The fate of Alexis Kennedy's contribution to DA4

I feel you on this on a personal level.

The church is an institution with problems festering at its foundation. Kennedy is an individual. Last I checked trial and proper prosecution is still the way to go there. You may argue this case was of public interest but I deny. And it's not our job to find ouit neither. Nor any mob's.

It's tragic and upsetting to hear about any experience like this and all the broken trust I am fortunate that I personally didn't experience anything of caliber of people hurt by those a-holes... but I know enough to deeply empathize with victims and their struggles to find justice/resolution.

Yea I think such scandals touch the wider and more difficult issue of what happens when abuse intersects with power - be it raw power of money or institution or power garnered from respect and admiration. It'll probably never be an issue that ever goes away in fullness because power either corrupts or reveals... and there will always be abusive a-holes that will fall through the cracks and hurt others in one way or another. However I strongly believe that the issue doesn't have to be as widespread as it appears to be, even if it won't be easy to look many ugly things in the face first. And I simply refuse to grow cynical or apathetic about it. We can do better.

The fact that there are multiple problems doesn't mean that we must stack more problems on top of them or just shrug shoulders and continue, because others are stupid and lazy and not much can be done about it.

If we thought like that at all times there would be no progress in any social issue, or well - any progress ever, outside one born out of necessity. And it may yet be necessary to tackle those issues anyway, because they are unsustainable in the long run and we're running out of runway already. I may indirectly or to varying extents perpetrate injustice in other areas even if only because we live in systems that makes it difficult to fully abstain from harm. But to change those systems we must tackle problems head on. One at a time if need be (even though IMO many of these things are connected and pulling one thread will start unraveling other ones).

Back to topic - I don't think anyone said anything about turning work of a group made project because of one bad apple, or that we should shun Failbetter or Bioware, or DA4 in particular. We don't even know what happened to parts Kennedy worked on and so far it seems that DA devs, specifically those responsible for story elements in game, have publicly denounced him.

Also, one bad apple the like of Kennedy likely wouldn't discourage Bioware from seeking guest writers or working with indies on their future AAA projects - question is whether they'll still manage to such a thing for DA4. This is secondary to the whole scandal but it has bummed me out a little bit that we may not see anything there, while I really like the idea of BW collaborating with an indie/guest writers and was very interested with how they'd integrate parts Kennedy wrote with their larger universe.

Now, we don't know when exactly Bioware began distancing themselves form AK. I suspect that rumors an allegations reached them earlier and they took action way before news broke for the public. It's possible Failbetter or victims reached out to them or were contacted for testimonials. We can't tell. I just have to wonder if DA4 may still possibly have some other indie's input. It'd be cool if it did. As mentioned before, I think Failbetter itself would be a good fit, especially if BW wanted to venture into certain aesthetic and mood.

I really miss 2011.

You mean, when we could all pretend that this sort of thing wasn't happening?

I don't.  The job market sucked for me then.

As to the topic...no way of really knowing until we see the final product and whether or not Kennedy's name is in the credits.

Personally, I wouldn't remove his name. But I know full well they will basically sweep any reference of Kennedy's participation in the games development under the rug, or downplay it completely. 

Looks on topic to me.

A little perhaps if we're getting into speculation about 'other crimes'.

We're dealing with real people's lives here, so unless we have insider knowledge (which I highly suspect we don't) that if the discussion wanders, which inevitably it will, that we gently drift it back to the impact on Dragon Age 4.

Thanks very much.

Another male feminist being outed as a rapist.