引用自 Soli：

it's not even funny how comically villainously narcissistic they tried to paint him, and it just comes across as a poorly written parody of CEOs.

Nah, his character is plausible in ZD. He is a flawed human, like so many others. In the sequel, on the other hand, they turn what you described up to 10.000 just in case you missed that Faro was the embodiment of all evil in ZD.

I didn't find him to be meme-ish. He genuinely believes that despite all the evidence showing otherwise, he's not to blame; it's an attitude that the website TVTropes.org calls "Never My Fault". I suspect he ordered his engineers to give him access behind Sobek's back. Modern human history's filled with corporate execs who've done bad things and have tried to escape the consequences. That's part of the reason why the corrupt corporate exec is another trope.

引用自 HouseOfTheRat：

In the sequel, on the other hand, they turn what you described up to 10.000 just in case you missed that Faro was the embodiment of all evil in ZD.

You single-handedly destroyed any desire I had to play the sequel. Well done.
Now, going from: "ehh I'll just wait for a discount", it turned into: "I actually need to look into that game.", because -- ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ -- how more cartoonish can a villain be?

引用自 Valden21：

I didn't find him to be meme-ish. He genuinely believes that despite all the evidence showing otherwise, he's not to blame; it's an attitude that the website TVTropes.org calls "Never My Fault". I suspect he ordered his engineers to give him access behind Sobek's back. Modern human history's filled with corporate execs who've done bad things and have tried to escape the consequences. That's part of the reason why the corrupt corporate exec is another trope.

Well, yes. You Suspect. That's the issue. It's not properly paced and introduced in the story, at all. You just get a cutscene where he goes: "I have ultimate access buh-bye", and that's it.
At best, there are MP3s that imply he's insecure and afraid of how history will perceive him.
But more than anything, that just pushes the feeling of: "Why would anyone give him any level of control, why would Liz give him ANY control of ANYTHING, other than sending money?"

And yes, reality is stranger than fiction, I'm aware.
But just like in Rick and Morty, I despise the character of the dad, Jerry, because he's written to be as much of a detriment to the family (and the story) as-a-point. Even if such a person is believable to exist, it doesn't mean you want him to. He slows things down, the characters themselves turn to him in disgust and dislike....So why shouldn't you?
A villain is always an opposition, but not necessarily a detriment. If the villain's entire call-to-duty is: "I am a big stupid baby", you'd rather punch a wall than listen to him talk, hence the problem.

引用自 Soli：

You single-handedly destroyed any desire I had to play the sequel. Well done.
Now, going from: "ehh I'll just wait for a discount", it turned into: "I actually need to look into that game.", because -- ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ -- how more cartoonish can a villain be?

Well, it's not that bad. Actually, Ted Faro plays more like a very little side role in FW, and most of his story in FW is already told in one or two sentences in some datapoint in ZD. (Iirc from one of the alphas or betas in GAIA prime.)

In FW, Faro is not constantly in the background like he was in ZD, but there is an entire main mission and purpose-built set-piece dedicated to hammering home what a mega-cartoonishly-evil white male Faro was, taking this to truly ridiculous extremes this time.

It also stands out because it takes place near the peak of the game's story, but it is entirely disconnected from it - it is really just a mcguffin fetch quest that could have been anything else. It is basically: "Hey, before we head into the big final act showdown, let me sit you right here and really explain to you how evil Faro was."

They also repeat the same exact plot in the DLC with another CEO-esque character, just goes to show that the writing in FW is a mess. Btw the DLC for FW was very clearly cut from the completed game, unlike the ZD DLC which was a legit addition.

That said, some of OP's takeaways from the game's story might be a little rushed: Faro is not just the bank, he and Liz are equals in tech. He does run the show, and, whether he is motivated by arrogance, genuine remorse, or a bit of both, he wasn't going to just take a back seat to everything. Of course he goes behind Liz's back.

引用自 Soli：

A villain is always an opposition, but not necessarily a detriment. If the villain's entire call-to-duty is: "I am a big stupid baby", you'd rather punch a wall than listen to him talk, hence the problem.

Faro isn't the main villain in FW, and in any case he does have a pretty good villain backstory from ZD. The main villains in FW are, I am sorry to say, pretty abysmal in terms of story and characters.

If the story is important to you and affects how you enjoy the game, you'd better stay far away from FW.
If you can enjoy it despite the poor, amateur mess of a story, all the robot combat is still awesome as ever.

引用自 HouseOfTheRat：

In FW, Faro is not constantly in the background like he was in ZD, but there is an entire main mission and purpose-built set-piece dedicated to hammering home what a mega-cartoonishly-evil white male Faro was, taking this to truly ridiculous extremes this time.

Ted Faro is evil because he is a CEO that failed to consider the consequences, and not because the game always makes while males evil. This should have been obvious to anyone who has played even the introduction to HZD, since literally the first character you meet is Rost who just happens to be while, male, and not evil.

PS: Here's a imgur photo wall of the faces of the Fortune-50 CEOs from a few years ago:

https://imgur.com/gallery/faces-of-fortune-look-of-leadership-top-us-companies-WYR1T0J

Judging by these photos, one could conclude that 100% of the CEOs of the largest companies are white and that 9 out of 10 are male.

引用自 cswiger：

Ted Faro is evil because he is a CEO that failed to consider the consequences, and not because the game always makes while males evil. This should have been obvious to anyone who has played even the introduction to HZD, since literally the first character you meet is Rost who just happens to be while, male, and not evil.

But why would I put things in context when I can be offended instead?

引用自 Cass：

But why would I put things in context when I can be offended instead?

I would agree with you, yet it seems to me that some people don't actually need a reason to become offended. Any excuse will do, even if they need to invent it.

I couldn't recall why I already had cswiger blocked, but then he immediately reminded me why. Alright then.

That said, some of OP's takeaways from the game's story might be a little rushed: Faro is not just the bank, he and Liz are equals in tech. He does run the show, and, whether he is motivated by arrogance, genuine remorse, or a bit of both, he wasn't going to just take a back seat to everything. Of course he goes behind Liz's back.

Rushed, only in the sense that I couldn't be arsed to read every PDF or track down every MP3 to get a "broader picture", but from the main content alone, it doesn't seem legitimate to me, at all, that Ted should've had access to anything.
He was widely ridiculed as a control-freak that understood nothing about the data he always requested. He sounded like someone who was heavily tolerated, for, reasons.
In a normal situation, he'd be tolerated as a nepo-baby who's your boss, so you have to let him get some participation medals.
But in a world-end-event, you don't need to give him ♥♥♥♥. And with Liz on the helm, and especially as "his wrangler", he'd be as far away from any position of control as possible.
Liz, was The Boss, not Ted.
So I cannot even begin to imagine how he'd have any access to do anything, under *her* project.
This is especially bad writing --- because this should've been something that was divulged to the playerbase, and, at best, not hidden away somewhere under a rock.

If you want a cartoonishly evil CEO, actually Establish how he snuck his way into the most important project of humanity's end. That sounds pretty important to just be left to an external AMA on a "oh btw" kinda thing.
This is specifically why I cannot begin to stand From Soft games, because important ♥♥♥♥ is obfuscated, and left for fanbase theory crafting.

引用自 HouseOfTheRat：

If the story is important to you and affects how you enjoy the game, you'd better stay far away from FW.
If you can enjoy it despite the poor, amateur mess of a story, all the robot combat is still awesome as ever.

I appreciate the tip. At best, I'll take it on a heavy discount (like I got HZD for like 10$...), I was considering getting it for a lesser discount, but...Yeah, not anymore.
The moment-to-moment gameplay is nice, but definitely not sophisticated enough to triumph over a crappy story, and I certainly had enough of the quasi-Ubisoft-formula for games, where you're set on doing something, and on the way you're being reminded every 10 minutes that "there's something reeeaaallly close nearby! Maybe go off-course for a second there and go for it!".

引用自 cswiger：

引用自 Cass：

But why would I put things in context when I can be offended instead?

I would agree with you, yet it seems to me that some people don't actually need a reason to become offended. Any excuse will do, even if they need to invent it.

Um, you were the only one offended here, and you invented the strawman "the game always makes white males evil". Try playing the game, there are good whites and evil non-whites, good males and evil females. I was talking about Faro specifically, and his story in FW even more specifically. I already said why Faro is evil, it is literally the first reply in this thread: "his character is plausible in ZD. He is a flawed human, like so many others". It appears that Cass was not being sarcastic in the slightest.

Btw the link you posted wasn't even photos of CEOs. Also it includes several women and non-white people, so your conclusion that 100% of them are white males would appear to be motivated by hatred and by the desire to erase other people's accomplishments. Last but not least it concerns US companies only.

In your blind anger to hate others, you not only don't read the thread you are replying to, you don't even read or understand what you post yourself lol.

引用自 Soli：

I couldn't recall why I already had cswiger blocked, but then he immediately reminded me why. Alright then.

Lol, it would have saved me some typing if I had seen this in time.

You were the person to bring up Faro being a white man as if it was relevant.

引用自 Soli：

He was widely ridiculed as a control-freak that understood nothing about the data he always requested. He sounded like someone who was heavily tolerated, for, reasons.
In a normal situation, he'd be tolerated as a nepo-baby who's your boss, so you have to let him get some participation medals.
But in a world-end-event, you don't need to give him ♥♥♥♥. And with Liz on the helm, and especially as "his wrangler", he'd be as far away from any position of control as possible.
Liz, was The Boss, not Ted.
So I cannot even begin to imagine how he'd have any access to do anything, under *her* project.
This is especially bad writing --- because this should've been something that was divulged to the playerbase, and, at best, not hidden away somewhere under a rock.

If you want a cartoonishly evil CEO, actually Establish how he snuck his way into the most important project of humanity's end. That sounds pretty important to just be left to an external AMA on a "oh btw" kinda thing.

Faro is not some dumbass with money, he understands technology as much as Sobek does, even if he no longer does the work himself. This is what makes him accountable - he knows what he is doing, he is just too greedy to care about the consequences.

Zero Dawn was Liz's project, but it wouldn't have been possible at all without Faro, which is why Liz worked with him - she is not stupid either, if she had any other choice in the world, she would have taken it.

And Faro, faced with the consequences of his actions, tiptoes between remorse (which could be because he failed big at something, not necessarily because he destroyed the world) and the desire to protect his image. In his mind, purging Apollo is a small sacrifice, easily rationalized. Humanity will survive anyway, they will just need more time to get back on track.

That's why I said that in the first game Faro is a flawed human, his story and character are very plausible, and that is what makes him a good villain who you can understand and hate.

I appreciate the tip. At best, I'll take it on a heavy discount (like I got HZD for like 10$...), I was considering getting it for a lesser discount, but...Yeah, not anymore.
The moment-to-moment gameplay is nice, but definitely not sophisticated enough to triumph over a crappy story, and I certainly had enough of the quasi-Ubisoft-formula for games, where you're set on doing something, and on the way you're being reminded every 10 minutes that "there's something reeeaaallly close nearby! Maybe go off-course for a second there and go for it!".

Lol if you hate handholding instructions, better wait until FW drops to $5... I don't remember how bad this was in ZD, but in FW Aloy literally won't shut up giving you an extremely detailed walkthrough of everything you try to do except fighting:

"I need to find the thing... maybe it is in that room over there."
"The room has a door... maybe if I open the door I can get inside the room."
"Made it! I am inside the room... maybe I should look for the thing I need to find"

The fighting more than makes up for it, but well, now you know.

引用自 HouseOfTheRat：

引用自 cswiger：

I would agree with you, yet it seems to me that some people don't actually need a reason to become offended. Any excuse will do, even if they need to invent it.

Um, you were the only one offended here,

Wrong. Perhaps this is a foreign concept to you, but I can disagree with people without becoming offended.

...and you invented the strawman "the game always makes white males evil".

See #12.

Try playing the game,

I don't hide behind a level 0 profile. It's obvious that I have played this game,

there are good whites and evil non-whites, good males and evil females.

Finally, we come to agreement.

Btw the link you posted wasn't even photos of CEOs.

They blended together the faces of the top leadership with the CEO as the most prominent or topmost image.

Also it includes several women and non-white people, so your conclusion that 100% of them are white males would appear to be motivated by hatred and by the desire to erase other people's accomplishments.

Your error here is assuming I didn't double-check the actual statistics against other[fortune.com] sources[fortune.com]:

"Women run 5.6% of businesses on this year’s Global 500—down from 5.8% this time a year ago. In total, female CEOs lead just 28 out of 500 companies on the list of the world’s largest businesses by revenue. "

"That lags behind the Fortune 500, which measures the largest U.S.-based companies by revenue. There, women have crossed the 10% threshold and now run 10.4% of Fortune 500 businesses."

"The Fortune 500 is making progress when it comes to Black leadership. That’s the good news. The bad news is only eight Fortune 500 companies have a Black CEO. That’s just 1.6%, a far cry from Black Americans’ 14.4% share of the population. "

Last but not least it concerns US companies only.

And exactly where is HZD / HFW located...?

Also note that the actual data shows that US companies are more diverse compared to their global peers.

In your blind anger to hate others, you not only don't read the thread you are replying to, you don't even read or understand what you post yourself lol.

If what you said was true, you ought to have no problems providing citations which disprove my claims. However your premise is wrong, and so is your conclusion.

Angry wall of text lol