"What games can learn from fan fiction websites about representing sexuality"

#51
vertigomez

Posté 23 mars 2016 - 08:00

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5 265 messages

Well, it sort of is possible, but requires you really plan ahead and be willing to switch followers around from quest to quest, and even in the middle of a quest. I got Fenris AND Anders to rival in one play, and boy was that a pain in the ass.

It also requires that you role-play in a rather specific way: as a moderate mage, being neither for complete mage freedom, nor for the vice-like control and abuse practiced by Kirkwall's Circle. For example, you could give Feynriel to the Circle because you are concerned with his dreams, know that the Dalish don't like "half breeds," (thanks, Merrill) and think that the Circle is the best way for him to learn to master himself and deal with the problem. Feynriel himself is iffy about the Dalish ability to help him. You can get rivalry points for sending Idunna to the templars -- she used blood magic on you, f her. You can get rivalry for suggesting that Fenris might have a point in the gallows conversation. Disapproving of his merger with Justice -- "Spirits aren't meant to inhabit human bodies, that's what demons do," -- also nets you a lot of points, while, to my mind, not diminishing your bona fides as pro-mage.

For both men, it's a lot of +/- 5 or 10 that you have to juggle in a strategic way, but it can be done. You can rationalize or RP your way through many of the choices, even down to taking the rock demon's deal in the Deep Roads. Principle is all well and good, but no one seems to have any sort of plan, so taking a deal doesn't seem that egregious to me, particularly when the ask seems simple and the thing attacks you regardless. Your reward is -10 for both guys.

Very interesting! I'm gonna have to try that next time. It sounds like a lot of work, but since I generally tend to play Hawke as being on the moderate side of mage freedom (following in the footsteps of Malcolm Hawke, I guess?) it might make more sense than what I've been doing now. We shall see.

I feel like I'm going to need a spreadsheet. :lol:

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#52
nightscrawl

Posté 23 mars 2016 - 08:03

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7 443 messages

You basically have to look up each quest on the DAwiki as you're doing them and switch out followers accordingly. For some, you have to decide whether the + points for one will outweigh the - points for the other. There are some quests where you can get an equal amount of +/- and come out with nothing gained or lost. It's a project. Be forewarned. Also, if you're behind on Fenris, you can get a large chunk in the Fade and with the aftermath in Act 2.

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#53
vertigomez

Posté 23 mars 2016 - 08:07

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5 265 messages

You basically have to look up each quest on the DAwiki as you're doing them and switch out followers accordingly. For some, you have to decide whether the + points for one will outweigh the - points for the other. There are some quests where you can get an equal amount of +/- and come out with nothing gained or lost. It's a project. Be forewarned.

I do that anyway, so it works out haha. A consequence of frequently having Aveline and Isabela in the same party, I suppose.

Dat micromanagement.

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#54
Dean_the_Young

Posté 25 mars 2016 - 02:07

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20 675 messages

I think the idea being suggested here is that each individual game with a romance component would be labeled to indicate the kinds of material it contains. So...like an ESRB rating but way more in depth on the sex part?

Sorta. And other things. Tags can range from anything to gender relationships (ie, this story involves M/F, M/M, F/F, etc.) to genre tags (humor/comedy) to even character pairings.

It's not a trigger warning system, though it can be. Trigger warnings are for 'this topic comes up'- tags are for 'this is what the main focus of the story is.'

I don't see what makes the sexual component of a game so special that it would require a specific tagging system. Yeah, some people would be uncomfortable with BDSM sex and tentacles being featured in their games. But people are also uncomfortable with slavery and memory wiping and spiders, and those things are mandatory. If you keep "tagging" things you think the audience might be uncomfortable with, at a point, you'd just be spoiling all the content in a game.

The bigger problem isn't that you'd be spoiling the plot of the game- the bigger problem is that most playthroughs wouldn't have the content that the tags denote.

Tags work in fanfiction because everyone (should) understand the context of the story. The characters, dynamics, and contexts should be known to everyone familiar with the source material. That's how fanfiction works, as opposed to original fiction, and why tags can indicate what direction the writer intends to take it.

If I were to, say, write a fanfic in which, say, a fanfic in which Casandra questions her sexuality in is led by the magic of plot/character development to experiment with a lesbian relationship, tags like 'Cassandra', 'FemInquisitor', and 'F/F' would help indicate that. For people who really wanted Cassandra to be a female romance option, that's good. For lore purists/people who aren't interested in that, they can see the tags and move on.

The advantage of tags, besides that indicator (which a summary may or may not provide), is that it's easier to search by tags than read the summary. It's like a twitter hashtag, and an archive can easily make the search engine by tags, so that you can easily find all the 'F/F' and 'Cassandra' fics.

But that doesn't work well in the source material itself, which is where people have to develop that understanding in the first place, and it especially doesn't work in an RPG/choose your character and your partner and a fair bit of the content. How does 'BDSM' tie-in to a playthrough where you don't romance Iron Bull? How relevant or applicable is a F/F tag if you play as a male character and don't recruit Sera or realize the Empress's old flame?

Story tags indicate focus, but that's far more difficult when it comes to RPGs. If it's just tags for things that could occur, then yeah- it's basically a trigger warning.