Some thoughts\Feedback
Rawgrim
Member Posts: 621
First off. If I sound harsh it is not intended. English isn't my first language, so I come off as blunt rather often.
How do I put this...Fans of BG love the characters in the game. Everyone has their own favorites. Sure some of them are flawed, and some aren't PC by today's standards. So what? The real world has people like that too. That just makes the Forgotten Realms seem more real. That includes transgendered characters too. There is no reason why those shouldn't exist in the realms. Looking at how the character was written, though, it needs editing. I have met transgendered people before, and my cousin is actually a hemaphrodite. None of them walked up to me and immediately started preaching a commercial about how great their "gender" is. It is just not believable. Neither is it believable that the player only has the option to be nice to the character and polite. The player should be able to tell the character to sod off, same as all the other characters. It also pulls people out of their immersion. People play games to escape reality, not to get preached at. Editing the character and fleshing her out might be in order. By all means keep the character, but add depth to her. Right now she is just a blinking sign that says it is ok to be transgendered (it is ok).
Secondly. As I mentioned earlier, players love the characters in the series. Changing Jaheira just because she was only a "nagging wife" in BG is so off the mark, it is a joke. She nags a bit, yes, but she does it for a reason. She is doing her very best to keep her husband as safe as possible, and she worries about him. BG2 actually fleshes this bit out quite a bit, and the players get a very good understanding of her motivations. Minsc bashing Gamergate (it should be bashed, really) is against his character. He is arguably the only character that wouldn't say a thing like that. There is no menace in him at all. Safana being "just a sex object" is another weird comment from one of the writers. She uses seduction and manipulation to get what she wants. One of the oldest weapons in mankind's history, really. What the writer is telling players here is this. "You were wrong for liking this character. We are fixing it for you". Why? There was no uproar about any of the characters when the game came out. And there hasn't been any later either.
Beamdog did exactly what George Lucas did when he "fixed" the old Star Wars movies. That is what is causing hate from gamers (not counting the flat out bigots here. Just the reasonable ones). Something beloved got messed up and changed. If you want to expand a beloved game, which people love for a good reason, you add to it. You don't change the stuff that made people love it in the first place.
Side Note: If Jaheira and Safana are such terrible examples of womanhood in the game, and needed changing. Why didn't any of the males needed changing? Tiax, Quayle, Xzar, Montaron and Minsc are all lunatics. Xan and Khalid are whiners. The two dwarves are downright dumb people, and Edwin is a sociopath.
One would argue that men actually get the short end of the stick in this game, when it comes to representation. Yet not an eyebrow is raised. Kind of double-standards, if you think about it.
Writing is art. The writing in BG1 was art. You don't change art just because you don't like bits and pieces of it. Let it stand as it is. Mizhena isn't art (as she is now). She is a political add. Nothing more. Add to her. Flesh her out. Make her a joinable NPC. As she is now she borders on being downright patronizing to transgendered players.
Rant over. Please don't bite my head off. I need it for a few years longer.
How do I put this...Fans of BG love the characters in the game. Everyone has their own favorites. Sure some of them are flawed, and some aren't PC by today's standards. So what? The real world has people like that too. That just makes the Forgotten Realms seem more real. That includes transgendered characters too. There is no reason why those shouldn't exist in the realms. Looking at how the character was written, though, it needs editing. I have met transgendered people before, and my cousin is actually a hemaphrodite. None of them walked up to me and immediately started preaching a commercial about how great their "gender" is. It is just not believable. Neither is it believable that the player only has the option to be nice to the character and polite. The player should be able to tell the character to sod off, same as all the other characters. It also pulls people out of their immersion. People play games to escape reality, not to get preached at. Editing the character and fleshing her out might be in order. By all means keep the character, but add depth to her. Right now she is just a blinking sign that says it is ok to be transgendered (it is ok).
Secondly. As I mentioned earlier, players love the characters in the series. Changing Jaheira just because she was only a "nagging wife" in BG is so off the mark, it is a joke. She nags a bit, yes, but she does it for a reason. She is doing her very best to keep her husband as safe as possible, and she worries about him. BG2 actually fleshes this bit out quite a bit, and the players get a very good understanding of her motivations. Minsc bashing Gamergate (it should be bashed, really) is against his character. He is arguably the only character that wouldn't say a thing like that. There is no menace in him at all. Safana being "just a sex object" is another weird comment from one of the writers. She uses seduction and manipulation to get what she wants. One of the oldest weapons in mankind's history, really. What the writer is telling players here is this. "You were wrong for liking this character. We are fixing it for you". Why? There was no uproar about any of the characters when the game came out. And there hasn't been any later either.
Beamdog did exactly what George Lucas did when he "fixed" the old Star Wars movies. That is what is causing hate from gamers (not counting the flat out bigots here. Just the reasonable ones). Something beloved got messed up and changed. If you want to expand a beloved game, which people love for a good reason, you add to it. You don't change the stuff that made people love it in the first place.
Side Note: If Jaheira and Safana are such terrible examples of womanhood in the game, and needed changing. Why didn't any of the males needed changing? Tiax, Quayle, Xzar, Montaron and Minsc are all lunatics. Xan and Khalid are whiners. The two dwarves are downright dumb people, and Edwin is a sociopath.
One would argue that men actually get the short end of the stick in this game, when it comes to representation. Yet not an eyebrow is raised. Kind of double-standards, if you think about it.
Writing is art. The writing in BG1 was art. You don't change art just because you don't like bits and pieces of it. Let it stand as it is. Mizhena isn't art (as she is now). She is a political add. Nothing more. Add to her. Flesh her out. Make her a joinable NPC. As she is now she borders on being downright patronizing to transgendered players.
Rant over. Please don't bite my head off. I need it for a few years longer.
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