(no subject)
Jan. 7th, 2012 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreyI just watched an episode of Casualty where everything happened. BASICALLY EVERYTHING. The only thing they were missing was a zombie uprising and a volcano.
Today on Skyrim, a character stopped my (female) character in the street to say that on a drunken night I don't remember I'd talked her into giving me a ring to marry my fiancee with - which by the way, was more expensive than any other ring I have seen or can imagine in the game - and she was only swayed into giving it to me because I'd been so convincing about how much I loved my fiancee and how beautiful she (said fiancee) was. So apparently my character in Skyrim is a bit gay too. Or, if she was, the people of this medieval fantasy land would be very happy and encouraging about it. I really cannot work out if all of this in Skyrim and Saints Row is just bits of dialogue and storyline they forgot to change for female characters - because they're pretty good at changing other things - or if they genuinely decided that they'd throw in some vague LGBT content. I'm forced to assume that the message is that main characters get the girls, whoever that main character happens to be.
The other thing I do like about Skyrim though, is that they have children in the game. I know it's always a bit weird having kids running around, and there's no need to have them, and it might make some people a bit more uncomfortable about going around slaughtering people, say, if there are kids around. But whenever I'm playing a game with a big, open-plan world and there are no children around, it just makes me think there's been some sort of horrible disaster. The worst one is Infamous, which is set in a big city where there just HAS been a big disaster, and it just makes me think of that Mitchell and Webb sketch about the post-apocalyptic game show, and the episode where the presenter asks a contestant what they miss most about life before The Event, and they said "Oh I don't know, children", and the presenter laughs and say "Yes, it would be a different world indeed if we'd managed to save ANY of the children". It just makes it seem even more horrific.
The main PROBLEM with the children in Skyrim though, is that they only seem to have really done Nord children, who are mainly white. No other races get to have children running around. To the point that there's a race called the Redguards, who look like black people, and there's a Redguard couple in one city with a mysteriously white daughter. Also, despite the fact that the Nords are largely based on the Vikings and most of the Nord characters have Scandinavian-sounding accents, all of the children for some reason have American accents. Like I say, it's still mostly nice, and adds to the realism of the game and world and stuff. But not even bothering to make one unique Redguard child for that couple seems a bit weird. And the accents are just off-putting. So maybe there's still stuff they can tweak if they decide to make another Elder Scrolls game and still have children in it.
I also bought a house, by the way. It turns out I couldn't buy one in Markarth even if I wanted to. I went and spoke to the guy who runs it, and he was all "Blah blah blah, we don't have much land and we certainly don't give away what we do have to STRANGERS". But he said I could earn their trust by doing some work, and to go speak to one of his guys. But that guy didn't offer me any work. I went back and spoke to the guy in charge, and HE offered me work. So I went and did the work, and then came back, and he still wouldn't let me buy a house. So screw Markarth. Except not really. But I went and bought a house elsewhere, and now I have a place to put down all my stuff, yay!
Meanwhile on Saints Row 2, I've started getting a bit money, so I can buy more (customisable) clothes, and I learned that you can just steal any car in the street and take it for your own, rather than having to wait and buy them, and I learned about the car customisation services. So that's what I'm spending quite a lot of my time in the game doing right now. It is wicked though. Hurrah!
Today on Skyrim, a character stopped my (female) character in the street to say that on a drunken night I don't remember I'd talked her into giving me a ring to marry my fiancee with - which by the way, was more expensive than any other ring I have seen or can imagine in the game - and she was only swayed into giving it to me because I'd been so convincing about how much I loved my fiancee and how beautiful she (said fiancee) was. So apparently my character in Skyrim is a bit gay too. Or, if she was, the people of this medieval fantasy land would be very happy and encouraging about it. I really cannot work out if all of this in Skyrim and Saints Row is just bits of dialogue and storyline they forgot to change for female characters - because they're pretty good at changing other things - or if they genuinely decided that they'd throw in some vague LGBT content. I'm forced to assume that the message is that main characters get the girls, whoever that main character happens to be.
The other thing I do like about Skyrim though, is that they have children in the game. I know it's always a bit weird having kids running around, and there's no need to have them, and it might make some people a bit more uncomfortable about going around slaughtering people, say, if there are kids around. But whenever I'm playing a game with a big, open-plan world and there are no children around, it just makes me think there's been some sort of horrible disaster. The worst one is Infamous, which is set in a big city where there just HAS been a big disaster, and it just makes me think of that Mitchell and Webb sketch about the post-apocalyptic game show, and the episode where the presenter asks a contestant what they miss most about life before The Event, and they said "Oh I don't know, children", and the presenter laughs and say "Yes, it would be a different world indeed if we'd managed to save ANY of the children". It just makes it seem even more horrific.
The main PROBLEM with the children in Skyrim though, is that they only seem to have really done Nord children, who are mainly white. No other races get to have children running around. To the point that there's a race called the Redguards, who look like black people, and there's a Redguard couple in one city with a mysteriously white daughter. Also, despite the fact that the Nords are largely based on the Vikings and most of the Nord characters have Scandinavian-sounding accents, all of the children for some reason have American accents. Like I say, it's still mostly nice, and adds to the realism of the game and world and stuff. But not even bothering to make one unique Redguard child for that couple seems a bit weird. And the accents are just off-putting. So maybe there's still stuff they can tweak if they decide to make another Elder Scrolls game and still have children in it.
I also bought a house, by the way. It turns out I couldn't buy one in Markarth even if I wanted to. I went and spoke to the guy who runs it, and he was all "Blah blah blah, we don't have much land and we certainly don't give away what we do have to STRANGERS". But he said I could earn their trust by doing some work, and to go speak to one of his guys. But that guy didn't offer me any work. I went back and spoke to the guy in charge, and HE offered me work. So I went and did the work, and then came back, and he still wouldn't let me buy a house. So screw Markarth. Except not really. But I went and bought a house elsewhere, and now I have a place to put down all my stuff, yay!
Meanwhile on Saints Row 2, I've started getting a bit money, so I can buy more (customisable) clothes, and I learned that you can just steal any car in the street and take it for your own, rather than having to wait and buy them, and I learned about the car customisation services. So that's what I'm spending quite a lot of my time in the game doing right now. It is wicked though. Hurrah!
Tags:
