Of course, anyone can consider themselves a “majority”. In an international game. With many different sites in many different languages. Saying that the “kisses” of patch 6 were liked by the majority can, of course, be said by anyone who belongs to the “majority” of some community. Somewhere, depending on reasons I can't name, someone considered such a thing to be the right thing to do. But it was very interesting to see how, including in the non-English speaking segments of the internet, players who also paid money for the game reacted to such a thing in a digital product. A game is an entertainment product, not a way to introduce any ideas, and the consumer must not pay with money, nerves and negative emotions for someone else's interests. For some it is “innovation”, but this “innovation” belongs on specialized shelves, not in RPG games that people buy to add some joy to their lives. These people are paying money for it, they are at their jobs trying to do their jobs well, respecting their customers, caring for them and not trying to “teach” and/or insult them anything. These are adults who don't deserve to suddenly be confronted with “content” such as patch 6 faces in the game they paid for. And the people who prefer to buy games for the joy of it and want to see normal romance in a game, with an adequate story, without suddenly having their favorite character murdered by some patch, they have always been and will always be the real majority. It can even be said without applying it to BG3, it will be confirmed by any marketer who is at least a little familiar not necessarily even with the game industry, but with the concept of what a mass consumer is. The mass consumer will never want “it”. “ It” even on special sites is not given out in automatic distribution, so as not to spoil the pleasure of the content consumer who came to the site, “it” on such sites must be sought specifically, “it” for “amateurs”.
I don't wish any innocent person unfamiliar with this artificially inflated “drama” to accidentally stumble upon these “facial expressions” of patch 6. There are already enough people who have already been provoked by it. BG3 is also sometimes played by teenagers. Yes, they're not allowed by age, but their parents may allow it, they may find a way to do it themselves. They play, and that, I think, is understandable to anyone. If such a teenager encounters the D/s scene and they do not understand it or dislike it, it will not be so difficult to explain that, yes, there is such a variant of romantic interactions, it is all voluntary, it is one of the forms of human romantic relationships. Please download the mod and play classic romance. It would be especially good if Larian officially announced that Ascended Astarion's romance content is for D/s audience, it would remove all questions, warn all new players and those who don't like such content will immediately install mods for themselves, if they want to choose this playthrough option. But if a teenager encounters what was in patch 6 - how do you explain it to them when even in a forum for adults you can't use words that describe “it” so as not to cause anyone unpleasant feelings? And what feelings did it evoke in people on their monitor screens? A consumer is not obliged to share or imbibe someone else's “vision” if the content they buy does not match what the producer claims.
I've shown “ it” from patch 6 to people who haven't played the game and told them what it is and why. The reaction - big eyes, and: “Really? This is in this advertised game? Oh my god... Why would you want that? Why haven't you abandoned it yet...” (I'm not going to make value judgments and I'm omitting the rude words that come out of a normal, adequate, polite, adult person who is generally pretty knowledgeable about the advertising business). There is no need to spoil the reputation of a good studio with such things. Larian finished their content for D/s, included another community in the game, if someone from the community of “toxic romantics” is upset that they were “turned off”, I understand that it may be offensive, but as if, such things are not done in classic M-rated RPGs... Well, there is a genre for that, with warnings, tags and other things.
