Dusk the Umbreon ϴ∆

yeah sure I'll rechost zhat

george came and hung out with us in VR last night. he fit right in

(📸: @feralfluid, @cynosura. 🌸 wolf also @feralfluid, wolf with purple's @goopypanther, white wolf is me, george is himself)

Haraiva on twitter made a post and then deleted it about orientalism in "cozy/wholesome" games specificially about fetishizing and infantilizing japan.

They went on to say that just because something is cutsey and charming doesnt mean that it isnt a form of racism. Celebratory intent doesnt negate harm and appropriation.

Its a real shame they had to delete it because they got harassed. i think is completely correct and this conversation needs to be more in the public conscious. Ive been seeing some of it in ttrpgs vis a vis 'ghibli aesthetic', but i'd like to see more of it esp within ""wholesome"" games discussions.

This is especialy relevant given there are 2 different games made by different teams that are using japan as a backdrop all while using fake kana. There is genuinly no reason for this other than fetishization.

Edit/Amendment: I want to acknowledge that orientalism is an issue throughout all genres of games, but for the purposes of this post I was focusing soley on those listed as "cozy" or "wholesome"

I am not a scholar, not an expert, and i am a white man, but the term "cozy orientalism" a la "techno-orientalism" really seems like an appropriate phrase for this phenomenon

This is a fantastic post. I just wanted to add an epiphany I had recently. I've been seeing all of these Japanese-titled and/or theoretically-set-in-Japan farming sims coming out of the Wholesome Games communities that did not resemble anything Japanese and it was really irking me why, and I realized why--their idea of what Japanese farming looks like comes from Harvest Moon, and Harvest Moon's setting is 100% definitely "vague idea of Europe" lmao

Haraiva on twitter made a post and then deleted it about orientalism in "cozy/wholesome" games specificially about fetishizing and infantilizing japan.

They went on to say that just because something is cutsey and charming doesnt mean that it isnt a form of racism. Celebratory intent doesnt negate harm and appropriation.

Its a real shame they had to delete it because they got harassed. i think is completely correct and this conversation needs to be more in the public conscious. Ive been seeing some of it in ttrpgs vis a vis 'ghibli aesthetic', but i'd like to see more of it esp within ""wholesome"" games discussions.

This is especialy relevant given there are 2 different games made by different teams that are using japan as a backdrop all while using fake kana. There is genuinly no reason for this other than fetishization.

Edit/Amendment: I want to acknowledge that orientalism is an issue throughout all genres of games, but for the purposes of this post I was focusing soley on those listed as "cozy" or "wholesome"

I am not a scholar, not an expert, and i am a white man, but the term "cozy orientalism" a la "techno-orientalism" really seems like an appropriate phrase for this phenomenon

This is a fantastic post. I just wanted to add an epiphany I had recently. I've been seeing all of these Japanese-titled and/or theoretically-set-in-Japan farming sims coming out of the Wholesome Games communities that did not resemble anything Japanese and it was really irking me why, and I realized why--their idea of what Japanese farming looks like comes from Harvest Moon, and Harvest Moon's setting is 100% definitely "vague idea of Europe" lmao