So, I was interested in the "kerfuffle" surrounding Amanda, and had a read through the last few pages.
Ow. Some of it gets really ummmm ... heated.
Which suggests this game was and/or is far more engaging, and meaningful, for a lot of players than most games.
Those infuriated, dismayed, disgusted, esp. by the turn in Amanda's behavior look as if they really took to the game in the past. To fall out of love that hard, indicates the passion was strong, ... and perhaps still is (if not so positively inclined).
Thoughts, FWTW:
A high degree of psychological health and consistency seem demanded of Amanda.
Maybe higher than of people in real life?
But:
1) the emotional appeal, pull/suspense/wrench of DRAMA on public audiences has - since culture began - depended on serious imperfection, or worse: disjointed personal failings, deceived and/or self-blinding (massive) irrationality, of key characters in action.
Even of the (otherwise) most attractive, noblest or best: > "hamartia" in Ancient Greek tragedy.
2) if Amanda (and the others too) were wise, all-seeing, all-knowing creatures, perhaps there might not be this or many other storylines. ~ Gripping drama needs mistakes and serious, even catastrophic misperceptions. Intense fallouts, sudden coldness, intrigues and bewilderments, strange bedfellows, unexplained behavior ... are, at least, a dramatically necessary device.
3) But is the change in Amanda going too far? Is it impossible to allow any motivation, explanation or excuse for it? I dunno!
To pitch in, I think the behavior of a couple of other characters is weirder than Amanda's by Ch12-14:
a) Our MC.
Agrees to accompany the Flesh-Blood Goddess Known As Heidi to her party as a "boyfriend" ... then tells all & sundry, interrupting them as they marvel how this is the first time ever any guy has had the honor of that girl's invitation to this event that (I will quote approximately
) he hardly even knows the bitch - which must really help Heidi out - and, you've got to agree, justifies her choice of him 100%, eh?
Then, to remedy matters, he promptly skips behind the bar, and pretty much has the woman all over that bar while she's trying desperately to recover the reputation for solid reliability he's been busy trashing.
A "seduction" that she takes "in good part" (if you excuse the expression), but still...
Plus, he then ignores the neon-lit message she sends him in response to why the hell she invited him anyway (i.e. that she's head-over-heels in love with him), treating her like a mixture of a pain-in-the-ass and an easy lay, who might just be passing on info to Sausage-Chops.)
Asshole territory!
And worse, if possible: he's dying (almost literally, if Mortadella-Face has anything to do with it) to know what the hell's up with his PA/daughter/Friend/colleague/stepdaughter... whatever Amanda is .... why she's plotting his doom, so up he goes, pins her up against the wall and has his wicked way with her. Which she begins to agree to, but ... apart from the brutality of approach, maybe not the guaranteed or sensible way to get her to open up on what's eating her (... apart possibly from his mouth).
"Men"? Or just more asshole?
b) If the MC is an oddball (well ok, MC's ultra-paranoid by this stage, so mitigating circs perhaps), our detective is off the scale.
He acts more like a corrupt PI than even a half-bad cop - pulling a gun on a guy who wangles his way into the office, acting like a total "dick" about a toaster, moonlighting his dubious services to an aunt with a story and Saul the sleazeball ... and all the rest of his "irregular" (corrupt) methods ...
Any self-respecting PD (or even a crooked one, that didn't want the shit to hit its fan PDQ) would shoot that slimy lardass off the force faster than he could take a dump. - Admittedly, that's not saying much ....
I mean, it adds to the fun, and the drama, but those two guys are head-shakers by Ch12-14, way beyond the emotionally sensitive, still suggestible, mother-less Mandy.
As may be obvious, I really like the game. Characterization, complete with all flaws and hiatuses, actions, dialogs, suspense, sex encounters, humor, CGI .....
Have to say the life-loving, slinky and amazingly well-grounded, strangely ever-upbeat Kathy is great; Heidi is the pearl, ruby and diamond of the piece. Savvy, sexy, clever, foxy, practically minded, honest and straightforward for all her sensuality, monstrously attractive, voluptuous, no-nonsense but generous-spirited, good with her hands in every sense, feet firmly on the ground unless she chooses to have them in the air.
The virtual sentimentalist in me hopes those two at least find a good ending, and live - what's the phrase? - happily ever after.
Even if the rest end in carnage like Dynasty, or the OK Corral (& its still seething aftermath, many years after).
