New Baldurs gate controversy.

[paulpablo]

There's a new Baldur's gate game called Siege of dragonspear.  It's actually just an extension to the original game though. It seems one of the main creators of the game (Amber Scott) wanted to put into the game references to modern day political topics.

There's a transexual in the game for starters which has been a pretty big topic recently on this forum and I imagine other places on the internet.

Looking into the character in further detail I have mixed feelings about the situation.

The dialogue of the character once you approach her is to give you this story about her name and why she changed it.  
"When I was born my parents thought me a boy and raised me as such, in time we came to realize I was truly a woman............"

A lot of the fans of baldur's gate are saying this back story has been too obviously forced in.

This is totally subjective but yeh it does feel forced into the story to me.  I don't think it would be as bad if there was a point to the story, like there's a mission involved where you have to procure a spell of gender transformation or a girdle of gender transformation (Which do exist in the dungeons and dragons world and have actually been involved in earlier Baldur's gate games) or there was just some sort of point to it.

But the dialogue basically amounts to , You- cool name.  Her - Yeh I have it because my parents raised me as a boy later we all came to realize I was truly a woman and my new name reflects my true self. You- Cool.....bye.

The worst thing I think is that this person (Amber Scott) also accused the earlier games of being sexist saying the original game made jokes at women's expense.  She says the female characters were either nagging wife characters or there for sexual objectification.

If you haven't played Baldur's gate much what I'm about to say may not mean anything to you, but when she's talking about the nagging wife character she's talking about Jahera.  Jahera was a very dominant character, she would always try and take control of the group and nag and nag and nag.  But just because the women had negative character points means nothing since so did all the men.
Khalid (Jahera's husband) was a coward, in a battle he would be the first to lose morale courage.
Minsc. Incredibly stupid, quick to resort to violence. 
Montaron.  Evil, treacherous.
Xzar.  Intense mental problems, pretty much insane.
Xan.  Cowardly, weak.

If I was to take the route of fighting fire with fire (which I won't) I could just say all the men were either portrayed as being mentally ill, weak cowards, or violent and idiotic.

All these characters had good and bad points, I personally didn't like Jahera but she was a pretty big fan favorite among most people, I was more of a fan of Viconia out of the female characters. 

There's some other parts I don't understand the controversy about.  A character from the story called Minsc at one point says "Really it's all about ethics in heroic adventuring."  This is something to do with gamergate.  I only have a vague idea of what gamergate is and still have no idea why this quote is controversial but the game developers actually removed this statement from the game.
Some other things involve a single mother's daughter saying her mother doesn't need this man's help.  That's not such a big issue I don't think and a goblin who accuses the player of racism which seems a bit out of place in the way it's said but again not such a big deal.

[abaris]

I can only say what I always say about games. Don't like it, don't buy it. They are products after all, and it's not as if the producers would make a big secret over what is included, obviously. Bioware for example are famous for having characters that not everybody will like. Dragon Age Inquisition has a transgender person too, bisexuals and gay characters also.

Now, there have been many controversies over that. Ridiculous ones over religion as well as meh, don't likey. Again, can't live with a mirror of real life or being apalled by it, it's a product, don't open you wallet, just to complain later on over something that has been known before release.

[TheRocketSurgeon]