aluminiumtrioxid

Spoiler: much less than the people who unironically use the term "oversensitive whiny outrage brigade" like to think.

So, as an alternative to Mass: the Effecting, we could also use this. I quite like it, actually.

You missed her point entirely. It wasn't "even saving one life makes it worth it", it was "there's a reason the cycle exists, and those souls had a purpose in this life, the one that was taken from them - returning them to the cycle isn't 'restoring balance', it's taking an existing imbalance and running with it, instead of trying to rectify it".

...When the very concept of privilege (as used by those you criticize) is so inherently tied to factors other than excellence, this complaint rings a tad hollow. Elaborate. Elaborate on what? Race, gender, sexuality - these are significant sources of privilege, and none of them is related to excellence in any way.

Interesting! I wonder if going with Hylea was what affected people's perceptions of animancy? Or perhaps not giving credit to the Crucible Knights? Did you encourage them to keep creating the golems or whatever they're calling them? Interesting to see how much variance people are getting in Eder's ending. I assume you didn't finish Sagani's quest, then? Nah, I was supporting animancy and acing pretty much all tests in the dialogue at the end of Act 2. I'm just kinda disappointed it didn't get me actual results. Y'know, aside from those related to inflicting fates worse than death. Nope. Didn't do anyone's quests aside from Edér, Aloth, Pallegina and Kana.

...When the very concept of privilege (as used by those you criticize) is so inherently tied to factors other than excellence, this complaint rings a tad hollow.

Class and wealth privilege are pretty much universally understood to be the most significant factors. But they also tend to coincide with other sources of privilege more often than not. That said, pretty much all privilege signifies is that you never had to deal with crap from that particular source (so maybe please don't think you're an absolute authority on the subject of what it is like for people without your privilege).

I went with Hylea because her argument that the cycle exists for a reason and returning the souls to the cycle without allowing them to live the lives they were meant to live isn't any more balanced than restoring them proved persuasive. This has led to a lot of people feeling mighty stupid for killing their Hollowborn children. But there was a resurgence in childbirths and a lot of twins being born, so it kinda evened out. I wiped Thaos' memories because seriously, soul-killing someone is an incredibly heinous thing to do, but letting the manipulative bastard back into the cycle just for him to regain his memories again when he hits 20 would be incredibly irresponsible. I was considering the imprisonment option, but decided that punishing him when I also have the option to just let him become a better person upon reincarnating would be incredibly petty. Also turned off the machine, Leaden Key turned it back. In hindsight, I feel pretty stupid, but destroying such a source of potential insight into Engwithan tech would have been barbaric, so I guess I can live with my conscience. I also sided with the Crucible Knights, but because as a Shieldbearer I was honor-bound (well, more like bribed by the game system) to always tell the truth, couldn't give them credit for my discoveries. Hence I ended up having no influence over their decision-making, so they decided to give up on Mad ScienceTM and return to their blacksmithing roots, which turned out to be a good thing in the end, because this ended up resonating with the zeitgeist, so people flocked to them instead of the unwashed demagogues. Also, after the end of Waidwen's Legacy, people have decided that animancy was probably not responsible and continued to vivisect people for the greater good restored the Brackenbury Sanitarium and allowed animancers to resume their experiments. Go me. Since I was to afraid of crashes to ever set foot into Raedric's Hold, the mad ruler ended up hanging every single inhabitant of Gilded Vale over time on that goddamn tree. Damn, that's pretty grim. Stronghold ended up as a bastion of civilization, despite me skipping the final boss. Weird. (Then again, I suppose it was pretty much trapped down there.) Edér decided to buddy up with the underground Eothasian resistance movement and became a respected leader among them due to mad skillz. Aloth went on to dismantle the Leaden Key. Kana returned home, scholars didn't like him, but he still inspired a lot of people with his message about cooperation and learning from other cultures. Yay! (Yes, he's pretty much my favorite companion.) Grieving Mother - same as OP Pallegina was exiled, went on to become a Kind Wayfarer, have a nagging feeling it's the same as OP. Durance threw his staff on a pyre then jumped on it himself, too. Good riddance. No idea what happened to Hiravias. Sagani found the guy he was looking for, 20 years after her adventures with us. By the time she got home, her home village's customs became strange to her, her husband and some of her children have died, but one of her grandchildren (?) has become a renowned huntress, of whom she was very proud.

It's great when people who never really engaged with privilege theory beyond the most superficial manner make infographics about privilege theory.

Ditto. Although I think it suffered from being unfocused, and I could've stood more puzzles, interconnectivity between the levels like the sacrifical pit, more problems where violence isn't necessary the best solution... basically, it could've been more like a "proper" dungeoncrawl from the heyday of D&D.

Game crashed upon my every attempt to enter the structure. So I guess "by ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away on its own".

I'm slightly miffed at the idea that even its supposed masters have seemingly only used it to build Machinery of Puppy-Kicking Evil. I'm just not sure it's really explored. Although I'll give you that the ending lends itself to support the italicized part really well (Well, aside from the fact that every NPC acts like it totally is, but that's beside the point.)

Oh, right, totally forgot about the word "****" in it Sorry.

Whoever drew is most likely an angry feminist, unless they meant something else by "straw feminists". They didn't.

I may be misunderstanding you, but... well, this is kind of my problem. You wrote this in support of N&O, whose point I'd summarize as "you can't find an answer to every question". It's a theme running across the game with Edér and Kana very strongly echoing it (and, in a sense, the depiction of animancers as bumbling fools who never actually manage to help anyone on-screen - I mean, the strongest argument for animancy was that they can cure Waidwen's Legacy, which turned out to be a completely unrelated issue, and the only time we see an animancer try to put her skills to use, it turns out to be a sham (I am, of course, referring to Aloth's quest)). (Or the origin of your Watcher powers, for that matter - it's never really explained why the biawac gave you superpowers instead of tearing you apart like everyone else, aside from some vague mutters about being a strong soul, coming from an extremely unreliable source.) Meanwhile, you were arguing that the point of the game was summarized by the Waelian adage "What is an answer without a question?", while pointing out that it's all about the process of finding meaning in an inherently meaningless environment. Which is nicely postmodern, but I don't really see any relationship between it, the waelian question, and what I understand to be Nosey's reading. Which I find immensely frustrating. I mean, all three are textually supported, but they're also only related in the vaguest sense, and the lack of focus on any of them means you can see the vague, hazy outlines of a unifying theme, but it essentially remains an ill-defined blob. Which might have been the point all along! But I think that's a bit too postmodern to be, well, likely, considering the medium. Or enjoyable, for that matter.

Mod note: Picture turned into link due to circumvention of our language filter. Link here: http://www.harkavagrant.com/nonsense/strawfeministssm.png

I just don't think there's a meaningful difference between super-powerful soulforged AIs who believe themselves divine and actual gods with legit divine powers, hence the whole ending fell flat for me. The fact that the game didn't actually explore the issue at its core, ie. the necessity of divine guidance and the effects of societies being built on lies didn't help. It's like the first 40-50 hours are spent on examining completely different themes than what the main storyline is supposed to be about! Wow, that's... I never thought of it like that. It's a pretty clever reading *tips hat*. I'm not entirely sure it's an extremely strongly supported reading, but it's damn elegant, I'll give you that.

Heh, "social programming". It almost sounds like you accept the premise that people's thinking can be influenced by unquestioned and widely held societal norms. I wouldn't be too surprised if there are workshops out there talking about changing attitudes and behaviour through gaming....[snip] I'm just surprised you guys are capable of recognizing the phenomenon but still think patriarchy as an idea is insane. What can I say? I'm a cat person. Seriously though, I have no idea what you're getting at.

Heh, "social programming". It almost sounds like you accept the premise that people's thinking can be influenced by unquestioned and widely held societal norms.

Pillars is great. Also, Sawyer grew a lot in my eyes recently, as a person. (Or he's way better at faking empathy than people who are specifically paid to do that. But I find that unlikely.) So I'm happier with the company than I've ever been.

Whatever it goes towards, it will be awesome.

Oh my. Obsidian said the profits from the game will go towards funding the expansion. That means they'll have about 2 times as much money for the expansion as they did for the main game. Needless to say, I'm very eager to see the end result.

...I don't see the problem. There was a quest to kill a child in Dragon Age, too. Not to mention Fallout. It's kind of an industry standard at this point, really.

When the hell will people finally understand that it's not the choice, but the handling of the subject matter that counts?

Like Sawyer essentially reacting "thanks for calling attention to this, we can't catch everything" to the original tweet? Because that doesn't exactly read like someone being coerced to me.