This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Is Baldur's Gate 3 woke or parody of woke?
I am character creation screen - you can choose between body type 1,2,3,4 . After that you can choose between voice 1 and 2 , Your Identity can be Male / Female or Non Binary, then you can hide your clothes (at this point I decided that developers were actually trolling because nudity in D&D BG series was rare to nonexistent) and you can choose your genitals if the default doesn't suit you to Vulva A, Vulva B or Penis A-D ,
So you can make a decent futanari I guess.
Have you noticed that Man and Woman were nowhere to be mentioned and you can't choose your gender? That everything is deconstructed and presented in the most cold, indifferent, clinical way? I don't think that it shows welcoming or acceptance. More like indifference and very subtle contempt while not giving reasons for complaining - the video game equivalent of sliding benches that make impossible for homeless people to sleep on them.
I didn't find it too woke. There's the character creation thing and a lot of blatantly gay people around. And as always, the evil choices are objectively worse than the good choices in terms of writing and content (in other words, saving people is better than being selfish).
For reference, I'm in mid chapter 3, about 150 hours in.
On a woke scale of 1-10, I'd give BG3 a 3.5. Tolerable, with the occasional, rare, cringe-inducing moment.
Things annoying me, so far (80 hrs, middle of chapter 2).
6- very long winded but not tactically more interesting combat. They MUST implement rt wp for me to buy a DLC.
6- inexplicably bad interface, esp re: switching party. Like they missed a golden opportunity to add an extra dm of: go to camp and bring back X and having to charisma roll when they don't wanna..!
5- silly economics. Why can't the prices be sensible? You could sink the extras into hiring mercs, costs of magical items, bribes, charity donations etc..
4- inventory BS. I suspect there are quivers, potion cases. But fuck it I want a spell collecting all the silverware, incense!
5- 'softness': the camp BS when they could easily implement resting on map. Inventory teleportation.
Sometimes the enemy alert system are bizarre: drunk goblin camp, you backstab one guy, entire camp is onto you.
Para time magical fascist training camp: you paint a hallway red in a long and loud fight with three guards being unreasonable about a healing potion, nothing happens!!!
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link