I will say I kind of get annoyed at this. Not really on principle because I am all for inclusivity but on some games it’s legitimately hard to tell which one I’m picking and I don’t personally want my character to be trans (male voice, female body) in most games. In Avowed the character selection screen has your character in clothing that kind of obscures the body shape and I was like “are there boobs on this one? I can’t actually tell.” I’m apparently bad enough at this where I usually have to use the clothing off button if there is one to conclusively tell the difference. Helldivers 2’s “Brawny” and “Lean” are pretty good but those characters are in heavy armor and either one could plausibly be either biological sex. Baldurs Gate 3 uses the terms “masc” and “femme” which is less confusing but that game also lets you do any combo of muscles, voice, titties, and genetalia you want, which kind of eliminates the whole confusion in the first place since it’s all customizable. I totally get not wanting to label things but I am dumb and just want to know what I’m picking.
Oh yeah, you have a good point. For example, unlike games like bg3 and cyberpunk (to some extent), some games use “body type” but your character is still recognized as either male or female depending on which you choose, so there’s no point in NOT using “male or female”.
My annoyance with the Oblivion remaster is more that, from what I’ve read, this “body type A/B” change does not make a material difference inside the game, as NPCs still refer to your character as male/female. As a trans person my opinion is, either meaningfully rework how gender is handled in the game or just leave it alone, players know what to expect when playing an older game. This UI-level change actually just muddles player expectations.
I’ve read so many negative reviews that only say “bodytype A and B” that I’m running out of steam points to gift them clown awards.
sorry to say, but by awarding them, you’re part of the problem by rewarding bad behaviour :|
(I hate the award system, it made the troll reviews problem so much worse)
Giving clown awards gives them Steam points. It encourages people to leave those type of shitty comments on purpose.
I will say I kind of get annoyed at this. Not really on principle because I am all for inclusivity but on some games it’s legitimately hard to tell which one I’m picking and I don’t personally want my character to be trans (male voice, female body) in most games. In Avowed the character selection screen has your character in clothing that kind of obscures the body shape and I was like “are there boobs on this one? I can’t actually tell.” I’m apparently bad enough at this where I usually have to use the clothing off button if there is one to conclusively tell the difference. Helldivers 2’s “Brawny” and “Lean” are pretty good but those characters are in heavy armor and either one could plausibly be either biological sex. Baldurs Gate 3 uses the terms “masc” and “femme” which is less confusing but that game also lets you do any combo of muscles, voice, titties, and genetalia you want, which kind of eliminates the whole confusion in the first place since it’s all customizable. I totally get not wanting to label things but I am dumb and just want to know what I’m picking.
Oh yeah, you have a good point. For example, unlike games like bg3 and cyberpunk (to some extent), some games use “body type” but your character is still recognized as either male or female depending on which you choose, so there’s no point in NOT using “male or female”.
My annoyance with the Oblivion remaster is more that, from what I’ve read, this “body type A/B” change does not make a material difference inside the game, as NPCs still refer to your character as male/female. As a trans person my opinion is, either meaningfully rework how gender is handled in the game or just leave it alone, players know what to expect when playing an older game. This UI-level change actually just muddles player expectations.