cassandrashipsit:

bluvixen:

bluvixen:

bluvixen:

Game Modding - For Better or For Worse?



The Bioware Community Discussion Group is back this week, and we’ll be tackling the controversial subject of PC mods. Mods have always existed in games in some form or another and have enabled gamers to enjoy the original game in a new light or to get creative and technical by creating new worlds, new characters, and new stories. While inspiring creativity in some, they have not come without controversy, especially in Bioware games. There are mods that allow users to change not only the physical appearance of a character, to the point of changing their ethnicity, but also their sexuality (bisexuality or “bi mods” and “straight mods”) and even parts of the story altogether.



Are these mods truly harmful to others, or is all the controversy much ado about nothing? Should game mods have standards? Will those standards impede creativity or be considered censorship? Have mods ruined games and the gaming experience? We will cover these and other questions throughout our discussion this NEXT Saturday (November 14th) from 2 PM - 5 PM EST on Skype. Please message me your skype s/n and if you haven’t already, be sure to add me so I can add you to the call.



Please join us for what will likely be a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion! And, as always, message me if you have any questions or want to join our humble group! And as always, please like and reblog to help spread the word!



Talk is THIS Saturday guys and gals! Make sure to spread the word and bring a friend! :)



I didn’t expect I’d have to do this, but given the number of reblogs and typical angry knee-jerk reactions on this discussion topic, I thought I should clarify something:

1. The discussion group does NOT condone the use of any of these mods, nor the mod pictured with this post. In fact, it doesn’t condone or condemn anything. I simply picked this picture off a google search to illustrate one of the more controversial mods out there and to grab attention so we can make more people aware of our little discussion group. We want more people to join in and it’s a worthy topic of discussion.

2. This post was meant to generate a dialogue about this outside the space of tumblr. It was also meant to show BOTH sides of the debate. There are people who think people make mountains out of molehills over game mods (i.e. “If you don’t like it, don’t play it.”). There are people who are truly offended by race-altering and sexuality altering mods of characters and think that they do a lot of harm to the community at large. The topic is supposed to get people thinking. If you feel passionately about it and wish to talk about it with fellow fans, then you’re certainly welcome to join the conversation. This is what the group is meant to do: to provide a safe space outside of tumblr for folks to talk about issues in gaming as well as other topics in the Bioware fandom.

I’m sorry if anyone was offended by the post, but please try to remember that the intent of this post was to introduce a topic and get people talking about it; not to kick the social justice hornet’s nest. If you would like in on this or other discussion topic

Wooooowwww… you really are a special level of clueless. You SPECIFICALLY CHOSE a controversial picture to get attention, and now you’re upset because it got a kind of negative attention you don’t want?

Are you new to tumblr, or just new? I really can’t tell.

The discussion group does NOT condone the use of any of these mods, nor the mod pictured with this post. In fact, it doesn’t condone or condemn anything.



You realize you’ve already taken a stance on this by NOT condemning them, right? You’ve chosen to present this as a neutral issue when it really fucking isn’t. PoC tell you that these mods hurt them, that they find your discourse surrounding them in a form of a “debate” to be hurtful and dehumanizing, and then you roll your eyes and talk about “typical angry knee-jerk reactions.” Do you think maybe the reason we’re fucking angry is that because you NEVER FUCKING LISTEN?

It was also meant to show BOTH sides of the debate.



Jesus fucking christ on a pogo stick, I cannot even with fucking people. This is the same bullshit argument like “oh, well we didn’t see what the 16 year old girl was doing before the white police officer broke her arm in the classroom.”

This is not a debate - this is the erasure and silencing of the voices of marginalized people, and you’re using that erasure and suffering to have some kind of pseudo intellectual circle jerk where you tell yourselves you’re rationally discussing an issue that will NEVER FUCKING APPLY to you the same way it does to those affected.

This is what the group is meant to do: to provide a safe space outside of tumblr for folks to talk about issues in gaming as well as other topics in the Bioware fandom.

All this does is create a safe place for people of privilege to dismiss what people in marginalized groups have been telling you for years. You have plenty of space for that already, it’s called the entire fucking world.

I’m sorry if anyone was offended by the post, but please try to remember that the intent of this post was to introduce a topic and get people talking about it;



Well you sure as shit succeeded, didn’t you? You could have reached out or responded to any of the people who took issue with your post, but instead you post this cowardly nonsense. “Sorry if you were offended by me using this blatantly offensive picture that I chose specifically to grab attention and stir controversy for my own needs, but please remember your opinion doesn’t count!”

Are you for real?

Wow that was a master class in a faux pology. Sorry you were offended translates into sorry people say me waving my ass in the air buck ass naked.

Knee jerk? I got your Knee-Jerk right here. I am a black woman who does not get to see herself in games often. Vivienne is the first black character we’ve gotten in the Dragon Age Series and you want to have a debate on whether these mods are racist or harmful?

Buy a damned clue, they are. They are harmful to every single person of colour who sees themselves erased by white washed mods. They are harmful to LGBTQIA people who see themselves erased in mods that make Dorian or Sera straight.

There is no fucking debate to be had. This isn’t some goddamned intellectual exercise for me or @cassandrashipsit or any other POC/LGBTQIA person who is removed from the equation by these mods.

It shows us the modding community would rather have their perfect aryan fantasy filled with blond, fair eyed, straight people than leave the fucking game as is. For everyone who goes oh well, just don’t get the mod how about this? How about you don’t fucking buy the game if you can’t accept the characters as is?

It’s that motherfucking simple. Stop erasing us, stop acting like we don’t exist or showing you don’t want us to in this fakety ass world that has one black woman in three games and you can’t even let us have that much can you? We get a lesbian and gay man and you have to fucking break that too?





(via thecheshirecass-deactivated2018)