I still enjoyed the first game but wasn’t one of the lead devs on KCD a capital G Gamer? I remember some… interesting tweets from him. Was he booted or did he change his ways?

Edit: Derp, should have just read the article before commenting. Fascism eats its own yet again.

Is he? The two have many shared interest sure, and maybe he has some dirt on Musk. I feel like if Putin was the “grand puppet master” he’s often made out to be then the war in Ukraine would be going much better for him. The article above seems to indicate that Putins influence has waned considerably since 2016.

Pure speculation, but could Trump no longer be as beholden to Putin as he so clearly was in his first term? Musk seems to be holding his reins now, and maybe he realizes any Kompromat the Russians may have had just doesn’t matter any more in the face of his cult of personality.

That said, it seems to be in both parties best interest for Putin to get out of the war while Trump is in office. A president favorable to Russia gets a big win on the world stage, and Russia gets to quietly back out of a conflict that has been a complete disaster for them.

One RPG that does a really great job of circumventing this is Morrowind. Early in the story there are several natural breaks where the PC is encouraged to do side quests and immurse themselves in the world. Once the main quest gets going it starts to take precedence, but the world ending threat builds slowly at first.