Originally Posted by papercut_ninja
Originally Posted by AmayaTenjo
Originally Posted by fylimar
And let's face it: what did people expect would happen after all the Halsin thirst threads? Of course he is only a sex object, because that was the spirit of those threads. And I know, some wanted him "for his character", but to be honest, there wasn't much about his character to work with to begin with. He was supposed to be a quest tool and ally and that was it. You can't make something out of nothing.

I'm going to disagree here, simply because there are now 3 threads discussing the character, 2 of which are huge threads, so I don't think the Halsimps who wanted him romantically from EA saw more in him than what was there. Plus when you take into consideration his cut content in Act 2, he was going to be a bit more intricately involved with at least the Act 2 stuff. Halsin changed a lot from what they were planning to do with him.

There's no official survey asking people if they wanted the hornified and sexualized version of Halsin or not, so we can't know. But engagement in the forum threads complaining about what we didn't get isn't necessarily a measure of where the majority of Halsinfans stand on this issue, since the ones who are happy with the version that is in the game don't have as much of a reason or commitment to start and engage in threads about it (and a lot of the threads are dominated by a few very active voices who echo each other).

I also don't think the forums are the main source of feedback and engagement that Larian looks at. To them the engagement in social media, fanart and fanfiction are probably much more important in terms of marketing as it is these conversations that draw fans and players in and keep them engaged. I think if you cast a wider net outside the forum and look at other platforms, there was certainly a very sexualized and horny thirst for Halsin and I think there was and still is a much larger audience of "horny shitposters" than what you would think from just looking at this forum.

To be clear, I don't dismiss the disappointment that a lot of Halsin romancers here feel about the final version of Halsin, and I am happy that at least you got an epilogue and a few patches and updates that makes it easier to play your romance with him the way you want it. But I am not surprised about the direction Larian took with him and I don't think it was a mistake from the perspective of marketing and appealing to the wider audience.

That's fair enough.

For me Im speaking as someone who had no prior knowledge of the game before I bought it. Halsin caught my eye in Act 1. So when I figured out how his romance really was, and how it wasn't like the others it was a huge dissapointment. The new epilogue made it more tolerable, but the stain is still there. There are some really great things about him I like that I do think work well, had he not been tainted by the influence of "horny shitposters". Theres no getting around that that is what happened.