Recently there was a bit of a blow up around the latest big CRPG (not something you normally say) called Pillars of Eternity. The controversy was around a grave with a message related making a rhyming joke about a man who was ashamed to sleep with a trans person. Kind of a goofy joke you didn't quite expect to see, but it kind of makes sense both with its rhyme and its place within a world that might be more prejudice than real life. Well apparently other people didn't get the joke, and now we have white knights and probably actual trans people up in arms over the issue telling the developer they did something wrong by letting that loose in the game. Lately now (or at least within the past 4-5 years or so) more than ever we've seen this kind of tone picked up within gaming, or occasionally crossing over from other mediums like the Batgirl comic cover controversy (which for the record I'm not well informed in, so I'm not saying the cover was right or wrong, just that a similar uproar happened). Hyper sensitivity and extreme political correctness are not necessarily limited to games or "nerd culture" stuff, but its something that has been aggressively asserting itself into gaming lately. I'm a bit tired of it personally, in case you couldn't already tell from a couple past articles covering similar topics.
Well for starters its a joke... lighten up. Its not even at the expense of transgender people, if anything the funny bit was how a man died from "crying" over the matter that much. That's the actual punchline. Either way you look at it, its mild dark humor that was tossed in and adds a good chuckle while not feeling totally out of place. If you didn't laugh, fine its not the best joke ever, but don't pretend like the developers went out of their way to take a personal jab at you. You're playing a violent RPG set in a grim world that was in reality crafted with a lot of love and commitment from the help of a community, and yet you're going to sit there and pretend like a text based joke referencing another man's life-ending trans-phobia is the thing worth criticizing? Even in fictional context, this is just plain silly to get hung up over. You're traversing a town with hung people, and you're major concern is this one isolated incident with a trans person? You need to sort your political priorities out, I'd think basic human health is a lot more important than the misunderstanding of a small group of people. The game is thick in lore, factions, and obviously you're going to see some bigotry in there as well. That doesn't mean the developers are bigoted, your characters do not speak for you they speak for the work of fiction. I guess it might be true though that some guys out there can't tell fact from fiction.
Now the title seems a little weird, but it stems from an older idea back when this attitude started becoming real vocal, or at least around the start of feminism started cherry picking things to be offended at. The idea was a little defensive of these practices and said "nobody is going to take away your games" to calm down potential fear. Well ladies and gentlemen I present to you the reason why this fear existed. Its not like the head of the feminism mess herself was going to destroy games, but combine that with the misguided journalism articles springing up around similar issues and you have a growing case of people looking to be offended and those people trying to pry out and purify whatever they don't like. They want you to walk on eggshells for them or other people, and when you start listening you gave them to power to push more. As a matter of fact while its possible this can and has happened in other medias, I can't help but wonder if there's a coincidence in how this is an issue in comics and gaming at the same time (and tried to go into Metal with Metalgate). Realistically I don't believe the folks behind this stuff are going to storm in, smash my consoles, and hack my steam account, or burn every retail place to the ground. Nor do I think they'd prevent people from making games. Of course games will still be around, and of course there will still be games I have that I can play for fun. However what I do believe is they'd censor recent titles (like PoE, which the developer is now considering the removal of the joke), and drive fear into the market place. This isn't so much of a fear as much as it is something that is actually happening, although in small amounts. Its no different than the days when people were trying to tell you that blood and gore was too much, all while ignoring other medias that are just fine with it in them. Its people trying to tell you what you can and can't do in a game anymore, and its not covering actual prejudices but instead telling people you're not aloud to mention issues like it at all. You're discouraged to make prejudice characters, have humor that pokes fun at them, or have a character that are just unlikeable, or to give certain characters a weakness, because you might not be appealing to everybody if you do that. That's the kind of message they're sending out. They wont say they want to take away our games, but the reality is they are trying to push that across and take away certain features, topics, and areas of expression within these games. They're narrowing down what is and isn't aloud written by their flimsy code that has constant holes and double standards within it.
I'd actually like to bring up an interesting theory I had recently while playing Metro 2033 redux. Its not a revolutionary idea, but its one that I feel Metro did a good example of. Its world was a violent and miserable one. You had an uncle dying in front of their child nephew, horrific beasts claiming the surface world of the earth, mysterious dark forces getting into people's heads, and of course the name stems from the fact that mankind is forced to live underground because of a nuclear apocalypse and they still can't help but go to war with each other. Its a mean and nasty place, yet its also the one they choose to deliver the message across that this was all pretty terrible and its encouraging you to be a better human. Its a place where you can make a difference and feel good. Its a place where you can give to the poor, spare a "monster" who was protecting their own child simply because you know when to put away the gun, you can try your best to spare the lives of your assumed enemies by sneaking, and you're encouraged to look into the dark threat of the game and have to make the decision between wrecking your entire journey's goal just to do the right thing or cause genocide if you happen to fall under social pressure. To a completionist the message isn't so subtle with the diaries and all; you're being told passive-ness, peace, and forgiveness is a much greater thing than war and gore. However the game's point may not have been to be subtle, the nuclear apocalypse isn't afterall. Its not a coincidental irony that they choose a violent FPS to drop this message in, its an intended part of the program and message. You're trudging through this dark damp and miserable world so that you hopefully tell yourself that you don't want this. Its the same notion that MGS had subtly with nuclear war, the same reason The Last of Us had message about defensive social groups in a hostile fiction, the same reason people are uncomfortable to shoot others in This war of mine, etc. Heck I could even bring Dark Souls into this. In a game that bleak and unforgiving, I had some of the happiest moments, and learned a bit about myself in how I played, reacted to other people, and treated the world with care.
Now what does Mario, Pong, Pac-man, Sonic, and the lego franchise teach you about this stuff by omitting it? Oh right, nothing. Being in some sheltered all friendly environment does nothing to teach you any of this. To be fair neither does Doom, Streetfighter, Uncharted, and other more action oriented games. They're fun for escapist reasons, and while I'll admire that a ton and way more than something like say fully self-critical games, the fact is you don't fix some of those problems by telling others they can't acknowledge it. Art specializes in challenging these dramatic things. It challenges them in... well to put it weirdly, sort of a strawman way (at least normally) of including the problem and then demoralizing it in a way that you want your audience to pick up on. Pretending they don't exist, shutting out other views (fake or real), and demanding everyone play along in this way is a pretty unhealthy and narrow minded view of the whole thing. I guess its no wonder these guys imply a lack of humor in their being.
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| Its about peace... kind of |
So what does all this have to do with a little transgender themed joke? Yeah I guess I'm making it out to be a pretty big deal, but from what I've seen this kind of behavior keeps popping up. People keep looking for things to be offended by. Shadows of Mordor is deemed both racist and sadistically murder happy (M rated action games aren't allowed to have bad guys to kill anymore according to one guy), WatchDogs is racist despite treating civilians fairly equally, comics can't give themselves a cover page without offending feminists, Gannon from Zelda is supposedly an evil middle-eastern stereotype even though he's totally not because he's a fictional species (that turns into a monster) from a fantasy series, and now we've got a crowd funded game told what kind of humor they can and can't have.... and its developers are looking into it. Its hard not to admittedly ask where legit criticism meets with this sort of thing, so for the record I'm not saying a dev is immune to social pressure, but that social pressure shouldn't be used to push the wrong things like political agendas or censorship. There is a difference between the developer like those at DMC improving their game by editing out a line because it was bad, and those who were satisfied with their game and then demanded to change something just to pander to somebodies trigger warnings. "They're going to take away our games" used to be somewhat of an exaggerated counter-argument, but now there's an actual minority of people being very loud and destructive in order to try and make that a reality. They're not looking for inclusivity, they're looking for control. At this point it feels like there are people who are actively looking to be offended (how else would people link Gannon to racism), looking to push things, and looking to demonize certain coincidences or subject material. If they're taken seriously, then I worry very much about the future of the gaming industry, and other mediums they're attached to. I don't think they really will take over or anything, but it is an actual threat, and it carries concern.
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