I hate it when people like this manage to get on just the right nerve to bring me out of lurking. I was all set not to say another word so as to keep from initiating another unwanted exchange (those exchanges are just a part of who I am, the only way to avoid them is to not speak at all, so that is what I did).
Runey Here's the thing, and I am going to be honest, I do see some of it in myself, I just have a reality/fiction disconnect that allows me to ignore any potential real world parallels in fiction. There are two distinct groups I am seeing here that are complaining, not necessarily mutually exclusive between each other.
Some people don't like to be lectured on LGBT/race issues in their fiction and this Elven slavery portion does draw some parallels to the slavery of black people from the 1800s and before in the real world, not to mention the still problematic cases of illegal real world slavery. Then there's the parallels to the LGBT rights issue in some of the other plot lines. For me personally, I could see myself getting annoyed with it if I didn't maintain a disconnect between reality and fiction, but this is only because I already see A LOT of it in the real world because the media keeps beating both topics over the head in my country ad infinitum as if nothing else is going on in the world. Even as someone who is LGBT, I have had enough of hearing about it in the real world to the point that I am almost entirely opposed to my own community, just open a dialogue with the people in power and pass some laws to give exactly the same rights as everyone else and be done with it. I come to fiction to escape that, so to bring those real life issues into the fiction I chose to escape with is the problem there. However, I personally don't see those real world issues, I see Elven slavery and Android (or whatever) rights, which are not the same due to my disconnect. This was just the part I could see in myself that seems to be an issue with the negative reviews and complaints.
Then there is a prevalence on F95 of people looking for a quick fap, that has been a major thing since AT LEAST my first day here. It is so bad that entire wars break out over the 'no sexual content' tag. It is second in severity only to the great NTR wars the site sees on occasion. Having a long story is a problem to people like this because it gets in the way of what they see as the main focus, the sex. They would be more than happy with the entire story stripped out of the game, leaving just enough to make sense of the sex part.
I'm going to be blunt, these people, in both of the above groups, are not going to be of help to you. They will only serve to annoy you, to cause you stress, and eventually to cause you to burn out in a way that kills the game. You are better off ignoring them.
I don't see the game as lecturing you about the kink. I mean, there's a dungeon where you can take everyone but Autumn, and she's going there eventually. Even Vanessa, the loudest anti-slavery voice behind Nia, has a pretty serious interest in BDSM judging by her tan lines. The slave plot line really has no connection to kinks at all. There's no consensual non-consent or pet play or anything vaguely BDSM. The plot line is barely even sexual outside of that one bit with the contest/tournament. It's actual chattel slavery with most elves doing manual labor, not kinky sex slave stuff. If Runey really wanted to criticize the sex slave kink or lecture you about it, Lin almost certainly would have been raped as part of her backstory, Ms Ren would have been Ashley's father's sex slave who was sold for money or a 'newer model', and we would have seen some sort of slave brothel by now.
The connection isn't in the game, it's in the tags. People who see the slave tag, for example, expect to be the slaver, not to fight against said slavers. So, when the game says slavery is bad, they may see that as a kink lecture about how the kink is bad, not about how actual slavery is bad like the game is telling us. This is coming from someone who likes that kink myself and was drawn to this game because of that tag, one of my favorite game types is slave training, but my reaction to the game was positive despite the opposition of slavery instead of being the slaver.
