VOLRATH'S PROFILE

There's this saying in American politics, I'm paraphrasing but it goes something like - "People complain that government doesn't work, then they get elected and prove it." It's kind of funny but often times I think there's more to that, that disabling the government's ability to protect its citizens from exploitation by certain interests is the goal all along. I mean jeez, the NRA has such a hold on America's leadership that before long we're going to be able to buy hand grenades at Starbucks. But that was the idea behind the whole fairy sidequest (in addition to just being fun to make). There are a lot of real quotes tossed into Yaled's whining, I love doing stuff like that.

About the unanimous votes, that was making fun of the robotic town meetings I went to as a reporter but it also is an interesting point that underscores the weirdness of the fairies. They are not quite a hivemind, but pretty close. Mysterious creatures who are motivated by pure altruism to the point where they can't even fathom deception from someone who looks like them (meanwhile, the rest of the world is used to it). Even though the culprit was a disguised fairy, they are corruptible - as seen by the fairy at Kovak's mansion. It'd be fun to get into it a little more in future games.

Visually, we knew we didn't have the resources to make the cool quirky palace they deserved. So we settled for making most of it underground as not to worry about making the outside space conform to all the different rooms.

There are minor effects of doing the sidequest, mostly additional dialogue and I believe one fairy near the end will give you a gift if you did it. The fairy legislature is mentioned at the end regardless so that players who missed it can be like "What's that about?" and perhaps look for it next time.

Oh yeah, the music. I forgot about that. I will have to figure out how to manage that. Although that rarely happened with Clean Slate, which had quite a few licensed songs as well.

I thought of it because Clean Slate was done during 2012 amidst a US presidential election and I think was a little better for it. Now we're in the middle of the most off-the-wall ridiculous election in my lifetime, seems like it could be interested to look at MotW again. Probably would do half and hour installments instead of 15 minutes this time around, the game's just so long.

-I've always enjoyed the Arc III twist ending too. Wish I could have come up with more like it.
-Bubba was indeed promoted to playable character almost on a whim, we just thought it would be fun and it was. Starting a game with that in mind would make his early appearances much more deliberate.
-Laurel hadn't yet seen transformative magic in action so she didn't understand the new type of pyschic impulses she was feeling during that conversation.

Wow, some deja vu here. Well, there wasn't much here that we haven't discussed before so I don't want to be redundant. However, given the introductory paragraph, I was a little disappointed that the story elements of the final two arcs weren't referenced much, especially since the earlier stuff has been heavily evaluated by you and others. I like to think there's a thread of reconciliation and growth that completes some of the character arcs, especially Cade's. For the record, I don't see him as right all the time. Many reviewers have the tendency to assume he's just a mouthpiece for me the writer even though I've never said that. Anyone can figure out I agree with him broadly on issues but he's a poor advocate for his ideas and towards the end, I tried to have him learn a bit of humility.

That said, I am older too and I would do plenty differently ten years later and should that remake ever emerge (it's a daunting project although I'd still like to try it), the thematic stuff will be different, if still reaching similar conclusions. But when something I'm writing has no connection to the world in which I live in, I get bored quickly. Even BroQuest was meant to be a fun tweaking of how rude goons in fiction often don't get called out because the audience is expected to see them as "authentic." These days I like to focus on one issue or a few connected issues rather than try and solve all the world's problems at once.

As for Clean Slate, it was too full of huge WAV files to ever upload anywhere but I did do a whole Let's Play of it for anyone who wanted to know the story details. Here it isif you've got like 18 hours to spare. But be warned, if you thought MotW's politics were too blunt you'll be about ready to explode after playing this one for a while. I was a college student and in full on "I'm 18 and hate President Bush and I'll show all these rude conservatives on the internet a thing or two" mode.

At any rate, I'm glad the game left such a strong impression that you're still trying to reconcile your feelings about it.

It's really cause you know the game is right about most issues but are too aghast at the game's bluntness to admit it. I mean come on it's not the intervening ten years have made religion or big business look like more benevolent institutions....

-Ice Temple is good times. It's really massive too, I'm not surprised it took you two sessions to get through it.
-That patch of light is from the hole in the cave ceiling, I think.
-If I recall correctly, ArtBane was never particularly happy with any of the shooting puzzles so I think in any remake, they would be very different.
-At some point while testing the end of Arc III, we realized we should give people a chance for Auburn to level up in case the player isn't able to beat Goma at her current state. However, random encounters would have made the ice block puzzle miserable, so we didn't want that. We probably could have come up with something better to manage that, but that arc had already been held up for a long time and we really wanted it out.
-I can't remember if being able to stop the ice block with your body was intentional or not. Either way, I think it's just another element of strategy and doesn't ruin the puzzle.