hubris and ultimate powerlessness.
No its not. Its a deep charcater driven story about some fundamental human questions - that just happened to be told through a male angle. And its ridiculous to call PST story a "power fantasy" which is at best a secondary additional ingredient there more because of general gaming and setting requirements then as some kind of a central point.
The whole core of the story and gameplay is literally a deconstruction and subversion of the usual power fantasy ego trip for fuk sake... The player not only learns that all his actions have terrible consequences on every companion, but that each being he killed and his own resurrections are returning as shadows hunting him and the main villain is indirectly himself, in the form of his own mortality. And you learn that your previous incarnations were all even more powerful then you in current state and had failed.
And then on top of all that the best ending is if you either kill yourself permanently or accept atonement for all your crimes in hell.
Male hubris? Since when is that only a male thing?
Females are more then capable of it and as an a human fault it has no specific gender limits, which are only secondary or tertiary expressions of that state of mind or character fault.
The flaws of TNO's prior incarnations are particularly male flaws.
No they're not. Not in any exclusive sense. Each could be rewritten as a female character flaws - because they are primarily human character flaws, which then express themselves in slightly different ways - depending on a specific character - which is then slightly influenced or colored by gender.
You are literally thinking about human nature in upside-down regressive manner.
I'm not sure how the character interactions would've worked -- I assume the companion roster would've had to be totally different, since while there are Betty-and-Veronica/whore-Madonna targets for the male gaze in Annah and Grace, the male companions (a skull, a hollow suit of armor, a boxy robot, a bald and liver-spotted old man) seem designed precisely so that no female could want them.
Really? So i was playing PsT to lust after Annah and Grace sprites? Thanks for clarifying that for me. I didnt know that.
I guess i missed all the sex scenes and "fade to black" moments in the brothel of Slaking intellectual lusts too.
Hey all you guys who played PST, MRY just reduced all of you to cheap cretins who got your biggest kick out of "hot babes" in PST.
And all the female players who loved the game too.
Because thats what "a gamer who loves rpgs and PST" means - according to him. Thats the base line that has to be satisfied.
We are all the lowest common denominators, playing PST for "power fantasy" and hot chicks.
Send any further inquiries about this fantastic clarification to his twiter or email.
Also, its of course impossible to come up with a few characters that could have a subversive deep relationship with a female TNO... IT JUST CANT BE DONE YO! Especially in Sigil and the Planes setting.
- Only thats actually what the deal with companions in PST were, relationships first and foremost - deep and meaningful relationships between very well written characters, not romances or idiotic sexy time made for retarded, devolved bio/beth drones and general mass market. -
>And it seems like self-scarification and suicide would've had very different meaning in the context of a female TNO than a male one.
Wow... i just cant even... I mean what the fucking fuck...
Every time i try to wrap my mind behind motivations and reasons one could have to proclaim something like this a giant portal leading into vast environment of modernized "culture" vomited through mass market media opens up. A truly Baathorian landscape or mind and soul twisting torture.
I wish i could someday to find a reasonable answer for this unique game developer schizophrenic cognitive dissonance, by which you only see and accept the most idiotic, stupid, regressed morons as audience and then try to create worlds and stories to satisfy their preferences.
Whats the Fallen Gods then about? Male power fantasy and snu-snu with sexy troll chicks?
Maybe its because people sometimes have negative gut reactions to an idea, influenced by who knows what irrelevant superficial garbage enhanced by mass media, and that then influences you to only come up with the worst examples and further dumbest ideas about the issue. Just like Azarkon and few others immediately went to most retarded lousiest examples from dumbest pop culture - instead for the best. Or it could have something to do with general intelligence, epigenetics and other more personal faults.
Wymyn only enjoy "resistance fantasies" which shows "female characters as members of the oppressed, who rise up to either over throw or control the system of mens oppression around them" - really?
The millions who enjoyed playing Witcher 3 are aliens then.
Is that how the "Myn" only enjoy bioware/bethesda mass market garbage and male power fantasy ego pandering?
Is that who we all are? A quality standard to adhere to and build games like PsT FOR!?
It can be hypothesized that the female experience in the West, as it currently exists, must sympathize with the condition of being oppressed, such that women love literature featuring protagonists who are oppressed, and who rise up to cast off that oppression.
As opposed to every single damn RPG in existence including PST in which we all play manly awesome super powerful characters from the get go!
Wheres Ellen Ripley? Why is she not an example of a great female character? Sarah Connor?
Why not Charlize Theron Furiosa? Or several other characters she played in more demanding dramas? How about Jessica Chastain in Zero dark thirty, Amy Adams in Arrival, Dolores in first 9 episodes of Westworld, Michell Pfeifer Catwoman, Frances McDormand character in Three Bilboards, and so on. Hell, even Gadot Wonder Woman. Why are not these taken as examples of great characters?
*Not only, this, but worth mentioning I think that whoever it was that decided TNO to be a man would probably also not like a lesbian love story between TNO and Deionarra.
Would you have turned Deionarra into Deionarr? Huh?
Who giveas a fyling fuck Rads? Its not like you have an actual sexual relationship with Deionarra in the game for fuck sake, or a romentic one either.
All you have are tragic consequences of the past. That would be the same in Chris Avellone writing regardless of gender, or if that tragic relationship was given to another character, maybe the blind archer, for an easy and quick example from the top of my head. (and i bet Chris can come up with a better idea then that too)
Can't think of any wRPGs,
Ciri, Yennefer. Grieving Mother, maybe even Triss to some extent. Although not the protagonists they are very well written and conceptulaized strong characters who could cary a whole game in which they would be further enhanced and deepened.
The tragedy to me is that if Chris had been allowed in the 1990s to tell his female-centric adventure, not about some babe but about a weary old woman, it would've been utterly groundbreaking. (It would still be groundbreaking today.)
Really? It would have been grounmdbreaking if it was an old grandma, but not if it was a "babe"... whatever that term would mean for an emascieted undead zombie.
Is that why there is no "babes" in your game?
So... let me get thir straight - for you there are only "babes" and old grandmas in female gender?
Hm. It's even harder for me to imagine a gender-choosing PS:T than it is to imagine the game with a female protagonist. The latter is a different, but definable game. I don't really see how you can have the same plot arc for both. "We're going to tell a highly personal story, the same way, regardless of TNO's gender" doesn't seem likely to work?
Hrklyush yourself.
And the rest of you confused by this issue can join him. It will do you good.
It is precisely because it is a highly personal and deeply character driven story that it would work regardles of gender.
It is precisely because of that that PST is what it is, not some cheap male power fantasy with babes shite.
It is PRECISELY because Chris Avelone doesnt think like you do that he created PST as it is.
Or do you actually, really think like that?
Thats a question for you to find an answer on. What can change the nature of a game developer?
My point is that PsT kind of a game worked because it was well written character driven story. Any such character driven story will work based on quality of the writing, strength of the character created and how deep and well constructed the plot is while being dependent on and reacting to (since its a game) that characterization and his or her actions - which are fitting for that character.
Thats all one has to worry about when trying to create a story driven game like PsT. If the character is great and writing is good while their interaction with the gameplay and mechanics is good the spice will flow.
Numenera failed because all of these essential foundations were bad. PoE greatest faults were those essentials too.
And no amount of power fantasies or "babes" could have helped.
For
Chris Avellone, Ill just second these questions:
Is there anything you can reveal about what you were planning for the spiritual-successor-to-Torment Kickstarter at Obsidian?
Likewise, any info you can share on BeamDog's Planescape sequel plans?