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When a game thinks it knows better+ sexism.

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by Canterpiece, Feb 7, 2017.

  1. Canterpiece

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    Now and again I'll come across a game that takes control against the player's wishes, now I know this is a fairly big category but for this thread I'm mainly going to be focusing on games that make a decision that you did not pick out of decision-based game.

    So, I was bored one day and I happened to come across this game called "Alter ego" that claimed to provide the chance to live your life again from birth however you wanted to. It sounded like an interesting concept, so I decided to play it. Now at first glance at the introduction, it seemed to be just that- you were able to pick if you were born male or female, and what the birth was like. It mentions at the beginning of the game that the birth sex you pick makes a significant impact on the game itself- and having played as both on this game, I can concur. I found playing the male version to be more enjoyable actually.

    Now the game is narrative driven, so despite it giving you options of what to do in certain situations- there are some pathways of the story you can't physically avoid. I've tried. What I found the most annoying about this game was that it acted like it knew you better than you know yourself, you see- with every choice you make in the game it builds a profile around you, and it makes guesses at what you'll do next, so if you pick an option that it didn't predict- it corrects you and picks the option that it thinks you would've actually picked (so basically accusing you of lying). So if you chose to avoid a fight and it saw you to be confrontational based on your previous choices, despite choosing to walk away the game would make you join that fight anyway.

    Also, the romance in the game is inevitable- you can try to avoid it, but if you do that it will force you into a relationship with someone you didn't pick anyway, and if you choose not to have children it will punish you and try to make you feel bad. I don't think it's as bad on the male version, but if you play as female and choose not to have kids- it will keep reminding you that your time to make a baby is running out, tell you that avoiding maternal instinct is bad and that you will feel lonely and incomplete if you don't have a child. At one point I met with this woman in the game and I said her baby was cute and the game said "See? That's maternal instinct! Maybe you wish you'd had children now!". :dry:

    Only straight relationships exist in this game, so if you pick female you have to pick a male and hopefully you'll have a baby otherwise the game we nag and nag and nag you about it. Same but vice versa with male, you have to pick female. You can't adopt in the game, so you have to get married and have kids in a straight relationship- as far as I know you can't have kids outside of marriage in this game, but I haven't tried.

    Speaking of how it treats the different sexes, how it treats you when you click male vs when you click female is quite telling. First off, when you pick female you are somewhat more restricted, if you act aggressive when female your behaviour is labelled as "worrying", but when you're male it's "understandable", (I feel like on the male version you got away with violence with a lot less punishment from the game then when you're female) if you use persuading techniques as a male "You'd be a great business man!", as a female "You're being a bit pushy for a young woman such as yourself". :/ That's why playing as a male was more fun, it was more motivating and less down beat- less judgy.

    I hated how judgy the game was, it offered a chance to live life like you wanted- but at the same time punished you deeply if you didn't do what the game wanted you to do, or in some cases it just made you do it anyway. I feel like the game was heavily based off the developer's childhood, and stereotypes. You were not allowed to be a shy teenager who doesn't like parties and doesn't date, or a business woman who doesn't want kids. But they were right about one thing, the game claimed to change how you look at your own life- I had no idea my childhood was so stereotypically male, I could relate more to the situations that happened in the male version than the female version- according to this game, females don't pull pranks on people- someone should've told my sister and I that when we were younger. :grin:

    There were some parts of the female version I could relate to, but making out with a bunch of teenage boys, wearing make-up and going on a date with a man even though I chose not to- were not things I could relate to, but whatever. I knew this game wasn't going to be completely flexible or a replica of my actual life but I'd hoped for a bit more flexibility within the game, and you know having-"you might make a successful business woman someday!" said to me would've been nice.

    So...have you ever played a game that claimed to let you pick what you wanted to do, only for it to pick what it wants for you anyway? Or perhaps a game where you strayed too far off the course and it brought you back (say you were trying to explore the in-game world on a mission or something, and it made you focus on the mission or something). How about a game that turned out to be surprisingly sexist?
     
    #1 Canterpiece, Feb 7, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2017
  2. Zoe Izumi

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    Mass Effect 3 "all your choices matter" but in the end you just pick what color explosion you want.

    Also, that game you described sounds like udder horses***. I would have put it down the moment it tried to say "no, you would do this". I never had a date in high school, I didn't go to "parties" either. I WAS a Shy Teen. Venting about the game, no anger at the topic.
     
    #2 Zoe Izumi, Feb 7, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2017
  3. Lazuri

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    To be fair, ME3 had a WAY better ending initially. It was leaked shortly before release and for some reason it made EA force BioWare to hurriedly write a new ending.

    The original ending involved the reason for the Reapers destroying all advanced life in the galaxy being that using biotics and mass technology created dark energy, which--if you're into science you might know--is an undetectable force that is the reason our galaxies are drifting apart along with a number of other effects that are all pretty much exclusively bad. The Reapers eradicate advanced lifeforms every so often to stop them from advancing too far and completely fuck over the galaxy due to the overuse of mass tech. Clearly, this was a way better plot than "AI always rises up to kill its creator, so we're going to kill you first because reasons."

    Remember in ME2 when you recruit Tali? She's all on about how Haestrom's sun is dying prematurely and she can't tell why. The game makes a fairly big deal out of it to just drop it and never ever mention it again. That's because it was foreshadowing of the original ending.
     
  4. europeanguy

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    how about every tell tales games ever? left or right? doesn't matter the dude dies anyway. left or right? doesn't matter you do the same thing. left or right? doesn't matter, you agreed to steal it, but you were stopped by another npc. if you picked to not steal it, same outcome.


    its so dumb. it gives you the illusion of choice and then just has the same outcome no matter what
     
  5. Zoe Izumi

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    I knew about that, it just makes the "pick a color" ending worse.