Making A Thread Criticising Sexual Themes Without Censorship?

[barrybarrington90]

Noticing a pattern, here. By far the most active threads every day on this forum are the ones criticising sexual aspects of the game, from the mundane parts to the truly unusual. Doesn't matter whether they stay on topic or not, every single one of them is eventually locked for being "unconstructive" or "unproductive". Many are just quietly deleted. How is this not just censorship?

Larian seem aware their core audience are "anything goes" sexually, and I don't say that lightly. For the first time ever in an RPG, every single companion is pansexual, they have no preference at all for whether you are male, female, intersex, human or a lizard, they will literally want to copulate with anyone with a pulse. Which apparently some people think is a utopia, a world where everybody is horny and nobody has any personal preferences. But there is no denying this is a first for gaming, as such, it's the most popular topic of discussion, so why does it keep getting throttled?

Also, regarding the truly unusual side of sexuality in the game, why court controversy if you can't handle controversial debates? In the thread about Halsin's bear sex being distasteful, to defend the game no less than two card-carrying furries showed up, a bunch of guys with sexualised anime profile pictures, one guy questioning why necrophilia is unethical and concluding society is irrational about it, and one guy who stated he would support CP if the writer justified it with "it's not really a child, it's an ancient vampire/demon/whatever taking the form of a child". And keep in mind, the original defence was "that bear scene is just a joke, don't take it seriously". When you look at the composition of the people defending it and the arguments they use to defend it, yeah, that says otherwise. When Larian said they were giving the players "what they want" with the bear scene, they weren't joking.

tl;dr - Trying to shut down the conversation around sexuality is like trying to shut down Pirate Bay, every time you destroy one, two spring up in it's place.

[Hobocop]

First time ever?

*looks at D:OS2*

Nah.

[barrybarrington90]

Originally posted by Hobocop:

First time ever?

*looks at D:OS2*

Nah.

They were all pansexual too?

I must have missed that, probably because they didn't try to hump me every 10 minutes. That part is definitely new.

[Daryl]

Look man... people who are secure dont act like gay sex is a big deal or heterosexual sex is a big deal.


i get that you're one of those folks with insecurities when it comes to people's sexual preferences
but maybe. instead of being upset and concerned about other people's choices.
why not just live out your life?

you'll be much happier.

[tmaddox]

Their Forum. Their Rules.
Simple as that.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by barrybarrington90:

Making A Thread Criticising Sexual Themes Without Censorship?
Noticing a pattern, here. By far the most active threads every day on this forum are the ones criticising sexual aspects of the game, from the mundane parts to the truly unusual. Doesn't matter whether they stay on topic or not, every single one of them is eventually locked for being "unconstructive" or "unproductive". Many are just quietly deleted. How is this not just censorship?

Larian seem aware their core audience are "anything goes" sexually, and I don't say that lightly. For the first time ever in an RPG, every single companion is pansexual, they have no preference at all for whether you are male, female, intersex, human or a lizard, they will literally want to copulate with anyone with a pulse. Which apparently some people think is a utopia, a world where everybody is horny and nobody has any personal preferences. But there is no denying this is a first for gaming, as such, it's the most popular topic of discussion, so why does it keep getting throttled?

Also, regarding the truly unusual side of sexuality in the game, why court controversy if you can't handle controversial debates? In the thread about Halsin's bear sex being distasteful, to defend the game no less than two card-carrying furries showed up, a bunch of guys with sexualised anime profile pictures, one guy questioning why necrophilia is unethical and concluding society is irrational about it, and one guy who stated he would support CP if the writer justified it with "it's not really a child, it's an ancient vampire/demon/whatever taking the form of a child". And keep in mind, the original defence was "that bear scene is just a joke, don't take it seriously". When you look at the composition of the people defending it and the arguments they use to defend it, yeah, that says otherwise. When Larian said they were giving the players "what they want" with the bear scene, they weren't joking.

tl;dr - Trying to shut down the conversation around sexuality is like trying to shut down Pirate Bay, every time you destroy one, two spring up in it's place.

I notice: You do not even own the game. Ironic or intentional you mentioned Pirate Bay?

[Robineus]

Well it's a thing in the sims as well, but that's the sims not an in depth rpg. Personally I feel taking sexuality away from characters in these makes them feel less like actual people and hurts immersion. It was a better thing for instance in Dragon age Inquisition to be rejected by Cassandra for a same sex romance because she's actually straight. Or Sosiel in Wrath of the Righteous because he's actually gay.

[barrybarrington90]

Originally posted by Daryl:

Look man... people who are secure dont act like gay sex is a big deal or heterosexual sex is a big deal.


i get that you're one of those folks with insecurities when it comes to people's sexual preferences
but maybe. instead of being upset and concerned about other people's choices.
why not just live out your life?

you'll be much happier.

I said "from the mundane to the truly unusual". You were the one who chose to put homosexuality in the unusual category, personally I put it in the mundane section. The bear sex, illithid sex and necrophilia goes in the truly unusual category, in my book.

[Dank Sidious]

I wouldn't say it's actually "censored" that badly. The mods let these threads go on for 1000+ posts where bunch of people are arguing and yelling at each other before they shut them down.

[barrybarrington90]

Originally posted by Robineus:

Well it's a thing in the sims as well, but that's the sims not an in depth rpg. Personally I feel taking sexuality away from characters in these makes them feel less like actual people and hurts immersion. It was a better thing for instance in Dragon age Inquisition to be rejected by Cassandra for a same sex romance because she's actually straight. Or Sosiel in Wrath of the Righteous because he's actually gay.

Yup. Dorian in Dragon Age: Inquisition was gay, but because it was written into his character and Bioware are a bit less eager to prove themselves, he doesn't try it on with a male player every 10 minutes to make sure you don't miss it. You can stay entirely platonic with him, and as a female you'd have no choice but to. That is a real character.

[robilar5500]

Every hole is a goal.

You should be less angry about games and just enjoy them as they are. Stress is the silent killer.

[Robineus]

Originally posted by robilar5500:

Every hole is a goal.

You should be less angry about games and just enjoy them as they are. Stress is the silent killer.

I'm not really sure what it's like to move through the world not having an opinion about anything or any kind of standards at all but that seems really boring to me.

[Kevin Ryan]

i love these threads that act like "productive" conversation actually happens in the steam forums.

You know
and I know

that those threads are always started by someone in bad faith and then devolve into an orgy or idiocy.

Stop pretending like that doesn't happen.

It happens every single time. lol

[barrybarrington90]

Originally posted by Dank Sidious:

I wouldn't say it's actually "censored" that badly. The mods let these threads go on for 1000+ posts where bunch of people are arguing and yelling at each other before they shut them down.

That could just be because they are busy on other forums or looking through reports?

Either way, this seems like it'd make it so defenders of the game could intentionally censor topics. All they have to do is roll in and turn it into the yelling contest you speak of, and the thread will get shut down. Seems like this would make it too easy for users to control moderators.

[robilar5500]

Originally posted by Robineus:

Originally posted by robilar5500:

Every hole is a goal.

You should be less angry about games and just enjoy them as they are. Stress is the silent killer.

I'm not really sure what it's like to move through the world not having an opinion about anything or any kind of standards at all but that seems really boring to me.

I wouldn't call video games a life. More like a distraction. I do know for sure that getting bent out of shape over the minutia of a game isn't healthy.

[tmaddox]

Originally posted by Robineus:

Originally posted by robilar5500:

Every hole is a goal.

You should be less angry about games and just enjoy them as they are. Stress is the silent killer.

I'm not really sure what it's like to move through the world not having an opinion about anything or any kind of standards at all but that seems really boring to me.

You can "enjoy them as they are" and still have opinions.

I have plenty of opinions but I have learned over my many years that I don't need to shout them from the rooftops in an attempt to get everyone to agree with me or validate that opinion.