stagermonkey said:
Silver said:
I'd love to see the results of this survery when it's done. I don't think it's designed very well, in some places, with no appropriate answers, or misleading answers, but the results could still be important to me. I doubt I'd change any design decisions though, even if everyone who answered wanted homosexual content banned from games
Wow, that was exaclty the kind of conversation I was looking for. I'm really curious as to your design thoughts. Where do you feel it fell short? Was it something that was over looked or poor options for choices? Was there an area you would have liked to see explored more? What would you ahve changed?
Well, this might be a minor quirk, but I'm a transsexual (male to female, lesbian). There is no guideline for what gender option I should pick, I consider myself female, of course, but many people don't. Either adding a note about that, or another option would be helpful, especially when it concerns issues close to this.
(I had to take it again now, so sorry for throwing off your readings a bit, to check the specific questions)
Having someone rank options look good in statistics, but it rarely gives an accurate view of what people think. This comes up a lot of times, with playstyle, genre, and other things. When ranked against each other, you can't really tell anything. Sure, it gives you an exact answer in the survey, but it's not applicable outside of it.
For example, if given the options: Obama, Hitler, Mao and Stalin, an individual ranking might be Obama=Great, Mao, Hitler, Stalin=Horrible. If you have to rank them onlycompared to each other, one of those three would get the second place, and the jump between each one would be equally big. I know this example is extreme, but it gets the point across.
For a more specific example, in the survery, the genre question. I don't care what genre a game is, usually. I play games of all genres, EXCEPT three, I don't play mmo's, I don't play sports games, and I don't play rythm games. At all. If I could, I'd put those three at 10, and the rest at 1 (okay, racing might be at 3, or something), since that would be a more accurate representation.
You had that with some questions, I know, but it still feels like it'd easily throw the statistics off.
Also, when judging sexual content of any kind, I'd see it as important to determine what kind of sexual content. Is it part of the story, is it interactive, is it in any way personal (as in Mass effect, as opposed to Fable). I'd also say it's important to determine if it's homosexual content people are against, or sexual content/relationships at all. I know there was one question sort of about that, but it should be explored more.
I'd want to know if people think differently of homosexual content like it's presented in Fable, where it has no bearing on anything, and you don't do anything yourself, compared to how it's presented in Jade Empire, where you have to actively pursue a relationship, and where your lover (no matter the gender) will change their decisions, and change the endgame, if you hooked up with them.
Homosexual content in and off itself also doesn't really mean anything. HOW that content is portrayed is important, and what it is. A game based on bashing gay people because they're gay would include homosexual content, but it wouldn't be high on my list of recommendations. It's also important to determine how it compares to the rest of the game, if it fills a function at all. The content in Fable doesn't really mean anything. You can only hook up with the blandest characters that exist, they don't even have a single unique line of dialogue among them, or even a unique character model. You get a note on your character sheet, and you get a number for how many times you've gotten laid. There is no emotion. You could hook up with a tree for the same result. That it's a same-sex relationship has no impact. There's also the matter that the ONLY homosexual relationship in the game is the one between the player and their dearly beloved, and that's something not only Fable is guilty of.
What would be interesting is how people were to react to a game where it actually had an impact, where your relationship was with an established character, where you interacted with other same-sex couples, or people interested in such a relationship. How issues with such a relationship was portrayed in-game. While it can be nice to escape reality and live in a non-judgemental world for a while, gaming is an artform especially well suited to try on someone else's shoes. What would the reaction be to playing a gay character discriminated against for being in such a relationship? Or the opposite, making homosexuality the norm, to show straight people what it can be like?
The amount of mature themes is important to determine, is homosexual content okay if it's completely hidden, with no effects (like Fable)? Is homosexual content okay if it's more explicit, and personal (like Mass effect)? Would it be okay if it carried with it conseqences, if it changed the content, and playing experience?
I'd add some note about just exactly WHAT the Other boxes were there for. Is it for adding other games not listed, a comment on the question itself, etc.
Sorry, I'm beginning to rant here, and I think I've started to repeat myself a bit. I've been staring at the screen for too long
I hope you get something out of my post anyway.
