I don't have room to criticize the game's necrophiliac bestiality because I bought and played Lust from Beyond. The premise of which is that a mad alien monarch lobotomized his populace against their will so they could enjoy drug-fueled orgies without those pesky higher brain functions getting in the way. Meanwhile, the rebels were uniquely stripped of their feelings as punishment and its unclear how aware they are of their condition.

I bought and played Scorn. The premise is that the upper class had so many drug-fueled orgies that it tore a hole in reality that is slowly eating their capital city. Meanwhile, the engineer class was bred to be snorted as drugs: they rightfully rebelled, nuked the environment, then destroyed themselves in a civil war. All the architecture is made from the still-living bodies of a slave class grown on battery farms who may or may not still be aware after they have been processed.

A druid bear-fucking a vampire elf is small potatoes by comparison, I suppose.

I don't believe in censorship because it can and will be used against you when the tables inevitably turn. The best we can do right now is use age verification to protect kids, prosecute rapists, and ignore content we find revolting.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 06, 2023, 02:14:30 PM
I don't have room to criticize the game's necrophiliac bestiality because I bought and played Lust from Beyond. The premise of which is that a mad alien monarch lobotomized his populace against their will so they could enjoy drug-fueled orgies without those pesky higher brain functions getting in the way. Meanwhile, the rebels were uniquely stripped of their feelings as punishment and its unclear how aware they are of their condition.

I bought and played Scorn. The premise is that the upper class had so many drug-fueled orgies that it tore a hole in reality that is slowly eating their capital city. Meanwhile, the engineer class was bred to be snorted as drugs: they rightfully rebelled, nuked the environment, then destroyed themselves in a civil war. All the architecture is made from the still-living bodies of a slave class grown on battery farms who may or may not still be aware after they have been processed.

A druid bear-fucking a vampire elf is small potatoes by comparison, I suppose.

I don't believe in censorship because it can and will be used against you when the tables inevitably turn. The best we can do right now is use age verification to protect kids, prosecute rapists, and ignore content we find revolting.

Who is asking for censorship?

Quote from: GeekyBugle on August 06, 2023, 02:21:23 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 06, 2023, 02:14:30 PM
I don't have room to criticize the game's necrophiliac bestiality because I bought and played Lust from Beyond. The premise of which is that a mad alien monarch lobotomized his populace against their will so they could enjoy drug-fueled orgies without those pesky higher brain functions getting in the way. Meanwhile, the rebels were uniquely stripped of their feelings as punishment and its unclear how aware they are of their condition.

I bought and played Scorn. The premise is that the upper class had so many drug-fueled orgies that it tore a hole in reality that is slowly eating their capital city. Meanwhile, the engineer class was bred to be snorted as drugs: they rightfully rebelled, nuked the environment, then destroyed themselves in a civil war. All the architecture is made from the still-living bodies of a slave class grown on battery farms who may or may not still be aware after they have been processed.

A druid bear-fucking a vampire elf is small potatoes by comparison, I suppose.

I don't believe in censorship because it can and will be used against you when the tables inevitably turn. The best we can do right now is use age verification to protect kids, prosecute rapists, and ignore content we find revolting.

Who is asking for censorship?

I'm sure there are SJWs asking for the boobs to be censored because they're too big or something.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on August 06, 2023, 11:15:24 AM

Quote from: Effete on August 06, 2023, 12:44:58 AM
But to answer your questions, I don't think a game marketed to adults should have any limits, even if the things depicted are unlawful or morally reprehensible.

So there is nothing beyond the pale for the game's protagonist (which you are) to do?  Rape?  Genocide?  Child molestation?  That's pretty extreme.

Now you're moving the goalposts.
You initial question asked: "...if there is anything you feel a mass-marketed video game should not include (or would be repulsive if it did include)", but you frame my response as if I was talking about things the protagonist can do. That's a pretty slimy tactic, if it was done intentionally. Besides, I already addressed this question. I said it should, preferrably, make sense within the context of the game. Is the game programmed so the character can just grab any random NPC and rape it? If so, why is that a part of the game? There was a game called Manhunt that let you play as a serial killer. Is was primarily a stealth game, in which you needed to kill people in order to progress passed areas. It raised the hackles of so many snowflakes, who called for the game to be banned. Yet games like Tenchu, where you played as a ninja assassin killing people to progress passed areas had existed for years by this time. So was it really the killing that was the issue, or the stigma of the premise? Murderous ninja: Good. Murderous psycho: Bad.

Now, an argument can be made that the game was glorifying mental illness... but glorifying mental illness is seen as a virtue these days, so I'm not sure which side of the paradigm is right. Perhaps the best solution is just throw everything into the aether and let individuals decide what they like.

Quote

Quote from: Effete on August 06, 2023, 12:44:58 AM
As for what behavior I would PERSONALLY find degenerate, I don't think that's relevent to the discussion.

Actually, it is.  What principles you hold is the crux of the question.  If you have no principles, no boundaries, no limits, then you are just like the woke.  There is no "degenerate" in your world.  Which means there is no way for someone with principles, boundaries, limits to coexist with you.  Because, while you may demand they respect your lack of limits, you'll never respect their principles/limits in return.  Which is exactly what is being shown in this thread.

Another disingenous argument. My response was quite clearly saying that my PERSONAL morality is irrelevent to the discussion of what limits should be placed on a game. Yet you interpret that as me saying I have no personal morals. Shaking my head.

You play tabletop games, right? Have any of your characters ever killed another person? I guess that makes YOU a murderer then.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on August 06, 2023, 10:23:02 AM
Standards are not a "purity spiral."  That's would only be true if the standards change (which is why "woke" devolves into purity spirals; because the left has no standards, only tactics in its pursuit of power).  Thank you for identifying where you stand...

Like I said, same methodology as gun control. Insidious creeping standards.

Being a power hungry cunt isn't limited to the left. I once again point out the long tradition of religiously driven moral busy-bodies in the US fucking up everything they touch.

Hell, the argument you just said, replace "left" with "right" and you have something typical SJW.

Here's something you should put to memory. If you can change one fucking word and your argument becomes the argument of your lunatic enemies... it might be time for some self-reflection.

Quote from: VisionStorm on August 06, 2023, 12:56:52 PM
You have yet to demonstrate the presence of a problem, only assert the existence of one. And presumed the conscription of everyone into the fight against your asserted problem...or they must be part of the "problem" (totally not circular thinking).

You know, you just basically described SJW tactics in a complete nutshell. Funny how that works.

QuoteAnd no, correlations do not imply causation. An ostracized group in society demanding equal rights decades ago, does not mean that superficially similar groups claiming to speak on their behalf today are part of the same overarching agenda working on some elaborate long con decades in the making. There's a bunch of dots that you're missing before you arrive at that hasty generalization, such as the advent of social media, the introduction of critical theory and intersectionality into the wider unsuspecting public, gamification of social networks, algorithmic manipulation of information, the fact that not everyone in the so-called "LGBTQ+" community (which isn't even a real community, but an amalgamation of groups shoehorned together for political purposes) even agrees with this stuff, etc.

Or do you also think that black people speaking out against Jim Crow decades has a direct causal link to BLM rioting in the streets today. Could it possibly be that these people have been manipulated by the media, activists, politicians and shadowy orgs through the use of censorship, disinformation and algorithms in gamified social networks*? Nah, gotta be them n****rs getting uppity since the 60s and not enough people putting them in their place. Cuz I mean, we used to have segregation and now we have angry black people trying to tear everything down. Obviously the two must be causally related, because black people.

Ooof. Gonna need some cream for that burn.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 06, 2023, 02:14:30 PM
I don't have room to criticize the game's necrophiliac bestiality because I bought and played Lust from Beyond. The premise of which is that a mad alien monarch lobotomized his populace against their will so they could enjoy drug-fueled orgies without those pesky higher brain functions getting in the way. Meanwhile, the rebels were uniquely stripped of their feelings as punishment and its unclear how aware they are of their condition.

I bought and played Scorn. The premise is that the upper class had so many drug-fueled orgies that it tore a hole in reality that is slowly eating their capital city. Meanwhile, the engineer class was bred to be snorted as drugs: they rightfully rebelled, nuked the environment, then destroyed themselves in a civil war. All the architecture is made from the still-living bodies of a slave class grown on battery farms who may or may not still be aware after they have been processed.

A druid bear-fucking a vampire elf is small potatoes by comparison, I suppose.

I don't believe in censorship because it can and will be used against you when the tables inevitably turn. The best we can do right now is use age verification to protect kids, prosecute rapists, and ignore content we find revolting.

Truth.

I'm not a video game guy, so while my attitude is largely just to point and go LOL...

But while Geeky may get hot under the collar, and mouth off occasionally.

I do give him props for still having an actual gag reflex, and disgust threshold.

Quote from: THE SAME ARGUMENT - EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. on August 04, 2023, 07:45:02 PM
* game has optional bear sex scene... right wing puritans most affected*

Geez! Imagine if everyone decided to boycott the game based on a single, insignificant, OPTIONAL, choice.
...

This right here is why Leftist SJW/LGBTQP entryism had gone virtually unopposed for decades.

So long as people feel that they can "ignore the icky", they let it slide because they otherwise get what they want from the new hotness.

Nevermind that we can demonstrably see that over time the dial on "the icky" only ever gets slowly turned up. Never down...

As one can see from posts in this thread; the entryism in video games clearly goes back at least to the 90's.

In hindsight, it's obvious the desire to do the same for RPG's, especially D&D, goes back even further, and they finally got control when Wotzi bought out TSR.

Thus the slow shift by entryists in their desired direction will continue because enough people will love themselves the new hotness, and you can't reason them out of a position that they did not reason themselves into in the first place.

I'm generally reluctant to get involved in a thread that has so obviously devolved into a pointless flame-war, but since I find myself sitting around on a Sunday afternoon with little else to do, let me just scattergun a few points here. I'll use one of Reckall's comments as a base, since it touches on most of the issues circling around here.

Quote from: Reckall on August 06, 2023, 01:40:24 AM
Was this poor bear a marketing stunt? If so, it worked perfectly...

It kind of didn't though. Outside of this thread and a few people rolling their eyes and meme-ing in streams, I haven't seen a scrap of controversy about this. To me that's a more significant fact than the existence of bear sex in and of itself. The violation of taboos is an inevitable and sometimes creditable phenomenon in any society. The non-existence of those taboos is a thing far less precedented.

Quote from: Reckall on August 06, 2023, 01:40:24 AM
BG3 is not a porn game. It is as pornographic as Mass Effect is - only a bit more extreme (and still you aren't forced down that path). Do you even tried it??

I mean, you kind of contradicted yourself there, so maybe I don't need to even say it. Mass Effect never included anything more than artfully edited nudity; not even a nipple. The Witcher games would have been a better example, but IIRC those games religiously adhered to the "no genitals" rules typical of R-rated movies. As far as I'm aware, only two prior "mainstream" (that is, large budget, mass market) games have gone the full frontal route: Cyberpunk 2077 and Conan Exiles. So let's not pretend this is just business as usual.

Also, it's a bit much to ask someone to spend $70 on a game before they're allowed to have an opinion on it.

Quote from: Reckall on August 06, 2023, 01:40:24 AM

Quote
What might be of concern is that it should have been rated for adults only and it wasn't.

It is rated M/17+

I'm not sure most people are aware of this, but under the ESRB system "Mature" and "Adults Only" are different ratings. Despite nominally being only one year apart for the audience, the two are quite different in their usage. The M rating is roughly equivalent to an R rating for films, and as others have pointed out, has always been a fig leaf for the industry. Companies publish M-rated games in the full understanding that they can and will get into the hands of teens, and are usually counting on it to boost sales figures. AO on the other hand, is more akin to the now defunct X-rating for movies, and is generally reserved for porn games or those bordering on it. The AO rating used to be regarded as a death sentence for games, as most retailers refused to stock it, but that's moot today as brick-and-mortar retailers no longer matter to the industry.

Ten years ago, the game probably would have gotten an AO rating, or more likely been forced to cut content to get back to M. That said, the ESRB is a pet creature of the big publishers, so it's credibility has always been suspect.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 06, 2023, 02:14:30 PM
I don't have room to criticize the game's necrophiliac bestiality because I bought and played Lust from Beyond. The premise of which is that a mad alien monarch lobotomized his populace against their will so they could enjoy drug-fueled orgies without those pesky higher brain functions getting in the way. Meanwhile, the rebels were uniquely stripped of their feelings as punishment and its unclear how aware they are of their condition.

Is that what that game is about? I tried out the previous one but turned it off after the first mandatory stealth section.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 06, 2023, 02:14:30 PM
I bought and played Scorn. The premise is that the upper class had so many drug-fueled orgies that it tore a hole in reality that is slowly eating their capital city. Meanwhile, the engineer class was bred to be snorted as drugs: they rightfully rebelled, nuked the environment, then destroyed themselves in a civil war. All the architecture is made from the still-living bodies of a slave class grown on battery farms who may or may not still be aware after they have been processed.

In fairness, both of those are horror games, and are clearly not presenting that behavior as healthy and legitimate. As I alluded to above, there's nothing wrong with violating certain moral standards in the realm of fantasy, as long as the standard is at least honored in the breach.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 06, 2023, 02:14:30 PM
A druid bear-fucking a vampire elf is small potatoes by comparison, I suppose.

Is it? Ironically the whole "decadence leads to the fall of civilization" narrative is a traditionalist one. Anyway I thought sex with animals was second only to child abuse in triggering most people's disgust reactions.

Quote from: Chris24601 on August 05, 2023, 10:25:28 PM
For example, if instead of going after BG3 for optional polymorph porn, an outrage practically designed to draw all the outrage while being so ridiculous that few in the general audience will take it seriously... if instead we focused on "why do the characters in this game even NEED explicit genitalia in the first place?" it might have been able to spark more outrage in the general population, particularly parents already upset about the sexualization of children (yes, I know it's rated MA, but parents barely pay attention and it's rarely enforced).

This comment crystallized a thought that had been banging around in my head for a few days. I'm of the age group where the golden age of D&D CRPGs (Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, Planescape and Neverwinter Nights) were a major factor in our adolescence. Kids got introduced to those games by older siblings, parents, uncles, etc. who played them, and were in turn introduced to tabletop roleplaying as a result. I think the 80s grognards sometimes forget just how many 90s kids were brought into the hobby due to computer games.

Now I'm the age those older gamers were when the originals came out, and there's a new Baldur's Gate. But I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to a teenager. Obviously it's Larian's choice to make, and you can't argue with the commercial results, but it strikes me as a pity they went that route. One of the sadder qualities of my generation is our tendency to take the things we liked as kids and want to make them not for kids anymore. Baldur's Gate has to have sex scenes and full frontal nudity because we're adults now, and that's what we like. Never mind that in doing do we're foreclosing it to the next generation of gamers.

EDIT: Fortunately, the Pathfinder games have continued to ride that line where they're pretty mature, but still within the realm of being safe for adolescents.

As far as my own take on the game goes: It looks like fun. Larian are competent developers, and I suspect that like Pathfinder, 5e probably works much better in a videogame than it does on the tabletop. I'm not outraged by the bear sex because I don't see much point in being outraged, and I have a relatively high wokeness tolerance as long as the game is otherwise of good quality. Like BoxCrayon, I've played far more degenerate games and occasionally enjoyed them. My chief reservation over buying it is more about not being sure how much of my money would go to WOTC/Hasbro.

Quote from: Jaeger on August 06, 2023, 03:28:08 PM

Quote from: THE SAME ARGUMENT - EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. on August 04, 2023, 07:45:02 PM
* game has optional bear sex scene... right wing puritans most affected*

Geez! Imagine if everyone decided to boycott the game based on a single, insignificant, OPTIONAL, choice.
...

This right here is why Leftist SJW/LGBTQP entryism had gone virtually unopposed for decades.

Except that by chopping that quote in half, you changed the context and missed the point. The next two examples I gave were about things Lefties might boycott the game over, using their usual arguments. You can, as far as I'm aware, play as a sanctimonious paladin who pushes his own moral judgment onto others. While I would oppose this behavior in our actual society, it doesn't bother me that it is presented in a game designed around making choices.

And that seems to be where people are cherry-picking here. The claim is that actions in the game bleed through into society at large. Scenes of quasi-bestiality will led society into degeneracy. If that's true, then the scenes in the game that depict holy smiting will bring about a new religious crusade. Right?

Now the point I will concede is the use of the bear scene in marketing. That one, presumably obscure, outcome was intentionally released for promotional purposes. Why? Was it to generate a controversy and get eyes on the game? Was it to appeal to the fractional percentage point of the population that kinks on that? Who knows. It doesn't seem to have harmed the sales of the game, but it sure has sparked some discussion in corners of the internet where people salivate over the Culture War.

So it's not that the scene is in the game that is really the problem, but the fact they decided to push it to forefront is why it's become a wedge issue. Primarily because all the context that leads up to that scene has been removed. One way or another, people have been manipulated into having a gut reaction. A small number of people creamed in their bearsuits, while another small number of people clutched their pearls.

Greetings!

Yes, the game seems like it is degenerate trash.

I am kind of amused though--in a sad way, or ironic--that people are worried about "Adolescents playing this game and being corrupted!"

My brother-in-law's nephew started watching porn when he was in Junior High School. He had girlfriends that started watching gang-bangs on their phones when they were 11 or 12. GANG BANGS. Every day, at 12 years old.

The pop singer chick, Billy Eilish, publicly stated that porn is terrible, and has destroyed her mind. She said she started watching all kinds of porn every day on her phone when she was 11 years old.

Our kids--in general--have had hard core PORN HUB at their fingertips on their phones for at least the last 10 years. TEN YEARS of PORN HUB. For an 11 or 12 year old boy or girl, how much do you think they watch that stuff on their phones every night after you are in bed sleeping? Or watching it when you are at work? Or watching it on their phones when they are over their friend's house? I imagine many of their friends have single mommies, so she is not likely around, so the kids are free to do whatever they want.

You know, by the way, PORN HUB has hard core porn of every kind imaginable for those that have been living in caves or monasteries.

It boggles my mind that it is COMMON for kids--pre-teens, not just adolescents--to be watching hard core porn every day for the last TEN YEARS. Our society is fucked. This game is trash, but honestly, compared to what kids can see at the touch of their phones, anytime they want--I find it hard to get overly worked up about this game having gay sex in it, or even animal sex.  In what amounts to a cut scene.

That whole thing in the game is nothing compared to your 12 year old daughter watching porn gang bangs for hours on end each and every day.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Effete on August 06, 2023, 05:12:28 PM
...
Except that by chopping that quote in half, you changed the context and missed the point. The next two examples I gave were about things Lefties might boycott the game over, using their usual arguments.

I understood the point that you were making.

I also understand that nothing I say will be able to make you understand why your point is wrong.

Because you do not see why the Lefties not only do not boycott, but in fact heap great praise upon a game that has thematic elements in it that they have taken other games to task for in the past.

Quote from: Effete on August 06, 2023, 05:12:28 PM
So it's not that the scene is in the game that is really the problem, but the fact they decided to push it to forefront is why it's become a wedge issue.

Your dismissal of a non-negative depiction of bestiality just because it is "easily ignored" is proof that they have been successful in moving the disgust window in their direction.

Quote from: ForgottenF on August 06, 2023, 03:41:23 PM
Is it? Ironically the whole "decadence leads to the fall of civilization" narrative is a traditionalist one. Anyway I thought sex with animals was second only to child abuse in triggering most people's disgust reactions.

One would think.

But alas, when it is presented as "optional, and insignificant"; evidently allowances are made.

Quote from: Jaeger on August 06, 2023, 03:28:08 PM
So long as people feel that they can "ignore the icky", they let it slide because they otherwise get what they want from the new hotness.

Nevermind that we can demonstrably see that over time the dial on "the icky" only ever gets slowly turned up. Never down...

We had "The Book of Vile Darkness for D&D 3E in 2002. The "degenerate" contents in BG3 are in the kiddies section of that book. Even "The Book of Exalted Deeds" had some pretty unexpected stunts in it (both were labeled "For mature audiences"). If anything, BG3 is peeking up from the very tame playfield of today - not the other way around.

Also, all the letters of the alphabet put together can have their rights and their contents. I'm happy for them. This doesn't mean that these will become the only contents. Or maybe they will in BG4 and those who listened to the wrong crowd will unavoidably go down - as the last years proved over and over and over (and over).

Quote from: SHARK on August 06, 2023, 06:11:05 PM
...
It boggles my mind that it is COMMON for kids--pre-teens, not just adolescents--to be watching hard core porn every day for the last TEN YEARS. ...
That whole thing in the game is nothing compared to your 12 year old daughter watching porn gang bangs for hours on end each and every day.

The ubiquitousness of pornography in our society for decades in addition to other Leftist entryism promoting their pet degeneracies, and now we have a positive depiction of Bestiality largely getting a big "Meh" from the games target audience...

If anything the reactions to BG3 are instructive as to who is still a reasonable human being and whose brain has been hopelessly fried by libertinism.

Quote from: Reckall on August 06, 2023, 06:28:12 PM

Quote from: Jaeger on August 06, 2023, 03:28:08 PM
So long as people feel that they can "ignore the icky", they let it slide because they otherwise get what they want from the new hotness.

Nevermind that we can demonstrably see that over time the dial on "the icky" only ever gets slowly turned up. Never down...

We had "The Book of Vile Darkness for D&D 3E in 2002. The "degenerate" contents in BG3 are in the kiddies section of that book. Even "The Book of Exalted Deeds" had some pretty unexpected stunts in it (both were labeled "For mature audiences"). If anything, BG3 is peeking up from the very tame playfield of today - not the other way around.

Also, all the letters of the alphabet put together can have their rights and their contents. I'm happy for them. This doesn't mean that these will become the only contents. Or maybe they will in BG4 and those who listened to the wrong crowd will unavoidably go down - as the last years proved over and over and over (and over).

"We ignored the Icky that should never have been allowed in the past (Because for 'adults' m'kay...), so this Icky that is reaching a far larger audience is not so bad in comparison!"

Movement of the "Icky" window closer to the acceptable category by the degenerate Left achieved...

Decades in the making; but they literally have people defending a positive depiction of Beastiality in videogames now.

Ridiculous, amazing, and scary to witness...

Quote from: Zelen on August 06, 2023, 06:49:48 PM
If anything the reactions to BG3 are instructive as to who is still a reasonable human being and whose brain has been hopelessly fried by libertinism.

Indeed.

Quote from: ForgottenF on August 06, 2023, 03:41:23 PM

Quote from: Reckall on August 06, 2023, 01:40:24 AM
Was this poor bear a marketing stunt? If so, it worked perfectly...

It kind of didn't though. Outside of this thread and a few people rolling their eyes and meme-ing in streams, I haven't seen a scrap of controversy about this. To me that's a more significant fact than the existence of bear sex in and of itself. The violation of taboos is an inevitable and sometimes creditable phenomenon in any society. The non-existence of those taboos is a thing far less precedented.

Discerning reality from fiction is a common function of the brain - if one isn't schizophrenic.

Quote
Also, it's a bit much to ask someone to spend $70 on a game before they're allowed to have an opinion on it.

It is also a bit much to ask for people to listen to opinions coming from those who haven't played the game.

Quote from: Reckall on August 06, 2023, 01:40:24 AM

Quote

Quote
What might be of concern is that it should have been rated for adults only and it wasn't.

It is rated M/17+

I'm not sure most people are aware of this, but under the ESRB system "Mature" and "Adults Only" are different ratings.

One still has a frame of reference. If they end up with a bad experience they were warned. BTW, dunno elsewhere, but here the Italian law would slap a 18+ rating on BG3 - this one enforceable. I agree that today it is difficult to control who buys what. Still, IMHO it is the duty of the parents to check what their underage children are buying and playing - as I don't think that there are many 13 years old with a personal credit card...

Quote

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 06, 2023, 02:14:30 PM
A druid bear-fucking a vampire elf is small potatoes by comparison, I suppose.

Is it? Ironically the whole "decadence leads to the fall of civilization" narrative is a traditionalist one. Anyway I thought sex with animals was second only to child abuse in triggering most people's disgust reactions.

In real life, yes. However, many pagan/shamanistic religion have rites where the spiritual leaders "dress" as totemic animals and "become them" via acting, dance and maybe the stray drug - with at the end the "Bear" maybe "fertilizing the land" (if you get my meaning...), having sex with the "chosen Virgin" or whatever. Same, maybe, with the hunters, to bring good fortune.

So, in a fantasy world, what in the real world could be called "religious cosplaying" can become literal - especially in a druidic society. People from the outside could still find these acts aberrant - usually while crucifying the first dude who says "Hey, it would be neat to just love each other!"