Taffer

It depends on the language tbh. Several languages on duolingo are decent ways to dip your toes in the water for language learning, I’ve heard good things about the Spanish, German, and Mandarin courses. But it’s really dependent on the language, I tried Duolingo’s Irish course and it was so bad that I’m still trying to unlearn a good amount of misinformation, really soured language learning for me even though I eventually got a good course elsewhere.

And also Baldurs Gate 3 for some reason

Ah, my only context was what little I’ve picked up about Krem and Dorian(as well as an explanation about how the Qun is sexist to the point of wrapping around to be progressive), and assurances from people that the games have always been like that.

Even still, from a 15 year old series, that still manages to be a lot gayer than most.

I am nonbinary, I haven’t played a Dragon Age game before Veilguard, I haven’t yet gotten to this one scene that’s apparently damned the entire franchise, nor have I even met Taash(?) yet. Here’s my off the cuff rambling thoughts:

I’ve just now watched the scene devoid of context, and if that’s where the misgendering conversation started and stopped, I think everyone is wildly overreacting. The first minute is fine, a weird older lady apologizes for screwing up in her own way, I’ve had people react in much stranger ways than that, and in it’s own way “Whoops I fucked up, lemme do some push ups to show I feel bad” is kinda sweet. I’ll concede that the explanation after was heavy handed, but you could definitely include the gist of it somewhere else easily. “Don’t be weird, just say sorry and move on” is the correct advice to give to someone who doesn’t know how to interact with trans people but wants to be supportive. If that last minute of the conversation happened somewhere else in the game, it’d have been fine.

The game overall has been mediocre so far, a solid 6 out of 10, nothing to write home about, but certainly not deserving of the flak it’s been getting. This is one of the first games I’ve played where I feel like I’m represented, I think it might be the first major game where you can make a custom character who’s explicitly transgender, and that counts for something in my book.

From where I’m standing, it really feels like a lot of the outrage DA:V is drawing comes from some discomfort(conscious or no) with having the queer experience very out in the open for everyone to see, which is what I would expect from a series that (as far as I can tell) has always had tons of explicitly queer characters. I’m sure that’s not universally the case, but I simply don’t buy this narrative of “I’m fine with trans people, but the way it’s written is so clunky.” because I’ve had almost the polar opposite experience. I can think of few other games that talk about transness in the way that actual trans people talk about it.

misgnedering

I actually go by a different name now that has a different reason to it, but that’s the logic a lot of other friends stuck with, a username or game character they connect with. One of my best friends is named Ikora because of the Destiny character for instance.

Gonna do my best to avoid doxxing myself, but the name I go by now I chose for a few reasons:

• It’s a traditional Irish name, I’ve learned in the last couple years that I’m almost completely ethnically Irish.
• It’s fairly gender neutral at least by American standards, so it doesn’t necessarily out me as trans while I’m still pretty early in transitioning.
• I took it from an old folk song I grew up with, so there’s also personal history and ties to my family with it.

Ultimately everyone is gonna have their own reasons for the name they choose, but I’ve tried a couple names over the years to see which ones fit. Sometimes I’ve had ones that I felt a real connection to, but it felt all wrong to get called it. It’s one of those things that can be a journey while you transition.

Also speaking from personal experience, the trans folks I know are delighted to explain why they chose the name the did. It’s not impolite at all to ask, just so long as it’s not the very first thing you ask lol.

I feel like it’s probably pretty common for trans folks who spend a lot of time online. The internet was where we got to explore ourselves.

I’m trans and the name I chose is based off an old username of mine because I got more used to people calling me that.

Come to think of it a lot of my trans friends did something similar.

Was about to make a post of my own asking about this feature. Would be a really useful option to have, especially for viewing stuff by hexbear users for example, where I believe including pronouns is mandatory.

No that’s the Rubicon. Rubric is the guy who directed The Shining

I didn’t think that was a real line until I started playing last month and of course that clown would be the one to say it.

I disagree. I’m not much of a Fallout fan, but I picked up New Vegas for the first time because of the show, installed the Viva New Vegas mods mentioned in another comment, and this game absolutely fucking rules.

This really got to the heart of what I was trying to ask. Fantastic explanation, thank you!

Gotcha, so maybe the sudden positive feeling about Biden is more of a reaction to that mindset to try and sway folks back to voting? That’d certainly make sense to me.

All fair points, it was just jarring to see the consensus shift from “both options suck shit” to “Biden will do I guess”

To clarify, you’re saying it’s folks from the popular instances trying to rebrand the conversation as “Biden is cool as fuck actually” as well as folks willing to just roll with that? Or am I misinterpreting?

(I gotta stop making comments on lemmy when I’m stoned and only have 2 brain cells)

In the last couple weeks, I’ve noticed a sudden and dramatic shift in tone with how Biden is talked about on Lemmy as well as other corners of the internet I lurk on(e.g. this comment section). Before, it seemed like the general opinion was “he’s nowhere close to my 1st choice, but the alternative is Trump.” And now I feel like people are a lot quicker to jump to his defense and treat him like one of the better presidents of our lifetime.

I’m gonna admit that I’m a lot less up to date and informed about politics than I should be, but where did this recent pivot on Biden come from?

The term you’re looking for is cisgender. Trans = “on the other side of”, cis = “on this side of”

what if the world was made of pudding

Huh, somehow completely blew past my radar. Thanks for the info!