New Call of Duty game let's players be Non-binary

[CriticalGaming]

New ‘Call of Duty’ lets gamers play as nonbinary gender characters, polarizing fans

There are more than two genders in the latest ‘Call of Duty’ game

www.yahoo.com

Apparently you can do this in Call of Duty now. I'm surprised I didn't see this earlier on Kotaku because they love pouncing on this kind of thing. Either way it's a thing.

Neat.

Don't really know what it does for anyone considering it's a first person game and you are basically yourself. Though I suppose having the option means something to somebody. I mean I never even notice the male/female differences in multiplayer, all I ever see is me getting shot in the face.

But hey the option is there, so that'll make the Gender advocates happy maybe. I hope there are rainbow hair options too. Nothing helps you be sneaky in war that having the hair of a vibrant clown.

 

[meiam]

Don't care from the point of view of a game (the again I don't care about physical appearance customization, I just smash the random button and pick w/e shows up). But from a RP point of view, aren't identification paper mostly used to confirm people identity, ie if someone show up at some place where they need to confirm the person identity to cross reference what's written on the card to what the person look like to make sure it's the same? Doesn't giving the option of non binary just make the whole thing pointless, might as well remove the gender part from the paper (flash back to paper please when it was sometime super hard to recognized if the person was male or female).

 

[CriticalGaming]

Don't care from the point of view of a game (the again I don't care about physical appearance customization, I just smash the random button and pick w/e shows up). But from a RP point of view, aren't identification paper mostly used to confirm people identity, ie if someone show up at some place where they need to confirm the person identity to cross reference what's written on the card to what the person look like to make sure it's the same? Doesn't giving the option of non binary just make the whole thing pointless, might as well remove the gender part from the paper (flash back to paper please when it was sometime super hard to recognized if the person was male or female).

I think it's just there as an option for the sake of representation. It's ultimately meaningless at the end of the day, but putting it there doesn't hurt anything either and if makes a few people happy while playing shooty shooty bang bang, then whatever.

 

[happyninja42]

I think it's just there as an option for the sake of representation. It's ultimately meaningless at the end of the day, but putting it there doesn't hurt anything either and if makes a few people happy while playing shooty shooty bang bang, then whatever.

Is this the one that is based in the 80s and apparently depicts people working for reagan ? A guy who would be very against non-binary people in his military?

I mean, cool for ditching the gender norms and all, but I do find it funny to put such a character in a setting where they wouldn't be allowed in the military at all, and possibly beat to death by the unit they are working with behind the barracks for a little "old school" gender education or whatnot.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Is this the one that is based in the 80s and apparently depicts people working for reagan ? A guy who would be very against non-binary people in his military?

I mean, cool for ditching the gender norms and all, but I do find it funny to put such a character in a setting where they wouldn't be allowed in the military at all, and possibly beat to death by the unit they are working with behind the barracks for a little "old school" gender education or whatnot.

I mean that's kind of the similar reasoning as to why people didn't like women in Battlefield V, under the guise of not historically accurate. It's a video game, and you can have a historical setting and still apply whatever progressive ideals you want because the game is fantasy in the first place due to it being a video game.

Now I'm not one for progressive ideals and shit when the game tries to act like they are making new strides in the industry by including a woman on the box or some shit. But this is a tucked away option that isn't advertised anywhere, it's a natural inclusion and nobody on the dev team is waving a big fucking sign pointing at it to score points.

 

[Gyrobot]

I mean that's kind of the similar reasoning as to why people didn't like women in Battlefield V, under the guise of not historically accurate. It's a video game, and you can have a historical setting and still apply whatever progressive ideals you want because the game is fantasy in the first place due to it being a video game.

Now I'm not one for progressive ideals and shit when the game tries to act like they are making new strides in the industry by including a woman on the box or some shit. But this is a tucked away option that isn't advertised anywhere, it's a natural inclusion and nobody on the dev team is waving a big fucking sign pointing at it to score points.

Still bad enough that pcgamer shut down discussion of the article knowing the kind of vitriol it attracts

 

[happyninja42]

I mean that's kind of the similar reasoning as to why people didn't like women in Battlefield V, under the guise of not historically accurate. It's a video game, and you can have a historical setting and still apply whatever progressive ideals you want because the game is fantasy in the first place due to it being a video game.

Oh I'm personally fine with them doing it, I just...I guess it's the fact that I work with veterans, and have heard a lot of tales about the horrific shit that happened (and still does to some degree) behind the uniform. So when I see a game set in one of the shittiest decades say "hey we've got non-binary!" the gamer in me is like "ok cool, good for everyone that wants to play that kind of hero" but the other side of me is like "...yeah....now I'm just picturing the misogynistic shit such a character would actually experience if they were actually serving in that time period." I'm sure it's probably going to lionize reagan as some bastion of democracy and freedom, and the squad is going to be his champions of american virtue or whatever jingoesque bullshit they will drum up, which just sets my teeth on edge in itself, regardless of how a non-binary would actually be treated in that squad at that time under that administration.

Granted I found the idea of going back to the reagan era to be questionable before I'd heard of the non-binary thing, but then, this is CoD so I don't really expect anything really from the franchise other than "whatever thing we think will net us the most money"

 

[Houseman]

mean that's kind of the similar reasoning as to why people didn't like women in Battlefield V, under the guise of not historically accurate. It's a video game, and you can have a historical setting and still apply whatever progressive ideals you want because the game is fantasy in the first place due to it being a video game.

Like I said in the other thread, I'm of the opinion that injecting ideals that weren't present into a historical time period is propaganda. Personally, I find it disrespectful of the people that lived it, as if they can just pretend that things were as they are now.

If you're going to do that, just go all the way and EXPLICITLY make it a Alternate Universe. Make it clear that, in this timeline, your gender or sexual preference doesn't matter because Alan Turing and the NASA women became activists or something. Cowards.

EDIT:
Seems like your character is in the CIA, not the military, and the first female CIA agent was in 1975, so depending on the time period the game is set in, it could be fine.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Like I said in the other thread, I'm of the opinion that injecting ideals that weren't present into a historical time period is propaganda. Personally, I find it disrespectful of the people that lived it, as if they can just pretend that things were as they are now.

I don't think Propaganda means what you think it means.

Alternate history has been a thing since Fiction was created. And people right alternate timelines and historical pieces all the time.

Nobody lived through a fucking Call of Duty campaign, and even if you wanna argue that real people go to war. Then chances are non-binary people went to war before they had a word for being non-binary. Gender fluidity has been a thing since at least ancient Rome, so don't try to play the historical accuracy card because it makes you look stupid.

 

[happyninja42]

I don't think Propaganda means what you think it means.

Inconceivable!

 

[Worgen]

If you're going to do that, just go all the way and EXPLICITLY make it a Alternate Universe. Make it clear that, in this timeline, your gender or sexual preference doesn't matter because Alan Turing and the NASA women became activists or something. Cowards.

You mean instead of kinda being ignored or killing himself because of the chemical castration after being convicted of being gay?

 

[Buyetyen]

Enby representation is always good.

 

[Houseman]

Alternate history has been a thing since Fiction was created.

I know, that's why I said: "If you're going to do that, just go all the way and EXPLICITLY make it a Alternate Universe"

I'm fine with changes in explicit alternate histories, not "the secret truths behind the history you know" stories.

Then chances are non-binary people went to war before they had a word for being non-binary.

If so, they didn't explicitly mark it down on whatever questionnaire they filled out, as in the game. They had to select one, and god help you if what you marked didn't match what you looked like. Pretending it was otherwise is cowardly and disrespectful.

You mean instead of kinda being ignored or killing himself because of the chemical castration after being convicted of being gay?

Yes, exactly.

 

[CriticalGaming]

"If you're going to do that, just go all the way and EXPLICITLY make it a Alternate Universe"

I thought the fact that this is a FICTIONAL video game would have made that clear enough for you.

 

[happyninja42]

I know, that's why I said: "If you're going to do that, just go all the way and EXPLICITLY make it a Alternate Universe"

It's a franchise that had an open fucking nuclear explosion in a populated area in it's history outside of WW II in Japan. I don't know how much more "alternate history" you can declare yourself than to do something like that.

I mean I'm assuming the CoD franchise has some overarcing metaplot, and aren't just isolated stories with no connective tissue to the other titles. I've never actually played any of them because I find them to be really bland looking games. But I mean seriously, why even expect them to be historically accurate when the events they depict didn't actually happen from the ground up? Reagan never sent a team of dudes into Whateverstan McRussiaburg (because of course it's going to be a cold war related event) to stop some kind of nuclear threat, but that's the premise of the game, so it's showing it's "alternate history" flag in the fucking trailer.

 

[Houseman]

I thought the fact that this is a FICTIONAL video game would have made that clear enough for you.

Not all historical fiction is Alternate Universe.

For example, this game would be an example of "The hidden story behind the history you know".

 

[happyninja42]

Not all historical fiction is Alternate Universe.

For example, this game would be an example of "The hidden story behind the history you know".

And how is that any less a declaration of "this is bullshit we made up so we could have a CoD game based in the 80s" alternate history?

 

[CriticalGaming]

Not all historical fiction is Alternate Universe.

For example, this game would be an example of "The hidden story behind the history you know".

If you need something like that spelled out for you in such a way then I have bad news for you.......Spongebob Squarepants doesn't live in a Pineapple under the sea, he's not real.

 

[Houseman]

It's a franchise that had an open fucking nuclear explosion in a populated area in it's history outside of WW II in Japan.

What are you talking about? Shock and Awe from the first Modern Warfare? That game was set in the near future (relative to when it was released), so no, it can't be considered "alternate history".

Reagan never sent a team of dudes into Whateverstan McRussiaburg (because of course it's going to be a cold war related event) to stop some kind of nuclear threat

You'd never find out if he did. Hence "black ops".
The entire point of the black ops series is "the hidden story behind the history you know".

And how is that any less a declaration of "this is bullshit we made up so we could have a CoD game based in the 80s" alternate history?

It's not a declaration at all.

If you need something like that spelled out for you in such a way then I have bad news for you.......Spongebob Squarepants doesn't live in a Pineapple under the sea, he's not real.

So you have no rebuttal, noted.

 

[happyninja42]

You'd never find out if he did. Hence "black ops".
The entire point of the black ops series is "the hidden story behind the history you know".

So if the game doesn't clearly state in the opening sequence "this is a work of fiction" you are going to assume it's historically accurate, and is telling you the "secret history" of a period in history? Instead of, you know, just assuming it's all bullshit they made up because 80's is hot right now and they are capitalizing on the nostalgia dollar for another title in a franchise? Sure, that makes sense. Clearly they are slacking in their creative responsibilities to not stop at every historical deviation, to declare for people like you "hey so this didn't actually happen". Cowards indeed.

**EDIT**

You know what, I'll make one concession to your point. I DO think that games should always put the "this is a work of fiction" label on their stuff. But not out of some need for them to justify things like having LGBTQ characters being treated like human beings in time periods when they very much weren't, but because of how many fucking idiots in this world think things like "based on a true story" equates to "this is 100% historically accurate and NO creative license was taken with the facts at all". Because people like that then go out and behave in ways as if the complete bullshit thing they watched is real, impacting other people.

So yes, you are right, games should say "this is bullshit we made up", but not for why you seem to think so.