Oh really? I had no idea. Official numbers please.
There are none, so we have to take EA's word along with a grain of business sense that they'd only greenlight a sequel if they were satisfied with the first one's sales. If that's not good enough for you then sorry? EA's actions seem to indicate you're wrong no matter how much you want Dragon Age to sell badly.
People need to stop giving metacritic some weight. If Metacritic can't fix their troll problem, then we should stop giving their rating any credibility.
My thoughts on the transgender stuff, because I know everyone is curious: I don't care. AT ALL. I didn't even notice or think twice about it until I opened my web browser and saw that the internet collectively lost its mind.
But whether I like it or not, the OP has it right: this has exploded to the point that BG3 or Next or whatever would be next in the BG universe now has a much slimmer chance of seeing light. And with news that Gaider joined the team, that is really sad.
I was 18 years old when BG came out, and have been playing the series on a regular basis for almost 18 years since its release. I'm a HUGE fan of the series, and maybe i'm in the minority, but Dragonspear is fantastic to me. It's super dumb schlocky hammy cheesy dungeons and dragons fantasy adventuring just like the originals, and i'm enjoying it greatly. A great team is behind it, with a lot of veteran people who are probably dying to do something else in the BG story. Me personally, i'd like to see a follow up to ToB where we ARE gods and we are battling other gods or demi-gods across the planes! So much more could be done that i'd like to see. But I probably won't get to, because most people are really dumb and over-react to such a degree they poison the well and ruin any good that could have come from this team in the future.
I really, really hope that myself and the OP are wrong.
Do I recommend the character be removed? No. Rewritten? Probably.
I don't understand this kind of thought - which I seen expressed by several people. The game is released. The dialogue is written. It's over. Don't like the game's dialogue? That's fine. Don't like those particular 4 lines of dialogue, out of ~100,000? That's fine too. Then the game will have to be judged on its merits and a typical review would be something like:
"The combat is like X. The story is like Y. The end villain is like Z. Unfortunately some of the dialogue seemed forced. Overall my option of the game as a complete product is WXYZ."
But instead there's a movement, calls to change things, to retract things... I don't understand it. The game is released. Like what's good, dislike what's not good, let the world know your opinion if you think anyone cares, and get on with your life. You only get the one life, you know; it's way to short to spend worrying about whether some video game company in Canada has an "agenda."
I'd actually argue that it is important to get the dialogue right and improve upon it because trans characters aren't exactly common. So... yes showing a character can be written well and feel like a natural part of the game is important, important enough to merit revising said character. Personally, I'm arguing for diversity that goes beyond... really one dimensional and somewhat patronizing portrayals. Add more, flesh the character out a bit, make them feel like more than an afterthought or something that was left half completed due to time constraints (as was the case in AC:syndicate).
So yes, if they do have an agenda or commitment to inclusion or anything like that I damn well expect them to prove it and do it right.
Between some people not liking trans people in general,
Seeya. Bioware did a Trans character in their last game and their games sells like gangbusters. Anyone who is so offended by the concept of a trans person in their precious series who has a single line of dialogue can go ahead and stick their ass out when the door closes.
BG3's fate is not going to be determined because of intolerant assholes.
The poor writing, lack of innovation, and general low quality of work might however.
Do I recommend the character be removed? No. Rewritten? Probably.
I don't understand this kind of thought - which I seen expressed by several people. The game is released. The dialogue is written. It's over. Don't like the game's dialogue? That's fine. Don't like those particular 4 lines of dialogue, out of ~100,000? That's fine too. Then the game will have to be judged on its merits and a typical review would be something like:
"The combat is like X. The story is like Y. The end villain is like Z. Unfortunately some of the dialogue seemed forced. Overall my option of the game as a complete product is WXYZ."
But instead there's a movement, calls to change things, to retract things... I don't understand it. The game is released. Like what's good, dislike what's not good, let the world know your opinion if you think anyone cares, and get on with your life. You only get the one life, you know; it's way to short to spend worrying about whether some video game company in Canada has an "agenda."
I'd actually argue that it is important to get the dialogue right and improve upon it because trans characters aren't exactly common. So... yes showing a character can be written well and feel like a natural part of the game is important, important enough to merit revising said character. Personally, I'm arguing for diversity that goes beyond... really one dimensional and somewhat patronizing portrayals. Add more, flesh the character out a bit, make them feel like more than an afterthought or something that was left half completed due to time constraints (as was the case in AC:syndicate).
So yes, if they do have an agenda or commitment to inclusion or anything like that I damn well expect them to prove it and do it right.
Between some people not liking trans people in general,
Seeya. Bioware did a Trans character in their last game and their games sells like gangbusters. Anyone who is so offended by the concept of a trans person in their precious series who has a single line of dialogue can go ahead and stick their ass out when the door closes.
BG3's fate is not going to be determined because of intolerant assholes.
The poor writing, lack of innovation, and general low quality of work might however.
Have you played it?
No clearly I am critiquing the game not because I played the expansion and was disappointed but out of a deep seated desire to express a moderate dislike for it.
In case you can't get it, yes I did, it manages to hover just south of mediocre for me, and I find it disappointing to have such a disappointing expansion when we are experiencing a resurgence of this style of game.
My thoughts on the transgender stuff, because I know everyone is curious: I don't care. AT ALL. I didn't even notice or think twice about it until I opened my web browser and saw that the internet collectively lost its mind.
But whether I like it or not, the OP has it right: this has exploded to the point that BG3 or Next or whatever would be next in the BG universe now has a much slimmer chance of seeing light. And with news that Gaider joined the team, that is really sad.
I was 18 years old when BG came out, and have been playing the series on a regular basis for almost 18 years since its release. I'm a HUGE fan of the series, and maybe i'm in the minority, but Dragonspear is fantastic to me. It's super dumb schlocky hammy cheesy dungeons and dragons fantasy adventuring just like the originals, and i'm enjoying it greatly. A great team is behind it, with a lot of veteran people who are probably dying to do something else in the BG story. Me personally, i'd like to see a follow up to ToB where we ARE gods and we are battling other gods or demi-gods across the planes! So much more could be done that i'd like to see. But I probably won't get to, because most people are really dumb and over-react to such a degree they poison the well and ruin any good that could have come from this team in the future.
I really, really hope that myself and the OP are wrong.
Honestly, I don't see how this could change the possibility of a BG3, controversy tends to make games more popular and visible, not less.
In case you can't get it, yes I did, it manages to hover just south of mediocre for me, and I find it disappointing to have such a disappointing expansion when we are experiencing a resurgence of this style of game.
Then you should probably provide some context for your comments on "poor writing" because that statement is meaningless when you don't provide context for what you found poor about it. If you want your critique to be taken seriously, you should be prepared to leverage some actual examples. I for one would be absolutely thrilled to see some critical examination of the game that wasn't a meaningless generality. So far I've seen none of it on this forums (bugginess & mod breaking aside which are real actual issue Beamdog needs to address)
In case you can't get it, yes I did, it manages to hover just south of mediocre for me, and I find it disappointing to have such a disappointing expansion when we are experiencing a resurgence of this style of game.
Then you should probably provide some context for your comments on "poor writing" because that statement is meaningless when you don't provide context for what you found poor about it. If you want your critique to be taken seriously, you should be prepared to leverage some actual examples. I for one would be absolutely thrilled to see some critical examination of the game that wasn't a meaningless generality. So far I've seen none of it on this forums (bugginess & mod breaking aside which are real actual issue Beamdog needs to address)
There's a thread "thoughts on the ending" or such with reviews.
In case you can't get it, yes I did, it manages to hover just south of mediocre for me, and I find it disappointing to have such a disappointing expansion when we are experiencing a resurgence of this style of game.
Then you should probably provide some context for your comments on "poor writing" because that statement is meaningless when you don't provide context for what you found poor about it. If you want your critique to be taken seriously, you should be prepared to leverage some actual examples. I for one would be absolutely thrilled to see some critical examination of the game that wasn't a meaningless generality. So far I've seen none of it on this forums (bugginess & mod breaking aside which are real actual issue Beamdog needs to address)
Do you want like a critic level review? Cause I am just some random guy.
I can talk about how blatant and immersion breaking the foreshadowing and cameos are, the way the plot barely even seems to connect to the other games, the lack of attention put into player choices which often leads to redundant barely differing options despite lacking huge swaths of potential responses.
Oh and something I thought we were finally getting away from. The numerous quests that suffer from adventure game logic which makes it pretty clear you do A, then B, then C, and no you can't do anything but those. Which was an issue in BG as well. But I'm not comparing this game to something from 20 years ago, i'm comparing the game to contemporaries, which have alleviated this greatly.
I suppose my general complaints about writing could be focused down more narrowly on the fact the writers didn't seem to leave much room for roleplaying. I got the feeling in this game I often get from excessively railroady DMs. Which... yes i got in BG, but we've come a long way in 20 years. This isn't an enhancement, this is a new game. You need to move on a bit.
In case you can't get it, yes I did, it manages to hover just south of mediocre for me, and I find it disappointing to have such a disappointing expansion when we are experiencing a resurgence of this style of game.
Then you should probably provide some context for your comments on "poor writing" because that statement is meaningless when you don't provide context for what you found poor about it. If you want your critique to be taken seriously, you should be prepared to leverage some actual examples. I for one would be absolutely thrilled to see some critical examination of the game that wasn't a meaningless generality. So far I've seen none of it on this forums (bugginess & mod breaking aside which are real actual issue Beamdog needs to address)
Do you want like a critic level review? I can talk about how blatant and immersion breaking the foreshadowing and cameos are, the way the plot barely even seems to connect to the other games, the lack of attention put into player choices which often leads to redundant barely differing options despite lacking huge swaths of potential responses.
Oh and something I thought we were finally getting away from. The numerous quests that suffer from adventure game logic which makes it pretty clear you do A, then B, then C, and no you can't do anything but those. Which was an issue in BG as well. But I'm not comparing this game to something from 20 years ago, i'm comparing the game to contemporaries, which have alleviated this greatly.
In BG and BGII there are entire dialogue trees that are identical no matter what option you pick. SoD occasionally fell into this, but they also included dialogues and actions specific to race and class (try playing a mage in the first room in the first dungeon) that went far beyond anything in BGII. I think it's easy to see the bad if you've already decided you don't like something, but I don't think there's anything in this game that one could argue is monolithically awful without exception. Not if you remember that the originals had some poor/limited dialogue choices as well, that is.
Ok, so there's a character who says that they're transgender (I'm assuming from reading this, I've yet to encounter the character) and people are so upset by this they're asking for their money back? This is honestly a thing? A thing that's happening?
I like the thin facade that the reason people are upset about this is because they feel the "writing for the character is bad." I can't imagine the writing for one minor character being so bad that it would make me, or anyone else, demand a refund... especially in a game like Baldur's Gate. They have death throw sounds of "Don't forget to raise me!" and dialogue of "The day comes when Tiax will point and click!" and people are up in arms because a character mentions that they're transgender... Honestly? I can't wertle wertle believe it.
Ok, so there's a character who says that they're transgender (I'm assuming from reading this, I've yet to encounter the character) and people are so upset by this they're asking for their money back? This is honestly a thing? A thing that's happening?
I like the thin facade that the reason people are upset about this is because they feel the "writing for the character is bad." I can't imagine the writing for one minor character being so bad that it would make me, or anyone else, demand a refund... especially in a game like Baldur's Gate. They have death throw sounds of "Don't forget to raise me!" and dialogue of "The day comes when Tiax will point and click!" and people are up in arms because a character mentions that they're transgender... Honestly? I can't wertle wertle believe it.
It's not that in the end, though it is because of the transgender NPC and an Amber Scott interview. Gamergate has found something they can latch onto, and are simply down-voting the game into review oblivion to make some sort of point about how much they hate political correctness.
Controversy, people arguing... Honestly I find it an interesting debate to follow. I like to exchange ideas, and to see the ideas of others. I guess the success that is met by this topic is in a way a good sign. It shows people are interested in talking about it. Call me crazy, I find it's good news, not bad news as everyone seems to think. Of course, it should happen in good conditions, which means 1. Let's remain polite 2. Don't say that others are assholes because they don't share your opinions, which applies to both sides of the debate. Yes, it is redundant with 1, but still looks useful in the context.
long story short: - spammy long post with no apparent rational content - propagandizing discourse (agenda this, pc that, bla bla) - extreme moral ambiguity poorly concealing intolerance - false appeaser - negative hypist - all caps
long story short: - spammy long post with no apparent rational content - propagandizing discourse (agenda this, pc that, bla bla) - extreme moral ambiguity poorly concealing intolerance - false appeaser - negative hypist - all caps
My thoughts on the transgender stuff, because I know everyone is curious: I don't care. AT ALL. I didn't even notice or think twice about it until I opened my web browser and saw that the internet collectively lost its mind.
But whether I like it or not, the OP has it right: this has exploded to the point that BG3 or Next or whatever would be next in the BG universe now has a much slimmer chance of seeing light. And with news that Gaider joined the team, that is really sad.
I was 18 years old when BG came out, and have been playing the series on a regular basis for almost 18 years since its release. I'm a HUGE fan of the series, and maybe i'm in the minority, but Dragonspear is fantastic to me. It's super dumb schlocky hammy cheesy dungeons and dragons fantasy adventuring just like the originals, and i'm enjoying it greatly. A great team is behind it, with a lot of veteran people who are probably dying to do something else in the BG story. Me personally, i'd like to see a follow up to ToB where we ARE gods and we are battling other gods or demi-gods across the planes! So much more could be done that i'd like to see. But I probably won't get to, because most people are really dumb and over-react to such a degree they poison the well and ruin any good that could have come from this team in the future.
I really, really hope that myself and the OP are wrong.
Honestly, I don't see how this could change the possibility of a BG3, controversy tends to make games more popular and visible, not less.
It limits the possibities of a new game in the series when the publishers or WoTC take a look at the GOG/Steam/Metacritic scores. If these issues didn't tank the scores (similar to how the ending debacle didn't ruin ME3 review scores) I wouldn't care. But this is more serious than that. And I really hope i'm wrong.
The review bombing wouldn't be a problem if this were EA or Bethesda. This is a really small company and release day reviews matter a lot more. And no, Beamdog didn't "bring this on themselves" – no developer deserves this over a tiny sliver of dialogue. It's sad what's happening.
I really, really hope there are enough sales to justify more content, because I thought Siege was awesome.
Well if giving into hate is the price for getting BG3 I guess it's a price we have to pay.
Oh, and Bioware -- yes you, I know you are listening -- I'm offended that there are minorities in the world. Please redo Dynaheir's portrait so I can enjoy an entirely white fantasy game. Anything else breaks immersion and reminds me that there are people out there that are keeping Faerun from being great again. And the comments that some of you make on twitter about racial traditionalists !!1!eleven! That makes me madder than . . . than . . . something that makes people mad . . . I'll fill this in later!
If you do no give into my demands I will encourage my fellow right-wing racial traditionalists to pan your game on every website that does not check ips.
Thank you for your attention to my tantrum. signed, disposablescreenname
p.s. I'm all for tolerance please judge me by these words and not by every other action I've taken.
My thoughts on the transgender stuff, because I know everyone is curious: I don't care. AT ALL. I didn't even notice or think twice about it until I opened my web browser and saw that the internet collectively lost its mind.
But whether I like it or not, the OP has it right: this has exploded to the point that BG3 or Next or whatever would be next in the BG universe now has a much slimmer chance of seeing light. And with news that Gaider joined the team, that is really sad.
I was 18 years old when BG came out, and have been playing the series on a regular basis for almost 18 years since its release. I'm a HUGE fan of the series, and maybe i'm in the minority, but Dragonspear is fantastic to me. It's super dumb schlocky hammy cheesy dungeons and dragons fantasy adventuring just like the originals, and i'm enjoying it greatly. A great team is behind it, with a lot of veteran people who are probably dying to do something else in the BG story. Me personally, i'd like to see a follow up to ToB where we ARE gods and we are battling other gods or demi-gods across the planes! So much more could be done that i'd like to see. But I probably won't get to, because most people are really dumb and over-react to such a degree they poison the well and ruin any good that could have come from this team in the future.
I really, really hope that myself and the OP are wrong.
Honestly, I don't see how this could change the possibility of a BG3, controversy tends to make games more popular and visible, not less.
It limits the possibities of a new game in the series when the publishers or WoTC take a look at the GOG/Steam/Metacritic scores. If these issues didn't tank the scores (similar to how the ending debacle didn't ruin ME3 review scores) I wouldn't care. But this is more serious than that. And I really hope i'm wrong.
Well SoD is is self published IIRC, so hopefully that arrangement would continue. Otherwise also, not all publishers would hold that against Beamdog. Paradox, for example, is pretty good when it comes to stuff like that. As for WotC, I imagine they were already on board with everything, since Beamdog had to get pretty much everything approved by them. So I doubt that would change their mind.
All in all I think Beamdog could make a worthy BG3 especially after seeing how good SoD is. Granted, my perfect BG3 would be made by George Ziets and give us divine level play as described here.
Beamdog should have just stayed out of the culture war.
Instead they picked a side and fired shots.
RIP Baldur's Gate.
If this is they direction they are planning on headed with BG, i'm not exactly sure i want to see a BG3
Good lord, they didn't pick a side in a culture war. Who is in this war?? Most of us didn't even know there was a war going on until yesterday. The Gamergate response to this is basically the real world equivalent of someone giving you a dirty glare and then you deciding in response to chop their head off with an axe....
Do I recommend the character be removed? No. Rewritten? Probably.
Why do they need to rewrite a very minor character just because you don't like it? Does this character have a couple lazily written lines? Yes. So did a lot of the original dialogue in Baldur's Gate. This is not worthy of becoming a major talking point of the game. Like at all.
This is a post I couldn't have seen myself writing six months ago..
I'm disappointed with how the whole controversy has been dealt with by Beamdog. It would have been so much easier to just keep quiet and let people have a debate over the issues they wanted too, and tidying up afterwards. Wading in telling fans that their opinion is wrong is only going to galvanise more people to disagree.
The other problem I have is the sheer number of technical issues people are reporting on what is the company's FOURTH release of an Infinity Engine game - after three games I would have expected them to be able to use the engine they're working with, or to extensively bug test it.
For me, Siege of Dragonspear was very much an experiment to see if Beamdog could do the original games justice and stay true to them - given the fanbase backlash I would say that hasn't gone well.
By all means Beamdog, make a standalone title. Just keep the Baldur's Gate name away from it.
Me personally, i'd like to see a follow up to ToB where we ARE gods and we are battling other gods or demi-gods across the planes! So much more could be done that i'd like to see. But I probably won't get to, because most people are really dumb and over-react to such a degree they poison the well and ruin any good that could have come from this team in the future.
I really, really hope that myself and the OP are wrong.
Now that you mentioned it, man, I'm daydreaming. After-ToB adventure, gods, demi-gods, different planes! I always thought that ToB as the ending, there's nothing more to add. Well I have played a certain post-ToB mod before, titled Vecna, I enjoyed it, but still it was not canon and ToB remains to be the ending. But thinking about it, yeah I would also love a continuation. Probably why I really like MotB is partly because you can have close encounters with lots of demigods, gods, and even a dead one. I would love that here..wow!
But, back to the sad reality that we are at now... Thanks a lot guys, thanks a lot!
Controversy, people arguing... Honestly I find it an interesting debate to follow. I like to exchange ideas, and to see the ideas of others. I guess the success that is met by this topic is in a way a good sign. It shows people are interested in talking about it. Call me crazy, I find it's good news, not bad news as everyone seems to think.
I might be a bit rose-tinted here, but for transsexuality to be normal and people who were born different to be seen for what they want to be, it DOES take some struggle before what's trans is normal, just like it's an ongoing fight for homosexuality to be accepted as normal. And this issue being forced into the foreground did force some people out in the open, which might be uncomfortable for them (as they don't want to be courageous, just normal), but it's putting the message out "hey, we're fanatical gamers, old time BG-fans, like everyone else on this forum and we were born in a different sex than what we want to be. SO WHAT!". Written with capitals as it takes some putting issues on the foreground before they progress to be normal.
I'm a white heterosexual male, and I've only grown into seeing gay and trans people as a normal and everyday aspect of normal RL and forum life, by exposure to the truth, that they're just as normal as everyone else. Imagine if one of my best friends stayed in the closet, if some new friends I've met didn't come out as gay, if you don't meet trans people in your everyday working life or on an 'everyday' expansion release on a forum, guess what? They would still be strange instead of an integral part of my life. And my life would be poorer because of it.
BTW: the next hurdle to be taken, is a true depiction of mentally ill people in games. Tiax and his megalomania or 'Wurtle wurlte woo' doesn't exactly feel like something I can identify with. Neither do I find saying someone is mentally ill if they don't agree with your opinion, like I've seen some GG-ers write on the internet about Amber Scott, to be very considerate, if not to say grieving. Like saying someone is 'schizofrenic' when holding two contradicting opinions or attitudes at the same time. This whole affair I've seen the abbrevation SJW pop up as a derogatory term, but I'd love to fight for the deviating to be accepted as normal. In fact, I do in daily life outside of this forum.
This is my open letter to the community, all yours, just a normal person with autistic spectrum disorder.
"Normal" means the range where the majority of people exist.
Always catering or trying to include the minority who fall outside those parameters is going to upset/annoy the majority who fall within them.
Sum total, more people not being happy.
We are seeing that more and more in "real life" where although there is far more advertised "tolerance", on a day to day basis, intolerance and unhappiness is on the rise.
It is going to end in tears.
This is not a moral stance, it's recognising that the vast majority can't be arsed with any of it (because it doesn't affect them and they don't care) and are being constantly irritated by demands that they must be better people than they are.
In pragmatic terms, keep the majority happy because that is when tolerance truly thrives.
Comments
But whether I like it or not, the OP has it right: this has exploded to the point that BG3 or Next or whatever would be next in the BG universe now has a much slimmer chance of seeing light. And with news that Gaider joined the team, that is really sad.
I was 18 years old when BG came out, and have been playing the series on a regular basis for almost 18 years since its release. I'm a HUGE fan of the series, and maybe i'm in the minority, but Dragonspear is fantastic to me. It's super dumb schlocky hammy cheesy dungeons and dragons fantasy adventuring just like the originals, and i'm enjoying it greatly. A great team is behind it, with a lot of veteran people who are probably dying to do something else in the BG story. Me personally, i'd like to see a follow up to ToB where we ARE gods and we are battling other gods or demi-gods across the planes! So much more could be done that i'd like to see. But I probably won't get to, because most people are really dumb and over-react to such a degree they poison the well and ruin any good that could have come from this team in the future.
I really, really hope that myself and the OP are wrong.
In case you can't get it, yes I did, it manages to hover just south of mediocre for me, and I find it disappointing to have such a disappointing expansion when we are experiencing a resurgence of this style of game.
EDIT: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/50033/reactions-after-beating-game-major-spoilers#latest
I can talk about how blatant and immersion breaking the foreshadowing and cameos are, the way the plot barely even seems to connect to the other games, the lack of attention put into player choices which often leads to redundant barely differing options despite lacking huge swaths of potential responses.
Oh and something I thought we were finally getting away from. The numerous quests that suffer from adventure game logic which makes it pretty clear you do A, then B, then C, and no you can't do anything but those. Which was an issue in BG as well. But I'm not comparing this game to something from 20 years ago, i'm comparing the game to contemporaries, which have alleviated this greatly.
I suppose my general complaints about writing could be focused down more narrowly on the fact the writers didn't seem to leave much room for roleplaying. I got the feeling in this game I often get from excessively railroady DMs. Which... yes i got in BG, but we've come a long way in 20 years. This isn't an enhancement, this is a new game. You need to move on a bit.
I like the thin facade that the reason people are upset about this is because they feel the "writing for the character is bad." I can't imagine the writing for one minor character being so bad that it would make me, or anyone else, demand a refund... especially in a game like Baldur's Gate. They have death throw sounds of "Don't forget to raise me!" and dialogue of "The day comes when Tiax will point and click!" and people are up in arms because a character mentions that they're transgender... Honestly? I can't wertle wertle believe it.
- spammy long post with no apparent rational content
- propagandizing discourse (agenda this, pc that, bla bla)
- extreme moral ambiguity poorly concealing intolerance
- false appeaser
- negative hypist
- all caps
I really, really hope there are enough sales to justify more content, because I thought Siege was awesome.
Oh, and Bioware -- yes you, I know you are listening -- I'm offended that there are minorities in the world. Please redo Dynaheir's portrait so I can enjoy an entirely white fantasy game. Anything else breaks immersion and reminds me that there are people out there that are keeping Faerun from being great again. And the comments that some of you make on twitter about racial traditionalists !!1!eleven! That makes me madder than . . . than . . . something that makes people mad . . . I'll fill this in later!
If you do no give into my demands I will encourage my fellow right-wing racial traditionalists to pan your game on every website that does not check ips.
Thank you for your attention to my tantrum. signed, disposablescreenname
p.s. I'm all for tolerance please judge me by these words and not by every other action I've taken.
All in all I think Beamdog could make a worthy BG3 especially after seeing how good SoD is. Granted, my perfect BG3 would be made by George Ziets and give us divine level play as described here.
I'm disappointed with how the whole controversy has been dealt with by Beamdog. It would have been so much easier to just keep quiet and let people have a debate over the issues they wanted too, and tidying up afterwards. Wading in telling fans that their opinion is wrong is only going to galvanise more people to disagree.
The other problem I have is the sheer number of technical issues people are reporting on what is the company's FOURTH release of an Infinity Engine game - after three games I would have expected them to be able to use the engine they're working with, or to extensively bug test it.
For me, Siege of Dragonspear was very much an experiment to see if Beamdog could do the original games justice and stay true to them - given the fanbase backlash I would say that hasn't gone well.
By all means Beamdog, make a standalone title. Just keep the Baldur's Gate name away from it.
Here's to, hoping, there won't be a BG3.
But, back to the sad reality that we are at now... Thanks a lot guys, thanks a lot!
I'm a white heterosexual male, and I've only grown into seeing gay and trans people as a normal and everyday aspect of normal RL and forum life, by exposure to the truth, that they're just as normal as everyone else. Imagine if one of my best friends stayed in the closet, if some new friends I've met didn't come out as gay, if you don't meet trans people in your everyday working life or on an 'everyday' expansion release on a forum, guess what? They would still be strange instead of an integral part of my life. And my life would be poorer because of it.
BTW: the next hurdle to be taken, is a true depiction of mentally ill people in games. Tiax and his megalomania or 'Wurtle wurlte woo' doesn't exactly feel like something I can identify with. Neither do I find saying someone is mentally ill if they don't agree with your opinion, like I've seen some GG-ers write on the internet about Amber Scott, to be very considerate, if not to say grieving. Like saying someone is 'schizofrenic' when holding two contradicting opinions or attitudes at the same time. This whole affair I've seen the abbrevation SJW pop up as a derogatory term, but I'd love to fight for the deviating to be accepted as normal. In fact, I do in daily life outside of this forum.
This is my open letter to the community, all yours, just a normal person with autistic spectrum disorder.
That, however, is only my opinion.
"Normal" means the range where the majority of people exist.
Always catering or trying to include the minority who fall outside those parameters is going to upset/annoy the majority who fall within them.
Sum total, more people not being happy.
We are seeing that more and more in "real life" where although there is far more advertised "tolerance", on a day to day basis, intolerance and unhappiness is on the rise.
It is going to end in tears.
This is not a moral stance, it's recognising that the vast majority can't be arsed with any of it (because it doesn't affect them and they don't care) and are being constantly irritated by demands that they must be better people than they are.
In pragmatic terms, keep the majority happy because that is when tolerance truly thrives.