Striking picture! What is the game you're referring to?

Thank you! :)
Endling: Extinction is forever.
It's an Indie game, super depressing and rather short but intense, dark with a tiniest spark of hope. Imagine (if you've played it) "This War Of Mine" but as fox version.

Oooohhhh you get to play as a fox? Sounds like fun!

*goes and reads summary*

Hhhhhmmmm....not exactly cheerful.

Seriously though, it looks interesting and the graphics are nice. I'm not a gamer but I may make an exception for this one! And y/w!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/.....on_is_Forever/

Foxes are, fortunately for them, pretty adaptable critters and were probably picked for their sexiness than actual vulnerability. Otherwise the message of the game seems to be pretty on point, at least based on the info page.

They chosed a fox to be the main character because in a world where foxes (being known as highly adaptable animals and pests) being a vulnerable species, world must be rather screwed.

They could've picked cockroaches. ;)

Actually wait, Daedalic's "Journey of a Roach" already did that.

That was my immediate reaction when I heard that in the game foxes are near extinction, things must be *really* bad. And actually things have really changed, I remember when they wouldn't release a game with a female character because people, read boys, wouldn't play it, now they can realise a game where you play as a female animal and people will give it a go.

Ms Pacman, Gauntlet (Valkyrie), Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat (don't remember the character names, I didn't really get into martial arts games), Tomb Raider, Resident Evil (Jill Valentine), etc, all highly popular and successful games/series. I was playing video games since Pong first appeared next to the pinball machines at the local Shakey's, D&D before AD&D existed, was involved in computer clubs in the golden 8-bit era, and was the sole biology nerd in my university's CompSci social circles, and the ONLY time girls were supposedly ever excluded/unwelcome from any of those was during that Gamergate thing which, oh hey, was right at the same time as the Crimean invasion and the beginning of the Russian social media psyops war against the West. And the standard propaganda methods of the FSB, and KGB before them, have long been to seek out, exploit, and widen any economic, social, linguistic, regional, ethnic, or any other type of potential fissures in the target society.

Heh, and in response to your other reply, I'm at least as bad with too many tabs. If you find that article again I'd be interested in seeing it. I've not kept up on that experiment in a good while since it seemed like it had finished the research and shifted focus to sale of pet foxes, but animal behavior has long been an interest of mine and was my focus in grad school way back when.

Wouldn't is hyperbole on my part but of those games you mentioned Ms Pacman is Pacman with a bow-tie and only nominally female, the others were single female characters in a much wider roster of male characters*. I would perhaps say games companies were reluctant to release games with female lead characters because they were under the impression that male gamers, who were the majority of the market, wouldn't play as a female, but they were proven wrong in that and Tomb Raider was probably one of the first in that line.** It may also be an American thing, look at how in the American market Ameratsu was defined as genderless while she was overtly female in the Asian and European markets. I guess marketers and games localisation testers have to earn a living somehow.

The whole Gamergate thing thankfully passed me by but to mangle the quote about war, "You may not be interested in social justice, but social justice is interested in you". It's wrong to say there's nothing to discuss about these issues (I'm not suggesting you're saying that but plenty of people do) but the current political and social climate has made open and honest discussion effectively impossible. And that's a very bad thing because we do need to talk about these things and not just shout at each other. In general I don't discuss politics online anymore for that reason.

You've watched the Yuri Bezmenov lecture? ;) I don't know if calling it Russian or Chinese subversion is naked paranoia or completely correct, certainly the Communists did all the things you mentioned and it didn't end with the fall of the Berlin Wall. But I'm also reluctant to give credence to such long term and effective planning, it didn't stop the USSR folding like a pack of playing cards, The West is perfectly capable of doing it to ourselves. Lincoln did say that no external power would ever destroy America, "Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River..." etc

If I find the article about the allegedly domesticated foxes I'll let you know!

*I remember playing the original Street Fighter with my male cousins, and while they would play as Chun Li they also liked to pause the game with her in mid-jump to try to catch a glimpse of her panties!

**They aren't that wrong, I remember lending a male friend a book I liked and he handed it back a few days later unread, a little probing and he admitted he didn't read it because it had a female protagonist, and because she was female he couldn't relate to her. Which seems a rather sad and limited way to go through life but what do I know? But then I don't get the 'must relate to' thing in general.

Bow-tie? Wow I meant a bow in her non-existent hair. I really shouldn't post replies when I'm home after a 12 hr shift.

Thank you Urocyon! I'll have to give it a go for the premise alone. And regarding foxes they're adaptable but apparently they took the bonus of speed and agility and have a lack of robustness as a consequence, they get injured fairly easily. The Save A Fox channel is an education. And actually I read a book a long time ago where there was a global catastrophe and of the few surviving animals one of the species was arctic-foxes, they evolved into very different creatures before finally being wiped out...well along with everyone else.

No prob. Kinda lost interest in video games a few years ago, but added it to my wishlist in case the interest returns someday. There's even a bundle of similar games by the same publisher which could be worth a look.

I've only caught a few of SaveAFox's videos. They seem like a decent rescue group, and of course the critters are adorable; they also offer some interesting glimpses into fox behavior, though of course it's going to be adapted to unnatural living conditions (which isn't to suggest they're bad, only that the environment and reasons why they wound up there will of course affect behavior).

On the topic of fox behavior, I assume the Siberian silverfox experiment is well known enough by now not to need mentioning.

Thanks, I'll have a look! And yes SaveAFox is very far from a natural environment but they're interesting to watch just the same, like a soap opera with characters you actually care about. Sophie and Muttias are my personal favourites, but they all have their merits. And yes I've heard of the Siberian silverfox experiments, I also caught glimpse of an article which stated its not all it seems but lost it in my plethora of open tabs, meant to come back to it later...I do that all the time...

Don't lose a single kit, not even your favorite. Raise them to survive.

Relentless
Like a dog on a bone
We got gas in the tank to go all night
We got gas in the tank to go all night
Relentless
We don't walk alone
Relentless
It's time to get to work, now let's get going
Woo!

Looks interesting, but I think I am too soft to play it, really. I mean I looked at its steam page, and... when I was not able to hold my tears in the first two videos... I know I would not be able to play this.

such a wonderfully done portrait...

Vix

Gorgeous art for sure, and one which does justice to the source material, from what I've seen of it.

I wasn't aware of Endling until now.