Rome 2 Total War is being reviewbombed by misogynists because it added female generals

CenturionNami · Sep 24, 2018

Fucking disgusting
https://www.pcgamesn.com/total-war-rome-ii/rome-ii-female-generals
'

"Total War: Rome II is being review-bombed on Steam following its recent Ancestral update. While 75% of all of the game's reviews on the platform are positive, 74% of the reviews from the last 30 days are negative.

This has been catalysed by one of Rome II's recent updates and the adjustments to the spawn rate of female generals that it has supposedly made. Many of the most prominent complaints allege that male generals in saved games have been retroactively replaced with women, and that only women have been available to recruit from general recruitment pools. This has sat badly with players who feel it's historically inaccurate in a time period dominated by patriarchal societies, such as Rome and Greece, wherein female generals were practically unheard of.

The trouble is, it may not be entirely true. Research by YouTuber Republic of Play, who took the time to dig into the database, indicates that the spawn rate for female generals varies between cultures, with most rates around 10% – only the Kushites have a 50% rate. This has to raise questions about the provenance of a screenshot depicting an all-female general recruitment pool, and about who is really pushing an agenda here. Even the birth rate of female characters into your family – which, obviously, ought to be 50% if you care about biological accuracy – is just 35%.

The outcry has been compounded by comments from a Total War community manager, who locked a lengthy Steam forum post on the issue, stating that "this thread is a mess so I'm locking it." That thread now seems to have been deleted, but the community manager went on to say that "as has been said previously: Total War games are historically authentic, not historically accurate – if having female units upsets you that much you can either mod them out or just not play."

We've reached out to Creative Assembly for further clarification, and will update with any new information.
[/spoiler]
Not only is the update that added female generals several months old at this point (so I dont know why there angry now) there angry despite the fact the chance to spawn a female general is quite low, and it effects certain factions. People have threatened to hurt the female PR managers.

MOD EDIT:

Odeko · Sep 24, 2018

Female generals? In the Roman Empire?

Hmm.

Dragnipur · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Female generals? In the Roman Empire?

Hmm.

It's a game, doesn't have to be historically accurate

CenturionNami · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Female generals? In the Roman Empire?

Hmm.

Rome can't recruit female generals, nor can the Greeks.

Deleted member 9035 · Sep 24, 2018

People have way too much free time.

Tiamat · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Female generals? In the Roman Empire?

Hmm.

Exactly what I was thinking.
Maybe historians play the game...

SofNascimento · Sep 24, 2018

Female generals have been around for quite a while now, and I don't remember any backslash about it, although I have to say I've not been following the game closely this last month so I'm not aware of any patch. Personally I loved the patch that added female generals and even made a mod to allow them for every faction.

Deleted member 3815 · Sep 24, 2018

I misread generals as genital and got confused to why misogynist would have a problem with that. But yeah, it's fucking pathetic that the game is being review bombed over the inclusion of female generals.

Odeko · Sep 24, 2018

CenturionNami said:
Rome can't recruit female generals, nor can the Greeks.

Ahh, that makes a lot of sense. Obviously other cultures at the time did have the rare female general (hello Scythia)

Dragnipur said:
It's a game, doesn't have to be historically accurate

Then why set it in a historical period?

Enrico25 · Sep 24, 2018

Dragnipur said:
It's a game, doesn't have to be historically accurate

Rome Total War is probably one of the most historically accurate games.

SofNascimento · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Female generals? In the Roman Empire?

Hmm.

Not every faction have access to female generals, Rome does not. Neither does most greek and macedonian kingdoms.

Vela · Sep 24, 2018

efyu_lemonardo said:
People have way too much free time.

Nah, they're just too embroiled in their male cocoon, so that any presence of a woman in their vicinity is automatically offensive.

Mechaplum · Sep 24, 2018

Fucking baby gamers..I mean it's on the PC feel free to mod that shit out if you're so inclined instead of throwing a tantrum every time your ego gets challenged.

mistersensation · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Female generals? In the Roman Empire?

Hmm.

It may be historically inaccurate, but it's one minor detail in the whole game. Anyone giving the game a bad review based solely on that detail clearly has an agenda

Mobyduck · Sep 24, 2018

I was actually gonna comment on that on the other topic of yours. I'm glad it got picked by a news outlet and you posted this here.

This mess started with the screenshot showing only female generals for hire, got picked up by the community, who proceeded to review bomb it and complain on the Steam forums. Now that people are saying the screenshot was made to spread misinformation, they moved their anger towards the community rep and her answer to the whole situation.

Take5GiantSteps · Sep 24, 2018

I'm sorry to inform you that in the absence of doing anything meaningful, the gamers (tm) are at it again.

Deleted member 9035 · Sep 24, 2018

Vela said:
Nah, they're just too embroiled in their male cocoon, so that any presence of a woman in their vicinity is automatically offensive.

This is true too.

Eumi · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Then why set it in a historical period?

Because history is fun and those cultures are fun to play as.

Historical accuracy is not something everyone cares about to the same degree. Like how most people don't want a game where you have to keep pressing a button to manual breath. Realism is not inherently better.

nib95 · Sep 24, 2018

Why are these misogynists such insecure, fragile and pathetic creatures? All over a ~10% spawn chance? Fucking really?

Hieroph · Sep 24, 2018

Mr-Joker said:
I misread generals as genital and got confused to why misogynist would have a problem with that.

I'm pretty sure misogynists have a problem with female genitals too.

Loudninja · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Ahh, that makes a lot of sense. Obviously other cultures at the time did have the rare female general (hello Scythia)

Then why set it in a historical period?

How you p;played many games with historical periods?

Dalik · Sep 24, 2018

Take5GiantSteps said:
I'm sorry to inform you that in the absence of doing anything meaningful, the gamers (tm) are at it again.

Pretty much.

~Fake · Sep 24, 2018

Its a historical accurate game or not?

edit: Sorry if sounded sexist, but I not.

Mister X · Sep 24, 2018

If the devs stated they do not go after accurate historical representation, I don't see the big deal here. Same commotion around BF V, one of the devs from Dice said it was more a fantasy take on WW2 in some of the interviews if I recall correctly.

And if people don't like it, mod it.

Odeko · Sep 24, 2018

Eumi said:
Because history is fun and those cultures are fun to play as.

Historical accuracy is not something everyone cares about to the same degree. Like how most people don't want a game where you have to keep pressing a button to manual breath. Realism is not inherently better.

This isn't a gameplay change though, it's purely a cosmetic one. (Also, not even a real one since GW actually didn't make them possible to spawn in the Empire, as it should be)

Loudninja said:
How you p;played many games with historical periods?

Crusader Kings 2 is one of my all time favorite games. They do this exact thing really well by making gender equality both a setting you can set while creating the world and an in-game law you can enact (which the patriarchal society will *hate* in historical mode).

Eumi · Sep 24, 2018

~Fake said:
Its a historical accuracy game or not?

That's answered in the OP if you read it.

They're going for "authenticity", not "accuracy", which to them seems to mean that they don't at all mind having things be inaccurate if it makes the game better.

Maneil99 · Sep 24, 2018

~Fake said:
Its a historical accuracy game or not?

To a large degree yes.

Patitoloco · Sep 24, 2018

CenturionNami said:
Rome can't recruit female generals, nor can the Greeks.

This should be highlighted in the OP.

Deleted member 8593 · Sep 24, 2018

They've said before that they're not striving for historical accuracy. And those games have always gotten many things wrong...

main-qimg-957c881f791ba328b02a5aec41f5672e-c

lmao

Lackless · Sep 24, 2018

Dragnipur said:
It's a game, doesn't have to be historically accurate

It being historically accurate is literally the hook.

RM8 · Sep 24, 2018

They'd be fine with it if they were half naked, maybe.

saenima · Sep 24, 2018

Idiots.

They should put Beatrix in the game just to fuck with them.

Zafir · Sep 24, 2018

Lackless said:
It being historically accurate is literally the hook.

Clearly the dev's themselves disagree with you on that.

Mechaplum · Sep 24, 2018

Lackless said:
It being historically accurate is literally the hook.

I think it went for "pop historical" instead for actual. See post #29.

Nirolak · Sep 24, 2018

Lackless said:
It being historically accurate is literally the hook.

Have you, uh, seen the new Three Kingdoms game?

WrenchNinja · Sep 24, 2018

Tiamat said:
Exactly what I was thinking.
Maybe historians play the game...

Redditor claims to be a historian who's offended by women in Battlefield 5, turns out to be a liar.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/re...n-battlefield-5-turns-out-to-be-a-liar.48928/

CaughtBeing · Sep 24, 2018

~Fake said:
Its a historical accuracy game or not?

It doesn't matter. Take your historical accuracy and shove it out the windows. You want your history lesson, read a fucking book or watch documentary on the said topic. Anyone asking this questions is sexist, ignorance or trolling. And if your trolling, then fuck you for even allowing this type of thought to be spread out.

Turin Turambar · Sep 24, 2018

Dragnipur said:
It's a game, doesn't have to be historically accurate

You are right, it doesn't have to.

But Total War games have been, historically speaking... (hah hah)

In any case, reading the OP, it doesn't seem a problem with the game, and more with people pushing an agenda. It says you obtain more men (which, ironically, it's a change done to favor gameplay without basis in reality), and from them, most factions only have a 10% to be generals.

Mobyduck · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Crusader Kings 2 is one of my all time favorite games. They do this exact thing really well by making gender equality both a setting you can set while creating the world and an in-game law you can enact (which the patriarchal society will *hate* in historical mode).

I love CK2, too, but, just like with Total War, they take many creative liberties, because, despite being historically authentic, they are still about fun: Satan Restores Limbs.

Dragoon · Sep 24, 2018

People online are just looking for things to get angry at.

Dekuman · Sep 24, 2018

I fucking hate organized review bombs like this. Steam needs to better protect its user reviews from organized hate campaigns.

hydrophilic attack · Sep 24, 2018

fucking gamergate

Odeko · Sep 24, 2018

CaughtBeing said:
It doesn't matter. Take your historical accuracy and shove it out the windows. You want your history lesson, read a fucking book or watch documentary on the said topic. Anyone asking this questions is sexist, ignorance or trolling. And if your trolling, then fuck you for even allowing this type of thought to be spread out.

Should slavery be removed too? How about assassinating political targets or aggressive warmongering? What about pederasty?

If you want those things in your Rome game you're LITERALLY a slave-apologist, war-crime committing, terrorist pedophile.

Deleted member 8593 · Sep 24, 2018

Turin Turambar said:
You are right, it doesn't have to.

But Total War games have been, historically speaking... (hah hah)

In any case, reading the OP, it doesn't seem a problem with the game, and more with people pushing an agenda. It says you obtain more men (which, ironically, it's a change done to favor gameplay without basis in reality), and from them, most factions only have a 10% to be generals.

No, they have not been. I am not sure where you got this impression but all the games are inaccurate to varying degrees from wrong names for units, copy-paste formations across factions and depictions based on myth and legend instead of historical accounts.

Nirolak · Sep 24, 2018

This has to raise questions about the provenance of a screenshot depicting an all-female general recruitment pool, and about who is really pushing an agenda here. Even the birth rate of female characters into your family – which, obviously, ought to be 50% if you care about biological accuracy – is just 35%.

Well, presumably all the review bombs will be changed to complain that there aren't enough women being born, right?

~Fake · Sep 24, 2018

CaughtBeing said:
It doesn't matter. Take your historical accuracy and shove it out the windows. You want your history lesson, read a fucking book or watch documentary on the said topic. Anyone asking this questions is sexist, ignorance or trolling. And if your trolling, then fuck you for even allowing this type of thought to be spread out.

Not what I mean. Understand, if they really want a 'non historical' game then you need to adress before the game release. Its like they're hidden those information for not affect sales. 'Hey, this game its not fully historical and yes will have womans'.
So relax, don't need to be agressive. Those thinks don't even bother me.

Tempy · Sep 24, 2018

Odeko said:
Should slavery be removed too? How about assassinating political targets or aggressive warmongering? What about pederasty?

If you want those things in your Rome game you're LITERALLY a slave-apologist, war-crime committing, terrorist pedophile.

Jesus H. Christ, settle down...

Odeko · Sep 24, 2018

Mobyduck said:
I love CK2, too, but, just like with Total War, they take many creative liberties, because, despite being historically authentic, they are still about fun: Satan Restores Limbs.

All of which are toggleable in the option menu.

curlycare · Sep 24, 2018

FFS

You'd think people had better things to do.

Nuclearaddict · Sep 24, 2018

Enrico25 said:
Rome Total War is probably one of the most historically accurate games.

Hahahah. Sarcasm? It gets so many things wrong.

Been playing the series since Medival Total War and I've never once thought the series selling point was historical accuracy. I always thought people just enjoyed being armchair generals in historical settings. These games have always been dead wrong when it comes to historical accuracy.

I'm not gonna let another series I love have it's history to be rewritten by sexists and racists.

Rome 2 Total War is being reviewbombed by misogynists because it added female generals

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