TheUsernamelessOne

Still looking for someone an honest man, by the way, Diogenes?

I didn't read the thread but yes, OP. You are the only person who has positive things to say.

Well. There's only one solution, then. *gets out stabby bits and makes a list*

Incidentally, since we're talking about respect and tolerance, this rather illustrates a key point - I'm not required to respect anyone else's opinions. I'm not even required to respect them; respect is earned, both for people and what they say, through merit. So while I still utterly do not respect PermTrouble's opinions on this topic and think they are wrong, I came to respect him/her because of the classy handling of the debate. Likewise, I tolerate people's right to hold dumb opinions when I don't call for their imprisonment for expressing them. Tolerance doesn't mean you get to be free of all consequences for expressing an opinion. I am not trying to be nitpicky or disingenuous, but who decides what is dumb, and who decides what deserves consequences? You do, Nixl. I just got off the phone with all the world leaders, and they said it's your job now. I might be being a little disingenuous.

Where have I disrespected other's beliefs and opinions? Disagreeing is not disrespecting. If I am being perfectly honest to hold the opinion that disagreeing with someone's opinion is disrespecting their opinion is a very dangerous way of thinking. That is the line of reasoning that is the very core of intolerance and all of it's excesses throughout history. And every time it happened people thought they were doing the right thing and were on the right side of history. Oh man, we're getting so close to Godwin's law here, people, I can almost taste it! You can do it, darkpatriot! Which people exactly are you talking about throughout history who thought they were doing the right thing on the right side? This thread stopped being about the backer messages a while ago, I'm pretty certain, when some people started being genuinely offensive(?). I don't know, I haven't read the thread.

Have you ever retired an Obsidian NPC by mistake?

So what's the threshold a minority has to reach before they become relevant to you? .1% of the population? 1%? 51%? Who knows but they hardly exist so I don't know why we're dedicating this much conversation towards this issue. Just play the game and not worry about being able to romance a fictional character in a videogame. Hey, wait, so why aren't you playing the game instead of posting here, then? I knew I liked you. Why thank you.

So what's the threshold a minority has to reach before they become relevant to you? .1% of the population? 1%? 51%?

What intolerance? Again I will state it. Believing that MtF transexuals are still men is not intolerant, bigoted, hateful, or discriminatory. Just because you say it's so doesn't make it true, darkpatriot. It's not for you to tell other people who and what they are. That's something that every person must decide for themselves. Taking away other people's right to their own identity, even if it's only in your own mind, is a form of discrimination. I agree that just because I say something doesn't make it true. It only makes it my opinion. That is kind of what I'm arguing though. That peoples opinions need to be respected without resorting to ad hominems like "bigoted". If you are gonna throw around insults like that, which is generally counterproductive to having a conversation anyway, you need to back them up with some solid reasoning for why it is an accurate description. How is someone else's right to how they self-identify being taken away? You really can't stop a person from identifying however they want to even if you tried. Not without some pretty extreme coercive measures that I think most of the world would disagree with. There is no right to have everyone agree with them though. You don't have a right to decide someone else's opinions and beliefs. Well, you've demonstrated that you don't respect others' beliefs or opinions, so I'm not going to respect yours. Not that I was going to anyway, because I don't actually respect anyone's opinion save my own. On that idea we just disagree completely.

Fixed. EDIT: No, not fixed. Ahh, my lame internet joke is ruined!

What intolerance? Again I will state it. Believing that MtF transexuals are still men is not intolerant, bigoted, hateful, or discriminatory. Just because you say it's so doesn't make it true, darkpatriot. It's not for you to tell other people who and what they are. That's something that every person must decide for themselves. Taking away other people's right to their own identity, even if it's only in your own mind, is a form of discrimination.

Yes, I get to decide what I believe is immoral and disrespectful. Every person gets to decide this for themselves and is allowed to be their own moral police. The reason I have decided it is immoral and disrespectful is because it is not being considerate of the other participants opinions and beliefs. For any romantic encounter you should do your utmost to ensure that the other person is being respected and if you aren't that is wrong. Many people would argue that failing to do so would constitute rape although I think that is an overly broad definition of the word rape that weakens meaning of the word for actual rape situations. Enough people have an issue with having a romantic relationship a transexual that the likelyhood of it being an issue is high enough that the transexual should disclose. "Enough people have an issue with having a romantic relationship a transexual," huh? Well, it is absolutely true that some people should be coddled and their beliefs catered to while others must adapt to them. I mean, heaven forbid that, say, people who are intolerant of transgendered folks are told to shut up and keep their ugly beliefs to themselves. It's much more fair if a minority that is already nearly-universally misunderstood and mistreated has to conform to being demeaned, belittled, and bossed around by bigots like you. Hmm, suddenly I feel as though I've received an unintended glimpse into your life. Not a lot going on in your social life on April Fool's Day, huh? Yeah, me too.

On hard mode, many of the townsfolk are replaced by elder wolves and, later in the game, vampires and mind flayers. I thought it was a strange design choice, but it actually works out pretty well, as long as you're interested in dialogue, using merchants, or resting at inns.

I had to murder a supporter NPC to get it. This was not called execution. It was called retirement.

This thread is officially awesome. So what you're telling me is that it's important to respect and tolerate others' beliefs, and that's why people should conform to the narrative you have imagined for them about what they think and feel about themselves? You very generously allow that it is sometimes okay for other people to have opinions about themselves and their own bodies, so long as they accept that your beliefs about them are valid and they behave the way that you wish? No what I'm telling you is people have the right to form their own opinions on matters. No one gets to be the moral police for anybody else. A trans person can feel however they want about things, but there is no obligation for other people to agree with them. Disagreeing with them is also not hate or discrimination. But if a transperson doesn't behave the way you think they should, based on your beliefs, they're "extremely immorral and disrespectful," right? But that's not moral policing, that's just the law of tolerance and goodwill as laid down by one darkpatriot, right? You know, *sniff*, words can be hurtful too, darkpatriot. Saying mean things to people, like telling them how they should live their lives--it feels like you're hating on them. And discriminating. Thankfully, you openly assured everyone that you're not intolerant, bigoted, hateful, or prejudiced, and that if anyone feels offended by your views they should just accept that while also not doing anything to offend you in turn, so I'm glad that got cleared up, because it might have been a little awkward.

You do realise the game sold itself, and still does, as a game combining "exploration of BG, combat of IWD and narration of PST" right ? I'm not saying it succeeds in all of that, but that'd be foolish to consider illegitimate the comparision with all IE games. Who's interested in what they said it would be? Pretty much all the (sane) backers. My point was that the game is out now, so you don't have to look at the things they said during the kickstarter or whatever, you can just look at the game itself.

This thread is officially awesome. So what you're telling me is that it's important to respect and tolerate others' beliefs, and that's why people should conform to the narrative you have imagined for them about what they think and feel about themselves? You very generously allow that it is sometimes okay for other people to have opinions about themselves and their own bodies, so long as they accept that your beliefs about them are valid and they behave the way that you wish?

Does anyone else hear that funky beat suddenly playing in my head?

Yes. When you express intolerant opinions and openly declare yourself to be an intolerant person, you can expect people to call you intolerant. Thanks, though, I needed a good laugh and your post really brightened up my day. "I refuse to acknowledge trans folks as human beings, but srsly some of my best friends are gay. Wait I'm a bigot?? HOW CAN THIS BE?! Curse you, hyperbolic politically correct blameless victim society that television has relegated US discourse (whatever that means)!" Hehehe, ahhh, pure gold. I wish I could make up stuff this funny. Funny, attacking the person instead of the argument. Intolerance is not defacto a negative thing. You need to open your mind up and step back from your own prejudices. Thanks for the laugh though. Oh man, please, don't stop there. This is brilliant. Do you want me to, uh, "attack" you some more? How about, if you're going to use the term "de facto," first learn that it's two words. I wouldn't knowingly sleep with someone who was pro-life, anti-gun control, politically conservative, etc. Does that mean everyone who sleeps with me has an ethical requirement to give me the laundry list of their political views before we get it on? Or does it mean that if these are such dealbreakers for me, it's my responsibility to ask first about the things that'd bother me, and theirs to respond honestly if asked? Yeah, that'd basically mean never getting in a relationship with anyone, ever. You can't just magically tell who's going to turn out to be violent or abusive before you get in a relationship with them, and it's victim blamey as hell to suggest otherwise, buddy. If you aren't comfortable enough disclosing your birth gender with someone you want to start a relationship with, that is NOT the other persons fault. It is not up to anyone else for you be open and honest with the person you want to get close to. While I agree that it's possible for someone to turn violent later on, I think it's just as possible that person wouldn't. I think the fundamental disagreement you and I won't get past is that I believe the straight man in this case is in fact a victim, and I consider the notion of leaving the responsibility up to him for the other person to disclose their birth gender is also victim blaming. This guy's pretty good, though, you've got some competition. Yeah, a straight man is totally victimized when his partner doesn't disclose the fact that she's trans (using your example here). What exactly do you want her to say? The truth? Because the truth would be, "I'm a woman and I always have been a woman, despite what society might say." Man, isn't it totally outrageous the way straight cisgendered men are victimized and victim blamed and reverse racism by the socialist liberal media?

You are literally the first person besides myself I have ever seen to pay Dragon Age 2 a compliment. The problem is that in most settings, you can't fight anything interesting until you hit higher levels.

IWD was a boring super linear succession of maps/dungeon, Poe and BG, not Well, I'd disagree about Pillars of Eternity, actually. Whenever a dungeon crawl in Pillars extends beyond a couple of encounters it actually gets rather impressively tedious. As I said though, there's ways to skip a lot of the drudgery, something Icewind Dale did not offer. Yes, I know that lots of people enjoy the combat, can't get enough of the combat, wish that you could get a copy of the game installed in your brain so you can fight the same generic wolves and oozes and spiders and zombies and ghosts and bandits and cultists you fight in every RPG ever made while you sleep because only doing it while you're awake can't satisfy you. I do not begrudge you this. All I'm saying is that I've been fighting wolves, oozes, spiders, ghosts, zombies, bandits, and cultists in real-time-pause-party-micromanagement-based RPGs for most of my life. I've done my time. I'm happy to just sneak around them, and I'm happy Pillars lets you do so in a lot of places.

http://www.pcgamer.com/pillars-of-eternity-diary-playing-as-a-party-of-bears/ A party of bears? I can bearly believe it! They should have called this game Pillars of Bearternity!

Yes. When you express intolerant opinions and openly declare yourself to be an intolerant person, you can expect people to call you intolerant. Thanks, though, I needed a good laugh and your post really brightened up my day. "I refuse to acknowledge trans folks as human beings, but srsly some of my best friends are gay. Wait I'm a bigot?? HOW CAN THIS BE?! Curse you, hyperbolic politically correct blameless victim society that television has relegated US discourse (whatever that means)!" Hehehe, ahhh, pure gold. I wish I could make up stuff this funny.

Most enemies are faster than you, yes. I believe they're designed that way so it's easier for monsters to abuse Disengagement attacks.

Well, yes, sometimes you can run away, but if one of your party members is knocked out then you can't end the combat. Yesterday I visited the infamous bear cave with Eder and Aloth, and after they were knocked out (I play on Path of the Damned + Trial of Iron) my main character could not escape the cave. The bears didn't see him, I could freely enter scout mode, but when I tried to go back to the forest, I got "You must gather your party before venturing forth". It feels pretty stupid and illogical. I'm okay with leaving my party members behind, their heroic deeds will be remembered forever and all that, but please let me escape the cave and not be eaten by those scary bears. Have you tried offering the bears a place in your party? Clearly they're more useful than your stupid dead friends.