Have Bioware's recent actions changed your mind?

I also said both sides deserve blame for their treatment of each other, Heir is one example of that on BioWares side. 

I never said it was funny. And yeah, death threats are kind of a dumb thing to do because it makes you look like an ass.

It doesn't make him racist, it just makes Heir an asshole. There is a difference. 

You are right, but not all cases are created equal, which is more to the point, and problem, with this entire discussion. 

If you should say "kill whites" in a room full of white people, no one will really care, and the reason for that is mostly psychological; no one would care about the ravings of someone who won't enact on their actions.

I've been on subways in Manhattan for example, where folks start preaching about how all the bankers on wall street need to die, and everyone ignores them because they sound foolish. Or a woman saying all men are pigs and need to be castrated, that was a fun one. They get ignored most of the time, because they are actively trying to engage people in a fight, goading them, basically. 

You simply don't engage them because their rants are not serious or any form of discourse. This is why I can't take him literally, at least. 

Now, if you say "kill blacks" in a room full of black people, it's different because of laws and stigma of racism towards blacks. There is a lot of stuff there that can be said too- how it infantiles blacks due to laws over-protecting them and all that but that's not here nor there- for the majority the reaction is different, and this includes anyone of color. 

There is inherent bias in what is considered "racist" in that regard, a bias that shouldn't exist but does due to culture, history and social constructs. This is the inherent problem with some social science, it focuses too much on the intersectional belief that only certain groups can be certain things due to race, gender, religion or so forth. It's a valid, but arguable, opinion that has been twisted by the "SJW" crowd if you want to go that far (moreso used as a smokescreen for opportunists, in my personal opinion.)

The current climate sucks because both sides keep fanning the flames of prejudice, regardless of good intentions. Heir is an asshole with a tinfoil hat, not actively encouraging to kill anyone but just another a shittalker on twitter. It's a shame too because his GDC talks were quite good regarding using game mechanics as a way to showcase diversity and other social themes.

Maybe in that regard it is a double standard, but it still doesn't make it racist, only prejudice to the stereotypes were all stuck with. 

I am content on agreeing to disagree on this, but I got to say this has been fun, been a while since I had a healthy discussion like this. 

I will admit, it works well to talk about this stuff when you are not in an echo chamber environment. It's actually part of our core curriculum at one of the schools I teach at, but there is no such thing as a safe space, so I get frank with the students on this and they need to learn that not everyone will agree with them and thats ok, you got to work together anyway.

And yes, that is something indeed .

At the risk of derailing the derailment, no, BW's actions have not changed my mind.

To wit:

1. I don't actually buy that many games (my next big purchase is the Skyrim remaster), so, it's not much of a risk to me to take a gamble on MEA despite whatever dumbf_ckery may be afoot at BW.

2. I'm not on Twitter because I think it's a sounding board for twits (hence the name) therefore, whoever said what about whom is not something I'm cognizant of. Additionally, I don't "follow" any of the devs on Facebook either. My default mode in reference to the wider social sphere is "oblivious."

3. I'm a chubby, socially maladroit nerd. Any opportunity to go bouncing through the galaxy as a wicked cool space hero is one I must grab by the short-hairs.

Anyway, day one purchase or bust.

Don't really know enough about the game at this point to say one way or the other. I'm not thrilled about the "younger" main characters supposedly being a thing, but until I know more about them and the game itself, I can't say if I will buy it on release. I want to like it but I need to know something about it first.

Younger could just mean mid twenties for all we know. I doubt it will be children/teenagers in this case.

How old was Shepard again, canon-wise 30 right?

IKR, I hated 20 year olds when I WAS 20, now that I'm 40 I hate them twice as much.

I actually don't hate twenty year olds. That's just them being twenty years old. I used to really hate them for just being young, but then I realized that was ageism as much as they hated me for being 40.

Do you mean Jesse or TB?  I got the impression Jesse quite liked it, whereas in the review of the year podcasts late last year TB slammed DAI and was saying that it was terrible.  It was an unguarded moment, the other times he's talked about he was kinder.

Don't even get me started on TB.  I could go on a rant that would make his HOUR LONG VIDEOS on a first look at a game look like they were short in comparison.

I'll still play Andromeda.

I wouldn't go anywhere near a word that NK Jemisin writes, though. Since I'm a white guy, she probably doesn't want my patronage anyway, right?