Melinda and Tropes vs. Women in Video Games

[Calodine]

Not gonna touch any of the more colourful posts in here, but this did spawn a very...Interesting? Discussion. So it all worked out for the best. Now we never have to bring it up eeeeever again~

[Delmuir]

I think we're seeing the sin of over-thinking. We don't need evolutionarily founded explanations of biology. It's a fantasy games with dragons and ghosts.

The question of Melinda isn't sexism, tropes, or social justice. It's simply a matter of whether it adds or detracts from the enjoyment of the game.

I, for one, don't bother with the romantic portion or the quest. There's no point. As soon as I get the free item, I abandon the quest.

This game isn't targeted to "all audiences," nor should it be. The storyline is largely incidental.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

I don't see the trope of melinda from distracting from the game. I would not be in any way against the creation of a new male character and a questline for rescuing him. (exclusive with melinda, obviously.)

I would also see no problem with melinda's quest being modified to make it more relevant. Maybe have a series of choices and advice to give her, over the course of your game, that result in her reaching one of several different conclusions, which might or might not involve her alive/dead, romantically linked/lonely, still blight-infused/free of blight/crazy/under control, etc. There's room for some serious plot choices here.

For that matter, she could potentially become an endgame ally replacement for Aeryn similar to having a different ally from another faction replace Aeryn in my faction allies mod. Even have her pull a different class depending on what choices you made during the class. Maybe she uses her blight poers and becomes a reaver/corruptor. Maybe she learns the sword, and shows up as a bulwark to protect you. Maybe she studies and knows magical spells. Maybe she tries controlling her blight with antimagic, and shows up as an antimagic spellhunter, or a wyrmic. Lots of choices, and could make previous points int he quest lynchpins for what path she heads down, creating replay value, and more depth to the character.

There's definitely room to improve things, a fair bit, but just chucking the romance because you don't like it, hardly solves all the problems with her.

[donkatsu]

There's definitely room to improve things, a fair bit, but just chucking the romance because you don't like it, hardly solves all the problems with her.

No one who has suggested anything in this thread has said that their suggestion would solve all problems and all other changes must be excluded. I'm not sure where you're getting that idea.

Also, how many people do like the Melinda romance, just out of curiosity? It doesn't seem to be very popular to me, but I haven't heard a lot of opinions about it.

[Delmuir]

There's definitely room to improve things, a fair bit, but just chucking the romance because you don't like it, hardly solves all the problems with her.

No one who has suggested anything in this thread has said that their suggestion would solve all problems and all other changes must be excluded. I'm not sure where you're getting that idea.

Well, I suggested getting rid of it entirely so I think he's responding to that.

However, I offered an earlier solution which I really liked and which kept Melinda in the game by replacing the romantic storyline with a series of small quests in the East, which would also help keep the second half of the game interesting.

[Grey]

I think the reason why Melinda is viewed as a damsel is precisely because of the romance options that appear. Maybe if we could court the merchant we'd see him as a damsel too...

The romance with Melinda is incredibly awkward. It's not easy to do romance well in a video game, and far less easy when you're playing an emotionless killer romancing a traumatised victim. I've personally always felt uncomfortable with there being any romance subplot in the game. It adds nothing other than making a number of us wince.

The ideas of making Melinda a strong ally don't seem very useful to me. Not everyone has to be physically strong to be relevant. We have the likes of Linaniil and Aeryn already.

Personally I'd rather see Melinda go proper crazy and corrupted and spew into a hideous blight-spawn if you rescue her and let her live. Maybe the town want to kill her and you have to decide whether to intervene or not. Maybe it turns out the town handed her over to the demonologists as tribute in the first place... There are a lot of plot developments that would be more interest than romancing her and sticking her in your hidden fortress like some odd trophy.

As for homosexuality in Eyal, there's already characters who swing that way in the lore. Don't make presumptions about the game or its audience!

[spottedshroom]

Maybe if we could court the merchant we'd see him as a damsel too...

I actually this is an awesome idea. Although if the PC is sleeping with him, it would probably make sense to get a discount on those 4k randarts

[0player]

Maybe if we could court the merchant we'd see him as a damsel too...

I actually this is an awesome idea. Although if the PC is sleeping with him, it would probably make sense to get a discount on those 4k randarts

Urthol? He'd rip his mother off.

[0player]

Personally I'd rather see Melinda go proper crazy and corrupted and spew into a hideous blight-spawn if you rescue her and let her live.

Grey pls no

[Ivels]

Also, how many people do like the Melinda romance, just out of curiosity? It doesn't seem to be very popular to me, but I haven't heard a lot of opinions about it.

I like it, in a so-bad-it's-good sort of way.

If we did a poll, 1% would say it's amusing, 2% would say it's disturbing and 97% would say they don't care.

[Effigy]

I don't particularly care about the romance subplot, other than it being a bit of humor and contrast from slaughtering everything in sight.

[HousePet]

I like the option of taking Melinda down to the beach.
It stops our interaction with her from being very one dimensional, and also does the same for our own character. We get to do something other than clear dungeons. Social options don't have to be romantic options.

'Tropes vs. Women in Video Games' stuff is crap. Its no different to other archetypes that exist in stories, and there is no reason to treat it specially.

[grobblewobble]

I like the quest too. And I actually like that you can invite her into your fortress, just as I like the new cat quest. It livens the place up a bit.

I wouldn't mind if she was actually helpful in combat at some point in the game. Although, at the moment she's just been saved from sacrifice, that would be a little far fetched - she's barely alive right then.

[Atarlost]

@Atarlost.

You're making serious assumptions about the biology of races that don't even exist. Orcs may not require vitamin D at all or maybe they make it some other way. Maybe they have green skin because they're partially able to convert sunlight into sugar.

You're reading the footnote backwards. I'm not saying that orcs are the wrong color. I'm saying that orcs being a different color from humans is proof that they either don't use vitamin D or don't need sunlight to create it. If there weren't orcs running around thumbing their noses at Darwin there would be blacks in the game in the southern reaches of the eastern continent, but because the orcs killed them (those that weren't killed when the spellblaze turned the major equatorial continent into the abashed expanse) there are no people of color in Eyal but there's a sound biological reason for that in the absence of any equatorial land not overrun by creatures that don't produce melanin in high sunlight conditions. There are similar sound biological and sociological reasons to not include other vocal minorities.

Also, orcs can't be photosynthetic because if they were they wouldn't wear clothes except as armor. The mages and summoners would be naked or nearly naked.

[HousePet]

The lore lists Sholtar as a dark skinned human subrace. Any further assumptions depend on whether the UV exposure at ground level on Eyal is similar to on Earth. eg. Not relevant to this topic.