At least have an idea about the Abyss before you talk to it.
This is a re-post from my personal website.
Let me tell you, I had some trepidation when I saw that People Make Games did a video about the military industry’s involvement in wargaming and the numerous connections between the games industry and the military. After all, they have a bit of a track record of missing structural and systemic problems in their video’s subjects and instead overemphasise the role of individual responsibility in them.
However, I was not prepared for a solid hour of barely challenged military propaganda, followed by a very weak and pointless call to action at the end, that frankly I didn’t bother to watch to completion, because in my eyes the damage had already been done at that point.
The video falls on its face right at the beginning and never really manages to get anywhere from there. It starts with them repeatedly mentioning how desperate the military games sector is for new game designers, when the game industry itself is currently in a phase of repeated mass layoffs, which causes a lot of anxiety and desperation within the workforce.
Honestly, the first fifteen minutes of the video almost sound like a job advert.
Modern war is extermination, twice-euphemized: first as war, then again as "defense". You are harmfully, dangerously naive if that isn't in the very front of your mind as you peer into the world of geopol consultants and conference rooms and gigadeath spreadsheets, and you're just a simpering accomplice of evil if you see its true face and your first instinct is to gesture towards "nuance", full of "complicated feelings". What exactly is complicated about it bro?
All this sums up a weird background feeling I had watching their Disco Elysium video, where they were weirdly trusting in what the moneyman who basically took control of the studio said, while just sort of ignoring any possible motivation he would have in directing people solely to the less than stellar actions of the studio founders. It felt like they entirely ignored a major part of the story solely because they couldn't do in-person interviews about it because it would lose them access and result in a less "in-depth" video.
I would argue another major problem I have with People Make Games is that they seem to really value access to their interview subjects, when it's really clear some of those subjects are trying to use them as a method of propaganda, or a least a way to direct people's attention in a different direction. There's a severe lack of understanding of structures and societal factors, and that really affects the work. They're at their best letting people in unique circumstances tell their stories, and at their worst trying to find some sort of truth from these interviews, because it's clear they're walking on eggshells as to not seem too radical and potentially lose access in future stories with people in big industries.
It's a complicated story imperfectly told, but that's what real-ass journalism looks like sometimes. I found Quinn's comments at the end poignant; most gamers aren't even aware of the subject matter. Any video that can breach that veil at all is, therefore, unfortunately, better than none.