http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=224

Asking for romance already, I hate the industry, I really do.
Not once, have I found sixuality/six/"romance" handled well in a game. Why do people insist on including it ?

I was going to post in that thread when it was first opened. But decided against it because I didn't want to start a flame war. I'm not entirely opposed to different sixuality in the game, I just don't want to have the option of marriage or anything. It's neat in Skyrim but not necessary.

How does anyone know giving money to this will actually guarantee the game getting bigger, whos to say it might not have already been given a defined size and the company needs this because they're on the way out

That post about sixuality not being handled in New Vegas is crap? You can RP as anything and be gay/lisbian if you want, you even get the Confirmed Bachlor and Chez Le Femme perks to boost this.

I don't think InXile is "on it's way out" they've been fairly successful. Most of the guys there are from Interplay. Problem is that for 20 years they've been pitching Wasteland 2 but no one wants to back it because the idiots who have the money say, "There's no market for it. Kids these days wants 'multiplayaz and gunz and CoD'" but clearly there is a niche for Wasteland 2.

Thant and Brian Fargo has said himself that the more money they make the larger the game will be. Just look at their forums, there are ideas thrown around daily.

I have no issue with characters who are gay e.g Arcade gannon. But that thread to me just comes of as asking them to shoehorn a gay/bi/lisbian into the game.
Arcade was just your regular guy (well not really), he just happened to be gay. It didnt play a big role in his personality, thats the way it should be. But if your asking for a character to be made, just so the game includes X, it wont work, at all.

Personally though, I dont see any need to bring up stuff like that at all. Its never been relevant to the game.

Romance however I am fully against, and dont want to see it in games. Again, its not relevant at all. (It also boils down to not being an ass for 3 conversations, before the person starts decalring you their true love).

I thought it was a troll thread...

?

Confirmed Bachelor and the likes doesn't mean you're gay.

Yup, I had the Confirmed Bachelor on my character and I was RPing a straight Ex-Ranger.

It's not an unusual or unreasonable request, particularly with the circumstances of the game. He couldn't get Wasteland 2 funded because publishers wouldn't back something they didn't see as "popular" enough. For the same reasons, while most games made attempt to mimic the most popular genres and entries, they are also aiming at the largest and most profitable demographics. In this case, the straight white adolescent male. A decent metaphor would be the case of the chainmail bikini. Many people would admit that for a long time, the way women have been depicted in games is...stupid, for lack of a better word. It's a toy to dangle over that demographic. While it's not as bad these days, it's still very present and common. It wouldn't be unexpected to hear someone ask "As long as you're making a game that doesn't exist solely to please shareholders, could you not put all the women in ridiculous skimpy outfits?"

That was the impression I got from the OP of that thread. There weren't asking for, and didn't even mention, in-game romance features. Gay characters in games almost always fit the role of either "nonexistent" or "painful, obnoxious stereotype". I'm not a fan of romance in games and tend to avoid it by a wide berth, but you can ask for better representation without having to advocate entire game features revolving around it.

I dont see why its brought up at all. From the games I have played with set characters. I dont know if most are hetro, bi or gay. I just dont see why it should be brought up at all, unless its relevant to the plot. You say games are marketed to hetro, white, males. But I disagree.
Look at Halo, we never found out what MC looked like, we never found out his sixuality. (unless these in books, I havent read those) And it dosent matter what he is, because it would change anything.

Another game, metro 2033. He is white, but again sixuality is never mentioned (closest you can get is you visit a hoker who robs you). It just wasnt needed. I dont think thats marketing to anyone in particular. He could just as easily be gay. The game just dosent mention it, becuase it has nothing to do with killing dark ones.

I just dont see the point of brining the subject up unless relevant.

It doesn't need to come up if not relevant, and no, those specific details about set characters aren't always mentioned; they don't need to be, because the targeted players make the assumptions themselves. This is fine for linear games with limited characters. Wasteland, however, is an RPG. It has locations and towns and NPC's. It doesn't need to be shoehorned in or shoved in your face. You're going into people's houses and asking them for information. NPC's volunteer pointless information even without you asking, all the time. "I'm Joe, and I own the potato farm out back!" Thanks Joe, I don't care! It's not about plot relevance in this case. If you've got 50 houses in a town and many of them have 1 male and 1 female NPC, you can draw conclusions. It's pretty much no extra effort and no distraction from the plot to have a couple houses that have 2 male or 2 female. They don't even need to SAY anything about it, unless you make conversation with them and ASK about it. The fact that most games go out of their way to not do this is exactly why people feel unrepresented, and bring it up in the first place.

Seeing all the ridiculous suggestions (and the amount of them) in the official forum makes me want to reconsider my pledge (although, I do believe Fargo has the correct sensibilities) .

Marriage? Gayness? Playing house? What the [censored]!!!???? Seriously???? The one game to change the course of things, and peoples first thoughts are about [censored] a virtual person of the same six? Please, Please kill me, if the world is really at this state!

Sounds like the same bs suggestions every game that has a forum receives. Personally waiting for mundane everyday tasks suggestions like washing dishes...

I don't think you guys have to worry about it, these questions seem to pop up on every game forum like Terash said.

I ignore all of those suggestions. Brian's a smart guy, he's not going to fall for that. I just upped my pledge to $150.

I'd like to (and I do believe Fargo is a man of correct sensibilities), but I can but shake my head an hold my puke over how persitantly those people are upvoting these areas. I would furiously facepalm if I had any face left to palm!

Jesus christ, are these the people who're about to dictate this games' direction? I feel [censored] ill even reading that [censored] and I firmly (try to) believe Fargo knows what he does..........=

I guess it depends on if it is being made for fun or profit.

Yeah. Though, according to Fargo, it's serious business.
i do believe he's a man of correct sensibilities, but reading those things and thinking they might actually beome the truth... I'll just... oh well.....

What the [censored] is happening in the game industry when people want even "old school" games to provide to their [censored] perverses?

I'm out of words...

It's obviously me taking things too literally, but when I pledge a $115 to something I expect it to reflect what I (as the concept offered) pleged for.

'You're making an old school RPG that could not have been made through publishers and I can have it for 15 bucks. Okay cool, here's my money. Now make it Mass Effect meets TES.'


I wouldn't worry about Fargo listening to the wrong ideas, he should be clever enough to see what's a good idea and what's not. Besides, he is under no obligation to cater to the backers that make such request. He already has their money.

Totalbiscuit actually discussed this very subject the other day, that's basically what he's saying too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sj8wkLMOuE&t=13m00s

Don't you [censored] frighten me anymore, you moderated moderationing moderationee!

Actually, he doesn't have any of our money. He gets it on April 17th so any one of us or all of us could pull out at any time. But yeah, I can't see Brian actually listening to a lot of them. Remember, he's been pitching this for twenty years so he's already got ideas as to what this game is going to have and not have. Theres still a lot of dinosaurs he has to make happy. If he takes some of the ideas cool.

Here's a quote I found just simply amazing from one of Fargo's recent interviews (gamebanshee):


GB: How do you convince a newer or younger RPG fan who has grown accustomed to the action-focused titles to give Wasteland 2 a shot?

Brian: Well here is the beauty of fan funding... we don't have to convince some younger RPG player of anything. I am making this game for the wonderful fans who put their money behind us and not some nebulous group of new people. Let's make the game they all expect and let the chips fall where they may. There is just no way I'm going to consider anything that could let down the core.

If this was funded by a major publisher, their PR department would have [censored] bricks for him saying that.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/107335-wasteland-2-interview.html

Since there are so many, I hope all of those NPC's and statues of people who paid for it are put in the game in a way that fits in seamlessly and aren't just put in randomly for the sake of being in there.

And that, is why Brian Fargo is the [censored] man.