Saturday, June 22, 2019

Punkin' Out?

After E3 this year, I heard a bizarre controversy that is both nonsensical and outlandish. It revolves the upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077 and how, in a private gameplay demo, a small in-game ad was called "transphobic" by some game journalists who, as far as this gamer is concerned, have lost their credibility.
The insulting attacks by these reporters state the game is made by "an alt-right game designer" in a "white country", etc., etc. In essence, debasing comments by people who, by the sounds of it, have never stepped foot in Poland, never talked to Polish folk, never hung out with any of the crew from developer CD Projekt Red.
Why mention some race bait right after the "transphobia"? Because the same journalist who claimed the game as transphobic claims the game is racist as well. Odd, considering the creator of the tabletop game (who's strongly involved with making the game) is black. If a black man thought the game were racist, wouldn't he have shown his anger? I'm not talking about misplaced anger like Andrzej Sapkowski and his monetary demands from CDPR for his own financial foresight problems. Every step of the way in the game design, Mike Pondsmith (creator of Cyberpunk 2020) has been praising the game company, come forth about the company's racial diversity, how staff in his own company (Talsorian Games) have employees ranging from straight to bi to gay to trans. Interesting note there, trans staff helping make a game that has a "transphobic" ad? Something doesn't fit.
That something definitely feels like journalism that, noticeably in the last couple years, have been going downhill in quality.
Everything I've heard about Pondsmith's remarks towards SJW journalists (and hate bait) shows he has both strong and fast wit, especially in regards to the race card angle. He gave his point about the Animals and Voodoo Boys gangs while race-based hate bait ignored how an African-American gang called the "Animals" are lead by an imposing white woman. They also disregard how, in the first gameplay demo, a corporate entourage that betrays V are predominantly white. No word about how that was racy...
Something else about the hate towards the ad is that it is claimed to be "oversexualized."
...and today's real life commercials aren't sexual in the least? Ever since 2008, when I first noticed a commercial using not-so-subtle sexual wording, I noticed so many commercials using sex in some form or another to drive home the point that you, yes YOU,will find pleasure and satisfaction in whatever product or service is being offered. Talk about forcing the viewpoint down your throat. Near literally. Only the Trojan commercials are overtly about sex, and never having a good intention. CB's ad, in that regard, doesn't feel quite as R-rated. In context to the game's genre-based themes, it makes complete sense. Humanity has lost its God-given value of Imagio Dei and have become only monetary value commodity in that genre.
You, as V, are like a John Carpenter hero in that you're "sticking it to the man," the megacorporations.
Ironically, in real life, there's a conglomerate that's been behind the horrible attacks against CDPR, who are known for consumer-friendly practices. What kind of practices? In their award-winning game Thd Witcher 3, all but two DLC's were free. The only two that weren't were two story expansions. This, in the current gaming landscape, is considered ludicrous where virtually all DLC is at least $1. Plus, during E3 '19, a crowd member shouted to Keanu Reeves that "You're breath taking!" which got Red's attention, and they awarded the guy not only a copy of the game, but the COLLECTOR'S EDITION, valued at $270, for free. FREE!? All big game companies would simply laugh with the crowd and expect the guy to cough up cash for their game. A game company that would give a high-value edition of a game? That made news in itself. No wonder news journalists went nuts over it.
This little company, full of people that, as they started out, had no one with game design experience (one of their staff said as much) have become the most respected companies in the game industry... now a major conglomerate wants to take them down? It's all sounding eerily like the genre itself.
The conglomerate is punking out while CDPR's chippin' in.