The public demo hasn’t been updated since last year and I don’t believe it will be updated again before release. The last update on Patreon was January 31st. She’s working on it.
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My speculation–based on everything I read on Patreon before dropping it last month, as well as searching tumblr for any hint about the endgame–is this…
If you stick with Unity, you likely will not be able to change a damned thing or make a name for yourself. You’re less than just a non-Ment and always will be “less”. I think that may be the point of the entire story–to accept being a big ol’ nothing.
No matter what happens, if you don’t go the Vengeance route, Button is always going to be a liability and completely dependent on everyone else. There’s no empowerment past learning to live with–and “enjoy”–the fact that you will never be independent. The closest Button will ever get to an equal and balanced personal relationship in a non-Vengeance route is to be with a non-Ment.
This is probably the first CoG I’ve played where I’m intentionally going no-romance and will take my MC down the “dark” path, since it’s the only way she won’t have someone invading her thoughts 24/7. Without going the Vengeance route, she will never be able to have thoughts or feelings that she keeps to herself, and she is basically a perpetual victim of privacy invasion for life. So vengeance it is!
Barring a “self-sacrifice” route being added, where she dies saving her stupid brother or LI (which is definitely not going to happen), I find the vengeance route to be the only satisfying end to the story. I just can’t stomach a “romance” where the MC can never be treated as an equal.
I’m really looking forward to playing the final game now, though, and seeing my MC’s gradual progress from being frustrated about her condition, to being angry at being treated like she’s useless, and, finally, to being fed up with it all and taking matters into her own hands, putting her desire to have a life of her own above trying to (futilely) make people see she’s not a useless sack of crap. Screw romance–she wants empowerment.
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The main idea from the story, from what I can tell, is how the MC eventually does come to terms with their disability, and that there are still ways to live around it and push for what you want. Frankly, as somebody who actually does have a major disability, I find it insulting how you seem to think that the MC is always going to be useless And unable to push themselves
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There’s a huge difference between having a disability and having your mind broadcasting your thoughts, hopes, dreams, and feelings like a goddammed TV show for every ment in the vicinity to see. I’ve never met anyone with a disability that I considered useless, but for almost all disabilities, there are things that help with the disability–that give the person some sense of empowerment and control over their own life. That give them some independence.
I knew an army vet who lost a leg in the line of duty–he has a prosthetic to give him the ability to walk. My husband’s uncle had polio when he was a child and was wheelchair-bound his entire life. No one would’ve called him disabled, because the wheelchair never slowed him down. I have debilitating migraines (that have, thankfully, decreased over time), and when I’m in the middle of one, I can’t do much other than wish for death to escape the pain, but I don’t consider myself disabled because I’m not, and the headaches are an inconvenience that leaves me bed-bound at times, but it’s not constant.
None of these things apply to Button. The only assistance they have with their “disability” is to have their brother in their damned head 24/7, keeping his nose in their business like it’s his fucking right. Sally’s presence helps, which is great, but Sally can’t be there 24/7 and, for MCs who aren’t into women, they wouldn’t really want Sally sitting in the room with them all the time or watching them bone their LI to keep Button’s thoughts from flooding the room or the world.
So yeah, I get the whole “living with a disability” thing, but this takes that to an extreme I find unpalatable and makes Button little more than a toddler dependent on everyone else for every moment of their life. So Vengeance it is.
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How exactly is button useless? In terms of raw intel and tactical thinking, they’re easily the best of the cast. Yeah, the mental broadcasting is an issue, but it’s not like every person is a ment. That risk of being controled is a problem but there are ways to mitigate it. If you find none of that convincing, this just is not the game for you. It’s like how some players of I, The Forgotten One want to play a character who dives off the deep end. Both games are about coming to terms with your problems and living the best you can despite. That, or just dial down the whininess.
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Honestly that’s my issue with seeing mindblindness as a disability. It’s horrying. I try to put myself in their shoes but I can’t. If I had zero privacy in my head, if I was a walking radio broadcasting every single thought I’d be such a wreck, most MCs look sane in comparison. This is wildly NOT the same as any mental or physical condition.
I wouldn’t say useless, but I also don’t like how we can’t wish for Button to be “cured.” There’s hardly anything I wouldn’t do to achieve privacy, which is different from saying “I’d like a different body” or “I wish my mind wasn’t like this.” If you’re born and raised in a room with a transparent window or lacking a door, no one can fault you for wanting a curtain or something to cover it. It’s not saying Button is worthless of love and respect unless they’re “normal,” it’s acknowledging how hurt and impacted they are by lacking something intrinsic to the human condition, which is having a place where you can be safe and process things without being judged, and THEN having the choice to share those thoughts.
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Yes, the MC is brilliant, but what good does it do when any brilliant plan they come up with is ruined by the fact that it is broadcast to all ments? Sure, not every person is a ment, but there are a lot of them, and the fact is, having a great tactical mind isn’t all that useful when you can never surprise the enemy. Or anyone, for that matter. This is why Button can’t be trusted with sensitive information or anything that could be used against anyone around them.
Now, if Button were in a place where no ments were allowed, their brilliance could really shine. They could really shine. But with ments around? It ends up coming down to luck–if they’re lucky, no one will pick their mind clean of their plans or mind control them to ruin it all, but if they aren’t lucky? Their brilliant mind doesn’t mean a damned thing.
Yeah, by either having Sally glued to their side or by having their brother be the only one invading their thoughts 24/7. Without that, the risk of being controlled is a huge problem, and something that endangers Button and everyone around them.
Perhaps you didn’t read what I said originally, but I said I am looking forward to the game now because my Button is going full on Vengeance route, without the one-sided-all-power-lying-with-the-LI “romances”. Maybe you don’t like that idea, but I don’t have to play the game to suit you. I play it to suit me, and as long as there’s a way out of having my MC having a permanently miserable life, I’m good with it. I don’t really care if that screws over all the other NPCs or not–I want her to have some control in her own life, and the Vengeance route is the only way to get it.
Excellent description of what I’m trying to convey. Button will never have the option of choosing to share her thoughts–they’re just out there for every ment to hear and there’s nothing she can do about it. Ignoring the fact that Button can be mind-controlled and used like a puppet by whatever ment decides it would be fun to use her to their own purposes or entertainment, it’s basically the equivalent of being to walk around naked your entire life while the rest of the world is clothed, and never being able to shut the door to keep people from watching every little thing you do–good and bad–or even hiding behind a wall to get a bit of privacy. Button is on display for life.
Honestly, since a “cure” is out of the question, the best option would be to go live somewhere where no ments are allowed ever. That commune the uncle wanted to send the MC to is perfect, actually. But that’s not even an option in the game. It’s either be naked for life while everyone else is clothed (knowing that, at any given time, someone can put their hand up your ass and force you to do whatever they want) or turn on the people with the power and take some for yourself so you can have a life. That’s why my MC is going the latter route.
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Is this confirmed by the author? Maybe cure is the wrong word, but more (if we are likening it to a disability) an aid. If they can develop drugs and technology to stop people from being ments I can’t see what’s stopping them from developing things that can shield an unshielded mind except for the fact that Button is the only one with this problem, but their family seems powerful and wealthy enough to be able to fund the development of that sort of technology or drug on their own.
I find it hard to believe there aren’t other groups working on creating technology to shield from ments. Corporations wanting to keep corporate secrets, governments working on maintaining operational security, domestic violence shelters wanting to keep their locations secret from abusive ment partners, police forces wanting to take down ment criminals without needing ment intervention. All of these groups would have a vested interest in developing ways to block ment powers.
Sure, Button is unique in HOW vulnerable they are to ments, but not unique in being vulnerable to ment powers.
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It’s not just the money, it’s the information; button is the only one with this condition, and it’s really hard to experiment upon and create something that can minimize its affect when you only have one subject and one set of data points. So no, no medical aids/treatments/cures
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No, MC is the only one with ZERO specifically. There are ones, twos and (it’s been a while) what I believe was the most common low scores, threes. It’s a difference in severity of the condition not that it’s a unique condition. MC is like a baby born without an immune system; ones, twos and threes are those with extremely to very weak immune systems. You don’t not research the rarest condition just because it’s the rarest, you apply what’s known to aid the slightly more common conditions and seek to calibrate from there. Maybe the best that MC can hope for is an implanted chip that puts them where a weak two would be. I don’t see how that isn’t something that would be beyond expectations for someone to be working on. If it can boost a zero to a two that means it can raise a one or a two into “normal” range, which is the kind of thing that assistive technology is all about.
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Hi –
This is a friendly reminder to keep your post focused on the story narrative and game mechanics and not other posters in the thread who post.
Thank you!
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Does someone have any clue if this wip is abandoned or not? I’ve been told that this wip was pretty close to being finished like, 6 months ago and the author hasn’t mentioned nothing yet
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No. The author is active on her Patreon. She’s working on it.
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This wip is in fact about to be finished
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Progress on the endings has been slow, honestly. But it’s not abandoned. It’s close enough to the end that I’d be really surprised if it did get abandoned. I wouldn’t expect anything super soon, but it probably will get finished eventually.
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While I believe that may be the case for some writers who have Patreons, I am 100% certain that is not the case here. Jo’s mom got cancer, which caused some slowdown, but she’s still been working. There are just a lot of bugs in the code that have to be resolved.
So, no, I don’t think she’s milking it or working on another project. It’s just taking time to get the kinks worked out.
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ooof. I didnt know that.
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Even so, I’m not a fan of the lack of communication. I was a patron but I stopped my subscription in February when they didn’t post their monthly status update, and it seems like there hasn’t been one since. Even a simple “Things are stalled right now, I’m expecting it will be at least another few months” is better than no updates at all.
I’d 100% resubscribe if Jo was posting the monthly updates still.
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Yeah, that’s what is bothering me the most. I considered subscribing myself, but Patreon’s lack of activity was concerning, so I just forgot about it.
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She’s normally good about communicating. Her going silent with no form of an update is pretty out-of-character, so who knows what’s going on right now. Give her some grace.
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