Why does SHIELD Commander make "relatively" sharp decisions?

fierce_ewok

Hi all,

Could we please update the SHIELD commander's Tactical Deployment ability text? It's driving me nuts with its sexist implications.

For reference, this is the text I'm referring to:
"Tactical Deployment: A relatively sharp command decision adds one Green Strike tile to the board."

Why is the "relatively" there at all? Having it included for a female character and then having no similar modifier for male enemies seems to imply that she's making a command decision that is sharp "for a woman." This is ridiculous and should be an easy fix.

I love Marvel Puzzle Quest. I've been playing almost daily for over a year (563 day streak!). I've been pleased with many of the evolutionary changes to the game but I'm shocked that this has never been fixed. It bothers me every time I'm up against a SHIELD Commander.

Could please we get that obnoxious "relatively" removed in an upcoming update?

anchoress

I agree wholeheartedly.

DeNappa

PC much? It's all about what you WANT to read in there. It's "relatively" sharp because it's just a dumb goon, who are not expected to make smart decisions. There's nothing here that implies it's gender related.

Bowgentle

DeNappa wrote:

PC much? It's all about what you WANT to read in there. It's "relatively" sharp because it's just a dumb goon, who are not expected to make smart decisions. There's nothing here that implies it's gender related.

Yes, it's PC.

But it would also be dumb for male characters, plus it takes about 3 seconds to change the text.

So, yes, please change it.

Dayv

There's a precedent for this -- one female HAMMER character used to have an "unskilled pistol" attack, and that got renamed once the devs took another look at it.

This weird and unnecessary use of "relatively" falls into a very similar category, and together with the "unskilled pistol" really does lend itself to a pattern of subtle and quite easily unintentional sexism, in my eyes.

It's an easy fix, with no downside. Remove one word. Done.

And, as always, people who argue against "political correctness" are really just arguing against treating people with respect.

Lampo

DayvBang wrote:

There's a precedent for this -- one female HAMMER character used to have an "unskilled pistol" attack, and that got renamed once the devs took another look at it.

This weird and unnecessary use of "relatively" falls into a very similar category, and together with the "unskilled pistol" really does lend itself to a pattern of subtle and quite easily unintentional sexism, in my eyes.

It's an easy fix, with no downside. Remove one word. Done.

And, as always, people who argue against "political correctness" are really just arguing against treating people with respect.

If I remember correctly, there is also a "skilled pistol attack", always by a woman.
Why not by a man?
Isn't that sexism?
Or isn't that fake anti-sexism?

(IMHO: I don't really care)

Pogo

"Unskilled Pistol" became "Practiced Pistol", yeah? "Unskilled" was supposed to imply that since the Analyst was a desk jockey, she wasn't experienced in the field, but "unskilled" isn't really the right word to convey that. "Unskilled" would be more appropriate for somebody like the Maggia Thug, who, in the context of the story, was most likely handed a gun and had zero training.

As far as the Commander goes, I have always thought that "relatively sharp command decision" was clumsy writing, though I personally didn't read it to mean "for a woman". That said, I don't think it's a stretch for others to interpret it that way. It should be rewritten either way, but it wouldn't have hurt to include male and female art assets for the same goons & vary them from mission to mission.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Commander was originally male during early development & had a sprite change to improve representation. After all, the majority of the text descriptions are gender-neutral, and production art is often one of the last elements to be put into place and finalized.

Crnch73

being completely honest here... I never once took this to be a misogynistic thing. This OR the unskilled pistol. Granted, I am indeed a guy... but this feels a little extreme to be so mad about. Calling it sexist when a game makes any comment about the character's skill level, regardless of that character's gender... I don't get it. If they had explicitly said it was due to the character being a female? I would be 100% on board with fixing that. But overall, don't we have much bigger fish to fry?

zodiac339

I'd say the Commander is a point on how stupid the name change on Unskilled Pistol was. She (along with the Lieutenant) has Pistol. They wanted to differentiate the Analyst Pistol from the other two, hence Unskilled. No. The Analyst, staying in the office, isn't going to do a whole lot of practice. However, calling it "Sidearm" might have been better to begin with. Now, what about those Thugs? Could their attack be called Pot Shot?
Using relatively as the adjective had nothing to do with gender. It was bad and awkward writing to be honest. The best way to punish Demiurge would be to leave the poor writing as it is.

Dayv

This post is starting to attract trolls, moved a couple posts out and going to lock this.

Please note that you can also send feedback to D3 (who would discuss it with Demiurge) through customer support.