The Witcher 3 and Mass Effect Andromeda thread

I played the Witcher 3 game. I agree with the one poster that the first few hours was boring. The only reason I kept playing was because I collected a few trophies at that point. So I wanted to get the rest. My favorite part of the game is playing gwent.

With the Star Wars thing. I remember when it came out in 1977. Good movie. Haven't seen the new ones yet. I might one day.

 If James Cameron's directing carear could be wiped out...maybe.

TW2 had huge issues when it come to LGBT+ and women, cutting the balls of a gay man was a huge no no for me. That was disgusting, why not cut the balls of Henselt? he was a rapist. So was the implied grey area rape with Ves and taking out Phillipa(the source material sucks, so I assumed she was bi so I do not get piss off) eyes out, with again implied unwanted advances on a straight woman, lesbian fanservice for males... etc.

I did point this all out on their forum and even the "no pants geralt", the devs did address all of my concerns, so now I praise them because they deserve it. _{Although the cross-dressing elf was really cringe worthy, not sure what was that about.} The only problem I have with Ciri is her costume, she is a practical lady not really stupid high heels fighter. Also the raccoon make up is awful, her adult design is a big fail. Her child version is more on point.

Oh, you like The Force Awakens too? Figures.

Lesson I learned from watching TFA is this; Disney having acquired the Star Wars franchise was equivalent to Shang Shung performing a soul steal fatality. And I was like "Oh no, what if this happens to the next Mass Effect game with it in the hands of a similar evil empire, EA?" Man, I so didn't want to be right, but it's exactly the same outcome.

Dethmold and Phillipa are fantastic characters and I don't understand the backlash against them, solely based on the fact they were subjected to extreme violence. The violence they suffered was a result of their actions, not their sexuality. Surely people don't think LGBT characters should get special treatment in this regard? 

Fantastic post.

Yeah, but we don't know nearly as much about BioWare then from their products. 

You don't also find it ironic that folks are, for the lack of a better word, being triggered because of a perception issue that is frankly not only out of BioWare's hands but has nothing to do with quality of the content?

To use a recent example, Dorian from Inquisition. When he was first released one of the talking points was how he was the first exclusively gay male character from BioWare, it was part of his reveal we had the following as "The Redeemer"

Now, the official website had the interview with Gaider where he mentions hes gay in the middle of the interview about him, and it was mentioned in relation to his actual characterization: a prideful Tevinter Mage who is more like his homeland than he wants to admit.


The press had a field day with this one line in the end, reporting on that fact that Dorian was the first gay male character in the series and all that. They didn't say a peep for Sera who was revealed like two weeks earlier and had the same bit revealed about her, mind you..only for Dorian. But places like IGN, Kotaku, Destructoid, Eurogamer, and so forth kept spreading that headline. Gaider even had to go on twitter to clarify what he meant about Dorian being "fully gay" and got flack then for "catering to a minority audience" with the character. Before the game was launched. 

So really, where in any of this did BioWare make a big deal about Dorian being gay? One question in one interview, blown up to be the thing most important about the character by the media. How about anyone's sexuality for that matter in any of the games? Did BioWare make a big deal about their female characters being realistic in Mass Effect: Andromeda? The press played it up for Dorian, and soon Dorian being gay was the only thing people remember about him. He becomes a token by association, another thing Gaider rightfully points out is a foolish thing about the character.

And in-game, Dorian's complexity is his prideful nature getting in the way of what he really wants, progress for his homeland. The entire journey Dorian goes on is basically him realizing that he is just like his father in many ways: prideful, arrogant, relishing in his status of superiority. He is Tevinter in a nutshell, despite hating that bit about himself. All his sexuality does is put a lens on it by being the straw that breaks the camels back for Dorian personally to do his soul searching. The scene with his father can arguably be a bit on the nose, sure, but it was still important enough because it basically shapes the man Dorian becomes in the future with the players input. I even wrote about this in much more detail, the point is Dorian's major flaw is his own pride, and he is in a battle to stop his pride from being his downfall. 

His arc is far from being a cliche, his treatment in-game is nowhere near about his sexuality. BioWare was not looking for brownie points of any kind by including him, other than thinking, I would guess, that the idea for the character would be a good one. 

And this goes for everyone in Inquisition, Andromeda, and the like. The sort of charge of "virtue signalling" or whatever term it is that people argue is frankly people who have no idea what they are talking about. We can argue how characters were portrayed: Krem gets flak for how he is used in-game and there are some issues with Krem there sure, but thats not even the point, especially considering Krem was never advertised. We can mention the poor handling of side characters or the poor (comparatively speaking) romances for Gil and Ryder (something BioWare plans to change up which ALSO is getting them flak from people anyway, but I digress), but a lot of that is not even the point. 

The whole argument regarding feminism I don't want to get into here, the academic in me has a lot of problems with third wave feminists and the radical sector of intersectional sociology vs sex-positivism and classical feminism. The point is simple: for whatever reason people charge BioWare for catering to people in some form or another, and being obnoxiously open about it. Those people are simply incorrect in that assertion, mostly due to the fact that all BioWare did was what BioWare usually does: answer questions from fans and press about their characters.

Whatever our perceptions, it's frankly irrelevant. People operating on feelings of what they think the reason something is done in a game is meaningless in the end. What matters is the quality of the product. That part we can argue.

The perceived motives, however...not so much. 

Gerlat should have been castrated. Then for the rest of the game every time a hot woman wants to have sex with him he'd just look down at his pants longinly and shed a manly tear. I mean we don't want to play favorites.

Dorian is a gay man that sees nothing wrong with slavery and defends it. Sera is a lesbian with internal racism problems, with a little of transphobia on the side. How is that politic correct?

I think bioware wants to appeal to the anti-sjw and sjw but instead or doing a good mainstory they focus on animating Cora sex scene and forgot about gay companions. So now they get backslash from every front, you cannot win battles like that. That is why CDPR Cyberpunk, if they play their cards right, could be the perfect game. Diverse cast with a deep and compelling story. They easily can take bioware fanbase if they want, with that game alone.

They are kinda still afraid go full GoT or Black Sails, not sure why.

I agree with this statement, but they are also going to have to produce more than one great game every...what...I have no idea how long we'll be waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 to come out. As of now there is precious little after Andromeda coming out this year I really want to play. It'd be great to get a Cyberpunk, Witcher Ciri spin off series once every few years.