Oh for the love of...

So hey, it suddenly turns out Hitler or, I don't know, Gaddafi, was gay, they found dildos and male slaves in their rooms, and they were prancing about like queens on some previously undisclosed videos. What a demeaning death they faced, I'm shocked and offended by this in light of these revelations!

Hyperbole, I know, but not as much.

Bingo!

Dethmold had it coming, gay or not.

People who see racism and discrimination in everything are believed to be the most discriminating people whatsoever.

Witcher 2 was "flaming" and I should play it again. Haven't seen the other way and after a while, rolling in the ground is always fun.

Although I like the moral ambiguity of player-choices the Witcher offers, I'm slightly less impressed with the way it portrays women. I haven't yet played the second game, but I believe it ditches the cringe-worthy sex cards, and features several strong female characters, so that sounds like an improvement.

I won't comment on how accurate the OP is about the gay character in Witcher II, but if he's correct, I would point out that if your game/movie/book only features one gay character, and that character happens to be seedy, cowardly, and thusly executed in a brutal manner, that does imply some bigotry.

In no way does that treatment of a gay character consist of being "gritty" or "realistic." All it shows is that the developers chose to include one gay character, and chose to potray him in a demeaning way.

No...this isn't true. Generally people who accuse others of "seeing offence in everything" are doing so to shut down the valid arguments which make them uncomfortable for whatever reason.

Sex cards were basically a reference to Geralt's womanizing from books. Not the best choice of implementation, I will give you that, but the game hardly made women weak and pathetic creatures. Actually, they were portrayed pretty well most of the time.

And as for gay reference, well ... Sure it is realistic, Geralt just happened to stumble upon gay stereotype and did't at all kill him for *that*. If you want to approach the game that way the game is racist because people are portrayed ignorant and foolish...

There seems to be a common perception that depicting women as being sexy is demeaning in itself. I think this is nonsense. In addition, if you think that depicting a woman in a sexual manner implies that "that's all she's good for", I think it says more about you than anything else.

KFC=Kentucky Fried Chicken? what's about it and black people?

Nicely said. In my experience, woman usually like being sexy. Hell, guys like being sexy, and I have never seen anyone complaining that half-naked male body is demeaning to men.

There's a stereotype that all black men love KFC

Example of "racist" joke. I put it in " " because it's pretty hilarious :D

http://americanmexorist.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/kfc_runner.jpg
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/194/kfcs.jpg/
One hundred percent correct. I think exactly the same

I agree women weren't too bad in the Witcher. Aside from the collectable sex cards, which seemed like pandering.

I haven't played the the Witcher II yet (although I've watched someone else play through a moderate amount of it on Youtube), but if the OP is correct then Geralt stumbles across a very negative gay stereotype, who also happens to be the only gay person depicted in the game. At the least it suggests lazy writing, in a game series that mostly has far superior writing than most rpgs.

In regards to him being portrayed as a coward, he's actually depicted as a very powerful sorceror that marches to war alongside King Henselt and with a lot of say about what goes on in Kaedwen.

He did fight both of them in Vergen's caves when the battle was suited to his war talents, so, did he suddelnly turned into a coward at Loc Muinne? Nah, even out of his element he reached for a dagger and tried to stab Geralt and he immediately got a broken arm for his trouble (well, duh!), which meant, no more magic and no more means to fight. Hell, he was already down nurisng his broken arm and he was still calling Roche 'son of a bitch'. He temptatively tried to bargain in the very end, yes, most would in his case if they had any brains or any desire to go on living, that doesn't make him a coward.

Dethmold is a very good character, great characterization of a very unsettling twisted puppy, pitty that some folks seem to get caught up on the 'gay' aspect and tend to miss evertything else.

Well, do not think his characterization would have suffered had he been made rather the "Tom of Finland" type, and had he been more difficult to kill off, for all his power. Marching alonside, or sticking to behind, maybe? ;-)

I do find it quite interesting how single minded at least those who bother to post are, with exception of indigo8 giving the topic benefit of the doubt until having played. Even the most outlandish views tend to get a balance of opinions.

In context of the Witcher, where consenting sex is to be found in abundace, I am just wondring if it really was that bad an idea to apply the same principle across the board...

No double standards, really?

Not inclined to read the whole thread, but:

1¢ - Dethmold turning out to be gay was completely random.
2¢ - The Witcher 2 didn't have the sex cards, but it did sort of pull off a "damsel in distress" thing with Triss.