Rust has a new update and it isn't really going well with some of its users.
The latest version has shifted from an all-male game to a mixed-gender one, where the SteamID becomes the basis of assigning models, and gamers do not have a choice.
Much of the noise against the latest update is coming from the male users who are not amused to be playing as a female character. The Steam Community has thrown up some very "interesting" feedback from the players in the discussion thread.
"Hi, im a man but my character is a woman. I love girls but i dont want to be a girl. How can i change my gender?", said one irate gamer.
A couple of similar unhappy players talked about gender.
"WOW (GENDER LOCK) I am so happy I didn't buy this game, was going to buy when Female Models were put into the game but 'Genderlocking' to me is very offensive especially to those of us who are 'Transgender' IRL, not to mention steam doesn't even support such either."
While this one has decided to wait it out until users can decide about their characters.
"Wake me up when character generation is reset so I can reroll what I got, or when you can choose how your character appears (within reason)."
These are some of the more "postable" posts for our article, but some discussions were far from civil, bordering on threats and cussing, and had to be removed from the thread by the moderator.
Designer Garry Newman, who's been long expecting this reaction, remains totally unfazed. His blog post assumes an apologetic tone, all the while maintaining that the design of the game will remain unchanged no matter what.
"We 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," he said.
"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," Newman added.
He further feels that those in sync with the game's development should neither be surprised nor outraged. Before the gender update, the SteamID had always assigned a model to its player, where the race and even the private-part size had remained locked.
Newman points out, on the other hand, a large part of the populace has no qualms over the new change and, as of April 10, some 48,038 players were logged in to play the new version of Rust.
For his part, Newman finds his little experiment fascinating and says he's keen to find out how the introduction of female model fares in the game.
"Whether women will get attacked more because they're perceived as weak, or whether they'll get attacked less because they're perceived as vulnerable, he said.
What is your view?
