Quoting: Guest

Quoting: NezchanIt does seem that fans of the game, outraged that trans people and others weren't pleased at the Discord comments have been dogpiling them with some pretty nasty stuff on social media. I did some looking around after this broke, and even people with mild "Oh, this nonsense again, I wish I didn't have to deal with this" reactions were getting accusations of censorship (and worse) and insults from scores of people.

Looking at Twitter right now, there seems to be far greater vitriol against the devs for apologizing, 3D Realms for not putting up with it, and especially trans people for not just shutting up and taking it in the first place. It's pretty nasty stuff, and honestly I don't recommend looking at it.

As to the game itself, I've only seen it played on Samsai's stream for a couple hours thus far, but it looks well crafted and a lot of fun if you're an FPS player. I especially like how colourful and varied the level designs are, a far cry from the brown, dull green, and gunmetal grey of a lot of shooters. The addition of things like fans to traverse areas adds even more dimension to the spaces, which is welcome.

Except that trans people actually came out in defense of the game and not as you stated.

NONE of the released screenshots shows anything even remotely "transphobic"

That ain't the gotcha you seem to think it is, mate.

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Quoting: KithopI know I shouldn't bother reading the comments section on articles on this, but first - please have some context as to where the accusations of transphobia from the devs came from (and yes, they're legitimate):

Resetera link to Discord screens

The couple texture changes for items in game were made because that stuff ticked off 3D Realms; they don't want their name associated with this kind of stuff, so presumably they really wanted the devs to scrub the game clean of anything remotely homo/transphobic. That's their right to ask - they're the publisher, and sure, it's 'censorship' - you can even argue it's self-censorship since, after all, this is also their baby, and they felt the need to state an updated policy on this stuff for future games. None of this is being forced by a government, or the ESRB, or anything like that.

Now, some of you are probably wondering... how did people get these screenshots? Why were they in a Discord server for this (relatively obscure/niche) game? And why would they then be upset over this stuff?

Well, having a number of transfeminine and transmasculine (and enby and pan and...) friends and acquaintances online, this one hurt pretty hard because up until that point they were all super excited for this game and recommending it to each other! There's a joke in transfeminine circles that if you search for thigh-high rainbow or trans pride coloured socks on Amazon, you'll get recommendations for books on programming and computer parts in the 'People also Bought' section - trans people were quick to adopt the online world to be able to reach out to each other across vast distances; trans people, especially transfeminine people, maybe stereotypically, maybe not, tend to skew towards the nerdy side.

These people run Linux. They run FreeBSD. They reminisce about systems that were sometimes before their time. The designer of the ARM architecture was trans. They like to game, but are constantly being shut out by this cloud of toxicity that surrounds a lot of modern gaming, so they make their own, supporting each other in the process and getting onto platforms like itch.io.

They were fans of games like Duke3D when it came out. Some younger people discovered it on recommendation of the older folks. It's silly, over the top, fun, and yeah - a little sexist - but it was the '90s, and part of the pastiche. Think of the modern day band Steel Panther, and people 'get it' - it's all in good fun. At least, when it's acknowledged that's not how you actually treat people these days.

They game on Linux (and BSD!), and more than one have I pointed to this very site as an example of great reporting (<3 you, Liam and others!).

...but I have to remind them, 'just... don't read the comments', and they have to begrudgingly accept that. Like every other site, these days.

I don't expect things to change, but I hope for some of you this adds some more context as to why this was such a big deal. Having someone important that worked on something you were genuinely super excited for turn around and shit on your existence as a human being is not a great feeling.

There used to be a joke in the community that radiation from CRT monitors turned people trans because so many were involved in programming, video games, and technology in general. Hell, go all the way back to Lynn Conway, who helped develop the technology that made the internet possible in the first place.

And yeah, a lot of us run Linux, BSD, and all the rest.

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Quoting: einherjar

Quoting: NezchanNothin' a trans person liked better than being lectured about what isn't transphobic, lol.

Trans people don't have the monoply to decide, what one is allowed to say and what not. Also none trans people are allowed to have an opinion, different from the opinion of trans people (and vice versa). This is not the ending of the age.

Just because someone is outraged/offended, does not automatically mean, this person is right.

The corollary of that is that trans people (and other minority groups) have a hell of a lot more experience encountering this stuff and will thusly be a lot better at identifying it than people who don't, by virtue of them encountering it all the damn time.

Just because you lable someone's concerns as "just offended over nothing" doesn't mean you're right.

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: NezchanIt does seem that fans of the game, outraged that trans people and others weren't pleased at the Discord comments have been dogpiling them with some pretty nasty stuff on social media. I did some looking around after this broke, and even people with mild "Oh, this nonsense again, I wish I didn't have to deal with this" reactions were getting accusations of censorship (and worse) and insults from scores of people.

Looking at Twitter right now, there seems to be far greater vitriol against the devs for apologizing, 3D Realms for not putting up with it, and especially trans people for not just shutting up and taking it in the first place. It's pretty nasty stuff, and honestly I don't recommend looking at it.

As to the game itself, I've only seen it played on Samsai's stream for a couple hours thus far, but it looks well crafted and a lot of fun if you're an FPS player. I especially like how colourful and varied the level designs are, a far cry from the brown, dull green, and gunmetal grey of a lot of shooters. The addition of things like fans to traverse areas adds even more dimension to the spaces, which is welcome.

Except that trans people actually came out in defense of the game and not as you stated.

NONE of the released screenshots shows anything even remotely "transphobic"

Nothin' a trans person liked better than being lectured about what isn't transphobic, lol.

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It does seem that fans of the game, outraged that trans people and others weren't pleased at the Discord comments have been dogpiling them with some pretty nasty stuff on social media. I did some looking around after this broke, and even people with mild "Oh, this nonsense again, I wish I didn't have to deal with this" reactions were getting accusations of censorship (and worse) and insults from scores of people.

Looking at Twitter right now, there seems to be far greater vitriol against the devs for apologizing, 3D Realms for not putting up with it, and especially trans people for not just shutting up and taking it in the first place. It's pretty nasty stuff, and honestly I don't recommend looking at it.

As to the game itself, I've only seen it played on Samsai's stream for a couple hours thus far, but it looks well crafted and a lot of fun if you're an FPS player. I especially like how colourful and varied the level designs are, a far cry from the brown, dull green, and gunmetal grey of a lot of shooters. The addition of things like fans to traverse areas adds even more dimension to the spaces, which is welcome.

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Certainly can't argue with the price. Gonna wishlist this for the moment, probably end up buying it once the Linux version is out of beta.

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Quoting: Patola

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: scaineThat and I think I was bit fatigued by having just finished the awesome Shadowrun Returns, and subsequently the equally awesome Shadowrun Dragonfall.

You did play Hong Kong as well?

I also bought all of them and also Shadowrun Chronicles because it was 3D, but I got really disappointed when it stopped working because its developers got bankrupt and it stopped working completely (even for a single player run).

I know this is a little off-topic, but why would the game stop working because the devs went bankrupt? I tried to run Dragonfall a couple of weeks ago and it wouldn't even start, does that have something to do with it?

As to Wasteland 2, I got my fill of it when Samsai recently did a playthough on his stream. Makes me really want to try the new one, it seems to have improved on pretty much every aspect.

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"...perform a little rhythm mini-game..."

This does not fill me with confidence.

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The dev also seems to be selling it on Itch. There's also an old demo that runs on Linux still available.

https://kuupu.itch.io/exodemon

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I'm sensing a similar sort of whimsy to this that we previously saw in Undertale. Wonder if the devs are fans?

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