Your Race, Gender or Sexuality Doesn't Fucking Matter!!!!

Well fuckin' shit, I called it didn't I?  E3 2014 isn't even fucking over yet and I'm already hearing news of "outcry" from twats with too much time on their hands who don't know what they are talking about and hate fun.

Before I continue, let me put a big fat disclaimer on this post.  I am NOT Anti-Gay, Anti-Women or a racist and the fact that I have to spell this out for a number of people is fucking sad.  I'm not going to judge a person based on the colour of their skin, their genitals or what they decide to do with said genitals.  If I call you a fuckin' asshole, it's because you are being a goddamn fucking asshole and something as base as your sexuality, race or gender doesn't even fucking factor in.

Now that I've got that out of the way, let me address the first bit of outcry I got tipped off about and that was regarding the dude in the picture at the top of the post.  He is the villain from Farcry 4 and he's a flamboyant warlord type that goes around in a pink suit and has a foppish haircut.  The outcry comes from the fact that he MIGHT (Yes, MIGHT is the key fucking word because no one actually knows) be gay.

Well so fucking what? Villains can't be wealthy warlords? What kind of fucked up discrimination is that?  Well seriously the argument is that because he's the bad guy it's perpetuating and image of gays being "the bad guys" of society and teaches people that we should kill them off or some shit.  We all know that's bullshit and the only reason they are piping up about it is for attention and so that they have another wonky soapbox to stand on regarding the agenda.  But it's not just bullshit, it's fucking hypocritical!

[INCOMING SPOILERS]

This is Ellie from The Last of Us, as if you didn't fucking already know that since this game gets plastered everywhere.  In the DLC it was revealed that she was into chicks which is fine.  People were happy with this character being homosexual because she's the good guy and obviously they felt that the way Ellie was portrayed in The Last of Us painted homosexuals in a good light.

So let me get this straight....You're OK with good guys being homosexuals but when it's a bad guy it's a big no no?  Fuck off with your double standard!  You can't have it one when and then complain when it's another.

If you're going to complain about that kind of thing then as a British person I have way more fucking right to complain than you guys do.  Almost every villain in every action movie ever is some stuck up British dude, but you don't see us complaining do you?  Assholes

So now that I've complained about that, let's move on to outcry number 2 which is the whole thing about female characters in the new Assassins Creed.

I've talked about this issue before, maybe not on the blog but I discussed it with a few people with the game Deep Down which had a similar issue.  From a plot perspective and a development one, there was a reason for not including female playable characters in that game and it seems to be a similar issue here.  I don't care if you think the idea of including female models in the game to be used as player characters is too much work is bollocks, that's their story and they are sticking to it.

But at the end of the day, so fucking what?  Assassins Creed is a game about sneaking around and stabbing people in the face, who gives a flying rats arse if the protagonist or any other character in that game has a pair of tits or not?  As long as the sneaking is good and the stabbing is fun then who gives a shit about what gender the characters are.

Imagine if I took Doom and changed the little face at the bottom of the screen from a man to a woman.  Would it affect ANYTHING in that game? Of course it fucking wouldn't, it would still be fucking Doom and it would still be an amazing game.  So if we take Arno, the protagonist from AC: Unity and call him Arlina and give him a pair of tits, NOTHING FUCKING CHANGES.  You are STILL jumping on buildings being a sneaky bugger and you are STILL stabbing people in the face so WHO FUCKING CARES YOU WHINY PIECE OF SHIT.

There are rare examples of games that have included a characters sexuality or gender to actually mean something to the story.  Metal Gear Solid 3 is a good example of this.

This is Volgin, the bad guy and he just happens to be a fucking psychopath who gets off on sexually torturing people.  However, he also happens to be bisexual but in THIS case, that fact is an important part of his character.  He's not just some chauvinist torturing women for kicks, he's a fucking nutter torturing EVERYONE for kicks and it doesn't matter if he's taking his electro powers to men, women or even fucking dogs, he gets off on it all and THIS makes him just that little bit more intimidating as a villain.  It doesn't paint bisexuals badly it paints HIM, Volgin, the character, as a total nutter and that's what they were going for.

Unfortunately this kind of thing is pretty rare.  Even characters that people cite as "Strong female leads" are completely interchangeable.   Faith, from Mirrors Edge for example is nothing more than a camera on legs that runs on buildings.  It could be Fred for all we care and it would still be a fun game, nothing would change.

95% of the time, the race, gender or sexuality of a character in a game doesn't fucking matter.  Developers don't hate gays, women and they sure as hell aren't racist so they aren't out JUST to offend you.  They are serving a market, which is mainly made up of straight males and that's why games are made the way they are.  If you don't like it you have 2 choices, fuck off and stop moaning OR make your own game to suit what you want to see.  We live in an age where crowd funding is super popular so getting capitol for a project like that isn't an unreasonable idea.

Finally I know, I fucking KNOW that not everyone who happens to be gay or female or whatever who plays games are like this, I'm very much aware that it's a vocal minority of idiots and it's sad because I can promise you there are a lot of people not quite as level headed as me who has it out for all of you because the caustic complaints of the few are giving the rational many a bad name.

What's even worse is that things like women's issues and gay rights are an actual thing that needs support in certain places.  There are countries where it's still illegal to be gay and women still get circumcisions which is fucking disgusting and THAT'S the kind of thing that needs to stop.

So stop moaning about fucking video games and go do something worth while.  There's enough of you to maybe make a difference if you put your mind to it, stop being so fucking petty.

Why PAX's "Roll for Diversity" is a load of shit

Now hold on there for a second, don't crucify me just yet, this isn't the kind of rant that you think it's going to be.

So a couple of days ago I was made aware of this "Roll for Diversity Hub and Lounge" at PAX.  The idea behind this thing is that members of various communities will be able to go to this booth and make people aware of various issues in the game industry and stuff like that.  Developers can go down to this thing and talk with these people, listen to their concerns and all that kind of good stuff, it sounds great right?  Well sure, it sounds great on the surface, but just hold the phone a second.

The idea for this PAX booth was I'm sure, created with all best intentions in mind but really it's a load of shit, just think about it for a second.  Women, members of the LGBT community, people of colour and all the other groups that were put on that list, they weren't banned from PAX before and I'm sure no one said anything when they inevitably showed up at PAX, right?  Well now they've been cordoned off into a little corner of the convention and are probably going to end up mostly ignored, not because people don't like them, but because people who attend PAX want to hear about VIDEO GAMES! not social issues.

There is no need for this booth to exist in this form.  If these people have problems, then the developers do panels and stuff, it can be brought up there, among everyone else and not segregated to it's own trivial little corner of the convention.  But that's the big problem with it really, it's trivialising the whole thing.

I can't be bothered to go find the video, but there is a clip of Morgan Freeman talking about Black History Month.  He says in this video, that he doesn't want a Black History Month, because he doesn't want his history to be boiled down to one month of the year, and it's essentially the same thing here.  These groups have been reduced to a single booth at PAX just so that they (they being PAX by the way) can seem more progressive, and it's a bit sickening in a way.

You want to hear about a REAL progressive and friendly community of people?  The speed running community, that's who!  With my experience dealing with speed runs and speed running, they don't give a flying fuck if you're a man or woman, black or white, gay or straight, able bodied or not or whatever, if you just enjoy playing games really fuckin' fast, then you are MORE than welcome to join the community and they'll help you in whatever endeavour you take on.

THAT is how you deal with this issue, you be inclusive not by waving around a booth sign going "LOOK AT HOW PROGRESSIVE WE ARE" but by just being that way in the first place.  The issues that do exist within the industry DO need to be talked about but almost 100% of people doing it right now are doing it wrong.   Sexy women in games aren't oppressing you and a lack of gay characters aren't going to ruin your life, they don't matter.  What you want to be talking about is equality in the work place, availability of education to different groups of people, that kind of thing.

That's why people get upset when things like Dragons Crown come up, because those issues don't fucking matter.  Let us enjoy the Amazon's huge ass, go and fight a battle that ACTUALLY matters and will actually better the industry in some way.

So to sum up the whole thing; Fuck you PAX, your booth is garbage