This is the worst writing (answers) I've seen in the game and it breaks and broke the roleplay experience. The answers (2 answers Tav being a selfish asshole - and 2 answers being an asshole) force you to let your Tav (neutral/good) behave extremely OOC. There is no positive answer for neutral/good. It seems the writer of these weird answers had either a huge lack of the Romance story or wanted to dictate your Tav beeing a selfish asshole.
Any player I've discussed this scene with is sure to point this out. Anyone. There isn't a person who likes it. It's very easy to fix this by giving an extra line to the player, and one or two extra lines for Astarion. But... Perhaps, knowing Astarion, it's safe to assume that he should have a particular reaction to this line. A reaction that in no way fits into the "bad Astarion, ew, you can't, don't ascend him, don't you dare, you should want a free relationship like you're told" model. And if you don't want a "free relationship" then you can only be... You've already described exactly who. And yes, another cue for Tav will prevent the "wrong person" from being shown in the way necessary for the purposes of promoting the only correct behavior and choices.
THIS is how a good RPG writer should think and write to make a game enjoyable for players. Thank you for that quote. The illogical and OOC abuse in the AA kisses are 100 % against this statement and rule for writing good RPGs.
Role-playing involves the chance to play a role and realistic reactions from the world to the player's behavior in it. People are different. Ideology (any ideology) tries to lead everyone to one single "right" option (or to some spectrum of "allowed" options). Those who are unwilling to follow the precepts must be broken, "fixed" and shown to be an example to the rest of us. A good RPG = freedom of choice. Freedom of choice is the main enemy of any ideology. At this point in the game, ideology beats RPGs by a resounding score.
I tried picking up the game again but I couldn't get through it, so that's it for me, my all time favorite game is forever lost to me if they won't undo those changes and tbh I don't think they care enough to do. I said a while back that I was afraid that the success and all their awards were getting to their heads and I'm beginning to think I'm right, all they seem to be posting/bragging about lately is about nominations and how much success they now have, they never did that before. They won't care about their fans to change it back, the latest patch confirmed that for me, doing that to Minthara as well proves that they will ruin more and more in this game. On Facebook gaming media sites are even talking about not recognising this game anymore and how it will end up becoming a completely different game in a few months.
Picking up the game now is just damaging your own psyche. I did it "out of spite" as an experiment, knew exactly what to expect, but ended up having to buy anti-depressants anyway, just to get out of this state faster and be able to deal with real things in real life. The game is forever lost for many, and not only is this very unfair, but it violates our rights as consumers. That's why I'm trying to appeal at least to those responsible for the commercial success of the project. In the past, I would never have called this magical world a "project". But I don't see anyone showing any consideration for the feelings of the players or for the destruction of the game's story. I just wish that this beautiful game world wasn't permanently mutilated, and that they fix what they did with patch 6. Today - Astarion, tomorrow - Mintara, the day after tomorrow... Either the ideology will destroy the RPG, leaving only its adherents in the game, or the players will somehow manage to influence the course of events and unlock its suffocating grip on the throat of his favorite character (this, of course, is just a faint hope, but it is better to try to do something than to do nothing at all).
I must say, it is truly impressive how Larian is currently recruiting for multiple job openings, yet, upon visiting the official Larian Forums the first thing you see are individuals harassing Larian employees.
I'm not harassing anyone. I'm just trying to find out the motives (every action has motives) and that's important. It's important for us, the players, if only to understand what to expect from this game. I just collected a few articles from gaming magazines to better familiarize myself with the author's vision.
