The survival game Rust from Facepunch Studios has been updated with a bit of a controversial change. They have added in new models, including female models, but you don't get to pick your gender.
QuoteWe understand this is a sore subject for a lot of people. We understand that you may now be a gender that you don’t identify with in real-life. We understand this causes you distress and makes you not want to play the game anymore. Technically nothing has changed, since half the population was already living with those feelings. The only difference is that whether you feel like this is now decided by your SteamID instead of your real life gender.
Your gender is linked to your SteamID, so what you're assigned to you're essentially stuck with. I'm fine with this, as I understand it's just a game. Others however, are not happy with this change.
I can understand both sides of the argument, people want their character to reflect them as an extension of themselves. I am a male in any game that lets me choose, simply because I also have that view of wanting it to represent me, but it's certainly not a deal-breaker.
Garry's twitter has been full of people complaining about it, and the Rust Steam forum has a few posts complaining about it as expected.
Honestly, I think give it a week or two and people will calm down about it. What a weird thing to get so up in arms over—it's a game. Do people who complain about this steer away from every game where they can't choose a gender? I don't think so.
You can see the full update log here.
You can find Rust on Steam. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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does anyone else have a problem running Rust on Linux? Runs terribly for me.
As for me and my Rust experiences, I went through a lot of different updates and changes to my character. I was originally a black male. Now, like others said, it would be cool if my character was a reflection of me, but it was fine. I didn't mind. Since this new update, I'm now a white male, so I'm happy it reflects me, but I wouldn't have minded being a female. I think it's silly to get mad over. I believe the developers said in the past that Rust is a social experiment. (I may be wrong.)
I love Rust, and it's one of my favorite games. Unfortunately I have to play it on Windows because Linux is absolutely unplayable for me, but it offers a good glance into human nature when you put people into a realistic anarchy. Would be cool to have customization in Rust, and things like hair and tattoos would be cool, but until they do something like that, I don't mind new changes, as long as they keep updating the game.
As for me and my Rust experiences, I went through a lot of different updates and changes to my character. I was originally a black male. Now, like others said, it would be cool if my character was a reflection of me, but it was fine. I didn't mind. Since this new update, I'm now a white male, so I'm happy it reflects me, but I wouldn't have minded being a female. I think it's silly to get mad over. I believe the developers said in the past that Rust is a social experiment. (I may be wrong.)
I love Rust, and it's one of my favorite games. Unfortunately I have to play it on Windows because Linux is absolutely unplayable for me, but it offers a good glance into human nature when you put people into a realistic anarchy. Would be cool to have customization in Rust, and things like hair and tattoos would be cool, but until they do something like that, I don't mind new changes, as long as they keep updating the game.
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GustyGhost Apr 11, 2016
Minecraft did this exact same thing when they randomly assigned myself and many others the female "Alex" skin.
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Game characters as a reflection of the player? You can rarely customise them enough.
For instance, I look like Link, not Conan. If the game only lets me choose between Duke Nukem and Lara Croft, I tend to pick the one nearer to my proportions, which is Lara Croft.
Unless the developers genderifucked (Is that word understandable? I was looking for a word that describes "making something gender-specific that should not be gender-specific; and doing it in a way where it doesn't even work any more" ) the armour, in which case I take whatever can wear the more realistic armour.
Last edited by Seegras on 11 April 2016 at 10:31 pm UTC
For instance, I look like Link, not Conan. If the game only lets me choose between Duke Nukem and Lara Croft, I tend to pick the one nearer to my proportions, which is Lara Croft.
Unless the developers genderifucked (Is that word understandable? I was looking for a word that describes "making something gender-specific that should not be gender-specific; and doing it in a way where it doesn't even work any more" ) the armour, in which case I take whatever can wear the more realistic armour.
Last edited by Seegras on 11 April 2016 at 10:31 pm UTC
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I don't care much for the devs, but it is an interesting social experiment o3o To paraphrase Extra Credits, who covered Rust when they did the random race assignment, if you can't relate to your character because they're not white dude in a 1st person game, imagine how everyone else must feel about gaming as a whole. 
Last edited by HadBabits on 11 April 2016 at 11:19 pm UTC
Last edited by HadBabits on 11 April 2016 at 11:19 pm UTC
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Did they say this is how it will be in the final game or is this for testing purposes? If I want to test every combination of race/gender/body type. How do I do that? I randomly assign the characteristics based on some unique identifier (steam id). I wouldn't care either way.
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slaapliedje Apr 12, 2016
I have yet to play Rust (refused to buy it in early access, but I think I got it through humble bundle). Some have said it's not playable for them from Linux. I thought it looked awesome, but after my experience with 7 days to die, I had decided simply to not play it, but now I think it'd be kind of funny to find out of I'm a chick or dude based on my steamID!
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Also, skin tones and penis sizes change every so often with new updates. It's possible gender will change too.
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GustyGhost Apr 12, 2016
Quoting: SeegrasFor instance, I look like Link, not Conan. If the game only lets me choose between Duke Nukem and Lara Croft, I tend to pick the one nearer to my proportions, which is Lara Croft.
*dodges Liam's ban
No but seriously, in any game that gives me the choice, I choose robot because screw being a mortal meat sack. Unless the game consists of hours running around in third person, in which case female becomes a candidate.
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slaapliedje Apr 12, 2016
Ha, let's face it, Age of Conan was at least semi-popular because you could run around topless and make your breasts as large as you wanted. Personally I like that they did decent justice to the Conan lore. For those that were fans of the Arnold movies.. they weren't quite there....
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Kimyrielle Apr 12, 2016
So that game would force assign me a female character in the game because that's what I am in real life?
Hm...
Thing is that I -do- roll female characters in pretty much all games I play. Ok, scratch the pretty much, I actually never play male characters. I am still not sure how I feel about the game -forcing- me to, instead of giving me a choice. While my in-game gender always matches my real life one, the random strangers I meet in game do not know that. And I actually prefer not revealing any personal information about me unless I do so voluntarily. What's next? Games try to find out my real life skin colour and force that on my characters as well?
Hm...
Thing is that I -do- roll female characters in pretty much all games I play. Ok, scratch the pretty much, I actually never play male characters. I am still not sure how I feel about the game -forcing- me to, instead of giving me a choice. While my in-game gender always matches my real life one, the random strangers I meet in game do not know that. And I actually prefer not revealing any personal information about me unless I do so voluntarily. What's next? Games try to find out my real life skin colour and force that on my characters as well?
2 Likes, Who?
brokeassben Apr 12, 2016
In many (most?) games you don't have a choice which gender you are, you just usually default to a male. I think this approach is brilliant.
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Quoting: KeyrockSomewhat off-topic, but I wonder how many of the 800 bajillion early access survival games will ever make it out of early access and have a full release? 5%? 3%?
Same here. And I've got the feeling, if it ever happens, most players will be already "through" with it by then.
It seems like you need to use early access if you're into the genre.
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This decision makes me actually want to buy Rust. But then, I won't play it anyhow, and I regret buying Garry's other game.
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legluondunet Apr 12, 2016
In a video game we should be able to choose the gender, race, type of creature , hair color ... we want. I do not understand this decision. This game still works as poorly in Linux?
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Quoting: KimyrielleSo that game would force assign me a female character in the game because that's what I am in real life?Once again, your sex and race are randomly assigned based on your SteamID. Basically your SteamID is used as the "seed" for the RNG. I guess they want a somewhat even distribution of races and sexes, not an accurate reflection of their player base.
Personally this type of game doesn't even remotely interest me so I'll likely never try it, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. Tons of great (and bad) games, novels, movies and other forms of entertainment feature main characters that look nothing like me. So what? I know which protagonist I'd pick if the choice was between an interesting and likable gelatinous blob or a mirror image or boring old white human male me. I don't necessarily want to transform into said blob, but this is entertainment we're talking about.
I know some people have trouble mustering empathy towards anyone remotely different, which might understandably hinder their enjoyment. If they're so small-minded(/racist/homophobic/misanthropic/misogynic/whatever), I'd say the problem is theirs alone.
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wintermute Apr 12, 2016
Quoting: legluondunetIn a video game we should be able to choose the gender, race, type of creature , hair color ... we want.
Why? Many of the best videogames give you no choice about player character at all. Think about the Half Life, Bioshock or Tomb Raider franchises.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: wintermuteQuoting: legluondunetIn a video game we should be able to choose the gender, race, type of creature , hair color ... we want.
Why? Many of the best videogames give you no choice about player character at all. Think about the Half Life, Bioshock or Tomb Raider franchises.
And for all of those, either male or female players are forced to use the another gender.
Like Rust forces half of the people to use the another gender.
If you don't happen to be male, you'll know that feeling for sure.
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lucifertdark Apr 12, 2016
Social Justice Wombats getting their claws into the last place that's been largely free of their toxic influence, looks like gaming is about to get trashed for good like everything else those morons have touched.
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Quoting: GNUzeldoes anyone else have a problem running Rust on Linux? Runs terribly for me.
As for me and my Rust experiences, I went through a lot of different updates and changes to my character. I was originally a black male. Now, like others said, it would be cool if my character was a reflection of me, but it was fine. I didn't mind. Since this new update, I'm now a white male, so I'm happy it reflects me, but I wouldn't have minded being a female. I think it's silly to get mad over. I believe the developers said in the past that Rust is a social experiment. (I may be wrong.)
I love Rust, and it's one of my favorite games. Unfortunately I have to play it on Windows because Linux is absolutely unplayable for me, but it offers a good glance into human nature when you put people into a realistic anarchy. Would be cool to have customization in Rust, and things like hair and tattoos would be cool, but until they do something like that, I don't mind new changes, as long as they keep updating the game.
I was never able to get it working on Debian, but it works great on SteamOS.
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