Otter said:
"I disagree with that mob mentality, because it's not even trying to foster equality, but another kind of hatred"
The irony is that you are in fact part of a mob which is why you were for so long stuck on the topic of minority representation as opposed to touching any of the actual angles that are truly informing the quality of the game and its overall writing.... Instead salivating on a few select exchanges with one character in a 50hour RPG. You were obsessed only with how it navigates minority circles, being "bi" does not negate you from this bias. Especially since the most provocative issue is a character being non-binary and giving trans options for the player, I presume you are not trans or non-binary? You spoke of radicalisation in an earlier post completely unaware of the fact you yourself sound like you're becoming radicalised.
We can't act like the game in question is fostering any kind of hate or allude to it promoting extreme hiring policies which exclude entire races/demographics of people, so why force those talking points here? This is all really extreme hyperbole that you're projecting onto this review thread and forcing onto this game. Those wider frustrations you have deserve their own discussion and threads.
"we don't fucking need to be sat down like a toddler and educated on how to interact/treat other walks of life" What I find funny is that in the clip that is doing the rounds where the character apologises for misgendering someone, literally 3 seconds is spent on topic of gender, the rest is spent on them dissecting their unique cultural approach to sincere apology. That is world building but people can't get past the reason why they're apologising...
"The people I know, be they black, Trans or Gay, they just want to be treated like normal human beings, not treated as some separate special group or propped up like some gimmick marketing ploy"
It's totally fair to see a topic and feel that it doesn't feel authentic to the world the game is set, its fine to think the a piece of dialogue felt awkard or forced ... But to characterise anything close to DEI as some sinister corporate agenda, that is when you are being part of the "mob". For one give the developer some agency to have their own vision. It's not like EA forced their last star wars game to have some queer angle. If this is what felt interesting to Bioware let them touch on it. I've yet to see any content from the game which represents the aforementioned minority groups as marketing ploys or gimmicks. If a character can have a narrative arc about unrequited love, being rejected form their clan etc, then another can have one about struggling with their identity. It is a double standard to permit only the human experiences which feel relatable to you.
Lastly I do want to reflect on this "trend" of classical fantasy worlds reflecting the make up of the present world. This is not going to change. Fantasy was always born as a mirror for worlds in which people lived in and modern worlds are multicultural. Unless there is source material to dictate otherwise, there is no reason to see diversity as anything other than a normal interpretation of said fantasy world. I do of course want writers/developers to be consistent and athentic with world building in most material. For example I don't expect there to be black Elves if the elves are themselves not of human skin tone... But if the elf is just a white man with pointy ears, there can absolutely be a black/asian subgroups of that. Same with Dwafts etc. Tokenism is real, so I don't want to pretend I don't see you point at all.
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You're part of the mob, too. The degree that people are attacking the game is no more remarkable than the degree to which people are attacking those who are unhappy with it. A large group of defenders have circled the wagons in support of EA and BioWare, which is more than a little odd, especially considering this game would have generated a substantial amount of dismay among potential consumers regardless of the diversity stuff. So many people White Knighting this game with such conviction is definitely not normal.
Looking over Reddit, I see a lot of posts dismissing any and all criticism getting upvoted and posts that discuss what they don't like about it getting downvoted. Youtube reviewers who did not like it are getting shredded and people are acting as if the "journalists" at the well-known sites are suddenly bastions of truth and wisdom. What I really find alarming is the way the access journalism allegation is being swept under the rug as artificial controversy.
That's also mob mentality.
Plus I'd like to point out that you have no legs to stand on when it comes to "extreme hyperbole" after claiming that there were "four pages" of people arguing about a character's breasts. That was so weirdly untrue that it stuck out like a sore thumb.
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