this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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Drag wants a refund because the game doesn't allow gender customisation. Drag bought the game because it's a Dungeons and Dragons game. D&D is supposed to have good character customisation. Drag doesn't like CRPGs without gender select. Drag is trans and AMAB. Drag spent 18 years forced to live as a man, and isn't interested in spending any more time like that. Drag is absolutely fine if a game has a male protagonist you can't customise. The Master Chief is fine. Geralt is fine. But when drag is supposed to create a character and put part of dragself into the character, drag doesn't want to do that with a man.
Drag thinks that given it's a D&D game and a CRPG, there should have been a warning about limited gender options. Drag did read the game description that he/hims the Nameless One, but didn't read much into it because it's a 90s game, and old games are just like that. Morrowind does the same thing, and in fact NPCs will misgender you if you play a female character in the actual game. Drag assumed Torment would be like that, since the store page made a point of bragging about the customisability of the Nameless One. "Pick Your Path: Character creation is just the beginning. The Nameless One can change his class, alignment, and even gain new abilities based on your choices." Drag thought this would mean there would be customisability.
Steam disagreed, and said there's no legal defect in a game with this problem. Drag sees this as a symbolic issue, and would like the refund anyway. Again, please argue with drag's reasons for wanting a refund in reply to this comment and not in the rest of the thread.
I've given a way to maybe get that refund, but I also want to say: You should just play it. Yeah, your party is pretty much set in stone in it, but it's arguably one of the best CRPG D&D games to exist. It's not like you're really gonna make a statement to the now defunct developer that made the game. Black Isle doesn't exist. Interplay doesn't exist.
But if you're dead set on needing the full custom character experience, may I suggest Temple of Elemental Evil? The story dramatically changes depending on if you are good or evil alignment and it's got one helluva an opening scene if you're evil.
CRPGs fundamentally ask the player to self insert into the player character, and drag will take psychic damage if drag self inserts into a man. Drag is perfectly happy to self insert into tragic stories like KOTOR and feel bad as part of a game's story. That's the same as watching a sad or scary movie, that's fine. And drag would even be willing to enjoy Torment's dysphoria if it were an intended part of the experience, and you're actually able to play the Nameless One as a dysphoric trans person. But gender dysphoria that isn't accounted for in the game's design doesn't lead to catharsis. That's just feeling bad with no purpose to it.
Drag isn't mad at the developer for this. As you say, the developer is dead, so there's no point being angry. Drag is angry at Steam for selling this game without a content warning. Drag is angry about false advertising. This should be a part of the store's interface, the same as age ratings, or the recent decision to force games to disclose kernel level anticheat.
It would only be false advertising if Steam said you could choose your gender when you can't, which they don't.
They said you can pick your path. It's not true. It shouldn't be in the features section.
It says nothing about Gender, and it specifically refers to 'his'. This perfectly describes what you can do, so it certainly belongs in the 'Features' section. It also doesn't mention Race or Species; I'd much rather play as a non-human, but I'm not winging about it, because nowhere did the game tell me I could play as a non-human. I'm not going to keep arguing with you about it, because clearly neither of us are making any headway.