Timestamps: 1:38 - My history with Witcher 3/CD Projekt Red 4:02 - GOG Social Media Controversy 7:42 - CD Projekt Red Controversy 8:57 - Exploitative in game advertising 12:11 - Poor representation in Cyberpunk 2077 17:55 - Crunch Culture and Six Day Work Weeks 22:40 - Conclusion
@@wartome3196 debate is overrated. It doesn't really solve anything unless you want to hear good or bad rhetoric. I rather get behind a creator who doesn't waste time on debates.
The Quartering: "Nooo you can't unionize the videogame industry that will destroy it nooo" Also The Quartering: "This video is brought to you by Raid Shadow Legends the best selling game of all time"
Creators should think about how the audience is going to react, not just what the original intent was. Their point may well have been "Corporations exploiting trans people is bad", but the average gamer isn't going to put that much thought into it. To them their though process is gonna be "hahahaha woman has peepee, gross" and isn't going to think it through to the intended conclusion.
You can't blame creators for gamers being shallow and stupid - game makes you think about all the issues that happen there. People don't like having shit stuffed down their throats - that's what SJWs should learn.
I absolutely agree, we have this culture of corps always saying “oh we didn’t realize this would result in this”. Ffs they have tons of money and can hire talent but suddenly don’t have the ability of forethought? Product development is all about forethought, they know how people will be affected and they just don’t care. Also anti-sjws are just lazy people who can’t be bothered to think of others so they have no f*#king leg to stand on ANYWHERE.
@@mj2269 I mean, the same can be said about SJWs, that they refuse to understand why people are opposed to them and instead call them all kinds of phobic and isms.
Yes, they come from a place of being inconvenienced and uncomfortable at feeling ashamed over behaviour they should be ashamed about. Discomfort is understandably not pleasant yet this does not compare to the harshness and cruelty endured by people suffering social injustice. SJWs are a far cry from perfect people and some aren't even good. I do appreciate that they faced their discomfort to see social justice done (albeit, at times, over zealously and in a direction no one needed). What has anti-SJWs challenged about their beliefs to ensure better treatment and equality for all...?
Cyberpunk 2077: The game with a fanbase sending gifs that cause seizures to a journalist who mentioned the seizure problem on Twitter to warn people after she had a seizure because of that scene.
As someone (myself) who has worked for a company who makes us work 12 hour days, 6 days a week especially during the holidays, it hurts to see the mass earnings of the games industry but not have them take more steps to better workers rights in the industry.
You can’t expect a corporate structure to improve the conditions for their workers if it means potential loss of profits. Capitalism only cares about unrestrained growth and the continual generation of surplus capital. They would literally pay them nothing if they could somehow get away with it. We need a coordinated strike of developers across all major publishers, like the writers strike. Shut down the entire production and maintenance of the industry until they start giving their developers decent working conditions AND a larger share of the profits (believe it or not, developer used to get royalties for games back in the day. As soon as games started to become a million dollar industry that employed large teams they nicked that in the Bud, even though the developers should be entitled to them just like any other artistic creator like authors or musicians or film makers should. It’s absolute bullshit that they’re getting paid shit wages when games make more money than any other entertainment product today).
I thought the original demons souls has a really interesting system. Instead of having a binary, male female toggle, they had a slider with feminine traits on one side and masculine on the other, allowing degrees of each in either direction or complete neutrality in the middle. I thought more games would start doing something similar to that, but I’ve literally never seen it anywhere else.
I have no problem if people want to play this game. What bugs me is how even some transpeople dig for any excuse to buy it and not feel like they support a company pushing heavy crunch on their workers and making transphobic jokes and memes. If they want to buy it, fine. It's your money and you can do whatever you want with it. But dont make up excuses why it was a morally good choice in the end. They bought the game, they gave money to a company that made "Did you assume my gender" jokes and used "wont be erased" as a pun and never apologized and instead said "We are sorry if you felt offended (we did not).". And the success will very likely encourage them and maybe some others to move to more edgy advertisement campaigns in the future. If people want to support a beacon of good game development, they should buy Hades. Supergiant games treated their workers like humans. No forced crunch and everybody had to take a minimum of 20 days of paid vacation per year. I will give my money to Supergiant. They dont mock me or make puns about me.
Even worse, Someone threatened her life by sending a video of a seizure to Liana Rupert, who saved people's lives. WTF? She is the heroine who saved people's lives. Seriously, if she died, the general public would look at gamers as Nazis.
I find Cyberpunk is rapidly becoming a bit redundant as a method of informing people about the evils of capitalism, these days, as people are becoming more obsessed with the aesthetic, over the content and the subject in question. Not that it's completely without merit, as a genre. Blade Runner is still just as relevant now, as it was when it released in '82, but I think The Outer Worlds is actually a more honest and accurate portrayal of capitalism run amok, as everything is just...shit. There aren't really any gleaming, impressive cityscapes as shown in most cyberpunk fiction, and everyone is miserable from living through the day to day grind. (great vid, as always, btw)
The weird thing with all the edgelords defending them for the one thing, the same edgelords are probably also the ones who sent death threats when they announced the final delay.
@@commandertorres they are also the same people who will have anti-capitalism messages in games fly over their heads and go “heh gun go burrrrrrrr” they do it a lot with GTA when a lot of snark about conservative values, consumerism, and capitalism are entrenched in the world.
Honestly I don’t think he’s a reactionary, I think he’s just an uniformed centrist and in America “center” is generally more to the right than in other countries.
I love the game. It’s honestly really well written, and I actually care about all of the characters. (Even Johnny Silverhand, the bastard.) I’ve played it for hours at a time, and I have the physical edition with a map. (Also there is trans rep, Claire is a trans woman who’s never dead named) But god, CDPR screwed up hard. I don’t think I’ll buy another game from them for a while.
@@TheKavernacle Yes, Claire is the bartender, and she has a whole mission line. I love her. The game itself is honestly just awesome (I’ve cried so much from it; damn Oil Fields), a lot of sweat and time has been put into it. The workers need a union.
I've been saying the game industry needs is arse kicked towards being pro union. So many corporations already try to shit on unions, and with exploitation of the game industry workforce having been a thing for decades, it's needed ever so badly now. The trans issues can be addressed a lot more easily than the horrible issue of worker exploitation..
Time is the most valuable commodity. Unions have shown to not value your time as they demand you go on strike for a measly $2 more that they take from you in the end anyways. Payment is a sign of how much that time is worth combined with demand for that job. An entry level programmer is paid $44,000, and on average they get paid upwards of $90,000-100,000/year.
The video game industry definitely needs unions. Development cycles have gotten way out of control as publishers, in their desire to please insatiable shareholders, push devs well past reasonable limits.
Thanks for making this video! As a trans woman, I was hyped for this game (I'm a sucker for cyberpunk RPGs), but the marketing killed any interest I had in it. Namely because I can't bring up any issue with it without being dismissed as a "crybaby SJW".
Apparently there is a trans character in the game. "Claire is one character who stood out to me, a woman who handles the underground racing scene in Night City. Her narrative arc begins with a fascination to conquer a racing tournament, but ulterior motives relating to her late husband soon become clear, as does her gender transition. Claire confides in V that she is a transgender woman, having decided to become her true self with the help of her deceased partner. It’s a touching gesture, but one that makes her identity a defining character trait, which to me felt lazy. " www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/cyberpunk-2077?fbclid=IwAR351wWpHrZuA3Fmne61nUuiCVWU0MR40nTwSsFQfEIKzBhqD52k92iGlrA To me CDPR don't necessarily have bad intentions but the way they have dealt with these issues has been very clumsy and awkward. They are obviously very uneducated on the subject.
kind of a shame though if they claim to be uneducated about that topic that's been discussed a lot in recent video games. they had so much time and weren't afraid to delay a game.
@@ernieee42 Funny you should mention that. Watched Jim Sterling's video on the subject just today and apparently it's all for show. Virtue signaling at its finest.
Claire is such meme and straight "tragic trans" archetype from 1990-2000s drama movies that it's hilarious, especially when you need to do the worst racing missions with dead AI who need teleport to catch up to you in the most blatant way.
DE is so good, one of the best RPGs of the decade. Seconded on that recommendation, just be sure to look up a content warning first. It's got some pretty intense stuff.
@@BlazingOwnager not really. There are communist characters and it definitely has a socialist theme to it but it's incredibly well written and incorporates said themes really well
Hope the Metacritic, Steam Reviews, and any other major review scores fail to meet the masterpiece level numbers they want, and the game underperforms in sales when compared to Witcher 3, AC Vallhalla, and CoD Cold War (I use the last two for comparison because they where to be their closest competitors that I know off the top of my head)
CoD Cold War recieved some extra points for showing some good will. They needed to record every voice line with the players pronouns three times, to cover he, she and they. Thats more progressive from my view, than putting in genital options. It feels weird but in a good way, that a CoD game does a progressive step including enbies.
@@jasonmatthews52 Give or take yes. However, CDPR eyes for a 92% rating, if I recall, so having a rather average rating is not so good for their set standards
Brilliant video my dude, you provide a solid overview of the controversies up to this point. I epsecially liked your discussion of trans representation and wish more gamers were as engaged as you are 🔥🔥
I think it's gross how channels like G+G and the like give companies like Naughty Dog and Disney so much shit, and turn a completely blind eye to other shady companies like the ones behind Cyberpunk and especially the WWE.
A youtuber I'm keeping an eye on, who denies he's on either political spectrum but shares obivous right wing ideologies, would give both Naughty Dog, Disney, and other shady companies like CD Projekt Red so much crud simply because they aren't Nintendo.
Naughty Dog has got a lot of shit because of boring story and that Abby felt forced into the story very fucking bad. People don't have problems with trans being in their game, but when that becomes an agenda by some virtue signalling developer people get pissed off.
Speaking of LOU 2, it's funny to remember how many people were hating on Abby before the game even came out because they thought she was trans. "There's footage of Abby fighting Ellie and Dinah, so Ellie is going to die" Nope, wrong again.
@@thelivingjed9676 If that was the case then I agree, they are stupid - but you can't later brand everyone who dislikes the game the same way you do those imbeciles, yeh?
@@thelivingjed9676 I mean there was the right wingers but I know there are better reason to not support Naughty Dog such as the way they treat their workers, Neil Druckmann’s ego and a lot more than just hurr durr trans agenda
the irony was it being lambasted as cyberbug and cd project red working its employees half to death and losing its status as one of the good triple a companies in gaming
I own a *lot* of games through GOG. I didn't want to know what a garbage company CDPR is. I wanted Cyberpunk 2077, but it's scratched off my wishlist. Everything about this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Tbh with the choices you actually get to make in the game idk why it bothers letting us pick our genitals and nipple sizes. You never see any of that, your genitals never really matter in the story, it never comes up ever. ... Its like, imaging if mario64 started with asking you how big is your marios penis but then the rest of the game is the same. Whats the point? I mean if anyone feels more represented by being able to mix/match certain elements of your character I'm all for that, but idk it just feels very surface level to me. Though this is far from the only thing in the game that is pretty surface level.
This shows the real problem with games journalism. A lot of it used to be: Is it fun? How does it look? How many hours of gameplay are there? There will always be a place for that, but there also needs to be the kind of critics like Anita Sarkeesian, talking about meaning, messaging, politics and so on. I think it got better, but the Gamerbros defending their Games against any interersting content need to shut up. Just like other Companies, game studios are not your friends. I hope Cyberpunk has some interesting stories, because if they mostly missed the opportunity, to include topics, like gender and sexuality in a meaningful way, they really made it more boring or even failed at creating a decent dystopia - apart from the dystopian work conditions. If they do it right, they could use the current controversies, to weed out some idiots, like that twitter guy, hire some more diverse people and change some struktures, so they won't forget, that epilepsie exists in the future. Also patch that pronouns=voice bullshit. Kind of funny to have Keanu Reeves - star of the Matrix, a movie by transpeople about being trans - and then fail to take trans and nonbinary identity serious. I still think, CD-Projekt Red could improve - at least they are aware of being hypocrits - plz form unions in the gaming industry. I would love to see a game like Cyberpunk delayed, because of strikes.
Actually my favorite character claire is trans and she is treated very well as a character. She is super interesting and has a great side story. Maybe play the game before coming to a conclusion. Based on an ad with a girl dick in it. I can't even understand this.
As an enbie stuck in Eastern European country like I am not surprised. The whole "acceptance" of lgbtq+ here is lukewarm and superficial. I am not from Poland and my country is full on atheist yet we also have weird ass approach to trans issues and same-sex marriage so I expected that Poland that is way more conservative will make a game that is just at best the same superficial shit I see all around myself.
Where are you from? I'm from Czech republic and honestly, your description fits my country so perfectly it makes me wanna cry. One would think that a country who's almost entirely atheistic would be more progressive, but no.
@@Eris_Norregard Yeah bruh, I am from Czech too, čau! :D Feels sad right? Honestly at this point I entirely gave up and plan to move out the moment lockdown/covid ends.
@@VincentDraw To je mi náhodička! :D I should've guessed right away when you mentioned the atheism, cause if I remember correctly, after China we are the most atheistic country in the world. Which is exactly what makes this so weird. When I look at western countries, it's always the religion what's holding back the social progress. So by that logic, we should be the most liberal country in existence. Can I have a question? How does being nonbinary work in our language? Slavic languages aren't exactly flexible, and the only "gender neutral" pronoun is "it", right? So how do you have people talk to you?
@@Eris_Norregard Well I don't really talk to people in Czech to be completely honest and they don't really accept that I am non-binary either so I have to endure the classic misgendering from their side and mine but I do try to at least in comfort with friends or home to talk in something that approximates the English " they"
This is the worst game I have ever seen... Genuinely... It's pathetic on just about every level. It's not even Alpha levels of completed, let alone Beta... It's absurd that anyone is defending it. It's utterly devoid of actual content, and what little is actually present simply doesn't function. I had incredibly low expectations and I'm still blow away by how unfathomably crappy this game is
I think it’s a really well written game. I’m playing on PS5 and it runs fine now. The world is great - combat is so so. Defo not a bad game but needed about another year.
The barkeeper from the afterlife is trans, and quite a relateble charakter. That should not cover the other mistakes in that matter. But its a bit more grey than black and white.
@primepursuit I have a feeling they had more for Claire but sadly due to the numerous cut content, they had to remove that option and I have a feeling that if the game wasn’t rushed, we would’ve been able to romance her and have involved with the story
@@firstlast6398 And other companies like Supergiant Games or Sucker Punch Games are also not our friends. They are also companies who want to make money. But they never made transphobic jokes and puns or tried to cater to the Gamers TM audience.
@@eko6620 TrAnSpHoBiC JoKeS. I mean, there are literally "non-binary" or even binary trans people getting mad that they are misgendered while doing nothing to not present as the gender they prefer and thinking the whole world revolves around their small white middle-class privileged circle of hipsters.
@KenjiAzurai The thing is. The most only see it, when it is too late. EA was also not bad all the time or that greedy monster they are today. They also were a decent company around 15 years ago. They had Burnout, Fifa Street, Dej Jam and a bunch of other games many people loved a lot. Now 15 years later, they are this giant grabbing every cent they see on the way. Dead Space started as a promising franchise...and was later destroyed for the goal of bigger profits. People often forget that the Publishers many hate today were loved companies 15-20 years ago.
Do you think we could ever successfully boycott this industry long enough to cause change? What can the average person outside the industry do to change these practices?
Boycotts only harm small local businesses. And in order for a boycott of a major corporation to be successful you would need to convince upwards of at least five million and erase China's existence completely.
@@fenrisvermundr2516 EA and Ubisoft are small local businesses? Well even if that were the case, I'm not opposed to hurting shitty small local businesses that exploit their employees and customers alike.
Heyy just discovered your channel and great video very insightful, im very conflicted on getting cyberpunk since i do love the setting plus keanu im transgender myself but like i says i dont know i guess when i get the game i will set my expectations low in regards of lgbt representation.
Tlou2 did do better than Cyberpunk at trans representation, although as a trans man I can say deadnaming a character is something that you should avoid. It is something that happens in real life for trans people but it's unfortunately that many trans narratives in fiction use it. Dontnod made a game with a trans character without even deadnaming them in flashbacks. However we absolutely know Naughty Dog crunched, but however they're a larger team so TLOU2 wasn't nearly as buggy as Cyberpunk
@@timnergaard3831 It's when Abby and Lev are climbing the big towers on the second day (shortly before the crane bridge). There's a scene where they are spotted/recognised by some Scars and one of them calls out to Lev using his deadname. It's a very short bit, but it's important because it's how Abby discovers that Lev is trans. They have a brief exchange afterwards which goes: Lev: "Did you hear what they called me?" Abby: "Yeah." Lev: "Do you want to ask me about it?" Abby: "Do you want me to ask you about it?" Lev: "…No." There's nothing wrong with how it happens in context - the Scars are an expressly transphobic religious group so they obviously wouldn't use Lev's post-transition name. A big part of that story is about Lev being persecuted by the Scars for being trans, so it's not gratuitous or anything. I guess there's a wider point about how it should be possible to write good LGBT+ stories which aren't just about encountering and defeating LGBT+-phobic people, but it's an issue with the wider industry as opposed to anything specific that TLOU does wrong.
I've already played Cyberpunk - the same brand, not just the genre - from Richard Talsorian Games more than 30 years ago. With friends from school around a table. It worked just fine, and all we required was the rules book, paper, pencils, and our imagination. No fraudulent, predatory marketing and sales-shenanigans were involved.
At the end of the day if Trans people want more representation you cant yell at people trying to actually introduce them it just alienates future companies from introducing them due to backlash. "Trans being objectified" no shit everyone is objectified who cares people laugh at tits and penises all the time at least they are including you into the party, it honestly doesnt sound like you want to be equal to everyone else it sounds like you want to be put on a pedestal. No one can make fun of us but everyone else is fair game.
There is a trans character (Claire) who is a part of the main storyline, the reviewer probably missed that because the character in question isn’t entirely defined by the singular fact that she’s trans. You wouldn’t know unless you pay attention to passing dialogue or do some of the side quests involving them. Obviously I can’t say if that’s preferable to being more specific considering my subject position as a cisgendered person, but I can say that my trans friends who played through the game liked her character a lot and the fact that they prioritized other aspects to her character over the simple fact that she’s trans. So many games just want to seem progressive in including lgbtq characters, but all they do is make they lgbtq and give them no other meaningful qualities like they do their other characters. I think it’s nice that this game actually has an important trans character who appears throughout the entire game and who’s written with the same level of care as any other character in the game. Personally I think it’s irresponsible of that specific games journalist to not double check themselves before writing a critical piece like that, since it definitely hurt the games reputation with some. I would understand if she was a more obscure character that you could miss. But she’s not, she’s integral to the games main storyline and you meet her more than a couple times throughout the game and at pivotal story moments. A quick google search by the author could’ve turned up that fact, but they didn’t take the time to fact check themselves before publishing a story that I’m sure they knew would get noticed considering the controversy already surrounding the game.
Part of me believes that these Gamer Gaters purposefully put out stuff to be transphobic so they can create more content for themselves complaining about the people telling them that's wrong and bad. I'm still on the fence about getting the game or not.
Really? You can find some people actively being phobic on the internet but those are always few examples that clump together to look like more than they are. I'm pretty sure that the most anger you receive is from the generalization of people as being transphobic rather than from actual transphobes being called out.
@@feferocke I don't get what your saying, but I identify as non-binary, and get dog piled on twitter by people who exist only to harass people who don't fall into cishet normalcy.
@@TheDizzieC Well, that depends on a few things, some of the people i see that get that kind of treatment talk about their gender and pretty much ONLY that, it gets tiring to be constantly preached about especially when it's something you already know of, so a lot of people get sick of it and this being the internet, they lash out because of anonimity. Maybe check if that's the one thing you exclusively talk about, i'm sure people wouldn't mind talking about it if casually but they hate being preached to, people are more than their gender and only hammering on one topic gets annoying.
@@feferocke It's not. I only bring it up if others bring it up, like you did. Maybe you're just terminally online and you think people only talk about their gender all the time because it's the thing pointed out and morbidly focused upon by yourself and others. All the people you complain about, who have something to say about themselves and their identity are actually really cool people, and maybe the reason you can't see it is more of a "You problem" then theirs.
@@TheDizzieC That could be, but who is to say, the problem i mostly see with people like you is that they don't consider the point of view of others and generalize them as, well, bigots. I don't know you personally and i don't use twitter so i can't say for sure what it is you tweet about all day, but your attitude seems to correlate with others. Either way you're always gonna get some idiots yelling at you for no good reason, that's just the internet, i just hope you learn not to generalize because of it.
Re: The controversial trans woman poster, the objectification is absolutely bad considering how objectified and fetishized trans bodies have been historically and even currently, but there's another angle here that also is pretty transphobic about that poster... It shows a trans woman but with very particular emphasis on a penis. This kind of emphasis can be a source of dysphoria for a lot of trans women, and, from an outside perspective, that poster seems to insinuate this sentiment that "hahaha, oh yeah, they dress like a woman but we all REALLY know that they're ACTUALLY a man, see? hahaha!" Like, okay, you can have a sexy trans woman on a poster but why on earth are you emphasizing the one thing she may not consider to be a genuine part of herself???
Considering how isolated departments in CDPR seem to be (to the point even writers had trouble communicating with each other) I wouldnt be surprised if some had good intentions while others were more on the 'lol edgy' mentality.
There is a transgender female character who works at the Afterlife and is into car racing. She also has a tragic backstory with her husband and she’s a really great character. But your point is also correct in the lack of sensitivity towards trans people on Twitter at least. Lev is also a great character in The Last of Us Part 2, and it’s a greater game than Cyberpunk. But I also love Cyberpunk and most of CDPR’s games.
I think the most interesting thing about people saying crunch isn’t bad, is that I think anyone who says that has never had to develop software under crunch conditions before. I don’t make video games but I do write code in time sensitive time frames. Usually I have plenty of time to finish my projects and my company has even been giving us every other Friday off during the pandemic(note: we have been work from home since last March). But when I start running short on time on project and have to put in extra hours, it is the most mentally draining thing I’ve ever had to do, and it’s incredibly stressful for both me and my family. Crunching never feels good , even after you finish. It doesn’t matter that you finished that one project you know? Like, you’re still coming to work again tomorrow, there isn’t a celebration about how you just worked two 60 hour weeks. Work still needs to be done. It’s exhausting and demoralizing.
As a person who wants this game but is more critical of CD Projekt and the reactionary youtubers... I wanted this kind of content. Someone to talk about this kind of stuff and acknowledge that this game isn’t given by a muse but was made with questionable issues
Cyberpunk is transphobic because it has pronouns? It has one of the best trans characters that is a character that happens to be trans and Claire is one of the best characters, not to mention the imagery is everywhere in cyberpunk not just chromanticore the amount of sexual ADS in the game is a lot
I don't really feel strongly one way or the other. You could say I'm confused, because there isn't anything inherently wrong with the imagery, but it lacks the necessary context.
I disagree, I think the game as a whole, the environment in which is was created, and who created it all give context to the purpose, intentional or incidental, of the elements that make a mockery of different marginalized groups.
@@fardsoop8567 I don't need to play it. Other people have shown me everything I need to see. If you didn't pick up on all the regressive crustiness, then you didn't critically analyze the game. There are plenty of articles and forum threads online where gamers decry the racism/misogyny/transphobia/sinophobia/et al., and lay out a complete explanation of why it's harmful and unnecessary, so it shouldn't be hard to do a little Googling if you truly wish to understand. ResetEra had a good thread about it that was pinned for several months. However, if you deny other people's lived experiences, at that point you might be a bad person, yes. Though at least you managed to justify your purchase :p
It did back in 1983 from completely trash games being made but gaming was extremely different back then. It keeps going now because general consumers don't seem to care about micro-transactions or if the employees are being crunched or not. For me, I avoid any $60 game if it's micro-transaction heavy and on the rare cases where I did use micro transactions in cheaper games, I still spent well under $60 on them.
@@mattwolf7698 OK, I didn't mean to include Japan on that list (though I did by accident). Japan makes some good stuff. I was more referring to everything, uh, east of Japan.
I’m not trans nor do I speak for trans people but I have a feeling that the content that you said are transphobic maybe due to cut content especially since it’s already well known that it wasn’t ready and needed a few more years of development. In my opinion, I think the game would’ve had a better representation if it wasn’t rushed cause from the sidequest with Claire, I have a feeling that they were intending to have her involved as a romance character and even involved in the story but was ultimately cut from the game along with other content such as the option to play as an nb character, randomized car chases, even more endings, and possibly more romance options
Honestly I did like the ad when that controversy happened, it made sense especially given their explanation. Having played the game now, still like the sentiment behind the ad but it definitely is a little(a lot) overused in game. Still loved the game, but yeah. Especially since given the explanation of the ad, I thought that maybe there'd actually be some level of trans rep in the game. Or at the very least you might see how that exploitation would affect trans people in the game, maybe through a character you meet or something but ive not met any other trans people in the game aside from myself so 🤷🏼♀️
They don't need to be a plot point to be represented. Im relatively sure theres an entire gang of people obsessed with those types of body modifications and not only that but the game actually mentions hormone blockers in your own character which to my mind is a first that the game genuinely gives lore details on your transition.
Oh nah that's just in the corpo intro theyre hormone regulators but it doesnt have anything really to do with transition of any kind. From what i gathered its more like mood regulators, to keep a level head since youre supposed to be like a corporate agent. But I dont mean to have it be like a specific plot point. I just expected more than "heres the same picture of a fully erect trans woman" everywhere in the city you know? But maybe that's just what I get for expecting :P
I got a question, I'm asking with true good intentions. I know jokes are good or bad, but is there ANY joke (not exactly crude, just play on words, context joke, silly joke, or any joke) not even targeting directly transgender people, but that might be considered as such, that was made not by trans person and that would be acceptable by trans community and person making it would not have to be afraid of being ostracized? I would like to see just one example. As a cis person I really want to be gentle and thoughtful but at the same time I like to make jokes of everything all the time. If someone is really fragile and easily, hm, I would not say offended, but simply sad because of that, I'd rather not talk to them and of them among others at all. This came to my mind first because of this whole 'bulge scandal' in Cyberpunk 2077, and second when I was watching latest season of Big Mouth and they made trans person there so unlikable and repellent in my opinion, so looking down on those ignorant normies (when among cis boys) that I started to wonder is there a proper way of addressing trans person in non-formal conversation at all. I felt like they made gay and bi people there full of personality and didn't afraid how some quite 'brave' takes would have been received but couldn't do the same with trans person as they would probably meet themselves with huge internet rage and massive accusations of transphobia. But maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.
I agree completely. I didnt see anything wrong with cyberpunks representation of trans people. Neither did any of my trans friends. I think their perspectives are just as valid. You can make whatever joke you want as long as you are aware of your surroundings. Anybody who tells you how you feel or think based on a joke must think they can read minds. You do you and I'll do me. I'm glad I'm not the only one I felt like I was an awful person. I know people will tell you to listen, but i simply do not agree with what I'm hearing in this particular instance. I do think the gaming community has a huge bigot problem. But the only time I ever heard any jokes or mockery was specifically from communities that were upset about this. I never even saw a reaction other than the backlash. I saw the ad and had no thought. Just went oh cool its like all the other ads that sexualize people but now it's a trans person. Alright. I didnt think it was mocking at all. It fits the aesthetic perfectly. And claire is an amazing character in the game who is trans. And her character has a great side story. It is just not what people think it is.
@@fardsoop8567 I think similarly, I don't know what is this huge outrage about. It sometimes look to me like many left leaning people (I was always on the left side and fully support trans rights) few months ago (I didn't see it in that scale earlier) trying hard to mimick in real life some cringy 'offended SJW' persona alt-righters created to make common non-political people hate the left. I don't really know the purpose of this and by what means it might be considered good for the community.
I’m trying to come around. I wanna be on the right side of history. I’m progressive. I think. That said- which characters are portrayed in a positive light?
None. This is pointless outrage. The world is inherently exploitative of every single person in the world except for the corps. That is the entire point from start to finish. Dont let people tell you you arent progressive just because you disagree about a specific piece of arts representation of a marginalized group being bad. That is entirely opinion based. It requires a large amount of mental gymnastics to interpret the actual game as having transphobic meat to it in my opinion.
If someone has to apologize everytime a joke is cracked then the world needs some work. If you can't take a joke then grow a thick skin or isolate yourself. I am not going to watch the full video but from the Twitter jokes that I got from this video, I find they were harmless jokes that I actually myself found funny. Sorry to say but if u think this is wrong then you urself are an sjw.
“Broader context” means without context, and most of this from games journalism is trying to make flashy titles that will draw attention and clicks by saying cyberpunk is a massive step back for trans people while it actually just isn’t the massive step forward that no one said it would be yet many expected that, while there were some missteps and some points are understandable for you to gloss over or ignore the other perspective so wholeheartedly was disappointing
I love how when people have an issue with a game, they're always an outsider looking in, who aren't from the country that the game is made in, so they don't understand what the people of that country think, lol.
You know what they should do, have a little screen that asks if your an easily offended millennial and if you say yes to that then it censors out everything "problematic" so this way your snowflake feelings cant be hurt by a FANTASY VIDEO GAME SET IN A FUTURE.
what about the people, who get offended by things, like killing nazis, or normalizing LGBTQ or women, who don't exist as "fanservice"? You can't just censor that. "FANTASY VIDEO GAME SET IN A FUTURE" I hope you are joking. That's the same bullshit as the "It's just a joke" defense. A futuristic videogame could be nazi propaganda, advocating for genocide. I feel like Cyberpunk want's to be taken serious and present a criticism of capitalism. Animal Farm is also "only a fantasy book about farm animals"
@@ernieee42 exactly. Sci-if gets compared to fantasy a lot lately (mostly because of Star Wars), but it’s meant to be a logical glimpse into our future by looking at current issues and showing us how far they could go (at least in a classical definition of sci-if). Also, I only just started the game this morning, but based on the promotional gameplay we’ve all seen, it seems like the “mature” story that a twelve year old edge lord would think up. Again, I’ve just started so I can’t say much at the moment. Mature is a state of mind and personality, not necessarily content.
I won't argue with the parts up to the crunch since there's difference of opinion on things, and I can agree they handled it rather poorly on twitter and social media - but when it comes to crunch that isn't that simple. Most of the workers were working from home during *ordered* crunch, they have got paid for the additional time spent on the game and all workers will recieve 10% of the income from sales divided between them (which for 1000 or so employees is a lot). Besides, I haven't seen too many (actually any) CDPR devs complaining about crunch. And when it comes to an email.. It might just as well be fabricated, I don't think this developer presented themselves by name (Either they were scared that they would be punished or it was fabricated - two possibilities). Bugs - The game people played was before patch that was supposed to remove most of them bugs and glitches.
Nope it didn't. Check the video's on RUclips also bugs are the only complaint There is seems to be lack of cohesive direction with side quests. Combat lacks impact but the later weapons seems to be excellent. Ai can be pretty bad at times. Side quest are great but nothing as remarkable as Witcher 3. Some of writing can come across as edgy for edgy sake (I'd argue that it's part of course so take that as you will). Open world is ozzying with atmosphere and immersion but NPC's can be deadpan and the world can suddenly be empty depending on what your doing. This is everything i got from most reviews. Seems to be a great game just not that end all be all of games.
@@pixelcount350 Haven't played it myself yet, but perhaps you are right, never talked about quality of the game. Just tried to explain that crunch problem.
Timestamps:
1:38 - My history with Witcher 3/CD Projekt Red
4:02 - GOG Social Media Controversy
7:42 - CD Projekt Red Controversy
8:57 - Exploitative in game advertising
12:11 - Poor representation in Cyberpunk 2077
17:55 - Crunch Culture and Six Day Work Weeks
22:40 - Conclusion
Thanks to a recent update if you put these in the description box it'll actually segment and title the progress/time bar in the player for you mate.
gamergate is capitalism both sides of the argument are shit
Unionize the industry.
Yes! Remove the industry's ions!
@@wartome3196 debate is overrated. It doesn't really solve anything unless you want to hear good or bad rhetoric. I rather get behind a creator who doesn't waste time on debates.
The witcher books are really good.
And we need a union in the game industry
The Quartering: "Nooo you can't unionize the videogame industry that will destroy it nooo"
Also The Quartering: "This video is brought to you by Raid Shadow Legends the best selling game of all time"
@@giancarloduncan2104 also also the quartering: 'microtransactions are evil! But capitalism is great!'
Creators should think about how the audience is going to react, not just what the original intent was. Their point may well have been "Corporations exploiting trans people is bad", but the average gamer isn't going to put that much thought into it. To them their though process is gonna be "hahahaha woman has peepee, gross" and isn't going to think it through to the intended conclusion.
You can't blame creators for gamers being shallow and stupid - game makes you think about all the issues that happen there. People don't like having shit stuffed down their throats - that's what SJWs should learn.
I absolutely agree, we have this culture of corps always saying “oh we didn’t realize this would result in this”. Ffs they have tons of money and can hire talent but suddenly don’t have the ability of forethought? Product development is all about forethought, they know how people will be affected and they just don’t care.
Also anti-sjws are just lazy people who can’t be bothered to think of others so they have no f*#king leg to stand on ANYWHERE.
@@mj2269 I mean, the same can be said about SJWs, that they refuse to understand why people are opposed to them and instead call them all kinds of phobic and isms.
Yes, they come from a place of being inconvenienced and uncomfortable at feeling ashamed over behaviour they should be ashamed about. Discomfort is understandably not pleasant yet this does not compare to the harshness and cruelty endured by people suffering social injustice.
SJWs are a far cry from perfect people and some aren't even good. I do appreciate that they faced their discomfort to see social justice done (albeit, at times, over zealously and in a direction no one needed).
What has anti-SJWs challenged about their beliefs to ensure better treatment and equality for all...?
@@mj2269 Everyone has different views for world they live in - I think that most people want what's best for others but in different ways
Cyberpunk 2077 gives people seizures.
Yeah, I read that in the description on Steam
Cyberpunk 2077: The game with a fanbase sending gifs that cause seizures to a journalist who mentioned the seizure problem on Twitter to warn people after she had a seizure because of that scene.
Cyberpunk 2077, because fallout 76 wasn't quite shit enough...
@@wartome3196 the weak are ones who cover CDPR ass.
@@William-Morey-Baker difference is i was actually able to have some enjoyment with fallout 76.
As someone (myself) who has worked for a company who makes us work 12 hour days, 6 days a week especially during the holidays, it hurts to see the mass earnings of the games industry but not have them take more steps to better workers rights in the industry.
You can’t expect a corporate structure to improve the conditions for their workers if it means potential loss of profits. Capitalism only cares about unrestrained growth and the continual generation of surplus capital. They would literally pay them nothing if they could somehow get away with it. We need a coordinated strike of developers across all major publishers, like the writers strike. Shut down the entire production and maintenance of the industry until they start giving their developers decent working conditions AND a larger share of the profits (believe it or not, developer used to get royalties for games back in the day. As soon as games started to become a million dollar industry that employed large teams they nicked that in the Bud, even though the developers should be entitled to them just like any other artistic creator like authors or musicians or film makers should. It’s absolute bullshit that they’re getting paid shit wages when games make more money than any other entertainment product today).
They ultimately did
It's kinda fucked up that Saints Row 3 still has the best character creator for non binary representation (and it was still done as a joke).
I thought the original demons souls has a really interesting system. Instead of having a binary, male female toggle, they had a slider with feminine traits on one side and masculine on the other, allowing degrees of each in either direction or complete neutrality in the middle. I thought more games would start doing something similar to that, but I’ve literally never seen it anywhere else.
I have no problem if people want to play this game. What bugs me is how even some transpeople dig for any excuse to buy it and not feel like they support a company pushing heavy crunch on their workers and making transphobic jokes and memes.
If they want to buy it, fine. It's your money and you can do whatever you want with it. But dont make up excuses why it was a morally good choice in the end.
They bought the game, they gave money to a company that made "Did you assume my gender" jokes and used "wont be erased" as a pun and never apologized and instead said "We are sorry if you felt offended (we did not).".
And the success will very likely encourage them and maybe some others to move to more edgy advertisement campaigns in the future.
If people want to support a beacon of good game development, they should buy Hades.
Supergiant games treated their workers like humans. No forced crunch and everybody had to take a minimum of 20 days of paid vacation per year.
I will give my money to Supergiant. They dont mock me or make puns about me.
indie devs for the win, and CDPR hasn't been an indie dev for quite a long time
Long live piracy!
Hades is amazing. Look, if even Jim Fucking sterling can do nothing but sing it praises, it's almost universally recognized as amazing.
Even worse, Someone threatened her life by sending a video of a seizure to Liana Rupert, who saved people's lives.
WTF? She is the heroine who saved people's lives.
Seriously, if she died, the general public would look at gamers as Nazis.
Jesus, if a full dive death game like SAO comes out, the game industry will be hit hard.
Your post is full of more exaggerated drama than a Greek Tragedy.
Don't worry, gamers are such a persecuted and discriminated minority they'll be gone by 2030 and we'll finally be able to enjoy videogames
I wish
😹😹😹😹
Inshallah
The Quartering encouraged people to harass the gamespot reviewer who gave it a 7/10 and when people pointed that out he played victim.
He didn't encourage that.
@@yoshypl9901 He goes out of his way to harass people (he's made 60+ Brie Larson video's).
@@223Drone It's not harassment - he's commenting on news regarding Brie Larson, he never tells his viewers to go and harass those people.
The Quartering... 🤮
@@yoshypl9901 But he doesn't condone them or tell them to stop, cause he'd lose half his fan base for being a "Libtard"
I find Cyberpunk is rapidly becoming a bit redundant as a method of informing people about the evils of capitalism, these days, as people are becoming more obsessed with the aesthetic, over the content and the subject in question.
Not that it's completely without merit, as a genre. Blade Runner is still just as relevant now, as it was when it released in '82, but I think The Outer Worlds is actually a more honest and accurate portrayal of capitalism run amok, as everything is just...shit.
There aren't really any gleaming, impressive cityscapes as shown in most cyberpunk fiction, and everyone is miserable from living through the day to day grind.
(great vid, as always, btw)
It's the one major concern I had about Cyberpunk 2077, that'd be all surface level stuff.
My only problem with the outer worlds is that the "correct" answer is to let the good capitalists be in charge
John-S
Cyberpunk looks like an outdated game already. They took years to release this thing and this is what they came up with
@@firstlast6398
Lol, it is *not* beautiful. It looks like the old Horizon Zero Dawn characters
Also stupid sh^t? It's my opinion.
Just curious. Have you even played the game?
Because if you haven't I wonder what you are basing your criticism on.
The weird thing with all the edgelords defending them for the one thing, the same edgelords are probably also the ones who sent death threats when they announced the final delay.
I always believe that was the case
@@commandertorres they are also the same people who will have anti-capitalism messages in games fly over their heads and go “heh gun go burrrrrrrr” they do it a lot with GTA when a lot of snark about conservative values, consumerism, and capitalism are entrenched in the world.
Now people who defended Angry Joe before will (probably) see how he's kinda reactionary now at worst.
So you either agree 100% with everything the outrage culture on twitter complain about or you're "kinda reactionary"?
@@DannyDeee Is there a point there somewhere? You're reaching so hard it's funny.
Fucking weak.
Honestly I don’t think he’s a reactionary, I think he’s just an uniformed centrist and in America “center” is generally more to the right than in other countries.
As we all know CDPR is an indie studio and the witcher 3 an underrated hidden gem
SHUT THE FUCK UP
That's how I got to know them with witcher 1 and since I am mentally stuck around 2010, I have to defend them against evil people online.
@KenjiAzurai It's a tale as old as time. Bioware, bethesda, blizzard. The one common theme is capitalism.
I love the game. It’s honestly really well written, and I actually care about all of the characters. (Even Johnny Silverhand, the bastard.) I’ve played it for hours at a time, and I have the physical edition with a map. (Also there is trans rep, Claire is a trans woman who’s never dead named) But god, CDPR screwed up hard. I don’t think I’ll buy another game from them for a while.
I love it ! Haven’t finished yet but feel like I’m getting close. Claire is the bartender I think? Need to do that mission to see
@@TheKavernacle Yes, Claire is the bartender, and she has a whole mission line. I love her.
The game itself is honestly just awesome (I’ve cried so much from it; damn Oil Fields), a lot of sweat and time has been put into it. The workers need a union.
I've been saying the game industry needs is arse kicked towards being pro union. So many corporations already try to shit on unions, and with exploitation of the game industry workforce having been a thing for decades, it's needed ever so badly now. The trans issues can be addressed a lot more easily than the horrible issue of worker exploitation..
I think the japanese workforce needs unionization far more than the WORST of western game developers
@@V2ULTRAKill i very much agree, crunch culture and corporate work culture there in general is extremely toxic.
@@Midekai not to mention animators being paid by frame and work hours being rewarded more than productivity
@@V2ULTRAKill errr I don't think that would be how that works lmao
Time is the most valuable commodity. Unions have shown to not value your time as they demand you go on strike for a measly $2 more that they take from you in the end anyways.
Payment is a sign of how much that time is worth combined with demand for that job. An entry level programmer is paid $44,000, and on average they get paid upwards of $90,000-100,000/year.
The video game industry definitely needs unions. Development cycles have gotten way out of control as publishers, in their desire to please insatiable shareholders, push devs well past reasonable limits.
They literally used the image of a trans person for their own marketing campaign, not even in game but for real. The dystopia is the real world
Thanks for making this video! As a trans woman, I was hyped for this game (I'm a sucker for cyberpunk RPGs), but the marketing killed any interest I had in it. Namely because I can't bring up any issue with it without being dismissed as a "crybaby SJW".
It's so annoying how cancel culture is being weaponised against us. Especially with the reaction to TLOU2
@@timnergaard3831 I really can't tell if this is serious or not lol
Almost all of it is hardcore strawmanning. To my knowledge all they've done is a couple bad tweets years ago and people won't let it go.
@@BlazingOwnager pretty much. With art you have to realize that you can't please everyone
Apparently there is a trans character in the game.
"Claire is one character who stood out to me, a woman who handles the underground racing scene in Night City. Her narrative arc begins with a fascination to conquer a racing tournament, but ulterior motives relating to her late husband soon become clear, as does her gender transition. Claire confides in V that she is a transgender woman, having decided to become her true self with the help of her deceased partner. It’s a touching gesture, but one that makes her identity a defining character trait, which to me felt lazy. "
www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/cyberpunk-2077?fbclid=IwAR351wWpHrZuA3Fmne61nUuiCVWU0MR40nTwSsFQfEIKzBhqD52k92iGlrA
To me CDPR don't necessarily have bad intentions but the way they have dealt with these issues has been very clumsy and awkward. They are obviously very uneducated on the subject.
they should ask ubisoft, if they can have that "Game was made by a diverse team from around the world" disclaimer from the Assassins Creed games
kind of a shame though if they claim to be uneducated about that topic that's been discussed a lot in recent video games. they had so much time and weren't afraid to delay a game.
@@ernieee42 Funny you should mention that. Watched Jim Sterling's video on the subject just today and apparently it's all for show. Virtue signaling at its finest.
Claire is such meme and straight "tragic trans" archetype from 1990-2000s drama movies that it's hilarious, especially when you need to do the worst racing missions with dead AI who need teleport to catch up to you in the most blatant way.
You should check out disco elysium. It’s a lore rich innovative rpg
DE is so good, one of the best RPGs of the decade. Seconded on that recommendation, just be sure to look up a content warning first. It's got some pretty intense stuff.
@Gice Rum a very good one
@Gice Rum mac and pc currently but I heard it might make it’s way to consoles early next year
Everyone I hear talk about that game just jacks off about how you can be a communist in it. Makes me sort of doubt the claims of quality.
@@BlazingOwnager not really. There are communist characters and it definitely has a socialist theme to it but it's incredibly well written and incorporates said themes really well
Hope the Metacritic, Steam Reviews, and any other major review scores fail to meet the masterpiece level numbers they want, and the game underperforms in sales when compared to Witcher 3, AC Vallhalla, and CoD Cold War (I use the last two for comparison because they where to be their closest competitors that I know off the top of my head)
Isn't it currently at a 71% on Steam?
CoD Cold War recieved some extra points for showing some good will.
They needed to record every voice line with the players pronouns three times, to cover he, she and they.
Thats more progressive from my view, than putting in genital options.
It feels weird but in a good way, that a CoD game does a progressive step including enbies.
@@jasonmatthews52 Give or take yes. However, CDPR eyes for a 92% rating, if I recall, so having a rather average rating is not so good for their set standards
Brilliant video my dude, you provide a solid overview of the controversies up to this point. I epsecially liked your discussion of trans representation and wish more gamers were as engaged as you are 🔥🔥
I think it's gross how channels like G+G and the like give companies like Naughty Dog and Disney so much shit, and turn a completely blind eye to other shady companies like the ones behind Cyberpunk and especially the WWE.
A youtuber I'm keeping an eye on, who denies he's on either political spectrum but shares obivous right wing ideologies, would give both Naughty Dog, Disney, and other shady companies like CD Projekt Red so much crud simply because they aren't Nintendo.
Naughty Dog has got a lot of shit because of boring story and that Abby felt forced into the story very fucking bad. People don't have problems with trans being in their game, but when that becomes an agenda by some virtue signalling developer people get pissed off.
Speaking of LOU 2, it's funny to remember how many people were hating on Abby before the game even came out because they thought she was trans.
"There's footage of Abby fighting Ellie and Dinah, so Ellie is going to die"
Nope, wrong again.
@@thelivingjed9676 If that was the case then I agree, they are stupid - but you can't later brand everyone who dislikes the game the same way you do those imbeciles, yeh?
@@thelivingjed9676 I mean there was the right wingers but I know there are better reason to not support Naughty Dog such as the way they treat their workers, Neil Druckmann’s ego and a lot more than just hurr durr trans agenda
the irony was it being lambasted as cyberbug and cd project red working its employees half to death and losing its status as one of the good triple a companies in gaming
I own a *lot* of games through GOG. I didn't want to know what a garbage company CDPR is.
I wanted Cyberpunk 2077, but it's scratched off my wishlist. Everything about this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Tbh with the choices you actually get to make in the game idk why it bothers letting us pick our genitals and nipple sizes. You never see any of that, your genitals never really matter in the story, it never comes up ever. ... Its like, imaging if mario64 started with asking you how big is your marios penis but then the rest of the game is the same. Whats the point? I mean if anyone feels more represented by being able to mix/match certain elements of your character I'm all for that, but idk it just feels very surface level to me. Though this is far from the only thing in the game that is pretty surface level.
This shows the real problem with games journalism. A lot of it used to be: Is it fun? How does it look? How many hours of gameplay are there? There will always be a place for that, but there also needs to be the kind of critics like Anita Sarkeesian, talking about meaning, messaging, politics and so on. I think it got better, but the Gamerbros defending their Games against any interersting content need to shut up. Just like other Companies, game studios are not your friends.
I hope Cyberpunk has some interesting stories, because if they mostly missed the opportunity, to include topics, like gender and sexuality in a meaningful way, they really made it more boring or even failed at creating a decent dystopia - apart from the dystopian work conditions. If they do it right, they could use the current controversies, to weed out some idiots, like that twitter guy, hire some more diverse people and change some struktures, so they won't forget, that epilepsie exists in the future. Also patch that pronouns=voice bullshit.
Kind of funny to have Keanu Reeves - star of the Matrix, a movie by transpeople about being trans - and then fail to take trans and nonbinary identity serious. I still think, CD-Projekt Red could improve - at least they are aware of being hypocrits - plz form unions in the gaming industry. I would love to see a game like Cyberpunk delayed, because of strikes.
I'm pretty sure Anita Sarkisian is a fraud.
Actually my favorite character claire is trans and she is treated very well as a character. She is super interesting and has a great side story. Maybe play the game before coming to a conclusion. Based on an ad with a girl dick in it. I can't even understand this.
As an enbie stuck in Eastern European country like I am not surprised. The whole "acceptance" of lgbtq+ here is lukewarm and superficial. I am not from Poland and my country is full on atheist yet we also have weird ass approach to trans issues and same-sex marriage so I expected that Poland that is way more conservative will make a game that is just at best the same superficial shit I see all around myself.
Good luck to you fellow enbie 👍
Where are you from? I'm from Czech republic and honestly, your description fits my country so perfectly it makes me wanna cry. One would think that a country who's almost entirely atheistic would be more progressive, but no.
@@Eris_Norregard Yeah bruh, I am from Czech too, čau! :D Feels sad right? Honestly at this point I entirely gave up and plan to move out the moment lockdown/covid ends.
@@VincentDraw To je mi náhodička! :D I should've guessed right away when you mentioned the atheism, cause if I remember correctly, after China we are the most atheistic country in the world. Which is exactly what makes this so weird. When I look at western countries, it's always the religion what's holding back the social progress. So by that logic, we should be the most liberal country in existence.
Can I have a question? How does being nonbinary work in our language? Slavic languages aren't exactly flexible, and the only "gender neutral" pronoun is "it", right? So how do you have people talk to you?
@@Eris_Norregard Well I don't really talk to people in Czech to be completely honest and they don't really accept that I am non-binary either so I have to endure the classic misgendering from their side and mine but I do try to at least in comfort with friends or home to talk in something that approximates the English " they"
This is the worst game I have ever seen... Genuinely... It's pathetic on just about every level. It's not even Alpha levels of completed, let alone Beta... It's absurd that anyone is defending it. It's utterly devoid of actual content, and what little is actually present simply doesn't function. I had incredibly low expectations and I'm still blow away by how unfathomably crappy this game is
I think it’s a really well written game. I’m playing on PS5 and it runs fine now. The world is great - combat is so so. Defo not a bad game but needed about another year.
Preach, I was expecting tragedy but not Chernobyl.
This is such a hilarious launch. Thanks for covering it
The barkeeper from the afterlife is trans, and quite a relateble charakter.
That should not cover the other mistakes in that matter. But its a bit more grey than black and white.
@primepursuit true that
@primepursuit I have a feeling they had more for Claire but sadly due to the numerous cut content, they had to remove that option and I have a feeling that if the game wasn’t rushed, we would’ve been able to romance her and have involved with the story
CDPR just gets worse the more I learn about them
@@firstlast6398 And other companies like Supergiant Games or Sucker Punch Games are also not our friends. They are also companies who want to make money.
But they never made transphobic jokes and puns or tried to cater to the Gamers TM audience.
@@eko6620 TrAnSpHoBiC JoKeS. I mean, there are literally "non-binary" or even binary trans people getting mad that they are misgendered while doing nothing to not present as the gender they prefer and thinking the whole world revolves around their small white middle-class privileged circle of hipsters.
@KenjiAzurai The thing is. The most only see it, when it is too late.
EA was also not bad all the time or that greedy monster they are today.
They also were a decent company around 15 years ago.
They had Burnout, Fifa Street, Dej Jam and a bunch of other games many people loved a lot.
Now 15 years later, they are this giant grabbing every cent they see on the way.
Dead Space started as a promising franchise...and was later destroyed for the goal of bigger profits.
People often forget that the Publishers many hate today were loved companies 15-20 years ago.
Do you think we could ever successfully boycott this industry long enough to cause change? What can the average person outside the industry do to change these practices?
Never preorder.
@@timnergaard3831 In fact don't even buy AAA games.
Boycotts only harm small local businesses.
And in order for a boycott of a major corporation to be successful you would need to convince upwards of at least five million and erase China's existence completely.
@@fenrisvermundr2516 EA and Ubisoft are small local businesses? Well even if that were the case, I'm not opposed to hurting shitty small local businesses that exploit their employees and customers alike.
@@shazang0 sounds like you aren't for the little man then. Small business are benefit the working class
Thank you for making this, I really appreciate it. Subbed :)
The only thing I liked about cyberpunk was the fact it made incels mad they couldn't romance a lesbian character
Heyy just discovered your channel and great video very insightful, im very conflicted on getting cyberpunk since i do love the setting plus keanu im transgender myself but like i says i dont know i guess when i get the game i will set my expectations low in regards of lgbt representation.
Poor keanu...
Doesn't deserve this...
Tlou2 did do better than Cyberpunk at trans representation, although as a trans man I can say deadnaming a character is something that you should avoid. It is something that happens in real life for trans people but it's unfortunately that many trans narratives in fiction use it. Dontnod made a game with a trans character without even deadnaming them in flashbacks.
However we absolutely know Naughty Dog crunched, but however they're a larger team so TLOU2 wasn't nearly as buggy as Cyberpunk
dEaDnAmiNg
@@_blank-_ LMAOOOO
When was Lev deadnamed? I don't remember that happening. Was it in a bad context or was it a critique of deadnaming.
@@timnergaard3831 It's when Abby and Lev are climbing the big towers on the second day (shortly before the crane bridge). There's a scene where they are spotted/recognised by some Scars and one of them calls out to Lev using his deadname. It's a very short bit, but it's important because it's how Abby discovers that Lev is trans. They have a brief exchange afterwards which goes:
Lev: "Did you hear what they called me?"
Abby: "Yeah."
Lev: "Do you want to ask me about it?"
Abby: "Do you want me to ask you about it?"
Lev: "…No."
There's nothing wrong with how it happens in context - the Scars are an expressly transphobic religious group so they obviously wouldn't use Lev's post-transition name. A big part of that story is about Lev being persecuted by the Scars for being trans, so it's not gratuitous or anything.
I guess there's a wider point about how it should be possible to write good LGBT+ stories which aren't just about encountering and defeating LGBT+-phobic people, but it's an issue with the wider industry as opposed to anything specific that TLOU does wrong.
@@videogamenostalgia ah right. I remember now. Yeah with context there's nothing wrong with that.
I've already played Cyberpunk - the same brand, not just the genre - from Richard Talsorian Games more than 30 years ago. With friends from school around a table. It worked just fine, and all we required was the rules book, paper, pencils, and our imagination. No fraudulent, predatory marketing and sales-shenanigans were involved.
At the end of the day if Trans people want more representation you cant yell at people trying to actually introduce them it just alienates future companies from introducing them due to backlash. "Trans being objectified" no shit everyone is objectified who cares people laugh at tits and penises all the time at least they are including you into the party, it honestly doesnt sound like you want to be equal to everyone else it sounds like you want to be put on a pedestal. No one can make fun of us but everyone else is fair game.
There is a trans character (Claire) who is a part of the main storyline, the reviewer probably missed that because the character in question isn’t entirely defined by the singular fact that she’s trans. You wouldn’t know unless you pay attention to passing dialogue or do some of the side quests involving them. Obviously I can’t say if that’s preferable to being more specific considering my subject position as a cisgendered person, but I can say that my trans friends who played through the game liked her character a lot and the fact that they prioritized other aspects to her character over the simple fact that she’s trans. So many games just want to seem progressive in including lgbtq characters, but all they do is make they lgbtq and give them no other meaningful qualities like they do their other characters. I think it’s nice that this game actually has an important trans character who appears throughout the entire game and who’s written with the same level of care as any other character in the game. Personally I think it’s irresponsible of that specific games journalist to not double check themselves before writing a critical piece like that, since it definitely hurt the games reputation with some. I would understand if she was a more obscure character that you could miss. But she’s not, she’s integral to the games main storyline and you meet her more than a couple times throughout the game and at pivotal story moments. A quick google search by the author could’ve turned up that fact, but they didn’t take the time to fact check themselves before publishing a story that I’m sure they knew would get noticed considering the controversy already surrounding the game.
Pacman is the most inclusive game and yet there are only 4 colors of ghosts, but still better than super Mario where all ghosts are white
CDPR is so dedicated to a dystopian future, they're working to create it now!
Part of me believes that these Gamer Gaters purposefully put out stuff to be transphobic so they can create more content for themselves complaining about the people telling them that's wrong and bad.
I'm still on the fence about getting the game or not.
Really? You can find some people actively being phobic on the internet but those are always few examples that clump together to look like more than they are. I'm pretty sure that the most anger you receive is from the generalization of people as being transphobic rather than from actual transphobes being called out.
@@feferocke I don't get what your saying, but I identify as non-binary, and get dog piled on twitter by people who exist only to harass people who don't fall into cishet normalcy.
@@TheDizzieC Well, that depends on a few things, some of the people i see that get that kind of treatment talk about their gender and pretty much ONLY that, it gets tiring to be constantly preached about especially when it's something you already know of, so a lot of people get sick of it and this being the internet, they lash out because of anonimity. Maybe check if that's the one thing you exclusively talk about, i'm sure people wouldn't mind talking about it if casually but they hate being preached to, people are more than their gender and only hammering on one topic gets annoying.
@@feferocke It's not. I only bring it up if others bring it up, like you did.
Maybe you're just terminally online and you think people only talk about their gender all the time because it's the thing pointed out and morbidly focused upon by yourself and others.
All the people you complain about, who have something to say about themselves and their identity are actually really cool people, and maybe the reason you can't see it is more of a "You problem" then theirs.
@@TheDizzieC That could be, but who is to say, the problem i mostly see with people like you is that they don't consider the point of view of others and generalize them as, well, bigots. I don't know you personally and i don't use twitter so i can't say for sure what it is you tweet about all day, but your attitude seems to correlate with others. Either way you're always gonna get some idiots yelling at you for no good reason, that's just the internet, i just hope you learn not to generalize because of it.
thanks for compiling this
Re: The controversial trans woman poster, the objectification is absolutely bad considering how objectified and fetishized trans bodies have been historically and even currently, but there's another angle here that also is pretty transphobic about that poster... It shows a trans woman but with very particular emphasis on a penis. This kind of emphasis can be a source of dysphoria for a lot of trans women, and, from an outside perspective, that poster seems to insinuate this sentiment that "hahaha, oh yeah, they dress like a woman but we all REALLY know that they're ACTUALLY a man, see? hahaha!"
Like, okay, you can have a sexy trans woman on a poster but why on earth are you emphasizing the one thing she may not consider to be a genuine part of herself???
Considering how isolated departments in CDPR seem to be (to the point even writers had trouble communicating with each other) I wouldnt be surprised if some had good intentions while others were more on the 'lol edgy' mentality.
Cyberpunk isn’t transphobic, it’s quite the opposite. One of the best characters in game is a trans woman, who’s got a good back story. Claire
The lady with a trans flag on her car is trans but to my knowlege she's the only one and only in a side mission. This still doesn't justify all this
There is a transgender female character who works at the Afterlife and is into car racing. She also has a tragic backstory with her husband and she’s a really great character. But your point is also correct in the lack of sensitivity towards trans people on Twitter at least. Lev is also a great character in The Last of Us Part 2, and it’s a greater game than Cyberpunk. But I also love Cyberpunk and most of CDPR’s games.
I think the most interesting thing about people saying crunch isn’t bad, is that I think anyone who says that has never had to develop software under crunch conditions before.
I don’t make video games but I do write code in time sensitive time frames. Usually I have plenty of time to finish my projects and my company has even been giving us every other Friday off during the pandemic(note: we have been work from home since last March). But when I start running short on time on project and have to put in extra hours, it is the most mentally draining thing I’ve ever had to do, and it’s incredibly stressful for both me and my family. Crunching never feels good , even after you finish. It doesn’t matter that you finished that one project you know? Like, you’re still coming to work again tomorrow, there isn’t a celebration about how you just worked two 60 hour weeks. Work still needs to be done. It’s exhausting and demoralizing.
As a person who wants this game but is more critical of CD Projekt and the reactionary youtubers...
I wanted this kind of content. Someone to talk about this kind of stuff and acknowledge that this game isn’t given by a muse but was made with questionable issues
Cyberpunk is transphobic because it has pronouns? It has one of the best trans characters that is a character that happens to be trans and Claire is one of the best characters, not to mention the imagery is everywhere in cyberpunk not just chromanticore the amount of sexual ADS in the game is a lot
DONT FUCKING PREORDER ANYTHING GOD DAMN IT
I don't really feel strongly one way or the other. You could say I'm confused, because there isn't anything inherently wrong with the imagery, but it lacks the necessary context.
I disagree, I think the game as a whole, the environment in which is was created, and who created it all give context to the purpose, intentional or incidental, of the elements that make a mockery of different marginalized groups.
@@fardsoop8567 I don't need to play it. Other people have shown me everything I need to see. If you didn't pick up on all the regressive crustiness, then you didn't critically analyze the game. There are plenty of articles and forum threads online where gamers decry the racism/misogyny/transphobia/sinophobia/et al., and lay out a complete explanation of why it's harmful and unnecessary, so it shouldn't be hard to do a little Googling if you truly wish to understand. ResetEra had a good thread about it that was pinned for several months. However, if you deny other people's lived experiences, at that point you might be a bad person, yes. Though at least you managed to justify your purchase :p
@@shazang0 they aren't making fun of Trans people you donut, that's just the fact reactionary edgelords that are making transphobic jokes
@@kaisolomon5187 Nobody can convince me it's not transphobic with the argument "it's not because I say so." Support your argument.
Tried to bring this up to Hasan last month and even he shit on me, and his subreddit raided my post on it. Fucking awful.
Sometimes I wonder why the Western gaming industry hasn't crashed yet.
Because the Eastern gaming industry is shovelware trash?
It did back in 1983 from completely trash games being made but gaming was extremely different back then. It keeps going now because general consumers don't seem to care about micro-transactions or if the employees are being crunched or not. For me, I avoid any $60 game if it's micro-transaction heavy and on the rare cases where I did use micro transactions in cheaper games, I still spent well under $60 on them.
@@BlazingOwnager Not really, most Nintendo and Sqaure Enix games are pretty good.
@@mattwolf7698 But that won't do much will it, since the gaming industry is one of the strongest in history?
@@mattwolf7698 OK, I didn't mean to include Japan on that list (though I did by accident). Japan makes some good stuff. I was more referring to everything, uh, east of Japan.
There is a trans character that's pretty integral to the storyline tho - Claire Russell
I’m doing her quest - does them being trans come up? Just seen the flag so far and she talks about her husband being dead
I’m not trans nor do I speak for trans people but I have a feeling that the content that you said are transphobic maybe due to cut content especially since it’s already well known that it wasn’t ready and needed a few more years of development. In my opinion, I think the game would’ve had a better representation if it wasn’t rushed cause from the sidequest with Claire, I have a feeling that they were intending to have her involved as a romance character and even involved in the story but was ultimately cut from the game along with other content such as the option to play as an nb character, randomized car chases, even more endings, and possibly more romance options
the title of this video sounds like an oxymoron, but sadly, it isn't.
Cyberpunk 2077, because Fallout 76 wasn't quite shite enough...
Honestly I did like the ad when that controversy happened, it made sense especially given their explanation. Having played the game now, still like the sentiment behind the ad but it definitely is a little(a lot) overused in game. Still loved the game, but yeah. Especially since given the explanation of the ad, I thought that maybe there'd actually be some level of trans rep in the game. Or at the very least you might see how that exploitation would affect trans people in the game, maybe through a character you meet or something but ive not met any other trans people in the game aside from myself so 🤷🏼♀️
They don't need to be a plot point to be represented. Im relatively sure theres an entire gang of people obsessed with those types of body modifications and not only that but the game actually mentions hormone blockers in your own character which to my mind is a first that the game genuinely gives lore details on your transition.
Oh nah that's just in the corpo intro theyre hormone regulators but it doesnt have anything really to do with transition of any kind. From what i gathered its more like mood regulators, to keep a level head since youre supposed to be like a corporate agent. But I dont mean to have it be like a specific plot point. I just expected more than "heres the same picture of a fully erect trans woman" everywhere in the city you know? But maybe that's just what I get for expecting :P
Fuck I remember some ppl trying to play down the crunch stuff online. That's messed up
8 hours extra week to be a well paid software developer. If you can't handle that, you're not fit for life.
What if the year 2077 is transphobic though?
Subbed.
Read Only Memories did trans themes right!
Cyberpunk is a bad game even when it works. How did they mess up the cyberpunk themes so badly? More like Neonliberal punk.
I got a question, I'm asking with true good intentions. I know jokes are good or bad, but is there ANY joke (not exactly crude, just play on words, context joke, silly joke, or any joke) not even targeting directly transgender people, but that might be considered as such, that was made not by trans person and that would be acceptable by trans community and person making it would not have to be afraid of being ostracized? I would like to see just one example. As a cis person I really want to be gentle and thoughtful but at the same time I like to make jokes of everything all the time. If someone is really fragile and easily, hm, I would not say offended, but simply sad because of that, I'd rather not talk to them and of them among others at all.
This came to my mind first because of this whole 'bulge scandal' in Cyberpunk 2077, and second when I was watching latest season of Big Mouth and they made trans person there so unlikable and repellent in my opinion, so looking down on those ignorant normies (when among cis boys) that I started to wonder is there a proper way of addressing trans person in non-formal conversation at all. I felt like they made gay and bi people there full of personality and didn't afraid how some quite 'brave' takes would have been received but couldn't do the same with trans person as they would probably meet themselves with huge internet rage and massive accusations of transphobia. But maybe I'm wrong, I don't know.
I agree completely. I didnt see anything wrong with cyberpunks representation of trans people. Neither did any of my trans friends. I think their perspectives are just as valid. You can make whatever joke you want as long as you are aware of your surroundings. Anybody who tells you how you feel or think based on a joke must think they can read minds. You do you and I'll do me. I'm glad I'm not the only one I felt like I was an awful person. I know people will tell you to listen, but i simply do not agree with what I'm hearing in this particular instance. I do think the gaming community has a huge bigot problem. But the only time I ever heard any jokes or mockery was specifically from communities that were upset about this. I never even saw a reaction other than the backlash. I saw the ad and had no thought. Just went oh cool its like all the other ads that sexualize people but now it's a trans person. Alright. I didnt think it was mocking at all. It fits the aesthetic perfectly. And claire is an amazing character in the game who is trans. And her character has a great side story. It is just not what people think it is.
@@fardsoop8567 I think similarly, I don't know what is this huge outrage about. It sometimes look to me like many left leaning people (I was always on the left side and fully support trans rights) few months ago (I didn't see it in that scale earlier) trying hard to mimick in real life some cringy 'offended SJW' persona alt-righters created to make common non-political people hate the left. I don't really know the purpose of this and by what means it might be considered good for the community.
I’m trying to come around. I wanna be on the right side of history.
I’m progressive. I think.
That said- which characters are portrayed in a positive light?
None. This is pointless outrage. The world is inherently exploitative of every single person in the world except for the corps. That is the entire point from start to finish. Dont let people tell you you arent progressive just because you disagree about a specific piece of arts representation of a marginalized group being bad. That is entirely opinion based. It requires a large amount of mental gymnastics to interpret the actual game as having transphobic meat to it in my opinion.
Like asan minhaj has been saying dude
👏
You lost me with "problematic tweet", good grief who gives af what they tweet!! Is the game good or no??? No one has a right to not be offended
If someone has to apologize everytime a joke is cracked then the world needs some work. If you can't take a joke then grow a thick skin or isolate yourself. I am not going to watch the full video but from the Twitter jokes that I got from this video, I find they were harmless jokes that I actually myself found funny. Sorry to say but if u think this is wrong then you urself are an sjw.
“Broader context” means without context, and most of this from games journalism is trying to make flashy titles that will draw attention and clicks by saying cyberpunk is a massive step back for trans people while it actually just isn’t the massive step forward that no one said it would be yet many expected that, while there were some missteps and some points are understandable for you to gloss over or ignore the other perspective so wholeheartedly was disappointing
The Last of Us 2 is overrated.
according to YOU.
@@timnergaard3831 According to me? I'm not the only one that thinks it's an overrated game.
@@jaspermcminnis5538 Sure, but presenting your opinion as objective is just not good natured.
@@timnergaard3831 What are you talking about? I just think it's overrated just like the first game.
Omg too much sjw in this comments
I love how when people have an issue with a game, they're always an outsider looking in, who aren't from the country that the game is made in, so they don't understand what the people of that country think, lol.
You know what they should do, have a little screen that asks if your an easily offended millennial and if you say yes to that then it censors out everything "problematic" so this way your snowflake feelings cant be hurt by a FANTASY VIDEO GAME SET IN A FUTURE.
what about the people, who get offended by things, like killing nazis, or normalizing LGBTQ or women, who don't exist as "fanservice"? You can't just censor that.
"FANTASY VIDEO GAME SET IN A FUTURE" I hope you are joking. That's the same bullshit as the "It's just a joke" defense. A futuristic videogame could be nazi propaganda, advocating for genocide. I feel like Cyberpunk want's to be taken serious and present a criticism of capitalism. Animal Farm is also "only a fantasy book about farm animals"
@@ernieee42 exactly. Sci-if gets compared to fantasy a lot lately (mostly because of Star Wars), but it’s meant to be a logical glimpse into our future by looking at current issues and showing us how far they could go (at least in a classical definition of sci-if). Also, I only just started the game this morning, but based on the promotional gameplay we’ve all seen, it seems like the “mature” story that a twelve year old edge lord would think up. Again, I’ve just started so I can’t say much at the moment. Mature is a state of mind and personality, not necessarily content.
I won't argue with the parts up to the crunch since there's difference of opinion on things, and I can agree they handled it rather poorly on twitter and social media - but when it comes to crunch that isn't that simple.
Most of the workers were working from home during *ordered* crunch, they have got paid for the additional time spent on the game and all workers will recieve 10% of the income from sales divided between them (which for 1000 or so employees is a lot).
Besides, I haven't seen too many (actually any) CDPR devs complaining about crunch.
And when it comes to an email.. It might just as well be fabricated, I don't think this developer presented themselves by name (Either they were scared that they would be punished or it was fabricated - two possibilities).
Bugs - The game people played was before patch that was supposed to remove most of them bugs and glitches.
Nope it didn't. Check the video's on RUclips also bugs are the only complaint
There is seems to be lack of cohesive direction with side quests. Combat lacks impact but the later weapons seems to be excellent. Ai can be pretty bad at times. Side quest are great but nothing as remarkable as Witcher 3. Some of writing can come across as edgy for edgy sake (I'd argue that it's part of course so take that as you will). Open world is ozzying with atmosphere and immersion but NPC's can be deadpan and the world can suddenly be empty depending on what your doing. This is everything i got from most reviews. Seems to be a great game just not that end all be all of games.
@@pixelcount350 Haven't played it myself yet, but perhaps you are right, never talked about quality of the game. Just tried to explain that crunch problem.
The game is broken and is scam worse than Watch_Dogs and almost in Duke Nukem Forever league.
To sjw
🤣 The only people who care about trans issues are super chat collecting SJW commentators.
Man, I'm such an annoying SJW for wanting a certain sect of people to not be denied their rights. Fuck me, right?
Pretty sure trans people care about trans issues.
@@themajesticspider-man6116 📣 Virtue Signal harder!
@@briankenney9528 _Allegedly..._ 🙄
@@marcmacaluso2795 ah youre THAT kind of stupid