Feedback (with spoilers): Badger Lard Outcome

[templar1138]

So, I've done the quest that (potentially) involves getting badger lard for the guy whose wife is dying. I went to the Barber-Surgeon, brought his medicine, and had to deal with the consequences. Fine, whatever. If the badger-lard route were to have a similar outcome, I'd be okay with that. But I've found out that going that route results in not only getting a significant reward, but the wife surviving.

Here's my problem: If a medicine is purported to cure many things, then chances are it cures nothing, if it isn't outright harmful. Seriously, "miracle" cures in the real world have included drinking bleach and administering urine, and those are just a couple of the recent ones (I'm not kidding). So when the guy gave only the vaguest anecdotal testimony about how badger lard cured almost anything, I was EXTREMELY skeptical. And yes, the barber-surgeon warned that indirect treatments were risky, but his medicine was at least designed to combat unusually high fevers, and medicines that only carry out a few functions AT MOST are much more likely to be reliable.

Too many people buy into ineffective (if not dangerous) alternative "medicines" as is. They don't need things like this game reinforcing that trend.

[Wizard of Woz]

Seriously this is your complaint??
If people are getting thier medical advice from a video game, don't think it matters since that person obviously is already not a smart person and probably won't listen to real advice anyway.

[lilsooz]

the great thing about this world is that people are free to do whatever they choose to do in regard to their health, for the most part. Medical freedom! Also, its a game lol. If they are that easily influenced they must have a really hard time being online.

[templar1138]

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

Seriously this is your complaint??
If people are getting thier medical advice from a video game, don't think it matters since that person obviously is already not a smart person and probably won't listen to real advice anyway.

Originally posted by lilsooz:

Also, its a game lol. If they are that easily influenced they must have a really hard time being online.

Cultural zeitgeist and "common sense" are HEAVILY influenced by media people take in. And if enough sources propagate the idea that cure-alls are more effective than designed medicine, then it's definitely going to influence people into thinking it's true. Hell, we've seen it happen with the demonization of GMOs - which are not harmful - when organic agriculture is worse for the environment and makes no difference to consumer health.

I'm not saying people are going to get their medical advice from this game. I'm saying this game shouldn't be contributing to an already-huge problem.

[Wizard of Woz]

Originally posted by templar1138:

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

Seriously this is your complaint??
If people are getting thier medical advice from a video game, don't think it matters since that person obviously is already not a smart person and probably won't listen to real advice anyway.

Originally posted by lilsooz:

Also, its a game lol. If they are that easily influenced they must have a really hard time being online.

Cultural zeitgeist and "common sense" are HEAVILY influenced by media people take in. And if enough sources propagate the idea that cure-alls are more effective than designed medicine, then it's definitely going to influence people into thinking it's true. Hell, we've seen it happen with the demonization of GMOs - which are not harmful - when organic agriculture is worse for the environment and makes no difference to consumer health.

I'm not saying people are going to get their medical advice from this game. I'm saying this game shouldn't be contributing to an already-huge problem.

I am saying get over it. It is a game that took place about a 1000 years ago, yeah medicine was pretty iffy back then.

[templar1138]

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

I am saying get over it. It is a game that took place about a 1000 years ago, yeah medicine was pretty iffy back then.

I'll "get over it" when homeopathy stops being sold and people stop buying poison and/or water as medicine. The game is being played today and has NUMEROUS references to modern things.

[Salty_Johnson]

And I'll listen to that advice when big pharma quits pushing meds thru the FDA that end up killing the patients. Zyprexa in it's first release killed the pancreas and gave people type 1 diabetes. I'm not even slightly concerned about the content of a video game influencing people to seek "alternative" medications. Homeopathic remedies are where medicine started.

Given how adamant you are at defending such an ignorant post, I can't help but think you work for big pharma or a similar entity. If you're that butthurt over it being in the game, uninstall and go take more of big pharma's poison - or did you conveniently forget the opiate crisis they started? Have you watched any television over the past decade? Ever notice how each year a medication released last year now has commercials from lawyers due to it killing or seriously injuring the patients?

[UglyBird]

Originally posted by templar1138:

Originally posted by Wizard of Woz:

I am saying get over it. It is a game that took place about a 1000 years ago, yeah medicine was pretty iffy back then.

I'll "get over it" when homeopathy stops being sold and people stop buying poison and/or water as medicine. The game is being played today and has NUMEROUS references to modern things.

Ear plugs and dark glasses should do you.

[Priest]

What a nonsense
If you you dislike faked Health informations, attack the real companys in the reaal world that make money that way !

This complaint here is nothing but "Drama"

[Sparkiekong]

Some places and some people don't have access to actual doctors. While yes, you shouldn't take your medical advice from a game or a gpt output... many people seek out relief through herbs and practices that might seem out of the norm. You ask my granny she'd tell you to put butter on a skin burn, but we all know that doesn't do anything but make you smell like popcorn. With the right research, you can find relief in some plants.

[Priest]

Garlic reduces Blood pressure for example.
ASS aka Aspirin is made from a tree bark
Onions can desinfext
And i do not even start with all the Herbs and Teas

You can clean a wound with salt water, or dry a wet wound with Sugar

There is a ton of stuff that really helps. And there is a ton of modern stuff that helps better or more reliable. In Germany its not uncommon that a Doctor will send you home, give you a few Sick days and suggest a Onion Tea instead of medicin.

[jabbywocks]

I appreciate you saying something. Even if it's "just a game", it's the most ludicrous outcome for that quest, for anyone with a lick of common sense. Following logic, you want to go with something that might actually help and not badger lard. But you get punished for using your brains and rewarded for following woo. The less we reward stupidity, the better, IMO.

I doubt the devs will ever change it because it's likely just meant to be "funny" somehow (honestly it's super depressing after the wife passes...). But it doesn't hurt to speak up about it.

Also, anyone yelling "but... big pharma!" needs to stop making strawman arguments. Two wrongs don't make a right; If one industry is doing something wrong, it doesn't give another industry the right to come along do the exact same thing, but with bleach and horse de-wormer.

[Priest]

And you mismatch a "Healer" from 1000 AD with a modern Doctor
Why do you believe that his Potion is the better medicin ?
There is absolute no proof for that claim. Maybe his "Medicin" is based on his own pee. Who knows

[iFRKY]

fr, in my first playthrough my friend in coop done this mission, the wife was alive.

I thought i'd gone the same way as him in this quest, brought her the medicin from Sedowin and honestly, yes, it left me a bit flabbergasted, but that is what brings joy in the storyline. Something is happening and Mid Ages was the cruelest time to be alive for a normal, working human. So basically i liked the outcome, cause when you go years later to this guy and talk to him, you won't be able, because he will be remember you and your actions.

[Morri]

I must say, because of the dialog and the quest text, everything ingame seemed to be hinting towards the fact that the doctor's medicine would be the correct one. I was extremely surprised that wasn't the case. I chuckled a bit afterwards, cause I hadn't expected it, and I like that they have added quests now with at least a little bit of choice and consequence.
(I did reload to get the other outcome, don't want that npc hating me for the rest of my playtrough :-))

I think you are taking it too serious though. After all, Sedowin is a self-taught "doctor" who only took up the mantle because no one else wanted to, and admits when you talk to him that he gets better every time someone dies on his table cause he has learned something new.
In that time, a lot of "doctors" were also extremely superstitious and experimenting with the weirdest stuff. Sedowin didn't see the patient, didn't know her history and only has your description to go on to make his medicine.
While the herbalist does know the patient, and all you know is that the herbalist's potion contains badger lard, but there's probably a lot of other herbs in there that could have been beneficial.
In that time, it just depended on luck on how skilled and knowledgeable the person that helped you was, and dumb luck that whatever they believed wouldn't make your condition worse.

Edit: typo

[HorizonZeroMom]

Lard has been used in medicines for hundreds, if not thousands of years, mainly in poultices and salves. It has anti-inflammatory effects.