GayGamer.net

Kickstarter: Bhaloidam

2011-10-27T13:15:00Z

I will give the following caveat: Corvus is a friend of mine, and I have been watching him develop this project for quite some time. What project? This Kickstarter funded project to publish a tabletop game.

"But Vorpal!" you might exclaim, "what does this have to do with these games of video or gay gaming, or--"

Here I would interrupt you. I have spoken with Corvus about this project at length over the years. What he is offering is an open platform: one that operates less on numbers and spreadsheets and tons of rulebooks, and one that puts the focus on telling stories. What type of stories?

I've seen quite the range. From story rules involving Cthulhu, to siblings attending a funeral, and as I have discussed with him, the stories we may wish to tell, whether they focus on being LGBT or not. The name itself, Bhaloidam, which is derived from roots that mean "story", "play", and "community," depends on people getting together and telling stories they want to tell and have a game to play while doing so.

Since I also know Corvus personally, I know he is a vocal supporter of this community, and I wish to invite any who might be interested in supporting him in turn. As of writing this, the project is $5,986 away from funding, and has five days left. Kickstarter campaigns often see surges in the last few days, so here's to wishing Corvus the best of luck!

If you do have questions, please feel free to contact Corvus himself, as he tends to be a pretty chatty, open fellow.

P.S. If you have a project of your own you wish to discuss with us, please feel free to email me and we'll start talking.

Interview: Guild War 2's Ree Soesbee On Sylvari

2011-10-12T13:00:00Z

Of the two larger MMOs that have had same-sex news to present of late, I have been rather enamored with what Guild Wars 2 is creating with the sylvari species. From basic design to cultural implications, it's all pretty interesting stuff. However, the gender and sexuality nerd in me was pretty excited when they started discussing their lore and it included mentions that they were pretty neutral in how they viewed both gender and same-sex pairings.

In fact, two of the primary sylvari to whom we've been introduced so far are a female same-sex couple, though they're a bit star-cross'd and all that.

I was rather fortunate that I was able to contact ArenaNet, specifically community manager Regina Buenaobra, and request an interview with Ree Soesbee, a writer and lore & continuity designer for the world of Tyria. What follows in this email interview are largely questions regarding the place of the sylvari in their world, and the instances surrounding sexuality, including some insight into how sexuality and gender presentation functions in some of the other species, as well as more exploration of the sylvari themselves.

Enjoy!

]]> GG: Given that the emphasis is on courtly love with the sylvari, is this borrowed from another culture in Tyria? From where did these ideals stem?

Ree: The sylvari have their own ideas, and their own culture. It is influenced both by human culture, and by the ideals of the peaceful centaur, Ventari, but over the years that the sylvari have been awake and aware, they have taken those ideals and made them into a culture. Courtly love --love that has no reliance on the idea of sexuality between the lovers--is one of these natural extrapolations. As the sylvari don't physically reproduce, they simply put less emphasis on gender.

GG: The sylvari being new, and their reproduction being handled without sex, how much confusion is there among the other species as regards them? It seems there are already hints that no one is quite certain on their origins, so is there further confusion/ignorance about their culture as it stands now?

Ree: Other races are absolutely uncertain about the sylvari - but not because of their sexuality or reproduction. This uncertainty comes from the entirety of sylvari existence: they are a new race, with little history; they are 'born' fully grown with a strange understanding of simple concepts of the world; and their physiology is not mammalian, but is instead plant-based (even though it bears similarities to human form). The other races are still trying to figure them out, both physically and in regards to their culture.

GG: Further expanding on the concept of the sylvari being new, how much are they still adapting and changing to fit into Tyria, or have they pretty much settled into a firm culture?

Ree: The sylvari have a group of tenets, or ideals, written on the Ventari Tablet. They adhere to these, and believe that they are a guideline toward living a 'good' or benevolent life. The sylvari naturally feel a desire to be productive within the world, to take care of Tyria, and to learn from and interact with other races. Certainly, their culture is still growing and evolving, but the basis of that culture and the core beliefs, are firm.

GG: With the previous questions establishing a basis, how does same-sex attraction fit into the world? The sylvari are not restricted to sexual attraction for mating reasons, but how does the rest of the world/factions see this, especially since Caithe seems to play a fairly large role in the world, and was previously a lover of Faolain?

Ree: Other races of the world see the sylvari as odd for many more reasons than simply their sexuality - the issue of same-gender love among the sylvari is no more strange to, say, a norn than the fact that sylvari bleed a type of sap and not blood. Other races have a history of same-sex relationships, but those relationships tend to be downplayed and not lauded within the culture. This is not to say that the races of Tyria are naturally homophobic; they're absolutely not. It's simply not particularly common.

Within the sylvari, all forms of benevolent love are encouraged. If love makes you and the recipient stronger, if it encourages you to positive action and heroism, then it should be respected and celebrated. The sylvari see this as only natural. The other races are curious about it, true, because many of them aren't used to seeing that kind of relationship. Still, the other races don't, in general, approach it with a sense of abhorrence or disdain.

However, it should be noted that there will always be individuals whose personal beliefs counter their general racial tendency. Among the norn, for example, we have the Sons of Svanir - who are wholly and unashamedly misogynistic. Individuals of the various races might have their own reasons to denigrate a same-sex pairing. Such individuals will tend to be seen as villains within the overall culture of Tyria.

GG: Given the fact that the sylvari do express sexually dimorphic traits on the surface, does this create awkward moments when they interact with other species who might have more comparatively rigid gender roles in some capacity? I imagine there is a lot of confusion about the sylvari in general, but where does that start/end in terms of what has been written?

Ree: Certainly! Because of their physical design (male-female gendered), the sylvari are typically ascribed to 'standard' gender roles by the other races. This does lead to awkwardness, a bit of confusion, and some eye-rolling on the part of the sylvari, who whisper among themselves that the other races of Tyria are a bit 'backwards' when it comes to gender roles. However, most of these misinterpretations are good-natured, caused out of ignorance rather than bigotry, and thus both sides use them as a means of learning more about one another.

GG: I love the designs for the sylvari I have seen thus far, and they have likely made me absolutely sure about playing the species (along with the fact of their gender-fluidity), and I was wondering how you have gone about modelling them from the basis of human characterstics? Among the reasons I ask is because Guild Wars has previously included various designs from a space that is not default white and Western, so wondered how much more of that we might see reflected in the sylvari.

Ree: I'm glad to hear that! Kristen Perry worked very hard to make our models for the sylvari, and I think they're absolutely gorgeous. ArenaNet is so pleased with the response we've had from the community on the redesign, and we can't wait to see what the players will do in an open world.

One thing we wanted to ensure among the sylvari models was a certain sense of the 'alien'. Yes, sylvari are based (by the Pale Tree's creation) on a 'human' model. But, they are still a representation of the human form by something that is not human. Faces will show these differences, more than they will show general human differences. Rather than go for a 'human' ethnicity, we've tried to establish a unique visual identity for the sylvari using branches and leaves or features that resemble seeds or other natural plant life.

GG: To expand on that, it does not seem as if there is as massive a size different between male and female sylvari character models (from what I have seen) as is often the case in MMOs and games in general. Was this a conscious decision, and how has it affected the movement animations?

Ree: I believe that was a conscious decision. When an individual makes a sylvari in the game, they will have a certain amount of control over the height of that character; in that way, they can create as big or small a disparity as they wish. Because we design our animations individually, it didn't cause any issue at all - they would be designed independantly, no matter how the height structure varied (or did not).

GG: One note that caught my eye was that of family. One could argue that the sylvari are all one big family, for instance. In such a case, community becomes important, which is something that is fairly large in the LGBT community itself. You've already hinted at the Nightmare Court and a sense of diversity in personalities, but as it's unlikely there would be an LGBT community among them in the sense that we know them (but even our community has further classifications and communities within itself), I was wondering if the sylvari have further distinctions and on what those are based (or if they are too young to have firmly established a set number of groups and differentiations)?

Ree: As a race, the sylvari consider the Pale Tree to be their 'mother,' and in that way, yes, they all consider one another to be family. During the early years of the race, when only the Firstborn (and the First and Secondborn) were walking the world, that sense was even closer. There was a tight bond between these individuals, because they were alike within a very strange world. As more and more sylvari awakened, this bond lessened - it's difficult to know every sylvari in the world now! - but it did not fade entirely, and most sylvari have a genuine sense of community and family with other sylvari in the world. This contributes strongly to the race's sense of empathy toward one another.

The sylvari have distinctions based on their time of birth, which they have noted does affect their personalities. These 'cycles' are organized into Dawn, Noon, Dusk and Night. However, the sylvari do not segregate by sexual preference. To them, the idea of distinctions for gender, or sexual preference, would seem as odd to them as a distinction based on creamy vs. chunky peanut butter to humans here on earth. Love simply is. If you love someone who is of the same gender, and that love ends, and you begin again with someone of a different gender, there is no distinction; the sylvari simply celebrate that you have found love within your life, and that you are seeking mutual happiness. A sylvari probably wouldn't even think to ask the gender of your lover if you mentioned that you had one. Sexuality is simply a natural part of life, and so long as it is entered into with good will and joy, the gender doesn't make a difference.

It was wonderful talking to you!

Many thanks to Ree, Regina, and ArenaNet for taking the time to answer my questions. It was a pleasure chatting with them.

Confirmed: Mass Effect 3's Multiplayer

2011-10-11T08:00:00Z

Rumors of Mass Effect 3 meaning Shepard may no longer be flying solo have been ringing about earlier this year, so it is not really a surprise that confirmation of a multiplayer mode was first confirmed by the cover of PC PowerPlay, and then expanded on in BioWare's forums. The name of the game is Galaxy at War, which informs what will be happening.

Naturally, many are skeptical, myself included, on a series that has built itself on choice and creating our version of Shepard suddenly deciding to implement a multiplayer mode in the final installment of this particular trilogy. For those worried, it appears BioWare Montreal has been working on the multiplayer, leaving the main Mass Effect team to work on the solo content. The forum's details offer a bit more of a view as to how this will all be happening, however. First, the multiplayer will be focused on cooperative play only, and limited to four people at that. As to whom you can play?

Commander Shepard's part in the war will take place in the single-player campaign, as will that of other beloved characters in the franchise such as Garrus, Ashley, and Liara...these characters do not appear in the multiplayer missions. In multiplayer, players will create custom characters to fight on different and unique fronts in the war. This will include the ability to play as favorites like Turians, Krogans, Asari and more... each with their own unique set of abilities.

Since there is the Galaxy at War angle, this does rather make sense. Of particular interest in the beginning of that post is this bit: "Success in multi-player will have a direct impact on the outcome of the single player campaign, giving players an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory against the greatest threat mankind - and the entire galaxy - has ever faced."

Which, at first glance, makes me want to object to this point made later in the same post: "Mass Effect 3 is a complete, standalone game that will deliver a satisfying story experience, even if you choose not to try multiplayer. The Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War system and all of the individual components are meant to complement that amazing game and can be enjoyed on their own or as part of the Galaxy at War experience."

It will likely be a matter of semantics for some, but I am rather curious as to how this will all play out in terms of what those extra options might be, and if I truly experience the range of Shepard's options. Personally, I don't relish jumping into multiplayer my first playthrough, nor do I want to miss out on other ways of completing the game. As I don't have a full view, and the information on that front is rather incomplete at the moment, I will reserve judgment. It has the potential to be interesting, sure. Whether it will? I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

Gamers Opt Out

2011-10-04T10:30:00Z

Yesterday I made passing comment on certain EULAs adding a bit so that gamers have no pursuit to class action lawsuits against the company whose services they use. Today, via Wonderland Blog, I came across this interesting site to opt out of these clauses; the idea seems to have originated on Reddit.

Appropriately named Gamers Opt Out, the thing is that in order to opt out of the particularly nagging issues surrounding the new PSN services or EA's new digital distribution software Origin, you must use this device called snail mail (perhaps they are in cohoots to shore up business for the US's flagging mail service?), which the site offers to make an easier process to find everything needed. In a world where signing Terms of Services or End User License Agreements is as simple as checking a box and signing something very few people read closely, this method does seem a bit bizarre and strange, though I am no legal scholar and cannot dive into the labyrinths that particular bit of bureaucracy navigates.

From the Redditors' own words:

Gamersoptout.com is a site that lets users easily opt-out of absurd license agreement clauses that require a physically mailed letter. These companies all know that most users either a) don't know that they can opt-out, or b) will never mail the letter, so they can afford the few letters they receive and process.
At Gamersoptout.com our plan is to make it easy for everyone to opt-out of clauses like these. At our site, you submit the required information to opt-out to us, and we mail your letter (along with others) to these companies for you.

The site is donation-driven, created by gamers who donated their own money to start it. However, we can't afford to send all these letters ourselves. The site won't be around for long unless the users help out. Please donate and support this great cause with what you can -- every little bit helps!

These forms do not require a signature, apparently, which was checked with lawyers. The information they require? Account name, name, and address. It also only seems open to US accounts.

However, I somewhat pause at providing such details. While I would like to believe LGBT persons can easily submit their address without repurcussions, that isn't the world in which I have been raised, and given the PSN hacks, and various other leaks of information this past year, it is worrying to have this in someone else's hands, regardless of whether you are in the LGBT community or not. However, it is an option for those not concerned with such--I cannot speak to your own feeling of safety.

Of course, part of this is awareness raising (sometimes dubious, but in this case, where awareness is not high concerning something few read, perhaps more useful). There are ways to opt out, and if you wish to take it in your hands, please do so.

The other end is questioning how legal these clauses are, with reports that various countries may not consider them legally binding. So, while you go about deciding what the best course of action is for yourself, I may well go spelunking into English legalese (and the apparent bevy of legal scholars and lawyers I know--is everyone in law school?) to find out exactly what all is happening here, what might not shake, and what may be in our future.

To the research mobile!

Only On PSN

2011-10-03T09:15:00Z

Sony's had a rocky year. First the hacking. Then the TOS agreements which sign away the right to lawsuits. Therefore, seeing them doing something sort of right (and it does have its problems, I'll mention those as well) is a fresh and wonderful thing, which makes me not give the stinkeye as constantly (it's difficult to stinkeye something when you're in the midst of playing a game in which you're absorbed) to the various products of theirs with which I am surrounded.

The news, via IndustryGamers, is that October will have a promotion called 'Only On PSN,' a drive to push games that do exactly what the title says, with titles coming every week in October. First, from the Pub Fund, a program they use to entice developers to create for the PSN, we have the following coming:

October 4: Eufloria and Rochard
October 11: Sideway: New York
October 13: Sodium Collection
October 18: Okabu and RocketBirds
October 25: inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood and PixelJunk Sidescroller

All well and good and fine and dandy (even if the copy of Eufloria on my PC wonders if the PSN one is different enough to deserve the only).

To further entice, however, Sony has announced that some rare PS2 exclusives are also on their way to PSN. Considering the juggernaut that the PS2 was in its generation (it has my largest library of games for a console, and I doubt I'm the only one in that camp), this is somewhat welcome news. The key word here is rare: games that are difficult to find, as they didn't seem to have too many copies floating around. Those titles, which will be available starting October 4 apparently? God Hand, GrimGrimoire, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Odin Sphere, and Ring of Red.

This is the news that's both great and somewhat worrying. On the one hand, it gives many new gamers the ability to go back and play these titles. As someone who never tried God Hand, I do imagine I'll be picking up that title. However, my copy of Odin Sphere makes me wonder about the other side of the coin: is this emulation of PS2 titles? There has been no indication that these titles have been enhanced for PSN as yet, so if it is straight emulation, my PS2 discs that cannot be played on my PS3 will be quite put out if I so happen to buy digital copies I can then play on it.

In fact, that latter bit raises many questions. What will the price point be? ~~Will it be a graduated step from the PS1 Classics, so possibly $15.99 and $19.99?~~ Gamasutra has reported they'll be $9.99 each. Considering the ability to play PS1 Classics on PSP, will these have the ability to be played on the soon-to-be-released Vita (after all, if updated versions of Persona 4 and FFX can be played on it...)? Lots of questions as to what this might mean for PSN in the future.

Now, for those of you who happen to be PSN Plus members, you'll also receive a 20% discount during this promotion's launch week. There is one further promotion that if you spend at least $60 on the PSN (in general), you'll receive a $10 credit toward anything you buy from it in November.

Phone Story Fingers On

2011-09-14T10:00:00Z

I am a consumer.

I am a man from the Congo yelling at workers who are not working to my satisfaction, a gun resting in my hands, the intent clear.

I am the safety net who saves workers from suicides, so that they may go back into the factory that spawned many of the suicidal thoughts with which to begin.

I am the employee, satisfying the zombified demand for my product as the horde continues to advance, the phones I chuck at them being the brains they crave.

I sort and divide the thrown away materials, though many cannot truly be discarded.

I am really only the first, the consumer, but give life to all the other scenarios.

This is the basic premise behind Molleindustria's Phone Story: an App that was available in Apple's store yesterday, but was pulled for apparently violating the following:

15.2 Apps that depict violence or abuse of children will be rejected
16.1 Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected

21.1 Apps that include the ability to make donations to recognized charitable organizations must be free

21.2 The collection of donations must be done via a web site in Safari or an SMS

Via an interview with Gamasutra, Paolo Pedercini of Molleindustria states that the intent was to be within the guidelines of the App Store. Indeed, going to Molleindustria's Phone Story page, and clicking on the banner that states it was banned looks at possible ways to make the game comply to these standards. However, as Pedercini notes with Alexander at Gamasutra, the nebulous "excessively objectionable or crude content" bit makes it a bit difficult to ascertain if that can come to pass, even if speaking with Apple netted a response that the App could be made available again. Theoretically? Yes, it could. Will it?

After all, the game is a mix of documentary and game, which heavily criticizes the technolust Apple, and really any smart phone creators, has instilled.

What about the game, though? I actually had a chance to purchase and download it, and have uploaded a video (please excuse the sideways view and poor quality, had to make do with my somewhat aged digital camera) and have a few more thoughts.

]]>

(Many thanks to @belovedsanspoof for rotating the video for me.)

First, it is a documentary game, heavy on providing information. While that information is about the minigames and situations you are enacting, it does not guide the gameplay in any way. It provides context for the pixels you are manipulating.

You start off in a pit, controlling two guards who yell at the workers who stop working. They are mining for coltan, used in most of these devices. You must keep up the productivity goal so that you can progress to the end, so that the coltan can take its next step. The method of interaction is fairly simple. You keep an eye on the workers, and then you tap on them to get them to work again. There is no violence, though the threat of it is clear--the threat being more than enough to work in most such cases, after all.

This is perhaps the step furthest removed from how we receive these products, and the game itself confers much the same. We merely tap to guide the guards, but we do not directly control them in any way. This does not remove the responsibility, but it does remark on how removed this can seem for us.

Then there is the second game, where you are told about the issues that were highlighted with Foxconn not too recently. Here you control the 'safety net' that prevents suicidal workers from dying. The mechanics shift here, so that you are guiding the two people directly, preventing the deaths, and then watching the workers go right back to working in the factory. You are assuring life, but not quality of life, in essence. Sometimes it does become impossible to catch them all, and they will splat into the ground below; this does not end the game, so much as cause a productivity hit. Again, the goal is to fill the productivity meter before time is up. Acceptable risks, as long as you reduce the number.

In some ways, the message here seems to highlight this information, as much as point out that the alarm was over the number of suicides, and that what is often touted out in debates around this topic is the fact that there are places with higher suicide rates. Therefore, it is not the suicides that matter for some people, so much as how many suicides there may be.

Third is where you play an employee of the company who is selling the final product. You fling the latest phone into the raised arms of consumers who are swarming toward the store. If you miss them before they get past you, they crunch into the store behind you. Throwing a phone that misses creates a breaking noise. Your goal meter takes another hit.

This was the first time I failed, and the message the popped up clearly told me that I could not remove my complicity by just failing or refusing to participate. I already had the device in my hands: I was already a culprit.

Last comes the recycling plant. There are four materials you divide among four rather bedraggled-looking workers. Sometimes these materials would pop back on to the conveyor belt, and as the voice over explains, many of these materials cannot truly be recycled as we may think. It has the least amount of explanation, which seems appropriate given that we do not truly know the long-term effects of what this obsolecense will cost us.

Which leads to the final mode, where each iteration of the new phone means you go through the process again for the version 2.0, the 3G, etc. What we have created is a cycle where the product must continually be bought again and again, thereby supporting and perpetuating the industry. Meanwhile, at this point I noticed the score that was tallying in the top right corner, indicating I was only becoming richer, I suppose.

The progression of the games themselves seems appropriate in terms of communicating this information. The first game is the least intense in terms of keeping the audience's attention: it guides us into watching the screen and listening to information that is not necessary for the 'playing' of the game, just the contextualization. The second allows us to keep our finger on the device while moving, but still keep our attention focused. Theoretically by the time the third comes about, we are less distracted by listening to this discrete information while engaging, so that multiple fingers swipes and calculating angles is not as difficult. Then the fourth part is not as well explained, which means we need figure out where what goes, knowing it may well do no good anyway.

And here is where people will ask: what's the point? After all, what is an alternate solution? Is there one? With the Gamasutra interview above, it is noted that what is not being asked is to just boycott and stop the purchase of these devices. It seems instead to be aware of the issue at hand, and then to further acknowledge it while becoming aware of ways to mitigate and work for solutions. It also makes all these disparate pieces of information available in one package. When we receive these reports, as we did of Foxconn, it is more often than not divorced from the rest of the processes in this manufacturing line.

Are we, the purchasers of these products, complicit? Yes. Is Molleindustria? Yes. The issue isn't one of who is guilty of this, as the answer is many of us are. I don't even believe the point is to make us guilty with no response, but to leave us informed so that we can ask the appropriate questions and request the appropriate changes. It's asking for cultural awareness.

Update: Since posting this, it appears the app has appeared on the Android market for those interested.

Defend The Land

2011-09-12T12:00:00Z

Auntie Pixelante has (please note, NSFW due to depictions of pixelated penis, and trigger warnings for trans bigotry) released a new game ! This one was rather quickly thrown together (from what I gather, she took four hours over the weekend to make it).

In rather parodic fashion, the game is about 'spot the tranny,' with the violent rhetoric and intent that can often be behind that 'game.' All these white women in white dresses with their white hats are dancing around on the grass during a festival made just for them, and you must spot the 'Trans gression!'

If you just go in and decide you must find them immediately, you will just click. And fail. Fail in such a fashion that you have doooooooomed all of the festival.

If you succeed? Yay! You have effectively taught that trans woman a proper lesson. How dare she think she's a woman, after all?

The game isn't very difficult once you practice patience. Wait and you will see the tell-tale flash of a pixelated penis flashing you, allowing you to spot the trans gressor. However, the first five or six games I played, I figured it for a guessing game. I doomed that festival over and over.

Either way, works, really. There is some obsession over how one can disprove that a trans woman is indeed a woman, and supposedly her penis will light the way to enlightenment against her. What if she has had an operation, however? This shows how this particular festival sees a penis when it is no longer even existent.

Of course, this also goes about highlighting how defining a trans woman by the presence or lack of a penis is really just odd when she is completely the same as the women who are surrounding her, to the point where you have to play a game to distinguish her. Suddenly we are seeking to violate her sense of space in order to prove we are right. It becomes the 'spot the tranny' game for no other reason than to seek to make sure she isn't 'one of us' (metaphorically speaking; as a male who does not identify as a woman, I cannot attend this festival, nor have I interest in such).

If you are not familiar with the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (note: complaining about their use of womyn is beside the point, so save yourself the trouble of typing it), you should know it is a festival for womyn-born-womyn. It seeks to be a space for womyn to congegrate and share their work with each other exclusively. However, it also explicitly seeks to bar trans women from entry. Trans women have been dealing with this for years in various fashions, including creating their own Camp Trans, to invite womyn of all varieties, as well as some attending the festival in defiance. There is a very storied history there, and there are resources online to read about it, if you are interested.

However, recently someone published a list of trans women who attended the festival. Outing them on a WordPress site and offering very personal details about them. Pretty not okay, regardless of what one may think of MWMF's trans-exclusion. Given the level of violence trans people face in every day life, I'd call it downright abhorrent, actually. Hence the game to basically make us complicit in hate crimes.

I hope its parody of the event rings through, and Auntie Pixelante does highlight a few more details in her own blog post introducing the game.

Games For Thrones

2011-09-07T15:30:00Z

First, I will admit to being one of those. The people who finally read George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series post-HBO series. My Twitter feed was full of nothing but talk of it, I recalled being interested by the talk of the RTS game that was being made, and finally caved. Having now caught up on the books and on the show that was made, looking at the game as it stands now seems a wholly different prospect than when I previously looked at it.

The developer, Cyanide, doesn't have horribly much on which we can base our expectations (which may well be for the best?). The events of this particular game are also to take place before the book A Game of Thrones, which means the usual houses will be present, but not necessarily in the form to which we've become accustomed. For those book worms who devour the series, the following houses are represented:

Targaryen
Stark
Tully
Arryn
Tyrell
Baratheon
Martell
Lannister

Perhaps what I am interested in is how this plays as an RTS. In my mind, the various events of the books, and how Martin tells them, are a game of chess, which each move provoking other moves. Instead, this will theoretically put you in the shoes of one of the heads of the houses, but controlling the various people and armies, of whom we seem to get the barest of senses in the books themselves (beyond being there for slaughter and theoretically being fought for or dismissed). As even the finest wrought plans can be disrupted if you stall too long, it may well be that this style of play will be for the best.

Further plans for those eight houses beyond just campaigns? Eight-player multiplayer will apparently be available, though the campaigns will likely be the focus of highlighting details of historical events Martin has only mentioned in passing through the books. Given the possibility of failure, it's intriguing to imagine alternate histories for the books that have released.

As to more about gameplay? Not much more as yet, though I cannot see this being an RTS particularly suited to being able to click as fast as possible, though I could always be mistaken. However, this little bit that has been teased seems to support that this will be a somewhat different RTS game: "It is also very possible, by cleverly using all the low blows the game allows you to use, to earn victory without ever entering an open war or recruiting any army. A real first in a real-time strategy game!"

The goal is to win the Iron Throne, but whether you decide to do that through diplomacy, an army, economic strength, or underhanded methods will be up to you. Considering how even some major players in the series continue on without a large military might behind them, this does seem to make sense in that regard.

Perhaps one last intriguing detail? Apparently Game of Thrones: Genesis will be releasing this month, on the 29th. So, given that you have a few more weeks, I suppose the question I would have is what elements are essential to players and fans in such a game?

Slavery: The Game

2011-09-06T16:30:00Z

A short while ago, a trailer and site appeared for Slavery: The Game. As one can imagine, there was some confusion and horror based around the trailer and the premise it offered:

What I find intriguing is Latoya Peterson's take on the matter over at Racialicious, however. Namely, that the trailer that is shown above is problematic in that it is one-sided. As a counterpoint, Peterson mentions Age of Empires: The Conquerers, where you could take on the role of both conqueror and conquered, thereby learning a bit about the needs and progression of either side.

The issue is not a game about slavery, essentially. Games very often seem limited in what territories they can explore, with every war game that tries to discuss current events causing an uproar while we praise and give accolades to films and memoirs that do much the same. The difficulty is the perception of games, and the above trailer for a fake game, seems to bring forth painful realizations of how others may well perceive games.

Yet, looking at many games, do they really offer many better alternatives? While they may not go into detail about our history of slavery, how many strategy games allow you to assimilate other cultures, bring down revolts with increased military presence, and commit genocide in order to remove an opponent from the playing field? I think the key in this instance is that it isn't personalized, and often it happens to these blobs of civilization for whom we have no real connection.

While it is no longer contemporary, I still recall playing Colonization, and in retrospect, the fact that I could not ever play the Native Americans seems a shame as well as largely disappointing at a missed opportunity. After all, Colonization is already playing with history, in that you can decide someone other than the English take control of the area of land we now know as the USA. How much more interesting would it have been to have the Native Americans in that mix? Perhaps this is why I loved Alpha Centauri so much. While you couldn't play the native lifeforms present on the planet, you could work with them. You could herald their cause, or completely subvert it.

Among the great things about games are their ability to allow each one of us to see something different because of how we play. While we may always pick up something different in films or literature or a painting on the wall because of what we perceive and our own experiences, games add the element of what we have actually done.

In the case of an actual Slavery: The Game? This passage from Peterson's piece linked above asks some pertinent questions:

Great civilization games not only explore history as it happened, but also the way it could have been. If Slavery: The Game was realized as it exists in the clip, it would be an epic fail. But if someone felt like working with the nuances and complications of the practice, it could also turn into something amazing. Many African American history museums have a permanent installation on slavery as part of the story of blacks in America. Most recently, when I visited the Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, I checked out their "And Still We Rise" exhibit. We started in an exhibit dedicated to the African continent, then walked through a recreation of a slave ship designed to explain the rigors (and horrors) of The Middle Passage. I couldn't help wondering how we could create a game from this experience, something that is interactive on a different scale. What stories would we follow? Where do we start? What are the motivations of European slave traders and African slave traders? What types of betrayals occurred? How do we program to show the difficulty of surviving the middle passage? How does a person other someone else so completely as to sell them? How does one stoke the fires of an uprising? Could we play as a policy maker debating the merits of abolition? Of entry and escape? Is the main character Harriet Tubman or John Brown or Fredrick Douglass Game or Nat Turner?

These sorts of concepts are ones I would like to see some games explore (I realize games are often about making money at the top levels, so not every one could explore these issues). There are many types of concepts that could be explored here. Starting from the Stonewall Riots and affecting political change for the LGBT community? The difference between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.'s ways of achieving parity and deciding to choose one or the other for a different campaign (note: not one in which the other is your direct opposition). The various disputes and issues surrounding any number of other continents or countries?

It's certainly an intriguing concept about which to think.

How Games Saved My Life

2011-09-02T13:45:00Z

Tumblr can be full of all manner of content, from exploring the tongue-in-cheek question of how videogames made you gay, to porn, to fanart, to bickering drama, and to stories that make you realize how awesome games can be. Appropriately, this new Tumblr is called How Games Saved My Life.

The stories range to quite a few different topics, from dealing with loss, to helping deal with anxiety, diseases, and various other things we come across in life. Not surprisingly, that list includes one trans woman's story of finding herself in female protagonists. Morgan McCormick tells the story of that initial click with Perfect Dark, proceeding to Eternal Darkness, and how games that featured male protagonists still allowed her to look at some of the strong women that surrounded them (such as the Metal Gear Solid series). The full story looks into more games, and how Morgan has seemingly found herself in a more comfortable position in her life with her gaming girlfriend.

Then there's James Abrazado, who details using an MMO to make that initial step into coming out. It's a story with which I can personally sympathize. His story centers around City of Villains, and making a friend in a virtual space to whom he could come out, and who accepted him, encouraged him, and helped him during that period of his life. As coming out stories go, it's certainly a lesson in how we can make use of digital spaces, where we don't have to be our real names, and can test out our identities.

There's also Shawn King, who used games early on to just escape from life. Any form of media can offer escapism, and videogames are no stranger to such fact. However, he found later in life that the fact that he could have same-sex romances in games life Fable meant that he could explore that facet of himself and learn to accept it. Whenever people argue against having this content in games, this seems like the perfect example for why it should: any medium in which you can be represented, is a medium that can help you accept yourself in safety. It is no replacement for eventually interacting with other people, but as King displays in his piece, it can provide you that stepping stone on to other shores.

These stories also make a case for how a safe space in a game or game community can help people deal with any number of important life changes.

Do you have your own story? How Games Saved My Life's submission guidelines are right here.

Many thanks for Ashly Burch of Hey Ash for putting this together.

Persona News!

2011-08-31T13:00:00Z

Via Andriasang, we have word from Famitsu scans about some future Atlus plans.

First is that similar to P3P there will be a remake of Persona 4 for a handheld, though for the Vita this time. Renamed Persona: Golden, we can expect a new character named Mary, some online capabilities (being able to ask friends for help if you're about to perish in dungeons), as well as other bits and bobs here and there. This particular game caught the eye of some gay gamers due to the exploration of Kanji presented.

We don't have a firm release date for the Vita on PAL or US shores, so the fact that this is set to release in Spring 2012 may well make it a 'launch window' type title that may well entice some fans.

Further, there appears to be a title coming to us called The Ultimate In Mayonaka Arena: a fighting game for home consoles featuring characters from Personas 3 & 4. The devs behind this particular game? Arc System Works, of Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fame. Apparently this will take a few months after the events of Persona 4 and feature a story of some manner, but not too many more details.

Also, Persona 5? In the works, but beyond that, Andriasang had little else more to say beyond the staff involved.

Video: Warlock: Master Of The Arcane

2011-08-29T17:30:00Z

A large part of my PC gaming youth was spent both enjoying Master of Magic while simultaneously cursing its bugs. I have never quite played a mage- and turn-based strategy game that quite captured its feel, though I keep hoping. Therefore, the above trailer for Warlock: Master of the Arcane gives me a teensy, tiny sliver of hope.

Many will be quick to tout out the initial failure of Elemental, though they will quickly also state that Paradox generally fails to disappoint.

As for the game itself? This is the current feature set advertised:

Research and master dozens of spells, conjure strong enchantments and find out powerful spell combinations

Use the forces of three races, along with summons and wild creatures

Innovating city management system with less routine actions

Epic battles with large armies marching across the landscape

It is set to take place in Ardania, meaning it shares its world with the Majesty series. Currently, it's set for a Q2 release in 2012.

I suppose this makes me question what it was about Master of Magic that so entranced me, and what I would expect from this title. A strong selection of magic branches would certainly be among them. Good selection of avatars. The ability to have heroes and artifacts, with some RPG elements there.

It also went beyond just the Civilization series by bringing up a separate tactical battle screen for units. While Heroes of Might and Magic would do the same (and I do love that series), it felt entirely differently focused.

Here's to my interest being piqued, however.

Video: XCOM E3 Demo

2011-08-26T15:39:00Z

During E3, NaviFairy had the chance to interview Jordon Thomas, and among the topics brought up was Dr. Weir, who will join your team in XCOM. Among the intriguing things about Dr. Weir is that 2K Marin is not at all concerned about talking about his sexuality. In many ways, his sexuality and politics inform who he is, particularly considering the time period in which the game takes place. Makes sense, while sexuality does not necessarily inform how our personality and interests take shape, at times the reaction to such can (though it does not need to do so).

This, then, is the video that was the demo that was shown at E3, as well as showing the mission to recruit Dr. Weir.

As Jordon Thomas notes in the bit explaining the video:

2K Marin had just finished working on BioShock 2, and that game will always be deep in our DNA -- but our first crack at adapting XCOM to a more personal, real-time experience was way too much within our creative 'comfort zone'. It was kind of a run-and-gun affair, without a lot of focus on the command of your squad, or indeed on tactical play itself.
Candidly, it just wasn't "XCOM" enough for the hardcore fans of the original games at 2K Marin, who serve as our creative conscience. So over the past year, we've made some pretty aggressive design changes, in pursuit of the feelings that we experienced when we played the original games. I'll cover those in the video itself, but a quick note about story:

What I find interesting is that while the video does show a fair amount--at least, that's what I'd call 22 minutes--of gameplay, it also gives us that information about Weir. The politics of the time are something that seem to be informing quite a few narrative choices, and as NaviFairy's interview with Thomas highlighted, this is as much about an alien invasion as also setting the mirror on US society from that time period.

Kill A Dragon, Have Same-Sex Marriage

2011-08-25T13:45:00Z

I am excited for Skyrim. Having played every Elder Scrolls game since the original Arena (and never actually finishing one, despite hundreds and hundreds of hours in them), I know it will have a lot of the open-world exploration I rather love about that series. Plus, dragons. It's difficult not to love dragons when raised by a family that had all those Pocket Dragons strewn about (next to the gargoyles). Even if I am killing them to gain their power as if in some Highlander power struggle between dragonborn and actual dragons.

So, when reader Eric sent me to this forum post, which in turn leads to this Tweet by Pete Hines, VP of PR and marketing at Bethesda, confirming that regardless of your own sex, you can marry someone of any sex, I may have giggled a little. The entire exchange was brought about by a chap named Peter (@Jadis232 on Twitter) simply asking if same-sex marriage was going to be in the game.

I am not even sure how romances are set to work in Skyrim, and considering the stiff NPC interactions of the last TES game (though Fallout 3 seemed somewhat improved in that area), I'm also not sure how well it will translate.

However, this represents one of the things I have loved about this series: being able to build my own character and narrative in my head. Which also explains why I have never finished the main plot--that's not the point of these games for me, though I have heard I really should finish Morrowind's main story. It's exploration, making up my own character and her reactions to the vampire nest into which she just stumbled, and just enjoying it.

Many thanks to Bethesda for wanting to treat this as something that just is a matter of course. As Pete Hines replied to Peter in that Tweet, "Not hush hush, just not making a huge deal out of it. You can marry anyone."

Now to wonder if someone will make a mod to have dragons officiate over my wedding.

Star Wars: The Old, Old Republic

2011-08-22T18:00:00Z

In 2009 there was a kerfuffle on the Star Wars: The Old Republic message boards when one board member pointed out that auto-filtering the terms gay and lesbian was not conducive to making those people feel welcome. That problem has been encountered a few times across various gaming online portals, message boards, and profiles. A moderator stepped in, closed that thread, and stated, "As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars. Thread closed."

It was later reopened with an apology from BioWare. Since then we've had the Dragon Age series, confirmation of the third Mass Effect game allowing male-on-male romance (female-on-female was possible beforehand, though that is up for debate with some), and just recently we've had it confirmed that there will be no such romances in their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will in fact feature a bit of romance, as it plans on being slightly more story-heavy in personal decision making. Thank you to both @Limeadesage and @SoulstitchMMO for bringing this to my attention.

Sources?

First there is the video from BioWare Pulse that was recorded this past week, which served as an interview with producer Cory Butler:

Around the 3:00 mark starts the following question posed by a user on Twitter, as asked by Deeka Macdonald, "Same-gender romance in/out, or not decided yet in Star Wars: The Old Republic?" The response is, "Same-gender romances are not in Star Wars: The Old Republic." Topic shifted.

Further, in the message boards, Senior Community Manager Allison Berryman explicates a bit more, stating:

We understand that this topic is one that's very important to many of our community members, and we appreciate everyone posting their feedback. At this time, there are no same gender romance options available in the game, as was mentioned in the interview linked earlier. We know you're interested to hear more on this subject, and we will provide more information as soon as we are able. Thank you for your patience and for helping keep this thread on-topic and appropriate for the forums.

Since then the thread has moved. Twice. Three times, so far. This is apparently done when a thread gets too large, which is an indication of this topic's ability to get people talking. However, I have yet to see an explanation or reasoning behind this decision.

Considering this is licensed, I have seen bandied about that Lucas Arts is the one making this decision. Or those evil, fingers-drumming-together corporate types at EA (oh stereotypes). Or maybe they were just afraid of a higher rating on the game. Or, or, or.

As yet, there is no explanation forthcoming, and I doubt there's any one particular decision-maker calling this shot. After all, there is a bit of a history with Juhani in the first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game, who was first meant to be a lesbian, but due to glitches became bisexual in earlier versions of the game. Therefore, this all does seem a bit odd. There is precedent, and while 'gay' and 'lesbian' may not be understood in the same way in the old, old Republic, it does seem that same-sex romances are in fact quite possible. I'm also quite sure people better versed in the history of the franchise could mention one or two other instances.

I suppose at this point there will be conjecture until we get an official response. At which point there will likely be more conjecture anyway.