Apropos of That Game coming out today, I've been thinking a lot about what I would like to see from cis streamers / let's players / reviewers who have to handle the game's existence now that it's been dumped in our laps.

My own preference, and this is just me!, is that if someone is going to stream/review the material, then I would like to see them call out the transphobic as they find it, and not try to avoid the issue or leave it to trans people to highlight it.

I can understand wanting to do the latter: avoiding the material because it's unpleasant, or because you don't want to trigger anyone, or because you're not sure a cis person should weigh in on these issues. These are valid concerns!

But avoiding the material means: (1) it's left to trans voices to do so (which is labor that carries real risk of harm), (2) it seems like it only matters to trans people, and (3) the game seems more "safe" than it is--which could harm trans people who read your review and buy.

Or we get cis people who are like "well, I saw a Let's Play of the game and *I* didn't see anything wrong with it", and aren't aware that the player deliberately avoided the transphobic parts because they didn't want to open that can of worms.

Like. If you're going to open the can of worms that is this game, OPEN THE CAN. Spread the worms out. Point at the worms. Explain why they're transphobic and harmful. Explain IN the stream/review/lp so that your cis followers can learn and your trans followers are warned.

I do think, to be clear, it's valid to NOT stream/review/lp the game and deny creating advertising for the game.

I just also think that if you're going to write/talk about the game, please point out the transphobic bits and educate on why they're wrong.