Diamonds in the Rough ending *SPOILER WARNING*

[m0ds]

I am not reading these spoilers in case I do get to play a copy.

But for your money you also seem to get a gigantic internet debate to be part of!

I think that came free with every copy of Gilbert Goodmate once, too 

[Vince Twelve]

Spoiler

Ooh, making the 100 all the wives of congressmen, or prominent black women would make the point a lot more impressive!

"Either Hungerton & Brown knew very well what Jason's special ability was but decided to use him to convince their superiors, or their blind obsession made them disregard that obvious fast and they decided to believe what they wanted to believe."

Ooh, good point.  I never even considered for a second that Hungerton had superiors.  I don't think there was any reason to suspect that hinted at in the game.  However, such a notion would have been a great explanation for the necessity of Jason.  Their blind obsession is also an acceptable answer (and the one I had been believing.)

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Snarky:

Spoiler

In defense of the game, the dichotomy between the seemingly silly super powers and the serious idea of racism or racial genocide don't seem so dichotomous in the game because the special abilities and the town itself are all framed in a very somber, serious mood.  There's a dark vibe from the beginning of the game that helps these two things blend that you can't really get from reading spoilers out of context. 

When playing the game, I didn't feel that the fantastic and the serious contrasted deeply with each other because of how realistically the special abilities were treated.  It's not like X-Men where there are people flying and shooting knives out of their hands while quipping one-liners all over the place.

This isn't to say that the plot doesn't have its issues, just that the flaws are greatly magnified by reading this thread without the context of having played the game.  I do agree with much of what you've said.

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[GarageGothic]

I must agree with Vince:

Spoiler

The paranormal element feels quite natural in the world of the game, and you quickly learn to accept that all these people have psychic abilities. The only really silly part, as I see it, is the big evil plan of abusing these talents. Most of game is a solid investigation of the conspiracy, which is pretty familiar territory for the adventure genre. You don't learn anything truly mindboggling until the final act - there are twists and turns, but most of those surprises are somewhat predictable. But the ending... I definitely didn't see that coming. It's quite memorable, but for all the wrong reasons.

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[alkis21]

Snarky:

Spoiler

Hmm... It's hard to explain my reasoning to someone who hasn't played the game, as you can see it's difficult enough to explain it to the ones that have! First of all, DITR is not technically a "psychic organization". It began as a small foundation that offered scholarships to "children of true American families" as Hungerton put it. As it grew bigger, it focused on politics & propaganda, probably trying to get as many of their people into the White House. Then they started doing scientific researches and at some point they discovered the people who possess these special abilities. They decided to use them as a weapon against the other races. How does that not reflect the dangers of racism in the real world? I'm not sure what the DITR policy was regarding interracial relationships, but I'm confident that they had a plan.

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