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Moira

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Posts posted by Moira

  1. I´m not sure if this have already been addressed in the thread, but since I´m too lazy to read through all eleven pages I´m just gonna ask:

     

    I´m somewhat of a multi-buyer when it comes to games. For instance, I have three separate purchases of the Witcher 2 (Steam, GOG, retail), Mass Effect 2 (Origin, XB360, Steam) etc. It is my way of "donating" to games I enjoy. Whatever floats my noodle (usually camel milk).

    I am very likely to continue this with PoE. I have it on GOG atm (backer). But I´ll probably buy it once I see it one a Steam sale. If (when...) I buy it (again), can I make that edition a "Backer edition" too? I assume (haven´t really reserached) that what separates a backer edition from a non-backer is the extra fluff like pets, cape, and knick-knacks. Can I add my backer-stuff to any version of the game that I purchase? :)

    I like the way you roll, supporting your favorite games like that!

     

    The big differences between the editions are outside the game; soundtrack files, wallpapers etc. Within the game the backers and pre-orders get only a few items, only one having other than purely cosmetic properties (the ring). So, not really missing much by buying the basic edition if you already have the extras in GOG.

     

    My guess is that you can't get the backer stuff in a newly bought game since backers had to pick where they redeem their backer code (GOG or Steam) and could only pick one.

  2. Rogue would give the benefit of Sneak Attacks, which work when an enemy is flanked or otherwise hindered (no stealth needed). You'll definitely want to pair your swashbuckler with a good tanky friend (the first NPC companion you can pick up will do wonderfully) and attack enemies from the side while they have their eyes on the tank. This enables you to wear light armor - maybe only clothes, that can be enchanted to have some Damage Resistance. Très chic! Maybe throw in a pistol as the other weapon, open with a blast and then rush to melee with the tank.

     

    If you wish to face your opponents directly, you'll need to do some tanking yourself; boost stats that give Deflection in character creation. Paladins and Chanters can be built as great tanks although such builds often involve heavy armor.

  3. Yes, that is what barbarian means - it refers to culture.

    For the ancient Greeks, you were either Greek culture or you were Barbarian.

    For the classical Romans, you were either Roman culture, Greek culture, Egyptian culture, or Barbarian.

    For the medieval Christians, you were either a converted Christian (including the culture that goes with that) or you were Barbarian.

     

    Barbarian is not a word describing profession, location, or life experience. It's a word describing the culture someone comes from.

    Barbarian is a cultural "other box" and doesn't describe what it it, only what it isn't.

  4.  

    I can afford not to be invested because I'm privileged; it doesn't affect my life or my peace of mind one way or another. But I'm not so privileged that I wouldn't know that currently people who express gender and/or sexuality in non-majority ways are in real life under very real threat all the time. Here's the vulnerability part in this case, non-majority gender and sexuality expressions are vulnerable and under threat.

     

    They are so very vulnerable and under threat that they write "kill all men" and "put them in concentration camps" on Twitter. Look up Erika's tweets (the offended person). That's the sign of vulnerability all right - openly advocating for killing the oppressors and receiving no punishment (even Twiiter didn't block her). But what do I know about oppression, I've been but beaten at work once some years ago. I drink my daily medications with privilege.

     

     

    I didn't mean Erika (I know nothing of them except that I don't like their tweets), I meant the people who suffer from the vilifying of expressing gender and/or sexuality in non-majority ways. In this case many homosexuals and transgender people. (And for the record, I don't think the oppression they suffer from makes anyone else's suffering less important.) That said, vulnerability leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger may lead to radicalism... so maybe Erika's crazy tweets grow from being oppressed? But it's beside the point, the important points in my opinion are: 1) did the original limerick contribute to vilifying of expressing gender and/or sexuality in non-majority ways, 2) did the changing of the limerick oppose vilifying of expressing gender and/or sexuality in non-majority ways, and 3) was the changing of the limerick a violation against freedom of expression. I argue that 1) possibly (very much depends on interpretation and can be argued either way), 2) maybe kinda; mainly it sidesteps the original controversy but I think it's also a message that there was no intention of vilifying, and there's some merit in such a message, 3) if it was, it was very minor since no story content was touched and the backer was approached respectfully by Obsidian.

     

    Edit2: debating is always good when it's done with mutual respect. A good discussion adressing arguments and not based on personal attacks enriches everyone involved.

     

    Absolutely!  :thumbsup:

  5. A good question.

    Thanks for answering! (Really.)

     

    The answer is: ideology.

     

    If you want to change something because you don't like it, it's ok. But if you just want to impose your beliefs on others, it is an entirely different scenario. For example: radical Christians hate magic. My own cousin didn't watch "The Witcher" on Polish TV because it was an anathema to him. Now, imagine my dear cousin petitioning Obsidian to remove all spells from the game.

    Yup, I'm totally with you here. By which I mean that I understand your examples and I, as well, view with suspicion and distaste attempts at imposing beliefs on others.

     

    Where it gets trickier in my book is when we get to hegemony and vulnerability. To put it extremely simply, in a situation where one thing is repeated enough and conflicting things do not exist (or are vilified or are in extreme minority), this thing becomes de facto truth. It's the truth of the hegemony. Such a truth carries weight and is stronger beyond itself because it has the enforcement of the hegemony behind it. Such truths are arduous to contest - and sometimes they well and truly need to be contested - because of this, and such efforts may seem quite threatening both to those to whom the hegemony is accepted reality and those who are moderate and don't like strife. Hegemony is powerful, and when threatened, can cause grave harm. So that there can be freedom of speech, it may be necessary to protect the vulnerable speakers against the powerful that might harm them.

     

    Now, would this limerick constitute such an "artefact" of a truth of the hegemony that it's okay to attack it in Twitter and beyond and demand its unraveling? Many on these forums think not, many think yes. I'm personally not very invested in whether the limerick was offensive or not. I can afford not to be invested because I'm privileged; it doesn't affect my life or my peace of mind one way or another. But I'm not so privileged that I wouldn't know that currently people who express gender and/or sexuality in non-majority ways are in real life under very real threat all the time. Here's the vulnerability part in this case, non-majority gender and sexuality expressions are vulnerable and under threat.

     

    Here's my analysis. Now that the limerick was rewritten, the original problematic content, whether it was offensive or not, is no longer an issue and the new content pokes fun at people who take (possibly undue) offense (possibly to an undue degree). Nothing in the game's story was touched or censored. The change also was so small and the way it was handled so reasonable that I don't see any reason to interpret it as a gateway into a future of any noteworthy content censoring. Thus I feel that the outcome is on the side of good. From freedom-philosophical point of view I think it's not only important to allow people to have an opinion but also the freedom to change their mind. And that's why I think it's not cool to reduce the limerick writing backer's choice into caving under pressure.

     

    Azradun (and others), we can agree to disagree about this if that's the case. Thanks for having the conversation, that's awesome.

  6. We should just all keep quiet and let the progressive extremists censor anything they want. Because it's offensive when we criticize the artists for caving in, but not problematic at all when they criticize their art and want it to change - right now! - immediately! Those extremists used their tactics for years, converting every culture and community by force of organized shaming campaigns. Comics, science-fiction, now video games. Because everyone just caved to them, taking the path of least resistance. Because companies fear controversy, thus giving one side all the ammo.

    Weird thing that my comics, scifi and games continue to be full of good stuff. Well, some of them are rubbish, but no more so than they were ten or twenty years ago. What have your comics, scifi and games been converted into?

     

    I'd like you to ponder on what your cause here is. Why isn't it okay to criticize a content perceived in a video game, if one disagrees with it? We criticize PoE here at the forums all the time. We demand Obsidian to change this and that, do these and those things better, and sometimes call them to be embarrassed of making it buggy/too easy/too difficult/whatever. I read that stuff here every day. Why is the critique on the limerick different?

  7.  

     

    My wishlist:

     

    More fancy dresses. And miniskirts. +1 Miniskirts that gives bonuses to cipher charm. Yes, even if the cipher is a man. 

    Kilts!

     

     

    Kilts are not revealing enough if you're a leg man. 

     

    The point of a kilt is not in what it reveals but how it becomes. Then again, I think that of all attractive clothing.  :wub:

  8.  

    I personally am not a fan of mob howling. I vastly prefer dialogue and constructive criticism over it. But it also seems to me that in this case the Twitter comments are painted with way too much power and used to nullify decisions made by the backer who wrote the limericks by folks that are unhappy with his decision.

     

     

    He said it himself that he chose to rewrite the limerick to "spare Obsidian a PR nightmare". So it was the Twitter comments which practically forced his decision. Also, the Twitter comments caused Obsidian to ask the backer to do something with the limerick in the first place. Yet they're "painted with way too much power"? Ask Mary Sue and PC Gamer then, they both ran articles about those comments and how they influenced "the offensive content" to be gone.

     

    I support free speech and part of that is that people are allowed to voice their opinions on matters, also when I disagree with them or even think that their complaint is full of it. If I thought that people generally are so weak that they can't be trusted to make decisions, I wouldn't support free speech. Expression needs to be protected, which means that rules (e.g. on these forums) are needed and dialogue ought to be encouraged, but influencing opinions is not inherently evil.

     

    Even if those tweets influenced the outcome, even if the backer and Obsidian reacted to the controversy, I think it's outright insulting to reduce their choices to being slaves and victims to some tweets.

    • Like 1
  9.  

     

    I'm only 20 hours in and already the loading times are becoming unbearable.

    Have you installed the latest patch? It fixes some of the issues causing increased loading times.

     

     

    I have steam which auto-updates...sooo.

     

    I will trying defragging and so on. I have a fairly good rig for playing an isometric 2d rpg with, so I doubt that's the problem.

     

    The bug corrected in the patch had to do with extra objects that were left lingering in the game so they bloated saves. Part of that problem was fixed - summons and Chanter's traps I believe. But the merchants continue to have huge inventories from sold objects, and there may be other save bloaters as well. Another issue is the amount of save files, moving some of them to a different folder is probably worth a try.

     

    There's a mod for disabling the auto-saving during area transfers, if things become unbearable. And yeah, I also very much hope the loading times will eventually be addressed properly.

  10.  

    Oh man we would need a separate thread for the philosophy of this issue. Or maybe not, since there seems to be very little understanding to be gained (which is a pity - the underlying issues are both important and interesting). It baffles me that people very firmly believing in free speech also seem to consider the agency of people to be so fragile that, say, a single voice or even a mob howling in Twitter (not doxxing or swatting, just howling) nulls their views, choices and actions.

     

    Well, only one of the best scientists of our time was reduced to tears at the moment of his greatest tryumph and gave a forced apology, forced by a mob howling on Twitter (not doxxing or swatting, just howling) not so long time ago for wearing a shirt made by his female friend. Still, they didn't burn him on the stake or put him in jail, so maybe we should let it slide... allowing any loud voices to psychologically destroy people who make scientific discoveries or works of art?

     

    After all, what a landing on a comet or a great game is worth compared to somebody's feelings, right?

    I sincerely don't know how your anecdote responds to what I wrote.

     

    Now,I completely understand that a person would rather not be a target of a crapstorm. In light of this limerick controversy I think it was at best considerate and at worst understandable from Obsidian to ask the backer whether they want to address their text. And I respect the backer's decision to rewrite it; I would have respected it either way.

     

    I personally am not a fan of mob howling. I vastly prefer dialogue and constructive criticism over it. But it also seems to me that in this case the Twitter comments are painted with way too much power and used to nullify decisions made by the backer who wrote the limericks by folks that are unhappy with his decision.

  11. Do you mean double-clicking on food in the inventory? Because I have no idea what you mean with "double-clicking the item on the model". If you are moving an item, you can't really double-click it anywhere at the same time.

    You're not dragging the item, you just click it once to catch it on the cursor. Then move cursor on the chatacter pic (edit: not pic, model: the whole body of the char in the inventory screen) and double-click. That's what was posted above - I haven't yet tried it myself. Maybe you try it and post the results :)

    • Like 1
  12.  

     

     

     

     

     

    That is interesting to hear, though I generally don't like trusting third party mods due to their dubious nature and possible problem with future patches. I would though like to know if there would perhaps be an option not to have it removed officially? Idk, it just bugs me otherwise

    There's no option for that currently (other than not installing the patch) and I doubt there will be, especially since the author of that tombstone text chose to change it himself (source).

    "Chose". :lol:

    Could you expand on that? I mean, the text you quoted included a source, which was the backer himself explicitly stating that he had a choice. Your response doesn't seem to have a source, and so it appears to be a pointless attempt to undermine the credible comment you quoted with no evidence. That being said, if you do have a source showing that the backer didn't have a choice in the matter, I'd love to see it. :lol:

    He "chose" in a situation where he was pressured into doing so, there was never any real choice. The situation should never have arisen to begin with, he shouldn't even have been asked. Had he contacted them himself, before the perpetually offended started their tirades of make-believe social justice, there might have been a point, but now? No, not really.

    Oh man we would need a separate thread for the philosophy of this issue. Or maybe not, since there seems to be very little understanding to be gained (which is a pity - the underlying issues are both important and interesting). It baffles me that people very firmly believing in free speech also seem to consider the agency of people to be so fragile that, say, a single voice or even a mob howling in Twitter (not doxxing or swatting, just howling) nulls their views, choices and actions.

  13. That is interesting to hear, though I generally don't like trusting third party mods due to their dubious nature and possible problem with future patches. I would though like to know if there would perhaps be an option not to have it removed officially? Idk, it just bugs me otherwise

     

    There's no option for that currently (other than not installing the patch) and I doubt there will be, especially since the author of that tombstone text chose to change it himself (source).

    • Like 1
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