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KCD 2 exec producer: attacks on the game's gay romance represents 'only a handful of online culture warriors', didn't impact the game's reception

asker said:
This reddit post from Warhorse community manager is funny in retrospect:
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What 8 years and having studio's funding dependant on featuring certain things does to a man.
 
Gonzito said:
I know what you mean, but gay people have existed since the beginning of time. I haven't watched how the romance with Hans is handled, because in my view Henry isn't canonically gay, so I skipped it. That said, I imagine that gay people back then had to be extremely discreet and hide it very well.
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Yes, that's what I meant.
 
Another thing worth mentioning is that Vávra is a blabbermouth. He can't stay quiet and is constantly engaging in arguments and fights online.

Anyone with even a bit of common sense at that company would take this guy off social media, because he's actively making things worse for Warhorse rather than helping it.
 
This is a strange comment coming from Daniel Vavra of all people.

For the first game, Daniel was on Twitter several times defending the choice to make Henry a canonically straight, white, Christian man. When some idiotic activist unironically asked why you can't you make Henry a gay, black, lesbian whatever in a wheelchair, Vavra was adamant in telling that person if they don't like that design choice, they can fuck off. Using the whole "it's an RPG" doesn't cut it in this particular instance. To use Mass Effect as an example people like to use, it would be like if Casey Hudson was going around telling people that Commander Shepard is ONLY a straight white soldier that only fucks humans. He didn't nor did Bioware make a big deal out of canonizing the sexuality of Shepard, so there's a pretty big differnce there.

It also felt weird that in the first game Henry never expressed interest in men. Not even once. But all of a sudden, he wants to fuck his best friend in the span of 6 months of the last game? Yeah, that doesn't check out with me. Using Mass Effect again, I can maybe stretch my suspension of disbelief when they made Kaiden gay because he wasn't an open womanizer like Henry and again, because Bioware didn't go out of their way to hammer home that he was straight nor was he the main character so if he didn't survive or you didn't care about him, then it was whatever.

I'm sure Vavra and Warhorse are more than happy with the sales numbers and reception, but if he truly "didn't care", then he wouldn't have acted the way he did in 2018 for KCD 1, nor would he have acted the way he did for KCD: 2.
 
This guy is a coward. He bend his knees and rejected his own morals and principle in his games just for the sake of getting great reviews.
 
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Gonzito said:
Another thing worth mentioning is that Vávra is a blabbermouth. He can't stay quiet and is constantly engaging in arguments and fights online.

Anyone with even a bit of common sense at that company would take this guy off social media, because he's actively making things worse for Warhorse rather than helping it.
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People that grew up with social media cannot imagine a world where you will not share your opinion online.
 
Gonzito said:
Another thing worth mentioning is that Vávra is a blabbermouth. He can't stay quiet and is constantly engaging in arguments and fights online.

Anyone with even a bit of common sense at that company would take this guy off social media, because he's actively making things worse for Warhorse rather than helping it.
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I think standing to the lunatics of twitter is better than cater to them on the long run.
 
Zathalus said:
Henry is whatever sexuality you want him to be. Almost like the game is an RPG or something.
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A dramatic change in design philosophy and retconning of the character from KCD1. Granted they probably were not given a choice by their new owners, but it is what it is.
 
calico said:
KCD1 Henry is canonically straight and KCD2 Henry is not canonically straight.
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KCD1 he is canonically straight? Like is there a statement from warhorse on that? Or from one of the developers? Or was it mentioned in the game?

And what do you mean he is not canonically straight in the second game? It's optional is it not? There is no canon in the game when it comes to optional choices, consequences, and endings. Unless a developer comes out and says it. What is the canon ending to BG3 for example?
 
Memati187 said:
How, neither money or time was lost on this crap.
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Hi there, I know you like to trash anything you dont like, I have seen the pattern in your messages but I can assure you 100% that this game is not crap in any way imaginable. Yes, it has an optional gay romance but the game is absolutely insane in terms of quality

I hate wokism and all that crap too, but lets be reasonable here, the game is a masterpice, whatever you want to accept that or not its your call
 
calico said:
Yes.


He is open to the idea of having a homosexual relationship. Straight people are not.
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Yes? Where is that stated he was canonically straight?

And my Henry isn't gay. Because he didn't get into any relationship with a guy. Because that's how RPGs work. Calling it canonically is nonsense when a game has multiple options. Again, what are the canon choices for Witcher 3? BG3? Skyrim? Pillars of Eternity?
 
Zathalus said:
Yes? Where is that stated he was canonically straight?

And my Henry isn't gay. Because he didn't get into any relationship with a guy. Because that's how RPGs work. Calling it canonically is nonsense when a game has multiple options. Again, what are the canon choices for Witcher 3? BG3? Skyrim? Pillars of Eternity?
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Gonzito said:
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Well thank you for providing a source. So he was supposed to be straight in the first game. At least according to a YouTube comment. But you can still play him as a straight male in the second game. Because, the concept of optional choices exists.

I mean, you can claim Henry is a virgin as well. That does not make it the canon choice.
 
Zathalus said:
Well thank you for providing a source. So he was supposed to be straight in the first game. At least according to a YouTube comment. But you can still play him as a straight male in the second game. Because, the concept of optional choices exists.

I mean, you can claim Henry is a virgin as well. That does not make it the canon choice.
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The developers claimed Henry being straight is canon and this is the vision they had from the beginning as you can see in that message. Changing this in a sequel is definitely a weird choice, it almost feels like they were forced to do this by the publisher because as you can see in that message, they wanted to tell the story of a fixed character.

I understand what you are saying, an rpg is about choices, but in this case, the developers are not being coherent to their original vision which is why many people got upset and rightfully so

Like I said before, I personally dont care because is optional but I think it makes sense to call them out for this and I understand if some people just decide to not support it, especially in this day and age with the woke culture
 
Yeah, yeah, you sold out, end of. Whether it was because of pressure from your new owners Embracer or Vavra just didn't feel like running the gauntlet against the same leftist retards for a second time, we might never know; but hopefully it was worth it. :pie_eyeroll:
 
Gonzito said:
The developers claimed Henry being straight is canon and this is the vision they had from the beginning as you can see in that message. Changing this in a sequel is definitely a weird choice, it almost feels like they were forced to do this by the publisher because as you can see in that message, they wanted to tell the story of a fixed character.

I understand what you are saying, an rpg is about choices, but in this case, the developers are not being coherent to their original vision which is why many people got upset and rightfully so

Like I said before, I personally dont care because is optional but I think it makes sense to call them out for this and I understand if some people just decide to not support it, especially in this day and age with the woke culture
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I think people read way too much much into a YouTube comment. Community managers run that shit, and community managers say a heck of a lot of things about a lot of things. They certainly think they have more actual power or influence than they actually do and usually end of the first people fired for running their mouths.

That being said, changing your mind or your "vision" for a sequel is hardly some new concept. Some people don't like it. That's fine. People bitch about sequels all the time. Did it impact the overall quality of the game? Thankfully not, the game is better in almost every respect vs the first tone. And thankfully the romance is completely optional and certainly isn't easy to fall into by accident.
 
Aenima said:
Yup they both spend the entire game chasing girls, but then out of nowhere thers a romance option. And after you ignore it they both keep chasing after girls the rest of the game. It was really shoved in the game for DEI points, but as long as its an option, its fine in my book, especially in RPGs.
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So, what if you chose in? Do you then continue chasing girls as if nothing happened? That would be DEI points, but if the narrative changes it would have been something more thoughtful.
 
Anyone who is upset at this is either a dishonest culture warrior who didn't even trigger the scene or a closet homosexual who made gay choices for all of a 100 hour RPG.
 
Senua said:
The relationship with Hans at least makes sense with what they go through together and how close they become as friends.

That said, the random option for sailing the Hershey highway with this guy just came out of nowhere and felt very out of place playing as a straight dude

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Yeah, not a big fan of that, but ah well. And in my eyes Henry and Hans will always be just well....straight. Hans Capon in the first one never ever seemed like he was into both genders either.
 
Gonzito said:
but I can assure you 100% that this game is not crap in any way imaginable.
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I won't even disagree with that, but if something was established before and changed/added later or in the sequel just to cave in, it automatically is a no buy for me.

I love Mass Effect 2 above everything and that also has the option to choose, but that was always like that, what makes a difference for me.
 
KCD 2 is an amazing game and if you're not going to play it for political reasons you're a fuckin idiot, you just don't realize it yet.
 
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The romance with Hans was SO FUCKIN BAD and it's presented in such a stupid way...

Fuck this, I was really disappointed and Vávra is a puppet.
 
Zathalus said:
Yes? Where is that stated he was canonically straight?
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Zathalus said:
And my Henry isn't gay.
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KCD2 Henry can't really be all the way gay, because he has just spent KCD1 lusting after women whether the player wants him to or not. As one might expect from an (at that time) canonically straight character.

Zathalus said:
Because that's how RPGs work.
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RPGs often have fixed characteristics for the character you are playing, and Henry in KCD 1 being a fixed straight character is one such case. KCD2 represents a dramatic change in design philosophy from KCD1 in this regard, as I said.
 
Stafford said:
Genuinely had no idea about this. Having recently finished the first game there was never any sign of him possibly being gay, and honestly I think it doesn't need to either. He's clearly into ladies in the first game, but whatever. As long as they don't force anything on you, which I believe AC Valhalla does do iirc....it's really whatever to me.
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I did 2 playthroughs of AC Valhalla and i can't remember even any gay option, perhaps it's because i played male Eivor?
 
Fable said:
I did 2 playthroughs of AC Valhalla and i can't remember even any gay option, perhaps it's because i played male Eivor?
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Ok i can't edit my post but Google says that yes there are optional gay romance in Valhalla, guess i didn't remember, sorry mate.
 
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