Exciting stuff. I just hope they let the devs have their own vision, instead of telling them to have their own vision, then blocking them off at every turn and stuffing it full of greedy, immersion-shattering MTA crap at every turn, like Square Enix shamelessly did with Mankind Divided. While still a good game, it was nothing compared to what it could've/should've been, given the master stroke that was Human Revolution. I also hope they make it harder. The original games are too easy on the hardest setting if you're stealthing it. Only very rarely did you need more than a bit of patience.
The vast majority of people who hate JKR "for what she said", don't know what she said. At the risk of GameSpot silencing me, here's what she said:
“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth... The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women—i.e., to male violence—‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences—is a nonsense.” “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”
JK Rowling has done a lot of shitty, hypocritical things over the years in the SJW space, and I never imagined I'd be jumped to her defence like this so soon after, but that was the first time in a long time I've seen her say something that was both sincere, and not exactly what the thought police had dictated for her and for all of us. And for what it's worth, I completely agree with the above paragraph; I can't find any crack to pry it apart from. The premise is that sex isn't real, and that's exactly what these people do believe, even if they refuse to admit it. They refuse to say what a woman is, and therefore by extension what a man is, and by extension all meaning of male and female and sex, and by extension, all experiences derived therefrom.
Even though it's the clear and obvious implication, the only reason they're not saying the words "it's not real", is because they want to keep using the word for the power it affords them. They want it both ways: They want to wield its power to bully people into line with claims of "discrimination against women", and the vulnerabilities that come with it, then in the same breath, gut the word of all meaning, simply to avoid accepting a definition and thereby excluding, angering, and splintering their own power base.
If the word "woman" has a meaning, then what is it? If the word "woman" has no meaning, which is clearly their reluctant conclusion, then the sentence "She is a woman" is functionally the same as "She is not a woman", and just like that, all their power is gone. They can't get angry with anyone.
Whatever you want to say about JKR, you can't say she's stupid. She's arguably the most successful author in the history of the world, and she knew she had little to gain and everything to lose by saying this. It just looks to me like she finally, to quote her own book, did what was right, instead of what was easy.
This is good. Smart move by the devs. Especially if you're only one offering a certain type of experience, go to the trouble of polishing it up, even if it's really out of your way. It'll be a slow burner but will pay for itself many times over in the following years. Sooner or later, hundreds of thousands if not millions of gamers' curiosity will get the better of them, and they won't be able to resist picking it up in a sale.
@Barighm: Oh I'm sorry. I clearly "missed the point". You were trying to tell us how much faster at writing you are than GRR Martin when I interrupted you. That's clearly what you prefer we talk about underneath this GRRM story as you've mentioned it twice already so please, do go on. That you're a writer you say? That must be why you use the word "Yeesh" so much better than me. Sublime. You've defended GRRM's name valiantly from those who keep mentioning the speed of his writing compared to others. Forgive me. For shame. For shame.
@cboye18: Well, the skill tree is a separate issue, and the camera could probably use a bit of work, but that's an issue in literally most fast, one-on-many, melee combat games. The movement in combat could be more fluid, but for me at least it never caused frustration. Return of the King combat felt great in-part because it was doing something far less ambitious. Every single enemy just runs up to you and stands there, and we all thought that was great. Just think about how much more Geralt and his enemies are doing in those games. People often forget just how much simpler games were before the PS3/360 era. You can expect unsatisfied people to make approximately 10x more noise than satisfied ones.
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