More Disco Elysium!

[asakiyume]

I had a good ol' time with another session of Disco Elysium--and have now hit a wall (died twice in quick succession) and realize I'm going to have to start doing Real Video Game Things^TM like reading advice on Reddit and jiggering my stats, and [whiny voice] .... whhhhyyyyyy... I was enjoying this so much as a choose-your-own-adventure where I couldn't do anything wrong but now I have to pay attention to stuff like [air quotes] "health" and "morale"? (Though I was quite pleased to have improved my morale by speaking consolingly to a postbox--SOMETHING I WOULD DO ANYWAY.)

Anyway, these moments cracked me up (first and third)/ gave me pause (second one)

Empathy


Nice takedown of the notion that because you're *feeling* empathetic, you actually *are* empathic. Not so! Not only could you just be wrong in your intuition about what's going on with the person (something that once happened to me IRL with a kind of sitcom hilarity), but, as here, you may be completely lacking in insight on how to address the situation.

Second Racist


The first racist you meet is a standard white European-style racist with a French accent. This guy, your second racist, seems, IDK, sort of Central Asian/Turkic in character. ... It was interesting to me to see a different flavor of racism from the one I'm most used to. Not that I didn't know other flavors existed--you don't spend years in Japan without knowing that other flavors of racism exist--but I don't see them much. Points for inclusivity, Disco Elysium! Of diverse racisms!

... But also, I had sympathy for "to serve is noble," and "petulant individualism" made me grin.

NOTE: The retort in white (number 1) isn't the one I chose; I picked one of the replies in red. Guess which.

Your character asks your partner what he thinks of all this, and the answer cracked me up:

Kim's Assessment


But I need to have a consult with the healing angel and her significant other if I am ever to reach the Third Racist.

Comments

[amaebi]

Ah, thanks. I was betting on either mysterious fourth thing or Enough of this.

[asakiyume]

^_^

I almost never choose enough of this (or equivalent closers) because I'm always curious how the person I'm talking to will react to the various conversational gambits--I never want to close things off too soon.

[amaebi]

In life, someone who's saying villainous things may turn out to have depths and complexities and internal conflicts and good spots. In games-- not in my experience.

[asakiyume]

I have no experience of other games, but in this one, as people talk, you learn more about the world, and since you're an amnesiac with no native memory, every little bit helps. Like, I didn't have enough "encyclopedia" skills (one of your suite of skills) to know the background of a statue, but by talking to some guys, I found out all about it.

With Measurehead, I'm interested in the stuff he's saying that's separable from the racism--like the stuff about the nobility of service. (I know that's an outlook that's highly abusable and abused, but I like conceptions of it that don't involve exploitation--I feel like they exist, and I admire them.) And as I say, the expression "petulant individualism" made me laugh.

[amaebi]

Here's what's wildly stupid about me: it was only after I had posted that and was succeeding in getting myself out of the flat to run errands that I realized I had been thinking, thus talking, about this in terms of real-life communication with those sorts of people-- not game play! :D

In games, I try to exhaust every spec of information or supplies. In life, I'm so tired of some conversations I've got horribly familiar with, and have ceased to feel like being polite about it.

This game sounds fun. Though obviously I haven't gamed for years and very seldom have much.

[asakiyume]

That makes so much sense! I totally get it.

The game is very fun!