Myisha Nawar
Steam survival hit Rust implemented a new feature recently, which randomly makes the player’s avatar a man or woman. The previous, permanent randomization for the character’s skin, color, limb length and, even, penis size generally got positive reviews from almost all the players. But that was when the avatars were all male. With the latest update, everyone got a new model, and for some players, the probability of playing as a woman initiated agony. The frustration was expressed on Steam and Reddit. One such post said that, rather than indicating a statement for injustice, the new update made a political statement and that Rust should grant players control over their avatar’s appearance in the game. Rust developers Garry Newman and Taylor Reynolds admitted to have expected this backlash for quite some time. The moderators of the Games subreddit confessed to have taken down offensive posts by the dozen. Newman tried to stave off some of the criticisms by pointing out the oddities of hearing little kids speaking as adult avatars with the game’s voice chat.