Amazing game you guys have and I’m convinced to get it day 1. One of the things I noticed in beta was that turrets seemed very flimsy. I’d pour points into them only for them to be easily sniped and so I would suggest that their hp be increased a bit. Characters are entertaining to listen to as well so great job on that guys. I would however suggest that gear box stay away from political statements in their game. I just found out about the "donuts, cowboys, and homophobia " line. Aside from the stereotype of southerners it implies, people of differing cultures and creeds have viewpoints that do not necessarily stem from blind hate but often with nuanced lines of thought, mocking any view whether you believe in it or not in a game is a bit crass. Thanks for reading!
Gearbox is in Texas cowboy! Stuff.
That was 2k Aus’s doing, GBX generally stays away from making political statements in their games.
How bout you don’t tell them what dialogue lines they put in there. I could care less who it insults and whose feelings get hurt as long as it’s funny. If it makes the game more entertaining, I’m down.
It didn’t insult me but I didn’t find it funny.
I took it as a pre-emptive strike at the blind hate leveled at the game for including accents that weren’t American.
Considering the vast majority of people who complained about the Aussie accents in the game were Americans, I think they made a rather clever, and very culturally-aware, joke.
Naw, every game dev asks for feedback from playerbase. So I CAN in fact tell them what to do according to my opinions. Whether or not they’ll listen is another story. And unlike you, the company that makes it DOES care about who they insult. This is a game in the end, not a standup routine in some club that can make abortion jokes and what not, and they want to appeal to as many potential players as possible. Get it?
Okay folks, time to dial down the personal comments to zero. Talk about the games, not each other.
Just my personal view here, and not representative of gearbox in any way, shape, or form: not making ‘political statements’ is intrinsically a political statement in support of the status quo. Whether to make them or not is the devs choice. And beliefs, no matter how sincerely held or nuanced, if they lead to things like homophobia, racism, or simply a call to kill or persecute anyone who believes something different, deserve to be mocked, mercilessly. Whether or not this should be done through the medium of games is also entirely up to the individual game developers.
Only thing missing from this game is a KEM Strike, a la Ghosts.
In no way does it follow that leaving out comments about homophobia, abortion, etc makes a game support them. By that logic, most games support homophobia by not explicitly condemning it. Deciding that one’s political views would be better expressed in other mediums than ones game does not mean you support a view. Have you made any specific condemnations of illegal whaling? If you haven’t then by this logic, you support it. Anyways, I left my thoughts on the game and this is by far the most politically charged game forum I’ve been on. Battle born is a game not a political pedestal and I’m glad to see the changes that were made.
Yes they do, but I still stand by my statement that that particular line had no place in TPS. I had no issues with what Anthony Birch did when he created gay and bi couples in BL 2, hell I even stood up for it when some people on here complained about it. But, that does not excuse 2k Aus for what they wrote. Birch wrote about something natural, 2k Aus wrote something that appears to intentionally be inflamatory. As @tilyas89 pointed out, I’m glad GBX didn’t travel that road with BB because a game is meant to entertain, not annoy or anger unless that’s what the developers set out to do from the beginning. If they want to make a political statement, great, but they should specify the game contains those when they talk about it; otherwise they should leave any political statements out.
I cannot think of a single other artistic or entertainment medium about which this would be said. What makes games so unique?
That’s not quite what I said. I suggested that they supported the status quo, in that they do not seek social, political, or cultural change. Not that this implies support for any particular issue. A neutral statement can be politically charged: the request that gearbox not make them is also politically charged.
My problem is with the statement itself, not that games include them. It would be very hard not to because any artist will put their personal feelings into anything they create; I’ve done it with my mods and my stories, so I don’t expect GBX to not include something. What I don’t expect them to do is be so blatant about it as 2k Aus was. I think Bioware did it best by giving the player the option to play or not play a gay character, but the choice wasn’t tossed in your face like Spring’s line. That and her hitting on Athena was rather creepy. Hell, it’d be creepy if she was hitting on a guy in the same manner. Anyway, I’ll get off of my soapbox now because I don’t see GBX heading in that direction and my issue is with what 2k Aus did, not anything GBX has done.
Well, sure, the way any ‘message’ is delivered can be evaluated critically, absolutely.
Ah… election season!
Thanks for the thoughts everyone.
Tbh, I took this as a compliment, btw. 
We’re all one big, happy, dysfunctional family here.