Edens_Heel

@theodoricfriede: The difference here is that Dahl is long dead while Rowling is alive and not only profiting off HP's continued relevance but actively using her platform and whatever growth it receives to spread misinformation and demonize us as if we are literal child predators just waiting to snatch up your kids and attack women in bathrooms and prisons. Her platform and relevance are a threat to us, full stop, because she has influence that is spreading far past basic TERF bullshit and is making its way into political discourse.

It's a fucking video game. Buy it and play it if you're going to, but don't act put upon if the trans/gender-nonconforming people in your life give you a hard sigh or a side-eye. IMO, as a trans person very fucking sick of Rowling and the hand-wringing over all this (and yes, whether you want to accept it or not, buying it does help feed into TERF bullshit even if you're not one because it keeps the IP in the public eye, and even when she's not involved she's still part and parcel with it and it brings her name back to the forefront every single time—and for a lot of people, that's enough to legitimize her views), I think the most ethical way to purchase it is by doing so used. But at this point I'm just exhausted by the "ethical debates" going on.

And FTR, yes, separate the art from the artist if that's your way. It is mine in some ways, but it's a sliding scale. In cases like this, it's harder because it's not just someone with shitty opinions on, like, politics and the like; it's tied to someone who is front-and-centre as the focal point of this thing, and whose opinions actively spread dehumanization that causes us harm and convinces others to treat us as criminals, pariahs, and fucking pedophiles.

So buy it if you're going to, but don't go to your trans friends/family/siblings expecting understanding. Some might give it, some might not, but none of us owe that. Whether you think there's an ethical debate here or not, it's your choice, and it's the choice of us in JKR's crosshairs to react however it feels right for us to react on an individual level. In my world, I know a few people who intend on getting it second-hand, and that's fine. For me, I can't enjoy it on any level because at this point, with the level of vitriol directed at us transferring into real-world threats and misinformation being used to legislate against us, and this world's creator as such a strong focal point for so many of the arguments, it has been irrevocably tarnished for me. Whatever love I had for the books, the films, etc., has been harmed in a way I don't think is reversible. It wasn't that way at the beginning, but the relentlessness of it has worn me and many other trans people down. It's just a video game, but it's a symbol of something greater in a fight that feels more and more like a desire to just paint us all as the worst humanity has to offer. I don't feel ill will toward the talented teams that have brought this game to fruition, but I also feel no compunction to give them a pass and just support them because they were doing a job tied to something that, for many, is sullied beyond repair. Make your own decisions and know what the ramifications are, and judge for yourself whether it's worth it.

I've got OCD and am a completionist, so if I drop/walk away from something (game, book, TV show), it's because it is egregiously awful. I think the only time in recent memory I've walked away from a game when near the end is the first Dishonoured. I didn't love it to begin with but found the story/world interesting. But then I encountered a late-game bug that corrupted every single save and made it impossible to progress without starting over, so I bailed on literally the last mission. It soured me enough that I own but haven't wanted at all to continue with the other two games (bought all at once as a bundle).

Outside of such an extreme example, I have to -hate- what I'm doing to walk away unfinished. I might not try to get everything in a game if I've seen credits and felt the experience to be mediocre, but that too is pretty rare. That said, I also investigate games a lot more thoroughly than I used to and experiment less (due to time, money), so I'm rarely so aggressively disappointed.

Gonna be super basic. Dead Space remake for sure, Forespoken maybe, Hollowknight Silksong hell yes. But my old Nintendo-loving ass is most excited for Tears of the Kingdom. And I guess FFXVI (in hopes that it is a damn sight better than XIII and XV, both of which had terrible stories) and the FF Pixel Remasters so that I can finally play through 1 through 3.

Oh, and whatever story-based DLC happens to come our way for Elden Ring. Pretty please.

It's difficult to know where to draw the line re: addiction vs. obsession, but the ones that have brought me the closest are Elden Ring (209 hours in a month and a half, which for me is absurd) and Thumper. With the latter, it didn't help that it is a game that feels literally made for me—I'm a horror-loving synaesthete and former rhythm section kid, so playing that game was like a sustained drug-free trip.

Coincidentally (or not), these are the only two games in recent memory that I have made a point of platinuming...

I'm a lifelong Zelda fan. I saved up all my cash and bought the original when it hit North America, back when I was six or seven. Have played every mainline entry in the series. And I could never get into any of the 3D games prior to Breath of the Wild. Wind Waker had its moments, but I had to force my way through Ocarina, Majora's, Twilight, and Skyward. I recognize that they are well made and beloved, but it wasn't until BotW that I found what I was looking for.

For this year, it's Tunic. Gorgeous and at times ingenious, but the gameplay loop left me totally cold. I critical path'ed my way to the end and felt no inclination to go back and find what I missed.

Elden Ring. Which surprised the hell out of me as I have not been able to get into any FS game before this. Not for lack of trying either. But the open world aspect of this just clicked in a way the others didn't. And the game I was looking forward to the most, which seemed so completely up my alley—Tunic—turned out to be my most disappointing game of the year (it's well made, just the combat and exploration never grabbed me like I needed it to). So it's a year of surprises.

Also really dug Horizon Forbidden West, but as has been said so many times, that franchise has the worst luck in terms of coming out immediately before a game that totally steals its thunder—BotW with the first game and ER with this.

Yeah, much as I have loved and continue to love GOTY podcasts, I agree with the above. And FTR, Brad used to be part of the problem, too. He would constantly say "You're crazy" or "That's crazy" if ever anyone didn't agree with him when usually he was the only person championing Game X, which everyone else on staff had legit complaints for.

I love a lot of the past convos—the Austin Walker/Invisible Inc. year is a fave, as is the year of the Stardew/Thumper/Hyperlight alliance—but in general I prefer the less caustic approach. Because this shit isn't life or death, and because some of the arguments, by the end of the original crew's time, were more about tearing one game or person down than actually making salient arguments. (I remember Ben being especially bad at just complaining about a thing without having much to actually say, but then he rubbed me the wrong way more than any other staff member in GB history.)

Oh god, let's see how many I can recall.

MGS 1 and 2 for opening sequences. Both do such a perfect job setting the stage for something epic. Conversely, MGS3 has, I think, the best final hour of almost any action game.

The Last of Us—less so its final hour and more its final moment. Like, its literal last exchange. It's maybe the best example I've seen of a game knowing -exactly- where to cut to black.

Final Fantasy 6, both opening and ending. The music and slow march of that opening is an all-time nostalgia moment. If you grew up during the '90s playing JRPGs, there was nothing like it. Absolutely iconic. FFVII, on the other hand, is a flawed mess of a game that I don't love as much as many, but I cannot deny the power of that opening—like someone above said, it's maybe one of the best openings to a game ever, and such a statement for the time it came out.

The final hours of both Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian—the former for its unexpectedness and grandeur, the latter for the emotional bond formed.

The final castle assaults in both Link to the Past and Breath of the Wild—I won't lie, when Zelda says in BotW "Courage need not be remembered, for it is never fogotten," it got me.

The opening to Uncharted 2. The leap from 1 to 2 was so profound in its presentation.

And this last one is a dark horse, but the ending of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2. I remember so many game critics shitting on the ending, but I just adore its audacity—you can't lose those fights, you can't even really get hurt, because you didn't; because you did this, this is your own past, and as we all know, history abhors a paradox. It's totally ridiculous and I fucking love it.