Transgender Merc?

(CCP115) #21

It’s one thing to slap a small one sentence on Naders bio to point out she’s lesbian. I didn’t realise this till reading a second time.

But it’s an entirely different thing to build a character around being transgender. I don’t know if that’s what you’re saying, but it would be a lot better to, for example, release Aimee and have one sentence in her bio imply or subtly state that she’s trans.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti trans or anything, but sexual orientation is a minor detail, and should be considered as such in a videogame, unless of course that game is Persona 4 or something that tackles said issues.

If it were too big a deal, it could influence merc design, which I don’t personally want, as I want mercs based around gameplay and flow rather than sexual orientation. Also you’ll get extremists running around yelling “LGBT IS BAD” and I’m sure that a lot of us wouldn’t want that.

Man I feel like I’m treading on light ground here. Sorry if I offended anyone.

(ChinChill) #22

@extravagentBypass No no, that’s exactly what I’m asking for - just a line in a bio. Being trans doesn’t take up all your life, just as being gay doesn’t. Like, maybe before the bomb they lived as one gender and in the fallout after it was easy to get what they needed to live as who they wanted to be without links to who they were.

I don’t even know how you can weaponise being trans/gay anyway haha!

(Myreslia) #23

[quote=“ChinChill;56304”]@extravagentBypass No no, that’s exactly what I’m asking for - just a line in a bio. Being trans doesn’t take up all your life, just as being gay doesn’t. Like, maybe before the bomb they lived as one gender and in the fallout after it was easy to get what they needed to live as who they wanted to be without links to who they were.

I don’t even know how you can weaponise being trans/gay anyway haha! [/quote]

oh the images that brings to mind.

(coyLibrary) #24

Transgender characters in video games are just gimmicks to appease a certain audience, from what I’ve seen, they don’t play much of a role in the video game they are in.

(Koyotea) #25

I automatically dismiss anyone who uses the word “heteronormative” because guess what, heterosexuality is the norm. That’s how humanity has survived, everything else is a deviation of that norm. But that’s beside the point, if you’re a tumblrkin and want to pretend Aimee is transgender then go ahead, that’s what I do for Nader, to me she always has been and always will be straight. That’s why I say the back stories are completely pointless for this kind of game, when most people make up their own while playing. The fact that you want them to officially make one transgender proves that you’re trying to push an agenda.

(Conqelson) #26

I think this would be a great idea!

([Deleted User]) #27

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(fantasticAsteroid) #28

I think you’ve totally missed the point of everything that has been discussed, but okay. You can have your opinion about not wanting backstories, but I doubt they’ll get rid of them because one person is offended over diverse characters.

By the way, heteronormative is actually used in academic language. Perhaps you should educate yourself on it?

(Shinywindow) #29

I’d like to add that when game developers do make minority characters they’re usually overdone and harmfully stereotyped. I absolutely love how Nader’s sexuality was cleverly added into her bio (and maybe Spark’s other identity as Jeff too), and if it’s that simple to include an LGBT character (and have a greater response from fans than negative ones) then I don’t see why Dirty Bomb should just stop with Nader. They don’t even have to write anything personal in the character bios: maybe in the future characters could subtly mention something about themselves or another character in-game and the developers can just confirm any suspicions when asked by fans.

And just because something about a character wasn’t mentioned in any shape or form doesn’t mean it stops right there.

Take for instance some of the promo art.

Aura might not like being touched, dislike Fragger, or she’s not just interested in men. Fragger could be playfully posing or trying to come onto Aura and Vassili. And Vassili might have something going on with Fragger, not mind Fragger’s presence, or he just doesn’t care at all. Splash Damage knows how to put in a lot of personality into their characters, and they could also do this to show off more about the mercs rather than 100 words worth of text.

Dirty Bomb would be perfect to have all sorts of characters from different backgrounds! It’s not a high budget game with fleshed out characters and hundreds of pages worth of script; Dirty Bomb is a small competitive shooter aiming for a huge cast of playable characters similar to that of a fighting game or a moba. Agenda or not, people love stuff like this! If it works for big companies like Bioware, Bethesda, Volition, Gearbox Software, Rockstar, Naughty Dog, Atlus, Capcom, Ubisoft, High-Voltage Software, NetherRealm Studios, Valve, and many others, then Splash Damage is heading in the right direction, and they won’t stop just because of a few salty forum posts.

Oh, and Splash Damage never stated if a character we already know is transgender or not :wink:

(Fiktio) #30

A merc having transgender background would be interesting, but at the end that background shouldn’t be the strongest reason to create this new merc.
By this I mean that it’s super important to make balanced character that works in the game without becoming game breaking. The character shouldn’t get done just the sake of creating new merc. Also abilities should fit to the character and also to the game and let’s not forget suitable weapons as well!

Mercenaries background stories doesn’t have any impact to my gameplay.
Because Nader happens to be married with woman, it doesn’t make me play with Nader more or less. For me abilities, weapons and character personalities matters most.
I just love Phantom’s personality and love to listen his voice lines, but also his abilities and weapons makes me more interested about the character. Though I’m not that much into reading lores and stories behind these characters, so I don’t even care what is Phantom’s sexual orientation, it’s not important for me. Most important for me is how does the merc work.

If SP decides to create one merc that happens to be a transgender with interesting abilities and well working weapons, I will definitely play with this merc.
But if the merc turns out to be “useless extra merc”, then I would play with another merc instead.

Though after all creating transgender merc would be great, if the character in general is planned and created well. For me full combination matters more than what is the gender or sexuality of the merc.

(KattiValk) #31

Why does their sexuality even matter?

(bumbertyr) #32

because people are overly-sensitive

(D.C.V.) #33

Because we’re in 2015 and one’s sexuality is relevant at all times. I don’t even want to imagine what’s going to happen in the future.

Regarding the OP: note that the LGBT community is a very small percentage of the world’s population which means that in 20 mercs there is a only a chance to find a SINGLE LGBT individual. I wouldn’t want to see more.

([Deleted User]) #34

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(affableTricycle) #35

I dunno. Might be a bit too heavy. Considering how young Nader looks and that the game is set in Britain in 2020, Nader [quote=“D.C.V.;58109”][quote=“Incoming;57972”]Why does their sexuality even matter?[/quote]
Because we’re in 2015 and one’s sexuality is relevant at all times. I don’t even want to imagine what’s going to happen in the future.

Regarding the OP: note that the LGBT community is a very small percentage of the world’s population which means that in 20 mercs there is a only a chance to find a SINGLE LGBT individual. I wouldn’t want to see more.[/quote]

This game is set in London and there 10% of the mercs are black Americans. Real demography means nothing in this game.

(Koyotea) #36

Exactly!