Gamers, Cyberpunk 2077, and Prejudice
The saga started, once more, with my social media catching fire, with Gamers racing to defend CD Projekt Red against claims of problematic demos. There were 3 different issues with the Press demo, a raid against part of a gang called "The Animals", an Ad featuring a Tran-sexual(?), and a rescue mission involving a naked woman.One of the reasons why Gamers came out in force against CP2077 criticism is that the developer CD Projekt Red is pretty much a darling inn the eyes of the Gaming World. Their games have all been hugely successful, and they have avoided a lot of the problems faced by other franchises and companies. Their games are largely stand alone,(without Season Passes and other online capture mechanics) nothing has loot boxes or micro-transactions, and by all accounts, they treat their employees pretty well. This all means they stand head and shoulders above most AAA developers in the eyes of Gamers and the Gaming Community at large.
The Previous Controversy
Prior to this the last time CDPR got a red mark associated with it's name was when people noticed that there were no Black people in their successful franchise: The Witcher(I, II, III). Now the Fanboys all trotted out the lame excuse "Medieval Europe was mostly white" and I will just draw your attention to the Twitter account @MedievalPOC to refute that nonsense. but the Sh*tstorm quickly died down as such things do and life went on as usual. Unfortunately the new controversy also starts with Black charactersThe Animals
The Animals is a gang that the player will struggle against in CP2077. Their leader is a giant woman(white) named Sasquatch, and their ethos is one of being Powerful and Dangerous like Wild Animals. This is all good so far, but the game-play the press got to experience had the player tackling an all black pack of the gang. The creators claimed this was because the gang operated in a black ghetto area of the city(the other main gang you meet are Haitians named Voodoo Boys), but despite the fanboys and YouTube Gamers pointing out there would be non-black Animals later in the game, I join the concern of anyone who questions if it is a good idea to have your first fight being with black people named Animals.The Poster
A major theme of Cyberpunk 2077 is,(No dah!) cyberisation. Bodies can be augmented, altered, and mixed and matched to suit. This is supposed to be a corporate dystopia, so much of this devoted to consumerism and fashion. And to highlight both the fashion and consumer side of this dystopia there is an add featuring a largely feminine looking person with a stupidly large penis. The ad is for a drink, and the catch phrase is "Mix it Up".I can see where they were going with this, honestly. They f'cked up, sure, but I can see what they wanted. The problem is, once a reporter pointed out how Transgender people might be affected by this, every time the developers opened their mouths, the situation got worse, and worse.
Firstly, they pointed out that the world was supposed to be a dystopia, so the ad just showed part of what a consumerist hellscape could look.
Then, they said, the Artist was Queer, so how could he misunderstand LGBTQ issues?
Finally they told anyone who cared to listen, that the player too would be free to mix and match their body type when they set up their character.
Ghaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!
Strangly nowhere did I see anyone point out what the real problem is with the ad. The Journos recognised it as Transphobic but didn't go further than that. The developer is all arse-about and has some weird idea that Trans = Dress Up. The fanboys get vapours when someone criticises anything they like, especially things they see as SJW issues.
But no one came out and said "You make the world look like being Trans-gender is optional. Too many people today already think that, so grafting a dong on a lady isn't going to help, only hinder. A trans man doesn't want to look like a female with a penis. He wants to look like a man."
The Rescue Mission
Luckily the rescue mission the journos played through wasn't in the same area as the black gang of Animals(I shudder...), and to tell the truth I don't think the problem is with the woman at all, naked or otherwise. I think the problem comes, when you examine what the game director, Adam Badowski says about her and the use of nakedness in the game.“Nudity is important for us because of one reason,” Badowski said. “... the body is no longer sacrum [sacred]; it’s profanum [profane]. People are losing their connection to the body, to the meat. And that’s why we need to use the nudity in many situations.
“You see that there are bodies in the tub, and you need to take care of this woman. But at the same time she is augmented,” he continued, searching for the right words. “She is not clean. Maybe the humanity level is pretty low in her. It’s one of the key themes in cyberpunk. The very first scenes in the original Ghost in the Shell anime show exactly the same aspect. Because where is sacrum and where is profanum in a world when you can simply modify yourself to such limits that it makes you a different kind of person? It’s one of the most important themes in cyberpunk, as a genre.”What I see here is a misunderstanding so severe I almost can't articulate it.
You can show lack of humanity by stripping people down to nakedness?
Modifying the body in any way makes you less human?
The Birth of The Major scene is supposed to highlight her inhumanity?
All this is just so fucked up I can't believe it.
My prediction is Cyberpunk 2077 will be a good game. The mechanics and action throughout will work well and be immense fun. It just won't be a great game. Great games need to have a vision and nothing I see here makes me feel that CD Projekt Red understand what they are creating.
