" @ryanwho: If the sequel bombed in spite of being great, I would call that a pretty effective stand. "

There are gay charities?  Why do gay people need a charity?  It's not like they need a cancer charity where they're trying to cure a disease or like a homeless charity here they're trying to solve a problem.  Surely there's no need for such an organisation...

The thing with boycotts is you actually need to pick an issue that more than a handful of people give a shit about.  Otherwise, they aren't just futile, they might even be counterproductive - a boycott without boycotters is just free publicity.  This might have made a few people feel better about themselves, but that's as far as it goes.  I imagine Shadow Complex has been a runaway success for all involved and they won't think twice about making a sequel in the same universe.
 
Also, the idea that you can buy back the moral highground by donating something to charity is laughable.  'Paying off your guilty conscience' and 'having principles' are not the same thing - they could not be more different.

This is worse than an empty gesture, though, because talented people are losing money in the process. I'd prefer an empty gesture that solves nothing and doesn't catch bystanders in the crossfire.
I just don't see the endgame, here. I see this underpants gnome style logic "ban figure vaguely connected to game, ______, gay marriage is acceptable/profit?"
I don't even see a tangential connection, ultimately all these means is Card will have to skip on one of the dips in his three dip salsa at the next "sanctity of marriage" meeting. And a bunch of developers will suffer, not that you care obviously.

In the end, I thought what do I want more: to support a dev team that made a good game or deny them money because of one man's view. I chose the former and enjoyed the game. No way am I gonna punish the team because of different political views.

I do agree that boycotting the game based on one man, who is indirectly involved in the production of the game, and his views is stupid and ignorant in itself.  The guys who are actually making the game do not share the views of Card and deserve the money they get from people buying the game.

He is a fucktard and should be sent to a country like Iran, where gays are hung everyday, maybe then he'd see how fucked up his views are.

Also, I feel I need to clarify that I have followed this thread since the beginning and there has never been anyone mentioning a boycott except for all the people crying out that being an informed consumer is stupid. We have had people talking about how the circumstances surrounding this game make each of them feel uncomfortable as individuals, but there has been no call to arms.

I dont have to give money to  the dev team.Plenty of people have bought the game hence my money would buy them a top of the range coffee maker as well as fund a nutcase.Or I can give them no money, they have to buy a crappier coffee machine   and  my conscience is clear.
 
A more interesting question would be if a great game was selling poorly and a fucktard like card was linked with it would I buy it?
Answer...very difficult it would have to be like Bioshock..i.e after playing the demo I felt that the devs had designed a game for me.