New Rust Update Assigns Players Permanent, Random Gender

[kitsunefather]

Not when the point of the game is to study stuff like this. This isn't a surprise. He's not saying that you get to choose and then taking that away from you. It's just a random character generator plenty of games have them.

But, and I may be completely out of the loop on this, was that the stated point when people were buying it on Early Access as a Zombie Survival game? My assumption would be no, otherwise people would be less surprised by this college-level psych study stuff.

Instead, it seems more likely that the game was billed and sold as one thing, which drew in people to buy into Early Access to fund the game being promoted, and these are changes made by the whim of the developer that move it away from that further and further.

My stance remains the same: if they offer a refund to people who no longer want to play, or Steam adopts a "Massive Change to Core Game" clause in their refund policy, I couldn't care less.

Yes, this is a psych experiment. One that the participants were uninformed that they were participating (unethical in actual psych studies, and were charged money to participate in. That is my primary problem. He can do with his game as he likes, but this is an "unfinished product" that was sold as one thing, and he's turned into another for what looks like an attempt at relevancy.

Before we begin to debate this: psych experiments can mislead a person as to the nature and intent of the study they are participating in, but in the US at least, you cannot perform psych studies on people who have not agreed to participate. Yes, this isn't a professional psych study (obviously), but the argument that it is a psych study seems to be the only defense of the practices that the developers of Rust seems to be engaged in.

Current Steam Description:
The only aim in Rust is to survive. To do this you will need to overcome struggles such as hunger, thirst and cold. Build a fire. Build a shelter. Kill animals for meat. Protect yourself from other players, and kill them for meat. Create alliances with other players and form a town. Whatever it takes to survive.

I don't see "Social Experiment" or "Psychological Experiment" anywhere in that.

Early Access Developer Quote:
?We are in very early development. Some things work, some things don't. We haven't totally decided where the game is headed - so things will change. Things will change a lot. We might even make changes that you think are wrong. But we have a plan. It's in our interest to make the game awesome - so please trust us.?

Maybe it's in here, in a subtext I'm not able to read. Is it the "we might make changes you think are wrong" line? Is that what informs you the point of the game is a Social Experiment? In all seriousness, of course it isn't. The game was clearly not conceived as a social experiment. It was just a middling Zombie Survival game that the dev decided to he was bored with.

TL;DR:
This isn't a psych study, it is a product that was (and is still) sold as an Early Access game, originally billed as a Zombie Survival game. It is now a 3d Minecraft Simulator, and while I find the social experiment interesting, those who do not wish to participate should be allowed refunds on a product that the devs have changed so completely from its original description.

 

[Vigormortis]

Not so much misunderstand your meaning as disagree with its application as per the comparison.

But okay.

So you feel Facepunch's decision to force users to adhere to whichever random roll they get is equi....actually, what are you implying?

 

[Nazulu]

"A character"

You mean one of a number of identical clones?

What are you talking about?

 

[Dragonlayer]

Seems like a stupid idea, but is he right when he said Rust never had a choice in character customization or is he just being a git?

If the former, then I don't see any real issue (and even think the idea of locking it to your Steam ID is kind of neat, if fraught with the potential to fuck up for people who chose "Male/Female" because those were the only options). If the latter however, then it's just plain stupid to rob players of one of the largest draws in RPG games.

 

[kitsunefather]

It's so funny to hear these complaints now, after such a minor change, but not for the year of engine rebuilds and such. lol

In my defense, this isn't a game I play, and this is the first I've heard of these changes. As I've said earlier, this isn't my kind of game. Not really into zombie survival, not really into open pvp, not really into crafting games.

My main horse in this race is simply the treatment of the people who are funding the game (through early access), and the response of the devs and Steam.

Let's see if I can suggest a relatively hyperbolic hypothetical situation to illustrate my concern:

ARK: Survival Evolved
As a man or woman stranded naked, freezing & starving on a mysterious island, you must hunt, harvest, craft items, grow crops, & build shelters to survive. Use skill and cunning to kill or tame & ride the Dinosaurs & primeval creatures roaming the land, & team up with hundreds of players or play locally!

This is the Top Seller on the Early Access page. Again, haven't played, so not talking quality, posing a hypothetical. It's a survival game, apparently with crafting and open multiplayer (similar to Rust), but you ride dinosaurs. Now, let's say add Dinosaur Breeding, and slowly "reveal" that the real purpose of the game is to study virtual ranching practices.

Okay, that's dumb, but should the people who bought the game to play an Action game riding Dinosaurs be allowed to return the game, if the devs change the game so much you no longer ride Dinosaurs? I say yes.

Personally, I think the case of Rust showcases the fact that Early Access games should always be available for refund on Steam.

 

[Poetic Nova]

It's okay, it's not like I had any interest in this game in the first place.
Rather stupid decision however, to tie a randomly rolled gender to your Steam ID.

 

[Erttheking]

Can someone please tell me what all the hub-bub is? No one was losing their minds when it was all white men with their dicks hanging out. Why is the lack of customization in a game that never had customization a big deal?

 

[Erttheking]

Seems like a stupid idea, but is he right when he said Rust never had a choice in character customization or is he just being a git?

If the former, then I don't see any real issue (and even think the idea of locking it to your Steam ID is kind of neat, if fraught with the potential to fuck up for people who chose "Male/Female" because those were the only options). If the latter however, then it's just plain stupid to rob players of one of the largest draws in RPG games.

There was never any character customization whatsoever (Aside from "do you want your dick to be hanging out or not", and that was more of a server to server thing). As such I really don't get why people are freaking out over this.

 

[Something Amyss]

There was never any character customization whatsoever (Aside from "do you want your dick to be hanging out or not", and that was more of a server to server thing). As such I really don't get why people are freaking out over this.

You've been on this site for almost four years now. You haven't noticed the antipathy towards the notion that you might be forced to play as a woman or minority before? Like, I'm legitimately curious[footnote]as opposed to this being a rhetorical question[/footnote], because in the last few years, I've honestly seen a serious uptick in "how am I supposed to relate to the protagonist if they're not straight, white and male?"

 

[Erttheking]

There was never any character customization whatsoever (Aside from "do you want your dick to be hanging out or not", and that was more of a server to server thing). As such I really don't get why people are freaking out over this.

You've been on this site for almost four years now. You haven't noticed the antipathy towards the notion that you might be forced to play as a woman or minority before? Like, I'm legitimately curious[footnote]as opposed to this being a rhetorical question[/footnote], because in the last few years, I've honestly seen a serious uptick in "how am I supposed to relate to the protagonist if they're not straight, white and male?"

I'm trying to not intentionally piss people off (Sad I know) even though I desperately want to say "Game forces you to play as a white male and no one bats an eye. Game forces you to play as a black person or a woman and everyone loses their minds"

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm trying to not intentionally piss people off (Sad I know) even though I desperately want to say "Game forces you to play as a white male and no one bats an eye. Game forces you to play as a black person or a woman and everyone loses their minds"

I'm not sure not pissing people off is an option. I've had people haul off on me for literally saying gaming is not a zero-sum game and everyone can come to the table.

But it's worse than nobody batting an eye. People were specifically belligerent before the updates towards people who wanted these things.

Unfortunately, a google search to find such comments has been less than fruitful since the update because now people are acting like it's the worst thing ever that they might have to do what women and minorities do routinely.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Seems like a stupid idea, but is he right when he said Rust never had a choice in character customization or is he just being a git?

If the former, then I don't see any real issue (and even think the idea of locking it to your Steam ID is kind of neat, if fraught with the potential to fuck up for people who chose "Male/Female" because those were the only options). If the latter however, then it's just plain stupid to rob players of one of the largest draws in RPG games.

There was never any character customization whatsoever (Aside from "do you want your dick to be hanging out or not", and that was more of a server to server thing). As such I really don't get why people are freaking out over this.

Ah I see, so it's just another one of these fucking redundant gender mutual hissy fit "debates" that tragically seems to be the Escapist's stock-in-trade these days.