Ok, I have read some of the thread against my better judgement, and I have to say, I have a couple quibbles with some folks in here.
First: I have followed Merritt on twitter for several years, as well as Fanbyte since its creation. Today is the first I have heard of any abuse allegations against her. I agree that those should be taken seriously, but it's difficult for me to take the idea that GB should have known about them seriously when I am familiar with the person involved and I didn't know about them. Acting condescending about it is doing no one any favors. Also, Merrit has a platform - if you wish to deplatform her, your energy would be much better directed at the website where she works.
Second, you are seriously diminishing your case by lumping it in with a bunch of other stuff about being mean on twitter. Focus on the abuse allegation, the rest of this stuff is histrionic and makes the abuse allegation seem less serious. If you actually care about the alleged victim, you will not add in your grievances about mean tweets or some former coworker's allegations of workplace disputes. That shit is small ball and will make people assume you are acting out of personal grievance.
It's certainly reasonable to not listen to this podcast, express your displeasure, and ask them to consider whether they invite Merrit on in the future. But the moral righteousness on display here is an exemplar of the reason why people complain about "cancel culture." People tend to react fairly well to clear accusations laid out thoughtfully. They do not react as well to contempt expressed in the form of indignant outrage. Using these issues as an excuse to feel morally superior to those who weren't aware of them is genuinely a problematic cultural theme.
This game is neat, but it's ultimately too short. I felt like I had just started hitting my stride with the mechanics, and then it was over, and there doesn't seem to be much reason to replay it.
@fear_the_booboo: the issue is largely that it was originally designed as a F2P game, and because of a fan backlash, they took all those hooks out. But the design is still clearly very based around itemization, meaning there's very little character progression, and there are mechanics like the fort that almost don't make sense until you imagine all the buildings having 48 hour timers that you can pay to rush
It's not a horrible game (although obviously unfinished, and servers are pretty bad rn), but it's never going to be the sequel to Torchlight 2 that people wanted
I almost feel like this whole series is being made for me. I was just watching the old Vinny Dark Souls playthrough a week or two ago and wishing someone on the site did that again, and lo and behold
Anyway, having a great time, keep up the good work!
Homelessbird's comments