Lionel212008: Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the pinnacle of video game evolution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hHJotdFmcZY

Crosmando: Just until it's the year 2050, when the feminists rule the world and men are kept as docile pets, injected with Estrogen and any masculine behavior is punishable by the Tolerance Police with instant public castration.

From the ashes of a dark world, ONE MAN will rise to challenge the ruling matriarchy and restore the rightful place of manliness.

Crosmando: I wasn't exactly being serious.

Vitek: Ah, Crosmando's masculinity is threatened once again.

I understand , it's constant struggle with world to preserve it.

monkeydelarge: So you just created this thread to watch some GOG drama? Seriously if you want some drama, go watch a TV show or spread rumors at your work place. Forums are for serious discussions. I don't see a problem with jokes once in awhile but to create a thread just to watch drama? Why?

Charon121: Vestin, I won't slice up your post because I'm not into proving you wrong one sentence at a time. Instead, I'll tell you how I see the situation. You got one thing right, I can't speak for everyone. I have my own tastes, you have yours, so we can only argue whose group is the bigger/louder one, because that group will dictate the trends in gaming.

I don't want to play as a supernaturally enhanced person or some dude wielding a "Holy Flamin' Frost-Brand Gronk-Slayin' Vorpal Hammer o' Woundin' an' Returnin' an' Shootin'-Lightnin'-Out-Yer-Bum" because that does nothing for me. I play such games purely on the superficial level, as a skill challenge, but I'm too far removed from any of their characters to care about them. Playing as an Average Joe provides a much more fulfilling experience. I never cared for superhero comics. What's the excitement in them if the hero is already stronger than most of his foes right from the start? Where's the suspense in that? Good literature has always been about the human condition. To quote Wikipedia, it includes concerns such as the meaning of life, the search for gratification, the sense of curiosity, the inevitability of isolation, or awareness regarding the inescapability of death. You may argue that choosing between the Two-Handed Sword of Doom and Warhammer of Utter Destruction comes close the "inescapability of death" or "search for gratification" parts, but I want something deeper. Many works of superhero fiction actually do a good job at dealing with the human condition, if you only ignore the superpower nonsense.

I'm the guy that likes fetch quests, trivial dialogue and other mundane tasks in RPGs, and grows bored of any game when it evolves to slaying dragons and saving the Multiverse. And the guy who had a blast going shopping with Octodad, but yawned after discovering that the main quest in Arcanum revolved around saving the world. Also the guy who enjoyed shooting rats with crappy weapons while scrounging for bottlecaps in Fallout, but got a bit disappointed after acquiring the plasma rifle and power armor. Finally, I'm the guy who found the weird chemistry between Thora Birch's and Steve Buscemi's characters in Ghost World much more intriguing than that Biowarean dreck that passes for romance. And let's not delude ourselves; there aren't many romances in video games that deviate from the following formula: "(after some initial antagonism) the hunk of a guy gets the female knockout character." The part between the brackets is optional.

So you probably can't understand where I'm coming from and why I'm against super powerful and blindingly beautiful characters. It's not about the fantasy and otherwordly settings. It's about the player-centric game philosophy. Everything is about the player – you're the Chosen One, you're the one with a beneficial mutation that gives you superhuman agility and strength, you're the ONLY one we're counting on to defeat the Big Bad Boss... And you as a character get the very best abilities and resources. I might have enjoyed that in my younger years as a gamer, but now it's become old. As far as what other people prefer, even BBC.co.uk ran an article on how Papers, Please became immensely popular despite its devastatingly mind-numbing core gameplay. I think it's quite telling; there are many who crave something different.

This isn't about sexism. I don't even care about that, other than that it's hurting the general perception of the electronic entertainment industry. It's the predictability of the computer game tropes that I'm more concerned about. Always the same formula. At least we have indie games... Yeah, give me an obese Helga anytime. At least I'll know that her designers used their brains when creating her instead of copying trends. Maybe her character is better written considering there's no eye candy to distract us from poorly chosen cliches.

EDIT: Ah, I've found the name for what I hate: Mary Sue! And her male counterpart. A person who can do anything and be on top of every situation, regardless of the odds. No wonder we all hated Wesley Crusher.

TStael: You too - but I think you shall have mis-earned the low rating really, this should rather not be reserved to bigoted cunts in these fora, but to better opinions.

Thankfully, I do think one mights reclaim this honour once by not buying TW3 upfront, but asking: is TW3 anti-gay:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/is_the_witcher_2_anti_gay/page1

koima57: One truth in this World this talk purposely ignore and defy : YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYONE!

It is simply impossible, by playing that wild card you waste your time and throw away any personal character out of you / your product to an indigest mess of everything goes..

There is a difference between everyONE as a living being and everyTHING as an item, behavior, whatever inanimate object, an idea, practice...

I know it is the new trend to put everything to equality, no matter if they are totally diferent and uncomparable.. As much striving for putting everyone as equals has my full support, putting evrything as equal has my full rejection up to hostility as it should not be go this wrong way of indifferencation or in a clearer term, CHAOS..

So yeah, I like good old Order and to each their own name and term much, much more. Also to find of all companies BioWare claiming they promote Social Justice for the outcasts with their games is laughable and an outright lie. Their developers just allow romance choices with IN YOUR FACE innuendos and call it a day instead of creating a positive character that the storyline reveals at some point happens to be gay.. You know, an ordinary person keeping their privacy, well, private as any decent person is doing, seriiously, facepalm material.

monkeydelarge: Sounds like you are the guy who finds real life more entertaining than video games so why don't you just go out and play this game called "real life".

Charon121: As a matter of fact, I do play it quite often, it's never enough. Gaining XP in the real world, that's what life is all about! But the difference is that games come with save/load features so they're a bit easier to win than real life, and there are different flavours of mundane life to choose from. I can't keep changing my life all the time, so I play a border post inspector or a man marooned on a deserted island every once in a while to experience something a tad different, but not so grand and outlandish that it has no meaning to me.

Charon121: Does Lara Croft really need breasts that big? I mean, how does she even perform so many acrobatic feats with them...

Charon121: So you probably can't understand where I'm coming from and why I'm against super powerful and blindingly beautiful characters. It's not about the fantasy and otherwordly settings. It's about the player-centric game philosophy. Everything is about the player – you're the Chosen One, you're the one with a beneficial mutation that gives you superhuman agility and strength, you're the ONLY one we're counting on to defeat the Big Bad Boss... And you as a character get the very best abilities and resources. I might have enjoyed that in my younger years as a gamer, but now it's become old. As far as what other people prefer, even BBC.co.uk ran an article on how Papers, Please became immensely popular despite its devastatingly mind-numbing core gameplay. I think it's quite telling; there are many who crave something different.

Novotnus: Also - something different doesn't mean 'take all the power from you'. The character in Papers, Please is - when you think about it - a very powerful individual. He can save or damn lives of those who want to pass (possibly escape the totalitarian regime). Power doesn't always mean big gun and great damage threshold.

Charon121: Precisely. I think the key concept is that the character you mention is limited by the player's own intelligence and the ability to detect forgery. He has two stamps: DENIED and APPROVED. Doesn't his kind of power make a much better emotional impact than issuing lighting from your character's fingertips or calling meteors from the sky?