Quoting: Samsai

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: SamsaiNo, those two things are not necessarily anti-trans ("fagbag" probably still isn't nice though), but the whole anti-trans stuff happened on the Discord chat, not in in-game textures.

So what?
If people don't like what a developer has to say in their free time or don't agree with their opinion, they are free to not support this developer. I sure don't buy games from developers who I do not want to support.

But what happened here was the typical Twitter hatemob forming, demanding blood. And - even worse - the publisher/developer actually listened to that mob instead of listening to the people who bought their game and supported them.
It's quite a miracle no dev got fired over this as a pawn sacrifice - yet.

I mean, yeah, people can decide they don't want to support a developer because of their views. That's what happened, people decided they didn't want to support the game because of the comments some of the developers made, they just also happened to share with other people why they decided not to support the developers. All the things you've said here can easily be applied to the hatemob that formed when VoidPoint decided to apologize.

Also, you seem to be operating under the assumption that the people who expressed disappointment in the devs were some kind of outsiders who should be totally ignored when it comes to any complaints they might have. I was disappointed in how they handled things and I've owned a copy of Ion Fury pretty much since they released a Linux version in Early Access. Plenty of the people participating in the so-called hatemob had bought copies or at least had been considering buying it.

Indeed, a lot of the people criticizing the dev also bought the game the day it became available in Early Access, and have been streaming and promoting it the same way you have. That actually played a role in many of the posts I saw on the subject prior to the statements from the dev and publisher -- regret that they had been so excited about the game and then found a turd in the punchbowl again *heavy sigh* and comemnts about not having nice things.

These are gamers just as much as the (misguided in my opinion) defenders of the game's honour are gamers. There aren't two groups in that sense, most of the people involved have either been fans of the game for a while, or people who had been eagerly awaiting the full release. To claim this is some non-gaming "SJW" group versus "true" gamers is misprepresenting the situation quite badly.

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Quoting: MalI really don't get the issue with early access games. The whole point of stuff like kickstarter, patreon, early access and so on is to give indies a way to develop and sell a game without selling their bodies and souls to publishers. There are countless innovative and revolutionary games that have been developed only thanks to early access like minecraft and factorio.
Where publishers would not take the risk, or would not give the money unless the developer ceded all the rights, stuff like early access comes in. It allows to connect gamers potentially interested in a kind of game with developers offering that kind of game. Bypassing the interests of the middleman, which are not how much a game is fun but how much return comes from the investment. Imagine for a second an EA funded Factorio where you have to wait 1 day to build another assembler and you have to buy lootboxes for a chance of obtaining a one of the 23 unique pieces needed to craft a new tech to research.

Guys, really, it would be nice if we lived in a world of infinite resources and money was not an issue. Every dev would be paid to do any game he wants and we would only buy them once ready and bug free. But it's not like that and there is no perfect solution. Early access involves risks ofc. But if we don't take them then publishers have to take them and not only they don't do it for free but they only do it at their conditions.

Regarding Hades I too I'm looking forward to it given how much I liked previous Supergiant games. And I don't blame them for taking Sweeney money during the early phase. They didn't lie to anyone to get money from Kickstarter and they didn't showed the middle finger to their long standing patreon supporters because suddenly Epic gave them shitton of money to not sell their game and they don't need patreons anymore. They did nothing wrong or unfair: they simply accepted to start the early access on EGS for one year. Just because they made a deal with the cancer of PC gaming it doesn't mean that it's a cancerous deal that hurts gamers and devs.

That being said... anyone has any idea if the game is good like the predecessors? Getting reliable feedback from EGS exclusives is... difficult.

I watched some gameplay on a stream I follow the other day, and what I saw reminded me a bit of Bastion in terms of gameplay, although definitely its own thing. So it did look fun.

One thing I will say is that the male character voices I heard all sounded pretty much the same. That's a bit of a downside.

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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"

That ain't the gotcha you seem to think it is [External Link], 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 [External Link]

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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