Thanks for the review. A suggestion for future reviews to make them especially relevant for The Stranger audience - I feel like we're at a point where the gamer demographic vs. the typical developers point of view are so disconnected that it would be very helpful to explore whether a game is woman- and queer- and race-friendly. It's such a bummer when a game sounds interesting, and then you realize it requires you to play as a womanizing white dude.

I did a quick google and it sounds like on this game your character can be female or male (not sure about queer) and different races. I couldn't find anything about it forcing any heteronormativity.

@1: We love you.

SR doesn't really seem to go anywhere near sex/love/romance, so it didn't push any buttons we felt obligated to mention. Racism exists and is obliquely addressed, but it's fantasy racism - orks and trolls are mistrusted, and there are human supremacists and so on because of course there are. Honestly, the RPG elements in the base game just aren't rich enough for us even to have considered identifying with the PC much. Ouch?

That said, we expect that a ton of mods will dive into currently unexplored sexual and social territories - some of which will no doubt be deeply offensive (and likely pulled by Steam) and some of which will be deeply worthwhile.

Slot off, Chummer!

A review of the review? How meta!

2: Thank you!! Your assurance plus the Seattle setting (which I didn't know about before this review) convinced me to buy it tonight.

The game doesn't address orc-profiling?! This is exactly the type of whitewashing campaign that supports Lone Star Security Services' systemic oppression of Orcish American communities. Unacceptable.

I love everything about this comment thread.

Once again, I agree with everything raku says.

The game is both linear and short. The potential in the modding does not make up for it. People backed a game, not an engine, and the game they presented is lacking.

When you buy this game (and you will, right?), you're buying a game through a local company (Valve, in Bellevue), made by a local group of individuals (Harebrained Schemes, in Kirkland).

@1

If there's no capability to create exactly the character you want, you may be able to modify ("mod") that portion of the game to allow for it. And then anyone who shares that passion would be able to download the mod and have that experience themselves. The industry does take notice when mods make a big splash in a game, so it might make a real difference in future projects made by others too.

I know you'll probably not come back to this thread, but I wish you would explain what you mean by gamer demographic and "typical developers" point of views being at odds. That comment strikes me as astonishingly ignorant of the game-creation process and of both communities, but maybe I'm misinterpreting it.

@10

The way that the Workshop functions is that the cream will rise to the top. And of course all the stories are player-created, so they're free. Kotaku referred to the included story as more of a primer for those who would like to make their own. As noted above and in the Kotaku post, it's already off to a strong start in that regard.

11: As just one example- 88.5% of game developers are male, and 89.5% of game characters are male. Not a coincidence. They didn't research the portrayal of those 10.5% of female characters, but I'm willing to bet "non-hypersexualized female characters" is in the very low single digits. Not cool for the 47% of gamers who identify as women, or for many others. That's the "disconnect" I'm referring to.

Game developer demographics: http://www.igda.org/game-developer-demog…
Game character demographics: http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-amp-…

Also, I bought Shadowrun last night, but it runs too slow on my ancient Mac (not their fault). I'll check the game again when I upgrade eventually. Looking forward to seeing all the mods then!

@12

While I'm not confident in the PopSci site's data/conclusions after clicking around on the site for a bit, I do trust the IGDA to have accurate data. Regardless, thanks for coming back and providing citation and explanation!