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Fair Bear Maiden
Jun 17, 2013

Under the vegetable posted:

also fwiw, i think it's the dumbest and most thickheaded and yes, even racist, thing possible to look at the witcher 3, a game with major, present themes at the forefront of the storytelling about colonialism, racism, prejudice, institutionalized power, and think "Uhhh i need to see more black skin being beaten with whips before it's good in my eyes"

You're responding to an argument that no one in thread presented and that, to be honest, I never dealt with myself?

Let's unpack this for a sec.

1) People have criticized the lack of PoC in The Witcher 3. This has relatively little to do with its treatment of racist themes.

2) People (usually with an American perspective, but not always) have criticized The Witcher 3 for using white stand-ins of other races. This is, in my opinion, an understandable misunderstanding of the sort of ethnic conflicts that the elves, dwarves and gnomes are stand-ins for in The Witcher 3.

In the present United States, whites are generally considered a uniform social group that benefits from being assumed the status quo and not experiencing systematic oppression. You could make a case for white Jews in the US suffering from antisemitism, and you get into a very complex territory where there's a heavy interplay between religion and ethnicity that I'm honestly not prepared to handle. But aside from that, I think what I said mostly holds up.

Now, if you put yourself in the shoes of someone with that specific perspective (and you consider that plenty of RPGs are developed from that same perspective and employ similar narrative tricks as The Witcher, e.g. the Dragon Age series) it's easy to understand why having *white* elves and dwarves as stand-in for black people, Arabs, Asian Americans and so and so forth could be so offensive. Not only one could make the case that it dehumanizes them by removing them from the whole of humanity, the boundaries of which are redesigned to only include white people, but it also whitewashes every single one of them.

Again, I think this doesn't hold up, for the simple reason that I identify elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes as stand-ins of the various white ethnicities in Poland and Eastern European countries in general, rather than racial groups that have historically suffered from oppression in the US in spite of being major demographics. Now, I don't know that I'd map any of these races to match any ethnicity in particular, but I think the dynamics in Sapkowski's books and the games are too similar to not be at least designed with those references in mind.

I hope what I said made sense considering I'm not exactly an expert in the history of Poland and American racial politics. If I said something that's really dumb or insensitive I'll retract/amend as needed.

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Epi Lepi
Oct 29, 2009

You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Under the vegetable posted:

don't be so dishonest. when someone comes in and ignores the setting, ignores all the messages the game has about racism, and prejudice, and power, and says they just dont understand it, why can't black people be in fantasy poland, they are just fantasizing about black people being used, being represented just to be victims, so they can learn a lesson a little bit easier.

I'm gonna quote myself because you are some sort of weirdo with no reading comprehension. Maybe you think only white males play video games?

Epi Lepi posted:

I mean, I don't know for sure who's complaining about it or their specific reasons, but a lot of the legitimate gripes about representation are from the perspective that, if I'm playing a game for hundreds of ours, its really loving weird to not see ANYONE who looks like me.

It's not something white people can really understand since we're everywhere all the time.

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe

poptart_fairy posted:

They're actually asking for more diversity in ethnicity. You are the only person in this thread with a weird hard-on for violence against minorities. What the christ man, seriously look at what you're posting here.

there IS diversity in ethnicity. if you want to play a game with modern america's cultural makeup and a lighter story about how humans are better together, play horizon zero dawn. this is a game with a specific geographical background and a depiction of the ethnic minorities and colonial cultures familiar to that region, which is specifically about racism and oppression. your begging for token representation is, if anything, even less of a good look than the people who want black people in the game just to see them hurt.

it's just such a privileged western view of the situation.

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe

Epi Lepi posted:

I'm gonna quote myself because you are some sort of weirdo with no reading comprehension. Maybe you think only white males play video games?

so you quoted yourself saying you're white. amazing.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Under the vegetable posted:

there IS diversity in ethnicity. if you want to play a game with modern america's cultural makeup and a lighter story about how humans are better together, play horizon zero dawn. this is a game with a specific geographical background and a depiction of the ethnic minorities and colonial cultures familiar to that region, which is specifically about racism and oppression. your begging for token representation is, if anything, even less of a good look than the people who want black people in the game just to see them hurt.

it's just such a privileged western view of the situation.

Please drop this obsession with seeing black people get hurt. It's really loving creepy, dude and does you absolutely no favours when bleating about how representation would be token.

Epi Lepi
Oct 29, 2009

You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Under the vegetable posted:

so you quoted yourself saying you're white. amazing.

I am white. I'm also able to comprehend that when people complain about lack of diversity its because they want to see more people like them in games. How is this hard to understand?

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe

Fair Bear Maiden posted:

You're responding to an argument that no one in thread presented and that, to be honest, I never dealt with myself?

Let's unpack this for a sec.

1) People have criticized the lack of PoC in The Witcher 3. This has relatively little to do with its treatment of racist themes.

2) People (usually with an American perspective, but not always) have criticized The Witcher 3 for using white stand-ins of other races. This is, in my opinion, an understandable misunderstanding of the sort of ethnic conflicts that the elves, dwarves and gnomes are stand-ins for in The Witcher 3.

In the present United States, whites are generally considered a uniform social group that benefits from being assumed the status quo and not experiencing systematic oppression. You could make a case for white Jews in the US suffering from antisemitism, and you get into a very complex territory where there's a heavy interplay between religion and ethnicity that I'm honestly not prepared to handle. But aside from that, I think what I said mostly holds up.

Now, if you put yourself in the shoes of someone with that specific perspective (and you consider that plenty of RPGs are developed from that same perspective and employ similar narrative tricks as The Witcher, e.g. the Dragon Age series) it's easy to understand why having *white* elves and dwarves as stand-in for black people, Arabs, Asian Americans and so and so forth could be so offensive. Not only one could make the case that it dehumanizes them by removing them from the whole of humanity, the boundaries of which are redesigned to only include white people, but it also whitewashes every single one of them.

Again, I think this doesn't hold up, for the simple reason that I identify elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes as stand-ins of the various white ethnicities in Poland and Eastern European countries in general, rather than racial groups that have historically suffered from oppression in the US in spite of being major demographics. Now, I don't know that I'd map any of these races to match any ethnicity in particular, but I think the dynamics in Sapkowski's books and the games are too similar to not be at least designed with those references in mind.

I hope what I said made sense considering I'm not exactly an expert in the history of Poland and American racial politics. If I said something that's really dumb or insensitive I'll retract/amend as needed.

they're not direct stand ins for existing racial minorities. they are there to depict the ideas and practices of racism as forced onto minority cultures. the game is about racism as a concept, not racism as practiced in 2010s America.

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe

Epi Lepi posted:

I am white. I'm also able to comprehend that when people complain about lack of diversity its because they want to see more people like them in games. How is this hard to understand?

I'm glad they all have you to speak for them, and I'm sure they are too. Jesus christ.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich
Then there should absolutely be no issue with more diversity among the humans in this setting, given the racism would be based on elf/dwarf/human rather than skin colour.

You are literally the only person here equating "more minorities" with "I want to see minorities chained and whipped and in pain oh god".

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe

poptart_fairy posted:

Please drop this obsession with seeing black people get hurt. It's really loving creepy, dude and does you absolutely no favours when bleating about how representation would be token.

It's not my obsession, buddy. I'm trying to tell you it's bad and creepy and you're an insane person making up things you wish I was thinking.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Under the vegetable posted:

It's not my obsession, buddy. I'm trying to tell you it's bad and creepy and you're an insane person making up things you wish I was thinking.

Under the vegetable posted:

also fwiw, i think it's the dumbest and most thickheaded and yes, even racist, thing possible to look at the witcher 3, a game with major, present themes at the forefront of the storytelling about colonialism, racism, prejudice, institutionalized power, and think "Uhhh i need to see more black skin being beaten with whips before it's good in my eyes"

Under the vegetable posted:

exactly, the cast is pretty diverse. there are several ethnic subgroups among the humans and there are also elves and dwarves and other intelligent races that are ostacized and segregated because they look different. saying you need a specific kind of token representation or the game is bad is rooted in some kind of racial suprematism i think

Under the vegetable posted:

to be honest it's pretty racist and buying into the myth of the white race and white solidarity to look at this game and all the different human cultures in it and go "ITS JUST WHITE PEOPLE THEYRE ALL THE SAME"

Under the vegetable posted:

you do. all the complaints about wanting to see more black and arab people in this game is from people fantasizing about watching them be victimized.

Under the vegetable posted:

don't be so dishonest. when someone comes in and ignores the setting, ignores all the messages the game has about racism, and prejudice, and power, and says they just dont understand it, why can't black people be in fantasy poland, they are just fantasizing about black people being used, being represented just to be victims, so they can learn a lesson a little bit easier.

Under the vegetable posted:

there IS diversity in ethnicity. if you want to play a game with modern america's cultural makeup and a lighter story about how humans are better together, play horizon zero dawn. this is a game with a specific geographical background and a depiction of the ethnic minorities and colonial cultures familiar to that region, which is specifically about racism and oppression. your begging for token representation is, if anything, even less of a good look than the people who want black people in the game just to see them hurt.

it's just such a privileged western view of the situation.

Quote anyone else actually saying this, or gently caress right off. You are being absolutely disgusting by trying to put this poo poo in our mouths.

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe

poptart_fairy posted:

Then there should absolutely be no issue with more diversity among the humans in this setting, given the racism would be based on elf/dwarf/human rather than skin colour.

You are literally the only person here equating "more minorities" with "I want to see minorities chained and whipped and in pain oh god".

there is also racism and prejudice among the varied human cultures depicted in the game. people clinging to those of their own culture out of self-preservation and, even as minorities, expressing racist beliefs towards each other, is something depicted in the game. this theme would actually be harmed if you have Temerians and Zerrikanians and a bunch of other people clearly from other countries and cultures around. Since the SETTING is dependent on massive, oppressive segregation, DEPICTING a happy and mixed and non-racist human culture would harm the work's overall message of anti-racism. I'm sorry.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Under the vegetable posted:

there is also racism and prejudice among the varied human cultures depicted in the game. people clinging to those of their own culture out of self-preservation and, even as minorities, expressing racist beliefs towards each other, is something depicted in the game. this theme would actually be harmed if you have Temerians and Zerrikanians and a bunch of other people clearly from other countries and cultures around. Since the SETTING is dependent on massive, oppressive segregation, DEPICTING a happy and mixed and non-racist human culture would harm the work's overall message of anti-racism. I'm sorry.

Can you give examples of this racism and prejudice being based on the colour of a person's skin within the setting?

mlmp08
Jul 11, 2004

Prepare for my priapic projectile's exalted penetration
Nap Ghost
Ugh, I would rather read about character builds than this.

Fair Bear Maiden
Jun 17, 2013
My friend, I'm sorry to inform you that the character progression system in The Witcher 3 is not great and that's why we usually don't discuss character builds.

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe

poptart_fairy posted:

Quote anyone else actually saying this, or gently caress right off. You are being absolutely disgusting by trying to put this poo poo in our mouths.

Sounds like somebody feels guilty to me. Maybe you should self crit instead of doubling down and trying to harass someone who's trying to talk about how bad racism is.

There are two results and methods you could use to "increase representation" in this game. One would be to fully integrate all humans, so they're all living a happy multicultural life. This would destroy the message of anti-racism in the game, because the humans are no longer fractured, turned against one another, etc. The humans are just as fractured and hate each other just as much as they do non-humans, and they are almost all racists and shitheads. Having EXPLICIT racism from humans against other humans as a common, foundational aspect of story and setting, and then adding black people in to be friendly with everyone and never victimized, is tokenism and patronizing racism.

The other one is to have them in the game and depicted as victims of it like everyone else. This doesn't add anything to the story or its depictions of racism, it just places it on the end of a hammer and hits the audience with it.

Either you are fantasizing about minorities being harmed or you are a patronizing bourgeois freak from get out who wants happy smiling black people in your game to make you feel good.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Under the vegetable posted:

Sounds like somebody feels guilty to me. Maybe you should self crit instead of doubling down and trying to harass someone who's trying to talk about how bad racism is.

The extent of my "harassment" is asking for more diversity within the human cast. You are the sole person talking about this diversity should act as a pathway for violence against minorities, you clown. Either show where anyone other than you has asked for this, or gently caress off.

quote:

There are two results and methods you could use to "increase representation" in this game. One would be to fully integrate all humans, so they're all living a happy multicultural life. This would destroy the message of anti-racism in the game, because the humans are no longer fractured, turned against one another, etc. The humans are just as fractured and hate each other just as much as they do non-humans, and they are almost all racists and shitheads. Having EXPLICIT racism from humans against other humans as a common, foundational aspect of story and setting, and then adding black people in to be friendly with everyone and never victimized, is tokenism and patronizing racism.

The other one is to have them in the game and depicted as victims of it like everyone else. This doesn't add anything to the story or its depictions of racism, it just places it on the end of a hammer and hits the audience with it.

Either you are fantasizing about minorities being harmed or you are a patronizing bourgeois freak from get out who wants happy smiling black people in your game to make you feel good.

Again, where is anyone asking for minorities to be harmed just because they're being included? Either it's not important that people are black and shouldn't be a problem to include them, or it's a big problem that needs to be tackled by the story. Which is it?

Epi Lepi
Oct 29, 2009

You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Under the vegetable posted:

I'm glad they all have you to speak for them, and I'm sure they are too. Jesus christ.

I'm not speaking for anyone, I'm repeating what people actually say. You're the one with weird ideas about what wanting representation means.

You are a loving weird dude with hella issues.

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k
April.....fools......?

WirelessPillow
Jan 12, 2012

Look Ma, no wires!
So how about that Geralt character eh?

Ugato
Apr 9, 2009

We're not?

Shinjobi posted:

April.....fools......?

WirelessPillow posted:

So how about that Geralt character eh?

Something something the redhead is better

Fuligin
Oct 27, 2010

wait what the fuck??

I just finished the main quest and started HoS, and only now do I realize that potions only need to be crafted once. So much time... lost...

Epi Lepi
Oct 29, 2009

You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants
Do we know anything new about the Cyberpunk game they're making? That's one of my most anticipated games in the next couple years.

Inverness
Feb 4, 2009

Fully configurable personal assistant.

Epi Lepi posted:

Do we know anything new about the Cyberpunk game they're making? That's one of my most anticipated games in the next couple years.
I would be surprised if they made a peep about that before 2019.

Bold Robot
Jan 6, 2009

Be brave.



I'm having a weird performance issue in the game. Every 10 minutes or so it starts to stutter badly, frame rate tanks, sound goes to poo poo and gets choppy, etc. Weirdly, alt-tabbing out and back in again totally fixes it and the game plays fine (until it happens again). This just started happening today and the issue persists after a restart. Did some googling but couldn't find much, it looks like there used to be a bug where the game had trouble after you alt-tab back in, so all the results relate to that. Anyone have any ideas? It's not gamebreaking but it's pretty annoying, especially when it happens in the middle of a fight. The game otherwise runs fine on my system.

Ice Fist
Jun 20, 2012

^^ Please send feedback to beefstache911@hotmail.com, this is not a joke that 'stache is the real deal. Serious assessments only. ^^

We've had this racism in the Witcher discussion every few months and it always ends badly. So nobody should be shocked it turned out this way.

WoodrowSkillson
Feb 24, 2005

*Gestures at 60 years of Lions history*

Under the vegetable posted:

Sounds like somebody feels guilty to me. Maybe you should self crit instead of doubling down and trying to harass someone who's trying to talk about how bad racism is.

There are two results and methods you could use to "increase representation" in this game. One would be to fully integrate all humans, so they're all living a happy multicultural life. This would destroy the message of anti-racism in the game, because the humans are no longer fractured, turned against one another, etc. The humans are just as fractured and hate each other just as much as they do non-humans, and they are almost all racists and shitheads. Having EXPLICIT racism from humans against other humans as a common, foundational aspect of story and setting, and then adding black people in to be friendly with everyone and never victimized, is tokenism and patronizing racism.

The other one is to have them in the game and depicted as victims of it like everyone else. This doesn't add anything to the story or its depictions of racism, it just places it on the end of a hammer and hits the audience with it.

Either you are fantasizing about minorities being harmed or you are a patronizing bourgeois freak from get out who wants happy smiling black people in your game to make you feel good.

You may be the single most retarded stupid, idiotic, and absurdly racist person on these forums, including niggerstomper58.

Pyromancer
Apr 29, 2011

This man must look upon the fire, smell of it, warm his hands by it, stare into its heart

Epi Lepi posted:

Do we know anything new about the Cyberpunk game they're making? That's one of my most anticipated games in the next couple years.

Well, there were news they have government grant for technology for "cities of great scale based on the principles of artificial intelligence and automation" and seamless multiplayer with project due in June 2019.
So guess is that what's going to be in Cyberpunk 2077 and game's probably coming sometime after that date.

Fuzz
Jun 2, 2003

Avatar brought to you by the TG Sanity fund
I don't really give a poo poo about this argument between what I assume are some white posters insinuating each other as racists, but as a South Asian guy that regularly gets called an Arab and now seeing multiple people refer to the Ofieri as Arab, I'd just like to point out that some of you need to go look at some actual Arab people because the Ofieri are not Arab. They're Moors, and Ofier is meant to be an allegory of the Cordoban Caliphate. :eng101:

steinrokkan
Apr 2, 2011



Soiled Meat
I wasn't insinuating that Ofier was meant to be an Arab country. I was just kind of rambling about how nothing is nor can be realistically focused at all social issues at once. I think they are meant to represent the ancient wealthy kingdoms of the Mali - Sudan region more than anything else, though. With the pretty clear references to exotic animals like zebras and such.

Anyway, sorry for reviving this um controvetsy I guess.

2house2fly
Nov 14, 2012

You did a super job wrapping things up! And I'm not just saying that because I have to!
"Ugh this thread is just endless praise, I wish someone would post some drat criticism of the game"

*wizened finger curls on monkey's paw*

SirSamVimes
Jul 21, 2008

~* Challenge *~


Ice Fist posted:

We've had this racism in the Witcher discussion every few months and it always ends badly. So nobody should be shocked it turned out this way.

It's never turned out this badly though. This is the first time we've had someone accusing everyone of just wanting to see minorities in pain.

Omnicarus
Jan 16, 2006

Man gently caress elves all they do is bring disease and and sway goodly folk away from the Eternal Fire. Only good ones are pushing up feainnewedd and I hope every one of them meets their own Shaerrawedd. Their kind got us into the mess over in Nam back in LBJ's day trying to keep any Domino from falling to Nilfgard, so we all went wacking off in the bush chasing Scoia'tael in the goddamned heat and monsoons with jungle rot from rear end crack to ball sack. Wasn't just their fault though, guess they just wanted to live in the bush the way they always had, but the shitass brass had their sorry asses stapled to the goddamn desk in DC and anyone even mentioning a pull back and cease fire got canned for not being Anti-Nilfy enough or some poo poo.

I still have to stop myself from reaching for the silver or the steel when I hear the news chopper, man. That was a long time ago, a long time ago, but old habits die hard I guess.

Action Serious
Feb 2, 2009

Hopper posted:

Gameplay related question:

I have started BaW and I have two or three times now reloaded because I slew bandits or found dead people and suddenly got updates for quests I did not even have.
What's the deal here? (One of them was called "pack fo five" or soemthing the other is me coming up on a bunch fo dead peeps and Gerlat starting to talk about a monster "Hmm foul odor spreads the griffin must be flyign high" I knew nothing about.
Shoudl I just stick to the main quest first or hwo does this work....it seems this is not as explorer friendly as the main game.

I'm about to dive into this expansion tomorrow and am really curious about this myself. Should I follow the main quests only for a stretch? If so is there a point of no return for side quests like the base game?

Pellisworth
Jun 20, 2005

Action Serious posted:

I'm about to dive into this expansion tomorrow and am really curious about this myself. Should I follow the main quests only for a stretch? If so is there a point of no return for side quests like the base game?

there's no cutoff point like the base game, but there are some weird limitations to side quests where you need to do them right then and there

you can do the main quest as much as you want and it won't lock anything out, but when you're exploring the countryside you're best off handling the quests as they come

Extreme Cosplay is an example of quest that will fail if you don't complete it right then

WhiskeyWhiskers
Oct 14, 2013

Go to Ardaiso quarry and get the quests there.



And do the 'wine wars' quests and you'll have fewer of those moments when exploring.

Pretty sure the start of that Griffin quest you're talking about is here if you want to start that properly.

Comte de Saint-Germain
Mar 26, 2001

Snouk but and snouk ben,
I find the smell of an earthly man,
Be he living, or be he dead,
His heart this night shall kitchen my bread.

Under the vegetable posted:

don't be so dishonest. when someone comes in and ignores the setting, ignores all the messages the game has about racism, and prejudice, and power, and says they just dont understand it, why can't black people be in fantasy poland, they are just fantasizing about black people being used, being represented just to be victims, so they can learn a lesson a little bit easier.

go gently caress yourself

Comte de Saint-Germain
Mar 26, 2001

Snouk but and snouk ben,
I find the smell of an earthly man,
Be he living, or be he dead,
His heart this night shall kitchen my bread.

steinrokkan posted:



Anyway, sorry for reviving this um controvetsy I guess.

It's the only topic that actually gets me to post here anymore, so I appreciate it. :)

Bold Robot
Jan 6, 2009

Be brave.



Why the hell do oils have charges that I have to reapply? There's gotta be a mod for this, right?

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Arc Hammer
Mar 4, 2013

Got any deathsticks?

Bold Robot posted:

Why the hell do oils have charges that I have to reapply? There's gotta be a mod for this, right?

Yep, grab the mod auto apply oils.

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