Baldurs Gate 1 Expansion

[wordy]

If you're such a delicate soul that a few lines of optional dialogue about a trans character offends you that much, then don't buy it. Better yet, go write a tumblr blog about how much it upsets you.

Ooooh such passive aggressive!

It doesn't bother me that much, would I prefer that character not to be in there if she isn't advancing a quest or storyline? Yes I'd rather she not be in there.

Is it really going to break the game? No.

Not everyone who thinks this character shouldn't be in the game is trans hating.

I eagerly await you telling me to check my white male CIS gender privilege.

 

[mid_gen]

Good for you, you're not one of those numpties that are upset because the character is trans.

The optional side characters and dialogues are one of the things I enjoy most in RPGs, they're usually more interesting than the main storyline. If you don't like them then fair enough, they are optional though, bit harsh to want them removed.

 

[No1newts]

Excellent memories of this game as a youth.

Is the expansion any good then? Don't give a crap about transgenders or social justice warriors being offended.

Apparently there are a lot of bugs, I'm leaving It for a month or two until they've fixed them then I'll be buying it.

 

[Zethor]

I disagree with all of this. They are called games for a reason. They are a method of escape. I have no idea what you mean by them being a reflection of society. They aren't and there's absolutely no need for them to be.

If I wanted any exposure to left wing hand wringing about people who hate themselves I'll go and read the Guardian. They can keep it out of my hobbies and pastimes.

Aww, you don't agree? Here is a virtual candy to make you feel better: >O<.

What I said in the post you quoted is factual. Games are one of the many forms of entertainment and they, like most other forms of entertainment, can include controversial issues. When certain issues start to become acceptable in our culture, the various forms of entertainment, including games, reflect it by depicting them in some form. This is why you can't find a film in which male cowboys get naughty in the 60s but you can find such films in recent years.

This is a normal, inevitable process that happens whether you agree with it or not. If you don't like it maybe you should look into other hobbies that are more resistant to changes. Bible thumping, perhaps?

 

[FoxEye]

This is a normal, inevitable process that happens whether you agree with it or not. If you don't like it maybe you should look into other hobbies that are more resistant to changes. Bible thumping, perhaps?

As a game dev I would have thought your priorities were to make great entertainment first, and if you can do that you pretty much have a free reign to make whatever social commentary you like.

This seems to be an example where political themes were not organically and naturally incorporated into a great entertainment product.

This seems to be a case where the writer has got her priorities wrong. She believes she is a social justice warrior first, writer and game developer second. She's shoe-horned in a character whose only purpose is to loudly shout "I'm a minority! I exist in real life! I face challenges in real life!"

So gamers are being jolted out of their fantasy RPG world, and asked for a moment to think of real life issues faced by real life transsexuals, in a way which is entirely forced, and does not meet approval with many people in that minority group.

Like I said. Make an amazing game and you can make whatever social commentary you like. But if you lose the plot, and think that your game is just a vehicle for your social commentary, then maybe people have a right to simply call you out for it.

 

[Neil79]

I'm Trent Oster, CEO of Beamdog.

First off, everyone here is ecstatic to have shipped Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear. Siege represents years of hard work by a dedicated team that we grew from a combination of home grown talent, original Baldur's Gate modders and former Bioware developers. Siege of Dragonspear represents more than 25 hours of new Baldur’s Gate gameplay, and more than 500,000 words of writing. I’m proud of our team for launching this great expansion.

We’ve received feedback around Mizhena, a supporting character who reveals she is transgender. In retrospect, it would have been better served if we had introduced a transgender character with more development. This is a lesson we will be carrying forward in our development as creators and we will be improving this character in a future update.

The last few days have showed us how passionately many of our fans care for our games. We've had a lot of great feedback from players who love the expansion and are having a great time experiencing the first new Baldur's Gate story in 15 years.
While we appreciate all feedback we receive from our fans, both positive as well as negative, some of the negative feedback has focused not on Siege of Dragonspear but on individual developers at Beamdog -- to the point of online threats and harassment.

I just want to make it crystal clear that Beamdog does not condone this behavior, and moreover that it will not have the desired effect as we stand behind all our developers 100%. We created the game as a group, and moving forward we'll work on the game's issues as a group, which I believe is exactly as it should be.

We’ve received valuable feedback around some bugs we failed to catch for ship. We're hard at work right now patching up the issues that slipped through and we're striving to ship fixes and improvements quickly. We will provide a complete list of the issues we plan to address in our next update. Issues of note we are addressing are:

Multiplayer – We are acting on reports of multiplayer issues and hope to have this fixed in the next update.

Minsc – Minsc has a line which generated controversy. Looking back on the line, we agree with the feedback from our community, it has nothing to do with his character and we will be removing the line.

We hope all our players continue to enjoy Siege of Dragonspear and we look forward to providing an update in the near future.

Regards,
-Trent

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/51161/beamdog-statement-on-siege-of-dragonspear