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New York Post
06-07-2025
- New York Post
Inside the cyber-scam capital of the world
The message from Alice was blunt: 'I don't trust you. You are one of them, right? You all just want to sell me like some animal.' Alice's hostile reaction wasn't completely surprising to Ivan Franceschini, Ling Li and Mark Bo, the co-authors of 'Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds' (Verso), out July 8. 'Like the dozens of other survivors we met in the following months,' they write, 'her harrowing experience had left her unable to trust anyone.' 9 The past half-decade has seen a nefarious web of cyber-scam operations set up shop across Southeast Asia, luring (and trapping) workers from across the globe targeting victims on every corner of the planet. Getty Images Advertisement Alice (not her real name), a Taiwanese single mom, had recently escaped from a Cambodian scam compound where she'd been raped, beaten, sold multiple times and nearly forced into a brothel. She'd been lured to the town of Sihanoukville by a friend who promised her a legitimate job, and even paid for her visa and flight. What awaited Alice, however, was not a front-desk position but forced criminal labor in an online fraud mill. 'The supervisor informed her that she had been sold there to conduct online scams,' the authors write, 'and that she would not be allowed to leave until she had earned enough money for the company.' Advertisement 9 The center of Asia's cyber-criminal network. libin – When she resisted, the supervisor threatened Alice with a stun gun and 'said that if she did not comply, he would lock her up in a room and let several men rape her,' the authors write. 'Which is exactly what happened soon after.' They tried to make her a 'pig butcher,' referring to a slow-burn online scam that involved using fictional profiles of wealthy, attractive people to blackmail hapless marks. Alice refused to play along, feigning ignorance of how to type. They made her clean. Then they sold her again. And again. This is what modern slavery looks like in the internet age. Alice is just one victim among several interviewed by the authors, all of them part of a vast criminal economy with operations across Southeast Asia. In countries like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, cybercrime syndicates run industrial-scale scam operations staffed by trafficked laborers and protected by complicit authorities. Advertisement 9 The beachy town of Sihanoukville in Cambodia has become the nexus of that nation's cyber-scam trade. AWL Images – The industry blossomed during the pandemic, when 'scam operators achiev[ed] record profits capitalising on the misery and loneliness of people stuck in endless lockdowns,' the authors write. According to the latest UN estimates, there were in 2023 'at least 120,000 people . . . forced to carry out online scams across Myanmar, with another 100,000 in Cambodia,' write the authors. At the center of this ecosystem is Sihanoukville, a once-sleepy Cambodian beach town transformed into 'a global online scam hub,' the authors write. The transformation began in the mid-2010s, when Chinese criminal groups began buying up property, converting apartments, villas and hotel rooms into closed compounds for scam work. These were not fly-by-night setups. They came with dorms, cafeterias, surveillance rooms and punishment cells. By the late 2010s, Sihanoukville had become a scam metropolis. 9 Pres. Trump has vowed to crackdown on cyber-crime syndicates in Cambodia and across Asia. Will Oliver – Pool via CNP / MEGA Advertisement The business model was simple: Traffic in people, extract money from strangers online and do it all behind steel doors. The operations 'often look like standard apartment buildings with unusually strict security measures,' the authors write. 'Such as high walls with barbed wire and guards posted at gates, to prevent people from escaping as much as to stop unauthorized people from entering.' The profits were massive. The risk was minimal. And the victims weren't only the ones on the other end of the keyboard. 9 Trump's most visible target is the company Huione Pay. Google Maps George, a Ugandan man in his early 30s with an IT degree, was recruited from Dubai in August 2022, to manage data in Laos. He was offered a monthly salary of $1,500, plus allowances and commissions. Once there, he signed a fake contract, had his passport taken and was put to work defrauding people using prewritten scripts. When he refused, he was sold to another compound in Myanmar. 'They don't tell you [how much they sell you for],' he told the authors. 'They just tell you: 'We own you. We bought you' . . . It's weird. It takes you back to the ages of the slave trade in Africa.' Inside the compounds, daily life blends corporate dystopia with prison brutality. New workers are given scripts and digital playbooks with titles like 'Phrases for Love, Friendship, and Gambling.' There are quotas, and heavy surveillance. Everything workers type can be tracked. 9 The new book 'Scam' explores Southeast Asia's cybercrime factories. If they miss a quota, punishment follows. Some workers are forced to do 'frog jumps,' an excruciating squat exercise repeated for hours. Others are made to run up and down stairs, or stand in the blistering sun for hours while holding heavy objects. The unlucky and disobedient ones are beaten or sold. Advertisement The scams themselves are psychologically sophisticated. Pig butchering involves building rapport over weeks or even months before proposing a seemingly low-risk investment in a phony crypto platform. Once the victim's guard is down — and their life savings transferred — the scammer ghosts them. Some workers are paid commissions based on how much their victims lose. 'Bonuses can be lucrative,' the authors write, 'and the rules are often posted in public areas as a reminder to all staff.' Others are forced to perform the scams without pay under threat of physical harm. The result is a chilling blend of victim and perpetrator: exploited laborers trained to exploit others. 9 'Scam' co-author Ivan Franceshini. Courtesy of Ivan Franceschini One company in Cambodia charged workers for everything they used inside: toilets, chairs, keyboards, the portion of floor they occupied and even the 'seaside air' they breathed. 'Consequently, no matter how long they work, their debts can continue to grow,' the authors write. Many go deeper into debt while trapped, their families extorted for ransom payments that may or may not result in release. The psychological toll is devastating. Alice described 'brainwashed' survivors who 'developed some mental illness.' Meanwhile, her own family thought she was trafficked 'because I am greedy and wanted to get rich overnight,' Alice admits. Advertisement Efforts to crack down have had limited effect. When compounds in Cambodia are raided, the operators move to Laos. When Laos tightens regulations, they set up shop in Myanmar. There are always more buildings, more bribes and more desperate people willing to answer job ads that turn out to be traps. The authors note that these operations are not rogue or isolated. They are systems. Ecosystems. And they are growing. 'Tech companies are failing to ensure that their services are not used as platforms for organised criminals,' the authors write. Messaging apps continue to facilitate communication between recruiters and victims. Governments continue to look the other way — or actively profit from the business. 9 Co-author Mark Bo. Courtesy of Mark Bo Even when victims are rescued, justice is rare. Some are deported. Others are treated as criminals. A few, like Alice, find ways to speak out. Most don't. And even for those who escape, the trauma lingers. Alice eventually found a way to post a call for help on Instagram and 'was rescued before being sold a fifth time,' the authors write. She now works with advocacy groups to warn others about the dangers of overseas job scams. 'If I had been enslaved for a year or two,' she tells the authors, 'I might not be able to believe in humanity anymore.' Advertisement 9 Co-author Ling Li. Courtesy of Ling Li This industry isn't going away, the authors write. It's adapting. It's expanding — even as it faces a crackdown by the Trump administration, which recently designated the Cambodian firm Huione Group what so many already know it to be: a money-laundering operation. Still, much work remains to free women like Alice. In the time it took to read this story, another person somewhere may have just clicked 'Apply Now' on a job that doesn't exist.
The Wire
30-05-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
The Life and Work of Christopher Hill
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Top Stories The Life and Work of Christopher Hill Rudrangshu Mukherjee 38 minutes ago No other historian mined the printed sources of the 17th century and wrote about all its aspects in the way Hill did. Christopher Hill. Photo: x/@radicaldaily Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now Christopher Hill (1912-2003) belonged to Balliol, and the 17th century belonged to Christopher Hill. No other historian mined the printed sources of that century and wrote about all its aspects – politics, economics, society and literature – in the way Hill did. He opened up the field and taught us to look at it afresh. His writing was informed by a staggering erudition and a rare passion. E.P. Thompson, dedicating a book to Hill, captured his loyalty to Balliol and his supreme control over the century that he made his own: 'Master of more than an old Oxford college'. In spite of this pre-eminent position, till Michael Braddick wrote this book, no one has attempted to write a biography of Hill. Many of his contemporaries – E.H. Carr, A.J.P. Taylor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, E.P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm to name a few – have had biographers. Braddick's book thus fills a major gap. Michael Braddick, Christopher Hill: The Life of a Radical Historian, Verso (2025) In a sense, it comes too late because very few historians and students of history are any longer interested in what Hill wrote and what he stood for. This indifference and neglect notwithstanding, it is good to have Hill's life and work retrieved from the condescension of the present. Christopher was born in York. His father was an affluent solicitor and his parents were Methodists. It was this ambience of dissenting Protestantism, Hill was fond of saying, that predisposed him to lifelong political apostasy. He went to St Peter's School, York, and came to Balliol as a scholar in 1931. It is said that the two History dons at Balliol, Vivian Galbraith and Kenneth Bell, were so impressed by his entrance papers that they not only awarded him 100% but also drove to York to ensure that Hill came to Balliol and did not get lured to Trinity College, Cambridge. Thus began Christopher's 43-year-long association with Balliol, of which he was to become Master in 1965. He took the top first in History in his year and won the distinguished Lothian Prize and the Goldsmith's Senior Studentship. He went on to be elected a Fellow by examination of All Souls. He came back to Balliol in 1938 as fellow and tutor in Modern History. His bonding with Balliol is best illustrated by an anecdote (not mentioned by Braddick). After his retirement, his successor as Master, Anthony Kenny, reintroduced formal Hall (formal dining in the College Hall). On the first occasion when formal Hall was reinstituted, a masked figure appeared beneath the organ loft and shouted, 'Long live the spirit of Christopher Hill.' The incident alludes to the loyalty that Hill commanded and also to his position against some traditional Oxford customs and practices. Hill was Oxford's most famous Marxist who had been a member of the British Communist Party from the mid-Thirties till the Soviet invasion of Hungary. His conversion to communism occurred while he was still an undergraduate. The impact of the Depression and the rise of fascism forced him to question the premises of the society in which he lived. Such queries led, as it did for many others in the Thirties, to Marxism and communism. Braddick dwells at length on Hill's activities and ideas when he was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). I thought that devoting so many pages to Hill's party activism was unnecessary, since such activities, and the beliefs they were based on, would become irrelevant to Hill's work as a historian post 1956. Presumably, Braddick thought that such a detailed account was important to establish Hill's radical credentials. The period when Hill was a party member – roughly mid-1930s to mid-1950s – is the most problematic phase of Hill's professional life. During these years, he remained an unalloyed and unreconstructed Stalinist. He spent time in Soviet Russia in the 1930s, when the terror of Stalinist collectivisation and the purges had begun. He did not take note of these developments. This is like someone visiting Berlin/Germany during the same period and failing to note what was being done to the Jews. Braddick writes of Hill's 'partisan defence of Stalinism'. A few pages before the use of this euphemistic phrase, Braddick notes Hill's paean to Stalin: 'He was a great and penetrating thinker … he was a highly responsible leader.' (Hill's words) As a practising historian, Hill endorsed Stalin the historian. No wonder during these years, he wrote a book on the Russian Revolution which had little or no mention of Trotsky. Hill swallowed the party line to risible and absurd limits. Braddick evades the critical issues involved here by remarking 'It is hard to know what to make of this paean to Stalin.' There is an enormous amount to be made from this. Hill was a victim and product of the greatest radical illusion of the 20th century. He was not alone: many others of equal eminence and erudition had willingly yielded to the predicament of sacrificing their reason to the altar of the party and the Soviet Union. It was a bizarre and self-inflicted blindness. Thompson, a member of the CPGB and Hill's comrade, was to write with more than a hint of regret that he began reasoning only at the age of 33 i.e. after he had left the party in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Hill began reasoning when he was 45, after he resigned from the CPGB. It was only in 1981, in far away New Zealand and to a non-British audience, as Braddick notes, that Hill could confess, 'I was a sucker for Stalinism until I found out a lot more about it. I thought that the Communist Party held out an alternative. I was wrong.' Hill's scholarly output was enormous. He wrote 21 books and innumerable essays. The first book came out in 1940 and the last in 1996. That first book, The English Revolution 1640, despite its many drawbacks and its schematicism, has become a minor classic. Looking back at the book, Hill once said it was written by an angry young man in a hurry because he knew he was going to die. It was written up self-consciously as a last will and testament. It broke from prevailing historiography which saw the events of the 1640s either in constitutional terms or as a religious conflict. Hill tried to show that it was a more comprehensive social and economic transformation, the first significant moment in the birth of English capitalism and the bourgeoisie. From that first book to 1956, Hill did not publish any books on the 17th century. Post 1956 was a remarkably productive phase. It coincided significantly with his marriage to Bridget Sutton and his exit from the communist party. He wrote on a range of subjects concerning the 17th century – on puritanism, on the economic problems of the church, on the intellectual origins of the English Revolution and on the literature and political ideas of the 17th century. Looking back at the corpus of Christopher's writings, it is clear that all his books and articles were connected by a running theme. He wanted to understand the place of the English Revolution in history and to document and analyze the mental and cultural transformations that accompanied and facilitated the rise of capitalism. He looked at Puritanism and its relationship with capitalism and the political upheavals of the 1640s; he drew out the links of Puritanism with an intellectual and political radicalism which challenged the very premises of the new socio-economic formation even as it was being born. This is how he made the 17th century his own. He set the agenda for research on the period. It is difficult to even list, let alone summarise, all that Hill wrote. I will take the liberty of presenting here my own personal favourite and I dare say Hill's too. This is The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution (1972), conceived and written in the period of student radicalism and the flowering of counter culture. Here he drew out the revolution within the revolution, ideas and movements that aimed to overthrow what the English Revolution was trying to institute at every level of English life and society. Men and women, seldom written about, came alive in the book as did ideas and movements long relegated to the loony fringe of the 17th century. Hill brought to his archive a historical imagination that lit up a utopian and inevitably passing moment of teeming freedom. This book and, in fact, everything else that Hill wrote, is invariably marked by a sensitive use of literature as a source for history writing. He had the rare ability – most tellingly revealed in his great book, Milton and the English Revolution – of setting his reading of literary texts within a general view of the processes of historical continuity and change. His essays on Marvell, on Clarissa Harlowe, on Vaughan, not to mention his book on Bunyan, are rich in literary and historical understanding. Hill believed that the study of history humanises us. History can never be only the recounting of a success story. He quoted Nietzsche approvingly, 'History keeps alive the memory of great fighters against history.' Hill was only too aware that persons of his ideological persuasion would have to live with 'the experience of defeat' (the title of one of his books). History is a tragedy, Hill wrote, although not a meaningless one. Braddick, as I pointed out, avoids the more problematic aspects of Hill's communist past. Similarly, he doesn't discuss some very critical issues embedded in Hill's formidable academic output. What Hill described as 'The English Revolution'' in 1940 became in his more mature writings the' bourgeois revolution''. But Hill did not quite explain this term and what justified it. Did the bourgeoisie lead the revolution in the 1640s? Did that revolution, if it was one, lead to the formation of a bourgeois society? The only time Hill came to address such questions was in an essay titled 'A Bourgeois Revolution?' – an essay that Braddick does not discuss. (J.G.A. Pocock (ed.) Three British Revolutions, 1641, 1688, 1776, Princeton University Press, 1980). I think the question mark in the title is significant. Hill argued in this essay that the English Revolution 'was brought about neither by the wishes of the bourgeoisie, nor by the leaders of the Long Parliament. But its outcome was the establishment of conditions far more favourable to the development of capitalism than those that prevailed before 1640.' The English-Bourgeois Revolution was the product, Hill argued, of unintended consequences. This is a puzzling argument. What would happen to this argument if the Russian Revolution of 1917 was seen in terms of its outcomes – a violent totalitarian regime intended by Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin to suppress the working class and butcher the common people? It seems to me that Hill had not thought through the implications of his argument. Hence, perhaps the question mark in the title of the essay. There are questions also about Hill's method and reading of sources. Braddick quotes Keith Thomas, who is by no reckoning a denigrator of Hill, 'whatever Christopher Hill reads seems to provide him with additional support for views he already holds'' This is quite damning and very close to what J.H. Hexter in his critique of Hill called 'lumping'. Hill himself once admitted that he had a thesis to argue and he brought together evidence to buttress that thesis. It needs to be asked if this is a valid method and does it live up to what Thompson called the 'historian's discourse of proof'. Moving to his work as Master of Balliol, Braddick's account would suggest that he was a very popular Master. This may not always have been the case. There were Fellows of Balliol who believed that Hill formed cabals, worked on the principle 'if you are not with me, you are against him' and was not always very kind to those who differed with him. In spite of what I have written above, it would be wrong on my part not to note that Hill commanded respect from even people who did not agree with him or liked him. Richard Cobb, who always called Hill quasi mockingly, 'super God', wrote in Hill's support in the Times Literary Supplement during the (in)famous Hill-Hexter spat. In his letter, Cobb invited Hexter to visit Oxford and listen to a sermon delivered on the Sunday of seventh week of Michaelmas Term titled 'On the Sin of Pride'. Tariq Ali recalls Hill telling him that in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Hungary, when Thompson had resigned from the CPGB and Hill still hadn't, the former wrote to Hill a letter which Hill described as 'the rudest and the most obnoxious letter I have ever received in my life'. Braddick does not mention this letter. What was in that letter? Why was Hill delaying his resignation? How did a reconciliation between Hill and Thompson take place? Braddick's biography is good if a trifle adulatory and justificatory. Hill would have wanted us to go a little beyond. 'What canst thou say?' he would have asked us as he indeed did in the unforgettable last line of The World Turned Upside Down. Rudrangshu Mukherjee is chancellor and professor of history at Ashoka University. Views expressed are the author's own. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News Prime Time | The Big Takeaways from the India-Pak Ceasefire In Contrast: Nehru's Take on a Young, Dissenting Irfan Habib and the Modi Govt's Treatment of Mahmudabad Ladakh: Local BJP Unit Joins Protests Against LG B.D. Mishra's 'Administrative Failures' What the Young Bengal Achieved and Why it is Largely Unacknowledged 'Parliament Kept in Dark': How Modi Govt's Multi-Party Global Outreach Differs from The Past Meitei Group Writes to Amit Shah About 'Unconstitutional Blockade' of Path to Pilgrimage Site The Deep Love Affair Between Mangoes and the Mughals President Withholds Assent to Kerala Government's Malayalam Language Bill New NCERT Social Science Textbook Replaces Three Books, References to Mughals Not in Part 1 View in Desktop Mode About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Which ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' Ending Is Better?
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sandfall I keep writing about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and people keep reading it, so I wanted to discuss what may be the most intense part of the game. Its ending. Rather, its endings, plural. Spoilers obviously follow and if you have not beaten the entire Epilogue and seen credits, don't read this. The final confrontation of the game's story (outside of endgame things) is the stunning choice that you suddenly have to make between Verso and Maelle, where Verso wants the fraction of the true Verso's soul to finally stop painting and rest, while Maelle doesn't want his final world to collapse. Who to choose? Well, I sat staring at the screen for ten minutes, but I won't tell you until we're done with this. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sandfall Verso Many will view Verso's as the 'happy' ending. With original Verso, the dead Verso's soul fraction, done painting, the 'true' Painter family is allowed to reunite and properly mourn what they've lost. But in the process, by doing this, Verso erases all the painted friends he's made for the entire game. A newly painted Maelle, a version of his sister, and Lune and Sciel, his battle partners, and Monoco and Esquie, his fictional childhood friends he brought to life. Maelle Maelle cannot let go. Of child Verso. Of adult, painted Verso, or all her painted friends, new and old, dead and alive. It's the 'dream' ending. Maelle, now fully realizing her painting powers, has brought people like Sciel's dead husband back to life, or more relevantly, Sophie and Gustave, the most brutal losses of the game. The unsettling bit is when she's now puppeteering Verso to play the piano, something he supposedly enjoys, but he's being kept alive (remember he's immortal) and forced to dance for her against his will. This ends with the most frightening shot of the game, painter Maelle: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sandfall I picked Maelle. No, I did not know at the time that her ending would be this unsettling, but my attachment to her character was greater than Verso's, who had lied to us about a dozen times since we met him, and works toward a resolution for a family we simply do not care about. I think you can make the argument that the lie is better. What is real, after all? Is it fair the Painters can bring infinite worlds to life, creating consciousness and erasing them at will? And use it as a way to cope with grief ahead of some larger war with 'The Writers' we have no information about? My friend who is adamantly pro-Verso ending told me that my view is like caring about the toys in Toy Story who are…toys. But you do care about the toys in Toy Story! That's the point! And from a more meta sense, we are caring about what happens to fictional characters in a fictional video game, and the 'right' answer is to pick one real family out of two not-real sets of characters. But getting out of that mindset, I think just dramatically, the Maelle ending is better, and it fits more with the story. It seems bizarre to me to draw this 'happy' ending and that just involves gommaging the entire cast you played with, it's sad and weird, outside of the 'real' family finally mourning. A darker ending after Maelle realizes her identity feels much more in-keeping with everything we've seen before. Why should she be forced to allow the erasure of this world and return to her cage of burns and masks, if she has the power to live like this? It's her family being selfish for…what? If she returns, it's not bringing Verso back, and there's not even a guarantee it will cure her mother's hysteria. I expect a wide range of takes on this, and the answer is probably 'there is no right ending,' which is sort of the point. Either one you pick, this remains one of my favorite video game stories of all time. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
India.com
30-04-2025
- Health
- India.com
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Time of India
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Is there more than one ending in Clair Obscur Expedition 33?
(Image via Sandfall Interactive) Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is a story-driven RPG where the players are set to navigate the haunting tale of sacrifice and the Fractured realities. Here, every choice shapes the fate of the characters. With the players nearing the climax, their major decision determines how the journey of the character will conclude. But is there more than one ending within Clair Obscur Expedition 33? Here is all you need to know about the conclusions of the game. Is there more than one ending in Expedition 33? Clair Obscur Expedition 33 - All Endings (Bad Ending, True Ending, Epilogue Ending) In Clair Obscur Expedition 33, there are two distinct endings. The outcome hinges on the crucial decision made by the players before the final confrontation. The players are given a choice between 2 conflicting perspectives— fight as Maelle (the determined protagonist) or Verso (a conflicted ally of Maelle), each of which leads to different dramatic conclusions. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Scarlett Johansson, 40, Shows Off Her Real Size In A New Vacation Photos 33 Bridges Undo Neither of the Expedition 33 multiple endings are strictly bad or good, but they carry an emotional weight, with one clinging to preservation and hope, while the other embracing closure and sacrifice. They reflect on the theme of the game— sacrifice, letting go, and grief. In a manner, the player's choice is not about morality but instead is about which of the character's resolutions to them feels much more meaningful. Maelle vs Verso— The final showdown After defeating Renoir , the Clair Obscur Expedition 33 story reaches the breaking point. Maelle and Verso clash over their world's clash, with one wishing to preserve it while the other believes it must end. The players here face the challenge of deciding who to choose in the final battle. Fight as Maelle will lead to the ending where the world canvas would survive but at a personal cost. However, choosing Verso results in much more bittersweet conclusions. It emphasizes acceptance and moving ahead. Either way, both endings are impactful, and they ensure neither of them feels like the wrong choice. Can the endings be changed later? After a decision is made by you, the ending gets locked. However, Clair Obscur Expedition 33 does allow you to reload the save just before the final choice if you wish to experience both outcomes. There isn't a New Game feature that can alter Expedition 33 multiple endings. So, your 1st playthrough conclusion will remain intact until you manually revisit your save. The dialogue choices and side quests throughout the game do not influence the ending of Expedition 33. The one and only factor is the pivotal last moment, making it a pure test of the player's preference instead of the hidden conditions. Which ending must you choose? As there is no better ending and each of them is narratively rich and resonant thematically, you can choose either. If you prefer emotional catharsis and closure, the ending of Verso will resonate more with you. But if you favor the ambiguity and the idea of preserving the fading world, the ending of Maelle will deliver you the cynical and haunting conclusion. Since you can reload to see both, there isn't any pressure. So, the best approach here will be to make the pick that feels right at the moment. Then, you can revisit others to fully appreciate the depth of the story. Clair Obscur Expedition 33 does not rely upon the binary morality for the Expedition 33 multiple endings. It instead presents 2 equally compelling conclusions. Each of these reflects varied ways to cope with the loss. So, whether you side with Verso or Maelle, the emotional impact of the journey will linger long after the credits roll.
