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bradley13 [soylentnews.org] writes:

As a gamer, I regularly read reviews of new games coming out. One of the best sources for a quick overview is metacritic [metacritic.com], because you see an average score for the reviews in the media, as well as an average score (and usually good comments) from individual users. Usually, these are fairly close, although media reviews tend to be better - they are rarely overtly critical, even of poor games.

In any case, too many years ago I enjoyed the Baldur's Gate series, and an expansion has just been released: Siege of Dragonspear [metacritic.com]. On Metacritic, the only professional review so far gives a good score, while the majority of the user reviews give a score of 0 out of 10. WTF?

On investigation, it turns out that the producers have taken the opportunity to explicitly make some political points. For example, you encounter a cleric who insists on explaining her name to you, as in "my parents thought I was a boy, but...". Many gamers find this to be completely extraneous to the story - it's not the sort of thing a stranger normally tells you, nor something you want to hear from a stranger when you first meet. The players are offended and irritated at the crude way that a much-loved game franchise has been abused to make LGBT political points.

Amber Scott presents the side of the producers: "If there was something for the original Baldur’s Gate that just doesn’t mesh for modern day gamers like the sexism, [we tried to address that]," said writer Amber Scott. [kotaku.com] Elsewhere, she posts "I'm the writer and creator. I get to make decisions about who I write about and why. I don't like writing about straight/white/cis people all the time. ... I consciously add as much diversity as I can to my writing and I don't care if people think that's 'forced" or fake'" (emphasis mine).

Personal take: I haven't yet played the game myself, at least not yet. However, I sympathize with the reviewers, as I am also exhausted with in-your-face LGBT politics. I don't care what your sexuality is, unless we have some sort of very personal relationship. In Baldur's Gate, I'd rather hear more about "Boo the miniature giant space hamster" than about some NPC's struggle with their sexual identity.

Thoughts from the Soylentils?

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