new word i have come to hate: "friction"
had the displeasure of seeing some weirdo in the polygon comments claim that people can't handle friction in their fiction because they were upset about (uh spoilers for buffy the vampire slayer for anyone who still cares about buffy spoilers) the sudden, unceremonious death of tara so that willow can go on an angry rampage. like this is obvious bullshit on the face of it, if it was as simple as everyone being so 'friction'-averse they would not watch six seasons of buffy! they would have stopped at like season 2 or whatever when buffy kills angel right when he gets his soul back! they clearly can handle it! the friction isn't the problem! tara got killed for shock value, to enrage her girlfriend! she got gay fridged! and it sucks ass that in a show where buffy and angel got to come back from death tara doesn't because fuck you! if you want to argue that this take is wrong argue that, but to just toss out all that context, all that emotion, and complain that people are just too soft fucking sucks!
friction has been turned into a goal into itself, and that sucks ass. the point of friction isn't to just sit there and take it! the point is to explore it, understand it, and if possible reduce or resolve it! friction on its own cannot have any meaning. i can turn my art into endless gore pics if i wanted. what will i accomplish other than you probably blocking and reporting me? there is no meaning, no resolution, just me being an asshole. but you experience friction, right? if friction-as-an-end is good, then why should you care? the fact that you want things to get better for you must mean you're weak. git gud at being miserable.
at gdc i remember someone at lost levels giving a little talk arguing that the purpose of life is to be hard and therefore games should be hard. fuck that. first there is no purpose of life. and if anything out there is worth calling a 'purpose of life', it is making life easier. the difficulty of existence we experience is either caused by a universe so uncaring that it will not forbid us from walking on the lifeless surface of the moon, or by other humans demanding supplication. both of these things can change! it's not some preordained future! in so many ways we've worked to make life easier! we have that joke about modern conveniences killing medieval peasants! we've resolved conflicts, healed wounds, built machines and communities alike to do the things we cannot on our own! to sit in our own misery for the sake of sitting in our own misery is learned helplessness!
friction is also terrifically poorly defined. i can't tell if it's supposed to be about dark souls identical-moves-with-different-timing shit, or signalis inventory slots, or elite dangerous flying-multiple-real-hours stuff, or what. i see it used in a tautological way ("of course we need friction in games, you can't just get what you want instantly or there's no game!") and i see it used in praise of obtuse pointless painfulness. really need it to mean something before i take it too seriously
