I didn't know much about fetishized-anything at the beginning of this (and the other) thread. In fact, I'd have to say, when I first saw the image my reaction was probably exactly the reaction of many who thought this was in some way a positive -- that in some way, this was a kind of win for representation, because perhaps too often we think "Some kind of representation is better than no representation." Still, I stayed basically quiet on the image because I wanted to see 2 things: First, I wanted to see more opinions that weren't my own immediate reaction, acknowledging that any immediate reaction someone will have about something with nuance and complexity will be wrong, and I didn't want to trust my own. Second, I wanted to see the reaction of those the image most effected; placing their take and opinion on the matter as a priority view. This isn't an image about me in some future sci-fi world, but about someone else; why shouldn't I wait, and listen?
It's been an education. It's unfortunate to have media divorced from its creator where the work can't speak for itself (indeed, it is only a frame from a game), and the creators won't speak, and those who are in a position to ask the creators simply don't. I'd like to see CDPR explain themselves, if only to trip over their own explanation, but as it stands right now the *only* contextualization that exists for this image is CDP and CDPR's past mistakes in the field. That's not our fault, it's theirs: they have passed up every opportunity to engage with that debate, attempting to stay in 'their lane of games', if you will, except that they really haven't, and these kinds of representations -- not just this image, but some of the stuff we're hearing about the game now -- need to be more openly discussed.
Those who would know have come forward to discuss openly -- under what I imagine is a lot of stress -- what is wrong with the image, and I appreciate that, because in the end I think it'll make for a better game and a better CDPR if they respond to the critiques.
I hope that journalists will take it upon themselves to press CDPR more eagerly on these topics. I think most reasonable people can come away from this topic, the image in question, and the context of past interactions of CDP/CDPR, at least agreeing that the image itself is problematic. If it's contextualized in the game in some magical way that makes it "ok", that's fine, but that doesn't stop us here and now from having this discussion based on what we see in front of us. Were this Naughty Dog, we'd probably all have a slightly different reaction, but this is a company that even in their previous game (Witcher 3) failed to make the landing on a lot of their heavier topics.
As a reminder, because I tend to say it in threads like these: you can be excited for the game, and still engage with this conversation in a fair-minded way. Worrying about how other people feel and trying to understand them is not mutually exclusive with being excited to play a videogame.
