i don't like watching the game awards and i don't like participating in the annual "get on twitter and roast it" tradition because it is like a coalescence of every online force that drives me insane and depresses me coming together for multiple hours like an unavoidable meteor impact, my only solution being to bury myself so far underground that i am shielded from its effects
mostly this is an effect of just, idk, the past 3-4 years where we've truly had to just be online every day and witness some kind of horror and cope either with collective dread or some sort of comedic reflex. like every day on twitter/online has been a non-stop series of car accidents where we're roadside, powerless to change that, and our only reflex is now to either comment on how the crash could have been better avoided or lessened or to simply just go "yep, typical bmw driver!!"
almost every day some sort of shit happens in games that could be totally inconsequential but the empty text field beckons everyone to have an opinion on a thing they've spent no meaningful time considering up to that point, and often never even heard of. a necessity to post. what is the point of existing if you cannot post. if you cannot have the definitive take on some subject matter. oh you have like, a slight understanding of the subject? better make sure everyone knows that. a thread: 🧵
i spent a non-significant amount of time in the past two weeks recommending everyone check out the new need for speed game because it whips ass and like half the replies were people crying afoul of its $70USD price because EA is now also raising its prices on games. there's no fault here in being upset about that, 70 boners is a lot of money when no company is raising its wages citing inflation like they're not paying themselves out triple to insure their safety when some sort of true financial collapse happens. i was more annoyed by those replies because why need for speed why is this the game that you're upset about this. what makes sony selling you Last of Us for the 3rd time in a row at seventy fucking dollars when it also doesn't have its multiplayer it's literally less of a game than the first time okay. what makes that price for any of their games not just ok, but some source of pride. fuck yeah i'm gonna give you that 70. i loved Vikings the TV show, let me play a worse version of that. i have no idea how the tide turned that sony barely has to market these games anymore. there's just an inherent believe in its community, and in games at large, that they are worth whatever they charge because they are An Event. they're the new season premiere of something, even if their narrative qualities are filler season at best. AAA--almost specifically the SoCal/Greater Los Angeles--games have just created this bubble where there is them and there is the rest and if you're in 'the rest' and have to charge the same price of entry as them, you're to be questioned. how dare you say you're worth that time, that money. what boundary are you pushing, like we are, which we said, in interviews, published by us, on our blog, to also be justifying charging that price.
for like three hours everyone is going to form a take that will echo everyone else's because the stream of consciousness that is social media will just ambiently inform how everyone feels about the thing, which will only happen if they can't form a joke fast enough because those three hours are also the world's worst open-mic night. everyone will watch a thing that is meant to celebrate the craft that we've dedicated our professional and hobbyist lives to, forcibly push out the part of our mind that is disgusted by it actually being gaming's most transparent marketing event, and Take or Joke our way through it like it is the 200th accident to happen in front of us and at that point well really what is there to do other than laugh
i truly, aggressively dislike what twitter has done to conversation and frankly how the people i know just approach any given situation. everything is an opportunity to be a comedian or a philosopher and nobody is any fucking good at either. and when that happens to during an event that will happily put a trailer for "US ARMY FUNDED VIDEOGAME DLC" next to "here are some POC we picked out of a list to say they've got some real promise, kid" while shoving any meaningful celebration of the medium down a toilet because it occupies too much airtime... i'm sorry i just can't anymore! it drives me insane. the worst qualities of everyone comes out in a way that is presented as ironic but is in reality some absurd dance with the horror of all of these things. everyone turns into steven yeun's character in NOPE for a day. willingly.
or something man i don't know, maybe i'm just fucking bitter about it because i think the jokes are all bad and i just want to see actual developers on stage winning shit instead of some 40-year old guy who realised women are people because his wife had the luck of giving him a daughter instead of a son who he could have raised to also worship star wars like he does.
