Starfields is one of the biggest games of 2023 – but it’s joined other recent games like Baldurs Gate 3 in being boycotted by conservatives because of the way it interacts with gender.
It’s just hilarious to me that these snowflakes are so triggered (remember when they made fun of liberals for that?) by the mere option to change your pronouns that has absolutely zero impact on the game. You can entirely ignore the feature if you want.
Let them be angry and make fun of them when they do, they deserve the ridicule.
They still call liberals fragile snowflakes. Cognitive dissonance has never been an obstacle.
It’s practically a cliche at this point because it’s so true, but it’s always projection.
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Projection. Always.
I don’t mind being called a snowflake, snowflakes are fucking cool geometric nature crystals and each one is unique. It never fails to make me smirk though being essentially called thin-skinned by someone who is quite clearly exceptionally thin-skinned.
Everyone has to think like them. Everyone has to act like them. Any deviation from what they consider the norm is bad and evil and must be avoided.
You know that’s what they think about you and your pronouns being “forced” on them right? It’s hard to reconcile.
My dude, it is a menu bar that defaults to match the gender of the body type you chose, male or female, that you only have to touch if you want to change it. That’s not anything being “forced” on someone.
Yeah it’s ridiculous. That is that they think though. Idk how anyone reaches that conclusion.
Sorry, I misread your comment. Clearly, I need some food lol
Anyway, they get there from genuinely believing that having to accept that other kinds of people exist is it being forced on them. It’s why this type also complain about seeing Black people in fantasy - because to them, their escapism is getting away from all those other kinds of people, and having to acknowledge them for even a second ruins their immersion because it breaks their twisted fantasy.
All g an appropriate response. Idk. They are not bad or unreasonable people. They have been told that their way of life is being threatened and their children endangered and blah blah blah. They are hateful and ignorant, but in many ways they’re just normal people. I struggle to find ways to change minds on these issues
Then they get angry when you marry in-game and it doesn’t specifically say “Man and Woman”. They literally cannot ignore it. They need to be called a man, and they need their SO to be called a woman by a video game.
It’s all marketing.
Between this, BG3 having non-binary options and same sex romances, bud light, etc doing things to let others feel noticed - Conservatives are gonna have nothing left to enjoy from boycotting.
I’m ok with this.
I am too, but it turns out they’re trying to build a parallel economy and support only oppressive vendors and producers. They’ll start clawing their own eyes out when they’ve watched their thirty-seventh movie featuring only non-Woke performers like Gina Carano and Kevin Sorbo and they get tired of crying into their MyPillows.
The whole “parallel economy” thing is so bizarre, and reminds me that these are extraordinarily gullible and broken people.
I mean, they will gladly empty their pockets for grifters selling them shitty knockoffs at twice the price so they can feel like they’ve owned the libs. It’s absolutely bonkers.
And the things that appeal to them are so weird! “Try our 100% anti-vaccine protein bars! Crack open a cool can of gender-conforming piss beer! Nazis will feel at home on our completely unmoderated social media platform! Buy toilet paper with zero recycled content! These dick pills are abortion-free!”
Like, what the actual fuck is wrong with people that crap appeals to?
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Like, what the actual fuck is wrong with people that crap appeals to?
They’re frightened, desperate, and increasingly hateful.
But what they’re frightened of makes no sense! They’re frightened of funding for health care? They’re frightened of renewable energy? They’re frightened of vaccines? It’s insane!
They’re frightened of poverty and government control, which they have been brainwashed to associate with sane and progressive policies.
If the economic future of your town relies on the coal, oil, or gas industry, then anything that threatens to disrupt that industry is a threat to your future. Sure we could invest in public projects to educate and rehabilitate those losing their jobs to technological progress, but that would mean the big bad gubmint getting involved, and you’ve been taught by everyone you trust since childhood that the government doing anything is tantamount to the devil. The only option left is to fight tooth and nail against any and all progress.
These people are not insane, they’re acting perfectly logically in accordance to a flawed understanding of reality, an understanding which is in part manufactured by the ruling class to prevent the growth of leftist ideas. They’re not stupid, they’re ignorant, scared, desperate, misled, and yes, sometimes very bigotted. There’s a reason cults recruit outside hospitals, and the cult of 45 is no different.
Well stated
They’re frightened of everything the other commenter mentioned, but they forgot something: they’re frightened that, if “their team” loses power, they will get treated the way they’ve been treating “the other team” for ages. The grifters know they’re lying when they spew their shit, but their followers believe it because it’s what they’ve already done, just in reverse.
“Liberals want to destroy Christianity” is believable because xians have tried their damnedest for nearly 2 thousand years to destroy other religions. “The transgenders want to force all children to change gender” is believable because they’ve spent decades forcing children into their view of gender, and killing, torturing, or raping them if they don’t conform. “Gays want to outlaw heterosexual marriage” is believable because they outlawed gay marriage for ages. “Minorities want to force white people into labor camps” is believable because slavery.
They believe that everyone thinks exactly like them, and they can’t fathom that some people want everyone to be happy. They think we’re lying when we say that, putting on a front to lull them into a false sense of security just so we can pull the rug out from under them. Because it’s what they would do, given the opportunity. And they’re terrified of it being turned around on them.
Edit for clarity - and those other things, the vaccines, the healthcare, etc etc, may seem unrelated, but it all comes down to making sure “the other team” doesn’t get any “wins”. Because if “the other team” wins, that’s one step closer to their team losing, and one step closer to “the other team” being able to enact all those horrible policies against them instead of in their favor.
All true, and a deeply depressing way to live. They must be absolutely dominated by terror every minute of every day they’re awake.
It is projection all the way down, isn’t it?
Ohhh, don’t forget the freedom phone, the 150% overpriced Chinese spyware phone.
Oh jeez, I’d forgotten about that! How the fuck does anyone fall for it? It’s literally a Chinese spyware-infested piece of shit designed for idiots.
Please just fleece them for all they’re worth. They deserve it and will not do anything useful with the money
The parallel economy scam will die out soon enough. Companies run by foot-stomping toddlers and brazen grifters are doomed to fail.
Eventually, yes. Grifters will grift until each supplier is taken down for whatever ideological transgressions they commit.
See “My Pillow”. ;)
Must be exhausting being a conservative and being terrified of everything.
Its refreshing, actually.
Cause everything is someone elses fault, So you never have to have an ounce of self-reflection, so you never have to blame anything on your own deeds and behavior.
Even better, many of them die alone because they “disown” their family.
Funny how a game about fearing the unknown is being hated on by a group that fears the (relatively) unknown.
I don’t know, my parents managed for years. Nice being an adult and getting Halloween. Maybe you are right that it is exhausting they just get used to being in a continuous state of it. Like a pack a day smoker vs someone who has never smoked. One can handle nicotine levels that could kill another.
Great metaphor! In both cases personal decisions lead to a shorter life span.
Not fair to lump all conservatives into one group. That’s like saying liberals and leftist are all the same when they’re clearly not.
PS: I’m center-right and I fucking love Starfield!!!
Self-reflection is indeed a problem for conservatives.
The group of “it wasn’t a problem until it happened to me”.
You might be right it isn’t fair to lump all conservatives together.
Considering the amount of blatant misinformation acceptance required to be a Republican these days I think it’s pretty fair to lump all Republicans together.
The issue is that Republicans have historically represented conservative viewpoints, so they are spoken of synonymously. The Republican party is so distorted that it is arguably no longer conservative in any recognizable way, but because it used to be the conservative party (and because they still claim to be conservative) you get a lot of people considering them the same.
Why do you assume a centre right person is an American Republican? Other countries exist with their own political landscapes.
I’m not assuming that. I’m giving this person a possible reason that people who identify as conservative get lumped together in online discourse, despite the fact that they probably don’t deserve to be lumped together.
Although if I’m being honest this overall topic is about “conservatives boycotting Starfield over pronoun usage”, which I think does give the entire conversation a bit of a US slant. Again, my comment in no way made any assumptions about this user, just trying to give some explanation of why things end up discussed the way they are. But even if I did make that assumption I think given the other context of the thread I could be forgiven. Unless there are idiots in other countries getting their panties in a bunch over pronoun usage as well, which I sincerely hope there are not.
Well, the bloke who kicked the whole thing off on stream was British and unfortunately we have right wing wankers here too.
Sigh. Well I’m sorry to hear that.
Do you vote for Republicans? Yes? Then at this point you support conservatism 100%. There’s no room for gradients because of how our political parties are structured. So if you’re “center” right, you’re just a conservative trying to hide behind another name.
Oh I really doubt many are boycotting it, just poking the anthills that are their fanbases and communities to keep them engaged
They either own and play the game and tell people that they boycott it or never had any intention of playing the game and that’s their boycott
Honestly, The Gamers are famous for screaming from the rafters they’re going to boycott a game, then get it day one.
Even the FUCKING PRONOUNS dude kept playing after he finished his hissy fit.
Tale as old as time.
It’s a symbiotic relationship.
The (game, tv, movie, …) studio gets free advertising, the people protesting get to advertise their cause.
It’s not always the far right either.
True, but to my limited recollection it’s the right losing their minds more frequently. See Gamergate .
Yeah, but that’s fascists for you. Different can, same sausage. To quote Orwell on Hitler:
It is a pathetic, dog-like face, the face of a man suffering under intolerable wrongs. In a rather more manly way it reproduces the expression of innumerable pictures of Christ crucified, and there is little doubt that that is how Hitler sees himself. The initial, personal cause of his grievance against the universe can only be guessed at; but at any rate the grievance is here. He is the martyr, the victim, Prometheus chained to the rock, the self-sacrificing hero who fights single-handed against impossible odds. If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon.
Reminder that every decade, conservatives whined about something fucking stupid.
2020s. Pronouns. Trans. Blue hair?
2010s. Gay marriage.
2000s. Gay representation on TV.
90s. Video games. Rap music.
80s. D&D. Gay people existing.
70s. Rock music. And interracial marriage?
60s. Hippy culture. Being antiwar.
50s. Fucking hips shaking on TV?
You forgot “children being taught evolution”, that was a pretty big one. Also birth control pills, which many of them are still fuming over.
You can also keep going back to when they were insisting radio would rot children’s brains or even further back to when they opposed electrification.
But at least electricity can kill you. Modern reactionaries take entitled whining to a whole new level, growing physically violent because there’s people out there who are unhappy with the genitals they were born with.
I guess we’ll never understand the horror of having an extra checkbox in a character creator that they have to look at (but not click, since it’s already what they want by default).
Anyway, fuck em. They can either accept that society is going to treat minorities with basic human decency or they can stare at the wall for 8 hours a day waiting for new far-right approved content. It’s their live to piss away.
Scopes has entered the chat
every decade conservatives whined about something
And by the following decade they had been proven to be not just wrong, but actively impeding basic human decency
Every. Single. Time!
On a long enough time frame … we win. Every time.
Not only do we win every time, but the people who fought us will pretend they were always on our side when we do.
Beau of the Fifth column on YouTube has an interesting viewpoint. Today’s conservatives are yesterday’s progressives who refused to change over time. People don’t get more conservative as they age … the Overton window shifts left and leaves them behind.
the Overton window shifts
That’s how you end up with Bill Maher, who prides himself on his liberal bona fides, is sure that the changes he fought for needed to happen but also that this new generation just goes too far, and completely fails to see that the people he fought against in the 60s and 70s followed the same process as him and ended up in the same place as him.
As someone who just turned 43, I find this quite interesting and relatable.
I mean, if anything I’m getting actively more leftist as I get older, but I do find myself nonplussed when it comes to gender identity and such. Not to the point where I’m against it, obviously, but I do have to work harder to try to understand people who aren’t in my immediate field of experience. If I was less invested in trying then I can imagine that I’d end up being one of those grumpy old pricks who used to be with it before they changed what it was. But ultimately the attitude I take is that how younger people want to present themselves to the world has absolutely fuck all to do with me, and as long as they’re trying to make themselves happy then all power to them.
On an entirely different level, it’s like bitching that all modern pop music sucks. The music doesn’t (generally) suck, you’re just not the target any more.
People don’t get more conservative as they age … the Overton window shifts left and leaves them behind.
aka “Cant wait until you’re dead”.
The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.
Conservatives have been on the wrong side of every major societal improvement, every major argument, on every major thing.
Religion thrives the most when people are ashamed of what they like.
Maybe swap “gay people existing” for “gay people dying in droves while the government ignored it”
90s. Video games. Rap music.
80s. D&D. Gay people existing.
70s. Rock music. And interracial marriage?
60s. Hippy culture. Being antiwar.
50s. Fucking hips shaking on TV?
Both sides were against all of that in those times, you’re clearly young.
The comment had said “conservatives” which is true. Only recently did Democrats start leaning more towards progressivism, and even then they are still mostly a Centrist party
It actually started with the Southern Strategy in the 70s when the Repuvlican party decided to be the party of white resentment. There was a great reshuffling after that into right/ progressive.
I mean right, I’m just saying that the general political landscape didn’t flip overnight on some evening in 1976 or whatever. It was a slow shift over the back quarter of the last century culminating in our more modern party structure.
Conservatives still exist on the Democratic side of the aisle today, but there’s less of them than 5 years ago and that was less than 10 years ago etc etc.
I’m clearly young at 40 years old.
“you can’t help shovel your dogshit fucking crap ideology into everything.” he froths, while shovelling his dogshit fucking crap ideology into everything. What a weapons-grade bellend.
Baldur’s Gate over here wiping its tears with hundred dollar bills
I’ve put in a hundred hours and counting, and I have yet to figure out what pronouns they’re screeching about. It may have been such an inconsequential thing at character creation that most people have completely forgot about it lmao
The diversity is done quite well too. It’s never grabbed my attention for more than a second of going “neat, they’re black/wearing dreads/gay” and then right back into it. I found it more jarring when I had an unexpected dialogue with Shadowheart giving her a flower.
It’s the fact that gay characters exist and the fact that you can roll a transgender character if you want.
I wish conservatives would just say the quiet part out loud and stop insulting everyone’s intelligence. Own your bigotry. Don’t be a wuss. Oh wait. It generally has to do with pre-emptively distracting from obvious predelictions towards pedophilia. Nevermind then.
They won’t go mask off again.
Rebranding neo-nazis as “alt right” allowed them to ride a wave of plausible deniability onto platforms they’d never dreamed of.
When they triumphantly revealed themselves at Unite the Right, they lost a huge amount of that ground.
So now they never admit it, no matter how obvious they’re being. They will remain unnameable.
Call them bigots and they’ll tell you you can’t or else you’re a bigot yourself. 100% projection and deflection, every time.
Super weird, because after 20 some odd hours in, I can’t remember pronouns even coming up outside the creation screen.
It comes up any time an NPC refers to your player to another NPC, and there are quite a bit of multi-NPC dialogues in the bigger quest lines. But I mean, how likely are you gonna remember or think about every instance they say “he” or “she” or “them?” For most people, this is so insignificant that it’s almost like you didn’t even have the choice; but for those that hearing their preferred pronouns is uncommon IRL, it would be very apparent and likely very uplifting to be validated.
Its especially innocuous if you choose the pronoun on the character screen that you’re are used to using. Or just leave it at default, which is cis gendered. You have to really go out of your way to make this weird.
Most of the time they are talking to me, not about me. So it’s a lot of "you"s.
That’s kind of my question about specifying pronouns in general. I know it’s very important to trans and nb people, but referring to people in the third person while they’re present doesn’t happen very often in my experience.
“You dusty rook ranger rengade.”
While true, it is not like those NPCs are suddenly going to call you “them” after you chose “she” during character creation.
It comes up every so often in battle. You will hear the enemies, both on a planet and in space yell something to the effect of “someone stop him/her/them”. It is so quick you can easily miss it.
Really the outrage is probably nothing more than click bait. Like a video made the rounds shortly after it came out of some guy yelling for 2-3 minutes about pronouns.
“Did those pirates just assume my gender? And were right?!”
Lol go ahead, others will enjoy the games while conservatives throw their hissy fits.
Lol I cannot express how little I care about which random thing our reactionary hyperconservatives have decided they need to boycott this week
Good, no one wants them around anyway.
Their loss. Who cares?
Makes the game sound even better to me!!
I don’t know if anyone knows this, but the Steam forum moderators are pretty far right as well. I’m currently banned for mentioning Nexus mods, in a 100 page thread about the site itself. The conservative attacking pronouns and free speech, are not banned. You can find plenty of threads with conservative alt-right talking points about pronouns and anti-transgenderism, including insulting and degrading behavior. These threads stay up. Meanwhile, myself and others who defend trans activism, are banned. I appealed the ban, and get no replies from any moderator over multiple days. It’s fucking disgusting how the site is being moderated. I’ll post the ban reason and what I said, below:
“Nexus only bans mods made for bigots They don’t want to support any content that promotes bigotry and allows people to pretend certain marginalized groups don’t exist. Trans people are part of the game, and anyone trying to erase them is acting on bigotry. You are perfectly free to mod the game yourself or get the mod elsewhere. You just can’t get it from nexus mods.”
Ban Reason: This post contains material that promotes software piracy. cheats, or exploits. This type of content is not allowed on the Steam Community.
Fortunately you’ve got this left wing echo chamber to vent in for solidarity.
I’m with you comrade 🫡
Thanks, mate. I’m still pissed. Can’t do anything but, like, fuck them and fuck the system. Stupid conservatives arguing their free speech is so absolute they should be able to take over Nexus mods and FORCE them to publish the bigot mods. They hit me with the “I may disagree with what you say, but at least I’d defend to the death, your right to say it,” then cheered when I was banned. They’re so fucking thickheaded.
Is this a surprise? Many gamers unironically use the PCMR term. We all know where master race idea came from. Even those that use it ironically often reveal themselves when talking about BLM etc.
I’m honestly really pleasantly surprised that Nexus Mods are willing to take this fight head on. That they are willing to tell these potential customers to sod off, and that they have the tact and understanding to tell the difference between a superficially benign mod with a malicious purpose like this, and the many vulgar mods that they do allow on the site. (Shout out to Schlongs of Skyrim, you magnificent beast)
Gamers, in the general, being the worst people I don’t have high expectations from gaming companies but it all seems to be moving slowly in the right direction, even as gamers gnash their teeth and waddle their fingers.
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Unfortunately, the far right has deeply inflated and influenced make gaming culture, particularly since Steve Bannon weapon’s then for Trump’s original election campaign.
Steam administration as well.
When Twatter finally dies the media is going to have to work that much harder to find the one guy somewhere who is outraged by something. I wonder if we are going to see a return of the Midwest Safaris, complete with interviews with retired folks in small town diners.
