Ever notice how absolutely miserable it is to participate in video game discourse nowadays? No matter what social media platform you visit, it’s just a near-endless stream of negativity and outrage, and it’s usually over the most trivial non-issues ever.
Tailor your algorithm all you want, some weird grifter will still somehow find its way into your feed, directly or otherwise. Look, I’m all for dunking on people who screech about how games don’t appeal to their bigoted beliefs and whatnot, but I’m just tired, man.
Not to be all “back in my day” about it, but the online landscape used to be a lot more whimsical and wholesome. Now it’s just constant bickering everywhere. Yeah, we had shit like the pointless console wars, but that’s a far cry from whatever the hell is going on nowadays. Gaming has been thrown into this pointless culture war of the West, and it’s exhausting.
For instance, I thoroughly enjoyed Assassin’s Creed Shadows while still acknowledging that it isn’t perfect. I wanted to see what other people thought about it when it came out, but the discourse surrounding the game was completely muddied by pointless arguments about crap like Yasuke’s skin color or the definition of the term “retainer” in the context of feudal Japan.
A lot of it was just thinly veiled racism and typical American right-wing talking points, and it’s so disappointing to see that this crap has even seeped into gaming spaces in the Philippines (which is where I’m from) of all places. It’s sad that it’s not even that surprising, seeing as how I’ve met people who spoke fondly of certain podcasters, including one who felt a bit of neck pain recently.
With social media heavily favoring negative content in recent years, there’s been a growing base of “Gamers” who derive their whole existence and validation off complaining about the dumbest things ever. I’m talking about weirdos who freak out at the concept of pronouns, the mere existence of non-white characters, and even just women in general.
It’s frustrating that the communities for this hobby have largely been hijacked by the most vile, hateful groups in the world. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but I implore you to spend even just a few minutes on any social media platform’s “explore/discover” page.
You’re very likely to stumble into a digital Klan rally in the comments section of some random game content, and it’s awful. I did a bit of doomscrolling just now and witnessed somebody slinging slurs at people because they needed everybody to know how much they disliked a narrative-driven episodic game (Dispatch. I’m talking about Dispatch. Loved it, btw).
“But Frank, you can just block/mute them and go on with your day!” Well, yeah, that doesn’t stop hateful content from showing up! For every weirdo you shut out of your algorithm, there’s always gonna be another one trying to be the next big face of the grift. It’s particularly bad over on Twitter, where people can pay Melon Husk to shove their posts to the top.
Irrelevant anti-woke slop occasionally shows up on my YouTube recommendations, and I don’t even engage with that crap. It’s just these platforms pushing outrage content to the top, regardless of whether or not they have anything worthwhile to say (they don’t).
Ever heard of Sweet Baby Inc? Neither have I, yet every now and then, I’ll see a post or video thumbnail talking about how they’ve “ruined gaming” somehow. As far as I know, they’re just a consulting agency that has worked with studios/developers of varying prominence.
Apparently, grifters think that these consultants somehow have any real power in how the games they’ve consulted for are made. They’ve helped with games like Spider-Man 2, and I don’t even know what the anti-woke crowd has against that… Wait, actually I do. Miles Morales is one of the main characters, and we all know how a certain group feels about that, especially with how Peter takes a well-deserved break at the end of the game.
It’s gotten so bad that even VAs for games are getting harassed. Erika Ishii is a very recent example as of writing this. The anti-woke crowd is obsessed with hating Ghost of Yotei despite being a decent game, and it’s mainly because it has a female protagonist voiced by an outspoken individual who identifies as non-binary.
It’s hate based on extremely shallow “concerns” that a normal person wouldn’t find any issue with. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is another good example of this. Good lord, you could not talk about this game anywhere without attracting people who just parroted grifter takes. Any legitimate criticism with the writing and gameplay was completely drowned out by “hurr durr non-binary bad”.
It’s actually kinda funny how obvious the grift is. Did you know that there were people who went hard on hating Baldur’s Gate 3 when it was still in early access? They shut up real quick when it turned out to be the best game of 2023. Wanna know what they were mad about? Mainly same-sex relationships and genitalia. No, really, that’s literally it.
On that note, don’t y’all find it strange how the people who make conservatism their entire identity have such an unusual obsession with sex? This is the same group of people who claim that Stellar Blade was “saving” video games just because it has an overly sexualized protagonist. Gameplay be damned, I don’t think I’ve seen a single video of this action game’s combat anywhere it’s posted about (outside of YouTube, obviously, smartass).
The worst part of all this is that the anti-woke crowd isn’t the only ones stirring the pot. I’m not a fence sitter by any means, but some individuals on the opposite side of the spectrum are just as guilty of perpetuating this stupid culture war nonsense.
Another reason why blocking the grifters and weirdos themselves doesn’t work is because some of the people who disagree with them unintentionally amplify these dingdongs by posting screenshots of their godawful takes to dunk on them. Like, we get it, they’re being horrible. Why farm engagement out of it? Why can’t we just focus on video games, which is what the entire discourse was supposed to be about?
It’s just a constant back and forth of “no u” on social media now, and it’s so annoying that the main reason this is happening is because prominent figures on both sides keep fanning the flames for the sake of ad revenue. Even creators whose content I like dip their toes into this type of “discourse” every now and then.
This is all just so exhausting. I’m tired of the absolute donuts who don’t have an ounce of media literacy crying about what is or isn’t “woke” in games. I’m tired of the senseless hate that’s seeped into gaming spaces because plenty of “Gamers” are too impressionable and have fallen for the one-sided “us vs them” grift. I’m tired of the gratuitous nitpicking over “small details”, or the lack thereof.
I try to be the change I want to see in the community through this blog, but I really just needed to vent for once because it feels like I’m being shoved into the trenches of a war I don’t participate in whenever I open a social media app these days.
Will we ever go back to the days when gamers focused more on gameplay and writing rather than whether or not a member of the dev team has colored hair or if a game’s protagonist isn’t white? I sure hope so.
There’s plenty of good in the gaming world right now, both in the games themselves and the people who talk about them, as long as you know where to look. This whole rant was just about the general (toxic) state of online discourse, which has become nearly unavoidable now. I’m just glad that Dispatch fans have completely taken my feed over since last week. It’s been a pleasant bit of fresh air, all because of a wonderful game.
Anyway, I’m just gonna go ahead and continue playing my silly little games and reviewing them. I’ll be working on a short Dispatch review after this, and maybe even something about an MMO I used to play a lot that’s currently making a resurgence through private servers. Not really sure how to close this, so uhh, peace.