Someone Fill Me In on the Drama That Has Been Happening on This Forum
wraith5641
Member Posts: 500
I have had a very busy week and I have hardly been back here at all. I have been waiting patiently for SoD and was about to buy the game that has just come out, so I could sit back and relax after a stressful few days. However, upon Googling, it turns out the game has been getting some very negative publicity.....
Can someone tell me why all of this has been happening? I find the outrage from both sides absolutely baffling, but it has been enough to drag the game down already. I want some answers before I invest my money.
Please keep the discussion CIVIL. I'm sure all of you have many differences when it comes to social politics. That is irrelevant to this conversation. All I want to do is try and understand the mindset of the people causing this outrage. It's concerning to me.
Also, try and keep spoilers to a minimum.
Can someone tell me why all of this has been happening? I find the outrage from both sides absolutely baffling, but it has been enough to drag the game down already. I want some answers before I invest my money.
Please keep the discussion CIVIL. I'm sure all of you have many differences when it comes to social politics. That is irrelevant to this conversation. All I want to do is try and understand the mindset of the people causing this outrage. It's concerning to me.
Also, try and keep spoilers to a minimum.
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This discussion has been closed.
Comments
1. Minsc said 1 line "Really, it's all about ethics in heroic adventuring" that apparently insulted others
2. A minor character that easily opens up that she's a trans.
That the franchise is allegedly ruined because of the inclusion of political agenda. Everything else is just an offshoot of those two.
Oh yeah, also a "she (referring to Corwin) can take care of herself" or something like that as a response from her daughter.
Beamdog picked a side and fired shots.
The other side is firing back.
It's all a mess, and both sides suck.
I am myself a bit baffled. I had low expectations to protect myself from disappointment, but I am really happy with SoD.
Pretending to hate it on flimsy grounds is hardly gaming solidarity in my opinion, but I doubt many will lend ear to the reactionary crowd, and just get on with gaming.
Just getting Minsc back alone would be worth it, but this title really had my at first narration! (original narrator is back)
When I heard voice of Irenicus I could hardly contain my mirth. I thought that was fantastic idea and great fan service, as he is such a great villain.
Having actually played the game and beat it, I can say that i encountered a few minor (non game breaking) bugs playing singleplayer, but i also really enjoyed playing the game and will be doing another playthrough soon.
I heard multiplayer still has some bugs/crashing issues so hopefully that all gets patched up soon.
Have fun playing!
Alternatively, you can buy the game and ask for a refund if you don't like it. Evaluating it yourself is the only real way to be sure whether SoD will be to your liking it not. There are also a few professional reviews you can Google.
For me, SoD has been an amazingly seemless addition to the BG franchise and is miles beyond Beamdog's earlier OC (which I also liked, though to a lesser extent) in terms of quality. I sincerely hope you enjoy it as well.
That's it really
The poor reporting on both sides from what I have seen so far has been astoundingly unprofessional. Does anyone care about the content of this game as a whole? Does anyone care that this is the first new game in the series for 15 years? Does anyone care about the effort and love put into this game by a team of avid Baldur's Gate fans? The answer is definitely yes. But we are having our voices drowned out by people that don't care about the series and are only using it as a platform for attention. That has to stop. I want to hear about the honest experiences of people who have played this game thoroughly and can build a constructive opinion on it. That's good for the series, it's good for Beamdog, and it's good for all of us as fans when can identify faults and constantly improve. That can't happen if we are squabbling over irrelevant nonsense.
Whatever your opinion is on identity politics, keep it out of our beloved series. This game is a part of our lives, and none of us want to see it get dragged through the mud like this. On the same note, these forums are some of the friendliest and most helpful I've had the privilege of going to on the internet. Let's do our best to keep it that way, please.
Onwards and upwards!
BD "bad" because they hurt the precious feelings of some sub-segment of a sub-segment of the segment of humans who game by appropriating the word "Ethics" that this sub-sub-sub-sub-segment purport to identify with to the point of "ownership". And Minsc said the line! As Col Kurtz would say, "The horror, the horror..."
BD "bad" because they have a fleeting appearance by a token member of a minority group, present in the real world, also present in this fantasy world. Again, see Col Kurtz...
Taken together, these two realities have ruined the entire series for a tiny, thin-skinned slice of humanity who, among other things, buy games. Not that they will be missed, but alas, they are gone from the BG family. Unless they, uh, you know, just keep playing the other games in the series and NOT this added one.
And... the universe continues to expand as it should...
people who create, subject themselves to criticism all the time. they invest their talent and a big portion of their lives and they sometimes fall short.
on the other hand people who consume, they don't put themselves on the line. they only invest the comparatively insignificant amount of money to buy the game, and they don't have to do it - they can not spend it or they can spend it on something else.
...while people who create have to create and keep doing it, because their livelihood depends on it. they are condemned to make mistakes. and they are also destined to create what their inherent one-of-a-kind creative vision, their set of skills and limited material resources allow. they can not transform into something or someone they're not, they cannot switch around like the consumers are able to.
yet without their work, however imperfect as all human labor is, the consumers would have nothing to enjoy. they would have nothing to complain, platform and campaign about either. often they forget that.
you see, their (the consumers') suckage is not legitimized or normalized by anything. they're free from the creator's plight: they just enjoy something more or less, but no one will criticize them for it. they're free to behave perfectly correctly and fairly. why should their bad behavior be equated with the creators' alleged failings? there's no equivalency there. they can't possibly both suck on the same plane of what it means to suck.
"Beamdog, let me show you the way out of this controversy."
in video gamesin the head of a few very immature individuals who like bullying people online for whatever sense of importance/belonging/satisfaction they can get from that.SoD includes a few pseudo-controversial characters and lines - controversial in the sense that in modern pop culture, every attempt at being more inclusive will suffer some form of backlash from a reactionary sect of the audience who doesn't want to be bothered with a shift in the cultural zeitgeist since they benefit from the status quo and human beings can be really entitled/self-centered/selfish sometimes.
The collateral effect, as many people have already pointed out, was a deliberate effort to sabotage SoD by bombing reviews. Some of those brave soldiers have also decided to tell it like it is in these very boards, much to the irritation of people like me.
If you're reading this, I apologize if my outbursts have annoyed people or if they contribute to the noise which is preventing other members from having fun discussing the game.
I am just really, really, really annoyed at what I perceive as an invasion of the boards for which I hold lots of regard. My lizard brain got very defensive and while I'm usually all for debate and dialogue, I feel as if the line had to be drawn somewhere. And in my particular case, this insidious quasi-hate group bringing their hateful rhetoric to an otherwise healthy community is where I draw that line.
I mean, "[l]et's not forget" that BD hired her and continues to employ her. In the grand scope of things, that seems more relevant than the hurt feelings of some tiny proportion of people who play games....
-Bayonetta
-DOA3
-Hatred
-Postal 1/2
-Mass Effect
-Manhunt
-The DaVinci Code
-Harry Potter
-Dungeons and Dragons (It's devil worship, dont'cha know?)
-...and many others.
It's just that recently the idea of crowd-sourcing anger has become popular. But it is certainly not limited to a singular audience or political leaning.
You drop the right catalyst into the right substrate, and away it goes.
The point is that it was a controversial thing to say. It's an open admission that the quality of her writing comes second to her politics. That interview is one of the reasons why there has been "drama", as some people put it. I prefer to think of it as friendly discussion.