Archaon

http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/mods/816

What struggle? Pick blue. All blue, all the time, blue is always the good option and everything works out nicely. The only reason to ever pick red is if you feel like being a jerk. Most players will just go Paragon and stick with it except maybe to punch that reporter, or go Renegade and stick with it except maybe to give Tali a hug. The sides aren't even in opposition. You just deal with situations however you want, knowing that blue means happy ending and red means asshole ending where someone probably dies. That's not a struggle.

I think it's the tone shift that people object to. "The Giver" is not a space opera. The protagonist is not a supreme badass who overcomes seemingly insurmountable problems time and time again. It's a bleak, dystopian novel created to challenge the idea that ignorance is bliss. Nobody would read a book like that and expect a concrete, happy ending. Mass Effect was pure Hollywood sci-fi until the lead writer played the Deus Ex games and thought "Holy shit, I need to get in on this." Naturally, people felt cheated. Imagine being back in 1983, seeing Return of the Jedi. You've been following the series since the first movie six years ago, and the wait has been agonising. Then, just as the Death Star is about to be destroyed once and for all, suddenly it transitions into the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey. While the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey may be good, it only works at the end of a movie like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Which is not to say that ME3's ending wasn't bad for many other reasons.

Tekken 1/2 - Almost Frozen The Wiz - Emerald City

Bioware employees are being awfully cryptic on Twitter. Seems they have something in the works. Who's betting on "buy the real ending" DLC? On the other hand, if this is all leading up some masterstroke revelation that explains why we saw the stupid ending and gives us a decent conclusion without any retcons and we don't have to pay for it and they can prove that they'd planned it all from the beginning, I might just be willing to forget that Dragon Age 2 happened. Tall order, though.

You know, as much as people are harping on about the "Three choices" part of the ending, I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the lead-up as well. Going around and having one last conversation with your teammates was good, but that was about it. I spent the whole game building up this massive army and I was expecting to see them kick some ass, but there's no real payoff. I was hoping for something more like ME2, where you get to see how well the mission goes based on the decisions you made. Show me those intelligent geth primes wrecking some shit. Show me the Migrant Fleet bombing a reaper to oblivion. I got the STG on my side, so how about having them scout ahead and disable that anti-air gun for me? SHOW ME THE RACHNI. YOU'VE BEEN BUILDING UP MY DECISION TO SPARE THE QUEEN FOR FIVE YEARS, ONLY TO REDUCE THEM TO YET ANOTHER UNSEEN WAR ASSET. WHY AM I NOT SITTING IN AWE AS THEY SLAUGHTER A MILLION HUSKS. I don't expect to see every single little thing, but Christ, at least give me some hint that my most significant allies are doing something. The charge for the Citadel and the final confrontation were both great, though.

Even if that's true, just because an ending is perfect for setting up a sequel doesn't mean it's a good ending. Hell, they could have put the pieces in place for a "clean slate" MMO by saying "And then the Crucible turned everyone into elves and dwarves and transported them to an alternate dimension resembling medieval England", but it still would have been ridiculous. And I'd still have preferred it because at least it would have been entertainingly ridiculous and contained fewer plotholes than what actually happened.

WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS.

Yeah, sorry, the ending is pretty much five minutes of "Are you fucking kidding me." Even if you liked where they went with it thematically, it still provides no closure at all and invalidates everything you accomplished.

Bloody hell, some of the Renegade moments in this game are brutal. Anyone not playing Paragon had better brace themselves. If you thought you were being an asshole before, wow. Props to Bioware for pulling off some hard-hitting scenes and making you feel those big decisions.

You need to change your avatar. I seriously spent like half an hour thinking you were Bleck and wondering since when the fucking hell Bleck uses emoticons, especially that emoticon. It was awful. Oh and nice thread I suppose, I love radios and shows!

"Over the top" doesn't necessitate T&A. You can still have flashy, memorable outfits without them having to be sexy. I would argue that it's actually counterproductive to do that because it makes every female character look the goddamned same. Look at the male characters. Look at the variety. You've got Shang Tsung in his mystical sorcerer duds going up against Stryker, who wears a police uniform. Put Raiden next to Jax. Kano next to Kung Lao. You'd never get these guys mixed up. They're all vibrant and unique. Even the ninjas, who used to be straight-up palette swaps, have had some effort put in to make them look different from one another. Smoke and Reptile aren't just grey and green versions of Scorpion anymore. Now look at the ladies. You've got four women in different-coloured lingerie, and Sonya. And, like I said, Sonya still has her cleavage on full display. Why not give her some combat fatigues? A military uniform? None of the other characters dress like that, so she'd look the part for what she does and be distinct and recognisable. The only woman who really breaks the mould is Sheeva, and even she wears next to nothing. Although I can kind of forgive that because so does Goro, and I don't get the feeling that she's meant to be sexy.

You know, Mileena could have been alright the way she was. Yes, she's wearing skimpy, impractical clothing, but she's doing it to compensate for her sharkface. Her whole schtick is that she appears to be this gorgeous, seductive woman until the veil comes off and then oh god she's eating my head. Her clothing is part of her character (insofar as anyone in Mortal kombat has a character) and it would be diminished without it. The problem is that every woman in the game is dressed much the same way. The only one not wearing lingerie is Sonya, and even then she gets a vest to show off cleavage/midriff and skintight trousers. If the other women actually covered themselves, Mileena's design would have had more impact. Hell, even if just Kitana and Jade were dressed more conservatively it would have worked better, but nope, gotta see them titties. As always, the problem is not a woman in a bikini; the problem is every woman in a bikini. I also want to point out that this doesn't mean you can throw in a footnote about why a character dresses like Mileena and consider it justified. If it's an important part of her character or otherwise relevant to the story, fine. If you just say "The outfit is magic and it protects her" or something, and this is never addressed or even mentioned again, you have a problem. And if every female character in your game just happens to have a good reason to dress like Mileena, you still have a problem. Unless that reason is parody. And even then, it had better be a good parody. Is that a joke? Because if it's not a joke, I'm going to assume that "sleeping around" means "cheating on her boyfriend/husband". And if it doesn't mean that then I don't know what to tell you. EDIT: Actually, I do know what to tell you. Women having sex with lots of people is not a bad thing either. Unless it's a violation of trust in an already existing relationship. And even then, that just makes her dishonest, not "slutty".

Perhaps I should have just said "Don't call women sluts." There is nothing wrong with a woman being sexually forward.

How about we don't base the value of a person on their appearance and also don't call women sluts because they're showing skin, thanks.

You say this like it should clearly be a rhetorical question, but between people who don't notice anything wrong with women's portrayal in games, people who notice the discrepancy but don't consider it a sexist issue, people who think the treatment women receive in gaming communities is all just harmless fun and people who flat out don't understand what sexism is, there are actually plenty of people "in their right mind" who wouldn't think so. That's kind of a big part of the problem.

Well folks, pack it in. Legion303 has acknowledged that sexism exists in games. Mission accomplished!

For the record, I'm also not saying that door-holding is some pressing issue that needs to be dealt with RIGHT NOW. It was just an example. However, if I did meet someone who held doors open for women and only women, I'd still point out that it was sexist. Not because I think it's eeeevillll, but because it shows that the person believes, on some level, that women are "others", that they need to be treated differently, and it might be worthwhile to reflect on why they think that. You can. I'm not saying you shouldn't. I'm just saying "Don't act like they're equivalent or that they negate one another."

This is just the "But there are bigger problems!" argument again. "Trivial" sexism is still sexism.

Arguably, but again, how do you plan to silence the racists/sexists? Are we supposed to just go up to them and say "Look guys, we're not going to complain about sexism anymore, so you guys have to stop being sexist, it's only fair"? That wouldn't work even if it were a simple "us vs. them" scenario, which it isn't. Prejudice is everywhere. It's in "them", it's in "us", it's in you. Ignoring it just allows it to fester.

Anyone who would call someone else a "douchebag" for holding doors open for women is being hyperbolic. The thing to understand is that doing a sexist thing doesn't automatically make you a terrible person, because mostly, people just don't realise that it's sexist. People rarely say "This is sexist and I don't give a fuck!". However, they often say "But this isn't sexist!" when it is. That's what's so insidious about it. That's why you have to point it out. Doubtful, but even if we accept this as true, the problem is that it requires the actual racists and sexists to shut up as well, not just the people who complain about racism. Otherwise the bigoted get free reign, nobody's speaking out against them, and all the social progress we've made goes to shit.

This kind of ties into what I was saying earlier, because more often than not, when people say "But men are stereotyped/objectified too", they're suggesting that that does, in fact, make everything hunky-dory. That's why they get shouted at. It's not that these stereotypes should be ignored entirely, but we need to accept that they aren't nearly as prominent and don't have as big of an effect. Let's be honest, men haven't exactly got the short end of the stick in society. Most of us will hardly have to deal with sexism in our lives, if at all. Women do, every day. Sometimes it's overt, sometimes it's subtle, but it's always there. EDIT: And to Irish, don't hotlink to Creative Uncut because it doesn't work, and don't hotlink in general because don't be a jerk.

With society the way it is, yeah, everyone's probably at least a tiny bit sexist, or racist, or homophobic or whatever. The question is, do you make the effort to change that part of yourself? If you do, congratulations! You are not an asshole! EDIT: At least not in that particular area of life. If you go around throwing bricks at people you should still probably stop, even if it's completely indiscriminate.

It's not, but here's the thing. Every time this issue comes up, people will always say "Yeah, but men are objectified too! Look at all these buff rugged etc. etc." as if that balances out all the boobladies in bikini plate. The problem is that both of these things are oriented towards men, so people are trying to claim sexual equality where there is none. It's not sexist to enjoy a power fantasy of being a space marine or whatever, but the fact that these space marines exist does not excuse how women are portrayed.