Two of the reasons I’d never use it. The other is not wanting to support the Google monopoly.

Short of the introductory scenes that teach you to avoid using the special abilities, I can’t think of a case of the protagonist being manipulative in a negative way. It’s worth noting that she can be as bad as the player though, if they decide to interrupt people and use her powers to the same end.

To your second point, there are enough examples of Justice being bad, like their officers talking about arresting people purely out of being annoyed, being kinda racist (e.g. saying that two Black individuals must be siblings, then to themselves wondering if that’s racist), going after a little girl for having special powers, experimenting on people, persecuting all people with special powers and regularly calling them deviants (all while claiming to promote diversity), trying to arrest peaceful protesters, and so on.

I wouldn’t agree with the assessment of the main characters being a-holes. Maybe in the carefully cut clips devoid of the full context.

In the first scenes, the protagonist is indeed somewhat mean to her crew, but the game immediately tells you as much, to show you that abusing the special abilities, Vox, is not a good idea. From there, it’s up to the player whether to listen to every dialogue to the end or to interrupt, whether to avoid using the charged Vocals or to use them frequently. Going by the post-chapter stats at the end of one particular chapter, most players choose to avoid them at least in that instance.

It’s a lot more nuanced than ever presented in the hate videos or reviews. Like the protagonists being deliberately flawed, the villains (or the people presented in those reviews as villains) are also portrayed as human: misinformed but not inherently evil; capable of empathy and questioning their beliefs; seemingly caricature at first, but then showing a different side.

Imagine using ad hominem to dismiss factual and easily verifiable points.

It’s a great game but I wouldn’t call it uplifting at all. Some of the why is already in your comment. Some people may also get frustrated by being in a loop and having to start over time after time. Some of the puzzles aren’t easy, which again may add to the frustration.

CS2 being ranked higher than Siege and Fortnite is really misguided. It’s been almost the same game since before the internet. Siege was a welcome improvement on the same formula. Fortnite continues to innovate with new games and new modes, all appealing to a wide range of people and skill groups. Even its main mode sees drastic changes with each season. It keeps things fresh, which is vital for a live service game like those three.

Now refunded it seems. The person probably contributed to say it’s a scam, like some of the other backers in the comments.

We’ve noticed that some backer’s contributions to our Kickstarter may not have the best intentions behind them, and we want to ensure that all support is genuine and positive. With this in mind, we have decided to return the 12k SGD so that the funds can be put to better use by their owner

That would be perfectly in line with their past behavior.

Already 60% of the goal reached, with 28 days to go. 😩

We don’t know one way or another. Even if it misleads some people, that needs to be called out. The clearly defined criteria are displayed to many of those who join, yet they’re being put aside to essentially make up evidence and then turn to the really questionable definition of what is Russian that would also cover the likes of Telegram (reportedly used by 75% of Ukrainians), Google and so on, as rightly noted by someone in the group comments. They could have gone with that definition from the start, not baited and switched.

They aren’t calling for people to mount heads on spikes or review bomb, as far as I can tell.

In the context of the article, it’s not about the consequence - obviously, nobody’s getting burned at the stake - but about the how: the finger-pointing based on vibes or accusations of something done by another person.

On the one hand, I don’t want to tell Ukrainian folks how to spend their money with respect to Russia.

In that case, just look at how the Ukrainian users of the group are reacting. The number of users to have voiced their disagreement already exceeds that of the admins.