dtgreene: remember that it's not until relatively recently (on historical time scales) that women gained the right to vote; in the US, the 19th amendment was only ratified less than a century ago.

LootHunter: I think it is you, who should remember that "on historical time scales" men gained the right to vote only recently too. Until a few centuries ago monarchy was major government system and no common folk had any say in monarch's decision. At all.

Enebias: Funny how you also seem to ignore that when talking about videogames set in the middle ages. Just saying.

dtgreene: It seems you forgot about ancient Greece and Rome, where they did, indeed, have men voting. Athens actually had a direct democracy where all the men (but not the women) would directly participate in the government. Rome also had voting, though looking on the Internet, it seems not everyone's vote was equal.

LootHunter: monarchy was major government system

TStael: I am actually not sure it will.

I am hoping that signalling for a positive belief in the individual immersion; the universal gaming joy will make a difference.

Us all should enjoy gaming.

richlind33: This thread is better than "Merkel is top statesmanlike" -- but not by much. ;p

Lord_Kane: For me it depend on what is being cheered, but in general I would support the cheerleader.
There are things I will not support or cheer lead but that is a discussion for another day/thread.

TStael: There you go.

Plus there was this whole fuss of a feller making the cheerleading squad recently, I think. And he got that attention for merely being a male, but I also think it is alright as in signalling to other boys and men that cheerleading is possible for them, if they should like it.

By tut-tutting me, you have staked yourself.

You are siding with those whom think that women should not game, lest it be silently expelling money towards corporations such as gog.com.

Except for that cheerleader boy maybe? There you will cheer the visible minority, because, I suspect, it satisfies your confirmation bias. Searching this in yourself is uncomfy, but also exhilarating, I find.

paladin181: Cause she likes the attention, yo.

TStael: I don't like attention.

TStael: I don't like attention.

RWarehall: You've been starting flame wars over this same topic for years. At a certain point it should be clear that repeating this same divisive topic over and over again is what needs to be moderated out. And if the person starting these flame wars doesn't stop with the over the top rhetoric, that person is the one who ought to be warned and banned if they don't quit the b.s..

Crosmando: This thread is gay

StingingVelvet: The crucial thing to remember, and a lot of people IMO ignore, is that presenting a world with sexism and homophobia in it does not equal endorsing those things. Witcher series is going for dark fantasy medieval Poland, which lends itself to certain attitudes and perceptions of the characters within the game. Also Geralt (mostly) looks down on and criticizes those behaviors, even further distancing the game from those perspectives.

The only real thing I see as possibly sexist in the Witcher games is the sorceress' outfits and the sex scenes. For the outfits there's actually a cool lore reason there, that they use magic to make themselves unrealistically pretty and then want to show that pretty off. I think that makes sense, and is a cool aspect to the canon, eye-pleasing or not. On the second count I actually dislike the sex scenes... they look silly, polygonal puppets bumping around. Reminds me of the movie Team America: World Police, and I usually laugh instead of finding it alluring in any way. I wish they just faded to black like most games do.

RWarehall: That's why I find it silly that some people want to call the world sexist or racist or any other ist. Are all women supposed to always be portrayed as right? Never questioned? They can't be bad or wrong? And if a man displays his sexism, is that really an endorsement? Is any work mimicking aspects of our world supposed to completely ignore these aspects?

Time and again I see people cherry-picking a single scene and calling the entire work sexist. Often ignoring the lesson being told. And definitely ignoring the rest of the story and all the other shades of grey.

The Witcher books contain many lessons, that people are fallible; that two sides can both be basically right or both wrong and still disagree. That life isn't always simple and clear. What makes the books great is that they are not too preachy. They don't tell you how to think. You need to do the thinking for yourself and the games follow up on this theme. It's a world with various shades of grey.