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Divinehammer

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About Divinehammer

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  1. Exactly. That's why you mustn't budge at first. If you do, well, then you're gonna get fuc*** by just about every internet demographic out there. Devs need to follow Daniel Vavra's example and just refuse to change anything. They've given up on him and his game. I mean I'm sure they'll give him hell again when the game gets released, but it'll blow over.
  2. This is why I say removing things is a slippery slope, now they're demanding something else gets removed. Where does it end?
  3. I think you mean this blog post. Then again, maybe not. He doesn't mention people demanding it be changed. He does mention the team worrying about what to do about such sensitive issues because they themselves also felt uncomfortable about it. An interesting piece either way. Yes that's it thanks. I read it a long time ago and couldn't find it in my history, also yes it was internal than external discussion/pressure.
  4. I wrote a reply but the thread got locked before I had time to post it. Fortunately I saved it: Those are pretty good questions actually. I'm not all that interested in endgames. I see culture as more of a process and find it more interesting and productive to identify things wrong with it and then attempt to change them, and also make constant course corrections in case of unintended consequences or more pressing concerns coming up. I would like to live in a kinder world: one where it matters less where you were born and who your parents were, which provides more second chances when you screw up, and where generosity and cooperation are valued more than possession and competition. I don't think games "need" to represent anyone in particular at all. However: I observe that in actual point of fact, until very recently games have overwhelmingly represented and catered to a pretty small and IMO not all that interesting subset of the population. If the protagonist isn't a macho square-jawed space marine type, she's a big-boobed scantily-clad package of fapping material, the occasional exception or half-accidental Fem-Shep aside. Men by and large are presented as characters you want to be, women as objects you want to possess. It's formulaic, tired, and clichéd, and it's unappealing to a very large number of people. I would like to see that change. Not that there won't be any games with white straight male lantern-jawed space-marine type protagonists, but that that will no longer be the default expectation for the protagonist. So yeah, if a new game is being made, I count it as a point in its favor if it features an Inuit mother-of-five and a Polynesian scholar as companions, and if the dominant technological and cultural power happens to consist of people with dark skin. I also feel very strongly that games should not shy away from difficult themes and materials. I don't, generally speaking, like "safe" or bowdlerized stuff. Again, P:E does this rather well. It references rape, child murder, genocide, and all kinds of heavy stuff, but does it intelligently and coherently. I don't want every game to be suitable for everybody. However, I would like to see more games suitable for and representing more people. Partly it's for altruistic reasons -- I think it'd be cool if we saw more non-white non-males here -- and partly because I myself find it interesting to vicariously see the world through other eyes. In summary: I observe a problem, namely that gaming culture in general and places like this forum in particular are not comfortable places to be if you're not white, straight, male, and argumentative, and I would like that to change. Finally, I don't think there is a "formula" for this. It's all about intent and self-understanding. I detest transparent attempts at being "politically correct." DA:I for example. It's ghastly. Randomizing everybody's race and making half the characters gay without any examination of what that would mean, while leaving in things like the transparent and hideously racist "Qunari = Arabs" is worse than naively oblivious racism and sexism. It's not about what's in the game; it's about approaching it thoughtfully and intelligently. And finally finally, I do agree that a bunch of people on the "social justice" side of the fence go to ridiculous extremes with this. I do not want trigger warnings on everything, jazz hands instead of applause, or the removal of spiders. Nor am I in favor of censorship -- i.e., an outside authority determining what should or shouldn't be in a game. I am, however, strongly in favor of critique and criticism, and I'm thrilled if the critique and criticism changes things for the better, as the backlash to GG has by and large done, DA:I idiocy notwithstanding. Did this help at all? You see that's actually fairly reasonable as a whole. A lot of the issue I have is with people that want to limit artistic freedom, there are extremists on twitter shouting that we shouldn't have straight white male protagonists anymore for example. Also that we shouldn't have certain themes (say rape for example). I honestly have no problem at all with more diverse characters, infact it makes things more interesting if anything, but I really hate the idea that developers can't make what they want to make anymore because it offends certain subsets. Swen Vincke from Larian wrote a blog post recently (sorry I can't find the link to it), about how dragon commander caused a lot of offence by including the rape choices (you have a choice of condemning war rape by your soldiers, or turning a blind eye), people were demanding this was removed but he felt it important to keep it in as felt it was a realistic choice. It irks me that such content might have been cut from the game to avoid offence, even though it is treated in a very serious and non-lighthearted manner.
  5. I asked in the previous thread but it got locked and I never got an answer. What is the "progressive" crowd's endgame? I am genuinely curious as I don't think I've ever seen a coherent answer to this question. I've seen half answers ranging from everyone has to be represented in every single game (this seems highly unrealistic to me), to every game has to be accessible to every player no game can be too difficult or too complex. I honestly mean no trolling with this question.
  6. What exactly is the end goal of the social justice clique? Do all games need to represent all groups all the time? Do games have to be suitable for "everyone"? I genuinely am curious what the end game is.
  7. Censorship BE GONE mod Two versions, one restores original limerick, 2nd version adds both. Requires Bester's excellent IE mod 4.6. http://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity/mods/28/?
  8. I'm already looking at this. It should be quite easy in theory, as it's all stored in an XML file.
  9. Make it better by destroying artistic integrity and freedom of expression? But if Obsidian decided to remove it isn't that what you are doing? They removed it AFTER someone complained. They removed ORIGINAL content in order to appease one hateful individual. What next? Is someone gonna take offence to Durance's hilarious and often "inappropriate" dialogue and demand the removal of that? Where does it end?
  10. Make it better by destroying artistic integrity and freedom of expression?
  11. Bah mod approval, things have moved on since first post. So for the moment we know that the memorial was replaced, the question is was this instigated by the backer or by Obsidian?
  12. Did the backer at least get his $500 back before Obsidian caved to terrorists? Didn't even put it in the patch notes, how cowardly. https://twitter.com/ExcaliburLost/status/584074243048112128 Cant EDIT: I'm not censoring folks. As long as your post doesn't break guidelines, they'll be approved, heated or not. ...But let's keep this to one thread. New threads on the subject will be locked or merged with one thread.
  13. There are backups of the memorial xml file on the net. If they censor it'll get modded back in, and I'll do my best to make sure said mod is spread as far as possible. Never negotiate with terrorists.
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