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

Houseman

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Except you just admitted to it by agreeing that the line is arbitrary.
When did I agree to that?

If you're referring to the " Shooting down half the luftwaffe with a single flak gun " statement, I was saying that such a thing has no relation to sexism.

I've got no reason to continue this discussion.
Because you don't have an argument.
 
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Dalisclock

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When did I agree to that?

If you're referring to the " Shooting down half the luftwaffe with a single flak gun " statement, I was saying that such a thing has no relation to sexism.
It's still something unrealistic that breaks immersion. So it just feels weird that sexism(or lack thereof) is a dealbreaker for you in a series where you shoot down half the luftwaffe gets taken down by a single guy with a machine gun.

Yes I am. Works in the "secret history" genre must not deviate from established (recorded) history.
Yeah, remember that time a CIA agent got captured killing castros double, got brainwashed, broke out of a gulag almost singlehandly, escpaed all the way back to the US, killed Kennedy, went back to Russia to blow up Vostok 2, developed a split personality, stopped a massive nerve gas attack developed from Nazi chemical weapon stockpiles, invaded a top secret Russian bunker with a small army?

Neither do I.

THE NUMBERS MASON! WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
 

Houseman

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It's still something unrealistic that breaks immersion
The problem isn't whether or not it's unrealistic. The problem is that it's propaganda.

Yeah, remember that time a CIA agent got captured killing castros double, got brainwashed, broke out of a gulag almost singlehandly, escpaed all the way back to the US, killed Kennedy, went back to Russia to blow up Vostok 2, developed a split personality, stopped a massive nerve gas attack developed from Nazi chemical weapon stockpiles, invaded a top secret Russian bunker with a small army?

Neither do I.
Everything within that fits within established (recorded) history, since it doesn't contradict it.

You thought that was going to be a huge gotcha, didn't you? Sorry, it's not. You simply show that you don't understand what the "secret history" genre actually is.
 

Dwarvenhobble

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Beyond the fact that I have never heard of this person and can find no evidence of their work or any discussion around it, gender dysphoria isn't a neurological condition. Gender, by definition, does not have neurological markers.

There may well be (extremely subtle) neurological preconditions that make a person more likely to experience gender dysphoria, but even that wouldn't "explain" gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria doesn't really require an explanation

And again, what is your ultimate point here? Are you claiming that science has proven that I can't possibly exist? Because if so, that's not very convincing to me for obvious reasons.
The point is with Binary Trans if some-one knows what they're looking for they can find neurological evidence of it.

4bf03712-74bd-447d-a7ca-649c7d1cbde0.png

based on the research if you know what you're looking for then it's apparently very obvious. The main issue is setting up the scanners etc to be able to find it.


His research was aimed at suppressing relatively normal feelings which parents didn't want their children to have, regardless of the psychological damage to them. Let's not sugar coat that.
No.

He's some-one who based on testimony from former patients was very much encouraging of alternative gender expression. Doesn't sound like the kind of person who'd be trying to suppress things that parents found uncomfortable. Hell a lot of his research suggested talking to and trying to understand the child rather than doing what the parents may have wanted.


By "Tumblr activists" do you mean "people on Tumblr?"

I don't really care what happens on Tumblr, to be honest, and I don't think you actually do either.
Well it keeps spilling over into the rest of the internet. Also no not everyone on Tumblr is an activist.


Why is that surprising?

Even for binary trans people, it's not like they dramatically transform as people when they go into role, especially if they were gender non-conforming before.
There can be quite a big change.


Firstly, why are we suddenly talking about children?

Secondly, do you have a citation or more information about this?
Well his clinic did deal with child patients. As for citations I can't point to a specific one but his body of research contains references to his methods etc on most places you can look up published science research.

Have you guys decided on what your actually going to do about it, or is complaining about it as far as it goes?
Wait and smugly say "I told you so" in maybe 10 years time?
 

Adam Jensen

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Are you genuinely implying that the implementation of this simple text change sapped significant resources from elsewhere?
No. If it did I'd be fine with it, actually. This is a cynical attempt at manipulation. It costs virtually nothing and adds about as much. It exists solely to manipulate the public into purchasing the game. Actual game design involves creating fun content for players. But Activision just said "nah, fuck that".

I sincerely hope that no one here thinks that this addition is the result of true sociopolitical beliefs instead of a decision made by a bunch of suits. Kotick is literally a high-functioning psychopath. He doesn't give a shit if you live or die, as long as he turns a profit.
 
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TheMysteriousGX

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No. If it did I'd be fine with it, actually. This is a cynical attempt at manipulation. It costs virtually nothing and adds about as much. It exists solely to manipulate the public into purchasing the game. Actual game design involves creating fun content for players. But Activision just said "nah, fuck that".

I sincerely hope that no one here thinks that this addition is the result of true sociopolitical beliefs instead of a decision made by a bunch of suits. Kotick is literally a high-functioning psychopath. He doesn't give a shit if you live or die, as long as he turns a profit.
I mean, it might be small, but it is creating fun content for players.

On several levels
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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I mean, it might be small, but it is creating fun content for players.

On several levels
Does it though?

I'm not more or less interested in Project Athia because of the protagonist. I'm not more or less likely to play a game based on the protagonist or being able to select my own options. Hell I'd argue outside of some games I trust to do that experience well I see the "Oh you can pick your character" as likely offering me a worse potential story where you end up as little more than a mobile tripod then a character mostly.
 

TheMysteriousGX

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Does it though?

I'm not more or less interested in Project Athia because of the protagonist. I'm not more or less likely to play a game based on the protagonist or being able to select my own options. Hell I'd argue outside of some games I trust to do that experience well I see the "Oh you can pick your character" as likely offering me a worse potential story where you end up as little more than a mobile tripod then a character mostly.
So, Call of Duty then?
 

Terminal Blue

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The point is with Binary Trans if some-one knows what they're looking for they can find neurological evidence of it.
If that were true, then anyone with the requisite skills would be able to find neurological evidence, whereas in reality it's a few people whose ideas (while often very interesting and on some level plausible) often contradict each other, and have clear methodological and theoretical limitations.

Additionally, just based solely on historical precedent, if we're betting on who will be smugly saying "I told you so" in 10 years, I am taking the safer bet by an extremely large margin. The number of people who have died on this hill is impressive.

Hell a lot of his research suggested talking to and trying to understand the child rather than doing what the parents may have wanted.
His research (and more disturbingly, his clinical practice) was based on the assumption that it was inherently better for a child to desist in gender non-conforming behaviour, and that allowing a child to engage in such behaviour without actively seeking to correct them would socially reinforcing their behaviour and thus harm their chances of desisting.

It's an approach that advocates accepting gender non-conformity only as a means of securing a child's compliance, to try and turn them towards more gender conforming forms of expression. It's a step up from Dr. John Money's methods, but ultimately it's the same shit, and it's a good thing that most of the medical profession has now moved on from a practice which entailed a specific value judgement as to the relative worthiness of different forms of gendered life.

There can be quite a big change.
There can also not.

There was a lovely concept that came up in queer theory a while back called the "butch-ftm borderlands". It basically described the fact that despite tension and controversy within the lesbian community over the issue, there is a significant overlap between butch lesbian women and transmen, with very similar forms of expression, behaviour and presentation common across both groups.

The reason many binary trans people seem to change so much when they go into role is because they are trying to pass. Not passing as a trans person is a genuinely unpleasant and actually quite dangerous experience. Heck, even as a person who strives towards androgyny in everything and feels huge discomfort at being gendered as male, I have to masc-up sometimes just to get by. We don't live in a society which is in any way kind or friendly to gender ambiguity.

But partly because of this, I really resent the equation of expression (or gendered behaviour, appearance and traits) with identity, which actually puts me at odds with a lot of "woke" circles. I fundamentally don't think gender identity is a public commodity, not in a society that is so punitive. I don't think anyone is obligated to be explicit about their gender identity. Having a cis person I don't know ask what my pronouns are is just one step off, for me, from people coming up and asking things like "what are you?"

Contrary to the most sacred and holy one joke, I don't think anyone genuinely cares if you assume their gender unless you're being wrong out of spite. I think all that matters is that if someone cares about you enough to correct you, you take that seriously.

No. If it did I'd be fine with it, actually. This is a cynical attempt at manipulation.
In other words, marketing.

So what? Being marketed to is basically the only metric of personal worth any of us gets under capitalism. Everything we consume is created for the overwhelming benefit of horrible people. We manage to live with that in all the other instances in which it is true (which it is all the time).

There are trans people and trans allies in the games industry. Not at the level of CEOs and board members, but certainly on the level of employees. People inside companies often have to fight for things like this, often against superiors who don't see it as commercially viable.

Noone is claiming this is going to spark the queer anarchist revolution (and yikes, there are problematic elements here which make me super uneasy which I haven't even touched on yet even beyond the fact that it's a game about state murder) but we take what we can get.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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If that were true, then anyone with the requisite skills would be able to find neurological evidence, whereas in reality it's a few people whose ideas (while often very interesting and on some level plausible) often contradict each other, and have clear methodological and theoretical limitations.
Well the obvious answer is it's a very specialised technique which was used by Dr Verma so the number of people who could really do it and have the expertise to get the resolution to that level and the funding to do such a technique are a handful of people at best.

Additionally, just based solely on historical precedent, if we're betting on who will be smugly saying "I told you so" in 10 years, I am taking the safer bet by an extremely large margin. The number of people who have died on this hill is impressive.
How is tie dye doing as a major force dominating fashion trends?

Psycho active substances allowing the use of psychic powers?

Plenty of thing have collapsed over the years. So I feel free to be smug but don't count those chickens



His research (and more disturbingly, his clinical practice) was based on the assumption that it was inherently better for a child to desist in gender non-conforming behaviour, and that allowing a child to engage in such behaviour without actively seeking to correct them would socially reinforcing their behaviour and thus harm their chances of desisting.
No that's mostly just what he was accused of though not what his research says to do.

It's an approach that advocates accepting gender non-conformity only as a means of securing a child's compliance, to try and turn them towards more gender conforming forms of expression. It's a step up from Dr. John Money's methods, but ultimately it's the same shit, and it's a good thing that most of the medical profession has now moved on from a practice which entailed a specific value judgement as to the relative worthiness of different forms of gendered life.
Oh you mean like wearing dresses for boys? Cause that was one of his cases who testified that the Doctor helped him realise who he was and express himself.



There can also not.

There was a lovely concept that came up in queer theory a while back called the "butch-ftm borderlands". It basically described the fact that despite tension and controversy within the lesbian community over the issue, there is a significant overlap between butch lesbian women and transmen, with very similar forms of expression, behaviour and presentation common across both groups.

The reason many binary trans people seem to change so much when they go into role is because they are trying to pass. Not passing as a trans person is a genuinely unpleasant and actually quite dangerous experience. Heck, even as a person who strives towards androgyny in everything and feels huge discomfort at being gendered as male, I have to masc-up sometimes just to get by. We don't live in a society which is in any way kind or friendly to gender ambiguity.

But partly because of this, I really resent the equation of expression (or gendered behaviour, appearance and traits) with identity, which actually puts me at odds with a lot of "woke" circles. I fundamentally don't think gender identity is a public commodity, not in a society that is so punitive. I don't think anyone is obligated to be explicit about their gender identity. Having a cis person I don't know ask what my pronouns are is just one step off, for me, from people coming up and asking things like "what are you?"

Contrary to the most sacred and holy one joke, I don't think anyone genuinely cares if you assume their gender unless you're being wrong out of spite. I think all that matters is that if someone cares about you enough to correct you, you take that seriously.
So to be clear you don't like being asked your pronouns because you see even that as somehow offensive?

Because in an age where there are no set pronouns and non binary is being said to cover a range of identities and even they don't have set pronouns......... it seems like it would be near impossible to know your pronouns for sure........
 

Casual Shinji

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No. If it did I'd be fine with it, actually. This is a cynical attempt at manipulation. It costs virtually nothing and adds about as much. It exists solely to manipulate the public into purchasing the game. Actual game design involves creating fun content for players. But Activision just said "nah, fuck that".

I sincerely hope that no one here thinks that this addition is the result of true sociopolitical beliefs instead of a decision made by a bunch of suits. Kotick is literally a high-functioning psychopath. He doesn't give a shit if you live or die, as long as he turns a profit.
You can enjoy the addition of it or at least appreciate the gesture while still being aware of the cold business mindset behind it. I mean, most every game/movie that ever truly brought us to tears or brought us tremendous joy has been the result of suits just trying to squeeze money out of us. If you just boil everything down to 'decisions made by a bunch of suits' pretty much all positive feelings you have about your favourite games desolve. And that's up to everyone to decide for themselves, but I don't think you can make a distinction between actual game design and having non-binary options when looking at it through that lense.

This whole industry is one disgusting pit with some nice colorful drapes covering it up, and if someone can feel legitimately glad over a new map in CoD, someone else who feels the same about having a non-binary option should be no less. Neither of whom I'm sure are going to actually thank Bobby Kotick for it.
 

Dreiko

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As for how one realizes they are transsexual that's incredibly individual, for some it is obvious from a young age, others (like the Wachowski sisters) realize in adulthood what the "missing piece" is, so to speak. How people reach that conclusion is very varied and ranges from soul searching to therapy to just being a very obvious feeling of being of the other sex. There's tons of personal stories you can read online if you just google this.

That sounds like a theological approach to me. You could use the same terminology about how you interact with god and how it's personal and up to you. I was I guess hoping for a more scientific and concrete basis for something we're being told is a fact to the degree where one is ignorant if they do not acknowledge it.


Personal stories and whatnot are all anecdotes, not something concrete or reliable. We kinda have to trust people too much for my taste with things like this. How the hell is this any different from the people who feel like they're dragons and have astral tails and wings and whatnot.

When you decouple dysphoria from being trans I think you kinda remove the coherence from being trans as a consequence of something that's measurable and just have it up to the person to decide/discover it being true for themselves which is not something that we afford any sort of credibility in other areas of life.