this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2025
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Rimworld was originally coded so that all women were at least slightly bisexual, if not fully gay, while all men were either gay or straight. According to the creator - who vociferously defended this stance claiming it was based on "research" - bisexual men like me don't exist.
That's honestly just the start of the rabbit hole. The game was hardcoded so that men always prefer younger partners and women always prefer older partners. Also women were eight times less likely to be willing to hit on someone. This is, to be clear, supposed to be a scifi game set in the future, but modelling sexual politics apparently taken from 1980's TV.
There's an amazing breakdown of the whole thing here; https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rimworld-code-analysis
You can find the creator of Rimworld in the comments defending all of his nonsense and making a total ass of himself in the process. Unfortunately the rest of the comments are a total shit show because the average gamer simply does not have the mental maturity needed to handle critical analysis deeper than "graphics bad".
I'm told they eventually changed some of this stuff after enough backlash, years later, for whatever that's worth. Maybe the creator actually did some learning and growing, and if so, good for them.
That weird comment, my sides.
I don't know why I haven't heard about it, but it's very fascinating to see dev's biases leaking into their product just like that.
voroxpete@sh.itjust.works said in Just don't: > According to the creator - who vociferously defended this stance claiming it was based on “research” - bisexual men like me don’t exist.
I, too, spent much time 15 year ago sitting at the back of the bus reading Savage Love on my way to work. Research scientists, unite!
Dan Savage at least has repeatedly apologized and cut that shit out a long time ago.
Based on the fact that all that nonsense was removed even before the release, and that I've never heard about him being weird like that, I want to believe he grew as a person since then, and pulled a reverse Notch.
And if you can show me even one time that he actually apologized and admitted he was wrong on this, I'll happily agree.
I want to see people be better. But I'm smart enough not to assume it without evidence.
I'm not in on the drama, I don't know if he apologised or not.
But at this point I would take quitely sweeping bullshit under the rug over going all in on being an asshole.
Harping on rimworld, One of the most moddable games ever made, for the creator not understanding the depths of human sexuality is a little obtuse to say the least.
There are a lot of things that people won't understand and there are so many mods to resolve this it seems silly to expect the creator to "get it".
I've been around gay and trans people my entire life but I still don't think that I fully understand human sexuality or our cultural relationships with gender norms.
Undoubtedly if I were to architect something like Rimworld I would get it wrong but I hope I would have the foresight to leave an amendment process so that it could be modded into fitting with people's understanding in the future.
My issue isn't with the mechanics; yes, I'm sure that stuff can be modded.
My issue is with the idea that I should give my money to someone who will actively defend the claim that I do not exist.
Put it this way; if there were no non-white people in Rimworld, and the reason why was because the creator firmly believed that by the time humanity gets to space white people would have "won the race war and exterminated all the scum" would you still feel comfortable giving that person your money just because "I can mod that out"?
I actually feel better about having pirated the game instead of paying for it. It also explains why the base game and all the DLC are around the same price and it never fucking goes on sale.
Either you straight up did not understand the comment you responded to or you're trying to move the goalposts.
Either way, poor form
The creator said they had done research into this. Not only that, if you don't know the rate of bisexual man, just leave it the same as woman of something. And even if it's wrong it doesn't change anything (until Biotech)