Drag’s refund request for Planescape Torment was denied by Steam. The game has sat in drag’s inventory for several months, but drag has only played for 8 minutes and in that time decided not to play it.
Drag would like advice on gaming the Steam refund system, because drag doesn’t agree with their reason for denying the refund. Are there any gamebreaking bugs or problems like that which Steam might accept?
Drag will post the reason for wanting a refund in a comment, and asks that you confine discussion of drag’s reason or why drag should just enjoy the game to underneath that comment, so that the rest of the thread can be about the actual question.
I’ve given a way to maybe get that refund, but I also want to say: You should just play it. Yeah, your party is pretty much set in stone in it, but it’s arguably one of the best CRPG D&D games to exist. It’s not like you’re really gonna make a statement to the now defunct developer that made the game. Black Isle doesn’t exist. Interplay doesn’t exist.
But if you’re dead set on needing the full custom character experience, may I suggest Temple of Elemental Evil? The story dramatically changes depending on if you are good or evil alignment and it’s got one helluva an opening scene if you’re evil.
CRPGs fundamentally ask the player to self insert into the player character, and drag will take psychic damage if drag self inserts into a man. Drag is perfectly happy to self insert into tragic stories like KOTOR and feel bad as part of a game’s story. That’s the same as watching a sad or scary movie, that’s fine. And drag would even be willing to enjoy Torment’s dysphoria if it were an intended part of the experience, and you’re actually able to play the Nameless One as a dysphoric trans person. But gender dysphoria that isn’t accounted for in the game’s design doesn’t lead to catharsis. That’s just feeling bad with no purpose to it.
Drag isn’t mad at the developer for this. As you say, the developer is dead, so there’s no point being angry. Drag is angry at Steam for selling this game without a content warning. Drag is angry about false advertising. This should be a part of the store’s interface, the same as age ratings, or the recent decision to force games to disclose kernel level anticheat.
It would only be false advertising if Steam said you could choose your gender when you can’t, which they don’t.
They said you can pick your path. It’s not true. It shouldn’t be in the features section.
It says nothing about Gender, and it specifically refers to ‘his’. This perfectly describes what you can do, so it certainly belongs in the ‘Features’ section. It also doesn’t mention Race or Species; I’d much rather play as a non-human, but I’m not winging about it, because nowhere did the game tell me I could play as a non-human. I’m not going to keep arguing with you about it, because clearly neither of us are making any headway.