VN Ren'Py Our Life: Now & Forever [v1.4.9 Beta] [GBPatch]

[Luunar]

Hi
Does anyone know what's going on on tumblr? Just between this morning and GBpatch I was making a statement about a certain Rose.

From what I've gathered in reading, Kab was talking about Rose (One of the sensitivity readers) And how the readers of OL feel like Rose's comments implied Tamarack only being interested in men would be bi-erasure. The concern here was Rose's views suggest (to the person who asked) that it'd reduce Tamarack's sexuality to who she's dating.

Kab in reply says that she acknowledges the feelings of those who felt hurt by all of this, but suggests Rose wanted to be sure that Tamarack's identity as a bisexual person was represented regardless of the MC's gender. But she also acknowledges Rose's comments were kinda VERY harshly worded. Rose stepped down from what I understand and left the discord as well, and Kab is trying to address the concerns and try to be more inclusive in the future, and get more input from the other sensitivity readers as well. Rose's reply to everything is below.

"Hi everyone! This is Rose, I want to address the male MC comment since it was taken wildly out of context and without the lengthy discussion that was after it. I don't hate male MCs, in fact far from it, male MCs are integral to the story in OL:NF as female and trans MCs are. I think the relationship they could potentially have with Qiu could be a great asset in my opinion as they figure out their gender alongside the MC. The discussion itself was about how I noticed players were sticking to heteronormative norms by shipping Tamarack with a man purely out of societal norms than it was genuine thought into the characters and how I personally wished there was more sapphic relationships with Tamarack or just Tamarack with trans characters as a sapphic trans person myself. I didn't mean to offend anyone by it as no one but my friends who understood what I legitimately meant behind my message and it definitely wasn't meant to be seen seriously. I am sorry regardless to anyone I have offended and I love your male MCs regardless."

-Edited after reading callout post-

 

[Luunar]

Rose is one of the sensitivity readers working for OLNF, a callout post has been made about them saying some questionable things about GB and Terry from OL1. I can give put the link to the post if you guys want.
Here’s the callout post:

You must be registered to see the links

And another person talking about their experience with Rose:

You must be registered to see the links

I don’t know how to put links in here so im sorry

I'll include the images+context here from the callout post in case nobody has a tumblr (I didn't and had to sign up)


Here is Rose admitting to intentionally starting discourse.



Erasing Tamarack's identity as someone who loves more than one gender and a strange dividing between men, women, and trans people.




Insulting GB Lady (Kab)

 

[Amnelis]

The fact GB is so quick to stand by this toxic person and make excuse after excuse for them really soured me on the game, not gonna lie. The "welp you don't need to follow the game if it offends you" sealed the deal for me.

 

[sp_Ace]

I really did not like Rose's harsh comments about Tamarack and masc-representing mcs (saying this as someone who plays a demiboy mc who romances tama), nor do I stand by their views on Terry's transmasculine design (not being traditionally masc- or femme-looking does not, and should not, invalidate their gender identity as a transperson - transpeople come in all body shapes and with their own preferences). How they worded their opinion on Kab is also a point of contention to me, regardless if its said in a "joking/friendly" way or out of context.

Still I love OL, its been my comfort game since it was just a demo. This whole situation happening is just sad and frustrating.

 

[Ren123432fd]

I wouldn't fight with the game itself or the creator even if she defended something that made me feel uncomfortable.

Our life 1 and 2 are still great and sweet games that I will continue to play, I'm not going to leave a fandom that is usually nice and pleasant because of the comment of a person who was supposed to work as a sensitivity reader.

 

[Savaralyn]

Honestly this whole thing seems a bit... overly exaggerated? At least, the level of backlash.

 

[Amnelis]

snip

GB has taken it upon herself to make representation a big thing in OL, that everyone can feel included & safe. Someone she personally hired makes inflammatory comments that offends people. GB's response is then to make excuses for that person while shrugging her shoulders that well if people don't like it they can stop following & supporting the game. Regardless of how you feel about this rose person's comments that callous as hell.

Besides anyone with sense can see this rose person doesn't mean well. They are toxic with a god complex. They get a rise at saying dumb shit about heavy subjects just to rile people up & when called out will hide behind their identities.

 

[Savaralyn]

GB has taken it upon herself to make representation a big thing in OL, that everyone can feel included & safe. Someone she personally hired makes inflammatory comments that offends people. GB's response is then to make excuses for that person while shrugging her shoulders that well if people don't like it they can stop following & supporting the game. Regardless of how you feel about this rose person's comments that callous as hell.

Besides anyone with sense can see this rose person doesn't mean well. They are toxic with a god complex. They get a rise at saying dumb shit about heavy subjects just to rile people up & when called out will hide behind their identities.

I can understand though that GB wanted to try and take things in a softer direction, addressing that the comments were inappropriate but also that they didn't want to fire Rose point blank for some bad comments said in private instead of talking with that person and potentially working something out to fix their attitude.

 

[Luunar]

GB has taken it upon herself to make representation a big thing in OL, that everyone can feel included & safe. Someone she personally hired makes inflammatory comments that offends people. GB's response is then to make excuses for that person while shrugging her shoulders that well if people don't like it they can stop following & supporting the game. Regardless of how you feel about this rose person's comments that callous as hell.

Besides anyone with sense can see this rose person doesn't mean well. They are toxic with a god complex. They get a rise at saying dumb shit about heavy subjects just to rile people up & when called out will hide behind their identities.

Yeah I'm definitely not onboard with the way this Rose person carries themselves especially considering they're supposed to be a 'sensitivity reader'. I'm glad they had the decency to leave on their own but GB needs to be better about vetting these people. Just because they identify as something certain doesn't mean they're the best fit for the job. And them being in servers where GB could see their previous behaviors makes it a bit worse.

I'll still continue to support the games because I enjoy them, but there needs to be a definitive firing for Rose regardless of the good ideas they previously gave, because they won't be good for the game's growth overall with opinions like this. Even if these comments were made in private that's just more of a reflection of what kind of person they actually are (Especially with the racial slur), and that's definitely not someone I'd trust for sensitivity issues. I hope GB Lady will realize this and actually put her foot down.

 

[Whiteapple]

I'm trans, my both MC in OL2 is male. It's hurt to know someone blaming male MC is not good enough for Tamarack, I love male MC because they have a potential in story, I want to play a game about my male MC struggle their envy and angry problem, Tamarack and Qiu would be there help them both to move on life.

 

[sopratd]

Kab...why would you be okay with someone calling you a pussy and willing to hire them anyway?! Like girl, have some respect for yourself

 

[forvt]

Well I really don't care about this situation at all but I totally understand why people would be turned off by it. This Rose person is annoying and stupid but it honestly doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the game, especially because I'm not deep into the GBpatch community so it's whatever. I do think that the Gb lady should fire this person though lol why would you keep someone that not only hurts your brand but also talked shit about you? But anyway for anyone hurt by this, Kab said she will go back to this later to talk again, so it's not the end of the situation.

I also think GBpatch deserves a bit of trust considering how they moved till now, but that's me (and again I'm not deep into the community to know if other problems existed before) and I'm certain that her decision of refunding people who brought the game was not to make them shut up or anything, it's just one of the things that a game dev should suggest in those situations if the costumers are not satisfied with their product or brand anymore.

 

[M0nte]

What is sensitivity reader, if you do not mind me asking.

 

[forvt]

What is sensitivity reader, if you do not mind me asking.

Someone who reads the script to make sure it's not insensitive to minorities or to the themes being discussed, I think. (I also didn't know what it was and discovered yesterday lol)

 

[Whiteapple]

Someone who reads the script to make sure it's not insensitive to minorities or to the themes being discussed, I think. (I also didn't know what it was and discovered yesterday lol)

Yeah, the creator of GB Patch is cis gender and not chinese, so she need sensitivity readers to make sure not stereotype or wrong information in Qiu storyline.

 

[Honorable Lord L]

Hi
Does anyone know what's going on on tumblr? Just between this morning and GBpatch was making a statement about a certain Rose.

It's a real mess from what I can see at a glance. I'm not in the discord, or whatever else, but this is what I've figured out from browsing the reddit/tumblr.
Basically, one of the sensitivity readers (People who read over to make sure things aren't being bigoted towards a certain ethnic group or sexuality or whatever else have you) has been making bi-phobic comments because of Male MC/Tamarack shippers(?) The screenshots of things they said were sexist and racially prejudiced apparently, but I haven't seen them myself- There's some crazy outrage so I'm not doubting it though. They also have some kinda public blog that a lot of people feel is transphobic.


A lot of people ended up leaving the discord and pulling support for the game because the responses from GBpatch weren't very good, with most feeling as if they were just trying to sweep it under the rug despite all the outcry to have them removed from the project-- which they refuse to do.

 

[Nevrius]

Hi
Does anyone know what's going on on tumblr? Just between this morning and GBpatch was making a statement about a certain Rose.

From what I've been able to gather, one of the quality control people - a sensitivity reader called Rose - made some pretty nasty comments about people who pair Tamarack with a male PC (screenshots I saw said they should 'eat shit') and called someone a cracker (which, from what I know, is a slur directed at white people). That same person also made comments which were interpreted as transphobic (can't speak to that, but it involves a f2m NPC from the first Our Life game looking too female post-transition).
Naturally, this kinda blew up, and GBPatch had to respond, which happened on tumblr. Basically... GBPatch reiterated the response this Rose had given (which alleged that the Tamarack/male PC thing was simply voicing displeasure and not outright hate) and basically said that they hadn't done anything terribly wrong, which... my personal opinion disagrees on that XD
I can't speak to the Discord side of things, as this whole to my knowledge hasn't swapped to the server linked over here (or if it did, it got purged, apparently this all happened in my night cycle), but that should cover the tumblr side of things.

 

[Luunar]

Qiu's using the ballet hairstyle with the normal outfit. I wonder what it means . Either way, it's very cute!

Artist: redridingheart

 

[Abazzaba]

This one's never gonna get fixed it feels like lol
Every update I get this the first time you see Tamarack in the forest

 

[Savaralyn]

View attachment 3939693
This one's never gonna get fixed it feels like lol
Every update I get this the first time you see Tamarack in the forest

Interesting, I've never gotten one there. The other times I've seen this screen, changing my clothes or picking a different line during the scene let me continue, or is that not the case here?