Beamdog working on a new D&D CRPG (cancelled)

[Storyfag]

the existence of Polymorph Self/Other, the gender-bending girdles, potions, magic mirrors that can alter appearance and all other kinds of knick-knacks that will make the problem go away in an instant. (...) and it will be cheaper

While Faerun's High Magic setting does indeed have a myriad of tools to deal with such issues, I would not necesserily assume they are cheap and/or widely availible.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Sheeee-it. That’s egregious. I thought they just added skippable stuff to the EEs. When you start “correcting” degenerate art something has gone very wrong.

Not to defend Amber Scott, who is a shitty hack writer, but all these changes were things she wrote into Siege of Dragonspear. AFAIK, they didn't change anything about the companions for the BG and BG2 EEs. Not that there is any basis for her complaints anyway since these "personality traits" are literally pulled out from the few one-liners the companions say when you select them, put them as the party leader or they get badly hurt.

 

[Cael]

Sheeee-it. That’s egregious. I thought they just added skippable stuff to the EEs. When you start “correcting” degenerate art something has gone very wrong.

Took you this long to find out what cuckdog did and why people are so pissed off with them?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Took you this long to find out what cuckdog did and why people are so pissed off with them?

I mean, given the way people here react to even a little cultural liberalism, I tend to assume that these things are being blown out of proportion. You guys don't know what social justice warfare looks like until you've been to a house party in Brooklyn--I think half the codex would get an aneurysm after ten minutes. But representation? [Yawns]...wake me up when someone starts saying that groping is as bad as rape. This woman is, at most, a social justice skirmisher. Getting mad about it simply encourages her delusion that she's on an actual crusade.

Anyway, I take back what I said above, because it looks like these "changes" were all within SoD, which is not the same as changing the parts of the originals they find problematic. It's their bad fan fiction, they can do whatever they want with it. Amber Scott is merely a lousy writer; the political stuff is beside the point. Honestly, being a bad writer is so much worse. She can always filter out her agenda in her future work, but she can't grow herself an imagination or, say, talent.

It's the Leni Riefenstahl test: Triumph of the Will is a great movie despite being made by a nazi with an explicit nazi agenda. But take the transexuals and strong female characters (tm) out of SoD and it still would be a cringeworthy game.

 

[ArchAngel]

Exactly. It's a roleplaying game. When your only options (even if you are a Chaotic Evil bastard) are to politely thank Mizhena for hearing her riveting story of being a tranny in a fantasy setting where she/he/xir can easily morph their gender - the writing and design have failed on every conceivable level.

This. It wouldn't be a problem if the game let you react appropiately. Kind of funny considering all this crap is a thing because people tend to react negatively in real life to men playing dress up.

Hell, don't need to go 100% offensive. Just a good old

What kind of man dresses up in woman's clothes?

The lack of such a response is stunning in a game clearly inspired on a time period that was known, around many other things, for being as sexist as it could get. Being gay was a legitimate reason to be hurt by others.

Actually the game does let you be CE in Mizhana example. You can attack and kill Mizhana without anyone becoming hostile and even without a rep loss.

 

[Lilura]

Amber Scott is merely a lousy writer; the political stuff is beside the point. Honestly, being a bad writer is so much worse. She can always filter out her agenda in her future work, but she can't grow herself an imagination or, say, talent.

This was my point, too. But the 'Dexers ITT went crazy at the content of my screencaps instead of criticizing the form, or lack thereof.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Amber Scott is a Ms. Nobody as a writer. She had worked as a marketing manager (or something like that) at a company not related to the games industry, then became a "community manager" at Beamdog "who also does some writing", and then progressively "did" more and more writing, until eventually a nice far turd came out in SoD. Her career crashed shortly after, and she will not be doing any more writing ever, for the good of the whole literate English-speaking world.

I had my reservations from the first time I saw that insecure caricature with the green "Beam-bard" hat and pink feather during a stream, I remember thinking to myself "this is the kind of person who writes for a BG interquel?", but never commented on her outlook or obvious inadequacy because it's a low ball, and it would just mean I am being prejudicial. When I got to see the result of her work however, her childish refusal to come to terms with reality (what kind of a writer you'd have to be to do that?), and even more so when she put all her prejudice to work defending her "creation", all compassion I could have had quickly evaporated.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I mean, given the way people here react to even a little cultural liberalism, I tend to assume that these things are being blown out of proportion

It's just the neckbeards and the Western Civilization Defence Squad in action and they routinely throw a massive temper tantrum and pretend that the sky is falling down, gigantic drama queens that they are. They are actually only a subset of Codexers, albeit extremely loud and retarded group. The whole thing WAS blown out of all proportion because it happened relatively soon after the whole GamerGate fiasco and Scott martyrized herself by being very hostile in couple of interviews and forum posts. Which of course merely fed fuel to the fire.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Amber Scott is merely a lousy writer; the political stuff is beside the point. Honestly, being a bad writer is so much worse. She can always filter out her agenda in her future work, but she can't grow herself an imagination or, say, talent.

This was my point, too. But the 'Dexers ITT went crazy at the content of my screencaps instead of criticizing the form, or lack thereof.

Yeah, it looks like you inadvertently sent up the batshit signal.

Amber Scott is a Ms. Nobody as a writer. She had worked as a marketing manager (or something like that) at a company not related to the games industry, then became a "community manager" at Beamdog "who also does some writing", and then progressively "did" more and more writing, until eventually a nice far turd came out in SoD.

That is a bizarre career path. But I guess it just goes to show, anyone can rise to the level of their own incompetence. It's really kind of a heartwarming story from a feminist perspective. Apparently men aren't the only ones who can fail upward--progress marches on!

 

[Luckmann]

Sheeee-it. That’s egregious. I thought they just added skippable stuff to the EEs. When you start “correcting” degenerate art something has gone very wrong.

Took you this long to find out what cuckdog did and why people are so pissed off with them?

It bothers me more than it should that someone took the time to photoshop Worf like that, but didn't take the time to fix the fact that his uniform should be yellow, not red, and also, from wherever they photoshopped it in from, they fucked up the pips.

 

[Cael]

Sheeee-it. That’s egregious. I thought they just added skippable stuff to the EEs. When you start “correcting” degenerate art something has gone very wrong.

Took you this long to find out what cuckdog did and why people are so pissed off with them?

It bothers me more than it should that someone took the time to photoshop Worf like that, but didn't take the time to fix the fact that his uniform should be yellow, not red, and also, from wherever they photoshopped it in from, they fucked up the pips.

Heh. I am not Trekkie enough to notice that level of detail... and I am glad :D

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Amber Scott is a Ms. Nobody as a writer. She had worked as a marketing manager (or something like that) at a company not related to the games industry, then became a "community manager" at Beamdog "who also does some writing", and then progressively "did" more and more writing, until eventually a nice far turd came out in SoD. Her career crashed shortly after, and she will not be doing any more writing ever, for the good of the whole literate English-speaking world.

Too bad!

 

[Jimmious]

I'm doing an EE+SoD run at the moment and currently started SoD.
It really doesn't matter what political "agenda" they have, they just write BADLY. If you go in directly after BG the difference is so obvious that it's almost painful.
Which is a pity actually because they DID manage to pull off some cool stuff with the engine. How the city feels full and people are moving everywhere constantly or some "animations" of scripted scenes are pretty cool... And some nice backgrounds.
But daaaamn the writing is BAD. Plus the voice acting is mediocre at most and that doesn't help. Except Minsc, Dynaheir and Safana of course

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

It's just the neckbeards and the Western Civilization Defence Squad in action and they routinely throw a massive temper tantrum and pretend that the sky is falling down, gigantic drama queens that they are. They are actually only a subset of Codexers, albeit extremely loud and retarded group. The whole thing WAS blown out of all proportion because it happened relatively soon after the whole GamerGate fiasco and Scott martyrized herself by being very hostile in couple of interviews and forum posts. Which of course merely fed fuel to the fire.

What? Game journalism and game development are being hijacked by SJW types that despise gamers and want to push their agenda? Oh please, stop it!

Do have to be worry about immigrants in German? The next time you guys are going to argue that they will rape our women and live like social parasites in our country. You guys need to go out more. Stop living in the internet.

I never met anyone that defended that gender is a construct. Never. This sex change is sky-rocketing thing is completely overblown. Bunch of internet fanatics.

So a bunch of feminists are falsely accusing men of rape. I never saw that! It's obvious conspirators thinking on your part, guys. Sorry.

 

[Jimmious]

It's just the neckbeards and the Western Civilization Defence Squad in action and they routinely throw a massive temper tantrum and pretend that the sky is falling down, gigantic drama queens that they are. They are actually only a subset of Codexers, albeit extremely loud and retarded group. The whole thing WAS blown out of all proportion because it happened relatively soon after the whole GamerGate fiasco and Scott martyrized herself by being very hostile in couple of interviews and forum posts. Which of course merely fed fuel to the fire.

What? Game journalism and game development are being hijacked by SJW types that despise gamers and want to push their agenda? Oh please, stop it!

Do have to be worry about immigrants in German? The next time you guys are going to argue that they will rape our women and live like social parasites in our country. You guys need to go out more. Stop living in the internet.

I never met anyone that defended that gender is a construct. Never. This sex change is sky-rocketing thing is completely overblown. Bunch of internet fanatics.

So a bunch of feminists are falsely accusing men of rape. I never saw that! It's obvious conspirators thinking on your part, guys. Sorry.

Are you trying to be ironic? You're not doing it well

 

[Sizzle]

It's just the neckbeards and the Western Civilization Defence Squad in action and they routinely throw a massive temper tantrum and pretend that the sky is falling down, gigantic drama queens that they are. They are actually only a subset of Codexers, albeit extremely loud and retarded group. The whole thing WAS blown out of all proportion because it happened relatively soon after the whole GamerGate fiasco and Scott martyrized herself by being very hostile in couple of interviews and forum posts. Which of course merely fed fuel to the fire.

What? Game journalism and game development are being hijacked by SJW types that despise gamers and want to push their agenda? Oh please, stop it!

Do have to be worry about immigrants in German? The next time you guys are going to argue that they will rape our women and live like social parasites in our country. You guys need to go out more. Stop living in the internet.

I never met anyone that defended that gender is a construct. Never. This sex change is sky-rocketing thing is completely overblown. Bunch of internet fanatics.

So a bunch of feminists are falsely accusing men of rape. I never saw that! It's obvious conspirators thinking on your part, guys. Sorry.

Are you trying to be ironic? You're not doing it well

He's so painfully illiterate it's hard to tell.

 

[Cael]

Amber Scott is merely a lousy writer; the political stuff is beside the point. Honestly, being a bad writer is so much worse. She can always filter out her agenda in her future work, but she can't grow herself an imagination or, say, talent.

Getting a SJW to filter out her agenda is like getting a chimpanzee to bash away at a typewriter and reproducing the complete works of Shakespeare. It s theoretically possible, but you had better have a long lifespan if you want to see it.

 

[Harry Easter]

I'm doing an EE+SoD run at the moment and currently started SoD.
It really doesn't matter what political "agenda" they have, they just write BADLY. If you go in directly after BG the difference is so obvious that it's almost painful.
Which is a pity actually because they DID manage to pull off some cool stuff with the engine. How the city feels full and people are moving everywhere constantly or some "animations" of scripted scenes are pretty cool... And some nice backgrounds.
But daaaamn the writing is BAD. Plus the voice acting is mediocre at most and that doesn't help. Except Minsc, Dynaheir and Safana of course

Yes. That's Beamdog in a nutshell. Whatever you may think or interpret as political agenda (and guys this is deader than Wizardry, so why arre you still discussing about this), the new characters are awfully written. Really awful. The monk is kind of a guilty pleasure for me, since he has to be a fanfic-character ("My brother hates me, because he always knew that I was the better fighter, buhu"), but Dorn is a plainwreck, because they really try to sell this guy as the hardest mofo in all of Amn. Where I swap some short lines with other characters before I recruit them, Dorn will tell me how much kitten he has eaten today (buddy, I'm a child of Bhaal. I can't take a piss, without killing three assassins after waking up). They try to really sell us the coolness of these chars, that they even hijack scenes and that's what the writing makes so awful.

Still, the monk has to be the dumbest member of my group ever and at least I got a last member for a complete lawful good run. But he's dying all the time. Well, at least he's as good as his writing, at least there he's very consistent.

 

[Luckmann]

SJW:s capable of filtering out their agenda are, practically by definition, not SJW:s.

One of the key aspects of good writing is about being able to see, feel, visualize, and transmit the thoughts and feelings of others. Good writing requires a level of empathy that is completely alien to the mindset of the average SJW. They genuinely do not understand how or why people may not agree with them; to them, it is inconceivable that others do not share their point of view, and they attribute all differences in pejorative terms, whether "ignorance" or (more commonly) malice.

Not only SJW:s do this, and it is very much dependent on subject matter. For example, most people writing anything at all dealing with "nazis" have never in their lives talked to any form of genuine fascist, and are completely ignorant in regards to their viewpoints or world-view, resulting in incredibly shallow characterizations, even outside of obvious popular propaganda.

SJW:s, however, differ in that they are supremely ignorant on a vast array of subjects while also being deeply opinionated on an equally vast number of topics, as well as lacking in any form of genuine empathy (or even a will to empathize, since this would by it's very nature challenge their by-design shallow world-view).

The maintenance of cognitive dissonance requires nurtured ignorance, and is a key component for manufacturing useful idiots for the purpose of cultural marxism and the enforcement of political correctness.

 

[Jimmious]

And Harry Easter for me the NPCs are not the worst part of the writing. The fact that you ALWAYS have a "snarky / wise-assy" answer available in dialog is aggravating. In like 3-4 hours of play I already had 3-4 occasions where all the answers seemed completely unfitting to my actual thoughts.
Also the initial quests in the city were completely out of place for a high level HERO OF A CITY. I was told to fetch a drink from inside, bring 50 gold to some lady, go call the cops and stuff like that.

Not to mention the "surfer dude" mage in the inn. Ffs.

 

[yes plz]

'Fan fiction' is the best way to describe SoD. Returning characters are caricatures of themselves ("Remember how hilarious it was those few times Edwin compared people to monkeys? Wouldn't it be even funnier if he did it every other line of dialogue!?"), story elements that really make no sense with the series' continuity (e.g. the weird mini-romance with Viconia, the entire ending of the expansion's story), and shit that feels like it was added just because someone thought it'd be cool (e.g. Irenicus popping up every so often just to spout cryptic nonsense).

Which is the shame because the dungeons are pretty good and so is a lot of the content in them. The general premise - helping an army to prepare and take on an opposing army - is interesting and filled with potential but mostly wasted.

 

[octavius]

Amber Scott is merely a lousy writer; the political stuff is beside the point. Honestly, being a bad writer is so much worse. She can always filter out her agenda in her future work, but she can't grow herself an imagination or, say, talent.

Getting a SJW to filter out her agenda is like getting a chimpanzee to bash away at a typewriter and reproducing the complete works of Shakespeare. It s theoretically possible, but you had better have a long lifespan if you want to see it.

Well, Moorcock and GRRM, if they can be classified as bona fide SJWs, manage it in their works.

 

[Lacrymas]

There's a big difference between SJW and someone who will support the (reasonable) rights of minority groups because they aren't a petty and small person.

 

[AwesomeButton]

BG Edwin is the ultimate Codexer archetype.

 

[Mexi]

BG Edwin is the ultimate Codexer archetype.

You're kidding, right? This is the very ultimate archetype of the Cuckdex. Embrace it you cucks. That's how the world sees you.