Starfields is one of the biggest games of 2023 – but it’s joined other recent games like Baldurs Gate 3 in being boycotted by conservatives because of the way it interacts with gender.
When Twatter finally dies the media is going to have to work that much harder to find the one guy somewhere who is outraged by something. I wonder if we are going to see a return of the Midwest Safaris, complete with interviews with retired folks in small town diners.
I don’t know if anyone knows this, but the Steam forum moderators are pretty far right as well. I’m currently banned for mentioning Nexus mods, in a 100 page thread about the site itself. The conservative attacking pronouns and free speech, are not banned. You can find plenty of threads with conservative alt-right talking points about pronouns and anti-transgenderism, including insulting and degrading behavior. These threads stay up. Meanwhile, myself and others who defend trans activism, are banned. I appealed the ban, and get no replies from any moderator over multiple days. It’s fucking disgusting how the site is being moderated. I’ll post the ban reason and what I said, below:
“Nexus only bans mods made for bigots They don’t want to support any content that promotes bigotry and allows people to pretend certain marginalized groups don’t exist. Trans people are part of the game, and anyone trying to erase them is acting on bigotry. You are perfectly free to mod the game yourself or get the mod elsewhere. You just can’t get it from nexus mods.”
Ban Reason: This post contains material that promotes software piracy. cheats, or exploits. This type of content is not allowed on the Steam Community.
Is this a surprise? Many gamers unironically use the PCMR term. We all know where master race idea came from. Even those that use it ironically often reveal themselves when talking about BLM etc.
I’m honestly really pleasantly surprised that Nexus Mods are willing to take this fight head on. That they are willing to tell these potential customers to sod off, and that they have the tact and understanding to tell the difference between a superficially benign mod with a malicious purpose like this, and the many vulgar mods that they do allow on the site. (Shout out to Schlongs of Skyrim, you magnificent beast)
Gamers, in the general, being the worst people I don’t have high expectations from gaming companies but it all seems to be moving slowly in the right direction, even as gamers gnash their teeth and waddle their fingers.
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Unfortunately, the far right has deeply inflated and influenced make gaming culture, particularly since Steve Bannon weapon’s then for Trump’s original election campaign.
Steam administration as well.
Must be exhausting being a conservative and being terrified of everything.
Starfield and BG3 aren’t being boycotted. Those are just empty threats. Remember all the other times people said they were going to boycott their favorite games, and actually did it? Neither do I.
I remember back in 2016 conservatives screaming they were going to boycott Hamilton because of the cast making an appeal to Pence at final curtain, and people laughing hysterically at them because back then, there was no way any of them claiming they were going to boycott would have been able to get tickets in the first place.
They also proclaimed that they were boycotting the Star Wars sequels and claimed that they would tank at the box office thanks to the boycott. Instead the films did really well.
(I have my problems with those movies due to the plot, but having a woman main character and a black main character wasn’t an issue for me.)
Ironically I think a lot of problems with those movies, particularly the last one, is they actually listened to the screeching conservatives and minimized Finn and Rose.
That, and J J Abrams can’t write an original script for the life of him.
No, they try to boycott, but since they only represent a small fraction of the world, it doesn’t pan out as such.
Where is that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 boycott-failure screenshot when you need it?
And that is the result every time.
You can go as cis-conservative as you want with your pronouns in the game. No-one is forcing those conservatives to give in to their innermost desires.
The temptation is sinful to them in the same way that their murders and violence are righteous.
They don’t realize the God they worship is Mammon.
Baldur’s Gate over here wiping its tears with hundred dollar bills
I’ve put in a hundred hours and counting, and I have yet to figure out what pronouns they’re screeching about. It may have been such an inconsequential thing at character creation that most people have completely forgot about it lmao
The diversity is done quite well too. It’s never grabbed my attention for more than a second of going “neat, they’re black/wearing dreads/gay” and then right back into it. I found it more jarring when I had an unexpected dialogue with Shadowheart giving her a flower.
It’s the fact that gay characters exist and the fact that you can roll a transgender character if you want.
thats has the same energy as the people who think pretty much anything can turn someone gay
I’m convinced anyone that thinks (insert item here) can turn people gay are just closeted gay people who are afraid to come out cause their politics are more important than their happiness.
This is nothing new. Why do you think they make such a big deal about sexuality being a choice? Because for them, it is.
PROJECTION!
Pretty sure that even closeted gay dudes keep their bum holes clean.
I feel like this whole pronouns in starfield thing is actually astroturf to draw attention away from Bethesda being evil and abusive to trans people who worked for them. Plus it drowns out any news about the game’s actual qualities or merits, which like all Bethesda games at launch, seems to be lacking.
There’s so many reasons to be actually mad at so many things, and all this culture war bullshit is deliberate smoke to keep people running in circles.
I wish it would be astroturfing but I’m pretty sure conservatives are just that fucking stupid
I like to have hope for humanity
hope being that it’s astroturfing
at this point, I have to question if real articles are satire lmao
No they aren’t
But wouldn’t it be great it they did? I could start playing games online again.
It’s a single prompt during character creation. The default option is always cisgendered. Literally 30 seconds or less and you never have to think about it ever again. In fact, you can ignore it entirely and it’ll have been as if it was never there. Woooow such controversy.
I refuse to believe anybody is actually dumb enough to boycott the game over this. There are plenty of fucking legitimate reasons to not buy it, but having the option to select alternative pronouns during character creation is not one of them.
The best part about it is that you have to go out of your way to change the pronoun. If you choose the male presenting body, its shows he/him by default and the same with female presenting and she/her,
Oh no!
Anyway…
Yeah the outrage is really hurting Baldur’s Gate. 😆
It’s the school and library and medical care stuff that’s really dangerous, this is a distraction.
Oh I really doubt many are boycotting it, just poking the anthills that are their fanbases and communities to keep them engaged
They either own and play the game and tell people that they boycott it or never had any intention of playing the game and that’s their boycott
Honestly, The Gamers are famous for screaming from the rafters they’re going to boycott a game, then get it day one.
Even the FUCKING PRONOUNS dude kept playing after he finished his hissy fit.
Tale as old as time.
Good, no one wants them around anyway.
