News from the lovely world of the Games Industry.

[Josquius]

Witcher 4 was recently officially announced. As expected ciri is promoted to the main character. And the anti woke zealots are up in arms at this.
How dare a woman who isn't wearing a bikini be a lead in a major game. They've gone woke!
 Like... They've never played witcher before? It's whole thing is about oppressed minorities and how shit nationalism is.

"Mom, can I have money to buy Pelé in my dream team?"

EA are absolute garbage. But they have certainly set the path for several other companies.

I see Bethesda are releasing a "DLC-sized" mod about vampires for Skyrim. For money, of course. No free lunches.
It is like when you buy a car. The price is high, but you have to buy the extras that actually makes it a decent car.

Or like flying with RyanAir?
"So you want to bring LUGGAGE?", asked the leprechaun.
"Fine, but it'll cost ya".
"Oh, you wanted an actual seat to sit in?"
"Fine, but it will cost ya".

I really think the "loot bag" type of gambling is far, far worse than DLCs.

I think it's hard to imagine a game company releasing content, for free, years after a game has first been sold.  There's just no revenue in it.  But if your DLC clearly states what you'll get, there's no randomness involved, and the game will still operate fine without purchasing the DLC, then what's the issue?

Even if the DLC is just for horse armour.

There's an issue with day one dlc.

[Barrister]

There's an issue with day one dlc.

And what exactly is the issue?

[Barrister]

There's been a best-selling novel and two miniseries about the somewhat obscure story of an English sailor who became a samurai; no one blinks an eye there.  But touch the obscure story of an African retainer to a Portuguese Jesuit who became a samurai?  WOKEWOKEWOKEWOKE  Move along, no racism to see here . . .

I've been thinking about this lately, whether the explicit push for representation has poisoned the well to some extent.  I guess that's not really testable, since you can't run a control group, but I do think that the acceptance of heroines in film and game prior to the drive for female representation compared to today might indicate something. 

There's something to both sides here really.

There is definitely an aspect in pop culture/computer game commentary that really is kind of racist/sexist.  Minsky and Jos pick up fair examples in Assassin's Creed and Witcher.

But also - there really has been a very explicit push for representation by women / visible minorities, to the point where I can understand the feeling some people have of "wait - aren't we allowed to have white male protagonists anymore?".

[Josquius]

There's an issue with day one dlc.

And what exactly is the issue?

Selling a game for $50 but then breaking off part of the game for an extra $15...
It should be part of the base game.

When the dlc comes later then paying extra is fine. Those developers need to be employed for the extra time to make it.

[viper37]

Witcher 4 was recently officially announced. As expected ciri is promoted to the main character. And the anti woke zealots are up in arms at this.

It's overblown.

I've seen more comments outraged at the outrage than real outrage.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, it's bizare they're screaming murder about how the new ac is just playing some woke diversity card.
Is valhala the only ac game they've played before?
The first game that gave the series it's name was about an Arab. This game is going to be set in Japan. I recall the games always open with a text about how the team who made them was diverse and means no offence.

Really odd special hate for black guys.
Given the success of the Shogun remake it makes perfect sense to see the Yasuke story boosted.

Yeah - there's a good Flying Lotus show about it too.

I suppose with other AC games I feel like you don't play outsiders (beyond being part of a cult of assassins obvs ) - so Arab in the Crusades, Italian in the Renaissance, vagabonds in Victorian London, Viking doing Viking stuff etc - so generously they maybe wanted it a bit more Ghost of Tsushima playing a samurai in Japan. (And for the real historical horrors of those games they made a game where Robespierre's a baddy )

[garbon]

So skipping when you played as a pirate and also when a mixed race Native American?

[HVC]

There's also a funny habit of replacing minorities with other minorities. Asian in this case, but often red heads. I consider gingers minorities... and maybe cursed

[Sheilbh]

So skipping when you played as a pirate and also when a mixed race Native American?

Yeah - I missed those games

Those must have come out in the years when I didn't have a console Didn't own the Victorian England one but my little brother had it. I skipped from Assassin's Creed II (which I loved) to the Greek one (which I also loved) - and again Greek hero in Greek heroic setting. Then got the Baghdad one - and will probably get the Japanese one too

[garbon]

So skipping when you played as a pirate and also when a mixed race Native American?

Yeah - I missed those games

Those must have come out in the years when I didn't have a console Didn't own the Victorian England one but my little brother had it. I skipped from Assassin's Creed II (which I loved) to the Greek one (which I also loved) - and again Greek hero in Greek heroic setting. Then got the Baghdad one - and will probably get the Japanese one too

Found this list.

Assassins Creed •Location: "The Holy Land" modern day Israel •Time Period: Third Crusade (1191) •Character: Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad

Assassins Creed II •Location: Florence, Italy •Time Period: Italian Renaissance (1476-1499) •Character: Ezio Auditore

Assassins Creed Brotherhood •Location: Rome, Italy •Time Period: 1499-1507 •Character: Ezio Auditore

Assassins Creed Revelations •Location: Constantinople •Time Period: 1511 •Character: Ezio Auditore

Assassins Creed III •Location: Boston, New York, American Colonial Frontier •Time Period: American Revolution (1760-1783) •Character: Ratonhnhaké:ton (Connor Kenway)

Assassins Creed IV Black Flag •Location: The Caribbean •Time Period: The Golden Age of Piracy (18th Century) •Character: Edward Kenway Assassins Creed Rogue •Location: North Atlantic •Time period: Seven Years War (mid 18th century) •Character: Shay Patrick Cormac

Assassins Creed Unity •Location: Paris, France •Time Period: French Revolution (1789-1794) •Character: Arno Dorian

Assassins Creed Syndicate •Location: London, England •Time Period: Industrial Revolution (1868) •Character: Jacob & Evie Frye

Assassins Creed Origins •Location: Egypt •Time Period: Ptolemaic period (49-47 BCE) •Character: Bayek of Siwa

Assassin Creed Odyssey •Location: Greece •Time Period: Peloponnesian War (431-422 BCE) •Character: Kassandra/Alexios

Assassins Creed Valhalla •Location: Norway/England •Time Period: The Dark Ages of England (9th century) •Character: Eivor

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I missed Brotherhood to Odyssey. Played a little bit of Syndicate.

Does feel a bit weird given that list for their first game in East Asia (especially because I feel like that is, in its own way a trope, particularly about Japan). Having said it's a cool character to pick and I will probably get it

[grumbler]

We used to play poker in grade school.  No one got addicted.

[Norgy]

Yeah I missed Brotherhood to Odyssey. Played a little bit of Syndicate.

Does feel a bit weird given that list for their first game in East Asia (especially because I feel like that is, in its own way a trope, particularly about Japan). Having said it's a cool character to pick and I will probably get it

Goddamned Odyssey made me go to Greece again. Physically. 

[HVC]

We used to play poker in grade school.  No one got addicted.

Do you still play to this day?

[crazy canuck]

We used to play poker in grade school.  No one got addicted.

In elementary school, we played for peanuts, literally peanuts.