Maybe it's an accurate portrayal of politicians but as for the political issues themselves the devs apparently picked only the worst arguments to represent either side.
I think that's kind of the point though isn't it? quite clearly satirical.
The game is written in such a way that the arguments are comparable to the worst level of TV or Internet punditry.
The thread started off complaining about the liberal side, well there are just as many incredibly stupid arguments presented by the Elves for example.
No, you see, you just can't say there are stupid arguments and use that as an example. You actually have to provide specific examples to use as an example.
The tricky thing with policy decisions is, at a certain point, everyone started getting different randomly assigned issues to discuss. So even if the issues are presented skewed, say, 60-40 or 70-30 in favor of far-left policies, it's possible through luck of the draw to experience a 50-50 split.
Rack:
I'm glad you see my point about the Catherine arc. One of the things that irks me the most about it in particular is the choices are almost always "Yes, you are so right, Catherine. You are a guardian angel of morality and are a strong independent female character I should praise in my review." or "Mwahahaha! I will never let you do that because you belong in the kitchen and your brain is 30% smaller than mine. Mwahahahaha!" The only noticeable exception to this rule is the meritocracy issue and, as you point out, the implications of the decision are fairly horrible. Plus, in the design doc, it mentions specifically that with one response she "destroys your argumentation". That's just bad writing, plain and simple. Why write an argument that doesn't hold water?
I hate to get stuck on this character in particular, but it always struck me as odd that you would never consider, you know, court-martialing her for insubordination. You are emperor, after all.
Back to the original point of this thread though, I think the main problem is that these character arcs, arguments, and policy issues become "Holier-Than-Thou" when it comes to some pet issues for Larian Studios. If you disagree with certain issues, it's because you're wicked and greedy. It's never because the evidence for an argument is based on hearsay (because, as it turns out, all hearsay is 100% true in this game). Plus, it doesn't help that characters like Scarlett and Catherine become completely one-dimensional when you complete their arc. Every time you talk to Scarlett after a battle post-acceptance-arc, she says something to the effect of "We won and I'm a lesbian!" or "I fought hard that battle and I'm still a lesbian!" or "You did a great job! Have I ever told you that I'm a lesbian?"
All that said, 75% of the time, the game is very clever with its approach to politics and hits a strong satirical note. The problem is the remaining 25% of the time the game gets very preachy and it breaks immersion.
Also, while I'm here, I'll throw out another three things that really bugged me during this game.
1. The Raven gets mentioned so much as a really awesome and essential ship ala the Normandy in Mass Effect or the Hyperion in Starcraft II. So why does it never make an appearance on the campaign map or battlefield or really any cinematic? Even though you never control the ship in those games (technically you control the Hyperion for one mission in Heart of the Swarm, but I'm getting off topic), you still feel and see the impact that ship has as it saves your character several times.
2. How come Corvus has a capital? I thought he was just a demonic influence, corrupting the minds of thousands. It doesn't seem like that system of government would warrant a capital. From a metagame perspective, it'd make the third act much more challenging because you'd have to go country by country to eliminate Corvus instead of just knocking out his capital (which is very easy to do, given the diffuse nature of the provinces on the final map). In fact, why does the Dragon Commander have a capital city too? The entire nucleus of the government is located on board the Raven. So unless this airship of unimaginable power is permanently drydocked at Orcha, it seems really odd that the fall of that one country should make a difference to the Dragon's war effort.
3. The technology level seems really inconsistent between what the characters talk about and what we see on the battlefield. For instance, Scarlett talks about leading a platoon of all female knights on horseback when she goes to behead the evil Duke. We have knights in this steampunk society? And they ride horses? That doesn't seem thematically congruent with all the steam powered walkers the regular army uses.
