Two Topics To Be Said

With two topics on my mind then I’ll make this a double article –

First topic:

Games made from the back of movies have been around for almost as long as video games have, from games made from movie releases like Star Wars and Rambo up to today with movies like the vile JJ Abrams Star ‘Trek’ Wars nonsense – and the games made to tie in with those terrible movies are just as bad as the movies themselves - and super hero movies.
And so many of those games have been complete and utter rot to put it mildly.

So few games made to fit with the release of an upcoming movie rarely work out, the few that so are so few and far between that it’s easy to think that any movie game is worth the time and that is usually the case.
However there are some that have turned out to be pretty good, sometimes even better than the movie they were made to be released along side with.

Take the Transformers:  Revenge Of The Fallen movie for example.  A terrible movie with annoying toilet humour, badly written characters and generic, bland ideas – like Devastator’s testicles being seen in robot mode, a definite ‘what the hell?’ -  idea for sure and a mini robot humping a leg are just two examples of why that movie was a prime example of bad ideas in many movies today.
Yet the game that was released alongside the movie turned out to be better than the movie, it wasn’t a great game but it was more enjoyable than it’s movie counterpart.  The game at least had Transformers in it as the actual characters instead of being heavily human focused with the Transformers as the cameo appearances, if you didn’t blink and miss many of those appearances.

There is also the Toy Story 3 game, a very good and enjoyable game and the movie was excellent as well – such a rare thing for that to happen.

So why do so many games made from the backs of movies tend to be so bad while so few are ever any good?  Could it be the rushed development time or bad management in the development process?
Could it be a case of developers and publishers having little to no imagination – which is fairly common these days in gaming in general – and just looking to make a quick profit from gullible movie goers – kids and adults alike?

Whatever the reason you usually know when a game made from the back of a movie is going to be bad while once in a while, and it is very rare, you might be surprised with one that is actually pretty good.

But it makes me wonder if the games made to be released alongside a movie should perhaps not be made at all, or have a longer development period.  Sadly though with the amount of greed there is with publishers then when they want a game out at the same time as a movie or just before or just after the release, then a good degree of development time is rare.

I know I won’t be going for the Star Trek game that’s just been released, that’s for sure – it’s set in the Abrams verse and I hate his notion of Trek, he’s turned it into little more than an even more dumbed down version of Star Wars and I’m not a Star Wars fan at all and it’s male lead only, and as I’ve mentioned so many times I can’t play as male.
No interest in that game at all.

I dread to think what a game based on Let the Right One In would be like, it would probably be some military shooter that has nothing to do with the actual movie and book.

And that’s one topic done, next:

Second Topic ~

If you’ve been reading my articles and such then you know that I’m trans-gender – male to female – and bi-sexual, I’ve explained my past more than enough times yet for some reason I am expected to want to be male in games and real life because of my male body, I’m expected to like the same games as the majority because my body is male.
That indicates that many gamers, publishers and developers think that every gamer no matter how diverse and individual should all think, feel and be the exact same without having any free will.

That would be one really boring existence.

Sadly it looks like I have to explain again:

I can not play as male, I can not be male, I can not think and feel as male, I can never, ever no matter what be male.
To do so is quite frankly a death sentence for me after years of being forced and demanded to be male, of being repressed due to society’s obsession with conformity and demanding that we all be what’s between our legs and externally instead of being who we are within.

I am female, I always have been and at this time in my life after years of being forced to be male I have to be myself in order to avoid the suicidal thoughts and depression of my past from ever hitting hard again.
That means that I have to avoid every single male lead only game at any cost, I have to avoid repressing myself in real life and in games.

Now I’m sure you’re saying that it shouldn’t matter, but here’s the thing – most likely you are cis-gender and have never been repressed, have never felt the horror of being trapped within your body as you are forced to be someone else.
Being forced to be male all my life has resulted in, as well as being a writer, a skill within me that automatically attempts to form an emotional bond with a character I write.
This allows me to develop the character considerably for as long as that character is around.  Writing a male character is something I rarely do because it’s pretty painful for me.

Now I’m sure you’re thinking that I could just switch that skill off when playing video games – I can’t.  I’ve been trying to switch it off when I play games for close to thirty years with no success, most likely because if I switch it off then my writing will suffer.

When I play video games and the lead is human, my brain automatically attempts to form an emotional connection so that I can focus a lot better, I can role play and I can be immersed in the game.  This gives me a higher chance of enjoying a game, but there’s a catch – when playing as male my brain automatically repressed the dominant personality, me, and attempts to think and feel as male in order to relate a lot easier.

Now imagine what that feels like when your own brain is repressing you and you can’t fight back, imagine feeling yourself starting to fade away as you’re pushed down more and more.
I’ve had to suffer that for years in real life as it is, in games when you’re playing for hours it’s like you’re slowly dying second by second.

Playing as male is lethal for me due to how my brain works, I am unable to fight back against my brain’s attempts to relate a lot better and try to get any enjoyment out of a male lead only game – and I get zero enjoyment out of such games.
When I play as female my brain doesn’t repress me, it just forms the connection and I can enjoy the game without any problems.  But with a male lead it’s like when your body has undergone sleep paralysis and you’re screaming at your body to wake up, to move, but it doesn’t respond, that’s how it feels for the most for me when playing as male, I am screaming at my body and my brain to not push me away, to let me live.
It takes a lot of effort to eventually regain control, resulting in the male lead only game being removed from the console and put away.

In order to avoid that happening anymore I have to avoid male lead only games, which means avoiding something like 99.9% of every release every year due to the obsession there is with catering to males, male lead only’s and keeping video games in the past while ignoring the more diverse video gamer demographic of not just female gamers, but also gamers of different skin colours, sexualities, gender identity and more.
With so many male lead only titles and so little diversity then I’m running out of games to play, I’m tired of seeing the same old thing time and time again, the same old sausage fest of frankly lazy male lead only character, male catering and stale ideas while the industry continues to be stuck in a rut.

I am not sexist, I don’t mind males – if anything I find some males quite attractive although I have no desire nor wish to sleep with any of them since I have no interest in sex – I simply can not play as male due to how dangerous it is for me, as well as my being fed up of seeing male lead after male lead time and time again with no diversity, no option to play as female, very few to no female leads – Tomb Raider not so long ago was the first game to even have a female lead you played as in several months, one female lead amid one too many male lead only titles, and many male gamers think that’s a lot!
If there had been a few games released with the option to play as female, then it would have been nice, but instead it was one female lead and the rest all male.  And if anyone speaks up against the very imbalanced ratio they’re attacked for speaking their concerns!
No wonder gaming is stuck in a rut when anyone who speaks up is shot down for daring to infringe on ‘male privileges’.

Anyway I’m going off on a tangent, it’s a topic that is important to me but which I’m always attacked for daring to even mention.

I can’t play as male, I refuse to play as male, so please, please, stop demanding me to like male lead only games!  Stop demanding me to be male!  I’m not male and I am sick to death of being constantly demanded to be male and to like the same tired thing as the majority!
If you can’t accept that then instead of insulting me and attacking me for not being like you, just kindly get lost.  I have enough to deal with without being attacked by insecure cis-gendered haters.

Like it or lump it, I have to do what I need to do for the sake of my life and my health.  Simple as that.

And once again done.