As someone who once regretfully described himself as a gamergater in 2016, and trust me, I wish I was closer to 14 rather than 18 back then, this is a curious look into how this movement has fared...
Exemplary
As someone who once regretfully described himself as a gamergater in 2016, and trust me, I wish I was closer to 14 rather than 18 back then, this is a curious look into how this movement has fared over the years.
The Stellar Blade "Controversy" is a fantastic example of just how insulated you can become in your little social media bubble, and looking back on it now, how outright cringe it all was back then too. People posting multiple videos a day, all just reurgitating the same uninformed hot takes for an on-screen audience that has nothing better to do than watch a guy known for shit like being good at WoW or having worked at Blizzard 20 years ago trying to find purpose in being angry.
Reading all of the content shown in the video, especially the main character of Grummz, always updating this "culture war" narrative like it's the marvel cinematic universe is one of the worst deja-vus I've had the displeasure of experiencing. It reminds me of falling into r/KotakuInAction and checking it daily for the newest updates on how something completely irrelevant not impacting my life at all was evolving, especially because most of the controversy was just made up to get angry and drive engagement, because holy shit do people love being angry.
I have a personal vendetta against these groups for an admittedly stupid/superficial reason: whenever they lock on onto a game, all discussions about that game become stupid, flametory, tiresome...
I have a personal vendetta against these groups for an admittedly stupid/superficial reason: whenever they lock on onto a game, all discussions about that game become stupid, flametory, tiresome and frustrating.
I love to read opinions, I love to talk about games that interest me, I love to talk about what could've been, how great/bad this character is, how the music is great/bad, etc. But in these games, forget it. Saying anything just invites trouble.
Some examples of these games are Dragon Age Veilguard, The Last of Us 2, Battlefield 5 and, to a certain extent, Witcher 3.
In Veilguard, there's a huge focus on Taash, the non-binary character. While I also believe they were handled horribly, they are just a part of a wider story that was also badly writen. The focus on Taash is disproportionate, and honestly it doesn't take a genius to know why. But the result is all the same because of those groups, I have to be very careful if I talk about Taash, with all the disclaimers to make sure that other people understand where I'm coming from, because otherwise I will be lumped up with those groups. But I don't want to have all that work, so the result is: I just don't talk about Taash.
TLOU2 is worse in general. I just checked and sure enough, r/TheLastOfUs2 is still active to this day. 4 years of hating the game and ongoing.
I blame these guys for the following: I cannot criticize that game. If I say that I didn't like some part of this game offhandedly, like just a small comment, I will invite someone to write long essays on why I am wrong and it's actually great. I'm not exaggerating, it happened to me two times. One when I said that the ending felt off, it didn't make sense when just a few minutes earlier you were blowing up and killing people in brutal ways, and another when I said that the pacing was badly handled.
To be clear, I'm not complaining about people having different opinions - I'm a big boy, I can handle it - What I'm complaining about is how off handed comments about this game get reactions that other games wouldn't. I think that I made harsher comments about other games that did not invite the same zealousness as those two about TLOU2.
Then there was BF5... Ugh, saying that the game could've been an Alternative history game, or dieselpunk, somehow was controversial. EA/DICE wanted to make a game with a lot of customization, that's cool I thought, but maybe make it a setting where you have total creative freedom, don't try to make it as an historical game. And the campaigns, missed opportunity to tell stories about women that fought in WW2 in real life.
But the end result: people thought I was from those groups. A guy pissed off about the woman in the trailer, that can't handle the fairer sex fighting in a war. And once again, I blame those anti-"woke" groups. They poisoned the well and killed off any kind of discussion about the game.
Let me make clear initially: I absolutely agree with your point. Now, do you find this is mostly exclusive to Reddit/social media? In the 18 months or so I've been on Tildes, things are generally...
I blame these guys for the following: I cannot criticize that game. If I say that I didn't like some part of this game offhandedly, like just a small comment, I will invite someone to write long essays on why I am wrong and it's actually great. I'm not exaggerating, it happened to me two times. One when I said that the ending felt off, it didn't make sense when just a few minutes earlier you were blowing up and killing people in brutal ways, and another when I said that the pacing was badly handled.
Let me make clear initially: I absolutely agree with your point.
Now, do you find this is mostly exclusive to Reddit/social media? In the 18 months or so I've been on Tildes, things are generally less inflammatory. I feel like we can generally express opinions here and not have them taken in bad faith.
My experience was mainly on Reddit, but I expect to be the same or worse on others. Tildes is the best social group I joined for the same reason as you mentioned. People here don't assume bad...
My experience was mainly on Reddit, but I expect to be the same or worse on others.
Tildes is the best social group I joined for the same reason as you mentioned. People here don't assume bad faith by default. I don't comment as much here but I enjoy reading the conversations
I wish he would have taken some time to address that these people make these tweets, youtube videos, culture war media pieces because it is in some way financially rewarding to do so. Like he...
I wish he would have taken some time to address that these people make these tweets, youtube videos, culture war media pieces because it is in some way financially rewarding to do so. Like he pointed out the channel who makes anti-woke thumbnails every day. It's a business! Make outrage bait -> Receive ad revenue. You don't even have to believe the shit you say. Just say the magic marketing keywords.
On twitter it was a little less clear, where they typically gain followers or the abstract "clout" but those can be later converted to cash in various ways (though now on X they have introduced that Creator Revenue Sharing program so there is a way more direct pipeline now, if you can get enough eyeballs).
God it looks like the easiest grift in the world if you have no shame and too much free time on your hands. Day in day out, "the woke left has ruined {media property}, everyone who disagrees gets...
God it looks like the easiest grift in the world if you have no shame and too much free time on your hands. Day in day out, "the woke left has ruined {media property}, everyone who disagrees gets cancelled, what's next, a {diversity word} {noun}?". Ramble for 90 minutes, upload with minimal editing, rinse repeat rinse repeat. The only mental-adjacent task involved is finding a single flaw in an unpolular media property that they can blame on someone progressive.
Of course a huge aspect of it is that it is financially rewarding, especially for the channels that put out shit daily or even more more than once per day. I don't think Shaun was very interested...
Of course a huge aspect of it is that it is financially rewarding, especially for the channels that put out shit daily or even more more than once per day. I don't think Shaun was very interested in making it apparent that it is profitable to lie on the internet; that seems like an obvious statement to me.
I think the angle he picked with going with this die-hard believer of the cause who kept ranting on about shit on Twitter more than 20 years after he has done anything relevant at all is a fantastic one. Having watched the whole thing, he doesn't outright insult Grummz at any point aside of mentioning his age towards the start of the video.
The fact that a 56 year old guy is firing off twitter messages hourly about something completely irrelevant and largely made up is so intriguing. I think he's a believer of his own bullshit, and that's more interesting to explore than grifters who do it for profit only, because grifters are the same wherever you go.
I think Shaun does a really good job laying out the underlying reasons this group of "culture war" guys react the way they do to certain games, without being too oversimplified or reductive. I'm...
I think Shaun does a really good job laying out the underlying reasons this group of "culture war" guys react the way they do to certain games, without being too oversimplified or reductive. I'm also honestly impressed that he played Stellar Blade for the video -- I don't think he had to do that but it lends him a solid ground to stand on, since most of the "discourse" is from guys who never play it.
Wish he'd let himself go into his multi-hour tangent about Kim Kitsuragi though. I'd watch the fuck outta that.
I listened to this on commutes today and came away with the impression that the author made somewhat decent and very long video for a non-issue. Discussing for a decent chunk of a time the...
I listened to this on commutes today and came away with the impression that the author made somewhat decent and very long video for a non-issue.
Discussing for a decent chunk of a time the mediocrity of a game for reasons that I do not even actually fundamentally disagree with, just think were overblown. As far as my opinion goes, there is not actually an original story, the point is if it brings together a coherent whole in its own tone without blatantly copying too large chunks too literally without acknowledgement. I also do not consider erotic elements an issue and gameplay-lore dissonance is an unfortunate fact of videogames in general.
Though I admit I may be slightly biased here since I actually slightly like Stellar Blade as a game, mildly dislike Nier: Automata as an actual game(and consider the story and philosophy only notable in relation to the medium) and honestly despise anything soulslike.
The rest of the video is spent discussing a so called controversy of censorship based on a single(as far as I remember) source. The video also seems to have a generally, deliberately and unnecesarilly slightly caustic tone.
If you only remember a single source, you do not remember the video particularly well. While the video centers around one specific grifter, shows an array of others who jumped on the bandwagon for...
If you only remember a single source, you do not remember the video particularly well. While the video centers around one specific grifter, shows an array of others who jumped on the bandwagon for each step of the fake outrage that he's covering here.
That's kinda Shaun's thing in my experience. I personally can't enjoy his video essays because they always feel like they need an editor and lack deeper, interesting analysis.
The video also seems to have a generally, deliberately and unnecesarilly slightly caustic tone.
That's kinda Shaun's thing in my experience. I personally can't enjoy his video essays because they always feel like they need an editor and lack deeper, interesting analysis.
It's quite central to the point Shaun is making though: That this fake controversy is not about the game at all, because the game is alright. I can see how people could be really into it. But the...
Discussing for a decent chunk of a time the mediocrity of a game for reasons that I do not even actually fundamentally disagree with, just think were overblown.
It's quite central to the point Shaun is making though: That this fake controversy is not about the game at all, because the game is alright. I can see how people could be really into it. But the point is that outside accounts have been flip-flopping on this being the best game ever or the worst game ever for reasons that have nothing to do with the game itself.
In addition, while he relies on the twitter account for the most, he shows plenty of screenshots of videos with a couple thousand views each also discussing the "controversy".
As someone who once regretfully described himself as a gamergater in 2016, and trust me, I wish I was closer to 14 rather than 18 back then, this is a curious look into how this movement has fared over the years.
The Stellar Blade "Controversy" is a fantastic example of just how insulated you can become in your little social media bubble, and looking back on it now, how outright cringe it all was back then too. People posting multiple videos a day, all just reurgitating the same uninformed hot takes for an on-screen audience that has nothing better to do than watch a guy known for shit like being good at WoW or having worked at Blizzard 20 years ago trying to find purpose in being angry.
Reading all of the content shown in the video, especially the main character of Grummz, always updating this "culture war" narrative like it's the marvel cinematic universe is one of the worst deja-vus I've had the displeasure of experiencing. It reminds me of falling into r/KotakuInAction and checking it daily for the newest updates on how something completely irrelevant not impacting my life at all was evolving, especially because most of the controversy was just made up to get angry and drive engagement, because holy shit do people love being angry.
I'm so happy I got away from it.
I have a personal vendetta against these groups for an admittedly stupid/superficial reason: whenever they lock on onto a game, all discussions about that game become stupid, flametory, tiresome and frustrating.
I love to read opinions, I love to talk about games that interest me, I love to talk about what could've been, how great/bad this character is, how the music is great/bad, etc. But in these games, forget it. Saying anything just invites trouble.
Some examples of these games are Dragon Age Veilguard, The Last of Us 2, Battlefield 5 and, to a certain extent, Witcher 3.
In Veilguard, there's a huge focus on Taash, the non-binary character. While I also believe they were handled horribly, they are just a part of a wider story that was also badly writen. The focus on Taash is disproportionate, and honestly it doesn't take a genius to know why. But the result is all the same because of those groups, I have to be very careful if I talk about Taash, with all the disclaimers to make sure that other people understand where I'm coming from, because otherwise I will be lumped up with those groups. But I don't want to have all that work, so the result is: I just don't talk about Taash.
TLOU2 is worse in general. I just checked and sure enough, r/TheLastOfUs2 is still active to this day. 4 years of hating the game and ongoing.
I blame these guys for the following: I cannot criticize that game. If I say that I didn't like some part of this game offhandedly, like just a small comment, I will invite someone to write long essays on why I am wrong and it's actually great. I'm not exaggerating, it happened to me two times. One when I said that the ending felt off, it didn't make sense when just a few minutes earlier you were blowing up and killing people in brutal ways, and another when I said that the pacing was badly handled.
To be clear, I'm not complaining about people having different opinions - I'm a big boy, I can handle it - What I'm complaining about is how off handed comments about this game get reactions that other games wouldn't. I think that I made harsher comments about other games that did not invite the same zealousness as those two about TLOU2.
Then there was BF5... Ugh, saying that the game could've been an Alternative history game, or dieselpunk, somehow was controversial. EA/DICE wanted to make a game with a lot of customization, that's cool I thought, but maybe make it a setting where you have total creative freedom, don't try to make it as an historical game. And the campaigns, missed opportunity to tell stories about women that fought in WW2 in real life.
But the end result: people thought I was from those groups. A guy pissed off about the woman in the trailer, that can't handle the fairer sex fighting in a war. And once again, I blame those anti-"woke" groups. They poisoned the well and killed off any kind of discussion about the game.
Let me make clear initially: I absolutely agree with your point.
Now, do you find this is mostly exclusive to Reddit/social media? In the 18 months or so I've been on Tildes, things are generally less inflammatory. I feel like we can generally express opinions here and not have them taken in bad faith.
My experience was mainly on Reddit, but I expect to be the same or worse on others.
Tildes is the best social group I joined for the same reason as you mentioned. People here don't assume bad faith by default. I don't comment as much here but I enjoy reading the conversations
I wish he would have taken some time to address that these people make these tweets, youtube videos, culture war media pieces because it is in some way financially rewarding to do so. Like he pointed out the channel who makes anti-woke thumbnails every day. It's a business! Make outrage bait -> Receive ad revenue. You don't even have to believe the shit you say. Just say the magic marketing keywords.
On twitter it was a little less clear, where they typically gain followers or the abstract "clout" but those can be later converted to cash in various ways (though now on X they have introduced that Creator Revenue Sharing program so there is a way more direct pipeline now, if you can get enough eyeballs).
God it looks like the easiest grift in the world if you have no shame and too much free time on your hands. Day in day out, "the woke left has ruined {media property}, everyone who disagrees gets cancelled, what's next, a {diversity word} {noun}?". Ramble for 90 minutes, upload with minimal editing, rinse repeat rinse repeat. The only mental-adjacent task involved is finding a single flaw in an unpolular media property that they can blame on someone progressive.
Just use Chat GPT to give you a bullet list of stuff to go through and eventually synthesize your voice using AI and boom, the channel runs itself.
Of course a huge aspect of it is that it is financially rewarding, especially for the channels that put out shit daily or even more more than once per day. I don't think Shaun was very interested in making it apparent that it is profitable to lie on the internet; that seems like an obvious statement to me.
I think the angle he picked with going with this die-hard believer of the cause who kept ranting on about shit on Twitter more than 20 years after he has done anything relevant at all is a fantastic one. Having watched the whole thing, he doesn't outright insult Grummz at any point aside of mentioning his age towards the start of the video.
The fact that a 56 year old guy is firing off twitter messages hourly about something completely irrelevant and largely made up is so intriguing. I think he's a believer of his own bullshit, and that's more interesting to explore than grifters who do it for profit only, because grifters are the same wherever you go.
I think Shaun does a really good job laying out the underlying reasons this group of "culture war" guys react the way they do to certain games, without being too oversimplified or reductive. I'm also honestly impressed that he played Stellar Blade for the video -- I don't think he had to do that but it lends him a solid ground to stand on, since most of the "discourse" is from guys who never play it.
Wish he'd let himself go into his multi-hour tangent about Kim Kitsuragi though. I'd watch the fuck outta that.
I listened to this on commutes today and came away with the impression that the author made somewhat decent and very long video for a non-issue.
Discussing for a decent chunk of a time the mediocrity of a game for reasons that I do not even actually fundamentally disagree with, just think were overblown. As far as my opinion goes, there is not actually an original story, the point is if it brings together a coherent whole in its own tone without blatantly copying too large chunks too literally without acknowledgement. I also do not consider erotic elements an issue and gameplay-lore dissonance is an unfortunate fact of videogames in general.
Though I admit I may be slightly biased here since I actually slightly like Stellar Blade as a game, mildly dislike Nier: Automata as an actual game(and consider the story and philosophy only notable in relation to the medium) and honestly despise anything soulslike.
The rest of the video is spent discussing a so called controversy of censorship based on a single(as far as I remember) source. The video also seems to have a generally, deliberately and unnecesarilly slightly caustic tone.
If you only remember a single source, you do not remember the video particularly well. While the video centers around one specific grifter, shows an array of others who jumped on the bandwagon for each step of the fake outrage that he's covering here.
That's kinda Shaun's thing in my experience. I personally can't enjoy his video essays because they always feel like they need an editor and lack deeper, interesting analysis.
It's quite central to the point Shaun is making though: That this fake controversy is not about the game at all, because the game is alright. I can see how people could be really into it. But the point is that outside accounts have been flip-flopping on this being the best game ever or the worst game ever for reasons that have nothing to do with the game itself.
In addition, while he relies on the twitter account for the most, he shows plenty of screenshots of videos with a couple thousand views each also discussing the "controversy".
I wasn't a fan of the game (felt like a wannabe Nier: Automata and worse in every way IMO), but the outrage is nonsense ragebait.
I like the game, it's fun.