So I logged onto GOG and checked out the reviews of the new Baldur's Gate expansion that's been available for 4 days. The top review has 487 up votes for the following informative criticism:

"Even if you don't disagree with their political agenda, it's ham-fisted and very groanworthy. Minsc makes jokes about Gamergate. If that's what you want out of your baldur's gate game, go right ahead. If you would like to keep baldur's gate in your baldur's gate, just keep playing the originals and don't waste time on this toilet retread."

That's the whole review. Nothing about bugs or technical details, nothing about the game as a whole, just "ham-fisted" and "Minsc makes jokes about" someone's sacred cow. 487 upvotes for a 1-star review about politics.

Vote brigading is older than the internet. I'm just not used to seeing it here. Does anyone remember another game on GOG that got vote brigaded so hard, not counting when the top complaint was a technical or marketing misfire? I'm coming up blank.

mmmm, there is also this second review just below:

"While the mechanics of the game are in line with the originals, the story falls short. It sacrifices the narrative and world building of the original Baldur's Gate in order to break the 4th wall and beat players over the head with messages about social issues with the grace and subtlety of a Saturday morning cartoon from the 90's.
There is no problem with having messages about social issues in a game. The problem comes when one hijacks another franchise, gut out its soul and fill it with vapid maxims and fables in its place. That is one of the surest ways to kill off a franchise, and it is especially odious when it happens to a well-loved franchise.
Want social justice? Sure, but stop hijacking the industry and make your own games. You're not going to improve the industry, you're just going to kill it from the inside out."

===>>> so, who the hell is Minsc? What are the "messages" in the game?

I'm getting old so a quick-recap should be made :o)

You don't know Minsc? or Boo, his miniature giant space hamster?

You should see Metacritic.. O_o

Your reviews also don't have the backing of about 500 losers who get their jimmies rustled by anyone who dares put trannies in "their" game.

Well although more information about the game in reviews is definitely a necessity, I do agree that stuff like that is also important.
If it doesn't fit the theme/feel of the game, I'm most likely not going to enjoy it.

And all these years later the question still remains, 'How could the British make such a tragic and inane blunder at such a crucial time?'

Oh wait, that's the 'Light Brigade'.

reviewer needs dictionary badly Minsc is a wildly popular recurring recruitable npc. Think BG's equivalent of "the cake is a lie", lowbrow meme fodder. Dunno what the messages are, I'm not playing the game without mods.

edit: I read the reviews and bought it. Still not playing without mods because I can't stand most of the npcs in the originals.

Apparantly from what I gather this game has something to do with gamergate. Well something against it. I rather steer away from that whole cesspit. Everyone should. I think a reviewer should just focus on the game itself. If it sucks and you got legitimate points to prove why it sucks, sure. However, just writing crap reviews because the company behind such a game isn't to your liking is just sad.

I'm more concerned about the lack of consistency in writing style than these "issues", but maybe its good to remind people its a Bioware game. If they had redone their game and added an expansion today, the level of baboon butt hurt against SJWness would have been even greater.

Well it's "user's reviews", not professional reviews (even if nowadays the quality difference between the two is becoming less and less noticeable).

It's nothing new and nothing specific to this game, If you look most of the reviews are closer to "This game suck don't buy it!" or "Best game ever, cult classic, buy it!!!!" rather than a well thought, unbiased, professional'ish reviews.

Well, to be honest, I generally don't care about reviews. However Beamdog are already on my bad list, re-releasing perfectly fine games with a widescreen mod and calling them "Enhanced", so I am unsurprised that when they actually release new content it doesn't live up to expectations. Me, I saw the price tag and thought no, not to mention that I have played through BG series many times and never saw any "hole" between the games which needed filling, you defeat Sarevok, leave BG heading South and get captured. So for me, I will stick with the originals and the plenty of user generated content out there, this is just sad little money grab part two.

From what I reckon he has now among his quotes something like: "Really, it's about ethics in heroic adventuring."
That's clear jab at "Really, It's about ethics in gaming journalism."
Gamergate always claimed to be about ethics and if I am not mistaken (I haven't followed all that mess so closely) when anti-GG side showed publicly some kind of harrassment from GG side, they sarcastically accompanied it by said quote to make fun of it.

While I am not one to rage about it or even not to buy the game for it (if I was to buy it - I don't plan on it yet), I feel like the quote is out of place both in the game and it the mouths of Minsc. He is heroic, but comical character with brain damage in Forgotten Realms setting and I don't feel like similar quote just belongs there, does any good or is in some way funny.

So my problem with it is that I don't consider it good writing.

Funny thing is, the old Gamergate "excuse" for their actions and what the movement was REALLY about was "It's about ethics in game journalism." Guess it's actually about harassing those whose views you hate, huh?