Yeah. If there's one thing that I can't stand in video games, it's devs shoving in crappy politics, and a fanbase that cares more about wokeness than anything else.
Political intrigue that contributes to the plot, world building, character development is all good. I think the complaint is when current real life political hot topics bleed into the game studio that result in stuff like virtue signalling, diversity hires, that recent Insomniac games spergout to Sony and the general Anita Sarkeesian-ing of video games.
technically it's still account sharing or a single account being used by more than one user, it's not surprising they're cracking down on that.
apparently HoT isn't that bad story wise, the zones are a definitive improvement, which they all threw out again in PoF for their dumb mount gimmick (I honestly don't get why people rave about it so much, it's clunky and basically poor man's metroid with "oh no, you need to have superjump to get into this area" etc.; constantly having to switch mounts sucks donkey dick and only is a thing so they can sell skins) and the story cratering even harder. if you played gw1 this is the point where you gonna flip the table, if diversity's edge didn't make you quit way earlier.
there's a difference between political themes and using a game as a soapbox with hamfisted writing and pandering you can see from a mile a way to the point it drags the whole game down.
Didactic real-world bullshit is antithetical to escapism, plus it makes it age like milk. Imagine how obnoxious and silly it'd be to play an old RPG from the 80s, and half the dialog seemed like the writer just found out Ronald Reagan was fucking his wife.
My favorite has to be from the newest expansion pack. They made sure to tell you that this pirate captain was gay, even though he's been dead since 2013 and his only purpose in the story was to beassassinated. It's so painfully meeting a quota at that point, and it's a shame 'cause I don't even think the lesbian couple are that bad in terms of characters (when it comes to most of the other cast, at least)
FWIW the base story is still pretty solid, but I wouldn't do more than finish it up. As you've said, the community was (and still is) absolute politispergs.
I hope the game gets a lore-friendly Dead And Gay Memorial Obelisk in a central place so no one can miss which characters are certified dead and gay.
For what it's worth; when it comes to MMOs like this, I usually just end up skipping as many cutscenes as possible, as it helps me get into the action faster - I enjoy a good story, but when it drags on it gets frustrating. Looking at you, FFXIV.
With some of the changes they've been doing with re-adding old content I wouldn't be surprised.
Might be a bit of an odd recommendation, but if you like puzzle games (and I would hazard you might if you're a programmer, I find the mental space similar) I highly recommend Sutte Hakkun on Super Famicom for your multicart. It was my favorite puzzle game for a decade before it finally got matched (or surpassed?) by Baba is You. I've still never finished every puzzle as it gets brutal near the end. Give it a shot!I’m pretty excited to play SNES games these upcoming weeks. To be honest, I need some break time from real life activities going on. (Not too much of a break of course, since I still have to work.)
True, but at least with it there's legit hope for better days. Peaks and valleys.
Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, TES III Morrowind, and TES IV Oblivion if you haven't played them.
I wasn't a big fan of Baldurs Gate, due to it feeling more like a RTS with 6 units than a RPG
Yes I've played all of those.
That's fair. Figured I'd give it a try. Have you tried Mad Max or any of the recent Assassin's Creed games? They are pretty decent open world games.
I kind of disagree here
This.
