Originally Posted by Dracony
Originally Posted by Zerubbabel
Originally Posted by Dracony
Originally Posted by Zerubbabel
Anyone want to talk about the coup in Niger? What about military rule over Sudan? We could go generic and just do Israel-Palestine! Which China is the real one again? Does anyone care that the Tigray war resulted in mass ethnic cleansings on both sides and Abiy Ahmed, Nobel Peace Prize Recipient, likely ordered it. Speaking of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates who go on to do horrific things, does anyone think Aung San Suu Kyi is still alive after being arrested before which she was idly watching a genocide in her own country? How about the Taliban in Afghanistan, the various Salafist and Baathist factions in Syria, or the fact that the borders in Africa aren't a real representation of actual armed political entities in the continent?

Unironically I think these would have been valid discussions in similar circumstance, like China invasion of Taiwan and I'd rather not give my money to Tencent then (or tbh even now). But I think by listing these you are a bit underestimating the scale of the horrific stuff Russia is doing, e.g. blowing up the dam and flooding entire towns and then shooting those trying to escape and filming it. It is just much harder to claim ignorance and "neutral as in I don't know enough about the conflict" stance for devs who are literally from Russia.
Is it now?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has claimed, say, around 300,000-450,000 lives according to various military, diplomatic, and humanitarian sources.
The Tigray Conflict which started in Ethiopia in 2020 has killed 300,000-600,000 lives (by a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate).
The Yemeni Civil War which started in 2014 has killed at least 400,000 people.
The South Sudanese Civil War which started in 2013 killed at least 380,000 people.
The Syrian Civil War has killed at least 600,000 people since 2011 and is ongoing.
The Boko Haram Insurgency is still ongoing and has claimed at least 350,000 lives.
The Mexican Drug Wars have claimed at least 400,000 lives and are ongoing.

The Internet is everywhere; cameras are everywhere.

What you are missing is that the Russian invasion has just started a single year ago and has already caught up to these ongoing events some of which were happening for years. But you also misunderstood my intent, I was not trying to compare numbers, all of these are horrific, hence why I said that the same question would be valid in those other contexts as well. I would for sure not want to play a game made by those supporting Mexican cartels or those supporting them.

The point I was trying to make is that for Russians it is not "just another conflict far away" it is something their country is actively doing and is all over news so these devs not having anything to say feels like they are being complicit. There also is a lot of support for war on among those living in Russia who feel like they are "showing Ukraine who's boss" etc. So a logical question then is why random companies who are much less affected by the war (Obsidian and CDProject, etc.) do choose to say something without being asked, why Larian is deliberately remaining silent when asked multiple times?

There is very little downside to offering "thoughts and prayers" unless you have a good amount of employees who would not be comfortable with that statement (and coincidentally are Russian).
Look, I get where you're coming from. Slava Ukraini, but I don't think Larian is in any special or specific position to make sweeping statements about the state of the world. I don't think it would make a difference. I think the most they can do is downsize or eliminate their operations in Russia (to which they seem to be leaning), provide localization in the Ukrainian language to deny Putin's claims that the Ukrainian people do not exist historically (which Larian eventually did), and maybe put out a statement. But I think a statement is not going to change anything for Larian or for Ukraine.

Remember the human (This is a forum for a video game):