Chinese Room calls CDProjekt Red sexist over promo image for new game.

[Contrabardus]

Presumably because they're jealous they actually know how to make games that aren't boring and don't suck.

So many Keks.


Seriously, CD Projekt's games are anything but sexist. Geralt is not Duke Nukem and the female characters get some of the best character development outside of him in the game. Just because a game features nudity and sex does not make it misogynistic by default. In fact, the reason he gets laid in the game is because he's -not- a misogynistic tool to these women.

"Fuck you Chinese Room" - Ciri

 

[Altered Nova]

Well, the first game had those iffy "sex cards" of all the women Geralt beds, which inadvertently encouraged a 'gotta-fuck-em-all' mindset for gamers who like to shoot for 100% completion. And the fact that he can bed the majority of the women he meets is obviously a hetero-male wish fulfillment fantasy, but I'm not sure if that qualifies as sexist. But aside from those two issues, yeah, the Witcher games are some of the better modern games around when it comes to the portrayal of women.

 

[Contrabardus]

Well, the first game had those iffy "sex cards" of all the women Geralt beds, which inadvertently encouraged a 'gotta-fuck-em-all' mindset for gamers who like to shoot for 100% completion. And the fact that he can bed the majority of the women he meets is obviously a hetero-male wish fulfillment fantasy, but I'm not sure if that qualifies as sexist. But aside from those two issues, yeah, the Witcher games are some of the better modern games around when it comes to the portrayal of women.

You could honestly say the same of any game that includes multiple bedable characters. Mass Effect gave rise to the same mentality, but that's not an issue from the game design side of things. It wasn't the point of the game, and it wasn't as simple as selecting an option in a menu. You actually had to be appealing to them through actions and conversation options throughout.

Duke Nukem is misogyny. That's part of the joke actually, the absurdity of his behavior in that regard. It's parodying it and somewhat tongue in cheek about it because of the sorts of media it's making fun of. God of War is another overtly misogynistic game, but you're not playing as a nice person, and being an unpleasant and barbaric asshole is kind of the point.

Mass Effect and Witcher aren't, despite having very strong sexuality in the games. If you're a misogynistic dick, you don't get laid. You actually have to appeal to the women to manage to get the sex scenes. It's more work in Mass Effect than Witcher, but it's not as simple as walking up and selecting 'do me' from a menu or handing them money in a contextual action.

Sexuality in games =/= sexism. Though, many are too stupid to know the difference, and base their entire opinions and arguments on screenshots of dirty stuff instead of actually seeing any of it in context by actually playing the game.

 

[OniGanon]

Who is Chinese Room and why should I care what they think? Moreover, are they actually Chinese? Because if not, that name seems kinda racist.

The image seems to be a model posing as reference for 3D modelers to work with. So... how much does it even matter what she looks like?

If this is a BTS shot of the trailer from 3 years ago, the woman in the trailer wore a tube top with less cleavage shown than in this image.

 

[Contrabardus]

Who is Chinese Room and why should I care what they think? Moreover, are they actually Chinese? Because if not, that name seems kinda racist.

The image seems to be a model posing as reference for 3D modelers to work with. So... how much does it even matter what she looks like?

If this is a BTS shot of the trailer from 3 years ago, the woman in the trailer wore a tube top with less cleavage shown than in this image.

They make walking simulators. Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to Rapture are two of their games.

Basically narrative "games" that you simply wander about looking at scenery and occasionally interact with objects to drive the narrative along. There usually aren't any NPCs or enemies of any sort involved. It's sort of like old school puzzle based adventure games, but without puzzles. It's something more like watching a movie or reading a pulp novel than playing a game. Basically a virtual diorama that you wander around in and explore, paths are largely linear.

Usually the environments are visually interesting, and there is a story that is presented through your wanderings. Dear Esther was the game that got this type of "game" going. Honestly, games like this are all right for a one off experience and are pretty much impossible to lose, but as a result have next to no replay value.

 

[Yorae Rasante]

Dear Ester... I've been thnking about playing it...
Not because it sounds fun, but because a brazilian youtube comedian caller mr poladoful made a very fun video about him just walking and looking around that game... and now I got curious about what the game is REALLY about.

 

[OniGanon]

Dear Esther and Everbody's Gone To the Rapture?

Are you kidding me?

Hey, Chinese Room! How about you fucking bother to actually depict some women in your games before you criticise how others are doing it, eh?

 

[atlas_hugged]

Who is Chinese Room and why should I care what they think? Moreover, are they actually Chinese? Because if not, that name seems kinda racist.

The image seems to be a model posing as reference for 3D modelers to work with. So... how much does it even matter what she looks like?

If this is a BTS shot of the trailer from 3 years ago, the woman in the trailer wore a tube top with less cleavage shown than in this image.

Chinese Room isn't a racist name.  It's a name of a famous thought experiment in philosophy.  A man is locked in a room.  Through the door come letters written in chinese.  The man without gleaning any meaning from the letters, follows a procedural set of rules written out in English (his native tongue) to respond to them.  The rules are basically a huge collection of if-then statements like If this symbol appears next to that symbol, then this symbol....respond with that symbol next to this symbol, etc.  People ask all sorts of questions about this thought experiment, like "does the man understand chinese? Does the system as a whole?  Does the system have consciousness or artificial intelligence?" 

That being said, having a sexy woman on the cover of an advertisement hardly seems sexist.  No more sexist than having a sexy man on the cover of a romance novel.  The world needs more sexy people on the covers of things, not less.

 

[Contrabardus]

Dear Ester... I've been thnking about playing it...
Not because it sounds fun, but because a brazilian youtube comedian caller mr poladoful made a very fun video about him just walking and looking around that game... and now I got curious about what the game is REALLY about.

"Fun" isn't what I'd call it. It is interesting though. It's almost like walking through art, but not like really good art, just those cheap scenery paintings you'll find at flea markets and such.

If you can get it very cheap, it's worth a walkthrough. It's also not really a "game". You don't do anything but wander around. There are objects you can click on to get some text to fill out the story more, but even then there aren't many. They aren't hugely important though, as missing some doesn't lose you much but some flavor text. There are no puzzles or hazards to speak of, and it's actually pretty grim and bleak. It is about as pretty as Unreal 3 can be in some places, but it's not hugely impressive anymore because the engine is kind of dated now.

You basically wander around on an island you've been stranded on that's been abandoned. Audio clips play as you traverse and enter new areas, and I believe they are somewhat random. Not completely, there are several that will play when you get to specific places and each trigger spot has a pool it will draw from, they also don't repeat in a playthrough that I'm aware of.

They are pretty good at creating a moderately creepy environment to explore. Though, I didn't think much of the narrative of the game overall. It was kind of random and strange, which makes sense given your character isn't well and has some form of illness that slowly gets worse as you play. Some will probably find it a somewhat pretentious exploration of dying through an older sounding dialect of English prose.

Like I said, if you think it sounds interesting, pick it up cheap. It's not worth a lot because it has little replay value and will only take an hour or two to complete.

I have it because it's nice in VR. Had to use an injector for it as it doesn't natively support it. [I have VorpX for that.] That's the only reason it's still on my HDD to be honest.

This one tweet isn't enough to swear me off of their games, but if they keep doing this sort of thing not buying anymore titles from them is no huge loss.

They did make one actual game that isn't quite a walking sim, but only barely not. They did Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs as well. That at least has actual enemies and a few item based puzzles in it. So it's not like they've never made an actual game. Though, there are no other NPCs outside of monsters in the game.

 

[OniGanon]

Did they make the first Amnesia as well?

Chinese Room isn't a racist name.

I know, mate. I wasn't being serious.

 

[Contrabardus]

Did they make the first Amnesia as well?

No, that was Frictional Games. Frictional also published A Machine for Pigs, but farmed out development to Chinese Room.

AMFP was definitely the prettier of the two games, running on the same engine as well. That was about all it had over the first Amnesia though. AMFP wasn't nearly as good as a horror title despite having better graphics.