I was catching up on the latest happenings regarding the SBI think, and I had a thought as I was watching a Yellow Flash video about that non-profit defending SBI with a Homeland Security grant.
If you can recall, I have said several times before that the D.C. bureaucrats really do believe the bullshit they spout when they talk about "extremism." OK, I can hear you asking, how does that apply here?
Well, Official D.C. has settled onto the belief that gaming fosters "extremism," and that gaming developers need resources to counter this "threat."
In short, Official D.C. doesn't view a gamer as much different than a Trump supporter.
I think that a lot of commentators covering the SBI thing on our side are cynically rolling their eyes over the way government is getting involved with this, and are not taking the threat represented by such involvement seriously. If government gets involved with this, as it increasingly looks like it will, well, GG won't be just a cultural movement in gaming any more.
If you want to know what it looks like when Government goes after "extremists," look at what is going on with Trump, and more importantly, what Official D.C. is doing to Trump's former staff. Going after law licenses via Bar complaints for nothing more than daring to represent Trump in court, and throwing not a few of them into jail on process crimes.
I knew some of the game makers in indie groups. They were 5-10 members big and making cool stuff. Then they disappeared to reappear with a publisher and lots of media coverage. It really looks like any publicity or investment is based on SBI approval. There is no alternative to this.
The entire indie scene is more compromised and "success" isn't what we think it is. This is really sad, because the teams just wanted to be noticed and maybe get some investment. It's about as real as the Oscars.
Which game?
I've been playing a demo for a game called Maniac that's like that. One guy taking GTA/2/London, Twisted Metal and Postal and making a damn good game.