Treasure Seekers - Green Skinned Alien

I have a point I want to make about the green-skinned alien woman that you meet in Treasure Seekers of Lady Luck. It’s one of the first encounters of the game, it’s included in the demo and as such I think it sets the tone for the game as a whole. This is a scene which is presented regardless of your sexuality or your gender.

I’m going to start by rewriting the first few paragraphs of the encounter with the green woman, Thisi, to try and illustrate my point and I’m hoping that copying such a tiny portion of the game counts as fair-use, especially since I plan on critiquing it.

I’d be interested in how people would have reacted if the scene had been written as it is below instead of how it is in the game? Would it have made anyone uncomfortable? Would it have changed your opinions on the character of Thisi?

I’m going to add my own thoughts in my next post.

***

The doors to the science lab part, revealing a small, dark room barely lit by a glowing computer panel at its center. An attractive young man hunches over the panel, his strong, handsome features accentuated by the contrasting play of light and shadow. You grin.

“Close the door, Borion,” he says good-naturedly, his eyes never leaving the panel. “I’m trying to concentrate here. We may have a problem.” His slightly accented voice feels like silk in your ears, and you’re overwhelmed by how attracted you are to him.

A second later, the man taps a button on the panel. The overhead lights come on, giving you your first good look at him. You can’t deny it; he’s beautiful, and his form-fitting uniform showcases his muscles to their fullest. And his skin is green. He’s a Nyarri, you realize with a start. That explains the sudden attraction.

An all-male, plantlike species, the Nyarri are sought after as companions throughout the galaxy. Chlorophyll flows through their veins, lending their skin its pale green tinge. Their complex pheromones lure both men and women of all species to them, and their capacity for lovemaking is the stuff of legends.

“Greetings, human,” the man says, his words dripping with suggestion. “May I ask with whom I have the pleasure of speaking?”

Blushing furiously, you introduce yourself. You almost want to do whatever he says just to keep him talking.

*

Even though you know it’s due to his pheromones, embarrassment at turning Thisi down washes over you.

Thisi pouts. “Well, you’re just no fun at all, are you?” Under his breath, he adds, “I like it when they play hard to get.”

While I have no *real* problem with Thisi I feel inclined to act mean to her just to increase my stat with Taloo

I don’t see what’s wrong with that. In fact it would be kind of amusing to see a race of overtly sexual males for once that isn’t some teenage girl’s fanfic.

@HelloThere

It’s male or female depending on your gender

@WolfieGrey

Really? I’m pretty sure she’s female no matter your gender.

@HelloThere

Ah yes your right. I never paid much attention on the third play through, just looking for more errors

An alien race consisting solely of beautiful, exotic, green-skinned women who everyone is attracted to, who are amazing lovers, who will proposition anyone they have spoken to for five seconds strikes me very much as a fantasy which I am excluded from.

One of the things I love about Choice of Games is how inclusive they generally are.

Now you might say “But Fairygodfeather, all female=lesbians/bisexuals surely a whole race of bisexual women is actually being more inclusive” and I would shake my head in response to this.

No, this is not how such things work. Why must this all female-race look outside their own, so desperate for attention that they will attempt to seduce and sleep with anyone and everyone who crosses their paths. This is no lesbian utopia, no these are women hungering for the one thing that their own race cannot supply no matter how amazing lovers they are.

I mean really, if they’re all said to be excellent lovers then why would they even waste time with other people?

Besides they’re plant-like. Why do plants have curves? Plants don’t reproduce that way unless people are like bees and there’s pollen and! AHA! That’s it! Clearly they are attractive so you will be a bee and carry pollen from one sexy treegirl to another. Am I right? Am I right? BZZZZZZZ!!! It now all makes sense! And plants don’t care about how many bees get at their nectar.

BUZZZZZZ!!!

@Turtler I did warn that this rant was a bit crazy.

The short of it is I don’t like games that force my protagonist to be attracted to people regardless of their gender and sexual orientation.

I would have liked if the whole rapey-aspect of pheronomes had been touched upon. Maybe it is later in the game but I won’t be playing that far.

BUZZZZ!!!

@Fairygodfeather

I can confirm it is not touched on, although if your mean to her consistently, then it does say something like “It doesn’t matter that her pheromones blah blah blah shes just not your type”

I think you forgot that the pheromones might be affecting her as well. Who knows how many of the crew shes been with!

@HelloThere Heh! Clearly we need to get more teen girls writing games then. Where are they all?

I think my main problem is the whole ubiquitousness of it as a trope when the opposite generally wouldn’t be considered as appropriate.

Straight male players of Dragon Age 2 were up in arms when Anders dared to make the first move and they were so offended and caused such a fuss that the writer said that they wouldn’t make that mistake again, whereas Isabella with her flirting with both men and women didn’t cause anywhere near as much of a problem.

Okay Bioware is not Choice of Games.

I’d actually rather not be forced into being attracted to anyone. I would much rather just make up my own mind. I’d have as much problems if I was forced to be attracted to the above man, although I might smirk a bit more at the scene.

@WolfieGrey Thanks.

It only just occurred to me but the PC is the only one affected by the plant girl and her *charm*. It’s as if the human species (or more precisely, JUST YOU) are the only ones attracted to that.

*SPOLIER*:

Not even the GPF have any qualms with it. But to be fair, it doesn’t go into much detail at that stage.

I have thisi girl being myself a girl and I don’t have problems with her is the in reality you can’t romance with any off them and is stupid that if you friend with one you are automately enemy from other don’t have sense

@MaraJade

If you always put down on thisi and are always super nice to Taloo, at the end she gives you a loving(?) hug but that’s all the romance in the game. If you did *romance* her, since she takes on the form of those close, you might be *romancing* yourself…

worse game I was play in all my life and the most confusing
@WolfieGrey thanks for the explanation

Well the male one would had been different from the usual cliche. (Also would have been nice to have one male romance option.) XD
The all female race seems to be a common thing in sci-fi. I am never repeating what my guy friend said earlier on that topic. XP

@Angel

Well Taloo is gender neutral, and takes the from of whoever is close. Take *it* to a hotel, find a guy you like, and bribe the people at the desk to give you a room next to them :stuck_out_tongue:

@wolfie
*giggle* Good point. XD Man that would be one very =_= ; What the hell?! Sort of night.
Pft now my professor thinks I’m nuts cause that seriously made me giggle in the middle of class.

@Angel

Glad I brought you a little happiness :slight_smile:
Your “what the hell sort of night” would be made even more “wtf is going on” if *it* starts changing mid *romance*. Talk about loving yourself…

@Wolfie
Oh my God! Bad image, BAd!! XD
Pft WHOLE new meaning right there,
How many times am I going to make people look at me over bouts of random giggles today?. XD

HEY @AngelOfTheBroken 's TEACHER IF YOU’VE CONFISCATED THEIR PHONE AND ARE READING THIS, ANGEL DIDN’T DO THEIR HOMEWORK AND THOSE MISSING COPIES OF THE TEST, LOOK IN ANGEL’S ROOM BEHIND THE MY LITTLE PONY POSTER THERE’S A SAFE.

JUST GLAD I CAN HELP.