Victor Vran Says Goodbye To Early Access, Hello To Being Awesome

Quoting: skry

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: BeamboomCan u create your character in this game, and is gender amongst the options?

No, you are Victor Vran. The game is about him.

And that's the only thing that keeps me from buying this game. It looks great otherwise. :S

Might be a bold statement, but I'm 90% sure you'll forget the lack of character creation and gender option if you just give it a chance. It's too good to miss out.

True. One would think you'd miss out on a ton of great games if you absolutely refuse to play anything with a male main character. Just seems a bit weird to skip games based on the sex of the protagonist alone. Not that it's any of my business what you play and what you don't play, I guess. :)

I bought it on Early Access :D , and, indeed, it is totally awesome . It's about time that a Diablo-type game was available for Linux without cartoony graphics (looking at you, Torchlight :><: ).

Not that Torchlight isn't a gas to play, but still...


Last edited by oldrocker99 on 27 July 2015 at 2:16 am UTC

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: BeamboomCan u create your character in this game, and is gender amongst the options?

No, you are Victor Vran. The game is about him.

And that's the only thing that keeps me from buying this game. It looks great otherwise. :S

If you're talking about playing a different class, you do have quite a number of customization options through equipment.
If you're talking about gender, I suspect that voicing a female character (and all lines that contain the name or pronoun) would have simply been too expensive.
I don't think every game must have the option to choose your gender, sometimes the writers want to tell a specific story. The problem is not any one single game, it's the general under-representation of female protagonists. Luckily, there are more and more games out there with a female lead, so things are getting better. I recently played Dex, which doesn't have character options, you play as Dex, who's female, it's her story. And I'd find it ...off-putting... if a guy told me he won't play that game because he won't play as a woman. Of course, that's not quite the same, since there are so many more games with male protagonists than female, so I can understand your stance to some extent. But I'm not going to completely dismiss a game just because I can't play as someone of my own gender, just like I wouldn't dismiss a game because the main character has a different skin colour. Given a choice, I usually choose to play as female at least during my first playthrough, but if the devs have an interesting story to tell about a guy, I don't mind that either. I'm probably more likely to buy a game with a female lead when I'm otherwise on the fence, but male lead isn't a deal breaker.
But if a game with a male protagonist just doesn't appeal to you at all, fair enough.

Quoting: ricki42I don't think every game must have the option to choose your gender, sometimes the writers want to tell a specific story. The problem is not any one single game, it's the general under-representation of female protagonists. Luckily, there are more and more games out there with a female lead, so things are getting better.

I guess in the end that might be the core of the issue for me. I will always, as in always, prefer being able to roll a character of my own choosing instead of a premade one, and I like to believe there is almost never a compelling reason to go with a premade one at all. I think that a good writer can always adapt a given story to a custom character and make it fit regardless of whether the player picks a white guy or a black female.
What is so off-putting to me is that when devs decide to go with a premade character, 99% of the time it will be a male one. Because apparently even in 2015, women gamers do not exist. At least not in the heads of the devs and publishers, who in this time and age are still reluctant to publish a game featuring a female lead at all. I think I would mind premade characters considerably less if at least the third of them would be females, which would represent our share of the gamer customer base. We're a far cry off that.

Quoting: KimyrielleI think that a good writer can always adapt a given story to a custom character and make it fit regardless of whether the player picks a white guy or a black female.

A tall order, and often an expensive one. Any story-heavy game (the kind I prefer) would need a lot more work. Picking the lead is the prerogative of the author, I'd say, even if they do have a bias. The industry probably still has a rather small percentage of female writers and developers. Not much of an excuse, though.

Quoting: KimyrielleWhat is so off-putting to me is that when devs decide to go with a premade character, 99% of the time it will be a male one. Because apparently even in 2015, women gamers do not exist. At least not in the heads of the devs and publishers, who in this time and age are still reluctant to publish a game featuring a female lead at all.

Sad but true. Personally I fully support game character gender equality, even if I don't share your opinion on the importance of character customization.

First I hoped that this game would be a very nice addition and one of the first action-roleplaying-games on Linux. A purchase on GOG was really near. But now I'd like to point out that this game is not DRM-free as GOG mentions: For multiplaying there is a client-server-principle and nothing about normal peer-to-peer LAN-mode. Also the so-called treasure-hunting is matter of discussion because the account is also needed for activating the keycodes in the singleplayer. So far the discussion within GOG-forums. Have I missed something? Or perhabs somebody could refute me, please? For me the game also said "GOODBYE", if these mechanics stay there is no purchase. Won't buy DRM-software that way!

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_victor_vran_92633/page1


Last edited by throgh on 27 July 2015 at 10:37 am UTC

Quoting: KimyrielleI will always, as in always, prefer being able to roll a character of my own choosing instead of a premade one, and I like to believe there is almost never a compelling reason to go with a premade one at all. I think that a good writer can always adapt a given story to a custom character and make it fit regardless of whether the player picks a white guy or a black female.

I disagree. This only works for stories where the main character is essentially a blank slate and the story is about the world and the people around them. Strong compelling stories often rely on a compelling main character, and you completely miss out on those. If every game had custom characters it would also be impossible to ever tell a story about sexism or racism, or to toy with people's expectations and stereotypes. I don't think Telltale's Walking Dead would have been the same playing as a white girl as playing as a black man. And how would you handle relationships? Should the game allow you to choose the main character's sexuality as well? In that case, you'd either have to have several relationship options, or make the partner also a blank slate, so we now have either a relatively meaningless relationship (hello, Bioware) or two blank slate characters (making it also kind of meaningless). I think one of the strengths of an interactive medium is that it can make you see the world through the eyes of someone different from you. By always letting you play as essentially you, you completely lose this possibility. Of course, in Victor Vran it may have been possible (I haven't finished the game, I only got a bit of his backstory), but I won't blame an individual game (Victor Vran) for a general problem (too few games about women (not to mention people of colour) in total).
I haven't played the multiplayer, but from what I've read they should add a character creator for that. If I understand correctly, everyone plays as Victor Vran, and that seems a bit ridiculous. I was actually considering picking up Rust, because that game generates a character for you based on your steam name or some such. Seems like a neat idea, making people play as a random gender and skin colour.

Quoting: throghFirst I hoped that this game would be a very nice addition and one of the first action-roleplaying-games on Linux. A purchase on GOG was really near. But now I'd like to point out that this game is not DRM-free as GOG mentions: For multiplaying there is a client-server-principle and nothing about normal peer-to-peer LAN-mode. Also the so-called treasure-hunting is matter of discussion because the account is also needed for activating the keycodes in the singleplayer. So far the discussion within GOG-forums. Have I missed something? Or perhabs somebody could refute me, please? For me the game also said "GOODBYE", if these mechanics stay there is no purchase. Won't buy DRM-software that way!

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_victor_vran_92633/page1

None of the "online" features are required to play the game.

Quoting: ricki42

Quoting: KimyrielleI will always, as in always, prefer being able to roll a character of my own choosing instead of a premade one, and I like to believe there is almost never a compelling reason to go with a premade one at all. I think that a good writer can always adapt a given story to a custom character and make it fit regardless of whether the player picks a white guy or a black female.

I disagree. This only works for stories where the main character is essentially a blank slate and the story is about the world and the people around them. Strong compelling stories often rely on a compelling main character, and you completely miss out on those.

A little thought experiment: Get your copy of Lord of the Rings, search for "Frodo" and replace with "Frida". Change all gender pronouns accordingly. Then tell me what impact that change had on the story.

You're right: None.

And we are talking about one of the most compelling stories ever written, not about a computer game where the main focus isn't telling a story but bashing monsters with a big hammer.

I concede that -some- stories need a fixed character. For instance I complete understand that the Witcher has to be a fixed character because he is an established figure in Polish mythology. But 99% work the exact same way with a protagonist of the opposite gender. Or with a different skin colour. What's often needed for a protagonist to work in a story is setting his or her personality traits and abilities (e.g. Victor Vran needs to be a skilled fighter). Other than a few exceptions such as the ones you listed in your post, gender or skin colour almost never matters.

Quoting: throghFirst I hoped that this game would be a very nice addition and one of the first action-roleplaying-games on Linux. A purchase on GOG was really near. But now I'd like to point out that this game is not DRM-free as GOG mentions: For multiplaying there is a client-server-principle and nothing about normal peer-to-peer LAN-mode. Also the so-called treasure-hunting is matter of discussion because the account is also needed for activating the keycodes in the singleplayer. So far the discussion within GOG-forums. Have I missed something? Or perhabs somebody could refute me, please? For me the game also said "GOODBYE", if these mechanics stay there is no purchase. Won't buy DRM-software that way!

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_victor_vran_92633/page1

As default it is correct, but just to play the does not mean you have access to all features of the game all the time. And there is a third party account needed for accessing some features, which is a big problem for GOG in my point view.