10-18-2022, 03:58 PM
A topic that's often touched upon in these spaces but never talked about in depth is the complete collapse of all popular media analysis and commentary, with video games in particular bearing the brunt of it. There’s a noticeable group of leftists online, especially those associated with the Breadtubers, for which all discussion of video games centers around games as narratives and serial dramas, and analysis is simply describing what norms a game establishes and what messages can be derived as from its themes. We can all identify them with their rallying cries of “media literacy” and how it should be taught in schools. Every other week there will be a viral tweet with tens of thousands of likes about how some game or another is actually about how you should join the DSA or respect trans rights. Recently a thread on Persona 4 went viral because it’s seen as verboten, as it provides a now outdated look on how progressives viewed gender over 10 years ago (i.e. it seeks to undermine gender roles but it isn’t nice enough to gays and trannies). Naturally, if you disagree with the Norwood on this, it’s because you have less media literacy than him.
https://twitter.com/AnimalJayson/status/...9829477376
While games can have messages and there’s merit to discussing them on this basis, focusing on this aspect primarily is wrong as it takes away from what make games unique. Games are best at providing a space with interesting systems and mechanics that demand the player experiment with them and ultimately master them. The best commentary online in my opinion is based on analyzing these systems, with narrative and thematic analysis playing second banana. The most popular example of this in these parts would be Icycalm, especially the arcade culture essay where he talks about the glories of the 1cc.
At root, the problem seems to be that all Norwoods and troons see the games industry as simply a political entity and nothing more, and thus all games are not games but propaganda of one sort or another. All leftist commentary on games is political commentary, and thus the main goal of the commentary is not for games to be better, but to better realize the friend-enemy distinction. “Media literacy” is a good example of this because it’s an attempt to divine how it can be used to fight with your enemies online if it can be used at all (if it can’t be used, it’s simply bad or ignored), but it colors all their other commentary as well. Consider the common Norwood phrase, “i want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and i'm not kidding.” At first glance it’s good in a sense, because from a free market perspective it may encourage better human capital to make games. In addition, cutting out the 4K textures and 30 hours of collectible hunting will significantly reduce man hours on individual games, which will in turn lower budgets and encourage a little bit more risk. It’s a misunderstanding to think this is what they mean however. Norwoods see game devs (women and eunuchs) as political allies, and so they want these changes realized because its a reward to their friends, with any improvement that may result being a happy accident. You can’t ask for any attention to detail from these people, because then you’re asking for them to work more and that’s being Crowbcat (search “crowbcat” on Twitter to see what I mean. This was the first result for me https://twitter.com/tanisthelesbiab/stat...4643822592).
Ideally, the games industry would be one company structured like a public bureaucracy in which game devs work 20 hour weeks to make GNC propaganda, outsource most of it to Pajeet, and then release it to lavish reviews in which game journos beat Chudjak over the head about how owned he is right now.
There are many places that this discussion could be taken so I think I’ll leave it there. Let me know what you think.
https://twitter.com/AnimalJayson/status/...9829477376
While games can have messages and there’s merit to discussing them on this basis, focusing on this aspect primarily is wrong as it takes away from what make games unique. Games are best at providing a space with interesting systems and mechanics that demand the player experiment with them and ultimately master them. The best commentary online in my opinion is based on analyzing these systems, with narrative and thematic analysis playing second banana. The most popular example of this in these parts would be Icycalm, especially the arcade culture essay where he talks about the glories of the 1cc.
At root, the problem seems to be that all Norwoods and troons see the games industry as simply a political entity and nothing more, and thus all games are not games but propaganda of one sort or another. All leftist commentary on games is political commentary, and thus the main goal of the commentary is not for games to be better, but to better realize the friend-enemy distinction. “Media literacy” is a good example of this because it’s an attempt to divine how it can be used to fight with your enemies online if it can be used at all (if it can’t be used, it’s simply bad or ignored), but it colors all their other commentary as well. Consider the common Norwood phrase, “i want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and i'm not kidding.” At first glance it’s good in a sense, because from a free market perspective it may encourage better human capital to make games. In addition, cutting out the 4K textures and 30 hours of collectible hunting will significantly reduce man hours on individual games, which will in turn lower budgets and encourage a little bit more risk. It’s a misunderstanding to think this is what they mean however. Norwoods see game devs (women and eunuchs) as political allies, and so they want these changes realized because its a reward to their friends, with any improvement that may result being a happy accident. You can’t ask for any attention to detail from these people, because then you’re asking for them to work more and that’s being Crowbcat (search “crowbcat” on Twitter to see what I mean. This was the first result for me https://twitter.com/tanisthelesbiab/stat...4643822592).
Ideally, the games industry would be one company structured like a public bureaucracy in which game devs work 20 hour weeks to make GNC propaganda, outsource most of it to Pajeet, and then release it to lavish reviews in which game journos beat Chudjak over the head about how owned he is right now.
There are many places that this discussion could be taken so I think I’ll leave it there. Let me know what you think.