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Dwarf Fortress => DF Suggestions => Topic started by: Vainglorious on December 04, 2014, 05:55:30 pm

Title: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Vainglorious on December 04, 2014, 05:55:30 pm
Currently Dwarf Fortress lacks any sort of gender roles that don't appear to be a gamey shorthand (babies only being raised by mothers).  This system is fine, even sufficient, in that it subverts attempts to project any negative contemporary gender hangups onto dwarves.  However, the inclusion of procedural gender systems could bring a new level of variation and detail to the game, helping to differentiate different civilizations and give dwarves' a more embedded identity within the cultural context of their society.  In addition to this, it would make the game far more distinguishable as a setting; no Tolkien knock off that I can think of includes any appreciable amount of gender diversity.

Before I start to explain most of the idea and benefits of gender diversity in the game, I'm going to specify what I mean when I use certain terms, since gender studies aren't a required subject in most educational institutions and I'm not necessarily using strict academic definitions:
Here are some (very basic and not at all nuanced) examples of real world gender systems which I'm going to refer to throughout this post as well as examples of what alternative gender systems look like:

What a Procedural Gender System Would Incorporate

During world generation gender would be systematized at a civilization level.  The framework of this would probably be similar to what Toady mentioned in the latest DFTalk about laws, divine commandments, etc.  A number of genders would be generated and then hairstyles, clothing, colors, materials, weapons, body parts, occupations, family relations, supernatural abilities, etc. would be associated with the gender(s).  Obviously not all objects would be gendered, and certain ones would have to have relative degrees (eg. irl pants are masculine but are still worn by women).  Having dwarves of a specific gender tend to prefer certain objects could be a good way to manage happiness in your fort.  If dwarven men are believed to have been carved out of diorite by the God of Fortresses then they would probably be more partial to objects made of diorite.  Gender systems could range from universal genderlessness (what we have now) to a complex system based on the dozens of ingame occupations though there would need to be limits to stop systems which are too convoluted.  Furthermore, integration with pre-existing and future systems (I'm thinking that deities would be crucial to the development of gender) would be key to making the whole thing not come across as a randomized mess.

While this would be a interesting way to differentiate between civilizations of the same race, it really shouldn't be used as a way for ethics and civilizations to clash.  Imperialist suppression and outright destruction of gender diversity is still a very real issue and doesn't really add anything to the setting; besides it would be more satisfying for wars to become more involved with the ambitions and desires of the ruling class (though that is another topic entirely and probably already planned).

Alternative Family Units
Current family lack structure.  Basic kinship terms are applied and relatives like seeing each other, but beyond that babies just cling to their mother and then loaf around after becoming children and that's about it.  Same-sex couples could adopt orphaned dwarves, or adopt some from families who are becoming too large to look after all their children (this was common in some Native American societies). Multiple genders allows for more complex relations, and even 'adoptive familes' a la the Hijras.  Individuals who are non-traditionalist or nonconforming can join a gendered group, and through doing so gain new kinship and relationships (and possibly losing their old ones).  Groups like this could have access to hidden knowledge or perform certain occupations (whether spiritual or mundane).  Ascetic genders could allow for groups of dwarves with fewer relations (and are thus better for more dangerous or time consuming occupations). 

In most cultures gender roles are given supernatural or inexplicable origins (eg Adam & Eve/'human nature' are the two major sources in Western society) so it would make sense that gender could be linked to magic and the divine.  The Hijras function as priestess of the Hindu goddess Buchara, the Navajo considered alhya and hwame to have special ritualistic powers, and in the West women who were not feminine enough were sometimes accused of witchcraft.  Third gender groups having arcane knowledge or powers would make be a sensible place to put positive non-destructive magical traditions in contrast with reclusive necromancers.  Groups like this could easily be integrated into future expansions to the dwarven economy and political system.

Gendered Appearance
Dwarves can express themselves and their place in society through what they wear. For instance, in a society where men only wear trousers and are expected to have large families, an unmarried dwarven man you encounter in a blouse can be inferred to have the 'does not respect traditions' trait (and tradition loving dwarves in you fort would probably hold a grudge against him).  In adventure mode your appearance could be remarked on ("you look like a fool in that obviously misgendering cape" "such a pretty dress for a pretty man"), and you could disguise yourself as the opposite gender to infiltrate various gender exclusive groups.  Make-up, binders, corsets, fake beards, or just large flowing robes with a hood could obscure sexual characteristics and make dwarves harder to classify.  Different clothing types would go from being indistinguishable as they are now to being a key part in keeping the various groups in your fortress happy.  Traditionalists want their 'proper' clothes, non-traditionalists want alternatives, and religious devotees could desire certain clothes to obscure or display their bodies.

Tradition hating civilization members could finally give bandits and sewer dwelling people a reason for being- those who found their society's rigid rules (including gender roles) confining could become criminals.  While I'm sure these archetypes are already going to be fleshed out in the Thief Arc, gender deviation could be one of several motivators.  This suggestion only really stands if bandits are made more fleshed out, because a bunch of queercoded  cold hearted villains would just turn the game into a Disney movie.

Reservations
One of the main issues with sproceduralizing gender is making systems which makes sense.  While the association of pink/blue with feminine/masculine is completely arbitrary, the Hijras connection between emasculation, asceticism, fertility, and their third gender status is meaningful and purposeful and the result of thousands of years of cultural evolution and tweaking.  Their would need to be a connect between core game mechanics which you can observe and gender roles.  The issue with attempting to create interesting and meaningful social groups procedurally is that real life society is the result of millenniums of historical feedback loops and world gen takes only a few minutes.  Rather than gender existing as a separate system within the game it needs to be integrated into the various mechanics we have/will have - fashion, disguise, organizations, politics, social classes, magic spheres, gods etc.  But at the end of the day, procedural gender would provide a meaningful and realistic backdrop for countless game interactions, ideologies, and stories.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 04, 2014, 06:47:54 pm
Somewhat related: I've tested and put into practice same-sex childbearing (male and female). The game seems to handle it very well, with the relationship screen saying "father" for both parents (for example, mother also works) and one parent taking care of the baby pretty elegantly.

And yeah, the separation of sex and gender would be good. It should probably wait until the family unit is more... considered. Right now it's "person who gives birth (regardless of sex) carries the baby around" (Yeah, I tested male childbirth. It works, as long as they're a female for the birth).
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Niddhoger on December 04, 2014, 07:22:34 pm
Gender roles are purely egalitarian as it stands now.  The only drawback to having a female solider is her carrying a baby around, but you could always sequester those in training-only squads until the crotch goblins learn to walk on their own. 

While there are same sex marriages, same sex children is a different story.  Men shouldn't just be giving birth.  Perhaps they could adopt if hte parents of another child get killed.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 04, 2014, 07:50:33 pm
While there are same sex marriages, same sex children is a different story.  Men shouldn't just be giving birth.  Perhaps they could adopt if hte parents of another child get killed.

Or kill the parents themselves, with the right traits. The justice system needs more stuff to deal with.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Adrian on December 04, 2014, 08:10:49 pm
Gender roles and -identity are contemporary social and cultural issues. I do not think those should be brought into a medieval fantasy game.
Also in medieval times gender roles and -identity were pretty rigid.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Vainglorious on December 04, 2014, 08:49:12 pm
Gender is a universal feature of human society throughout time and space.  If you read the post you would have seen me cite the Hijras of India who are an ancient Hindu tradition, or the Navajo's four gender system which has prehistoric origins.  Seeing as gender isn't a technology (not in the common usage of the word at least) the period of the game is an irrelevant point.  Colonization and imperialism have devastated global diversity so if anything a game in this time period should have even more diverse cultures.

If the game takes place in a solely European setting like I think you're implying where have the pyramids come from?  How does a medieval society look and feel in a tropical jungle?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 04, 2014, 09:02:51 pm
Gender is a universal feature of human society throughout time and space.

Luckily we play with dwarves. Their only noticeable sexual dimorphic trait is beards, and their society seems purely egalitarian; other than different words for some positions based on sex, there doesn't even seem to be gender roles in dwarven society as-implemented.
Note however that there is no gender-role system implemented in the game at this point though, so don't take the above post in the wrong way. A system not being in place ATM doesn't mean one shouldn't be put in place.

If gender is to be a thing, then perhaps a good system is to define available genders on an entity-level basis. The gender can then be specified to apply to a percentage of a certain caste (i.e. in dwarves the Feminine gender could be made to apply to whatever fraction of the female sex identify as feminine, plus whatever fraction of the male sex identify as feminine).
I don't know how non-binary could in any way fit into this though, because it implies making a spectrum of traits that are considered gendered and randomizing it for a unit. Seems like it would significantly increase the amount of data kept per in-game unit.

The main thing about adding procedural gender identifies is that it requires both a) procedural cultures (not implemented) and b) gender identities (similarly unimplemented). So it's something that seems possible, but implementation likely is years away.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Niddhoger on December 04, 2014, 10:17:00 pm
Their only noticeable sexual dimorphic trait is beards, and their society seems purely egalitarian; other than different words for some positions based on sex, there doesn't even seem to be gender roles in dwarven society as-implemented.


The main thing about adding procedural gender identifies is that it requires both a) procedural cultures (not implemented) and b) gender identities (similarly unimplemented). So it's something that seems possible, but implementation likely is years away.

Aye, DF is a very egalitarian society.  There is one and only one meaningful gender role- the mother always carries the baby (well, two if you count hte mother gaining more happiness but both are ludicrously high).  How would assigning jobs and professions differ if we added in gender roles? Could we only assign a female solider if she was a star-recruit? Could weavers only be self-identifying females? Would there be an additional +/- to the skill level/quality of the work from one gender over another because of perceived value/high cultural affinity for that profession by the gender?

Honestly- lets just leave the dwarves egalitarian.  The only thing I'd like to see changed is mother's no longer holding babies... I don't know how many female soldiers i've had to bench (or carpenters I had to reassign when damning rivers since all they did was chase their baby down the stream).  Even then I wouldn't pass them to the father/least dangerous profession, but have a "child care" activity zone.  You'd assign a dwarf to look after the snotty brats and supply them with food.  Or maybe you could lock them in the parent's room... w/e.  Carrying children into the battle field or rive is just stupid. 
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Decidophobia on December 05, 2014, 05:34:26 am
While I appreciate all the thought put into this post, I am absolutely opposed to adding gender roles. Don't give me an egalitarian society and then take it away. I'd rather do away with the one role we have, that mothers always carry the babies, and have more varied childcare not tied to gender. So if this suggestion is ever implemented, there had better be an option to turn it off in worldgen.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Sirbug on December 05, 2014, 05:50:19 am
Gender roles come from several physical differences between men and women as well as historically high child mortality that required lots of incapacitating pregnancies. Women had to spend lots of time pregnant or nursing while men had to work and fight to provide for them and get motivated with some ego-stroking

With diseases are lacking, dimorphism non-existent, children being useless parasites, pregnancies not having an effect on anything gender roles would not form.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 05, 2014, 09:03:19 am
yea I don't really want to see gender roles in the game. That isn't anything different or new, if anything DF stands out because of its depiction of equality.

Just because medieval europe had this doesn't mean it should be in the game.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: LMeire on December 05, 2014, 10:39:39 am
I wouldn't mind as long as it was mostly automatic and unnoticeable until you went looking through Legends or something. It'd be pretty neat to large-scale background things like this driving social interactions between job-taking and military training, but dwarves are basically "always Lawful/Good" so it's unlikely that any of their communities would let a fellow dwarf's identity complexes get in the way of what they were allowed to do for work.

That being said, a lot of the posts so far keep mentioning that babies are never carried by the father "fertilizing parent", I've just been interpreting this as dwarves being mammals that constantly require a milk-only diet for the entirety of their infancy. It's not like biological males can lactate without extreme measures being taken. (for the medieval tech-level) If anything, the most I would change about that is maybe the inclusion of a "wetnurse" profession, so that a mother dying or going nuts didn't automatically kill the kid too.

Wetnurses were an established part of civilized living from the adoption of barter-based propriety to the invention of baby-formula. They were especially important to the noble families who couldn't afford to look "mortal" or "fallible" to the peasants for fear of losing some of the perceived legitimacy that kept the masses content. I think dwarf civs, being so fond of their nobility that they will let them get away with mass-murder, (Unfortunate accidents in player-forts don't count, as player actions in general are completely beyond the control of ingame norms.) would be all over the idea of a specialized caste of child rearers.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 05, 2014, 11:21:02 am
yea I don't really want to see gender roles in the game. That isn't anything different or new, if anything DF stands out because of its depiction of equality.

Just because medieval europe had this doesn't mean it should be in the game.

For once, I agree. Dwarves are not mediaeval Europeans and there is no reason why they should follow their culture at all. Dwarves are cruel and violent creatures, but 2 things they are not are sexist and homophobic.

Humans are a rather different story, and I would quite like to see them more bigoted and unequal as is fitting of a race with many slaves. I would also like to see the nonsense about "opposing the torture of animals" removed.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Sirbug on December 05, 2014, 11:27:16 am
Humans do frown on torture of animals. Or torture for pleasure in general. Nobody likes a psychopath except for goblins.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 05, 2014, 12:19:04 pm
As mentioned a couple times, DF Dwarves have little sexual dimorphism (and if you mod beards onto females, just the nursing one) and no gendered professions whatsoever.  It would be appropriate for a lot of other species, but features that don't apply to vanilla Dwarves are basically absent.  Vanilla Dwarves don't tolerate slavery, so there are no tools to manage slaves in a fortress (even if you mod the Dwarves to find it acceptable).

In other words, the lack of sex- and gender-based roles reflects their absence from vanilla Dwarves.  Seems like a good future feature to have, but it'll be low priority until DF officially supports non-Dwarf player forts.

As for how to do this, I think it should be in the entity file.  Positions can already be divved up by caste, but a more general system can take that decorations weighting system to apply different values/jobs/spheres/clothing/etc. to castes.  So we could design a civ that says that hunting is "men's work" and farming is "woman's work," where everyone wears skirts/kilts but only the hwame wear hats.  Putting non-hwame in your militia would cause some stress whenever their uniforms include helms.

Later, when civs get some randomization, it will automatically shuffle these gender roles as well.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 05, 2014, 12:35:40 pm
Humans do frown on torture of animals. Or torture for pleasure in general. Nobody likes a psychopath except for goblins.

Eh, not so. Animal baiting was practically Europe's most popular sport up until the late 19th century. Large human civilizations still practice animal bloodsport for kicks. Seeing as the human ethics are based off historical European ethics according to Toady, there's no reason that animal torture should be frowned upon.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Sirbug on December 05, 2014, 12:41:47 pm
I thought animal torture is when you tie it down and whip it or something. Bloodsport is bloodsport.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 05, 2014, 12:42:47 pm
Humans do frown on torture of animals. Or torture for pleasure in general. Nobody likes a psychopath except for goblins.

Eh, not so. Animal baiting was practically Europe's most popular sport up until the late 19th century. Large human civilizations still practice animal bloodsport for kicks. Seeing as the human ethics are based off historical European ethics according to Toady, there's no reason that animal torture should be frowned upon.
I think its some hairsplitting between animal cruelty (which includes bloodsports, tiny cages, force-feeding, etc.) and animal torture (which is pretty much directly harming the poor creatures for fun).  There is also considerable disagreement on where the bar is for these categories.  Is "necessary evil" treatment (animal testing, hunting, etc.) in the animal cruelty category just because an uneconomic alternative exists?

Since the game doesn't have any sports at all, let along animal bloodsports, it's hard to imagine the game's concept of animal torture includes cockfights.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: LMeire on December 05, 2014, 12:44:41 pm
I thought animal torture is when you tie it down and whip it or something. Bloodsport is bloodsport.

A popular activity of the era was to stick a bunch of cats in a sack and light them on fire, because cats were considered to be the root cause of witches and the plague.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 05, 2014, 12:56:03 pm
I thought Toady fixed the game so all dwarves have beards by default?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 05, 2014, 12:59:58 pm
yea cats got it bad in the middle ages.

Honestly, even if I could play a human fortress, being forced to make my women cooks and gatherers and my men metalsmiths and hunters would be limiting and annoying. It's not like almost every other game doesn't enforce gender roles and stereotypes. It's predictable and as a woman, it gets stale really fast. Maybe for men it's a cool feature, I don't know. I have to live that in real life so playing a game with it is somewhat unpleasant.

Personally I'd like to see the ability to have beards added for dwarven women. That's a totally dwarf thing and it would be a better use than marginalizing a gender within the game.

It would be nice to have non-binary genders, though. Without specific roles of their own. Transgender and genderfluid dwarves, for example, would be wonderful. There's no reason not to have them recognized as part of dwarven society since dwarves seem fairly neutral towards gender and gender roles.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum on December 05, 2014, 01:01:02 pm
I thought Toady fixed the game so all dwarves have beards by default?
No, you need to add [] still to fix it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 05, 2014, 01:02:19 pm
It would be nice to have non-binary genders, though. Without specific roles of their own. Transgender and genderfluid dwarves, for example, would be wonderful. There's no reason not to have them recognized as part of dwarven society since dwarves seem fairly neutral towards gender and gender roles.
If anything wouldn't that make non-binary dwarves not really a thing? It's of so little consequence to them socially that the only classification they need is their reproductive ability.

I thought Toady fixed the game so all dwarves have beards by default?
No, you need to add [] still to fix it.
Aww. That's a shame. That bug's been around for a shockingly long time.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 05, 2014, 01:08:19 pm
I thought Toady fixed the game so all dwarves have beards by default?
No, you need to add [] still to fix it.
Aww. That's a shame. That bug's been around for a shockingly long time.
It's not a bug, it's an intentional design choice.  But it is literally the easiest raw modding change possible.  I can see why it is a raw thing rather than an init thing, but maybe a toggle on the LNP would be appropriate.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Orange Wizard on December 05, 2014, 02:20:34 pm
Personally I'd like to see the ability to have beards added for dwarven women. That's a totally dwarf thing and it would be a better use than marginalizing a gender within the game.
Ahem, raws, ahem.
For that particular addition, Toady already has the necessary tags in place, you just need to put square brackets around it.

It would be nice to have non-binary genders, though. Without specific roles of their own. Transgender and genderfluid dwarves, for example, would be wonderful. There's no reason not to have them recognized as part of dwarven society since dwarves seem fairly neutral towards gender and gender roles.
Maybe because that doesn't actually add anything to the game? Well, technically, in terms of flavour, but I can see many issues arising when people discover that their soldiers who they thought were male start flinging babies at the goblins because they only identify as female. Also what Graknorke said.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Badger Storm on December 05, 2014, 02:53:42 pm
Definite no from me.  I find the lack of gender roles incredibly refreshing, and besides, gender roles would remind me of how, because of my religion, I feel personably culpable for everything bad in the world.  I play this game to distract myself from that little problem.

Honestly, if it became a feature, I'd probably stop playing.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 05, 2014, 03:41:01 pm
I'd like religion and subfactions to have silly demands and opinions. Only women can be clerics in this religion, only men can be holy warriors in this, only children can speak for this force, crippled miners are the chosen of the god of fortresses. That kind of thing. Would be a wonderful source of schisms and emergent fortress politics. That being said traditional gender roles don't even make sense in terms of fortress life. Medieval peasant women did all the things men did, because that's how farming communities fed themselves. It seems like the same would be true for fortress life, regardless of entity ethics. with 100-200 able bodies when lucky telling people what they can and can't do seems fairly silly.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Sirbug on December 05, 2014, 04:23:38 pm
Definite no from me.  I find the lack of gender roles incredibly refreshing, and besides, gender roles would remind me of how, because of my religion, I feel personably culpable for everything bad in the world.  I play this game to distract myself from that little problem.

Honestly, if it became a feature, I'd probably stop playing.
How can you find your god's will "everything bad"? Some believer you.

But enough for the offtop. It would clutter game with unnecessary mechanic hard to manage in text-based game this is.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 05, 2014, 04:56:01 pm
Definite no from me.  I find the lack of gender roles incredibly refreshing, and besides, gender roles would remind me of how, because of my religion, I feel personably culpable for everything bad in the world.  I play this game to distract myself from that little problem.

Honestly, if it became a feature, I'd probably stop playing.

It should never become a feature for dwarves, because they are gender equal. It is one of their "ethics" which they actually follow.

Among humans, though, males are stronger and generally dominate is a way which is not, and never should be true for dwarves. For humans, though, there should be some kind of gender roles system in place, though remember that in reality a female metalsmith would not have been astounding because wives often helped in their husbands' businesses. Armies should be male dominated unless they are defending settlements against overwhelming odds or the civilisation is so martial that everyone learns to fight (the ancient Scythians were like this, and women also learned horse archery and fought to defend camps from the enemy, hence the Amazon stories. One Scythian queen, Tomyris, led her army to defeat King Cyrus the Great of Persia and kill him.) Nonetheless, men should dominate most human societies. Animal torture should also be common.

If you do not want to play with gender roles, stick to playing dwarves, who should not have them.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 05, 2014, 05:17:09 pm
Personally I'd like to see the ability to have beards added for dwarven women. That's a totally dwarf thing and it would be a better use than marginalizing a gender within the game.
Ahem, raws, ahem.
For that particular addition, Toady already has the necessary tags in place, you just need to put square brackets around it.

It would be nice to have non-binary genders, though. Without specific roles of their own. Transgender and genderfluid dwarves, for example, would be wonderful. There's no reason not to have them recognized as part of dwarven society since dwarves seem fairly neutral towards gender and gender roles.
Maybe because that doesn't actually add anything to the game? Well, technically, in terms of flavour, but I can see many issues arising when people discover that their soldiers who they thought were male start flinging babies at the goblins because they only identify as female. Also what Graknorke said.

I don't think you quite understand how nonbinary and transgender work.

Having gay dwarves also "doesn't add anything to the game" except make non heterosexual people feel included. I know that seems stupid and a waste of time, but it certainly is nice if you start considering wanting to include other people besides cis-gendered heterosexual males.

If you are a transfemale you, btw, don't actually have the capacity to have babies. I think you need some sort of biology lesson on this. Also, that seems like a rather petty concern.

Not having gender roles does not mean you wouldn't have genders other than cis-male and cis-female. There just wouldn't be the kind of stigma attached.

I'm always surprised by how upset the idea of being more inclusive is to some people.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 05, 2014, 05:23:53 pm
Definite no from me.  I find the lack of gender roles incredibly refreshing, and besides, gender roles would remind me of how, because of my religion, I feel personably culpable for everything bad in the world.  I play this game to distract myself from that little problem.

Honestly, if it became a feature, I'd probably stop playing.

It should never become a feature for dwarves, because they are gender equal. It is one of their "ethics" which they actually follow.

Among humans, though, males are stronger and generally dominate is a way which is not, and never should be true for dwarves. For humans, though, there should be some kind of gender roles system in place, though remember that in reality a female metalsmith would not have been astounding because wives often helped in their husbands' businesses. Armies should be male dominated unless they are defending settlements against overwhelming odds or the civilisation is so martial that everyone learns to fight (the ancient Scythians were like this, and women also learned horse archery and fought to defend camps from the enemy, hence the Amazon stories. One Scythian queen, Tomyris, led her army to defeat King Cyrus the Great of Persia and kill him.) Nonetheless, men should dominate most human societies. Animal torture should also be common.

If you do not want to play with gender roles, stick to playing dwarves, who should not have them.

why does everything devolve to men are stronger than women. Since the beginning, plenty of women have been successful soldiers, masquerading as men. Women are perfectly capable of being soldiers. And saying women could be metalsmiths to "help their husbands" no. They should be metalsmiths because they want to be metalsmiths.

This game does not need those kind of limitations. They are an unpleasant reminder to some of us that this is very much a reality in current times.

I get that the game feels more period to you if humans are male dominated and oppressive to females and homophobic and what have you, but this is not real life. And statistically, in adventure mode, I get no physical advantages being male or female of any race, so physical strength isn't even different for even humans in this game. And physical strength was ultimately what caused the beginnings of the patriarchy.

There's literally no reason, short of say because of the ability to control women through their fertility, to have men in any of the races being superior. I don't really feel like that's a good enough reason either way.

Why make the game more exclusive instead of more inclusive.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 05, 2014, 05:30:40 pm
I'm always surprised by how upset the idea of being more inclusive is to some people.

I think people are just unsure how to implement it as gender is entirely meaningless beyond procreation and that little symbol on a Dwarfs profile. I suppose adding a little 'they identify as x' to their profile could do it. Not sure if that would be taken as overly hamfisted or not.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 05, 2014, 05:40:29 pm
I'm always surprised by how upset the idea of being more inclusive is to some people.

I think people are just unsure how to implement it as gender is entirely meaningless beyond procreation and that little symbol on a Dwarfs profile. I suppose adding a little 'they identify as x' to their profile could do it. Not sure if that would be taken as overly hamfisted or not.

I'm sure it would be by people that are inconvenienced by such things, but those people will always be put out by inclusion.

I'm not 100% sure how to implement it, but I think there are ways it could be possible. I just think it would be really progressive and worthwhile to include all genders.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 05, 2014, 05:48:19 pm
Having gay dwarves also "doesn't add anything to the game" except make non heterosexual people feel included.
No, it adds flavour in an area that previously (and still kind of does, but less so) felt rather lacking. Dwarven relationships were something that we were told were important to them through mood screens but wasn't really reflected mechanically. Now that's got a bit more detail it seems less forced.
Gender identity not such a big deal. Gender roles aren't a thing and souls in general don't have much of an opinion about themselves. You'd be alluding to whether or not the individual in question conforms to a system that doesn't actually exist.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Decidophobia on December 05, 2014, 05:50:29 pm
That being said, a lot of the posts so far keep mentioning that babies are never carried by the father "fertilizing parent", I've just been interpreting this as dwarves being mammals that constantly require a milk-only diet for the entirety of their infancy.
That's not true, though, since when a mother dies other adults will feed her babies. They just won't pick them up.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 05, 2014, 05:52:25 pm
Having gay dwarves also "doesn't add anything to the game" except make non heterosexual people feel included.
No, it adds flavour in an area that previously (and still kind of does, but less so) felt rather lacking. Dwarven relationships were something that we were told were important to them through mood screens but wasn't really reflected mechanically. Now that's got a bit more detail it seems less forced.
Gender identity not such a big deal. Gender roles aren't a thing and souls in general don't have much of an opinion about themselves. You'd be alluding to whether or not the individual in question conforms to a system that doesn't actually exist.

I really don't see why it shouldn't exist, even in a society that has a generally neutral stance toward gender, someone might still identify as female or non binary etc.

I don't see how it would at all be a detriment, it could only add to the game for people that aren't cis-gendered.

You are arguing that it is unnecessary detail, but DF is full of unnecessary details. They only serve to improve the game.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Orange Wizard on December 05, 2014, 05:58:18 pm
Maybe we'll just have "overly complicated gender nonsense" as an init option or somesuch.

...

I don't see how it would at all be a detriment, it could only add to the game for people that aren't cis-gendered.
Wait, cis-gendered can't appreciate "inclusiveness" or whatever you call it?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 05, 2014, 06:12:27 pm
Having gay dwarves also "doesn't add anything to the game" except make non heterosexual people feel included.
No, it adds flavour in an area that previously (and still kind of does, but less so) felt rather lacking. Dwarven relationships were something that we were told were important to them through mood screens but wasn't really reflected mechanically. Now that's got a bit more detail it seems less forced.
Gender identity not such a big deal. Gender roles aren't a thing and souls in general don't have much of an opinion about themselves. You'd be alluding to whether or not the individual in question conforms to a system that doesn't actually exist.

I really don't see why it shouldn't exist, even in a society that has a generally neutral stance toward gender, someone might still identify as female or non binary etc.

I don't see how it would at all be a detriment, it could only add to the game for people that aren't cis-gendered.

You are arguing that it is unnecessary detail, but DF is full of unnecessary details. They only serve to improve the game.

I think that gender identity is a great idea.

I'm not entirely sure that dwarves have gender at all, though? I mean, when it comes to their society, they seem outright genderless. There's two sexes, male and female, and then there's the one gender, dwarf.

Actually, wait a sec, let me test something.

EDIT: Testing done.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Unsatisfying as hell, but at the very least you can manipulate a dwarf's "soul sex" separately from "unit sex" and "historical sex". This dwarf is female, but in his soul he's male, but in her hist fig she's female.

This doesn't make any difference, I'm pretty sure. Like, at all, mechanically or otherwise. I guess you could consider it flavor, but it mostly just makes the status screen inconsistent, as you can see there. Obviously there should be something better if one were to go all the way.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 05, 2014, 06:31:03 pm
I really don't see why it shouldn't exist, even in a society that has a generally neutral stance toward gender, someone might still identify as female or non binary etc.
Well we can't really know that, given the lack of egalitarian societies to study.

You are arguing that it is unnecessary detail, but DF is full of unnecessary details. They only serve to improve the game.
It's not (exactly) that it's unnecessary. I mean, the entire game is unnecessary. It's that there's no context for it to have significance in. Every other system in the game ties in to something higher up to the fort's wellbeing in some way, even if it is just that one dwarf doesn't like plump helmet wine or whatever.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 05, 2014, 11:48:19 pm
It would be nice to have non-binary genders, though. Without specific roles of their own. Transgender and genderfluid dwarves, for example, would be wonderful. There's no reason not to have them recognized as part of dwarven society since dwarves seem fairly neutral towards gender and gender roles.

Disagree. If dwarves don't have a gender binary, then dwarves as we currently know them are all non-binary. There is no genderfluid or transgender, because acceptible dwarven gender roles is a single, all-emcompassing gender that effectively is just a cultural standard rather than a gender for individuals. Essentially, their code of conduct to meet society's expectations for their gender is indistinguishable from the code of conduct to meet society's expectations as an individual. So varying from the dwarven monogender is the exact same for dwarves (as currently implemented) as exhibiting antisocial behaviors. Personally, I don't think that's a good representation of trans individuals to be putting out there.

Not saying that no system for genders should be implemented, but I don't see keeping the current absolute egalitarian model AND adding in transgendered individuals as consistent. One will have to go. I assume it's going to be the former, because there is no sophisticated culture modeling in-game ATM and there probably is intended to be.

I'd also avoid saying there won't be detrimental side effects - law of unintended consequences strikes again. Implementing a new feature means implementing new bugs, and the inclusion of homosexuality/asexuality/dwarves uninterested in marriage did majorly disrupt in-fort breeding, making it considerably more rare. Nobody's complaining about it though because what Toady wants, Toady makes and in this case Toady is kind enough to give us options to tweak it in the raws.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 06, 2014, 05:45:31 am
Definite no from me.  I find the lack of gender roles incredibly refreshing, and besides, gender roles would remind me of how, because of my religion, I feel personably culpable for everything bad in the world.  I play this game to distract myself from that little problem.

Honestly, if it became a feature, I'd probably stop playing.

It should never become a feature for dwarves, because they are gender equal. It is one of their "ethics" which they actually follow.

Among humans, though, males are stronger and generally dominate is a way which is not, and never should be true for dwarves. For humans, though, there should be some kind of gender roles system in place, though remember that in reality a female metalsmith would not have been astounding because wives often helped in their husbands' businesses. Armies should be male dominated unless they are defending settlements against overwhelming odds or the civilisation is so martial that everyone learns to fight (the ancient Scythians were like this, and women also learned horse archery and fought to defend camps from the enemy, hence the Amazon stories. One Scythian queen, Tomyris, led her army to defeat King Cyrus the Great of Persia and kill him.) Nonetheless, men should dominate most human societies. Animal torture should also be common.

If you do not want to play with gender roles, stick to playing dwarves, who should not have them.

why does everything devolve to men are stronger than women. Since the beginning, plenty of women have been successful soldiers, masquerading as men. Women are perfectly capable of being soldiers. And saying women could be metalsmiths to "help their husbands" no. They should be metalsmiths because they want to be metalsmiths.

This game does not need those kind of limitations. They are an unpleasant reminder to some of us that this is very much a reality in current times.

I get that the game feels more period to you if humans are male dominated and oppressive to females and homophobic and what have you, but this is not real life. And statistically, in adventure mode, I get no physical advantages being male or female of any race, so physical strength isn't even different for even humans in this game. And physical strength was ultimately what caused the beginnings of the patriarchy.

There's literally no reason, short of say because of the ability to control women through their fertility, to have men in any of the races being superior. I don't really feel like that's a good enough reason either way.

Why make the game more exclusive instead of more inclusive.

Most women soldiers in history were absolutely not masquerading as men. They were fighting because the state/tribe needed EVERYONE to fight, women included, and consequently could not afford to discriminate. Nobody thought the Scythian women horse archers were men, they just thought that everyone had to be ready to fight and defend the camps from the enemy. The same is true of female native Americans who fought. Even the Arab Muslim women joined in in some of their battles - notably at Yarmouk, where they used tent poles to first prod retreating men back to the line, and then to charge in and join the fighting themselves. Nobody thought that they were men, they fought because everyone did.

As for the metalsmiths point, mediaeval businesses were for the most part family businesses. Most marriages were arranged, though not always at a very young age, because people could not really prosper on their own - if a peasant's wife died, he married again so there would be enough people to work. Hence also the commonness of child labour. Men were not usually metalsmiths because they wanted to be metalsmiths either, they just inherited the family business or were apprenticed to an older metalsmith. There were traditions where young boys were sent away to be apprenticed and often abused for years before becoming tradesmen themselves. When women married, they married into the business too, and had to help, whatever it was. They did not have much choice in the matter, but neither did the men, really. If women were widowed, then they could go on being metalsmiths by themselves, but they would very likely remarry because it was too hard to work alone.

Either the "humans" in DF need their names changed to "animal-loving human-like creatures", or they need to have some kind of system of family trades and arranged marriages, since that existed worldwide in the kind of periods DF was based on. They do not need hard bans on women doing anything, or allow violence against them, since this varied from place to place, but all human societies shared the family businesses model where people did not choose careers for the most part. They should also show some sexual dimorphism in strength, again, unless they are "animal-loving human-like creatures". This does not have to lead to male only armies or governments, but it should favour societies closer to those which existed at the time. In fact, I may change that in the raws now.

This is not about what is happening now. It is about what happened around the 14th century, where Toady is taking inspiration. And the truth is that men were favoured, though not anywhere near as much as they are in parts of certain Islamic states now.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 06, 2014, 08:01:34 am
Maybe we'll just have "overly complicated gender nonsense" as an init option or somesuch.

...

I don't see how it would at all be a detriment, it could only add to the game for people that aren't cis-gendered.
Wait, cis-gendered can't appreciate "inclusiveness" or whatever you call it?

you're right, gender identity is nonsense. All these silly people "Thinking" they are men or women when they clearly aren't. Utter nonsense. What a stupid idea to include them.

You can't really use the term SJWs and not being saying things in a derisive manner.

Cis-gendered people are already included. They already appreciate their own inclusiveness.

I'm not seeing a decent argument against including it. It would not actually be detrimental in any way. What reason could we possibly have to not have, it and yet want things like arranged marriages,etc, which have never been part of DF culture at all.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 06, 2014, 08:17:24 am
There isn't a particularly good argument against including it, but in a previous post I did explain why it is such low priority.  Gender just isn't a thing for vanilla Dwarves, and anything that isn't a thing for vanilla Dwarves gets little or no development effort until it happens to overlap with some system rewrite that does affect vanilla Dwarves.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Adrian on December 06, 2014, 08:31:27 am
Dwarf Fort is a city building game with a focus on resource- and labor management stuck in medieval timelock.
Variable gender identity would add nothing to either the setting or gameplay.

I'm starting to think the OP might have been a very successful troll that got access to someone else's forum account. Indicated by the OP's account having been comatose for the past three years, only to wake up a few days ago by posting a wall o' text suggesting the inclusion of a feature which is currently a hot topic in IRL society (and which is bound to get a long debate started on here).
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 06, 2014, 10:19:20 am
I don't think the OP is trollish. Those are legitimate beliefs in the OP, not exaggerations. There were similar arguments for and against same-sex relationships. The outcome of that was Toady implementing the bare minimum of new tags in the raws such that the same-sex behavior is possible. That's the most likely outcome here, too.

It looks like the Navajo and Hindu examples are actually every bit binary on the gender levels. Just the Navajo decoupled gender from genitals, but they drew clear boundaries between allowable masculine and feminine roles, including marriage. Modern Iran does something similar: they are strongly anti-gay, but pro sex change. As long as you have people of gender A marrying people of gender B, they don't care what your birth genitals were. If Navajo had had access to sex change surgery would they have done the same? Probably, yes. I don't see it as a clear sign the Navajo were extra-progressive, it's just a slightly different take on enforcing rigid binary gender roles. The people who say that Navajo had "4 genders" are basically making a mistake that contradicts their own general position: gender is social, sex is genitals. Having a word for a dude in a dress isn't proof that they have an "extra gender". We have words for that, too. If they are thereafter treated exactly the same socially as a woman, they have the woman gender.

As said above: dwarves really are mono-gender, with the only trappings being the bare minimum for mammalian procreation.

Modding in Navajo Genders in current system

Right now, any creature token that can be modded at the caste level could be altered on a per-gender basis. Then, you could make 2 male and 2 female castes and give each one opposite gender-related tags. Presto "masculine" female dwarves and "feminine" male dwarves. This wouldn't properly model the Navajo system though, because dwarf sexuality couldn't be constrained to only doing opposite genders. But SEX + ORIENTATION tags can actually restrict mate selection in a way similar to the Navajo! So the "fix" for Navajo modelling would be to use SEX tags as socially assigned gender instead, turn OFF same-sex relationships, and then apply the baby-making tags to whichever castes have the female "sex" (which can now be different to the SEX tags since we have stolen this to indicate gender). Chuck some description tags in there and presto, your own Navajo! The only weird behavior would be a pairing of masculine female/feminine female could still have children, which isn't too bad if you assume they had a donor.

Appropriating the SEX tag as gender instead has a lot of potential, since Putnam already showed it has nothing to do with whether and individual can bear children. Right now as far as I can see the only functional purpose of that tag is mate selection.

The only issue I have is with the word "procedural" in the OP. The OP has given some examples of some societies which either do or don't decouple the sex binary from the gender binary, but he/she hasn't given much if any examples of what sort of things this "procedural" system is going to model. If you give specific examples of how that could work as a system of variables then it might be more feasible. Just saying "procedural" doesn't do anything if you haven't shown a set of variables that could be adjusted in a sensible way.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 06, 2014, 11:03:35 am
I don't think the OP is trollish. Those are legitimate beliefs in the OP, not exaggerations. There were similar arguments for and against same-sex relationships. The outcome of that was Toady implementing the bare minimum of new tags in the raws such that the same-sex behavior is possible. That's the most likely outcome here, too.

It looks like the Navajo and Hindu examples are actually every bit binary on the gender levels. Just the Navajo decoupled gender from genitals, but they drew clear boundaries between allowable masculine and feminine roles, including marriage. Modern Iran does something similar: they are strongly anti-gay, but pro sex change. As long as you have people of gender A marrying people of gender B, they don't care what your birth genitals were. If Navajo had had access to sex change surgery would they have done the same? Probably, yes. I don't see it as a clear sign the Navajo were extra-progressive, it's just a slightly different take on enforcing rigid binary gender roles. The people who say that Navajo had "4 genders" are basically making a mistake that contradicts their own general position: gender is social, sex is genitals. Having a word for a dude in a dress isn't proof that they have an "extra gender". We have words for that, too. If they are thereafter treated exactly the same socially as a woman, they have the woman gender.

As said above: dwarves really are mono-gender, with the only trappings being the bare minimum for mammalian procreation.

Modding in Navajo Genders in current system

Right now, any creature token that can be modded at the caste level could be altered on a per-gender basis. Then, you could make 2 male and 2 female castes and give each one opposite gender-related tags. Presto "masculine" female dwarves and "feminine" male dwarves. This wouldn't properly model the Navajo system though, because dwarf sexuality couldn't be constrained to only doing opposite genders. But SEX + ORIENTATION tags can actually restrict mate selection in a way similar to the Navajo! So the "fix" for Navajo modelling would be to use SEX tags as socially assigned gender instead, turn OFF same-sex relationships, and then apply the baby-making tags to whichever castes have the female "sex" (which can now be different to the SEX tags since we have stolen this to indicate gender). Chuck some description tags in there and presto, your own Navajo! The only weird behavior would be a pairing of masculine female/feminine female could still have children, which isn't too bad if you assume they had a donor.

Appropriating the SEX tag as gender instead has a lot of potential, since Putnam already showed it has nothing to do with whether and individual can bear children. Right now as far as I can see the only functional purpose of that tag is mate selection.

The only issue I have is with the word "procedural" in the OP. The OP has given some examples of some societies which either do or don't decouple the sex binary from the gender binary, but he/she hasn't given much if any examples of what sort of things this "procedural" system is going to model. If you give specific examples of how that could work as a system of variables then it might be more feasible. Just saying "procedural" doesn't do anything if you haven't shown a set of variables that could be adjusted in a sensible way.

That's an interesting idea for modding. I don't fully understand it because I don't mod much but I think I will look into that. Would there be a way to also include non-binary and genderfluid dwarves?

Incidentally, urist, regarding a previous post, I was referring to a number of women that did actually pretend to be male (or were male, but just not cis-gendered, that wouldn't have really been documented one way or the other.) There are a number of accounts of women dressing and acting as men to serve in the military, with some only discovered after their death.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 06, 2014, 11:29:10 am
Really, for a third gender all you can do is not assign either male or female to the caste, then you have a non-gendered dwarf caste which doesn't have a mars or venus symbol. And you can name this caste "genderfluid" if you want. but since they don't have a gender for someone to decide whether they're attracted or not they probably wouldn't ever form relationships, so they'd be more like a nonsexual person.

So, you can make as many castes as you want, name them however you like and give them descriptions, and try and tweak the tags for that caste so they mimic the behavior and relationships you want, but you come up against the limits of the tags that control relationships and bearing children.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 06, 2014, 11:37:50 am
Quote
   [CASTE:FEMALE]
      The gender tag lets it know how breeding works.
      [FEMALE]
      [MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE]
      To add beards, put square brackets around the following:
      BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:FACIAL_HAIR_TISSUE_LAYERS
   [CASTE:MALE]
      [MALE]
      [SET_BP_GROUP:BY_TYPE:LOWERBODY][BP_ADD_TYPE:GELDABLE]
      [BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:FACIAL_HAIR_TISSUE_LAYERS]

This is what sex looks like for Dwarves right now. More genders should be as easy as copying and pasting and renaming. Tokens for determining creature descriptions, frequency and such can be found here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Creature_token

Modding guide: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Modding_guide
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 06, 2014, 11:42:56 am
Really, for a third gender all you can do is not assign either male or female to the caste, then you have a non-gendered dwarf caste which doesn't have a mars or venus symbol. And you can name this caste "genderfluid" if you want. but since they don't have a gender for someone to decide whether they're attracted or not they probably wouldn't ever form relationships, so they'd be more like a nonsexual person.

So, you can make as many castes as you want, name them however you like and give them descriptions, and try and tweak the tags for that caste so they mimic the behavior and relationships you want, but you come up against the limits of the tags that control relationships and bearing children.

hmm so that would be more like asexual, but asexual is a sexuality in the game already, isn't it? It sounds like genderfluid would be cumbersome. But male or female transexual would be smoother. a male transexual having a baby isn't too big of a deal I think, assuming he was in a relationship with a male, or a female cis-gendered having a baby with a transexual female, that seems like it would make sense biologically anyway.

Or were you saying it would be more of a problem with a cis-gendered female and a transsexual male could have a baby?

Is there a way to have a caste, which can have any sexuality, that can be... well a transsexual is biologically also whatever gender they identify as, but that would be capable or incapable of reproduction depending on what would, in the real world, be based on reproductive organs, without having a male or female gender designation? Or would that require a lot more reworking.

I don't know much about modding at all. What tags would I be looking at adding, changing?

Actually, could we move this to PMs since this thread would be better suited for suggestions than modding. Or I could make a new thread in the modding forum if you like.

When I have it figured out I'll make thread either way so other people can mod in transsexuality, though I do hope Toady considers it for the future.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 06, 2014, 11:45:25 am
Quote
   [CASTE:FEMALE]
      The gender tag lets it know how breeding works.
      [FEMALE]
      [MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE]
      To add beards, put square brackets around the following:
      BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:FACIAL_HAIR_TISSUE_LAYERS
   [CASTE:MALE]
      [MALE]
      [SET_BP_GROUP:BY_TYPE:LOWERBODY][BP_ADD_TYPE:GELDABLE]
      [BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:FACIAL_HAIR_TISSUE_LAYERS]

This is what sex looks like for Dwarves right now. More genders should be as easy as copying and pasting and renaming. Tokens for determining creature descriptions, frequency and such can be found here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Creature_token

Modding guide: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Modding_guide

Oh so I could add like

[CASTE: TRANSSEXUAL FEMALE]
[MALE]

or [CASTE: GENDERFLUID]
[MALE]

Then a genderfluid with female, a transsexual male caste, etc etc?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 06, 2014, 11:53:31 am
Yep, though if you define their biological gender (the in-caste [MALE] [FEMALE] tags) gender symbols will be shown based on those. I'm not sure there is a way around that, but I haven't played around much with castes yet... I'd ask around on the modding subforum.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 06, 2014, 11:55:42 am
Somewhat related: I've tested and put into practice same-sex childbearing (male and female). The game seems to handle it very well, with the relationship screen saying "father" for both parents (for example, mother also works) and one parent taking care of the baby pretty elegantly.

And yeah, the separation of sex and gender would be good. It should probably wait until the family unit is more... considered. Right now it's "person who gives birth (regardless of sex) carries the baby around" (Yeah, I tested male childbirth. It works, as long as they're a female for the birth).

It'd be handy to further gender modding to know how you managed to get all this working.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 06, 2014, 12:40:39 pm
Some women pretended to be men to fight, but most women who fought in history did so as women.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 06, 2014, 12:48:47 pm
Some women pretended to be men to fight, but most women who fought in history did so as women.

I don't really feel like we have the numbers for that to be certain one way or the other.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 06, 2014, 03:25:23 pm
We know that historical armies did not contain large numbers of women disguised as men, as people looting corpses after battles would likely have noticed it and it is not recorded on a large scale - the fact that incidents of it happening are quite famous indicates that it was rare. We also know that many armies openly used women soldiers in some cases, especially in siege defences. With these together, my conclusion seems fairly valid.

We do know from studying graves and records that about 1/5th of Scythian troops were female at some times, and they were not disguised. We also know of many sieges when women aided the defence - again, not disguised. The numbers of these far exceed stories of women impersonating men. That was only common in Shakespeare plays.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 06, 2014, 03:53:55 pm
Quote
   [CASTE:FEMALE]
      The gender tag lets it know how breeding works.
      [FEMALE]
      [MULTIPLE_LITTER_RARE]
      To add beards, put square brackets around the following:
      BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:FACIAL_HAIR_TISSUE_LAYERS
   [CASTE:MALE]
      [MALE]
      [SET_BP_GROUP:BY_TYPE:LOWERBODY][BP_ADD_TYPE:GELDABLE]
      [BODY_DETAIL_PLAN:FACIAL_HAIR_TISSUE_LAYERS]

This is what sex looks like for Dwarves right now. More genders should be as easy as copying and pasting and renaming. Tokens for determining creature descriptions, frequency and such can be found here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Creature_token

Modding guide: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Modding_guide

Oh so I could add like

[CASTE: TRANSSEXUAL FEMALE]
[MALE]

or [CASTE: GENDERFLUID]
[MALE]

Then a genderfluid with female, a transsexual male caste, etc etc?
DF's tags and raw files are incredibly flexible, but they are not a Turing-complete language.  Raw modding is limited to what tags exist in the game, which is why there was no way to manipulate sexual orientation until this release with its new ORIENTATION tags. The tags' parameters are a bit confusing, but for any civilized creature the default is to have a 75% change or being interested in marrying the opposite sex, a 20% of being interested in taking the opposite sex as a lover (but not marrying) and a 5% chance of being uninterested in the opposite gender.  There is a completely separate die-roll for the same sex: 75% uninterested, 20% lover and 5% marrying.  So having a Dwarf end up straight, bi, gay or asexual is already achievable.

The reason I can summarize the whole thing in three sentences is because sex has no game impact outside of reproduction.  In short, they are all genderfluid since they're all shifting across all possible genders continuously (which is one).

The [MALE] tag makes a caste* capable of fathering children, the [FEMALE] tag makes a caste biologically capable of bearing children, and the [GELDABLE] tag in a bodypart allows a creature to be sterilized at a Farmer's Workshop.  When the game does get around to socially constructed genders, they will likely be defined at the entity (civilization) level and obey whatever randomization exists for every other civilization-level characteristic like ethics, values, noble positions, etc.

*Caste doesn't have the expected meaning in DF.  Anything that requires the tags to be different for some members of the species than others defines a caste.  Many monsters have one sexless caste (called DEFAULT), most animals have two (MALE and FEMALE), bees have three (WORKER, DRONE and QUEEN), and ants have four (WORKER, SOLDIER, DRONE and QUEEN).  Note that WORKERs and SOLDIERs have no sex tags, and in the intelligent version (ANTMEN) they never form relationships.  Probably with ants and bees in mind, a sexless caste in a create that has sexes uses the feminine pronouns.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: LMeire on December 06, 2014, 04:27:35 pm
Some women pretended to be men to fight, but most women who fought in history did so as women.

I don't really feel like we have the numbers for that to be certain one way or the other.

The Mongolian "Golden Horde" was known to recruit literally anyone, on the condition that they could ride a horse at a gallop and fire a bow from the stirrups. As it turned out, the list of recruits included a lot of peasant women that had to know horseback riding and hunting just to survive on the poor soil of the Steppes. Some estimates of the general make up for the soldiers indicate that by the time they turned around at Poland, the Horde might have had women filling in as much as a third of the entire Mongolian ranks.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Magistrum on December 06, 2014, 06:16:06 pm
Women in disguise apart, some cultures don't use women for attacking, all cultures defend with women(and children, must make the little buggers useful)  and some had no complaints for gender at all.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 07, 2014, 02:20:17 pm
I feel like I am getting a history lesson.

I* made a post in the modding forum about this for the more immediate idea of modding in transgender, intersex, and genderfluid, if any of you want to help out or provide advice there, since that seems more appropriate for that forum.

Overall, for this thread, I'm just suggesting to Toady (hope he's reading) that these genders would be really awesome to have in the game.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 07, 2014, 03:56:32 pm
You are getting a history lesson because you engaged in a historical discussion and made some points yourself.

I do not think that gender identity would not be such a major issue for dwarves since they are gender equal and homosexuality is openly accepted. Without gender roles as such, it seems less likely that transgender dwarves would appear, and even if they did, there is not much than can be done about it with dwarven medicine.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 07, 2014, 04:16:01 pm
You are getting a history lesson because you engaged in a historical discussion and made some points yourself.

I do not think that gender identity would not be such a major issue for dwarves since they are gender equal and homosexuality is openly accepted. Without gender roles as such, it seems less likely that transgender dwarves would appear, and even if they did, there is not much than can be done about it with dwarven medicine.

right but be aware that transgender and intersex individuals have existed since forever, so medical treatment and hormones have only recently been an option, and even with it available not everyone takes that path.

While I realize dwarves have very little in the way of gender roles, I still think it would be a valuable, and wonderfully inclusive addition.

Also, transgender people can be gay, straight, bi, pansexual, or any other sexuality out there. So the acceptance of homosexuality isn't entirely related.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 07, 2014, 06:00:15 pm
Bringing this up because you seem to have missed it.
I really don't see why it shouldn't exist, even in a society that has a generally neutral stance toward gender, someone might still identify as female or non binary etc.
Well we can't really know that, given the lack of egalitarian societies to study.
Really, IMO it would seem rather forced given the state of societies and the opinions of individuals as they exist in the game right now. Building the roof before the walls, so to speak.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum on December 07, 2014, 06:47:37 pm
Right now dwarves are entirely gender neutral. It seems a but early to be putting in all these things which dwarves wouldn't have...

And I think that dwarves are going to stay completely gender neutral, and I would prefer that to be the case. I don't think of dwarves as having gender really, they are just dwarves.

Spoiler:  Fortress mode rant (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 08, 2014, 11:25:23 am
Bringing this up because you seem to have missed it.
I really don't see why it shouldn't exist, even in a society that has a generally neutral stance toward gender, someone might still identify as female or non binary etc.
Well we can't really know that, given the lack of egalitarian societies to study.
Really, IMO it would seem rather forced given the state of societies and the opinions of individuals as they exist in the game right now. Building the roof before the walls, so to speak.

I actually found something interesting that leads me to believe this would happen even in societies without gender roles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer

he was raised from birth as a female, despite being biologically male. If gender roles, the societal construct, are the culprit, then there's no genetics involved and he should have accepted the change. But gender is biological, and that includes for transgender people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7689007.stm

Anyway, as was said, we don't have an egalitarian society with no gender roles to look at.

The thread is kind of split between two different suggestions because I mentioned all this.

And now someone has managed to do the worst possible thing with my mod, which just makes me ill.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 08, 2014, 12:15:35 pm
David Reimer is different becuase he was born fully male, then lost his penis in a botched operation and was raised as female before becoming male again. That is not the same as someone with male genitals who is raised male and wants to be female. Dwarves may have these kinds of psychological problems, but they would not be stigmatised to the point where they become severely damaging (dwarves of both sexes wear dresses, for example).
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 08, 2014, 12:19:48 pm
David Reimer is different becuase he was born fully male, then lost his penis in a botched operation and was raised as female before becoming male again. That is not the same as someone with male genitals who is raised male and wants to be female. Dwarves may have these kinds of psychological problems, but they would not be stigmatised to the point where they become severely damaging (dwarves of both sexes wear dresses, for example).

Actually it is exactly the same.

If you are a transgender male, you are fully male, you just have female reproductive organs. See my link about the genetic and brain differences and similarities.

This is not a psychological issue. It is wholly biological. Therefore, he is a perfect example.

The only platform from which one can come to the conclusion that trasngendered individuals would only occur in societies with gender roles is the one where transgendered individuals are suffering from some sort of mental illness or psychological trauma. Which I absolutely disagree with.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 08, 2014, 02:01:53 pm
People don't choose which gender they identify with - although genders differ through various cultures, the same binary/nonconforming paradigm exists. There certainly is a biological process which leads people to identify with male or female gender roles (or neither) innately.

On an unrelated note, its odd that we're talking about genital dysphoria when genitals are only modeled in the most abstract manner.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 08, 2014, 02:30:10 pm
Biology and psychology are very closely linked to the point where they are often indistinguishable. I can understand that dwarves may have genital dysphoria of some sort, but what is there that they can really do about it? Acting as the opposite gender would be acting the same for them.

Would you not consider a condition that leads to desire to mutilate one's genitals, or even commit suicide, to be some form of disability? Manic depression is certainly considered such, as do various problems involving delusions. Of course, hormone treatment or even operations may be the best treatment for this, but it is still something that must be treated.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 08, 2014, 03:26:00 pm
There certainly is a biological process which leads people to identify with male or female gender roles (or neither) innately.
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 08, 2014, 03:47:42 pm
There certainly is a biological process which leads people to identify with male or female gender roles (or neither) innately.
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png)

http://www.journalofpsychiatricresearch.com/article/S0022-3956%2810%2900158-5/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21195418
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7477289

http://np.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/2o02ul/cmv_i_think_transgenderism_is_a_mental_health/cmih4oh?context=3
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 08, 2014, 03:57:01 pm
http://www.journalofpsychiatricresearch.com/article/S0022-3956%2810%2900158-5/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21195418
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7477289

http://np.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/2o02ul/cmv_i_think_transgenderism_is_a_mental_health/cmih4oh?context=3
Alright, I'll take it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Orange Wizard on December 08, 2014, 04:03:18 pm
http://www.journalofpsychiatricresearch.com/article/S0022-3956%2810%2900158-5/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21195418
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7477289

http://np.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/2o02ul/cmv_i_think_transgenderism_is_a_mental_health/cmih4oh?context=3
That's pretty interesting, actually. In terms of gender roles, though... I'm not sure.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 08, 2014, 04:54:19 pm
There certainly is a biological process which leads people to identify with male or female gender roles (or neither) innately.
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png)

Citation Needed if you don't read the rest of the thread, yes.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 08, 2014, 04:56:55 pm
Yes the rest of the thread where this specific question was answered with links to articles about it. You remember that part of the thread right?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 08, 2014, 05:03:15 pm
Biology and psychology are very closely linked to the point where they are often indistinguishable. I can understand that dwarves may have genital dysphoria of some sort, but what is there that they can really do about it? Acting as the opposite gender would be acting the same for them.

Would you not consider a condition that leads to desire to mutilate one's genitals, or even commit suicide, to be some form of disability? Manic depression is certainly considered such, as do various problems involving delusions. Of course, hormone treatment or even operations may be the best treatment for this, but it is still something that must be treated.

wow...

It's not a mental illness. No one wants to "mutilate" their genitals. It's not like one day you realize you are transgender and you hack off your penis. It isn't the biological differences that cause one to commit suicide. One does not realize they are transgender and then get suicidal. The issue is the complete and utter rejection of their gender by family, friends, society, violence aimed at them and general bigotry.

Hormone therapy and surgery (which many people choose not to undertake, not including those that identify as genderfluid and don't want an assigned gender at all) only make one's genitals match the rest of them, which helps one feel complete, and prevents a lot of the rampant violence against you.

I don't feel you are in anyway qualified to make a statement about transgendered individuals being mentally ill. The APA would disagree with you, and they are more qualified.

But hey, don't let that get in your way. Massive leaps in logic and base, uneducated conjecture are a great way to learn.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 08, 2014, 08:55:12 pm
What I think the David Reimer case shows is that the mind/body are a holistic unit, and expecting to be able to make superficial changes and just mentally reshape people into another person basically is misguided, it was cases like this which discredited the 1970's dogma of gender identity being 100% a social construct.

It might be a useful distinction to separate the concepts of gender identity and gender roles. Identity is who you are on the inside, roles are what other people expect of you. "Roles" are never innate because they arise from the external dynamic.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 08, 2014, 10:34:45 pm
What I think the David Reimer case shows is that the mind/body are a holistic unit, and expecting to be able to make superficial changes and just mentally reshape people into another person basically is misguided, it was cases like this which discredited the 1970's dogma of gender identity being 100% a social construct.

It might be a useful distinction to separate the concepts of gender identity and gender roles. Identity is who you are on the inside, roles are what other people expect of you. "Roles" are never innate because they arise from the external dynamic.

The title seems to imply making procedural gender roles, which is really a subset of procedural culture in general. Adding in sex-dysphoric individuals for sentient species is what we've mostly seemed to discuss here though.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 08:09:24 am
I'm not sure sex-dysphoric is really a proper term, or what transgendered individuals would like to be referred to. It implies something is wrong with the mind, which, as I said, not just I, but the trans community would disagree with. It would be the same thing as saying gay people are mentally ill, even though, in both cases, treating it as a mental illness has very very bad effects. Which is why perhaps I seem so hostile when that was suggested.

Yes there definitely is a difference between gender roles and gender identity. And I think, even without gender roles, such as in dwarf society, there would be gender identity. That was my point. Where one line ends and the other begins... it's hard to say, tbh.

And yes, I apologize for hijacking the thread.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 09, 2014, 11:30:46 am
Treating it as a mental illness only has bad consequences if the society has a very negative view of mental illness. As for problems only being caused by non acceptance, that is also an assumption - the genital dysphoria itself can be very distressing for some, seeing the wrong body all the time, regardless of anyone else's opinions.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 12:11:39 pm
Treating it as a mental illness only has bad consequences if the society has a very negative view of mental illness. As for problems only being caused by non acceptance, that is also an assumption - the genital dysphoria itself can be very distressing for some, seeing the wrong body all the time, regardless of anyone else's opinions.

Have you ever heard of the movie Gaslight? Or heard the term?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

That is what you are doing.

It has the same effect as telling someone who is gay that they are mentally ill. It is not an assumption, it can be seen very clearly in practice and has very predictable results.

If you are told that you are fundamentally not right, or you are confused, or you are ill because of something that is not only unchangeable, but not wrong at all, you will eventually come to believe that, even if only subconsciously. You will fall into depression, become suicidal, so forth and so on. If I tell you that you are not a male, you are just ill, (See David Reiner for proof,) it will result in the same thing as telling that over and over to a transwoman. I have given you the perfect example, where a psychiatrist attempted the same thing on a cis-gendered person, with the exact same results.

It is not an illness. The only thing that allows it to be described as that is societal expectations and gender roles.

The conclusions you are jumping to are made with no experience or understanding of the issue. It has nothing to do with my opinion, you are just completely, and absolutely, wrong. And that way of thinking is psychologically damaging to other people.

If you try to treat it as a mental illness, it will cause people to kill themselves.

Don't be part of that.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 12:15:29 pm
I'm not sure sex-dysphoric is really a proper term, or what transgendered individuals would like to be referred to. It implies something is wrong with the mind, which, as I said, not just I, but the trans community would disagree with. It would be the same thing as saying gay people are mentally ill, even though, in both cases, treating it as a mental illness has very very bad effects. Which is why perhaps I seem so hostile when that was suggested.

Yes there definitely is a difference between gender roles and gender identity. And I think, even without gender roles, such as in dwarf society, there would be gender identity. That was my point. Where one line ends and the other begins... it's hard to say, tbh.

And yes, I apologize for hijacking the thread.

I disagree.  At the moment dwarf fortress society (of any race) has effectively no gender roles (elves do a little bit), even the names are not gendered and it is actually fairly hard to tell at a glance what gender a character is unless you go into a detailed look at them in a more general sense. 

For a dwarf at the moment to be transexual is therefore rather like a dwarf with a long nose claiming that really he actually has a short nose, because gender does not have any meaning or significance beyond the physical biology.  In the event that a dwarf was ambiguious biologically the matter would be subject to 'interpretation' but that would not have any real bearing on the life of the dwarf any more than not being able to decide whether a dwarf's nose is really long or short (it is a matter of subjective measurement).

To have transexuals you must have a sense of dualism by which there is the physical appearance of the sexes and then the socially defined nature/roles of the genders.  It must be the case that male and masculine, female and feminine are seen as distinct concepts from eachother before a person who is born biologically of one sex can rationally view themselves as the opposite gender.

This means that until restrictive sex roles are added into the game having transexual dwarves is nonsense.  But why do we need those roles, given they add nothing to the game and only serve to make the game-world more like your standard fantasy setting.  The near-abscence of gender is something unique to the game that makes the game and it's societies more interesting to think about.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 12:18:00 pm
If you try to treat it as a mental illness, it will cause people to kill themselves.

Don't be part of that.

It is funny how you use a link about bullying in attempt to bully those you disagree with. 

Agree with me or else people will die.  Lovely little blackmail you have going there.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: XXXXYYYY on December 09, 2014, 12:23:13 pm
(http://www.blippitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Popcorn-02-Stephen-Colbert.gif)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 09, 2014, 12:27:15 pm
Since personality traits are defined at the caste level, you could contrive a species that has different castes that prefer different types of roles.  A simple form would be to have a CISMALE (biologically MALE with masculine personality), CISFEMALE (biologically FEMALE with feminine personality), TRANSMALE (biologically FEMALE with masculine personality) and TRANSFEMALE (biologically MALE with feminine personality), and possibly FLUIDMALE and FLUIDFEMALE who have middling personalities.

The problem is that the vanilla game has no personality differences between genders, so adding all of this to vanilla Dwarves won't change anything.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 12:35:15 pm
Since personality traits are defined at the caste level, you could contrive a species that has different castes that prefer different types of roles.  A simple form would be to have a CISMALE (biologically MALE with masculine personality), CISFEMALE (biologically FEMALE with feminine personality), TRANSMALE (biologically FEMALE with masculine personality) and TRANSFEMALE (biologically MALE with feminine personality), and possibly FLUIDMALE and FLUIDFEMALE who have middling personalities.

The problem is that the vanilla game has no personality differences between genders, so adding all of this to vanilla Dwarves won't change anything.

What? You can add personality differences at caste level.  You could mod the vanilla dwarves to have different personality, indeed even completely different bodies, symbols, colours and pretty much everything else.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 12:44:23 pm
If you try to treat it as a mental illness, it will cause people to kill themselves.

Don't be part of that.

It is funny how you use a link about bullying in attempt to bully those you disagree with. 

Agree with me or else people will die.  Lovely little blackmail you have going there.

Excuse me? Who am I bullying? Do you feel like I'm hurting you because I'm telling you not to torment people until they become suicidal?

I'm sorry to put you out. I mean, your feelings on this are so important. Not having anything relevant to it going on in your life. It's really important you get to express the idea that someone else is fundamentally flawed by just existing as they are.

I am not bullying you, I am giving you the reality of the situation. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.

But oh look, here is a study showing the causes of transgender suicide cases.

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/28/local/la-me-ln-suicide-attempts-alarming-transgender-20140127

That's from people who have done research and put effort into formulating an opinion on the matter.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/01/28/3214581/transgender-suicide-attempts/

Personally, I don't feel like telling a bully that they are wrong and their actions will have expected results in a form of bullying in and of itself. I am merely clarifying that that viewpoint is ignorant, flawed, and absolutely screwed up.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 01:03:40 pm
Excuse me? Who am I bullying? Do you feel like I'm hurting you because I'm telling you not to torment people until they become suicidal?

I'm sorry to put you out. I mean, your feelings on this are so important. Not having anything relevant to it going on in your life. It's really important you get to express the idea that someone else is fundamentally flawed by just existing as they are.

I am not bullying you, I am giving you the reality of the situation. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.

But oh look, here is a study showing the causes of transgender suicide cases.

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/28/local/la-me-ln-suicide-attempts-alarming-transgender-20140127

That's from people who have done research and put effort into formulating an opinion on the matter.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/01/28/3214581/transgender-suicide-attempts/

Personally, I don't feel like telling a bully that they are wrong and their actions will have expected results in a form of bullying in and of itself. I am merely clarifying that that viewpoint is ignorant, flawed, and absolutely screwed up.

It was not me that you were trying to bully. 

You define failing to agree with you as oppression and discrimination.  You use the lives of those you died as a means to intimidate others, agree with us or else we will die.  That is blackmail.

The only facts your articles have actually demonstrated is that transexuals are more likely to commit suicide than non-transexuals.  They have actually demonstrated the actual reason why this is so, they claim the reason is 'oppression and discrimination' and that may well be so.

It is the way you consider disagreement with a certain viewpoint as oppression that makes you a blackmailer trying to intellectually profit from other people's deaths.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 09, 2014, 01:08:26 pm
Friendly reminder that we are not here to discuss the nature of trans individuals and issues surrounding them. If you want to have a thread about that, take it to General. This is the suggestions forum; if you're posting things that are not relevant to potential gameplay mechanics, you probably should be posting elsewhere.

Hopefully we can re-rail this thread here. The thread is talking about adding in not only gender roles (needs definition; what does a gender role entail in DF terms? Just what jobs are available? Property ownership? Availability of positions? Effects on reproduction? Weighting towards specific personality traits to display pressure to conform to a certain social role? Specific dress codes?) but a system that generates these procedurally.
Cultures clearly have different gender roles; some have more than 2, and most entail different roles for genders, i.e. historically in Europe crying was considered a manly behavior as it showed intensity of emotion. So there isn't really much to debate as to whether or not the game should model differences between genders in cultures if it models genders at all.

What needs to be established in this thread atm is;
-What variables are to be 'gendered'?
-Do you think gender modelling makes the game more immersive, or do you think it'd wreck your gameplay?
-How should this interact with a possible future procedural culture system?

Now please cease the super important INTERNET FIGHT before you get the thread locked.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 01:12:48 pm
Excuse me? Who am I bullying? Do you feel like I'm hurting you because I'm telling you not to torment people until they become suicidal?

I'm sorry to put you out. I mean, your feelings on this are so important. Not having anything relevant to it going on in your life. It's really important you get to express the idea that someone else is fundamentally flawed by just existing as they are.

I am not bullying you, I am giving you the reality of the situation. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.

But oh look, here is a study showing the causes of transgender suicide cases.

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/28/local/la-me-ln-suicide-attempts-alarming-transgender-20140127

That's from people who have done research and put effort into formulating an opinion on the matter.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/01/28/3214581/transgender-suicide-attempts/

Personally, I don't feel like telling a bully that they are wrong and their actions will have expected results in a form of bullying in and of itself. I am merely clarifying that that viewpoint is ignorant, flawed, and absolutely screwed up.

It was not me that you were trying to bully. 

You define failing to agree with you as oppression and discrimination.  You use the lives of those you died as a means to intimidate others, agree with us or else we will die.  That is blackmail.

The only facts your articles have actually demonstrated is that transexuals are more likely to commit suicide than non-transexuals.  They have actually demonstrated the actual reason why this is so, they claim the reason is 'oppression and discrimination' and that may well be so.

It is the way you consider disagreement with a certain viewpoint as oppression that makes you a blackmailer trying to intellectually profit from other people's deaths.

I find it interesting when bigots try to act like they are the victim.

I don't think you understand the term blackmail, because even if you think I'm bullying you, that wouldn't be blackmail. I can't even figure out, even twisting it up, how that word would be applicable.

It seems to be a trend for the oppressor to cry foul when confronted by their actions, and pretend that they are the injured party. No, you are not being blackmailed, and I don't really care if I hurt your feelings or you feel I am bullying you.

Your opinions are formed from you own prejudices and have no bearing on reality. You have no experience with this, other than a visceral feeling that transgendered people are "not right." Presumably because they are different and you are engineered to believe that different things are bad.

I have presented very clear evidence that insisting over and over that a person is a different gender than their own will make them suicidal. I showed you an example of this happening with a cis-gendered individual, who exhibited the same problems transgendered individuals face.

I have made the point that if you do this to gay people, the same things happen. It is painfully obvious, to anyone but the most dense and intentionally obtuse person, that telling someone they are mentally ill because of their gender or sexuality is wrong and bad.

So please, get off the cross. I don't have to defend myself to you when you bring nothing to the table but a lot of crying over how "mean" I'm being and zero evidence of the ridiculous claims you, or Urist, whom I assume you agree with, bring.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 01:14:25 pm
I've expressed this earlier but my feeling is it is a bad suggestion overall. Dealing with gender roles in real life is bad enough, and it would be rather restrictive to have to divy out professions based on gender, etc.

I prefer it as it is, with no gender roles.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 09, 2014, 01:23:55 pm
I've expressed this earlier but my feeling is it is a bad suggestion overall. Dealing with gender roles in real life is bad enough, and it would be rather restrictive to have to divy out professions based on gender, etc.

I prefer it as it is, with no gender roles.

I agree that it would be a pain in my hairy dwarven behind to have, say, 50% of the population no longer allowed to be masons. I'd rather not have professions restricted by gender or sex.
Thankfully, Toady didn't implement discrimination alongside non-hetero sexualities, so there's hope that gender roles can be implemented without wrecking things.

If I were designing the system, I'd link gender with what civilian clothes one wore and basically just that.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 01:49:20 pm
Even that would be rather inconvenient, and somewhat unrealistic.

If I'm going to make clothes for my dwarves, I don't want to have to make them based on gender, or I get stuck micromanaging the whole industry (which is not one of the more exciting parts.)

Gender roles can't really be introduced without discrimination because they are the very definition of discrimination.

Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 01:56:40 pm
I find it interesting when bigots try to act like they are the victim.

I don't think you understand the term blackmail, because even if you think I'm bullying you, that wouldn't be blackmail. I can't even figure out, even twisting it up, how that word would be applicable.

It seems to be a trend for the oppressor to cry foul when confronted by their actions, and pretend that they are the injured party. No, you are not being blackmailed, and I don't really care if I hurt your feelings or you feel I am bullying you.

That is because oppressors do not normally actually see themselves as oppressors.  This includes people who justify oppressing others in the name of fighting oppression. 

Blackmail is a form of violence by which you attempt to use the threat of destruction of something valuable in order to compel the other party to do something or refrain from doing something.  In this case you are using the lives of transexuals in order to compel people to agree with whatever you believe in. 

What is clever about this particular trick is that if a person does not succumb to it you can still make them look bad because they 'obviously' do not care about that which is being used to threaten them. 

Your opinions are formed from you own prejudices and have no bearing on reality. You have no experience with this, other than a visceral feeling that transgendered people are "not right." Presumably because they are different and you are engineered to believe that different things are bad.

I am rather different from everyone else, that is why your blackmailing tactics fail to work on me.  So I am quite proud of my abnormality, indeed if I *were* normal you would have intimidated me into compliance.  Indeed you could even say that I am speaking on behalf of those normal people that your vicious intellectual tactics would otherwise intimidate into compliance. 

I have presented very clear evidence that insisting over and over that a person is a different gender than their own will make them suicidal. I showed you an example of this happening with a cis-gendered individual, who exhibited the same problems transgendered individuals face.

A single individual that was mutilated at a young age was able to eventually figure out that they were not actually the gender assigned to them.  As opposed to a person who was never ever the opposite gender deciding that they were actually something they had never been and demonstrably *are* not. 

This is why I say that transexuality depends upon dualism.  The only way that (biological) men can actually be women is if at some extra-physical level they can be the opposite of what they physically are.  This reflects the actual distinction between biological sex and social gender roles that exists in society. 

What this means is that were social gender roles to dissapear so would transexuality, since it relies on that dualism in order to exist. 

I have made the point that if you do this to gay people, the same things happen. It is painfully obvious, to anyone but the most dense and intentionally obtuse person, that telling someone they are mentally ill because of their gender or sexuality is wrong and bad.

If some people cannot handle the truth then too bad; the truth kills whom the truth kills.  The rest of world does owe you to lie on your behalf in order sustain your own illusions.

So please, get off the cross. I don't have to defend myself to you when you bring nothing to the table but a lot of crying over how "mean" I'm being and zero evidence of the ridiculous claims you, or Urist, whom I assume you agree with, bring.

You were not defending.  You were attacking others with vicious blackmailing tactics. 
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 09, 2014, 02:08:36 pm
GoblinCookie this thread isn't your INTERNET FIGHT arena. If you don't have anything constructive to contribute, just stop posting here. Smee's gone back to discussing the actual suggestion and so should you.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 02:12:13 pm
GoblinCookie this thread isn't your INTERNET FIGHT arena. If you don't have anything constructive to contribute, just stop posting here. Smee's gone back to discussing the actual suggestion and so should you.

I don't agree with the core idea of this thread.  I do not see why the gender system should be changed at all.  I think that the status quo is fine.  I also do not think transexuals make sense in the status quo gender roles.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 03:04:50 pm
Jesus christ.

That has to be satire.

Incidentally, because this, at the least, must be said you still have the definition of blackmail wrong. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackmail?s=t)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Orange Wizard on December 09, 2014, 03:31:29 pm
GoblinCookie this thread isn't your INTERNET FIGHT arena. If you don't have anything constructive to contribute, just stop posting here. Smee's gone back to discussing the actual suggestion and so should you.
I don't agree with the core idea of this thread. I do not see why the gender system should be changed at all. I think that the status quo is fine.  I also do not think transexuals make sense in the status quo gender roles.
I agree with you on the bolded point - and that point only. Opinions are fine. Dragging it out into accusations of bullying and blackmail when someone doesn't like your opinion, however, is not fine.

Stop what you're doing.

Please.

Continuing to belabour the point is going to achieve nothing other than getting the thread locked and you yourself banned.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 09, 2014, 03:50:01 pm
Wandering back into Suggestionland, the caste system allows for "sub-creatures" within a creature definition.  Some tags are creature-level, but a surprising variety of things can be different between castes of the same creature (e.g., could have a humanoid caste and an arachnid caste).

One way to institute social roles would be to implement a caste system within the entity definition.  This is actually closer to the common meaning of a caste anyway.  There could be any number of social castes defined, and they could be restricted to specific subsets of the population similar to how noble positions are defined.  This system would be fairly rigid (although with randomization the rigid system here will be different than the rigid system over there).  Similar to a creature caste, the castes within an entity could be quite different from one another (values, allowed professions, etc.)

Another way would be to define several, for lack of a better term, stereotypes.  These would be defined by personality traits and preferences and possibly some physical characteristics.  The values, professions, etc. "allowed" for each stereotype would be seen as normal by members of that civ.  Someone who did not fit well into any of the stereotypes would be odd, and social reactions would depend on the person's tolerance traits.  I'm sure there's some mathy way to differentiate between "this person just doesn't fit in any of the buckets" and "this person has several traits from A and several other traits from B."  My instinct is that the second would be more disturbing (sort of like the Uncanny Valley).
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 04:08:53 pm
social pressure and reactions to stereotypes sound like it would be a real pita to implement, tbh.

Also, isn't toady working on a caste sort of system for jobs anyway? I seriously doubt it would be gender based, which, as I said, would be annoying at best, offensive at worst, but it does fulfill this niche to some degree.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 09, 2014, 04:45:42 pm
social pressure and reactions to stereotypes sound like it would be a real pita to implement, tbh.

Also, isn't toady working on a caste sort of system for jobs anyway? I seriously doubt it would be gender based, which, as I said, would be annoying at best, offensive at worst, but it does fulfill this niche to some degree.
The design issue is where to define the personality traits: creature or entity?  Possibly even both (innate from the creature and modified by the entity).

You could construct an entity that has completely unrealistic expectations for its members, and everyone will be miserable.  It should also be possible to recreate the vanilla Dwarves with their single stereotype.

It's worth remembering that this will be adding constraints to the game, so it only makes sense if there is some corresponding payoff in depth and/or fun.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 04:51:23 pm
That could be an interesting psychological experiment.

Most of the members of the species would have to fit within the constraints of what is "normal" for there to really be an abnormal to work off of and be made a pariah for.

For extra fun, bullying could be thrown in somewhat randomly (a particular child is marked and has to experience it, or an adult, possibly,) causing distress in the victim and maybe even modifying the personality to be less able to manage stress as a whole.

I can't think of an upside to this, though, other than tormenting the sentients of your society for arbitrary reasons.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 09, 2014, 05:03:20 pm
Random wouldn't be exactly in the spirit of the game. And there's already a system in place for generating what a soul thinks about various things like materials and foods, you could easily stick some things in there for people too. Eye, hair, skin, ear shape, all of that stuff is already generated and there's a structure to accommodate it.
Then a bit of expansion on how relationship works so that there's social pressure from friends to change relationships with others and you've got one person's judgements turning a group of friends against one person.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 09, 2014, 05:10:42 pm
Random wouldn't be exactly in the spirit of the game.

Except for clowns, FBs, worldgen, names, artifacts...
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 06:17:41 pm
Jesus christ.

That has to be satire.

Incidentally, because this, at the least, must be said you still have the definition of blackmail wrong. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackmail?s=t)
Quote

1.
the act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation, as by threats to disclose discreditable information
2.
the exertion of pressure or threats, esp unfairly, in an attempt to influence someone's actions
verb (transitive)
3.
to exact or attempt to exact (money or anything of value) from (a person) by threats or intimidation; extort
4.
to attempt to influence the actions of (a person), esp by unfair pressure or threats

Based upon this I have my definition quite right.  Your entire argument was indeed based upon one huge blackmail.

The whole of it consisted of, agree with X rather than Z or else Y will kill themselves. The threat of Y killing themselves is definately being used to blackmail people into intellectual compliance with X point of view. 

The thing is that Z is not saying that Y should be killed nor do the words themselves have the power to kill. Instead Y is reacting to Z by killing themselves, the mere fact that someone holds Z view is not directly causing Y's death but instead Y freely chooses to kill themselves in response to Z view. 

You can indeed blackmail people with suicide, either your own suicide or someone else's. The latter is what you are doing, using other people's suicides to blackmail for ideological gain; and I called you out on this 'technique'.  It is not agree with me or I will myself but rather agree with me or THEY will kill themselves, but it is the same thing essentially.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 06:22:39 pm
Jesus christ.

That has to be satire.

Incidentally, because this, at the least, must be said you still have the definition of blackmail wrong. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackmail?s=t)
Quote

1.
the act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation, as by threats to disclose discreditable information
2.
the exertion of pressure or threats, esp unfairly, in an attempt to influence someone's actions
verb (transitive)
3.
to exact or attempt to exact (money or anything of value) from (a person) by threats or intimidation; extort
4.
to attempt to influence the actions of (a person), esp by unfair pressure or threats

Based upon this I have my definition quite right.  Your entire argument was indeed based upon one huge blackmail.

The whole of it consisted of, agree with X rather than Z or else Y will kill themselves. The threat of Y killing themselves is definately being used to blackmail people into intellectual compliance with X point of view. 

The thing is that Z is not saying that Y should be killed nor do the words themselves have the power to kill. Instead Y is reacting to Z by killing themselves, the mere fact that someone holds Z view is not directly causing Y's death but instead Y freely chooses to kill themselves in response to Z view. 

You can indeed blackmail people with suicide, either your own suicide or someone else's. The latter is what you are doing, using other people's suicides to blackmail for ideological gain; and I called you out on this 'technique'.  It is not agree with me or I will myself but rather agree with me or THEY will kill themselves, but it is the same thing essentially.

You just need to stop. I am not holding a knife to a transgendered person's throat and saying I will kill them (or make them do it,) if you don't respect them. That would not be blackmail, it would be a a threat of violence.

Stop accusing people who disagree with you of victimizing you in some way. That just distracts from the actual issue, because then everyone has to pander to your hurt feelings or your accusations. It is infantile.

You also continue to derail the thread with this garbage. Just. Stop.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 09, 2014, 06:24:22 pm
Random wouldn't be exactly in the spirit of the game.

Except for clowns, FBs, worldgen, names, artifacts...
Names and artefacts aren't completely random, place names are related to the place to a degree, and artefacts are influenced by the preferences of the dwarf making it.
When it's possible to have a logical influence from other aspects of that game why would it be completely random?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum on December 09, 2014, 06:29:20 pm
So, question...
(Please don't be offended, this is only applying for dwarves.)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Orange Wizard on December 09, 2014, 06:33:33 pm
Procedural is the term you're looking for. Random, but generally cohesive.

...

So, question...
(Please don't be offended, this is only applying for dwarves.)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Unless we get magic involved, I doubt it. AFAIK we can't even do this with modern technology.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 09, 2014, 06:37:41 pm
yea sex changes still wouldn't mean the reproductive organs would be in place or work at all. That's something even modern technology is not capable of.

But dwarven medicine is not advanced enough to do anything like a sex change. And you'd need hormone therapy, which is way way beyond them.

While I would like to see transgender and intersex implemented, it would be through the dwarf identifying as the other gender and being recognized as such, not having surgery.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: GoblinCookie on December 09, 2014, 06:57:06 pm
You just need to stop. I am not holding a knife to a transgendered person's throat and saying I will kill them (or make them do it,) if you don't respect them. That would not be blackmail, it would be a a threat of violence.

Stop accusing people who disagree with you of victimizing you in some way. That just distracts from the actual issue, because then everyone has to pander to your hurt feelings or your accusations. It is infantile.

You also continue to derail the thread with this garbage. Just. Stop.

My feelings are not hurt.  I never derailed any threads, you decided to make the thread about transexuality and then you started to accuse people who disagreed with you of being responsible for transexual people killing themselves. 

I decided to challenge what you were doing and the word for what you were doing is blackmail.  If you will agree not to try and use other people's suicides to intimidate people into agreeing with you then I am quite happy to call it quits. 

yea sex changes still wouldn't mean the reproductive organs would be in place or work at all. That's something even modern technology is not capable of.

But dwarven medicine is not advanced enough to do anything like a sex change. And you'd need hormone therapy, which is way way beyond them.

While I would like to see transgender and intersex implemented, it would be through the dwarf identifying as the other gender and being recognized as such, not having surgery.

Given we have a completely egalitarian and almost entirely genderless society, why would anybody in that society become transexual?  Why would the concept of not being the gender that you are physically born as ever arise?  The whole setup of transexuality requires a binary division between physical/biological sex and non-physical/social gender exist. 

Since there is no social gender in dwarf fortress only physical sex, then transexuality existing does not make any sense.  Unless we add proceedurely generated gender roles which neither of us are for.  If we did that then transexuality would make sense.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 09, 2014, 08:21:26 pm
That could be an interesting psychological experiment.

Most of the members of the species would have to fit within the constraints of what is "normal" for there to really be an abnormal to work off of and be made a pariah for.

For extra fun, bullying could be thrown in somewhat randomly (a particular child is marked and has to experience it, or an adult, possibly,) causing distress in the victim and maybe even modifying the personality to be less able to manage stress as a whole.

I can't think of an upside to this, though, other than tormenting the sentients of your society for arbitrary reasons.
The game will trust the raws about what is acceptable, and anyone with low tolerance or high regard for "traditional values" isn't going to last very long.  If the civ actually survives, it will be full of people who don't care about the (unworkable) traditions in their culture.

Even in the real world, the physical norm of a Photoshopped supermodel is unacheivable yet a lot teenage girls try like hell anyway.

The only upside I see to this whole system is introducing some correlation into sentient beings traits.  So we're less likely to get completely screwy combinations of skills and preferences.  When we get some random jiggling in entity variables, we'll even get some interesting procedurally generated cultures.

"You can't be a woodcutter, boy. That's work for someone with a convex nose!"
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Neonivek on December 09, 2014, 09:46:58 pm
I am actually quite confused... the way the conversation is going AND the original topic seem to be separate. So I don't know where we are.

Yeah I am deleting what I said, too much controversy.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: nothingSpecial on December 10, 2014, 08:55:16 am
I tried to read this thread but it was so... messy that I decided to log on after a long read-only and get the things straight (no pun intended).

Can the suggestion in original post be represented by this list?
1. Add the possibility for creature to have the binary gender not the same as it's sex;
That would make four genders from original post example possible, except without names for non-sex-gender-matching two.
2. Add the possibility for creature to have orientation according to sex or according to gender;
That would make possibility for Thailand-style five-gender system (correct me if I am mistaken Thailand for other country).
3. Add the possibility for entity to have gender preferition for position (think Elven queen has GENDERED token instead of FEMALE).
That would make some degree of diversed cultures. Those who don't like it because it reminds them of real oppression could just remove the tags, the same as now for Elves.
4. Add the parameter for entity clothing token to be gendered and in world gen it will be either masculind or feminine.
That would make some very flavoury degree of diversity amongst cultures, but need to have some checks. If both pants and skirts would be feminine you'll get barelegged adventurer a lot.
5. Add the possibility for entity to make one gender (like now), two (feminine women and masculine men), three (plus one of mixed cimbinations) or four (both of them) with procedural names.
That would complete the example of fourth-gendered society.
6. Add the orientation into the mix.
That will make five and more gendered socities possible, but also will complicate current orientation issue a lot.
7. Add for gods ability to prohibit some jobs for some genders (or all of them, by the way).
That explains itself

And the most important.
8. Add for creatures the impact of their traditionalism and worship levels for emotions if they forced to wear non-traditional clothes, or clothes not  appropriate for their gender, or make jobs that are frowned by their deity.

Everything except the sixth should both be not very hard and do the work for most pre-Twentieth century sicieties.
Sixth would be good but IIRC Toady already find current orientation system too complex. Some modifications can also add the genderfluid, genderqueer and intersex people, but I'm not sure how.

Was my attempt to answer to original post and not to very strangely derailed discussion successful?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 10, 2014, 09:37:51 am
Toady was asked point-blank about orientation and castes.  At present, orientation is geared toward the two sexes because this can be represented by four bits (one each for looking for: male lover, male marriage, female lover, female marriage).  Allowing caste-to-caste matching could potentially get cumbersome due to its variable length, but I think it'd be worth it when and if the game develops some sense of socially-constructed roles (gendered or otherwise).  It's not like defining a creature is straightforward now!

Such a system might also open up alternate arrangements for marriage and reproduction, such as a bonobo-like free-for-all, or monogamy, or harems, of one of each of these three castes, or whatever.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 10, 2014, 09:51:24 am
christ, bonobo-like, there would be babies everywhere. >.<
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 10, 2014, 10:57:12 am
Adding on a system to designate roles for individuals could also be used to create India-like caste systems or Medieval feudalism, not just genders.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 10, 2014, 11:03:03 am
Speaking of alternate arrangements I recently bumped into a lord with two consorts... not sure if bug or feature.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 10, 2014, 11:10:00 am
Speaking of alternate arrangements I recently bumped into a lord with two consorts... not sure if bug or feature.

Bug.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 10, 2014, 11:49:45 am
I personally am very much against sex changes in DF. Though there are now legendary gelders, I doubt that dwarves have anywhere near the level of scientific knowledge to do such things with any level of success.

Bonobo-like sexuality would not necessarily lead to babies everywhere, since much of the activity is same-sex and dwarves respect the child cap set on the fort by its overseer, presumably by making *troll intestine condom*s and using them.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: ptb_ptb on December 10, 2014, 12:26:12 pm
presumably by making *troll intestine condom*s and using them.
Ugh. That just gives me images of a dwarf running out onto the battle field to collect a stray Xtroll intestine condomX. "Ho-boy, gunna get lucky tonight!"
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 10, 2014, 12:35:10 pm
presumably by making *troll intestine condom*s and using them.
Ugh. That just gives me images of a dwarf running out onto the battle field to collect a stray Xtroll intestine condomX. "Ho-boy, gunna get lucky tonight!"

oh gawd! You went too far. >.<
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 10, 2014, 12:48:35 pm
Treating it as a mental illness only has bad consequences if the society has a very negative view of mental illness. As for problems only being caused by non acceptance, that is also an assumption - the genital dysphoria itself can be very distressing for some, seeing the wrong body all the time, regardless of anyone else's opinions.

The discussing this was replying to was about one of us labeling transgender as a mental illness, in this actual discussion. What hypothetical dwarven society would think of it is not the same issue that was being dicussed. In our society, labelling some behavior you disagree with as a mental illness does in fact carry very negative connotation that's it's not "proper thinking", and that it's an illness which should be "cured" so they "think right". Until recent decades homosexuality was labeled the same.

"Don't label transgender people as mentally ill in this thread" => "Yes, but what would dwarves think of it?" isn't a valid rebuttal. I do think smeeprokect overreated to the term "sex-dysphoria" a little, but still, bringing in non-existant societies hypothetical views on mental illness isn't a coherent addition to the debate. But even then, I doubt it would be different in any society which even had a concept of metal illness. "metal illness" implies wrong thinking which should be fixed, no matter how nice we are about it.

Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 10, 2014, 12:59:16 pm
This is the upper boards. The context should be about DF or avoiding tangents from being such as much as possible.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 10, 2014, 01:06:13 pm
I think though when the context is something that is controversial in the real world then it's inevitable that there will be some meta-discussion. Not having any discussion on people in the threads different views on gender roles except in the exact specific context of the game isn't practical.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 10, 2014, 02:57:45 pm
Actually, I only think categorising something as a mental illness is harmful if society views mental illness as something to be feared and punished, as was true around much of the world until recently and still is to some extent today. A sizable fraction of people will have some kind of mental health problem in their lives and it is important that this is not treated as any more shameful as a physical disability. There are issues with being associated with very rare "psycho killers" that only make up a miniscule fraction of the mentally ill.

Genital dysmorphia is similar to manic depression in some ways - distressing to start with, made far worse by social rejection, can lead to suicide, and people would be much better without it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: phantom713 on December 10, 2014, 09:00:56 pm
I think that the dwarfs should just stay gender-less. They wouldn't need to identify as a different gender because there are none. The classifications "male" and "female" simply refer to their genitalia while sexual orientation refers to what kind of genitalia they are attracted to. I just don't see how you could be transgender when there are  no genders to start with.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 10, 2014, 09:11:45 pm
The point of discussing it in a suggestion forum is to get a handle on how socially constructed roles should function, even if it's something that never comes up for vanilla Dwarves.  Slavery is in the game, but vanilla Dwarves don't have slaves and therefore there are no fort-mode tools for managing slaves.  But when DF does start to officially support non-Dwarf forts such a thing becomes salient.  You could think of socially constructed roles in a similar way: planning ahead.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 10, 2014, 10:50:06 pm
The thing is that sexual dimorphism pretty much doesn't exist in the game, so those would be unlikely to be the basis of roles.
I could see either humans or goblins being overbearingly restrictive on a person's attributes to work a job maybe, like only THE STRONKEST are allowed to be miners or woodcutters and you have to be absurdly dexterous to be a craftsman/goblin and so on. Humans more than goblins now that I think about it since they would serve as a good contrast to the dwarves. The dwarves have a skill and community based system where each dwarf does what they must; while the humans' ambitious nature would lead to a system where each person is socially obliged to make the best out of the natural talents they have, even if it's not helpful to the town as a whole.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Neonivek on December 10, 2014, 11:38:43 pm
I'd stay far away from sexual dimorphism with the main races though. It is just too controversial.

Dwarf Fortress isn't Charlie and the Chocolate factory where they justify black slavery and everyone is fine with it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 11, 2014, 12:05:08 am
Was that in response to me? I didn't mean to write about slavery at all, if so.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Neonivek on December 11, 2014, 12:08:39 am
Was that in response to me? I didn't mean to write about slavery at all, if so.

Not so much in that sexual dimorphism would probably be seen as a way to attempt to justify sexism in real life if done in the main races.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 11, 2014, 09:30:34 am
Was that in response to me? I didn't mean to write about slavery at all, if so.
Not so much in that sexual dimorphism would probably be seen as a way to attempt to justify sexism in real life if done in the main races.
I understand that. I wasn't suggesting that there should be sexual dimorphism, just commenting that it doesn't exist.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 11, 2014, 11:06:02 am
Was that in response to me? I didn't mean to write about slavery at all, if so.

Not so much in that sexual dimorphism would probably be seen as a way to attempt to justify sexism in real life if done in the main races.

I agree that there should be no dimorphism for dwarves, elves or goblins. Humans, however, are a different story, since we know they have sexual dimorphism, unless DF humans are actually "human like creatures". It is quite clear that DF's humans are not role models, nor are they the main species in the game. The world of DF is violent and primitive, just the sort of situation where repressive human societies flourish. Showing these humans as having gender roles does not endorse that any more than goblin child abduction endorses child abduction.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 11, 2014, 07:00:00 pm
Actually, I only think categorising something as a mental illness is harmful if society views mental illness as something to be feared and punished, as was true around much of the world until recently and still is to some extent today. A sizable fraction of people will have some kind of mental health problem in their lives and it is important that this is not treated as any more shameful as a physical disability. There are issues with being associated with very rare "psycho killers" that only make up a miniscule fraction of the mentally ill.

Genital dysmorphia is similar to manic depression in some ways - distressing to start with, made far worse by social rejection, can lead to suicide, and people would be much better without it.
1

you need to stop, you are wrong. The APA, which knows much more about psychological illness than you, does not label transgender as a disorder or mental illness. Your view is based on nothing but your own assumptions. And now you are making even more wild claims.

Like I said, this is effectively gaslighting a chunk of the populace, and it will have negative results. Up to and including the suicide of people gaslighted. It is irrelevant what connotations mental illness has, and it is also irrelevant because it is not a mental illness. I will take a the Amercan Psychiatry Association's word on this over your ignorance.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 11, 2014, 07:47:00 pm
Actually, I only think categorising something as a mental illness is harmful if society views mental illness as something to be feared and punished, as was true around much of the world until recently and still is to some extent today. A sizable fraction of people will have some kind of mental health problem in their lives and it is important that this is not treated as any more shameful as a physical disability. There are issues with being associated with very rare "psycho killers" that only make up a miniscule fraction of the mentally ill.

Genital dysmorphia is similar to manic depression in some ways - distressing to start with, made far worse by social rejection, can lead to suicide, and people would be much better without it.
1

you need to stop, you are wrong. The APA, which knows much more about psychological illness than you, does not label transgender as a disorder or mental illness. Your view is based on nothing but your own assumptions. And now you are making even more wild claims.

Like I said, this is effectively gaslighting a chunk of the populace, and it will have negative results. Up to and including the suicide of people gaslighted. It is irrelevant what connotations mental illness has, and it is also irrelevant because it is not a mental illness. I will take a the Amercan Psychiatry Association's word on this over your ignorance.

Okay, first, you are correct.

Second, you are going about saying this very wrongly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc).
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 12, 2014, 09:46:07 am
Actually, I only think categorising something as a mental illness is harmful if society views mental illness as something to be feared and punished, as was true around much of the world until recently and still is to some extent today. A sizable fraction of people will have some kind of mental health problem in their lives and it is important that this is not treated as any more shameful as a physical disability. There are issues with being associated with very rare "psycho killers" that only make up a miniscule fraction of the mentally ill.

Genital dysmorphia is similar to manic depression in some ways - distressing to start with, made far worse by social rejection, can lead to suicide, and people would be much better without it.
1

you need to stop, you are wrong. The APA, which knows much more about psychological illness than you, does not label transgender as a disorder or mental illness. Your view is based on nothing but your own assumptions. And now you are making even more wild claims.

Like I said, this is effectively gaslighting a chunk of the populace, and it will have negative results. Up to and including the suicide of people gaslighted. It is irrelevant what connotations mental illness has, and it is also irrelevant because it is not a mental illness. I will take a the Amercan Psychiatry Association's word on this over your ignorance.

Okay, first, you are correct.

Second, you are going about saying this very wrongly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc).

I'm going to plug my headset in just to watch that because I am incredibly curious as to whether or not there is a productive way to tell someone they are a bigot.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 12, 2014, 10:35:17 am
Looking more into the origins of genital dysphoria, it does not seem to be a mental illness at all. I was wrong. However, you need to find out what gaslighting actually means, because I was not doing that. Gaslighting refers to deliberately lying for abuse. It is not the same as not knowing any better. If I was gaslighting, I would have been fairly stupid to do it on a discussion which I did not know had any transgender people in it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 12, 2014, 12:40:42 pm
Looking more into the origins of genital dysphoria, it does not seem to be a mental illness at all. I was wrong. However, you need to find out what gaslighting actually means, because I was not doing that. Gaslighting refers to deliberately lying for abuse. It is not the same as not knowing any better. If I was gaslighting, I would have been fairly stupid to do it on a discussion which I did not know had any transgender people in it.

Please stop using that term. It is derogatory and implies a psychological illness.

You are saying things that are still problematic. I hope you can understand that using the term transgender, and referring to those people as the gender they identify with, is the civil, respectful way to handle it.

The thing is, there are transgender people on this forum, and they will read posts just like anyone else. All of these things add up and are very ugly and emotionally upsetting. This will not be the first or last place they hear how they are just "sick" or "mentally ill"

I think gaslighting is a good term for it, even though, yes you are right, one would really have to be intentionally convincing someone that they are insane for it to be 100% accurate. The results work out the same, though.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 12, 2014, 12:54:14 pm
If I were as easily offended as you are I could pick up on your comment about things being "just" mental illness and how that could imply that these problems are not serious. However, I shall not pursue this path because I do not want to make things any worse than they already are. Personally I have never heard or seen "genital dysphoria" used anywhere other than a medical context, and never as an insult directed at anyone who has it.

Genital dysphoria and being transgender are not exactly the same thing. Transgender means changing gender identity, not necessarily the same as biological sex. Genital dysphoria is the condition of having genitals which do not match the person's sexual identity, and this may or may not be resolved by becoming transgender. Since dwarves do not have much of a concept of gender, I could more easily imagine them having genital dysphoria than changing gender identity, since this would have little effect on them.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 12, 2014, 01:44:13 pm
If I was as easily offended as you are I could pick up on your comment about things being "just" mental illness and how that could imply that these problems are not serious. However, I shall not pursue this path because I do not want to make things any worse than they already are.

Genital dysphoria and being transgender are not exactly the same thing. Transgender means changing gender identity, not necessarily the same as biological sex. Genital dysphoria is the condition of having genitals which do not match the person's sexual identity, and this may or may not be resolved by becoming transgender. Since dwarves do not have much of a concept of gender, I could more easily imagine them having genital dysphoria than changing gender identity, since this would have little effect on them.

one does not "become transgender" being transgender is having genitals that do not match your gender identity. Your gender identity is in fact your biological gender. You are biologically female if you are a transgender female, you just have male genitalia. You are, no offense, not speaking from a position of experience. You just now realized that this is not a psychological illness. I'm not saying I am the last word in gender identity, but I have spent some time on this to be more aware and empathetic. What I'm telling you is what I have learned from transgender individuals. Who are, generally, the ones you want to go to about this issue.

I assume you are under the impression that transgender involves surgery or hormone therapy, but that is not the case. It it simply a matter of your gender not matching your genitalia, although that could also be intersex, but that's an entirely different issue. (ambiguous or both genitalia being intersex.)

This is not an "easily offended" thing. Really, if you are using words or engaging in behavior that hurts someone, you should want to not do that. Ethical hedonism and all that.

BTW, please don't lecture me on psychological illness, I am on disability after a suicide attempt many years ago, I have schizo-effective bipolar disorder (that's bipolar with traits of schizophrenia.) While I sometimes use the term mental illness, psychological illness is a better term because it does not give the impression it is all in the person's head, made up and what have you. I realize sharing this exposes a weakness on my part, and it often leads to trouble for me, but I will just do it anyway, and hope I don't come to regret it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 12, 2014, 01:52:28 pm
Then on that basis I need to redefine what I think transgender means.

No, I am not going to make any comments or attacks on your psychological problems, that would be a cheap and unworthy move, not to mention plain bad argument (ad hominem is rarely a good idea). The only risk is that someone else will.

I still think that avoiding saying or doing something because it might offend someone is not a very good idea since out of the billions of people in the world there will usually be someone who will be upset about something. As long as I am not setting out of directly offend these people it is not my fault if they react badly to it.

Intersexuality has not really been mentioned here, but I would be happy to accept intersex dwarves in DF.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 12, 2014, 01:59:58 pm
Then on that basis I need to redefine what I think transgender means.

No, I am not going to make any comments or attacks on your psychological problems, that would be a cheap and unworthy move, not to mention plain bad argument (ad hominem is rarely a good idea). The only risk is that someone else will.

I still think that avoiding saying or doing something because it might offend someone is not a very good idea since out of the billions of people in the world there will usually be someone who will be upset about something. As long as I am not setting out of directly offend these people it is not my fault if they react badly to it.

Intersexuality has not really been mentioned here, but I would be happy to accept intersex dwarves in DF.

But you wouldn't use the N word and then blame anyone offended for being offended, and then claim it is not your fault if that is the case. Navigating the waters when trying not to offend people can be tough, but it is worthwhile. There are things that can be said that are outright hurtful and damaging to the people involved, and those should be avoided. Part of that is referring to people as they wish to be referred to.

It seems you are open to understanding this, and I appreciate that. It can mean a lot to a lot of people.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Ogdibus on December 12, 2014, 02:49:24 pm
I still think that avoiding saying or doing something because it might offend someone is not a very good idea since out of the billions of people in the world there will usually be someone who will be upset about something. As long as I am not setting out of directly offend these people it is not my fault if they react badly to it.

If you offend someone out of ignorance, but stop after being informed, you will likely be forgiven and respected.  If you use ignorance to justify offending people, you will likely not be forgiven.  This includes situations in which you do not realize that you are ignorant.  If you are willfully ignorant, and use ignorance to justify offending people, you're probably going to get yourself into trouble.

There is much more to this topic than you seem to realize.  You aren't really in a position to meaningfully discuss the details of it. 

Additionally, challenging the legitimacy of gender non-conformity is not even within the scope of this thread.  This thread was a suggestion to implement gender non-conforming identities in a way that reflected reality.  If you want to challenge that, keep in mind that all gender and sex features in this game are purely for atmosphere.  None of those things are core mechanics.  All beings could have been treated as asexual, and it wouldn't affect game play.  In DF, prioritizing some sexes or genders over others is purely arbitrary, so carefully consider the reason that you might exclude a particular group before you assume that you reasoning is without bigotry, (which it can be).
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Orange Wizard on December 12, 2014, 03:02:42 pm
I think you ought to take this discussion to the General board. The derail is starting to get out of hand.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 12, 2014, 07:31:34 pm
This thread was a suggestion to implement gender non-conforming identities in a way that reflected reality.
It wasn't even that, was it? It was just about adding gender-based societal rules, including but not particularly about things outside the male-female binary. So yeah, these derails are waaaaay out.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: friendguy13 on December 12, 2014, 11:57:11 pm
Tumblr, please go.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Ogdibus on December 13, 2014, 02:39:34 am
Tumblr, please go.
This is the sort of thing that starts the derails in the first place.  We have people coming in here and saying what amounts to "I don't want queers in this game".  They get called out for it, and then try to convince everyone that what they said is justified, and that just digs the hole deeper.  Not only does this derail threads, it also creates an atmosphere in which extremist bigots feel that they can harass others and spread hatred.


This thread was a suggestion to implement gender non-conforming identities in a way that reflected reality.
It wasn't even that, was it? It was just about adding gender-based societal rules, including but not particularly about things outside the male-female binary. So yeah, these derails are waaaaay out.

It's about implementing gender in a way that generates gender roles that are uniquely defined for each civilization, because gender roles vary between real civilizations*.  It explicitly includes non-binary ideas of gender and gender non-conformity.  That's why it's relevant that some people are saying they don't want dwarfs to have gender roles, and why there is discussion about gender non-conformity being moot without gender roles.  I think some of the opposition to implementing gender roles might be directly related to the players imagining of dwarf behavior.  They probably don't want it to be specified as different from what they have envisioned.  The suggestion on the other hand, is someone asking for what they envision to be implemented.  I like the .ini file option idea.  I tend to want different kinds of worlds for each fort or adventurer, depending on what I'm in the mood for.

In fortress mode it might not have a lot of use, but in Adventure and Legends mode, it could add a lot of flavor to exploration.  Right now there is little that distinguishes nations from each other, besides race.  Defining what people wear and do by gender is one way to give some character to each culture in a way that feels familiar to players.  It's probably complicated enough to require a cultural development arc, though.

*I think.  I didn't read the whole thing at once.  I read different parts of it over the course of a few days, and read the thread backwards, after following a link in the Trans/Intersex mod thread.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Orange Wizard on December 13, 2014, 04:06:59 am
Tumblr, please go.
This is the sort of thing that starts the derails in the first place.  We have people coming in here and saying what amounts to "I don't want queers in this game".  They get called out for it, and then try to convince everyone that what they said is justified, and that just digs the hole deeper.  Not only does this derail threads, it also creates an atmosphere in which extremist bigots feel that they can harass others and spread hatred.
I don't want queers in this game, either, and that's just as justified as someone who does want queers in the game. Fact of the matter remains that the queers are irrelevant. We're delving into a dangerous topic, and I'm trying to steer us out of it before someone gets banned.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 13, 2014, 04:27:24 am
That's why I think it should be part of a larger re-write that doesn't focus on gender, such as defining several socially-constructed roles and/or stereotypes.  It should also be introduced at the same time that an explicit childcare labor is added, and we get the ability to mod modesty (that is, allow bare feet).

Any roles defined for vanilla Dwarves will not specify castes, but others might (particularly Humans, since they have a bunch of bad habits already).

The implementation detail is whether the roles have any influence in generating creatures.  In other words, do we want the randomly generated creature to be pulled a bit toward one of the roles?  Should the strength of that pull depend on how traditional the person is, or the traditional trait modified by how close he/she is to one of the roles?  Could just keep them independent of one another (notwithstanding any tradition-related traits within the role), which would allow for traditional oddballs who hate themselves.  That seems less fun.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 13, 2014, 06:53:21 am
The only reason why I opposed transgender dwarves is that I doubted whether such creatures would exist in a society which lacked any noticeable gender roles. Since I now know this is not the case, I have changed my position and am now prepared to accept transgender dwarves.

Making everybody asexual would result in no babies, unless all the males constantly ejaculated into the air like they did before the most recent update. Sexuality is an important feature for the gameplay as well as just being a background feature.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 13, 2014, 10:29:22 am
Tumblr, please go.
This is the sort of thing that starts the derails in the first place.  We have people coming in here and saying what amounts to "I don't want queers in this game".  They get called out for it, and then try to convince everyone that what they said is justified, and that just digs the hole deeper.  Not only does this derail threads, it also creates an atmosphere in which extremist bigots feel that they can harass others and spread hatred.
I don't want queers in this game, either, and that's just as justified as someone who does want queers in the game. Fact of the matter remains that the queers are irrelevant. We're delving into a dangerous topic, and I'm trying to steer us out of it before someone gets banned.

yeeeaaa, that was... I'm going to assume that sounded better in your head.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Toady One on December 13, 2014, 12:01:05 pm
(I removed the part that got worse than the above exchange, and banned a troll account...  I'd appreciate it people would meditate on the guidelines before posting.)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: k33n on December 13, 2014, 01:56:54 pm
Why do we need to project contemporary human gender roles onto non-human entities? I like it better being weird. Maybe the humans in the game could get something human, but the rest should either get something totally alien.

Personally I like the stoic highly conservative dwarfs covered nearly head to toe, ignoring their gender except for breast milk and sex. Changing it so it resembles modern American sexuality would seem extremely camp and unimaginative.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 13, 2014, 02:01:43 pm
I agree that there should be no gender roles for dwarves, since they have none. Humans should get something based on all the thousands of human societies that have existed, which is gender roles of some form with men doing most of the fighting and women doing most of the child care - the extent of this should vary, as it does from place to place. Elves and goblins can have whatever they want.

What was actually said in the deleted section? I did not see it before Toady removed it, though I am sure it was unworthy of this finely-crafted thread menacing with spikes of prejudice.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 13, 2014, 02:39:54 pm
It was a 4channer complaining about SJWs. (hope I don't get in trouble for explaining.) I mean he might not have been from 4chan, maybe Reddit or something, but he sounded 4channy.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 13, 2014, 05:23:40 pm
It was a 4channer complaining about SJWs. (hope I don't get in trouble for explaining.) I mean he might not have been from 4chan, maybe Reddit or something, but he sounded 4channy.

You shouldn't.

He might not have been "from" anywhere. That is also stereotyping.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Naryar on December 13, 2014, 07:25:38 pm
This would not bring much into the game, not for the time needed into it.

We can have several social genders (female, male, asexual/other) different from biological genders (female, male), after all the tropes about masculine women and feminine men do exist in many, many stories.

Already there are differences in gender, the mothers take care of the babies when they are young. This should cause a gender culture to raise.

I certainly don't want genders getting into the way of cloth/job choice.

Yes, we can have more defined genders and gender identification, it would probably add some depth. But something more complex like transgender genders and people changing genders ? More than three social genders ? Most of the playerbase will probably not care about it, and only a minority will do care.

tl;dr effort by Toady for no gain at all, for me and for other players.

This idea is best dealt by mods, so people that want complex genders can have them.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 13, 2014, 07:28:17 pm
I seriously doubt that having 48 genders would be significantly more work than having 3. Modifiable frameworks tend to have that quality.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Neonivek on December 13, 2014, 08:11:44 pm
I agree that there should be no gender roles for dwarves, since they have none. Humans should get something based on all the thousands of human societies that have existed, which is gender roles of some form with men doing most of the fighting and women doing most of the child care - the extent of this should vary, as it does from place to place. Elves and goblins can have whatever they want.

What was actually said in the deleted section? I did not see it before Toady removed it, though I am sure it was unworthy of this finely-crafted thread menacing with spikes of prejudice.

Ignoring your earlier posts and choosing to take you seriously.

Here is the thing... It really differed not only from society to society but even within those societies themselves. What you described wasn't the norm, it is "Pop History" correct... but not factual.

I am not against Gender Roles in dwarf fortress especially since the game can just create entirely unique ones that do not have to match real life ones. Yet it should be something handled by the generator and not in some attempt to replicate popular forms of history.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Ogdibus on December 13, 2014, 08:23:21 pm
Making everybody asexual would result in no babies, unless all the males constantly ejaculated into the air like they did before the most recent update. Sexuality is an important feature for the gameplay as well as just being a background feature.
I was referring to asexual biology, not behavior.   Reproduction would still exist, but it wouldn't be dependent on the conception of gametes.

I seriously doubt that having 48 genders would be significantly more work than having 3. Modifiable frameworks tend to have that quality.
You're probably right.  Given the variety of materials, clothing, and Arms in the game, I wouldn't  be surprised if Toady already plans to do something at least similar to what this thread proposes.   Functionally, it's just a type social caste.  Whether gender is involved or not, the system could have a lot of potential.  There is also the issue of not being able to see what the castes are while you are playing.  You would almost need some sort of culture profile fore each civilization, or you would have no idea what the roles and their characteristics are.  I wouldn't mind having something like that as things are right now.  It's hard to get a feel for the civilizations, even as you interact with them.  You don't know what they wear, what they believe, or who their leaders, allies, and enemies are without doing a lot of legwork to examine and speak to dozens of citizens.

While it might not be "too much" work to code, it could bloat the ram and disk space usage.   Quite a few people already mod things out of the game in order to improve performance.  I would personally prefer to have fewer weapon and clothing types, but I like the material variety.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 13, 2014, 09:10:19 pm
I seriously doubt that having 48 genders would be significantly more work than having 3. Modifiable frameworks tend to have that quality.

Hmm. It's more an issue of memory usage than of work. It's the same with orientation as of the latest version IIRC; there's only male_lover, male_marry, female_lover, female_marry because it's simply easier to calculate and store when the time comes. Not only that, but the orientation issue will explode pretty badly if this were to be included; you couldn't just have the four flags that contains 7 possibilities, you would have a vector of booleans that describe which genders and sexes the unit is attracted to. This isn't actually a problem human-wise, but computer-wise it could be pretty bad.

Hmm. After writing that, I think that as a practical concern, I may be against this suggestion. Intellectually, I'm all for it, procedural gender could be interesting as fuck, and the way I see it anything that's interesting belongs in the game, but it's sort of a difficult computational issue.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Meph on December 13, 2014, 10:09:29 pm
I would honestly like to see two additions that are related to gender and/or sex:

1. Caste-related graphics, so you can display male/female dwarves differently.
2. Male/Female specific clothing. Shirts? Male & Female. Dress? Female. Codpiece? Male. This could be as easy as adding the specific tag to the item. Just add male, female or both tags.

I dont care for gender roles, as they add no gameplay value. As many know, I heavily focus on the game mechanics, less on the storytelling. ;)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 13, 2014, 11:01:05 pm
We could combine this thread with the gelding one... that would give you a role with a procedure for dealing with gender!
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Ogdibus on December 13, 2014, 11:16:10 pm
It was a 4channer complaining about SJWs. (hope I don't get in trouble for explaining.) I mean he might not have been from 4chan, maybe Reddit or something, but he sounded 4channy.

You shouldn't.

He might not have been "from" anywhere. That is also stereotyping.

There is a group of 4chan members in /pol/ that organized for the expressed purpose of harassing trans people with the intention of provoking us to commit suicide.  The statement might be referring to that group.

We could combine this thread with the gelding one... that would give you a role with a procedure for dealing with gender!
Are you thinking of something like the eunuch government officials in ancient China, or harem guards, or priests of Cybele?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 14, 2014, 04:09:51 am
I would honestly like to see two additions that are related to gender and/or sex:

1. Caste-related graphics, so you can display male/female dwarves differently.
2. Male/Female specific clothing. Shirts? Male & Female. Dress? Female. Codpiece? Male. This could be as easy as adding the specific tag to the item. Just add male, female or both tags.

I dont care for gender roles, as they add no gameplay value. As many know, I heavily focus on the game mechanics, less on the storytelling. ;)

Clothing by sex tag would be good, but caste-level clothing would be better, since the change would have more potential for modding. To make that work with custom castes etc, you need separate sets of tags on the clothing items and the castes, which match custom tokens (like the reaction products do). Ideally, there would be new tags on the ENTITY level, that go along with the allowed clothing tags, to specify category(s) for each piece of clothes, then, at the caste level, you have tags to allow or disallow each category of clothing.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dirst on December 14, 2014, 04:27:34 am
I would honestly like to see two additions that are related to gender and/or sex:

1. Caste-related graphics, so you can display male/female dwarves differently.
2. Male/Female specific clothing. Shirts? Male & Female. Dress? Female. Codpiece? Male. This could be as easy as adding the specific tag to the item. Just add male, female or both tags.

I dont care for gender roles, as they add no gameplay value. As many know, I heavily focus on the game mechanics, less on the storytelling. ;)

Clothing by sex tag would be good, but caste-level clothing would be better, since the change would have more potential for modding. To make that work with custom castes etc, you need separate sets of tags on the clothing items and the castes, which match custom tokens (like the reaction products do). Ideally, there would be new tags on the ENTITY level, that go along with the allowed clothing tags, to specify category(s) for each piece of clothes, then, at the caste level, you have tags to allow or disallow each category of clothing.
I think just adding castes to the entity file would be easier.  That way two different civs using the same creature can have completely different ideas on how to dress.  A more flexible system would be putting the clothing (and permitted jobs and personality traits and so on) in the roles or stereotypes.

So long as the roles are processed in a deterministic way, there's no reason why a person needs to be pigeonholed into ONE socially-constructed role.  A Dwarf might simultaneously fit into "parent" and "laborer" roles without conflict, but another Dwarf who partially matches "artisan" and partially matches "hunter/gatherer" would put out a weird vibe to members of her civ.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 14, 2014, 06:39:05 am
Ignoring your earlier posts and choosing to take you seriously.

Here is the thing... It really differed not only from society to society but even within those societies themselves. What you described wasn't the norm, it is "Pop History" correct... but not factual.

I am not against Gender Roles in dwarf fortress especially since the game can just create entirely unique ones that do not have to match real life ones. Yet it should be something handled by the generator and not in some attempt to replicate popular forms of history.

Very well, then. Tell me what was correct. Give me the real story. I have already given examples of steppe armies being up to a third female at times due to everyone being trained to fight and mediaeval European wives taking over their husbands' businesses when they died. In many native American tribes, like the Navajo, women played prominent roles in government and property was inherited matrilineally. That does not change the fact that overall, in the most general case, armies were mostly men and carers were mostly women.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 14, 2014, 02:28:10 pm
Ignoring your earlier posts and choosing to take you seriously.

Here is the thing... It really differed not only from society to society but even within those societies themselves. What you described wasn't the norm, it is "Pop History" correct... but not factual.

I am not against Gender Roles in dwarf fortress especially since the game can just create entirely unique ones that do not have to match real life ones. Yet it should be something handled by the generator and not in some attempt to replicate popular forms of history.

Very well, then. Tell me what was correct. Give me the real story. I have already given examples of steppe armies being up to a third female at times due to everyone being trained to fight and mediaeval European wives taking over their husbands' businesses when they died. In many native American tribes, like the Navajo, women played prominent roles in government and property was inherited matrilineally. That does not change the fact that overall, in the most general case, armies were mostly men and carers were mostly women.

We're dealing with a world where sexual dimorphism doesn't seem to be a thing for intelligent creatures other than when facial hair is concerned. Out of all societies likely to be made playable, only 1 is remotely human in terms of lifestyle.
I fail to see the rationale behind limiting possible gender roles to those that predominantly existed in history.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 14, 2014, 02:42:42 pm
even gender specific clothing would drive me nuts. Ignoring the frustration of added gender roles, I'd have to make entirely different outfits for half my dwarves.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum on December 14, 2014, 02:44:09 pm
even gender specific clothing would drive me nuts. Ignoring the frustration of added gender roles, I'd have to make entirely different outfits for half my dwarves.
Well, it could end up that fortresses just ignore stuff like that...
But I still hope it isn't added anyways.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 14, 2014, 02:56:16 pm
As long as robes and shoes remain unisex I don't even care. Streaker outfits all around!
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 14, 2014, 03:58:19 pm
As long as robes and shoes remain unisex I don't even care. Streaker outfits all around!

dresses were foreign to one of my fortresses, what happens if robes and togas are foreign? Then you have to make outfits for two different castes. That's two separate articles of clothing for the guys. >.< (or women if it is random)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: than402 on December 14, 2014, 04:03:01 pm
well, at least having the option would be nice. even if it's not active at default (like beards at dwarven women, they exist in the raws but the player decides if he wants them or not)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 14, 2014, 05:27:27 pm
We're dealing with a world where sexual dimorphism doesn't seem to be a thing for intelligent creatures other than when facial hair is concerned. Out of all societies likely to be made playable, only 1 is remotely human in terms of lifestyle.
I fail to see the rationale behind limiting possible gender roles to those that predominantly existed in history.

I already said that I am against gender specific clothes and roles for dwarves, and possibly for goblins and elves too. However, humans have sexual dimorphism, whether you like it or not, so either their names should be changed to "humanoids", "alleged humans" or something similar or they should have dimorphism like we know they do. This dimorphism therefore leads to gender roles of some extent. Gender roles vary among dimorphic species. If hyenas were a sentient DF race then females would dominate everything because female hyenas are bigger and stronger than the males. If elephants were a sentient DF race then groups would be female dominated with males cast out. But in humans, males are stronger and dominate, especially in DF's primitive and violent societies.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 14, 2014, 05:57:32 pm
Quote
so either their names should be changed to "humanoids", "alleged humans" or something similar or they should have dimorphism like we know they do

This is called a false dilemma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma). Creating an either/or ultimatum which is just silly. There are examples of real societies where male and female wear the same clothes, and also examples where all tasks are assigned in a gender-neutral way. So you'd say Communist China in the Mao era (the Mao suit was gender neutral) or the Israeli Kibbutzim (all tasks assigned without regards to gender) are only "alleged" humans too?

A races of generic "humanoids" would obviously be worse than just calling them humans: goblins, elves, dwarves, giants etc are all humanoids. It would be even more hard for people comprehend than regular humans who lack gender roles.

And "alleged" humans would be even sillier. Who is alleging that they're humans? It makes no sense in-universe that other races only "allege" that they're humans. If they "allege" that this specific race are humans, where are the real ones? If they're the only race they know of who are called humans, they would just say "human" and that's what a human is, in that world. By that token, since elves aren't fully Tolkienesque they should also be "alleged elves".
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 14, 2014, 06:06:58 pm
fun side fact, gender dimorphism is a sign of harems in a species' past.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 14, 2014, 06:40:37 pm
even gender specific clothing would drive me nuts. Ignoring the frustration of added gender roles, I'd have to make entirely different outfits for half my dwarves.
Micromanagement is indeed not fun. I guess it could be worked around by making dwarves at the moment not care and have the importance of preference (not even specifically clothing) matter more with the different embark options Toady has talked about.

So your frontier outpost nobody is going to care what clothes they get, as long as they get some. But if you're making a religious site then the inhabitants might want clothes befitting whatever god it's for, or the dwarves in your new noble's keep might want all their possessions to be made of their favourite material and clothes exactly suited for their social status and so on, the needy gits.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Parhelion on December 14, 2014, 08:10:53 pm
Wow, I had not realized that 'gender roles' inside of a randomized game atmosphere was such a contested topic.  I saw this thread yesterday, and had to fight the urge then to respond with "Chill out."

Some of you have clearly over-thought this idea, and are actually taking offense at it.  To be honest, based on some of the responses that I read on the first page, I'm surprised that nobody is arguing we should get rid of the generated gods because that forces religion onto you (the player).

It doesn't matter if sexual dimorphism exists: what matters is how a particular culture comes to be, and how it is repeatedly re-enforced with each following generation.  We're talking about a universe where there's actual angels and demons, immortality, and walking corpses, and people too stupid to realize that their king is a vampire.  Or a minotaur.

One of my recent dwarf civilizations actually worshiped a male god whose sphere was fertility, pregnancy, birth, torture, and death (and I think also misery, or some other intensely negative word -- anyway, I blame him for the necromancy tower I had).  It would not have been a stretch of the imagination for worshipers of this god to be complete chauvinistic asshats.  The reverse would have been true for an earlier gen'd world where I had a pantheon of females lording over traditionally 'masculine' ideas.

Anyway.  Point is, IF such a feature were implemented in a way that felt realistic, predictable, and consistent within a given world, I would not mind having it.  It might even be fun to one day have this be a part of deeper cross-civilization interactions:  perhaps a 'Male-Centric Civ' will refuse to honor a treaty with 'Neutral Civ' because it doesn't like that they don't care about gender roles, or a female-dominated bandit group may react aggressively towards male adventurers (as opposed to female ones).  Just ideas.

And if it's not implemented?  Oh well.

------

Re: Graknorke and specific clothing

I definitely think that an established fortress would care about what they're wearing.  If you've got golden statues everywhere, you shouldn't be walking around in rags, right?  I don't think micromanagement would be a big deal -- if there are no dresses for a gender that prefers dresses, then they'll just wear the next best thing, be that skirts or pants or loin clothes, and voice a complaint about it.  Learning to manage this stuff is kinda up there with learning to manage how much food you have.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Meph on December 15, 2014, 02:33:33 am
I'll just tune out all that background chatter and stick with game suggestions.


The gender-specific clothing, male and female, would be purely optional. There would be no micromanagement involved, because there are enough unisex clothing articles in the game. As far as I can tell there are no male-only items and only a few female-only items, the dress, the long skirt and shirt skirt. And even those could be a scottish-inspired kilt for males.

It mostly boils down to males no longer wearing dresses and the option of giving modders more options to play around with.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 05:46:58 am
Quote
so either their names should be changed to "humanoids", "alleged humans" or something similar or they should have dimorphism like we know they do

This is called a false dilemma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma). Creating an either/or ultimatum which is just silly. There are examples of real societies where male and female wear the same clothes, and also examples where all tasks are assigned in a gender-neutral way. So you'd say Communist China in the Mao era (the Mao suit was gender neutral) or the Israeli Kibbutzim (all tasks assigned without regards to gender) are only "alleged" humans too?

A races of generic "humanoids" would obviously be worse than just calling them humans: goblins, elves, dwarves, giants etc are all humanoids. It would be even more hard for people comprehend than regular humans who lack gender roles.

And "alleged" humans would be even sillier. Who is alleging that they're humans? It makes no sense in-universe that other races only "allege" that they're humans. If they "allege" that this specific race are humans, where are the real ones? If they're the only race they know of who are called humans, they would just say "human" and that's what a human is, in that world. By that token, since elves aren't fully Tolkienesque they should also be "alleged elves".

You may have misunderstood me a little. I did not mean that humans should always have gender specific clothes, or that those should match ours - many men around the world wore kilts or tunics. What they do have is physical, biological dimorphism, and a discrepancy in strength. While modern societies like those you mentioned and others are moving away from sexism, in the primitive, grisly hellholes of DF, higher average male strength would lead to more patriarchal societies as a general rule. DF's humans are neither enlightened, progressive nor modern. As smeeprocket suggested, dimorphism may come from the harem societies of the apes that humans evolved from. A lack of dimorphism would mean different genes from humans as we know them - therefore, a different species of human like creatures.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 08:15:33 am
Wow, I had not realized that 'gender roles' inside of a randomized game atmosphere was such a contested topic.  I saw this thread yesterday, and had to fight the urge then to respond with "Chill out."

Some of you have clearly over-thought this idea, and are actually taking offense at it.  To be honest, based on some of the responses that I read on the first page, I'm surprised that nobody is arguing we should get rid of the generated gods because that forces religion onto you (the player).

It doesn't matter if sexual dimorphism exists: what matters is how a particular culture comes to be, and how it is repeatedly re-enforced with each following generation.  We're talking about a universe where there's actual angels and demons, immortality, and walking corpses, and people too stupid to realize that their king is a vampire.  Or a minotaur.

One of my recent dwarf civilizations actually worshiped a male god whose sphere was fertility, pregnancy, birth, torture, and death (and I think also misery, or some other intensely negative word -- anyway, I blame him for the necromancy tower I had).  It would not have been a stretch of the imagination for worshipers of this god to be complete chauvinistic asshats.  The reverse would have been true for an earlier gen'd world where I had a pantheon of females lording over traditionally 'masculine' ideas.

Anyway.  Point is, IF such a feature were implemented in a way that felt realistic, predictable, and consistent within a given world, I would not mind having it.  It might even be fun to one day have this be a part of deeper cross-civilization interactions:  perhaps a 'Male-Centric Civ' will refuse to honor a treaty with 'Neutral Civ' because it doesn't like that they don't care about gender roles, or a female-dominated bandit group may react aggressively towards male adventurers (as opposed to female ones).  Just ideas.

And if it's not implemented?  Oh well.

------

Re: Graknorke and specific clothing

I definitely think that an established fortress would care about what they're wearing.  If you've got golden statues everywhere, you shouldn't be walking around in rags, right?  I don't think micromanagement would be a big deal -- if there are no dresses for a gender that prefers dresses, then they'll just wear the next best thing, be that skirts or pants or loin clothes, and voice a complaint about it.  Learning to manage this stuff is kinda up there with learning to manage how much food you have.

I think the point is, that's a fun little addition if you are a male, since you live that kind of life and that's the bees knees for you, but those of us on the receiving end of the boot heel in real life don't want to have to play that stuff too.

DF is different because the dwarves aren't bigoted. Adding bigotries and oppression doesn't seem particularly fun to me. Their generally neutral stance on most things is more enjoyable.

We could also add societies that hate homosexuality and different skin colors, but that wouldn't be any fun either, because those things are very real.

I'm regularly reminded that, as a woman in this society, I am considered less of a person, and my life is ultimately more dangerous than the average male. I constantly have to be on my guard for a variety of reasons, and even that probably won't save me. An there's a whole lot of males out there that want to trivialize that or make it worse. Why would I want to go and play something for fun where I have to see the same thing happening??
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 08:16:43 am
Quote
so either their names should be changed to "humanoids", "alleged humans" or something similar or they should have dimorphism like we know they do

This is called a false dilemma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma). Creating an either/or ultimatum which is just silly. There are examples of real societies where male and female wear the same clothes, and also examples where all tasks are assigned in a gender-neutral way. So you'd say Communist China in the Mao era (the Mao suit was gender neutral) or the Israeli Kibbutzim (all tasks assigned without regards to gender) are only "alleged" humans too?

A races of generic "humanoids" would obviously be worse than just calling them humans: goblins, elves, dwarves, giants etc are all humanoids. It would be even more hard for people comprehend than regular humans who lack gender roles.

And "alleged" humans would be even sillier. Who is alleging that they're humans? It makes no sense in-universe that other races only "allege" that they're humans. If they "allege" that this specific race are humans, where are the real ones? If they're the only race they know of who are called humans, they would just say "human" and that's what a human is, in that world. By that token, since elves aren't fully Tolkienesque they should also be "alleged elves".

You may have misunderstood me a little. I did not mean that humans should always have gender specific clothes, or that those should match ours - many men around the world wore kilts or tunics. What they do have is physical, biological dimorphism, and a discrepancy in strength. While modern societies like those you mentioned and others are moving away from sexism, in the primitive, grisly hellholes of DF, higher average male strength would lead to more patriarchal societies as a general rule. DF's humans are neither enlightened, progressive nor modern. As smeeprocket suggested, dimorphism may come from the harem societies of the apes that humans evolved from. A lack of dimorphism would mean different genes from humans as we know them - therefore, a different species of human like creatures.

males are not stronger than females in DF, so that argument doesn't hold water.

Also, we aren't really moving away from sexism in the real world, it's actually gotten worse in the past 10 years.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum on December 15, 2014, 08:59:44 am
Question, why should gender dimorphism be added if dwarves are never going to use it?
Also, Humans in fantasy aren't always normal humans unless you say magicians or Jedi are normal humans. Fantasy humans can be whatever you want them to be, and they are still human.

If you really want it, I'm pretty sure it's easy to mod it in... Just change the skill values for castes?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 15, 2014, 09:25:12 am
dresses were foreign to one of my fortresses, what happens if robes and togas are foreign? Then you have to make outfits for two different castes. That's two separate articles of clothing for the guys. >.< (or women if it is random)

Yeah, there's that. Hopefully the economy will allow dwarves to do do things like commissioning their own clothes when it goes back in. The current system is kind of awful, even without gendered/caste-specific clothing.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 10:19:05 am
at one point, I was just cycling through clothing endlessly. I had a lot of dwarves, and it seemed like as soon as I crafted an article of clothing it would get snapped up.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 02:01:35 pm
A few points here:

A woman's life is not more dangerous than a man's in the UK, where I live. While women are more likely to be raped or domestically abused, men are more likely to commit suicide, be murdered or die in a traffic accident. Both sexes have certain horrible events which are more likely to befall them. The same is true in the US, too - a recent Department of Justice report showed that 3 quarters of US murder victims were male. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf The ratio of male to female suicides in the US is about 3:1.

Sexism has not been getting worse over the last 10 years. More girls are in school than ever before, and even in some parts of Afghanistan girls' education has started in earnest. Even some poor countries like Malawi have had their first female leaders. Fertility is lower, fewer women are dying in childbirth, and the age of first marriage and reproduction has risen. The only places where things have got much worse for women are where there are new wars, like Syria and Iraq - but things are worse for everybody in war, especially if they were already bad before.

Thirdly, I am not the source of your oppression. I did not do nasty things to you when you were growing up, I did not fail to prosecute rapists properly, and I have never committed rape, domestic violence or any violent offence against a woman, or a man for that matter. I do not consider Saudi Arabia a paradise, and have donated about £100 or so to help children, mostly girls, in poorer places to attend school. Sexism is still a terrible issue, you were a victim of it, but I am not the source of it and should not be scapegoated as such. Nor should this game, even if humans start behaving like they actually do, because it is a game.

I have said over and over again that dwarves would not discriminate, only humans, because humans are considerably more horrible than dwarves. Dimorphism should apply across all known species which have it, and only those species, so female hyenas are bigger and stronger, and male humans are bigger and stronger, with predictable results. Bonobos just make love, not war.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 02:37:03 pm
fuck it. not worth a warning.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 15, 2014, 02:37:26 pm
No. Not the purpose of this thread.  This is a 'general discussions' debate, not a 'DF suggestions' side-conversation.


But, for the record, I am fine with randomized and largely irrelevant sex assignments.  Its about as equal as you'll ever come to sex equality.
  I dont feel the need for complex gender systems for the same reasons I didnt feel the need for sexual orientation in dwarves.  No purpose, mechanically.

Maybe we could institute actual functional gender differences or di-morphism and then it could enhance the game to have several subsets of dwarves?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Meph on December 15, 2014, 04:18:50 pm
Its easy enough to change physical attributes, mental attributes and preferences for each caste. But I'm fairly certain that some people might yell about inqeuality, if males are suddenly stronger than females, or whichever other changes might be made.

Modders can do this only with raws even now, its very simple.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 04:25:35 pm
We should make women stronger and make them the ruling class. You know, for something different.

Nobody likes it when it's their gender being oppressed, though, even in video games.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 15, 2014, 04:32:16 pm
Aren't Elves pretty much matriarchal already?

Edit: Their monarchs and generals are always female, the druid and acolyte positions can be held by either.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 04:37:29 pm
Maybe, but those are elves. I don't -think- so though. I don't think any of the three main races is a matriarchy or a patriarchy.

There's this problem with gender roles where if you do it like it is in real life people say that that is because it is the way it should be, it is appropriate for the timeline, even if it's fantasy. But if you reverse the roles, you are just pushing an agenda.

Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 15, 2014, 05:08:42 pm
People see what they're used to as normal. Does that surprise you?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 15, 2014, 05:10:50 pm
The elves seem to favor 3 leaders, the princess, queen, and druid.  The only slot open to males is the druid, and Ive seen it occupied by females before.

Goblins, humans, and dwarves don't seem to care either way, though.  Or at least don't care enough for me to discount observation bias.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 05:16:50 pm
We should make women stronger and make them the ruling class. You know, for something different.

Nobody likes it when it's their gender being oppressed, though, even in video games.

If matriarchal elves are the current system then I am very happy to accept it. Because they are elves, elves can do whatever they like on account of not having real examples that we can study, and I do not get angry at all at seeing males of fictional species in an inferior position, or real species if that reflects how things are.

Having queen goblins with male drones as their slave-soldiers would also be something I would be ready to accept.

But having human females stronger would be like having male hyenas stronger - just plain wrong, and we know it from a sample of 7 billion.

Getting back on topic, I am actually in favour of transgender and intersex dwarves, I just think that humans with no physical dimorphism should not be described as humans since they obviously have different sex chromosomes at least.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:17:48 pm
People see what they're used to as normal. Does that surprise you?

Nothing surprises me. It bothers me. It's not as innocuous as that, at any rate. Since matriarchal structures cause gamer to attack the creator by saying they have, as I mentioned, an "Agenda". Really anything that is pro-women is an agenda.

The gamer community hasn't exactly been kind in general to women as of late.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:19:01 pm
We should make women stronger and make them the ruling class. You know, for something different.

Nobody likes it when it's their gender being oppressed, though, even in video games.

If matriarchal elves are the current system then I am very happy to accept it. Because they are elves, elves can do whatever they like on account of not having real examples that we can study, and I do not get angry at all at seeing males of fictional species in an inferior position, or real species if that reflects how things are.

Having queen goblins with male drones as their slave-soldiers would also be something I would be ready to accept.

But having human females stronger would be like having male hyenas stronger - just plain wrong, and we know it from a sample of 7 billion.

Getting back on topic, I am actually in favour of transgender and intersex dwarves, I just think that humans with no physical dimorphism should not be described as humans since they obviously have different sex chromosomes at least.

Look, we get it, men are superior to women, you don't have to beat your chest anymore.

But this is not real life, so your 7 billion are irrelevant. Humans in the game have no strength differences. This is established. You are wrong.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 05:26:03 pm
Men are not superior to women morally or intellectually. They are only really better at killing, maiming and smashing things, but in DF's orgy of horrors which largely revolves around these activities that is what matters a lot so patriarchy will prosper. As societies have become less violent they have also become more open to women's progress. See how the worst places for women are war zones and other barbarous places. But the whole of DF is a war zone and a barbarous place.

This is not just about dimorphism for humans, this is about dimorphism for all creatures that really have it. So stronger female hyenas, matriarchal elephants and bonobos just having a good old sexy time are also in.

Anything that is pro anything has an agenda. People do things for reasons.

I agree that the threats sent to females over the Gamergate nonsense were disgraceful, but I did not send any of them.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Metalsie on December 15, 2014, 05:34:06 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:34:29 pm
Men are not superior to women morally or intellectually. They are only really better at killing, maiming and smashing things, but in DF's orgy of horrors that is what matters a lot so patriarchy will prosper. As societies have become less violent they have also become more open to women's progress. See how the worst places for women are war zones and other barbarous places. But the whole of DF is a war zone and a barbarous place.

This is not just about dimorphism for humans, this is about dimorphism for all creatures that really have it. So stronger female hyenas, matriarchal elephants and bonobos just having a good old sexy time are also in.

Stop trying to justify what is ultimately you want to enforce misogyny into the game, when it is not there.

Oh but hey, hyenas and bonobos will have stronger females, I know I would feel great playing a game as long as THAT is true.

Spare me.

Humans, which are called humans and are the humans in DF regardless of whether you like it or not, do not have sexual dimorphism. If I play adventure mode I don't get a negative or boost to stats via gender.

This is a fantasy game. It is made gender neutral by design. You want to have sexism and oppression, which happens in the real life whether or not you plug your ears and sing really loudly to block it out, in the game. This would make it like every other sexist game out there (and there are so many of them.) Really, if you want to play a game that enforces how awesome you are at being a superior muscly male, go play a game that does that. Play Call of Duty or Assassins Creed. Heck, they couldn't be bothered to put a female character in the co-op for the new one because "females are hard to animate." (Which a past dev has confirmed as bullshit.)

There is so much hostility and animosity towards women in gaming. Anytime I speak out about this stuff, I have to worry about some dude getting a stick up his ass and having me doxxed. I have to worry about rape and murder threats. All of us feminist gamers are scared shitless. We can't even stream without attracting the worst examples of humanity possible.

Why make things more unpleasant and unwelcoming for us? Why alienate us? Do you think it's fun to play inferior in every way gender role in -every single game- out there? That shit gets old.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:36:12 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.

this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Metalsie on December 15, 2014, 05:40:19 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.

this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.
I disagree, inclusion is highly political and not everyone has the same perception of it as you do. Also, try to calm down, not everyone is out to get you.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:43:19 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.

this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.
I disagree, inclusion is highly political and not everyone has the same perception of it as you do. Also, try to calm down, not everyone is out to get you.

you have apparently not read the rest of the thread. I am exhausted from this cyclical argument and have little patience for it now.

I don't care about perception. I, and others that are not like you and other white, straight, cis-gendered males, have just as much right to inclusion as you and it is not political. It is political for you because you are apathetic to the issue. The rest of us just want to feel like we are part of the game.

If we were to not include men in the game at all would you be okay with that? Or would you make a fuss?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 15, 2014, 05:45:02 pm
That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

STOP.

Seriously, I'm on your side here, but holy hell you're making this difficult. This is exactly the kind of shit you should not say under any circumstance. This language adds nothing and makes the discussion far more flammable. It's ad hominem with no point behind it.

Watch this video, which I'm fairly sure you already have. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc) Watch it again. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc) Watch it another time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc) It's very useful. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc)

Not only that, but you're making awfully large assumptions about other people here. It's only a matter of time until something like this (http://i.imgur.com/IIkwRK5.jpg) happens to you.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 15, 2014, 05:46:14 pm
There is so much hostility and animosity towards women in gaming. Anytime I speak out about this stuff, I have to worry about some dude getting a stick up his ass and having me doxxed. I have to worry about rape and murder threats. All of us feminist gamers are scared shitless. We can't even stream without attracting the worst examples of humanity possible.

In all fairness a lot of this behaviour comes from 14 year old boys, at least if Alanah Pearce's experience is anything to go by. Teenagers are kind of notorious for lacking the part of their brain that lets them relate to people as people.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 05:47:35 pm
I'm sorry about the rape and murder threats, but I have no intention of sending you any and strongly disagree with them. I'm sorry about the doxxing fear, but I have no intention of doing that either. Nor do I have any intention of being pegged with a stick, unless it was very well lubricated. I even agree that the Assassin's Creed dev's excuse was a lame cop out.

I already said that men are only superior physically, and that should not matter in a civilised society. It does, but it should not. There is no divine right, just might makes right, and that is a rubbish system.

You are speaking to me as if I almost am one of those lowlifes who gets a hard-on by harassing women. I have no respect for them either. But the good news is that almost none of them ever do anything about it, because most of them are far too cowardly to risk actually physically attacking anyone. How many times have any of these sorry cases actually carrying through one of their threats? Very few, if ever. They are relying on empty threats to drive their targets away. But the way to win is not to treat those who are not part of that minority of male gamers as part of it.

Every single game? Have you not heard of Mass Effect?

I'm bisexual actually...
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Metalsie on December 15, 2014, 05:47:45 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.

this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.
I disagree, inclusion is highly political and not everyone has the same perception of it as you do. Also, try to calm down, not everyone is out to get you.

you have apparently not read the rest of the thread. I am exhausted from this cyclical argument and have little patience for it now.

I don't care about perception. I, and others that are not like you and other white, straight, cis-gendered males, have just as much right to inclusion as you and it is not political. It is political for you because you are apathetic to the issue. The rest of us just want to feel like we are part of the game.

If we were to not include men in the game at all would you be okay with that? Or would you make a fuss?
I have read the rest of the thread and I disagree with what you think. You are assuming way too much to call others prejudiced since you've already determined that I am white, straight and CiS by nothing but my disagreement with what inclusion is. Also I agreed with the idea, I only stated a problem with it which you obviously ignored.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 15, 2014, 05:48:00 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.



this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.

'Sharing the game?'

DF may be designed to be sexually neutered, but that hardly means that your want to have more dominant females (and lets face it, this isnt about equality, this is you pushing for female >> male.  DF is already Female=Male) overrides our want to have more biologically realistic sexes in our simulation.  How you think you and yours takes priority over the un-surveyed masses is astounding.  I have stated before that I find your arguments to rely heavily upon emotional appeals and your sense of 'fairness and morality', and I'd appreciate if you backed up your statements with some more constructive points than 'Deal with it'.  Because whether or not your debate partner is using the eloquent terms or not, your arguments are detracting.


Fact is, sexual di-morphism hasn't made its way into this game, and rpgs are pulling it for the sake of being politically correct and appealing to a broader market.  It will likely have to be a mod, so strong advocates of it should make one.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:50:33 pm
Let me know when RPGs actually start doing that, and I'll support them.

I'm not pushing for female >> male, though if that threatens you, perhaps you might consider that the reverse is equally unpleasant for me.

My point is, you would, and you have shown this now, be displeased if we had women ruling men. But you cite real life to justify male dominance in a fantasy game.

Putnam, I know, I will watch it again. It's just... every time this thread calms down, something else gets said.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 15, 2014, 05:51:54 pm
Please provide examples of Male >> Female in vanilla DF.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:53:28 pm
I'm sorry about the rape and murder threats, but I have no intention of sending you any and strongly disagree with them. I'm sorry about the doxxing fear, but I have no intention of doing that either. Nor do I have any intention of being pegged with a stick, unless it was very well lubricated. I even agree that the Assassin's Creed dev's excuse was a lame cop out.

I already said that men are only superior physically, and that should not matter in a civilised society. It does, but it should not. There is no divine right, just might makes right, and that is a rubbish system.

You are speaking to me as if I almost am one of those lowlifes who gets a hard-on by harassing women. I have no respect for them either. But the good news is that almost none of them ever do anything about it, because most of them are far too cowardly to risk actually physically attacking anyone. How many times have any of these sorry cases actually carrying through one of their threats? Very few, if ever. They are relying on empty threats to drive their targets away. But the way to win is not to treat those who are not part of that minority of male gamers as part of it.

Every single game? Have you not heard of Mass Effect?

I'm bisexual actually...

Mass Effect is one of the rare ones. There's not many. Even characters like Laura Croft and Samus have, in more recent times, be rewritten to be fragile victims that need the orders of men or mindlessly follow them.

You take what I'm saying personally. And while some of the things you have said give me the feelings that these creeps give off, I genuinely think your intent is not malicious.

Just because you are a decent guy, doesn't mean everyone else is. Those people are still there. The situation remains the same.

edit: I'm not saying that either gender is superior in Df and that's my point. It should remain that way. People pushing for male dominance roles (specifically, not even procedurally generated gender roles that are random) seem somehow completely disturbed by the reverse concept, because it is not "realistic". Except that this is a fnatasy game that has no dimorphism to begin with.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: XXXXYYYY on December 15, 2014, 05:54:25 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.

this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.
I disagree, inclusion is highly political and not everyone has the same perception of it as you do. Also, try to calm down, not everyone is out to get you.

you have apparently not read the rest of the thread. I am exhausted from this cyclical argument and have little patience for it now.

I don't care about perception. I, and others that are not like you and other white, straight, cis-gendered males, have just as much right to inclusion as you and it is not political. It is political for you because you are apathetic to the issue. The rest of us just want to feel like we are part of the game.

If we were to not include men in the game at all would you be okay with that? Or would you make a fuss?
Please don't clump all of us["white, straight, cis-gendered males"] into one group. Please?

Humanity is a very diverse group of people and one set of characteristics does not make a person behave a certain way. To believe otherwise is to incite all sorts of flaws into your thinking process.

I'm mostly restraining from this discussion, but please tone down the stereotyping.
If you were not, I am deeply sorry.

OH LAWD NINJAS
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 05:55:50 pm
I already told you that I do not care about elves' or even goblins' potential matriarchy. Even my dwarf mayor/baron is usually female, so my forts often count as matriarchies. But if any sort of dimorphism enters the game, by mod or update, humans must be included.

It's not just about me, it's about all the other male gamers that you are stereotyping  and lumping in with the worst lot.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:56:38 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.

this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.
I disagree, inclusion is highly political and not everyone has the same perception of it as you do. Also, try to calm down, not everyone is out to get you.

you have apparently not read the rest of the thread. I am exhausted from this cyclical argument and have little patience for it now.

I don't care about perception. I, and others that are not like you and other white, straight, cis-gendered males, have just as much right to inclusion as you and it is not political. It is political for you because you are apathetic to the issue. The rest of us just want to feel like we are part of the game.

If we were to not include men in the game at all would you be okay with that? Or would you make a fuss?
Please don't clump all of us["white, straight, cis-gendered males"] into one group. Please?

Humanity is a very diverse group of people and one set of characteristics does not make a person behave a certain way. To believe otherwise is to incite all sorts of flaws into your thinking process.

I'm mostly restraining from this discussion, but please tone down the stereotyping.
If you were not, I am deeply sorry.

OH LAWD NINJAS

My point is, games appeal to that group almost in their entirety. It's not a statement on that particular group, but more on that groups advantages and privileges.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 05:58:04 pm
Because that group are their main consumers. You said women are almost half of gamers, but that is all games, including casual ones. For the titles you mentioned (COD/assassin's creed), men are still the main audience. It's consumer targeting. Not agreeing necessarily, just understanding.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 05:59:41 pm
I already told you that I do not care about elves' or even goblins' potential matriarchy. Even my dwarf mayor/baron is usually female, so my forts often count as matriarchies. But if any sort of dimorphism enters the game, by mod or update, humans must be included.

It's not just about me, it's about all the other male gamers that you are stereotyping  and lumping in with the worst lot.

If you don't want to be part of the problem, you should be willing to be part of the solution. Otherwise, you let the more vocal minority dictate the course of action.

Why should humans be included? There's nothing like this in the game currently, so even if it was added, it could go in any direction. And that would be preferable (procedurally generated) than insisting that men be dominant.

I don't approve of it either way, but if it was procedural, at least then it would be a toss up from civ to civ as to who would hold the power, if either gender was on top.

edit: The concept that all women play candy crush saga is wrong. For excample, the MMO community has about 41% of its gamers as females. We play the same games you do, we just suck the exclusion and stereotyping up.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 15, 2014, 06:01:09 pm
Let me know when RPGs actually start doing that, and I'll support them.
Don't most? I mean the first RPG video games I think of are the Elder Scrolls and Fallout, neither of which affect stats based on the character's sex.

EDIT: Oh fuck all these ninjas.
"we" and "you"? This thread is going somewhere real fun.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 06:01:44 pm
If there was no dimorphism then nobody would be on top and they would be like dwarves. Patriarchy did not emerge by divine right, only by men being stronger. Without that, it would never have happened.

I didn't notice any sexual dimorphism or resulting discrimination in WoW. Or most RPGs for that matter. Nor did I say that women only played candy crush.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Metalsie on December 15, 2014, 06:01:48 pm
I don't believe people should push their identity politics into this game, especially "inclusion", which is very subjective. I do think however that this is a good idea to implement. One problem though is the number of people who will be non-binary pre-world generation and this can cause problems for the creation of new sites for civilizations who had less "breeders". Also, how will the gender of the people born during the world generation be determined? Its unrealistic to depend on random chance since majority of people are straight and cap for the number of non-binary people born will likely be arbitrary.

this game already has homosexuality. And inclusion isn't a politic. That's the problem, you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything.

The rest of us play the games too. You are going to have to start sharing. Get used to it.
I disagree, inclusion is highly political and not everyone has the same perception of it as you do. Also, try to calm down, not everyone is out to get you.

you have apparently not read the rest of the thread. I am exhausted from this cyclical argument and have little patience for it now.

I don't care about perception. I, and others that are not like you and other white, straight, cis-gendered males, have just as much right to inclusion as you and it is not political. It is political for you because you are apathetic to the issue. The rest of us just want to feel like we are part of the game.

If we were to not include men in the game at all would you be okay with that? Or would you make a fuss?
Please don't clump all of us["white, straight, cis-gendered males"] into one group. Please?

Humanity is a very diverse group of people and one set of characteristics does not make a person behave a certain way. To believe otherwise is to incite all sorts of flaws into your thinking process.

I'm mostly restraining from this discussion, but please tone down the stereotyping.
If you were not, I am deeply sorry.

OH LAWD NINJAS

My point is, games appeal to that group almost in their entirety. It's not a statement on that particular group, but more on that groups advantages and privileges.
Stop this inductive nonsense. Just because you don't think or never seen a Trans person play this game doesn't mean this game is marginalizing or preventing them from playing it. I have introduced this game to many of my friends who are from nations you wouldn't know existed and they play the game like any other.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:06:01 pm
Let me know when RPGs actually start doing that, and I'll support them.
Don't most? I mean the first RPG video games I think of are the Elder Scrolls and Fallout, neither of which affect stats based on the character's sex.

EDIT: Oh fuck all these ninjas.

no most overly sexualize their women, for starters. But if you look at earlier elder scrolls games, such as morrowind, if you go the house hlaalu route, you can purchase female slaves as wives for your men. And to get hortator, you have to purchase a dunmer female slave to marry the ashlander chieftain of one tribe. It's a very androcentric game.

Oblivion and Skyrim were better, tbh.

Fallout was also done by Bethesda, though it has a history of being neutral on this stuff. Including with sexuality.

The games you are listing are exceptional though, as well as general exceptions to the rule. If you look at most MMOs out there, the clothing, the proportions, everything about women is just demeaning. The entire thing is geared towards gamer males.

Not to mention the overwhelming majority of games that have a male protagonist. And even if you get a powerful female, they devolve into tears when the strong male lead shows up, suddenly unable to help themselves.

edit: just going to ignore the obvious troll account.

Urist, did you really reeeally use WoW as an example? Have you seen the female night elves?

edit: not to mention some of the sexist comments by devs. I got into a debate on an ESO forum about there that ended in a female telling me I was only feminist because I didn't have a man and she "felt sorry for me" christ.

http://comegetthavoodoo.blogspot.com/2014/06/rob-pardo-is-sexist-asshole.html
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 15, 2014, 06:12:20 pm
You take what I'm saying personally.

You're the one making it personal when you say things like "you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything".
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:13:59 pm
Notice, btw, the comments on that article I posted.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:15:12 pm
You take what I'm saying personally.

You're the one making it personal when you say things like "you dudes see this as an inconvenienced on your divine right to be at the top of everything".

I am angry, and I am hostile, but that is because I am paying attention. Also I already acknowledged your link and your quote was before that sooo ???
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 06:15:27 pm
Female armour and clothing in most RPGs is stupid, I agree. But female player characters are NOT intrinsically different from males in their abilities in WoW or Skyrim as far as I know, unlike in COD or assassin's creed where they do not exist.

And, having seen that linked article, yes, female characters are stupidly sexual when they should not be, but seeing pixel pixies not wearing many clothes does NOT cause shooting rampages. That guy was clearly insane, WoW or not.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:17:30 pm
Female armour and clothing in most RPGs is stupid, I agree. But female player characters are NOT intrinsically different from males in their abilities in WoW or Skyrim as far as I know, unlike in COD or assassin's creed where they do not exist.

read the article, it details quests and situations in which some of the sexism occurs.

It's harder to notice when it's not about you. Like how I am less likely to notice subtle racism.

I played EQ personally, never WoW. It was fairly androcentric.

I mean, consider how much effort most games put into boob physics alone... these female characters exist solely to let guy gamers stare at their bodies while they play.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2013/dec/06/ryse-breasts-video-games-physics
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Metalsie on December 15, 2014, 06:18:39 pm
Let me know when RPGs actually start doing that, and I'll support them.
Don't most? I mean the first RPG video games I think of are the Elder Scrolls and Fallout, neither of which affect stats based on the character's sex.

EDIT: Oh fuck all these ninjas.


no most overly sexualize their women, for starters. But if you look at earlier elder scrolls games, such as morrowind, if you go the house hlaalu route, you can purchase female slaves as wives for your men. And to get hortator, you have to purchase a dunmer female slave to marry the ashlander chieftain of one tribe. It's a very androcentric game.

Oblivion and Skyrim were better, tbh.

Fallout was also done by Bethesda, though it has a history of being neutral on this stuff. Including with sexuality.

The games you are listing are exceptional though, as well as general exceptions to the rule. If you look at most MMOs out there, the clothing, the proportions, everything about women is just demeaning. The entire thing is geared towards gamer males.

Not to mention the overwhelming majority of games that have a male protagonist. And even if you get a powerful female, they devolve into tears when the strong male lead shows up, suddenly unable to help themselves.

edit: just going to ignore the obvious troll account.

Urist, did you really reeeally use WoW as an example? Have you seen the female night elves?

edit: not to mention some of the sexist comments by devs. I got into a debate on an ESO forum about there that ended in a female telling me I was only feminist because I didn't have a man and she "felt sorry for me" christ.

http://comegetthavoodoo.blogspot.com/2014/06/rob-pardo-is-sexist-asshole.html
I see, all you can do is call me a troll when you are in the wrong. Dont ask anyone to take you seriously with that attitude.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: XXXXYYYY on December 15, 2014, 06:19:38 pm
Because that group are their main consumers. You said women are almost half of gamers, but that is all games, including casual ones. For the titles you mentioned (COD/assassin's creed), men are still the main audience. It's consumer targeting.
Basically this. It's a bullshit feedback loop fueled by money. One group buys a game > Marketing starts to put a larger amount of money to advertising to that group > that group buys the game more >Marketing puts an even larger amount of money to advertising to that group etc.
Over time, this has led to the completely ridiculous ads you sometimes see.
Most of the time, the games don't even do that kind of stuff in the beginning, but then marketing starts saying "Ok, we need this and that to boost sales" [MMO armor. seriously.], and then the game is tarnished by that.

Of course, some gave devs are sexist dicks, but the amount of them (per capita of game devs) should be roughly the same as the amount in a larger population. Often, as far as I can tell, they (the game devs) are forced to do this shit on danger of losing their jobs.

Slowly, they're realizing that they'd make more money if they stopped this crap, and are tuning it back. Still, MMO armor.

Took a while, but still relevant, I think.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 06:20:42 pm
None of these cases involve the female PC being blocked or hindered from doing things because of her gender. The game world being full of sexist arseholes does not mean the game is sexist. The stupid female "armour" does, but it does not directly affect the gameplay.

I'll admit that I don't play WoW, partly because of the stupid-looking gear, but it seems to me that gender does not block players from doing things. It is all in the portrayal.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 15, 2014, 06:20:53 pm
Even characters like Laura Croft and Samus have, in more recent times, be rewritten to be fragile victims that need the orders of men or mindlessly follow them.

I've heard nothing good about that Metroid game, but I think you're being a bit unfair to the new Tomb Raider. Croft in that game is written as a kid fresh out of university. Everyone comes from somewhere. I can see how the mentor character being male can be unfortunate from a certain point of view, but she spends more time saving him than the other way around, and he's eventually stuffed in the fridge, so it all kind of works out. Besides, the game seems to follow the series standard of having everyone important be a woman otherwise.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 06:22:54 pm
Stuffed in the fridge? In some kind of Jeffrey Dahmer type incident, or for cryogenesis?

Again, haven't played the game...
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Putnam on December 15, 2014, 06:24:43 pm
Stuffed in the fridge? In some kind of Jeffrey Dahmer type incident, or for cryogenesis?

Again, haven't played the game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:25:40 pm
None of these cases involve the female PC being blocked or hindered from doing things because of her gender. The game world being full of sexist arseholes does not mean the game is sexist. The stupid female "armour" does, but it does not directly affect the gameplay.

I'll admit that I don't play WoW, partly because of the stupid-looking gear, but it seems to me that gender does not block players from doing things. It is all in the portrayal.

you're literally just ignoring stuff I posted, and then taking examples of stuff that alienates women gamers (and as I said they are almost half the buyers, so yea, they are buying these games, it's just the industry is male dominated,) and saying it doesn't count. Oh it's okay if women are demeaned and objectified in your game because that doesn't prevent women from playing. wuh?

Putnam: you like comics? Have you heard about Bitch Planet. I am stoked about it's release but I can't aoffrd comics anymore. :/
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 15, 2014, 06:31:17 pm
No, it doesn't prevent women from playing. It might stop them from enjoying it as much, but it doesn't stop them from playing.

If I took over WoW I would put all the female warriors into sensible armour like the men, and put more clothes on most people, but nasty rulers can keep their concubines because that's what nasty rulers do.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 15, 2014, 06:33:43 pm
but nasty rulers can keep their concubines because that's what nasty rulers do.

That and getting progressively more derailed so Blizzard can have raid bosses, apparently. I'm glad I stopped caring about the lore after WC3.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:34:22 pm
No, it doesn't prevent women from playing. It might stop them from enjoying it as much, but it doesn't stop them from playing.

If I took over WoW I would put all the female warriors into sensible armour like the men, and put more clothes on most people, but nasty rulers can keep their concubines because that's what nasty rulers do.

I'm not trying to criticize you before I say this, but...

You, as a male (and there's nothing inherently wrong with that,) aren't really capable of understanding what is going to alienate or make women gamers feel unwelcome.

You are arguing that it is okay that they get less enjoyment from the game, and that nothing changes and we maintain the status quo. If your enjoyment was being prevented by sexism towards your gender in almost all games, wouldn't you want that to change? Shouldn't it change?

It's not just visuals anyway, the article talks about quests and interactions that are also sexist. and this is true of all these games. The objectification is just the start.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: XXXXYYYY on December 15, 2014, 06:38:26 pm
For a few examples of the shit I was referencing before, view into the spoiler.

That crap sickens me.
"Woo, let's objectify women for sales!"
Fuck. That. Shit.

[barely holding in long angry rant about people]

Stuffed in the fridge? In some kind of Jeffrey Dahmer type incident, or for cryogenesis?

Again, haven't played the game...
As in killed. It's a trope. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StuffedIntoTheFridge)
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:40:37 pm
Gawd, yea Wartune. Every time I see those ads I rage inside.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 15, 2014, 06:41:35 pm
For a few examples of the shit I was referencing before, view into the spoiler.
I always did wonder which shitty marketing firm advises that this is a good ad. Like, who is that actually going to get to buy their thing.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:44:06 pm
For a few examples of the shit I was referencing before, view into the spoiler.
I always did wonder which shitty marketing firm advises that this is a good ad. Like, who is that actually going to get to buy their thing.

they were up for awhile and may still be up, so someone is buying into it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 15, 2014, 06:44:38 pm
Hunh?  Those dont operate on the Facebook game principle?

Free to P(l)ay?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum on December 15, 2014, 06:45:44 pm
You, as a male (and there's nothing inherently wrong with that,) aren't really capable of understanding what is going to alienate or make women gamers feel unwelcome.
Actually, it is possible. Not simple or easy, but also not impossible.
(Also, that post was very good. Much less hostility and more helpful.)

Also, I'm pretty sure Wartune is a free game. At least, I think it is?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:46:11 pm
Hunh?  Those dont operate on the Facebook game principle?

Free to P(l)ay?

Free to Play games can't run without money. Really, it's probably pay for perks, I used to be an admin for a mud like that, and people would drop upwards of $10k over a few years to get an edge on other people. It's addictive.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: XXXXYYYY on December 15, 2014, 06:47:05 pm
For a few examples of the shit I was referencing before, view into the spoiler.
I always did wonder which shitty marketing firm advises that this is a good ad. Like, who is that actually going to get to buy their thing.
I'm pretty sure it's Free-to-play, so the ads are in effect clickbait. It's bullshit, but if the forum has 300,000 posts, someone is playing it.

EDIT:
Hunh?  Those dont operate on the Facebook game principle?

Free to P(l)ay?

Free to Play games can't run without money. Really, it's probably pay for perks, I used to be an admin for a mud like that, and people would drop upwards of $10k over a few years to get an edge on other people. It's addictive.
Geez that must have been depressing.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Graknorke on December 15, 2014, 06:47:34 pm
For a few examples of the shit I was referencing before, view into the spoiler.
I always did wonder which shitty marketing firm advises that this is a good ad. Like, who is that actually going to get to buy their thing.
they were up for awhile and may still be up, so someone is buying into it.
The only way it could really work would be if it's a kind of "hasn't killed you yet" reasoning. Kind of like:
"Are you still in business?"
"Yeah..."
"Well then the ads must be working, keep it up."

EDIT: Yeah I know it's F2P. That doesn't mean it's not trying to sell you anything.


ANYWAY, TANGENT.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:49:09 pm
I think we overestimate a decent sized portion of the gaming populace (male or female)

Even FTP that isn't pay for perks will work like EQ, where you lose enough stuff doing FTP that plenty of people will shell out money to get full play rights or things like pets, etc.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 15, 2014, 06:50:34 pm
For a few examples of the shit I was referencing before, view into the spoiler.
I always did wonder which shitty marketing firm advises that this is a good ad. Like, who is that actually going to get to buy their thing.
I'm pretty sure it's Free-to-play, so the ads are in effect clickbait. It's bullshit, but if the forum has 300,000 posts, someone is playing it.

EDIT:
Hunh?  Those dont operate on the Facebook game principle?

Free to P(l)ay?

Free to Play games can't run without money. Really, it's probably pay for perks, I used to be an admin for a mud like that, and people would drop upwards of $10k over a few years to get an edge on other people. It's addictive.
Geez that must have been depressing.

A lot of the PVPrs were military, and those were the people that would want the perks, since the big thing in the game was pvp. SO they had a lot of disposable income and a lot of time in between the bad shit that happens over in iraq and afghanistan

tbh I spent multiple thousands of dollars myself, so I was not immune to it. Then I let them shit all over me for three years while I did work for them for free
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: MDFification on December 15, 2014, 10:42:58 pm
This thread has reached peak derail.

Requesting a lock as people can't seem to realize they aren't posting in General Discussion.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Meph on December 16, 2014, 08:13:49 am
This thread has reached peak derail.

Requesting a lock as people can't seem to realize they aren't posting in General Discussion.
I'd like to second this. I've read the entire thread, and there has been nothing that could be called  "df suggestion" for the last 10 pages or so.

Best would be to make a nice write-up of the initial post, e.g. explain and present the suggestion of a procedual gender system, post it, then lock it. There is no reason to jump at each others throat all the time, with both parties making mistakes.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 11:50:12 am
My positions on this now can be summarised as such:
I would be happy to accept transgender and intersex dwarves in the game.
Dwarves should remain without gender roles - that is an important aspect of their culture.
Elves can be matriarchal, or stay so if they are already.
Wartune sucks, F2P or not. Their marketing is even more stupid. I don't play it.

Contentious points:
Mundane animal species should have sexual dimorphism based on their biology, with predictable consequences.
WoW is stupid and should put its female warriors into actual armour. I don't actually play it. However, portraying a world of sexual exploitation and prejudice does not automatically endorse it.
I do not know exactly what puts off female gamers, but I do not think they all react in the same way, and women do not know exactly what puts off male gamers either.
TV Tropes is mildly annoying and its jargon should not invade Bay12games. I have no right to censor anyone, but I would prefer it if people just said that Lara Croft's mentor was "killed".

A lock on the thread would be fine for me. I do not really agree with the OP in having procedural gender roles for dwarves, since they should have no gender roles whatsoever.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 16, 2014, 01:07:01 pm
Stuffed in the fridge? In some kind of Jeffrey Dahmer type incident, or for cryogenesis?

Again, haven't played the game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators

And if you had the game the other way around: male PC being guided by a female NPC who is later killed off for the plot, you'd have people saying the female NPC was only there to serve the male player's needs, she's only a "helpful damsel" in distress who aids the player, not a character with her own free will or agency (she only ever thinks about what the male PC needs or should be doing, and relies 100% on him taking actions), and finally she's killed off to act as "character development" for the male PC (Anita Sarkeesian makes a specific point of this as Violence Against Women used as a plot point for male PC character development) . So it's all sexist against the female NPC. It's a very touchy issue, if you flip the genders you reverse all the arguments, and a female PC 'blindly" following after a male PC is clearly sexist against the PC not the NPC, if the male NPC gives directions on how to succeed, this is no longer subservient "helpful" behavior: it's dictatorial order-giving. If he needs her to do stuff for him or rescue him, he's a lazy asshole who can't help himself dictating that she get back in the kitchen and do the chores, etc etc.

If you're playing a woman with a male to rescue the argument goes "so she's doing it all for a man, how sexist, they're saying she has no 'self' and will do everything for a man" and the reverse (male rescuing a female) is "so it's about a guy doing it all for a woman, what is this? They're saying women can't help themselves and need a man to do it?" If two identical situations get interpreted by the same person so differently when the genders are reversed, there's no "they're saying", it's "you're saying" because those are your personal interpretations right there, not anyone else's.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 01:42:58 pm
Violence against EVERYBODY is common in games (except children for some reason, apparently reaching majority makes somebody a more acceptable target for murder or something wacky like that) and I would say the male body count is far, far higher given games like COD. These characters are also flat and basically just there to be killed. This does not matter a bit, because it is just a game.

Most AAA games treat all NPCs like dirt, male or female. Say a few lines of dialogue, get killed, maybe respawn. I remember hearing that children had an unexplained immortality spell on them in Skyrim and finding friends a mod to fix this oversight, for which they were very grateful, but the unmodded game largely seemed to consist of mass murder rampages anyway and it seemed stupid not to include everyone in these. (Again, another game which I never actually played myself. I watched friends play it a few times, but was never really awed by it in any way to the point of buying it because of its undue focus on slaughter and general shallowness, even in the combat it was centred around. Punching somebody in armour with bare fists and only he gets damaged...no.) The only difference is the unnecessary sexualisation of female PCs and NPCs alike, especially in games like WoW. I agree that this needs to be toned down a bit, having seen the alleged female "armour" in some games.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Meph on December 16, 2014, 02:18:19 pm
Unrealistic body proportions and armor is not only for females. The average male doesnt look like Kratos or He-Man either, running around bare-chested with a loincloth.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 16, 2014, 02:19:29 pm
Stuffed in the fridge? In some kind of Jeffrey Dahmer type incident, or for cryogenesis?

Again, haven't played the game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators

And if you had the game the other way around: male PC being guided by a female NPC who is later killed off for the plot, you'd have people saying the female NPC was only there to serve the male player's needs, she's only a "helpful damsel" in distress who aids the player, not a character with her own free will or agency (she only ever thinks about what the male PC needs or should be doing, and relies 100% on him taking actions), and finally she's killed off to act as "character development" for the male PC (Anita Sarkeesian makes a specific point of this as Violence Against Women used as a plot point for male PC character development) . So it's all sexist against the female NPC. It's a very touchy issue, if you flip the genders you reverse all the arguments, and a female PC 'blindly" following after a male PC is clearly sexist against the PC not the NPC, if the male NPC gives directions on how to succeed, this is no longer subservient "helpful" behavior: it's dictatorial order-giving. If he needs her to do stuff for him or rescue him, he's a lazy asshole who can't help himself dictating that she get back in the kitchen and do the chores, etc etc.

If you're playing a woman with a male to rescue the argument goes "so she's doing it all for a man, how sexist, they're saying she has no 'self' and will do everything for a man" and the reverse (male rescuing a female) is "so it's about a guy doing it all for a woman, what is this? They're saying women can't help themselves and need a man to do it?" If two identical situations get interpreted by the same person so differently when the genders are reversed, there's no "they're saying", it's "you're saying" because those are your personal interpretations right there, not anyone else's.
I think a lot of this is assumption and I wouldn't agree with it at all.

However, havning 2 dimensional characters to prop up the plot, who seem to many times be women, is a problem.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 16, 2014, 02:43:34 pm
Quote
I think a lot of this is assumption and I wouldn't agree with it at all.
That's not quite clear whether you're saying it's all assumption on my part or assumption on the part of the people I'm citing? Because most of what I wrote was just relaying what established writers are saying. Since you say you don't agree with anything I said, I interpret that as you're saying I'm only assuming that people say all these things. That's not correct though since most of this is directly citing what established writers on the topic like Feminist Frequency say, and comparing it with what other people are saying about gender-flipped analogous situations in Metroid and Tomb Raider.

However, havning 2 dimensional characters to prop up the
plot, who seem to many times be women, is a problem.
Game characters are mostly 2 dimensional, that's a problem by itself but not one that's quickly fixed by engineering inclusivity. Games tend to be 100% from the perspective of a single character, so it's just not a simple task of emulating "how movies do it" or "how books do it", since the design differences are non-trivial. Side characters can't have a lot of agency, because either you end up railroading the PC with dialogue that's not interactive (info dumps of character background), or that NPC more or less takes over the plot for a while (you need a lot of plot railroading to keep the high-agency NPC in the picture), or the NPC is off doing their own thing and not interacting with the PC (and therefore not really part of the game).

Anyway, the general thing is that they complain that only 15% of game characters are female, now you're saying too many side characters are female too? It doesn't sound like there's a "win" condition here.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 02:49:06 pm
What if...there isn't one plot, but many, as in DF? Life is like that, as are many stories - there is not 1 storyline that everything is in service of, so why should that be the case for games? Side characters are main characters to them, and the PC is a side character.

Bare chested loincloth men are not sensible either, but their armour, while still often hilariously stupid, does not show off quite as much skin.

The number of female characters in itself does not denote sexism either. No one would expect any female characters on board a Cold War US Navy submarine, for example.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Fniff on December 16, 2014, 02:50:16 pm
What if...there isn't a plot, but many? Life is like that, as are many stories - there is not 1 storyline that everything is in service of, so why should that be the case for games?
There's a few plotless games. DF, for instance.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 16, 2014, 02:55:30 pm
DF is hardly plotless. Minesweeper is though, last I checked.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 16, 2014, 02:56:22 pm
The number of female characters in itself does not denote sexism either. No one would expect any female characters on board a Cold War US Navy submarine, for example.

Choice of setting can be critiqued though. By focusing on each game in isolation, you don't get the big picture. if every story involves "man stuff" and thus justifies not having women, then it's circular logic. If 90% of stories are set in places like "Cold War US Navy submarines" and you go "duh, there aren't any women because of the setting", then that's just passing the buck as to why those settings are always the default.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 16, 2014, 02:56:30 pm
DF is hardly plotless. Minesweeper is though, last I checked.
DF is certainly choose your own adventure, and the characters are essentially randomized.  There isn't any definitive plot, but there are themes in which they form and revolve around.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Fniff on December 16, 2014, 02:57:57 pm
Better term: storyless. Toady isn't writing a series of events that happen as the game goes on, he's making a simulation that creates plots naturally.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 16, 2014, 03:08:54 pm
Quote
I think a lot of this is assumption and I wouldn't agree with it at all.
That's not quite clear whether you're saying it's all assumption on my part or assumption on the part of the people I'm citing? Because most of what I wrote was just relaying what established writers are saying. Since you say you don't agree with anything I said, I interpret that as you're saying I'm only assuming that people say all these things. That's not correct though since most of this is directly citing what established writers on the topic like Feminist Frequency say, and comparing it with what other people are saying about gender-flipped analogous situations in Metroid and Tomb Raider.

However, havning 2 dimensional characters to prop up the
plot, who seem to many times be women, is a problem.
Game characters are mostly 2 dimensional, that's a problem by itself but not one that's quickly fixed by engineering inclusivity. Games tend to be 100% from the perspective of a single character, so it's just not a simple task of emulating "how movies do it" or "how books do it", since the design differences are non-trivial. Side characters can't have a lot of agency, because either you end up railroading the PC with dialogue that's not interactive (info dumps of character background), or that NPC more or less takes over the plot for a while (you need a lot of plot railroading to keep the high-agency NPC in the picture), or the NPC is off doing their own thing and not interacting with the PC (and therefore not really part of the game).

Anyway, the general thing is that they complain that only 15% of game characters are female, now you're saying too many side characters are female too? It doesn't sound like there's a "win" condition here.

First off, you are presenting all of that out of context, But also, I'm sure varying women have varying complaints.

I think most of us just want, overall above and beyond anything else, powerful, developed, female protagonists.

You are saying there's too many different complaints that contradict so... should we maintain the status quo?

The important part is representing women in a way that makes them feel included. The details of each individual game will differ, but I have a couple good examples of games:

Mass Effect
Borderlands (pick one, 2 was especially good)

I like Borderlands approach because they have set out to really include women, and they have done a great job of it. I think if you want a go to for what a lot of women are looking for, that kind of inclusivity is it. But I am speaking from my own perspective.

I want to feel like the female characters in the game, who I would like to be just as likely to be the protagonist as a male character, are powerful and don't devolve into tears and huddle in the arms of a strong male whenever things go wrong. Giving them a sacrificial obsessions with babies and a strong dependency on men (a la the newest Metroid) just reminds us what the male developers think of our gender. We are props. Even when we are the main character.

No one expects 100% satisfaction, I think it's silly to suggest that. I don't think it's unreasonable to want to feel like we are actually a part of the games being created and represented therein though.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 16, 2014, 03:16:01 pm
And capitalism shall deliver, so long as the money goes in its requisite locations.

  Wasn't Bayonetta supposed to be just that?  A strong female character?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Reelya on December 16, 2014, 03:29:48 pm
https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/521781974017388544
"Everything about Bayonetta's design, mechanics and characterization is created specifically for the sexual pleasure of straight male gamers."

No, she was a sexist creation.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Dyret on December 16, 2014, 03:32:23 pm
  Wasn't Bayonetta supposed to be just that?  A strong female character?

Sex-positive feminists seem to think so. Others, not so much.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Meph on December 16, 2014, 03:37:01 pm
Ok, I actually wanted to stay out of this discussion, but... somebody please tell me why Moxxi (an extremely sexualized character) is perfectly ok in that discussion. (judging from smeerockets Borderlands does well with "representing women in a way that makes them feel included.")

Her weapons are literally sex toys she hands out to the player.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 16, 2014, 03:49:08 pm
Because Moxxi is a rather developed powerful character in control of her own sexuality. There are also female characters that are not overly sexualized in Borderlands.

For example, you have Moxxi's daughter, Ellie. She's another powerful character, she's big, and she doesn't care what other people think, she knows she looks good and doesn't need others' approval. God, I love that character. Make her playable please.

There's some jokes with Moxxi that are great. There's this quest where you retrieve some nude photos of her for her ex-boyfriend, or you can give them to her. If you give them to her, she thanks you, because she needed to upload those to the internet.

Moxxi is intentionally sexualized, but that's not true of every character in the game. Sexuality in a owman shouldn't be shameful, but moxxi doesn't play out as sexual for a male audience. Her every action doesn't exist to titillate men. She is ultimately in control of it all.

See, women wearing sexy clothing is just as okay as not wearing sexy clothing, I don't think women should be slut shamed if they want to be sexy, and there is a place for that. I like photos of sexy girls just as much as anyone else, as well. But it's when the character existence revolves entirely around sex and appealing to male gamers that the problem arise.

I hope that makes sense?
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 16, 2014, 03:56:03 pm
Isn't being sexually appealing part of the power trip that you buy games for?  Especially now that games are can adequately show that and are much more social in nature.

  What is and isnt socially acceptable to wear aside, radiating raw sexual energy is part of a lot of fantasies people have about themselves.  Many people strive for just that.

---

For every Prince and Brittney Spears of the world there's 1000 who want to be like that.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 04:00:09 pm
I never played the new Metroid, but I played the original, and Samus didn't do too much crying in that.

Please define what "women are props" means. I presume you don't mean the rugby position, so it comes down to "supporting something", which does fit with certain sexist ideas of women supporting men, or "inanimate object used in theatre", which would indicate someone disposable to play a simple role, which is equally true of any number of male supporting characters (see the expression?) who are just there to be killed in various ways. A vulnerable, wimpy female protagonist is no more a "prop" in that sense than a hyper-masculine macho man - they are both cheap stereotypes in their simplest form.

Common settings of games, especially violent ones, do not really suit female protagonists - in a World War 2 game, for example, women would only be found in the ranks of the USSR, partisan forces like the French resistance and, at the very end of the war, Germany once they ran out of men and started using teenage girls to crew anti aircraft guns. Even in these cases, they would be a minority and not in senior command positions, though some fought with distinction. There would also be an awful lot of women being raped. This setting would not be endorsing sexism - it could easily be condemning it - it would just be showing things as they were.

I don't buy games for power trips. If I wanted anything sexual, I wouldn't look for it in a game.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Adrian on December 16, 2014, 04:00:54 pm
This thread isn't even about Dwarf Fort anymore.
Please take your soapboxes somewhere else and let the thread die already.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Vherid on December 16, 2014, 04:01:47 pm
Why is tumblr trying to play dwarf fortress? You killed whatever this was.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 04:02:12 pm
No, because Dwarf Fort is not a game. It was initially about Dwarf Fortress.

This debate has calmed down enough now to be fairly civil, with few obscenities and insults. There is little reason to stop it.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Vherid on December 16, 2014, 04:05:31 pm
No, because Dwarf Fort is not a game. It was initially about Dwarf Fortress.

This debate has calmed down enough now to be fairly civil, with few obscenities and insults. There is little reason to stop it.

This debate has almost entirely nothing to do with the initial post, and has instead turned into whether gamersfate matters or not.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 04:08:28 pm
It has turned into a general debate about sexism and games, but derailed threads are fine as long as they do not turn into YouTube comments.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Meph on December 16, 2014, 04:08:33 pm
There is a perfectly good reason to stop it, and if I were a mod, I'd do it, because this is the DF Suggestion board.

This discussion belongs in General Discussion (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?board=17.0).
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 04:09:33 pm
It should be moved, then, or at least the derailed section.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: pisskop on December 16, 2014, 04:10:09 pm
This thread isn't even about Dwarf Fort anymore.
Please take your soapboxes somewhere else and let the thread die already.
Fair enough
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=146629.msg5881983#msg5881983
here.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: smeeprocket on December 16, 2014, 04:11:08 pm
I moved my post over to the new thread.
Title: Re: Procedural Gender Systems
Post by: Urist Tilaturist on December 16, 2014, 04:19:11 pm
Thank you. Admins, feel free to lock the thread now.