It’s as if GamerGate never went away.
On Monday, Game Informer Associate Editor Liana Ruppert posted what she called an “Epileptic PSA” for the much-anticipated open-world game Cyberpunk 2077, noting that one sequence in the game literally triggered an epileptic seizure when she was playing the game.
Naturally, some gamers decided to punish her for her crime of speaking ill about a game they haven’t even played yet (it comes out tomorrow), sending her hundreds of videos featuring flashing lights in an attempt to give her another seizure.
Apparently Ruppert’s critics are outraged that someone would criticize a cyberpunk game for having flashing lights because FLaShinG LigHTs ArE pArT oF tHe cYBeRpuNK aEsthEtiC!!1!
Others decided based on nothing — and certainly without reading Ruppert’s post — that the seizure-inducing elements of the game couldn’t possibly be seizure-inducing.
Others declared that lots of things are seizure inducing, so why single out this one game?
One commenter insisted that ART must come before accessibility. “Games are a form of art,” wrote rndsum on Twitter. “While I want accessibility I also want art and the game to come first and censorship as an option.”
Cyberpunk developer CD Projekt RED says it will now be putting specific seizure warnings in the game itself while it looks for a “more permanent solution” to the problem, which will likely mean new settings for the game designed to eliminate or reduce flickering lights and other potential seizure-causing visuals.
You can have both art and accessibility. I’m just a teensy bit appalled that this didn’t occur to CD Projekt RED before this controversy erupted.
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@epitome
They also fail to understand what censorship is. Censorship can only be done by a government, so unless the government is forcing them to remove or hide the feature it isn’t censorship.
@Fabe
One of the first screenshots released was of an in-game billboard showing a fetishistic depiction of a woman with a penis, and from there on it appears the game has a real issue with fetishizing trans women’s bodies. In addition, since the character creator allows you to create characters with whatever genitals you want, all the gamer bros are making “futa” jokes (it’s a kind of anime porn that fetishizes women with penises and is used as a derogatory term for trans women). Plus, CDPR, the studio that made it, is based in Poland where one third of the country is “LGBT-free zones.” There might be more, that’s just what I remember.
Objectified and fetishized trans* used as scenery, your gender is determined by your voice pitch instead of your choice of genitals.
Probably other stuff, those are just the ones I noticed on watching a vid.
I was disappointed with Mike Pondsmith (creator of the PnP Cyberpunk game that this is all based on) for defending CDPR on this regard. Part of the defense is that these are the evil corporations that are fetishizing/commodifying transfolks, but unless that’s an actual plot point (and by all accounts it isn’t) then the bigotry is just window dressing with no context. Which means that it does, in fact, come off as snide and bigoted. An attempt to be “cute” that fails utterly.
@Schnookums
Megacorps fetishizing trans poeple to turn them into commodities defenitly sounds cyberpunk(the sci-fi sub genra) to me but it does sound like it could of used some context even if it wasn’t plot point and just world building. maybe a bit of exposition dialog while looking at those ads “Society was just starting to make progress when it came to letting people be who they felt they were rather that what they were born .But then the corps came along,fetishized it,packaged it ,marketed and sold it back to us as a kink”
@Fabe
Unfortunately, it appears that they think they’ve been progressive just for including the images. They, like many chasers, appear to have a hard time telling the difference between supporting and fetishizing.
There appears to be a large amount of transphobia in the cyberpunk genre/community as a whole. On some level I get that it’s a reflection of society as a whole, but I’d think that given that some of main principles of cyberpunk are body modification and unconventional expression that trans people would be more supported. If the genre involves people swapping or radically reconfiguring their bodies, couldn’t the readers understand how someone’s gender might not align with their body?
Exactly! I agree 100%. When I heard of people critizing the game because they felt it was too trans inclusive I though the same thing. Ttranshumanism is part of the cyberpunk genera so if replacing body parts with mechanical ones to make humans more then human is no big deal then there should be no problem with people changing their gender.
Fans don’t much like reality. Cyberpunk body mods ain’t real. Trans* are.
The fetishy billboard wouldn’t really bother me, had CDPR remembered to include the “punk” part of “cyberpunk”. Having an oversexualised ad is fine, if you have someone in game to criticise it or provide a counterpoint. Otherwise you aren’t highlighting capitalist dystopia, you’re reproducing it. The real world is a capitalist wasteland with gross ads objectifying people, and here’s the key part, there are people who are pushing back against it
Next person I see saying “but it’s a dystopiaaaaaaaa” is getting puked on
You can’t expect the *gamers* flipping out about her article to actually read an article before joining the outrage mob. Reading is for losers who don’t build their entire identities on the entertainment products they consume.
@Bakunin
Exactly. However, AFAIK there isn’t none pushing back on it in game, and regardless of the creator’s intents there will be a subset of players who look at the dystopian setting and think “cool future.” And by extension the implication would be “in the future it will be cool to sexuality trans people, much as in the present but even more so.”
Cyberpunk 2077’s devs seem to take only a slice of trans input and leave the rest to this sort of “boy’s club” style of transphobia. I think the proof will be in the pudding when it comes to context within the setting but their devs seem to miss the mark by posting tweets such as sarcastic “Did you just assume their gender?!” Etc. I’m not holding out for good representation in this game, but it’s not because I don’t feel represented, but it excludes the majority of the experiences we have.
Lately I have been trying to find methods in which to explore how trans bodies are represented in media, porn or otherwise. I’ve been interested because I am actually of the type to be proud of the parts below my belt even though I pass most of the time. I don’t tuck or pretend I have different equipment around people I trust. And, I’d like to see more unabashed displays of trans people with trans bodies being praised for who we are, fucking gorgeous.
That being said, if the praise comes from this male gaze/boy’s club point of view then we have a problem. Added to that, I have a large friend group who are absolutely trans allies, many of them queer cis women who are excited for this game. I guess what I mean to say is this situation is a mess for me because I don’t like the messengers and most of the message, but knowing some people who are getting the best parts out of it is still heartening to me. I may be in the minority here, but it’s been a hard road trying to be seen as sexy and as a person deserving respect and if this game encourages discussions about the topic I feel that is better than “thing bad.”
Slightly O/T but I thought people might enjoy this as a bit of light relief.
It’s the judgement in Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
Click the link and see how long it takes you to read it.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/120820zr_bq7d.pdf
@Alan
An absolute work of art.
An acquaintance of mine has it, I warned him about the seizure inducing effects. He’s unimpressed by the quality, very buggy game apparently, lacking polish. He made a bad Polish/polish pun too.
@Alan:
And, of course, in that sort of situation, that’s all the Supreme Court has to say: “No, we’re not even going to bother spending time to look into this.” Even those on the Supreme Court who might be sympathetic are not going to want to open the can of worms of letting people refer challenges like this directly to them this late in the process.
Mike Kelly’s Wikipedia page is pretty scathing, quoting a full paragraph rebuke from the rejection he got from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court back on November 28th. And it says something that the Chamber of Commerce gives him a 95% rating and the ACLU a 5%.
Regarding the game: the dick bug is pretty funny.
https://www.polygon.com/2020/12/10/22167349/cyberpunk-2077-penis-glitch-breasts
This qualifies as full-fledged domestic terrorism.
I know you all like Supreme Court judgments; so here’s the latest Trump one:
https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/121120zr_p860.pdf
For those of you who don’t have time to read all two paragraphs; the court stated that the complaint was inadmissible.
Alito and Thomas dissented. They said the court did have jurisdiction to accept the paperwork; but having done so they should dismiss the claim without a hearing.
@Alan Robertshaw
It is of course good that the court has rejected each of these cases. However, the problem remains that the Trump administration is not trying to win so much as to sow doubt in the population. If they can convince people that the election was stolen, they’ve radicalized an army. Today the Texas GOP alluded to secession in a press release. If they talk about it but don’t do it, they can have plausible deniability but incite others to do stochastic terrorism.
@Naglfar
They do that every time there’s a Democratic president, and any time a Republican president doesn’t kiss their asses hard enough. Texan right-wingers haven’t shut up about secession for six consecutive months since the war with Mexico.
have a large friend group who are absolutely trans allies, many of them queer cis women who are excited for this game.
Latest, and I think final, Trump judgement. From Wisconsin Supreme Court.
This one is a bit longer; but I like how the judge uses “extraordinary” a lot. And that’s the judge’s italics.
But nice summary at the end:
“The Plaintiff (Trump) asks that the rule of law be followed. It has been.”
Case dismissed.
https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423518-trump_case_decision