Longknife

I'm sure it is. You have no idea how many arguments I just had with people while trying to get the news of Firedorn's post spread. Quite frankly, I'm pretty frustrated and disappointed in humanity right now, as I should be I think, when I encounter a handful of people that would rather cling onto resentment and anger and other baser emotions instead of acknowledge reality and confess that further pressure on Obsidian would be wrong.

I have to rant here, because even just trying to bring about new info to the GamerGate subreddit was incredibly frustrating. Before I continue on I wanna make it clear that I would expect idiots both amidst GamerGate and opposed to it, so what I've encountered now and what I'm about to say shouldn't be interpreted as a diss to GamerGate as a collective, only to a fringe group of members that are far too overzealous: Those of you that are still complaining about removal are freaking children. Firedorn himself said he had the option to keep the line. Case Closed. That's exactly how Obsidian should've handled it. You do not get to sit here and baselessly accuse Firedorn of lying, this is the most reliable source we've got and he's got no pony in this race. Your conspiracy that the Obsidian devs convinced him to say that will remain just that: a conspiracy. You lack proof, you can go no further until you get some. "But what about how feargus' comment doesn't align with what Firedorn said?!?" Have you considered that CEOs and marketing departments are basically required to save face for the company as much as possible. Yes, Feargus was probably a tad dishonest with you, but: 1) You are unbelievably naive and ignorant if you do not expect the very same from ANY CEO or marketing department 2) Have you considered that if Feargus had said "FIREDORN CAVED, BLAME HIM," then you would all be screaming at Obsidian for throwing him under the bus? For Obsidian to disclose the information Firedorn provided us with would be unfair to Firedorn. Why? Because perhaps Firedorn wouldn't want people knowing how things went down or that he was the one that "caved?" You never know what people might say, so the best way to respect Firedorn is to not say anything in regards to him unless he himself decides to say how it went down. Obsidian could ultimately only hope Firedorn would wish for his motivations to be known public, because it's just as likely he would've wanted no details given as to what went down, since wtf, half of you are acting like you have pitchforks and are ready to march on Obsidian headquarters. If you are still complaining and rioting at Obsidian, it's painfully obvious you just want something to b**** about and someone to be mad at, in which case, please explain to me how you are ANY better than the person on twitter who got this whole ball rolling? Please, kindly sit down and shut up until you have any proof for any conspiracies you may still harbor. You'll get no support from me, and I don't think you'll get any support from a lot of others who would share your concerns about censorship and overly sensitive SJWs.

Moderators at the KiA subreddit just agreed to add Firedorn's post onto the Obsidian Megathread they have there. Things should calm down now, hopefully.

Is anyone else on KiA trying to get the marching army called off with the new account by Firedorn himself? Lolololololl

Actually, there was a choice. They asked me if I wanted to change in light of what happened. I chose to change it so that they can concentrate on the game instead of this PR nightmare. They weren't going to change it, they asked ME if I wanted to. I can find another platform to write my controversial crap, and I will. They, on the other hand, did the right thing and allowed me to decide the fate of the epitaph. I chose to turn into something that made fun of the bitch-bastards that were complaining. They went above and beyond what I would have expected them to do. You cannot be thanked enough for this. Communication is what this community desperately needed right now.

Actually, there was a choice. They asked me if I wanted to change in light of what happened. I chose to change it so that they can concentrate on the game instead of this PR nightmare. They weren't going to change it, they asked ME if I wanted to. I can find another platform to write my controversial crap, and I will. They, on the other hand, did the right thing and allowed me to decide the fate of the epitaph. I chose to turn into something that made fun of the bitch-bastards that were complaining. They went above and beyond what I would have expected them to do. Now that we've got the real facts from Firedorn himself can we move on? THANK YOU for posting this, rather unfortunate it almost got lost in the sea of posts. I'm gonna see to it that as many people see this as possible.

Prove that they caved in. Put up or shut up. It's really not such a difficult concept. You will never ba able to prove this- This is ridiculous. However... Obsidian makes games and even controlled backer content and helped them with writing as well. Games gets released Some crazy person saw some messages that did upset her even though the meaning is not even clear She calls Obsidian out, she calls for a boycott. a Week or so later Obsidian removed the content with some PR messages behind it. Yeah the chances that they carved in is pretty high for me. They did what they should have done in the first place and rejected the content. That's not caving; it's doing the right thing. You may realize this one day. God, I hope so. To be fair, I don't think the opposition is taking the stance of it not being "the right thing," but rather they're expressing concern of it being the right thing for all the wrong reasons. I don't think there's been anyone within these threads who has been fervently in support of the limerick as a rule of thumb and a lack of capacity to see why some don't like it, it's been more of a matter of if a joke (very high tendency to offend at LEAST one person) should be subject to censorship and if it's subject to censorship out of standard company policy and views on the matter or out of pure fear of any reprocussions that might result from keeping it.

Also, Sawyer's cat is fat.

I have this sinking feeling that users such as Namutree, Cyphon, Shake Appeal and some others, along with myself, are sitting here utterly disappointed in the lack of self-awareness shown by people from both sides of this issue. I just wanna thank those of you who have shown maturity here.

This makes it ok to spout hate speech...?

There's no reason to flip out that much, because this kind of action can be expected from ANY company. It's simple: the CEO and marketing department get paid to ensure that as many costumers see the product as possible and that the game or company does not get negative press. Censoring such snippets is considered the safe option because if left unchecked, you run the risk of people claiming you're homophobes or transphobic or whatever. The moment this doesn't happen is gonna be the moment a CEO or marketing department starts getting scrutiny, thus the cycle continues. And that is the problem. A small minority which is most likely not even your real audience cried about something most of us found ridiculous. They carved in and now they have to live with their actions. You actually should carve to your paying audience and not to some extremists. Yep, something should probably be done about it, but at the same time, you can't exactly scream at Obsidian for NOT being bold enough to brave the risky path. You're essentially trying to convict Obsidian for NOT wanting to be apart of your war, your movement and your statement. That's not exactly fair. If you want to do an Occupy Wallstreet movement for example and I don't, then do I deserve conviction of a crime for not taking part...? Having said that, I do think it's becoming clear that the risky path might not be as risky as once perceived. Who'll pick up on that first is anyone's guess.

There's no reason to flip out that much, because this kind of action can be expected from ANY company. It's simple: the CEO and marketing department get paid to ensure that as many costumers see the product as possible and that the game or company does not get negative press. Censoring such snippets is considered the safe option because if left unchecked, you run the risk of people claiming you're homophobes or transphobic or whatever. The moment this doesn't happen is gonna be the moment a CEO or marketing department starts getting scrutiny, thus the cycle continues.

...Isn't it Elmshore theme? I'm referring to this one: [snip] There's a slower, more dramatic version that's mostly a violin that you'll hear towards the end of the game, but I dunno it's name. ...But... what does that have to do with the question I was answering? It has to do with the fact that apparently either my scroll wheel did a dramatic jump or my eyes went nuts or something made me read that as though you'd responded to me initially.

Free speech only applies to government action. Public disagreement and debate is not censorship. They are, in fact, precisely what free speech is all about. Free speech has never and will never mean "speech free of any consequences, disagreement or rebuttal." Someone thinking about criticism and deciding how they feel it would be the best way to respond is also an act of freedom. Nothing was forced on anyone here. True, I just didn't quite know how to word it. Hard to sum up a god in limited words. I guess 'unrestricted expression' would be the alternative, but again that sounds similar.

Let's open a Church of Firedorn. He can be the God of individualism, free speech, diversity and humor.

Different priorities, different issues. The fanbase is not the only thing that 1.03 broke Yeah but the context is hysterical. His thread title reads like another angry outrage thread up until the end.

This thread cracks me the **** up because OP is so naive and innocent, completely oblivious to all the drama going on right now, and OP instead wants to call Obsidian devs a bunch of ass holes because they made a good item in the game more expensive. I lol'ed at the juxtaposition.

I think you're kind of oversimplifying the issue, given that the backers legit saved the company from going bankrupt and are thus responsible for Obsidian still being a thing and Pillars even being made.

I know, Josh Sawyer never pays any attention to me either. It's very depressing. Josh is apparently too busy feeding his morbidly obese cat. Seriously am I the only one that can't get over the size of that thing? I missed this how fat is the cat? https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/582200461127634945 It's White Garfield. Yeah I'm not dissing it, lotta people have fat cats. It's just I saw it and I was like "WOAH!"

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7411861/Andet/cat.jpg Yeah but that cat's big. It's long and fat. Josh's is just round. My uncle owned a huge cat once that weighed a ton, but he had size to match. Let's all go to Josh's house and roll his cat around like a ball. I'm sure we won't get scratched or anything.

I know, Josh Sawyer never pays any attention to me either. It's very depressing. Josh is apparently too busy feeding his morbidly obese cat. Seriously am I the only one that can't get over the size of that thing?

Only time can calm this sh1tstorm Obsidian got away with this IMO. Look what Dota 2 fans did when Valve didn't release a Halloween patch last year - they destroyed the game Metacritic rating (from 9 to 2) , and spammed facebook accounts of Volvo and Obama (yeah) Sounds like a sweet party I wish I'd been apart of. Undeniably stupid, but a sweet party all the same.

I also have to say that I think it would've perhaps been a better idea that would please both parties if the limerick were left as it was, then as a show of good faith and to show this isn't about transphobia, plan a transgender character for the next title or expansion or DLC. It'd be quite easy to do with Pillars, for example. Say someone had an awakening where they realized they were the other gender in a past life, and say a successful animancy experiment transferred their soul into a body with the opposite gender. Proceed by treating the character respectfully as Obsidian is well within their capabilities of doing so. Boom, problem solved.

I just think a little more communication from Obsidian now would do worlds to calm this stuff down.

On the other hand, it's also a matter of good luck disproving suspicions at this point. The complaint was filtered directly through Katherine Cross and Ian Miles Cheong before it reached Sawyer, who responded to Cheong within a day. Both Cross and Cheong oppose Gamergate and are a part of the group GamerGate accuses of trying to dictate the narrative and censor games. It's sort of like how do you expect to convince people it's truly their opinion when it went through those guys? Me personally it's like ok wtf Sawyer responded quickly like it wasn't a question for him so that can just as well mean he shares the sentiment, but yeah. Point is people are gonna be worked up.