These caps were taken from the Xbox.com community forum for the game. Granted, that's probably not the best place for deep insightful comments about the game's subtext, but to be fair, there were plenty of users posting more substantive reflections on its many little nuances. On the opposite side of the spectrum are these specimens of opinion-craft. I always find that the most concisely worded ones are the hardest to discount. Case in point, a hero appears and gains a legion:



Tool status: confirmed (twice). But with the silence broken, more forlorn souls cried out:



Clever how the sandwich dodged the filter to most appropriately articulate his innermost ruminations. At least he was honest that his reluctance to play the game is due entirely to a personal weakness. Maybe he can start a support group with Soren Sapphire:



He played through the game and didn't like it. Good for him. What caught my eye is that the game's aesthetic is again conflated with saccharine sweetness because the palette is brighter than the average game, and that somehow interacting within these startling new hues involves some emasculating mortification. I suppose all of the recent commotion about Diablo III's implementation of "wow gayness" should have predicted this kind of reaction from at least some faction of the Braid's audience. It's just disheartening that the painterly art design should forbid one's enjoyment of the game.

It reminds me of something we deal with at the museum I work at. No matter what kinds of exhibits or big artists we bring to try to warm the local community to the galleries, there are some people out there that simply don't want what you're selling. And they'll do whatever it takes to give that opposition some material basis, whether it's to convince their friends or themselves. Gamers should be allowed to hate Braid for whatever reason they want, but I shudder to think this is the kind opposition designers are up against.