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sleep don't pacify us until
daybreak sky lights up the grid we live in
dizzy when we talk so fast
fields of numbers streamin' past
daybreak sky lights up the grid we live in
dizzy when we talk so fast
fields of numbers streamin' past
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Race and Gender in Games
author=alterego
This is not so much about "marginalized people" or the "X or Y experience". This has more to do with the political inclinations of certain people. And guess what? Not everybody shares your politics! So of course things are bound to get feisty.
'black people exist' is not a political inclination. treating the topic of representation as though we're all just well-off white guys debating our preferences with regards to imaginary fantasy people is really bizarre.
Wow, even the people that I haven’t seen in years that are in my dreams are all on their cellphones
Race and Gender in Games
oh, it totally does happen either way! I'm mostly saying that while going 'my creative freedom!' in response to mechanical, visual, or literary criticism is generally thought of as a bad move, using that fallacy to shoot down any socially-themed crit is much more widely accepted even though the message in all cases is the same (this is a weakness in games, and here's how you might improve it).
it's weird.
e: Jeroen, there are tactful and tactless ways to give criticism no matter the subject. I feel like people are way more justified in their anger around issues of representation, though, than they would be for things like sprite palettes and encounter rates. it's something that has effects on the real world and the way people see it.
the big thing is that criticism is a two-way street -- the critic has to speak in good faith, and the recipient has to make an effort to put their discomfort aside and think about what the critic is saying. if you aren't willing to deal with a little righteous anger on a subject that has a lot of deep emotional meaning for marginalized groups, then that's your own failing.
a lot of the things people say about social critics ~forcing changes into games~ really gives the impression that from the start, they were looking for an excuse to ignore everything the critics were saying.
it's weird.
e: Jeroen, there are tactful and tactless ways to give criticism no matter the subject. I feel like people are way more justified in their anger around issues of representation, though, than they would be for things like sprite palettes and encounter rates. it's something that has effects on the real world and the way people see it.
the big thing is that criticism is a two-way street -- the critic has to speak in good faith, and the recipient has to make an effort to put their discomfort aside and think about what the critic is saying. if you aren't willing to deal with a little righteous anger on a subject that has a lot of deep emotional meaning for marginalized groups, then that's your own failing.
a lot of the things people say about social critics ~forcing changes into games~ really gives the impression that from the start, they were looking for an excuse to ignore everything the critics were saying.
What are you thinking about right now?
Race and Gender in Games
it's ridiculous and childish to drive the idea that criticism is 'forcing' anything on anyone. I see this all the time in these discussions: people are okay with this kind of criticism in theory, but once people start bringing up specific examples they pretend that someone is holding a gun to their head. they agree that things should be better, but only as long as they don't have to make changes, or see any changes in what they're used to elsewhere.
if the subject of this criticism were literally anything else (pillow shading, tileset use, battle mechanics), would you still be accusing people of forcing changes onto poor, innocent game designers?
if the subject of this criticism were literally anything else (pillow shading, tileset use, battle mechanics), would you still be accusing people of forcing changes onto poor, innocent game designers?
What are you thinking about right now?
it's kind of funny to me that a lot of the people now developing a Captain Ahab-style fixation on censorship were just a few years ago making fun of this same kind of overzealous anime fan anger.
A person at my group chat said that she'll never be tracked down. Guess what happens IF you have a friend that's capable of tracking a person?
What are you thinking about right now?
the cognitive effort people put in to stay mad about this sort of thing is amazing to me
e: like, the actual goal of localization is to create an experience that strikes the audience in the same way as the original. this sounds similar to your idea of exact 1:1 accuracy, but it requires more cultural knowledge and nuance from the people doing the localization. FF14's localization team have been fairly open about their own process, for instance -- their work has involved things like changing certain characters' introductory lines significantly, out of concern that they might leave an incorrect first impression on an audience that doesn't have the same familiarity with certain tropes as the Japanese playerbase. this sort of thing is regularly undertaken by localization teams to varying degrees.
basically, changes will sometimes be necessary to keep the tone and meaning of the work intact for different audiences and their own backgrounds and expectations. these changes are usually small in scope, but removing elements which would take on a horrible cultural context in the game's new locale is hardly unheard of, and far from an inappropriate decision.
e: like, the actual goal of localization is to create an experience that strikes the audience in the same way as the original. this sounds similar to your idea of exact 1:1 accuracy, but it requires more cultural knowledge and nuance from the people doing the localization. FF14's localization team have been fairly open about their own process, for instance -- their work has involved things like changing certain characters' introductory lines significantly, out of concern that they might leave an incorrect first impression on an audience that doesn't have the same familiarity with certain tropes as the Japanese playerbase. this sort of thing is regularly undertaken by localization teams to varying degrees.
basically, changes will sometimes be necessary to keep the tone and meaning of the work intact for different audiences and their own backgrounds and expectations. these changes are usually small in scope, but removing elements which would take on a horrible cultural context in the game's new locale is hardly unheard of, and far from an inappropriate decision.
What are you thinking about right now?
I don't know one way or another, but these comparisons are always interesting to me, even in cases where it's just 'oh, here's how the meaning and nuance in this line changed slightly during translation'.
Legends of Localization is pretty good for that! Very indepth stuff about the localization process from someone who translates for a living.
Legends of Localization is pretty good for that! Very indepth stuff about the localization process from someone who translates for a living.
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