You love BioWare. You hate BioWare. Fine. Should I criticize you for loving or hating BioWare? Should you criticize me for loving BioWare’s works?
You and I can indeed do that–if we remember to keep it civil and constructive. This past week, Jennifer Hepler, one of the senior writers for BioWare, has been verbally eviscerated on Twitter and in Reddit for an interview some six years back where she made the suggestion that we should be able to ‘fast-forward’ through battles just like we can use the spacebar to ‘fast-forward’ through dialogue.
Clearly worthy of battle. (1)
As a geeky mom who sometimes has to leave the keyboard suddenly to attend to a kid who just tumbled down the stairs and cut her head open, I thought this was a novel way to skip the stuff I don’t like as much in single-player RPGs (the fighting) to get to the stuff I really love, like the story and conversations. Now, mind you, I enjoy a good battle. Boss fights are fun. After playing an RPG once, however, I’ll mod the game, give myself the uber Armor of Invulnerability and Insta-Kill Weapon, and stomp the trash mobs to get to the stuff I think is far more entertaining—Sand’s witty dialogue in Neverwinter Nights 2, Jolee Bindo’s quips in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, or Zevran’s tips on sex and stabbing things in Dragon Age: Origins.
Jennifer dared to admit that not everyone likes fighting. She dared to offer a paradigm shift in thinking about game development. She dared to think of ways to make games more inclusive for women. She posted comments on a forum about this back in October 2006–a post so old that Gamespot had to use ‘Wayback Machine’ to locate it when they wrote an article on this issue.
Instead of considering these ideas and the audience to which these comments were directed, a gamer named corporateswine decided to write an inflammatory post on Reddit allegedly based on a fake post on 4chan a while back, stating playing gay Shepherd was better than straight, along with her 2006 comments. The title of the post accused her of being ‘a cancer that is killing BioWare.’ That was the least offensive portion of the entire diatribe, which a Reddit moderator finally removed. The Shepherd comments were false. Jennifer wasn’t even on the Mass Effect writing team. The 2006 comments were taken out of context to make it look like she hated gaming, despite her working for a gaming company.
Unfortunately, instead of checking facts for themselves, a number of readers believed this atrocious rubbish. The warning signs were all there that this was a trolling attempt–name calling, bad grammar, vitriolic comments, and the fact that the author couldn’t even spell Hepler’s name correctly. Apparently, the troll radar was turned off for some Reddit readers that day. They totally missed all the signals.
Worse, some of them not only replied in that Reddit thread in equally childish ways, but also started to tweet Jennifer with abominable attacks on her appearance, her gender, her sexual orientation, even suggesting ‘pig disgusting fetishes’. Some of the comments have involved vile and lewd suggestions. She’s received comments and allegedly emails that appear to border on threats. It is vicious. It is hurtful. It is evil. It needs to stop. NOW.
It’s one thing if you don’t like a BioWare game. It’s another thing entirely to blame one person for all its faults. It’s even worse when that person is publicly castigated for those faults–especially when that person may have had no involvement whatsoever with those problems. You don’t like the dialogue in part of a BioWare game? That may be the product of a particular writer. It may also reflect a team decision on where to go with the entire story arc–something the individual author can’t always control. Other issues work into how a story appears in game–your own choices in dialogue trees, time and game design constraints, production costs, coordinating with visual artists and the game coders. The end product involves far more than what one writer does with a portion of the story. We as gamers can’t see that part of things. We only see the end product. Sometimes it meets our expectations. Sometimes it falls short. Sometimes it exceeds our hopes in spectacular fashion, to our delight.
We fight the darkspawn. We don't become them. (2)
What should we as gamers do to provide feedback to game companies? First, this horrendous mud-slinging needs to stop. I don’t care how much you hate a game, no person deserves the kind of attacks Jennifer has had to endure recently. Second, critiques need to be constructive. When I read through the trash-heap of reddit comments and tweets, the thing that stood out the most was that very few actually took the time to offer solutions that BioWare could actually use. Calling someone a slut or bastard does absolutely nothing to improve their job skills. It does, however, do an outstanding job of turning the recipient off to any other useful criticism that person might have had sandwiched in between the heaps of expletives. If you want to help a developer, identify the problem, suggest possible solutions, and let them work with that. Tell them what they do right, too. Knowing what works well helps devs to know what features to keep in the future. As my grandma used to say, “If you don’t have anything useful to say, don’t say it.”
As customers, we feel that plunking down our hard-earned dollars to buy a game gives us a legal entitlement to criticize a game. It actually does not. It gives us the right to a license to play the game. Still, we do get invested in our favorite franchises and companies. There is some give-and-take between gaming companies and the players. If we’re responsible with our critiques, the developers can learn valuable insights from us that help in game production. That purchase price, however, never gives us the right to be abusive to anyone in the company.
BioWare announced it had donated $1,000 to Bullying Canada in her name. Frankly, I think BioWare should pursue legal action against anyone who has threatened Jennifer in any way or committed libelous acts. That kind of behavior cannot be brushed aside as ‘silly gamer talk’ or the actions of some immature players. If someone said those things to my face, I’d call the police to stop what would be a clear and present danger. It’s wrong. It’s hateful. It’s illegal.
To Jennifer and other BioWare developers: please don’t let the actions of some drive you away from the entire community. Not all of us are abusive. Some of us are even decent folks who accept responsibility for our actions and words. We want to be a part of enjoying your games and providing solid feedback so that your future games are ever more successful. We’re as passionate about playing BioWare games as you are about creating them. We hope you are safe and that this horrid event is over soon.
Image sources: (1) HistoricLOLs.com, (2) Bioware.com
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Amen !
Interesting article
The gaming community is plagued with this mean spirited, sexist, homophobic group of Asshats that will go to any lengths to see their myopic vision of how games should be preserved.
The SWTOR general forum is all but useless now because of them and for whatever reason no matter how many infractions they get they are still allowed to spew their hate and negativity.
Myself and my wife both want to see the gaming genre expand beyond the idiotic concept that all games have to be brutal to be fun; we cringe every time we hear “it’s toooo easyyyyyyy!!!” we know developers will cave to that just to keep their street cred with the hard-cores.
When people call me a gamer I cringe…yes I love video games of all forms, hell I even run a blog about TOR…but please don’t ever lump me in with this Lord of the flies group of fascist that delight in bullying others.
I truly wish that Bioware would look past playing the diplomat and actually start offering real consequences to those who insult and harass people who enjoy their games as well as their own employees. It is shameful to read some of the things that David, Ray and Georg are called and it is even worse to see a new player of a Bioware game get downtrodden by the constant hate and vitriol that is spewed in the community.
I feel sorry for Ms. Helper she did not deserve that treatment no human being does, but somehow developers and gamers say it’s okay because it is on the internet. I wonder which company will have the intestinal fortitude to say enough….”we will not provide the stage for you to harass our customers and employees.”
That day can’t come soon enough for me.
This event is only the tip of the iceberg and the result of a few vocal idiots actions that didn’t understand what the word minority stands for in “vocal minority”.
As a whole, gaming community can be wonderful one day and totally awful the next day, always because of a few who decide what they are thinking is the Holy Truth that should be known, they’ll just do anything in their means to pass their judgements on people. Sad thing is too many times it works and people let others think for themselves in following this ugly mob which previously formed in a succeeded troll attempt. This whole bandwagon effect is plaguing the current Internet and makes this new generation of educated web users look like a huge failure.
Finally, Internet is just a reflection of real life minus the anonymity, except that you’re meting way more people on the Internet and that’s maybe the cause of the problem, intelligence may start diluting when too many many people are gathering at the same spot, this or let’s start over and re-educate this crowd , I only hope it’s not too late.
So very well said. Amen to this.
I’ll go one further…It’s isn’t the gaming community, it’s the internet generation. The freedom to type WHATEVER you want with no consequence is just too much for some people to handle responsibly. I’m all for real-id. Put you’re real name and address out there and then see how brave you feel. It would fix 50% of the problems over night, 40% after several months, and the other 10% will get hacked to death and run out.
This!
If only it was possible to take away anonymity from the online space…
I wish you had been able to make your points without resorting to name calling of your own. That may be how you feel, that may be how I feel, but I do try to limit letting people hear the names I’d like to call them. It may be useless to try and set an example, probably is for certain types, but we can try. Sorry to come off preachy.
im not sexist and neither are most of the a+***es that spewed hateful comments on her twitter acc. if hepler wouldve been a black guy, they wouldve focused on that. its just about finding a way to hurt her, which is indeed very depraved behavior.
whats sad about those very few over-the-line comments is that they completely overshadowed the vast majority of comments, which were focused solely on criticising her work in an objective manner. and that is something you should expect when delivering something like the smuggler class story or the totally f**** up anders in dragon age 2. at the very least, you should be expected to deal with (sometimes mean) critizism when making a living with any kind of artform.
of course, swallowing the bait and engaging those few trolls (which both jennifer and that bioware gm did) certainly didnt help containing the situation.
If she were a black man & they had made racist comments to hurt her, the attack would have been racist.
Since she is a woman & they made sexist slurs to hurt her, the attack is sexist.
I agree that this behavior is not useful and should not continue.
However there seems to be negative reactions from people who then also ignore people who do offer constructive feedback. They then categorize anyone with an opinion is hurting the game, even if it is useful feedback.
The difference with ME and swtor is that swtor has a larger following and is designed to be an MMO and comes from an existing IP/franchise.
There are expectations.
If they say they are making a game for a lot of different players and then only end up making a game for a smaller group, that is basically deception and miadvertising to hype the game to make the most sales.
They slapped on PVP, and illum to get people primarily interested in pvp to buy their game with the attraction of SW story, and a high quality game. Then to be sorely dissapointed. The same could be said about MMO players coming to play a new hyped up MMO, but found it to be lacking.
Of course at the end of the day, it is a BW business decsion and people should just move on with their wallet, but it seems for swtor on the general/pvp forums, that people do have a point since they are a general MMO group that does not fit the niche group that BW actually made the game for. In essence swtor is barely an MMO. It has the mechanics that exist but just the mere existence does not bode well from something advertized as something much more with a very attractive IP, and also a group coming from SWG.
As for the negative comments, I am not sure why poeple would do that. I guess they are immature, or drunk while typing. Since in retrospect they take away the attention from the serious feedback people are giving about the game and how the VO, and story took most of the developement to the point that even a legacy system was not introduced, nor a crafting system that is useful at end game. Or a working tested Illum with more popular mechanics. Or more warzones. Or more mini games. Or more social activities. Or more guild mechanics in the game. etc…
There is a long list of systems that BW missed out on.
Sure other peopel are happy, but the problem is that it is SW, and people want to enjoy it. But for some reason there was a lack of development to release a game to make alting more attractive with a legacy system when the end game was lacking. Or when there were bugs being worked out as they usual are in any new MMO.
So hind sight 20/20, it would have been better for BW to make a game that offered more options incase there were bugs or issues in one of thier systems as there normally is, so atleast the pvpers can raid, which of course should not be even a consideration on a PVP server, but only 3 warzones and a broken Illum, means people will want to raid. However then there are issues with raiding… so that was a major problem with swtor end game.
In essence they limited thier end game, and only have alts, and raids as end game.
Thats the problem. And the issue is also the development plans of BW does not address other issues towards developing what people want, so they feel decieved for being lured, and then not hearing any plans for there wants as they were hyped to expect them in a AAA MMO.
@3nihS Why would people make abusive comments? Because they think they can get away with it.
Being drunk or immature is not an excuse for typing in hate and hitting the ‘enter’ key. I tell my kids “Sometimes your ‘inside voice needs to STAY inside’.” Just because we think it doesn’t mean we have to post it.
This kind of abuse doesn’t have to happen, it shouldn’t happen, and those who did that should be held accountable.
3nihS .. there may indeed be issues with the game – indeed, there are, but in all honesty, I think you’re missing a crucial point.
Players absolutely have a right to point out flaws, bugs, weird unfun systems, unfinished aspects of the game – they even have a right to say that they didn’t get a quality product point blank. They have a right to say they were mis-marketed, or believed too much in the hype, and the reality disappointed.
Players – no matter how much they paid, no matter how much they care, do not have an intrinsic right to rifle some poor woman’s personal life, spread lies and filth about her all over the internet, and make misogynistic comments about her. They simply have no right to simply do the internet equivalent of walking up to one of the developers and spitting in their face.
In my mind it’s not a matter of shrugging and wondering oh-why-would-humanity-do-such-a-thing – in my mind, that kind of rude behaviour only isn’t being physically SLAPPED DOWN with an open palm because it’s hiding behind a wall of anonymity and bystander indifference.
You can say all you want about Bioware’s game design decisions. Don’t be rude to the point of libel, defamation, and sexism, though. You have absolutely every right to the former and no right at all to the latter.
In other words.. I will simply say this. Do not blame the victim here. Are you seriously claiming in this day and age that this woman said this and thus, and therefore kinda was asking for it?
its in situations like this you wish that people could be held responsable for their actions online.
Idiots.
I agree this is out of order but i fibd it funny how people can comdemn this then turn around and call all gamers as
(fascist that delight in bullying others.)
realy dose show that your no better then these people you wont nothink to do with all it show is Generalization Bigotry to all gamers for the actions on a few.
Jett sums up the feelings of all decent gamers perfectly.
A pleasure to read, and I agree with every sentiment expressed.
@teQy: The over-the-line comments were not ‘few’ in number at all. They represented the majority of the comments I read, unfortunately. Her twitter feed is still getting spammed with nasty messages, even though it’s been shut down.
As for commenting on her work itself, all I saw was a lot of “I hate it, it’s blah” or “It’s mush”. Well, what exactly is ‘mush’ or ‘blah’? That’s hardly helpful.
If they’d said “I’d like Anders to have more/less sensitivity” or “I want to see more character development and deeper back story for the smuggler”, NOW we’re finally getting somewhere constructive. I saw almost none of that, however, and it was buried in the pile of steaming crap.
I have to say, though, that I think the smuggler story is a heck of a lot of fun. He has some of the best one-liners in the game.
Gaming communities are filled with a lot of mean spirited people who were more than likely abused themselves during school. Because of this they seem to think it is okay for them to do this online because no one knows who they are and no one can do a think to them. It’s terrible. I feel so awful for her.
I was bullied during school myself. While not pleasant, it doesn’t give me the right to bully others in return. We can be better than that.
I am only just now hearing about this, but they were complaining about the smuggler story? I loved it, they’re crazy!
I’m thoroughly enjoying it, too.
Dear Jae Onasi,
Firstly – you are correct that the mud slinging should stop.
Secondly we will have to agree to disagree on a statement you made in the article:
“As customers, we feel that plunking down our hard-earned dollars to buy a game gives us a legal entitlement to criticize a game. It actually does not.”
I respectfully disagree. And I would like to point our that this new information age we live in has a huge effect on whether a product lives or dies; on whether it does well or mediocre.
It is not illegal to pass our experiences/opinions around about a product/game so therefore it is legal.
Are we entitled to do so? May I argue that we are entitled to do so according to the United States Constitution?
Yes, I’m pulling our First Amendment rights ‘card’.
If we still have some degree of free speech in America (and I think we do) then we are all entitled to criticize a game.
I do agree with you though that abusive language is counter-productive and singling out one person can lead nowhere good.
Thank you for writing the article. I hope it makes people think about life beyond themselves. It really is okay to let someone else have a different point of view. The sky will not fall. The world will not end.
My statement: “As customers, we feel that plunking down our hard-earned dollars to buy a game gives us a legal entitlement to criticize a game. It actually does not.”
Cassandrap’s response: “I respectfully disagree. And I would like to point our that this new information age we live in has a huge effect on whether a product lives or dies; on whether it does well or mediocre.”
My comment is more directed at the ‘entitlement’ mentality that I’ve seen develop over the last years. The EULA we agree to after purchasing the game does not discuss the legal aspects of our ability to speak about a game, nor does it state that the company is required to respond to any of our ‘demands’.
However, let me be clear–it is not ILLEGAL to critique a game. I’m simply saying we don’t get a free pass on that simply because we bought it, nor should we ‘expect’ to necessarily get extra special kid-glove handling of our opinions because we handed over our money.
That being said, we do have a right to our opinions per First Amendment (at least in the US), until they become libelous/slanderous or slip into the assault realm. The legal people can render their opinions on this, but it looks to me like a number of the comments directed at Jennifer have strayed well into the illegal zone.
[quote]My comment is more directed at the ‘entitlement’ mentality that I’ve seen develop over the last years. [/quote]
This exactly is what I see is an issue with the modern gamer. The massive sense of entitlement coupled with unreasonable levels of expectation combined with the anonymity of the Internet has turned some modern gamers into asshats. It’s a wonder that writers and devs even make themselves available for interviews when things like this happen.
It’s a shame Blizzard never got to go through with their plan of making forum posters provide their RL ID on forum posts. If it went through, no doubt other companies would’ve followed.
I don’t think Real ID is the answer. People will still attack because it’s hard to get back at someone who’s on the other side of the world. There’s no guarantee that the information someone puts down on Real ID would be legitimate, either.
With all the concerns about identity theft and my kids’ security whenever hubby is away on military duty, I don’t use my real name on the net. I would not use Real ID for this reason.
I do agree that anonymity contributes to the general nastiness, however.
I don’t see why those people are hating on Jennifer Hepler so much.
I always thought Drew Karpyshyn was the waste of salary space, (anyone read the Darth Bane novels? How did those even get published??) but he’s gone now so no worries.
It’s one thing to critisize someones ideals and work, but it’s complitely another thing to go to on a witch hunt against someones person with this kind of bloodlust.
Even given that Hepler is somewhat a ‘celebrity’ being in publicity regarding her views and should expect to be critisized from her views just as anyone else, the personal attacks of this kind to ones person are outright wrong. I mean this is an angry lynch mob causing personal and direct grief to a person that only spoke her mind. Did she assault them personally (ad hominem), no she did not.
I don’t understand. Do some gamers actually enjoy being accused of being immature, antisocial gits? ‘Cause stuff like this is exactly what perpetuates ridiculous gaming stereotypes.
Regardless, this kind of behaviour is unacceptable and unjustifiable, and any reasonable person probably knows this. It’s a shame, though, that Jennifer had to suffer the brunt of the worst humanity has to offer. I feel really bad for her, and hope she’s not too discouraged by this.
Nice article. One of the cancers in our society is how easy it is for people to dupe others using social media. We are fed lies and people are too lazy to either logic them through, or check facts. It makes me sad. The other is how people can misuse their supposed anonymity to let out the nasty vicious part of their personalities. That makes me mad.
I think it is great that back in 2006 a writer was considering ways to make games more inclusive. I have read many articles about the untapped potential of women in the gaming industry both as customers and as developers. I think Bioware has seen a lot of success because they have done some smart things to tap into that potential. I had no interest at all in shooter games until I tried Mass Effect. I still have no interest in certain shooter games, but they were probably written to exclude my preferences in game play. I really want to see more women writing, developing, designing, brainstorming, and creating games. Maybe then we’d get a bit more realism in the femme fatales, as opposed to 3 inch spike heels and bikini armor…
I have no tolerance for the underlying prejudice that sparked this whole thing. I don’t care if no one can tell who you really are, it is no excuse for fabricating “facts” or being uncivilized. It is certainly no excuse for trying to push your gaming preferences as “the one true way.” I truly hope that this didn’t ruin the writer’s love of this industry and that she was able to shrug off the worst of the attacks. But no matter how much you can tell yourself you are seeing the worst and a minority view, I’m sure some of it has to wound, even just the stress of being in the midst of controversy.
It’s too bad people went so far as to personally attack her, but Dragon Age 2 was still a terrible game.
Great article Jae!
There are different types of criticisms. Not all criticism is meant to “slander” or “defame” a person. I don’t have to like anything a person says or writes, but the minute I start attacking the person, the criticism is no longer constructive because it is no longer about the work itself.
Regarding SWTOR, I don’t think any of us can know with 100% certainty which “line” or “story point” can be attributed to a specific writer. That said, if you want to make a critique about a particular line or plot point, I think that’s reasonable. Taking it out on someone will not change anything though.
In regards to entertainment, the best kind of criticism (in my view) is the kind of criticism which highlights what was done “right.” This type of criticism shows where the goals were achieved with a level of success. The result of this can be a discussion of what should further be explored and where to take things next to resolve issues or tension and to come out of the discussion with a more fundamental understanding about art and approach. And none of this has to be done by putting the author of the work on a pedestal.
I myself fall victim at times to criticism for the sake of criticism. It seems sometimes that if you have nothing “critical” to say about something then you aren’t a good critic. I think part of this is the fact that people who bash or create controversy online get the most attention – criticism for the sake of publicity. I think we can agree that is not “constructive.” But if we want to focus on how to effect the best “change” in something we have to offer up suggestions about alternative routes one might take or what theme needs more development. I think in the end that’s what makes something “constructive.”
One of the things I learned in Speech 101 in college was how to give critiques of classmates’ speeches. The prof made us write down 1 thing that was very good about the speech and 1 thing that needed improvement, and they had to be very specific, fixable items or things that we should continue to do. This included things like “Your projection was excellent”, “You did a good job moving away from the podium periodically,” or “You spoke very quickly, which made it harder to understand your enunciation.”
I’ve added some of that approach to child-rearing, on the theory that kids not only stop a behavior for which they’re disciplined, but also continue a behavior for which they are praised. We have a tough time knowing what things to keep doing if we get no feedback on what works.
“As customers, we feel that plunking down our hard-earned dollars to buy a game gives us a legal entitlement to criticize a game. It actually does not. It gives us the right to a license to play the game.”
Let’s move on, everybody. She’s decided there’s no such thing as free speech on the internet anymore. We don’t actually have the right to criticize anything anymore.
Would you please be so kind as to demarcate what other things can or cannot be said on the internet for us?
Hey, your reply didn’t get moderated, so we’re ok on the free speech here.
Please re-read what I wrote in that sentence, because I worded it specifically, and I think you missed my point. I said that a game purchase does not give us ‘legal entitlement’ to criticize. I did not say it was illegal to criticize, because it is not (at least in the US). There is a difference between something that is ‘legal’, something that is an ‘entitlement’, and something that is ‘not illegal’ The semantic is subtle but important.
Never did I say that we do not have the right to criticize anything, and your generalization creates quite a straw man.
Purchasing any game does not entitle us or afford us any extra rights. It especially does not give us the right to be malicious or defamatory.
In the case of the US, we have an implied legal entitlement to say whatever we want, provided it does not breach limitations established previously by the Supreme Court.
So yes. We have a legal entitlement to criticize ANYTHING.
Further, you don’t have to purchase a game to criticize it – otherwise how would game reviews for magazines or websites work? They get “special critic” licenses so they can criticize things?
People have the right to criticize anything they want, just as you have the right to not read their writings.
Purchasing the game _entitles_ us to nothing more than what is given to us in the EULA. We don’t get to be special snowflakes that BioWare _must_ listen to when we pay for the game. It certainly doesn’t entitle us to be asshats to the developers when we don’t like something.
Yes, we are allowed to criticize (purchaser or not) within the constraints of the law. Special entitlement with purchase, however? No. We’re not somehow ‘better’ just because we bought the game. You and I may agree to disagree at that point.
Is it wise for BioWare to listen to its customer base? Sure, if it wants to continue being successful. It does not _require_ them to listen to us, however–and I think that’s what many vocal critics expect, and then they get mad when BioWare doesn’t do what they’ve demanded. That’s an entitlement mentality that annoys me.
I think we all can agree that purchasing a game certainly doesn’t give us the right to defame or slander/commit libel, which happened in Jennifer’s case.
It’s people like that which cause guilds like mine to recruit selectively, use a private forum and look inwards to entertain ourselves, first and foremost, before we stick our heads out into the wider community. Rest assured, I think community rocks — when it works properly — but we are very, very wary of jerks and idiots like this.
The Internet is one of the greatest things ever created but it is one of the worst things ever created as well. It can let doctors diagnose illness from 1000s of kilometers away but also let’s little Johnny who is slamming down his 5th energy drink to hate on anyone he chooses.
I don’t think this woman should have been attacked the way she was but you’re not really helping the case of women who play video games with this article. Female gamers seem to fall into two groups. There’s the horrible ‘girl gamer’ who doesn’t want to be hit on and the equally horrible ‘mom gamer’ who wants games that don’t have to really be played, so they can take care of their children while they are “playing”.
If there is such a huge demand from women to make games that appeal to women the market will shift in that direction and there will be no need for some people to push it there. If the games aren’t being made then women will simply have to make these special female games.
Personally, as a 35 year old woman I like the games that exist now and don’t understand these demands for more ‘female friendly’ games.
I don’t think that ‘escape to skip boring combat’ is something that should be exclusive to females or ‘mom gamers’–as if that’s somehow a pejorative. Nor should it be required. Hepler was suggesting the _option_ to skip combat. She never advocated removing combat from RPGs and MMOs, nor do I.
The female gaming community is far, far more complex than the gross generalizations of ‘girl gamer’ and ‘mom gamer’. I don’t want to skip fighting trash mobs because I’m lazy or fear combat. I have a 1st Dan in Taekwondo, and I’ve been gaming since the Magnavox Odyssey, so I’m no stranger to combat in game and out. In fact, I adore good boss fights. However, I want to skip fighting trash mobs because I find them boring. Other people may not find those battles tedious, but I do.
There are any number of males who are just as busy as I am (I’m an eye doctor AND mom) who’d be just as happy to skip fighting trash mobs, too, because they don’t have a lot of time to game. Women are not the only ones with family or work demands–men have them, too.
More as a general question to all–why is it OK to have the _option_ to skip dialogue to get to the fighting, but not the _option_ to skip trash mob fighting to get to other aspects of the game? Why is fighting somehow ‘better’ than other parts of gameplay? It is a false premise to equate skipping combat as something ‘female’ or even ‘inferior gamer’.
This isn’t limited to a gender issue, either. I’m in a guild with 85 other aged 40+ gamers, and one of the big problems we face is hand arthritis. I have a very good mouse, but my hands ache after gaming for a long time. If I were able to skip fighting some of the trash mobs, I’d be able to make more progress on the days my hands are bad.
I have a friend who would love to do more gaming. However, her severe cerebral palsy doesn’t allow her enough hand dexterity to get more than a few mouse or keyboard clicks out at one time. She’d be someone who would benefit from skipping most of the combat not because she’s female, but because it would make the game more accessible to her.
Is there something inherently wrong with wanting to add optional features to a game to make it more user friendly and accessible to more people? Should we be flaming people who suggest that, or consider some of these ideas to broaden the customer base for games?
Regarding:
More as a general question to all–why is it OK to have the _option_ to skip dialogue to get to the fighting, but not the _option_ to skip trash mob fighting to get to other aspects of the game? Why is fighting somehow ‘better’ than other parts of gameplay? It is a false premise to equate skipping combat as something ‘female’ or even ‘inferior gamer’.
Stealth based characters are always able to skip trash, FYI.
That said, you should absolutely not be able to skip the _game_ portion of a game.
Combat is the standard core of a RPG. This is not the SIMS, this is a basically a modified virtual rendition of D&D. If that doesn’t suit your fancy, play something else.
Games are meant to be, and will always be, a challenge.
Is solitaire fun if you have access to the entire deck at will?
Is monopoly fun if you start with an extra 10k?
Is any RTS fun if you have the unlimited resources cheat?
Is any FPS fun in ‘god-mode’?
Is an RPG fun if it’s _just_ storyline?
NO.
‘Trash’ is in the game to gate progress. You are supposed to take time to get through the game, hone your skills, and get xp. If ‘trash’ becomes tedious, then it isn’t properly designed. In any classic console RPG the random mobs spawning on the overworld map can be equated to ‘trash’. You _can_ skip this with repel pots (or the like) but you _will_ be underpowered, and unable to progress further (unless you are really, really, good). Based on the remainder of your request, I doubt you want the game to get harder for you as you skip trash.
If you are unable to play due to a disability, then hey, that sucks, but lets not obliterate the challenge for the majority. Perhaps you should play something that you are physically able to? I’m not fit enough to climb Everest, should the mountain shrink, or perhaps I should be carried up and back? I’m not skilled enough to play in the NBA, perhaps they should adjust the rules in my favor?
There are _many_ gaming alternatives out there for individuals with physical and mental handicaps, that will offer them a compelling challenge, use what is accessible to you.
“If you are unable to play due to a disability, then hey, that sucks, but lets not obliterate the challenge for the majority.”–with that logic, dialogue, which is also an integral part of D&D-based RPGs, should NEVER be skippable, either. But it is.
I’m not in the least advocating ‘obliterating the challenge’ for the majority. If skipping combat is an option, it means it’s optional. People don’t have to spacebar through the combat if they don’t want to, just like we don’t have to spacebar through dialogue now if we don’t want to. Why is it OK to spacebar through the same dialogue you’ve seen a dozen times, but not spacebar through the same trash mob you’ve seen a dozen times in the same area when both are just as tedious?
Game companies do try to make games inclusive. Mt Everest and the NBA can not. Apples and oranges there, and Everest and the NBA are thus inapplicable to the argument
I think I figured out what they need to do to appease their narrative desires and the gaming side.
Add a difficulty of ‘Narrative’. In this mode space bar kills all enemies you target. Voila skipped combat. Adding it to the core game undermines the entire challenge/game aspect, and shouldn’t be done. No one will complain if it is a separate gameplay mode, they would rejoice.
RE: skipping dialogue. All you are skipping is the VO. I play with captions, because I prefer reading to listening, maybe I’m too oldschool. Hearing the VO drone on as I’ve already gone through the information is not progressing the story or narrative for me at all.
That’s pretty much what I was thinking. I like the idea of people being able to skip combat if they’re more into the “RP” than the “G.” There should just be a special difficulty setting to enable such a feature, since skipping combat has a rather dramatic effect on a game’s difficulty.
There are issues on both sides though.
She is the victim of the moba gaming culture, this is the de facto communication method used by a lot of people in that demographic.
It’s petty, it’s mean.
That said, the focus on the insults completely ignores that the vitriol is actually a result of how terrible her work is. It is subpar to Bioware standards, and needs stronger editorial review. Perhaps that is where Bioware is headed in it’s narrative though, to teen-heartthrob fanfic. If so, they will lose (and rightfully so) a large portion of their fanbase who cut our teeth on Baldur’s Gate, NWN, and the like.
The first part I’ll agree with. The way she was criticized is terrible.
I can’t speak to the quality of her work without knowing where the line is between what’s ‘exclusively hers’ and what’s ‘the entire writing team’s decisions’. We also don’t know what her parts of the story looked like before and after the editing process, so I’m not comfortable attributing all the problems to her writing exclusively. It might be lack of editing. It might be a too heavy-handed editing problem. That’s hard for us to tell.
There were substantial problems with DA2, to be sure–too short in comparison to other BioWare games, too ‘closed in’, not enough story/character depth for what we’ve come to expect from an excellent BioWare game. If she’s wholly responsible for lack of depth and complexity in the parts of character/story development for which she was responsible, then yes, she does deserve to have that criticized–constructively of course. If it’s partly the entire team’s fault (she had the characters developed, but BW couldn’t incorporate it all due to time or budget constraints, or the editors cut out a lot of her work, for instance), then the criticism should not be levelled entirely at her. It should instead be directed to the entire team.
In this case, I can be comfortable with saying ‘Anders needed more depth in his character to make him more interesting’ but not ‘Hepler sucked writing him’ (particularly since Gaider had written him for Awakenings and set the tone for the character in DA2). That critique can become more refined and specific if we learn more about how the writing/editing process went, but we may never know that part.
I say; Unleash the Gaider upon the horde. That man saves no words for his thoughts and I love his outspoken person (even if I don’t always agree with him).
This has nothing to do with SWTOR or Star Wars so why is this on your site? Have you guys turned into a personal gaming blog now?
Jennifer Hepler is a senior writer for TOR.
@Dan and The_Dark_Lord–exactly where I’m going with this thought. It takes nothing away from the game, but ADDS an option that allows more accessibility for those who need that. More options ideally equates to more players, which adds to game revenue, which hopefully translates to more games in the future.
We’ve already seen an explosion of games in Droids and iPhones. That’s brought my senior-aged parents into the gaming fold. I’ve introduced my dad to Rock Band through the Beatles Rock Band game, and he’s hooked. Now it’s not so big a step to bring him into the TOR gaming community to play with my kids, hubby, and me.
I believe the genre she is looking to recapture was called ‘graphic adventure game’, and was popularized with Myst.
I’m not sure that fits at all with what Bioware fans are expecting in a modern day ‘game’, and perhaps is why there is such a tumult over the statements made. It’s likely possible to do with the addition of a narrative gameplay mode that allowed for super easy combat.
I still wouldn’t call it a game though. Harumph.
One thing to remember is that she made those statements back in 2006–gaming’s changed somewhat in the last 6 years, and likely so has she.
Actually, Mass Effect 3 is already going to have a “Story Mode” with “minimal combat difficulty.” Not quite skipping combat entirely, but the goal seems to be the same. For the people who care less about the story aspects of the game than the combat, there will likewise be an “Action Mode” in which dialogue desponses are chosen automatically. “RPG Mode” will be the more typical experience with normal combat difficulty and the full dialogue system.
Wow…so many dumb people.
First lets start with the author of the post.
“She dared to…”
She didn’t dare to anything. We are not talking about MLK, she made a dumb comment about a dumb medium and years later (nothing on the internet ever goes away for good) someone took at pot shot at her for it. Right around the time a big, related, project of hers came out. Big surprise.
Pursue legal action? You know that it isn’t libel right?
If you replied back to me and said I was a horrible a**hole d-bag who blows farm animals for fun I couldn’t sue you. You can say what you want, you could even say something sexist.
I’m so tired of the people who keep feeding into this system. You know WHY they said f’ed up things? Because brain trusts like you give them attention, but if they don’t say something screwed up, you wont notice.
Saying things like “and it has to stop, NOW”. Look, they aren’t your kid (whom you apparently let wander on the stairs while you are too busy playing video games to be a parent), I’m not your kid, so cut the sh*t with the declarative statements, ok? You managed to lose ANY sympathy for your viewpoint VERY early on.
Block d-bags on twitter (which is a whole other conversation, I wish everyone on twitter got hounded non-stop, you are on a completely voluntary stage with little to no justification for being there, if it’s a hostile environment, good, go do something less meaningless with your time), filter email, move on.
There hasn’t been a person in the history of this planet that got popular enough for people they’ve never met to know their name that DIDN’T get more than one rash of undeserved sh*t.
People are jealous, people get attention by attacking popular things, etc. etc. etc. But usually, if ignored, they lose interest, and if not, there is still seldom anything you could or should do to them.
And you acting like the internet jumped her in the parking garage on her way home and raped her just makes BOTH sides of this conversation stupid. I seriously expected this to be physical attacks after the first paragraph, to my amused surprise it turns out it was just trolls.
Get a life, stop parenting the internet, and put a g*ddamned baby gate on your stairs…they aren’t supposed to bust their f*cking head open often enough to warrant a whole game mechanic being put into one of the most popular types of games. Jesus christ. At least give the poor kid a helmet.
“I’m so tired of the people who keep feeding into this system. You know WHY they said f’ed up things? Because brain trusts like you give them attention, but if they don’t say something screwed up, you wont notice.”
Well, at least you’re honest in why you post with the atitude you do I suppose. I will give you a little attention though just to address a few points.
The internet being what it is, ignoring a person on Twitter (and similar mediums) might stop you seeing their comments directly but words travel and can steal hurt. You have the natural human nature of wanting to set the record straight.
Expecting a certain level of basic courtesy is not “parenting the internet”. Although assumptions can be made about lack of the same in those who view it as.
To be the original comments that were pounced on by the trolls and twisted sounded like they could have sparked some very interesting debate on RPG’s and appealing to a wider audience. But people were more interested in attacking others than seeing the opportunity. Which also seems to be the trap you fell in to. Rather than seek a debate or to put your views across in a constructive manner you resort to personal attacks and trolling.
Greetings friends! And hello to embodiment of Jon Gabriel’s Greater Internet F*Wad Theory!
*ahem*
“She didn’t dare to anything. We are not talking about MLK, she made a dumb comment about a dumb medium and years later (nothing on the internet ever goes away for good) someone took at pot shot at her for it. Right around the time a big, related, project of hers came out. Big surprise.”
Indeed, because rational people should always instantly counter something they disagree with using harsh personal attacks that in no way whatsoever address the point initially made. Disagreement always justifies every attack ever made!
“Pursue legal action? You know that it isn’t libel right?”
It is if you’re making claims about someone that isn’t true. Except if you’re saying it, then it’s slander. Yes, she implied that some gamers enjoy playing games for the story. OMGWTFBBQ! NO WAI! You mean…people play games for different reasons? Get the heck out of here!
“If you replied back to me and said I was a horrible a**hole d-bag who blows farm animals for fun I couldn’t sue you. You can say what you want, you could even say something sexist.”
And in response, I could call you a life sucking scumbag who tarnishes the internet with nothing but feces filled rhetoric backed by ignorance. But that wouldn’t be very nice, would it? Nor would it cater to a proper intellectual discussion.
Fact of the matter is, if you were to resort to personal attacks against someone, they could very well bring you up on charges if they had your information. This is the Internet, bub, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution doesn’t apply here. It never has. Get used to it.
“I’m so tired of the people who keep feeding into this system. You know WHY they said f’ed up things? Because brain trusts like you give them attention, but if they don’t say something screwed up, you wont notice.”
My God, someone on the internet who talks about something they believe in! Burn them at the stake!
So by your analysis, who’s worse, the person who wrote the original article or the person who takes time out of their day to fill out a longwinded response stating their arguments counter to what’s said in the original article?
Frankly, I’m tired of brain trusts like you telling me what my brain trusts can’t tell me what to do. So there.
“Saying things like “and it has to stop, NOW”. Look, they aren’t your kid (whom you apparently let wander on the stairs while you are too busy playing video games to be a parent), I’m not your kid, so cut the sh*t with the declarative statements, ok? You managed to lose ANY sympathy for your viewpoint VERY early on.”
Yet again, I say, DEAR GOD! SOMEONE SAYING THEIR OPINION ON THE INTERNET! KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!
Are you new here? Are you someone who’s just uncovered this magical virtual land of happy and wonder? Or are you just angry because someone posted something counter to what you think?
“Block d-bags on twitter (which is a whole other conversation, I wish everyone on twitter got hounded non-stop, you are on a completely voluntary stage with little to no justification for being there, if it’s a hostile environment, good, go do something less meaningless with your time), filter email, move on.”
Indeed! I wish everyone got constantly harrassed wherever they went! That would teach them to exist!
And you’re responding to an article on a game site. Dude, if there’s anyone that has absolutely no place whatsoever calling other people out for wasting their time, it’s you.
“There hasn’t been a person in the history of this planet that got popular enough for people they’ve never met to know their name that DIDN’T get more than one rash of undeserved sh*t.”
I think we need to diagram this sentence…
There hasn’t been a person in the history of this planet…(okay)…that got popular enough for people they’ve never me to know their name…(One could defer that this sentence would be much easier said like this: When people get famous, even people they don’t know in real life knows everything about them)…that DIDN’T get more than one rash of undeserved sh*t…
Okay, so because you’re famous, you should expect to get some negative views pointed your way (y’know, if a real person had written that sentence).
True.
What you SHOULDN’T expect as a flipping HUMAN BEING is to have your very existence dragged through the mud as some sort of sin and affront to all good things. No one should EVER be the target of such nasty and douchebag actions as exhibited by these individuals.
“People are jealous, people get attention by attacking popular things, etc. etc. etc. But usually, if ignored, they lose interest, and if not, there is still seldom anything you could or should do to them.”
Yeah, I went through 8 years of school where teachers constantly said that.
You know what happened?
Nothing.
You know the way to stop people from pulling this sort of stuff?
Punch them in the face and tell them to leave you the heck alone.
Bullies are bullies. They need to be stopped. Not ignored, not pandered to. Stopped.
“And you acting like the internet jumped her in the parking garage on her way home and raped her just makes BOTH sides of this conversation stupid. I seriously expected this to be physical attacks after the first paragraph, to my amused surprise it turns out it was just trolls.”
I don’t know if you actually read the linked articles, but people were insulting her reproductive organs. That’s not trolling. That’s unwarranted personal attacks over a VIDEO GAME.
I can tell you’re the type of individual who’d see a fellow student being knocked around by a group of bullies and just shrug, saying, “They’re just playing.”
“Get a life, stop parenting the internet, and put a g*ddamned baby gate on your stairs…they aren’t supposed to bust their f*cking head open often enough to warrant a whole game mechanic being put into one of the most popular types of games. Jesus christ. At least give the poor kid a helmet.”
See previous statement about the irony of one such as yourself telling other people to get a life.
As for the rest, I’m tired of pointing out your various idiocies so I’m just going to say this:
If you don’t like what’s being done with a game, DON’T BUY THE FREAKING GAME.
My God, is it really so hard to just say, “I don’t agree with what this particular game company is doing, therefore I choose not to support them. However, I don’t see it as a reason to log onto their Twitters, e-mails or forums and liked like a whiny entitled baby and instead respond like a reasonable adult.”
But as you say, this is the Internet, anything goes.
And since anything goes, let me leave this long post with how I feel about people like you who seek to defend these sorts of actions with reasoning like, “the person deserved it.”
*ahem*
I’m gonna love and tolerate the sh*t out of you.
Game on and take care.
OK, readers, above in alcaron’s comments are a microcosm of what I said in my article was so problematic about the Hepler issue.
1. Taking portions of comments out of context
2. Making incorrect assumptions about some statements without checking with the source or finding out the correct details–assuming my kids are toddlers, for instance. Neither of my kids are toddlers–and we all slip down stairs now and then, even as adults. Further, It was an example of why I would _leave_ the keyboard suddenly, not stay at it.
3. Making ad hominems about me and my parenting skills based on these incorrect assumptions.
4. Not taking the time to go look up the definition of ‘libel’. I did not include the libelous comments made against Hepler because they were that awful. They did not need to be repeated.
Congratulations on being a perfect example of my points. I salute you with a golf clap.
Being able to skip Bioware Games’ combat sequences would be a godsend because all of the gameplay is so overwhelmingly unfun and snooze-inducing anyways. They hyped up The Old Republic to no end, hiring celebrity voice acting and endorsements in order to artificially pump up the game, and then most of the people who initially played it realized how mind-numbingly insipid and ill-thought out the combat and economy was and regretted spending their money on it.
[...] having to endure some very nasty attacks that were as bad, if not worse, than what BioWare’s Jennifer Hepler went through about a month [...]