Game News Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Released

[Xenich]

Amber Scott apparently posted to clear things up and placate the Codex:

"As I've said before (and I won't say much more on this subject other than to get my perspective out there):
I'm the writer and creator. I get to make decisions about who I write about and why. I don't like writing about straight/white/cis people all the time. It's not reflective of the real world, it sets up s/w/c as the "normal" baseline from which "other" characters must be added, and it's boring. I consciously add as much diversity as I can to my writing and I don't care if people think that's "forced" or fake. I find choosing to write from a straight default just as artificial. I'm happy to be an SJW and I hope to write many Social Justice Games in the future that reach as many different types of people as possible. Everyone should get a chance to see themselves reflected in pop culture."

Metacritic dropped to 4.0, but I'm sure there will be an influx of supporters to balance out the haters soon.

She talks about living in the real world... lol... these types are so out of touch.

Here is the real world Amber. Of the worlds populations, only an extreme minority of them are gay/trans. Of those extreme minorities, only a portion plays video games. So you in all your infinite wisdom alienated the majority of your paying crowd to placate to an extreme minority, and not just that... but doing so while lecturing the majority you are alienating.

You have to be the dumbest person on the planet, but then considering that crap you shovel off as "writing", I don't think anyone is surprised.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

This is turning into a thing

http://techraptor.net/content/baldurs-gate-siege-dragonspear-launches-controversy

Specifically, we asked Mr. Oster about the comments made by Scott, his own comments on the Beamdog forums, and his thoughts on the whole controversy. His comments are quoted in their entirety below.

I find the controversy ridiculous. Yes, we have a transgendered character. I know a number of transgendered people and they are genuine, wonderful humans. Yes, we also have a character who cracks a joke about ethics. The original Baldur’s Gate had a whole sequence about the Bob Newhart show. If this generates controversy it makes a sad statement about the world we live in.


As for my post on the forums, I merely asked people who were enjoying the game to share their positive feedback. I know our fans can become engrossed in their enjoyment and I really don’t want potential fans to miss out on the series because of protest reviews by small minded individuals.



As for Amber’s interview, I also believe in strong female characters and I feel she did an excellent job bringing dimension and interest to Safana with her writing in Siege of Dragonspear. Her “Too bad” comment, I chalk up to a long day of interviews, having personally done such interviews.



Regards,

-Trent

 

[Grotesque]

Current metacritic user rating : 4.5

"I may get past the numerous bugs, I may reacquire new muscle memory and adapt to the new stupid UI, I may even disregard being educated in the proper etiquette of talking politely to transgender badly written characters with railroaded dialogue in the name of modernism, I may even laugh off the poor form of the devs insulting Baldur's Gate writing and labeling it sexist, and biting more than she can shew, but I will certainly not forgive twisting the character of Minsc the beloved icon of my beloved games to push forward Sjw nonsense. That get this add-on an automatic zero and a request for refund. Won't support this so called developers out of touch with reality again."

:incloosive:

And don't forget, all this had the seal of approval from the one and only Mr. Chris Avellone, the demigod on which all the codex gushes over.

 

[A user named cat]

 

[Grotesque]

 

[Dreaad]

How dare they buy an IP and do what they want with it! Wait a minute.... that's just the glory of the retarded capitalist shit fest we all live in.

They deserve the bad reviews for a myriad of reasons but I'm not sure ruining a classic is a valid one. I wonder of at some point someone will buy ancients authors books as IP and re-write/re-sell them. I will laugh as the butthurt rises when the Shrike becomes a tranny with dildos instead of spikes, while the chick in Neoromancer is changed to be a black strong wymen from Detroit, Aragon wears a keffiyeh and Arrakis is populated by gay men who surgically implant themselves with ovaries.

 

[Jaklon]

Monstrous in soul, monstrous in body.

Guess I'll be not buying this one twice instead of just once. Hope everyone involved gets cancer of the most horrible kind.

 

[Trashos]

They deserve the bad reviews for a myriad of reasons but I'm not sure ruining a classic is a valid one.

Look, I have some fairly strong political views, and still I would HATE to see them tacked on Baldur's Gate, where they don't belong. You 've got to respect the classics.

The Minsc quote and the totally disrespectful attitude of Beamdog personnel towards the beloved franchise have really triggered me. I 'd better take a break for a few hours.

 

[Jaklon]

They deserve the bad reviews for a myriad of reasons but I'm not sure ruining a classic is a valid one.

Wow, what kind of fuck for brains are you? They ruined BG even before their latest nonsense which is just mindboggling.

Next up: engine manifolds that teach a valuable lesson about feminism

Please just kill yourself. I'd ask you not to breed but that's a given.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

So what's this Minsc quote everyone keeps mentioning?

 

[Mortmal]

Its 3.3 on metacritic now, its not only about the sjw stuf...Well if its educationnal, they want to enforce their agenda , teach us how to treat transgendered people and not being racist to goblins, then they should offer the game for free.

 

[Malpercio]

Oh man, now every BG for a while will be hijacked by this shitstorm. What a pain.

 

[FuriousGamer87]

So what's this Minsc quote everyone keeps mentioning?

probably this.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't get why people are so up in arms over the Minsc easter egg (don't get me wrong, that stoner sequence is horribly written and not funny). I think Minsc would be the poster child character for SJWs. He's basically retarded, is all about rampaging against "evil" both real and imagined and hates Edwin to the point of going on a killing spree rage against him. The average Codex poster (and GG supporter) personality is more in line with Edwin than Minsc - though the rampage against evils both real and imagined fits both camps. Either way, it's a tiny bit of content that doesn't really affect anything.

It's like people don't even remember Baldur's Gate with characters like Pirate Newf. A newf is a stereotyped person from Newfoundland (and sometimes Maritimers more generally), if you weren't aware. It's a pretty Canadian reference that sticks out like a sore thumb in a fantasy game, nevermind all the other things that have already been mentioned like Bub Snikt, etc. and it didn't matter at all. The Baldur's Gate (and most D&D) experience isn't about delving into well written tomes of whatever, it's about taking your character(s) and killing a bunch of shit and finding shiny loot. I get tired of politics in games unless it's really well done too, but this particular shit storm strikes me as not being able to see the forest for the trees, especially since everything can be seen as being done with no ill intentions, just a light poke in trying to keep with the overall atmosphere of the original game.

 

[Excidium II]

I don't get why people are so up in arms over the Minsc easter egg (don't get me wrong, that stoner sequence is horribly written and not funny). I think Minsc would be the poster child character for SJWs. He's basically retarded, is all about rampaging against "evil" both real and imagined and hates Edwin to the point of going on a killing spree rage against him. The average Codex poster (and GG supporter) personality is more in line with Edwin than Minsc - though the rampage against evils both real and imagined fits both camps. Either way, it's a tiny bit of content that doesn't really affect anything.

It's like people don't even remember Baldur's Gate with characters like Pirate Newf. A newf is a stereotyped person from Newfoundland (and sometimes Maritimers more generally), if you weren't aware. It's a pretty Canadian reference that sticks out like a sore thumb in a fantasy game, nevermind all the other things that have already been mentioned like Bub Snikt, etc. and it didn't matter at all. The Baldur's Gate (and most D&D) experience isn't about delving into well written tomes of whatever, it's about taking your character(s) and killing a bunch of shit and finding shiny loot. I get tired of politics in games unless it's really well done too, but this particular shit storm strikes me as not being able to see the forest for the trees, especially since everything can be seen as being done with no ill intentions, just a light poke in trying to keep with the overall atmosphere of the original game.

fuck off retard.

ps. type less words next time

 

[mediocrepoet]

fuck off retard.

ps. type less words next time

no u

 

[Dreaad]

They deserve the bad reviews for a myriad of reasons but I'm not sure ruining a classic is a valid one.

Look, I have some fairly strong political views, and still I would HATE to see them tacked on Baldur's Gate, where they don't belong. You 've got to respect the classics.

The Minsc quote and the totally disrespectful attitude of Beamdog personnel towards the beloved franchise have really triggered me. I 'd better take a break for a few hours.

Sorry I don't buy it. I've seen mods with much worse treatment of lore than one of hand comment by Minsc. Fucking Minsc too he could say he likes to put his hamster up his ass and no one would be offended.

The only difference between this and say the Imoen romance crap, or more party interjections or the dozens of other shit fan fiction mods is that Beamdog asks you to pay for it. Personally I'm pissed off because they randomly fucked around with the UI, made a new host of bugs and broke all the mods again (really how hard would it have been to just work with one modder, just one, so he could tell you what specific strings and ID's they shouldn't change, ALL that shit is documented).

 

[Mangoose]

This is funny, because before this, Codex hivemind considered original Minsc to be un-funny pandering to dumb gamers.

 

[Excidium II]

This is funny, because before this, Codex hivemind considered original Minsc to be un-funny pandering to dumb gamers.

Has anything changed?

 

[Mangoose]

This is funny, because before this, Codex hivemind considered original Minsc to be un-funny pandering to dumb gamers.

Has anything changed?

Oh, I forgot to look at join dates

 

[FUDU]

Jesus Christ.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't get why people are so up in arms over the Minsc easter egg (don't get me wrong, that stoner sequence is horribly written and not funny). I think Minsc would be the poster child character for SJWs. He's basically retarded, is all about rampaging against "evil" both real and imagined and hates Edwin to the point of going on a killing spree rage against him. The average Codex poster (and GG supporter) personality is more in line with Edwin than Minsc - though the rampage against evils both real and imagined fits both camps. Either way, it's a tiny bit of content that doesn't really affect anything.

It's like people don't even remember Baldur's Gate with characters like Pirate Newf. A newf is a stereotyped person from Newfoundland (and sometimes Maritimers more generally), if you weren't aware. It's a pretty Canadian reference that sticks out like a sore thumb in a fantasy game, nevermind all the other things that have already been mentioned like Bub Snikt, etc. and it didn't matter at all. The Baldur's Gate (and most D&D) experience isn't about delving into well written tomes of whatever, it's about taking your character(s) and killing a bunch of shit and finding shiny loot. I get tired of politics in games unless it's really well done too, but this particular shit storm strikes me as not being able to see the forest for the trees, especially since everything can be seen as being done with no ill intentions, just a light poke in trying to keep with the overall atmosphere of the original game.

So it seems Codex has at least one intelligent person left.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

probably this.

What's it got to do with sjw?

 

[Tacgnol]

probably this.

What's it got to do with sjw?

It's a stab at GamerGate.

 

[mastroego]

See, I'm an Orphan Black fan, which is an arguably LGBT "friendly" show.
But here's the thing: Felix (gay) is a legitimately awesome character, Cosima (the lesbian) is a positive, good character who sometimes behaves like an ass, etc. etc.
You have the feeling of seeing a slice of the world, so to speak, and you're made to care about the characters.

This is how you "push the agenda", if you really cannot avoid it (which would be best of course).
Conversely, if I start playing a game and immediately "sense" an holier_than_thou landwhale giving the lecture...
And they're surprised of the 3.5 on Metacritic?
It's still too high, it deserves an average of zero.