I use “honestly” or “to be honest” myself sometimes.

It’s a simple way to convey “I’m going to give you a risky or unpopular opinion. Can be unpopular with you personally, or for public in general. But either way I value the honesty of sharing that opinion over the unpopularity it will cause”

I can see why you would hate it. it wouldn’t be unusual for people to share bigoted/sexist/violent opinions on subjects they should keep to themselves.

I’m sorry to hear about your son, and I apologise if my comment brought up some difficult memories.

For me, it was my best friends funeral and his family had an insufferablely god-fearing priest speaking for part of it who knew him from his childhood. He was telling stories were “he found God”, “god has now welcomed him” and “he now knows God’s love”. I don’t recall exactly what he said word for word, I just remember quietly seething throughout his whole speech and also afterwards my other best friends were venting that the whole thing was disrespectful to his memory.

My friend wasn’t religious in the slightest. it felt like a complete stranger trying to convince a room of grieving people comforting lies that he is “in a better place”, when it was clear he didn’t know him at all.

“God loves you” is fine for me. they are usually simply wishing us happiness in their own way (sure it can be passive-aggressively throw to people they call “sinners” too).

What I really despise is “god has a plan” as words of comfort.

A plan for fucking what? Noahs ark V2? cleverly getting around the “promise not to flood the earth” clause by having greedy assholes pollute the earth in his stead ?

“Ah little 4 year old Andrew would fuck up my plans, better give him cancer… Hm, let’s hit Jane with a truck just incase”

I don’t appreciate that you somehow think a magic man in the sky planning something so cruel would be of any comfort to me.

Of course it is exaggerated. That is the point of a hyperbolic arguments.

Examining hypothetical edge cases in more detail is a useful tool for defining where the issues lie in a debate.

Would you support/play a game of 100+ devs if key management DID commit war crimes? I’d like to think probably not.

It’s though it is clear from your response that misogyny isn’t a deal-breaker for you for this case, so the question then becomes; how shitty does a single person need to be before it becomes an issue for you then?

Other people drew a line in the sand at misogyny and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact I’d say it is a respectable opinion.

You probably would prefer to just ignore any controversy and just judge the game on its merits alone, and that is fine in its own way too. It is exhausting keeping up with the news and you would be happier and find it easier to just blindly enjoy a game.

But don’t pretend that just because you are ignoring it, doesn’t mean that you aren’t supporting bad practices like misogyny when you do so.

Edit: downvoted for not wanting to pay attention to stupid controversy about video games? Weird…

It’s one thing to live peacefully in ignorance. I get it. it is exhausting keeping track of every shitty thing a company does when it’s so much easier at the end of an exhausting 9-5 shift to avoid news and play your games guilt free without thinking about who it’s hurting.

It’s a completely separate thing to brag that your ignorance somehow makes your way of life superior.

People caring about these issues, and sometimes leading to actions being taken because of that, all makes the gaming industry, or to be hyberbolic; the world a better place.

It’s fine to avoid news on controversy and just blindly enjoy games, but don’t lie to yourself (and others) by pretending that it is a good thing.