Hello there! My name is Emilia Harmony, and I've really been enjoying PSO2! The game is super fun and I really appreciate the lengths that Microsoft and Sega have gone to in order to bring us this wonderful game! I also appreciate that the developers have taken various steps to making the game more inclusive and appropriate for a wider range of players. However, I think that while many of the changes over time have been for the best, I think we can do better. There are still some things in the game that could be considered quite harmful and I think they need to be addressed. Given that the developers have already taken steps to eliminate some of the more toxic things in the game, I would hope they would continue on this track and improve the game further by implementing some of these changes.
I actually wrote up a list of stuff and posted it on social media as an image, but I figure I'll rewrite it all in plain text for the forum here. Shouldn't take me too long!
In order to make PSO2 better, and more safe for marginalized groups, I propose the following changes:
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GMs need to make more effort in stopping players from using obscene Symbol Arts.
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Though you did a good job with removing the harmful term "Master" from the Auxiliary text, you seem to have missed that when you first make a new Auxiliary, they still refer to you as "Master". Please fix this.
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Related to the above, the Photon Art "Master Shot" should be changed to something like "Split Shot" and the augment "Mastery" could be changed to "Diversity".
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The term "Blind" is used frequently and can be offensive to those with disabilities. I propose changing all instances of this to "Bewilder".
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There's a few instances of the word "Trigger" and this term can itself be a trigger to those who suffer from trauma. Therefore, I suggest that the "Trigger" items that let you start UQs be changed to "Generator". "Chain Trigger" should also be changed to something like "Combo Marker". And also, "*Ideal Trigger" should be changed to "*Ideal Twin"
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The game uses the term "Crazy" a couple times, which can be considered offensive to some. I think the skill "Crazy Beat" could be changed to "Wild Beat" instead.
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The weapon camos "*HUneweral" and "*FOneweral" need to be completely removed from the game. They are creepy AF and have no place in this game.
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All outfits and layered wear MUST be equippable by ALL characters, regardless of assigned gender. There are many people that play this game that identify as non-binary or other genders, and restricting them to only using certain outfits is simply not ok. Plus people will have more choices in general!
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There's a lot of story scenes that are really not acceptable and they need to be changed or cut entirely. In some of them, the problems could be solved by giving the characters more appropriate outfits, buuut there's a much larger problem with some story scenes, like many of those involving Gettemhult. A lot of scenes involving him (and others) need to be either heavily edited or removed entirely due to inappropriate content. You can convey the story without resorting to toxicity, which Gettemhult seems to be all about. Essentially, if you look at the story scene and think that it's kinda sketchy, it probably needs to go.
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Many costumes in this game are in serious need of edits. There's far too many that objectify women, or are otherwise inappropriate or harmful, and they need to go. Some of them can be edited to be more appropriate, but others are just beyond saving and will likely need to be removed entirely. This includes, but is not limited to: Mikoto Ensemble, Idea Ensemble, Selvaria Swimwear, Severing Shadow, Kirika's Swimwear, Rakshasa Binding, Reaver Swallow, Lady Tacker, Sweet Simoon, Varza Ratio, Duskwake Regalia, Avent Lace, Combat Raider, Dual China, Micro Mini Shorts, Exotic Monokini, Outlandish Bikini, Raqasa Shamir, Arcano Delier, Aile Aetos, Frigid Floral F, Maidenly Ogre, Crazy Kitten, Luna Prophecy, Viel Cytus, Innocent Cytus, Mikoto-Matoi, Captive Records, Alis Battlewear, and Nocturnal Mists.
There's probably other things that also need to be fixed, but taking care of these problematic pieces of content would definitely make the game safer for a wider variety of players to enjoy!