Yup. This goes all the way back to at least the early 2010s, almost definitely even earlier. A lot of people point to Zoe Quinn as the cause of gamergate, but she was just the catalyst that finally got the ball rolling. The truth is Gamergate was always going to happen because there was a massive and growing rift between the cultural values of the players and the establishment gaming media that had come to represent them.
One of the best examples of this divide was Gone Home, a small indie game that received universal and wildly over-the-top acclaim from virtually every publication and outlet. The media coverage framed Gone Home as a quasi-horror game with a twist, giving it mostly perfect scores and a spot on several game of the year lists. A lot of players were duped into buying GH based entirely on the raving reviews, nearly all of which strategically omitted the true nature of the game. Players then quickly discovered that the “twist” was “it’s not a horror game at all but rather a primitive woke walking simulator about lesbians”.
This widespread betrayal is what prompted a lot of gamers to become highly skeptical and even combative towards video game journalists. They were activists who posed as gamers so that they could manipulate us in service of their own cultural and political agendas. As a result, many of us wasted time and money on shit media products. So we loudly declared war on these leftist dipshits who brazenly attacked us and our favorite hobby, and we’ve been racist, misogynist, homophobic Nazis ever since.
I remember hearing about, and I think it was the SJW nonsense that really emphasized the cultural problems with it, but there was a lot of games like that. I think Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch were not bad games, but severly over-hyped for barely even being games. I can't remember if those were pre-GG.
Though, I think the two biggest absolute turd sandwiches in that similar era that demonstrated ridiculous corruption were Batman Arkham City and Assassin's Creed Unity where the games were so broken that even non-mainstream game journos called it out.
I think the biggest pre-GG event, however, that screamed: "The gamers are right about corruption" was the firing of Jeff Gherstman at Gamespot as a result of his 6.5/10 review of Army of Two which Gamespot was hugely hyping up at the time. I remember watching that review and looking at the vertical banner ads on the sides of my screen. He was spot on. It was enjoyable, but meh for a co-op cover shooter.
Journalists banded together because the corruption clearly bit one of them in the ass, and Jeff was honestly one of the best ones of the era, which is why he and others created Giant Bomb. I kinda think if some very specific members of that crew weren't Leftist retards Giant Bomb would probably be the biggest video game website in the industry to this day, and might have even saved the journos themselves.
but severly over-hyped for barely even being games
That was the era of "ROGER EBERT IS WRONG GAMES ARE ART I WILL PROVE IT" so everyone was rushing to prop up the latest walking sims to try and prove gaming wasn't juvenille and could "have a message."
One of the original walking sims, Dear Esther, was so overhyped they literally gave the second Amnesia game (a huge IP at the time) to the company that made it and let them destroy that franchise dead. And they are literally doing it again by handing them Vamp Bloodlines 2 to them to "finish."
It can't be downplayed enough how important this mindset was on both this and society in general. The entire industry and a huge portion of the market were ashamed of their hobby and were desperately trying to justify it as more pompous and important than it was. Which to their sad little minds meant more Progressive Leftist Politics, like the big boys in Hollywood do and maybe they will notice them, senpai if they do it too.
That's likely where the massive shift towards Leftism in gaming got its in. There were always tendrils and pushes from various areas prior, but that Roger Ebert thing mindbroke so many people that it cannot be understated the rippling effect it had.
I still think, "The Marriage" is art. I think games absolutely can be art, but they don't have to be.
I forgot about Dar Esther.
The entire industry and a huge portion of the market were ashamed of their hobby and were desperately trying to justify it as more pompous and important than it was. Which to their sad little minds meant more Progressive Leftist Politics, like the big boys in Hollywood do and maybe they will notice them, senpai if they do it too.
Fuck. You're right. That shame would absolutely have been exploited by the Left. That's definitely what happened.
I can think of plenty games that have parts that qualify as art. Entire games is a stretch because that would require it be too short to not end up a walking sim (which barely qualifies as game in exchange). I can think of a lot of examples of specific parts of a few games that I would champion.
One that I will defend and die on is the boss fight against David in the Winter section of The Last of Us. Because it perfectly integrates the game, the character and the story and fully helps express the intended emotion of palpable fear of this lone, human male on a level more than any of the giant monsters.
Which makes it an ultimate shame that TLOU2 became the woke punching bag so people now just shit on the original too to virtue signal.
Yup. This goes all the way back to at least the early 2010s, almost definitely even earlier. A lot of people point to Zoe Quinn as the cause of gamergate, but she was just the catalyst that finally got the ball rolling. The truth is Gamergate was always going to happen because there was a massive and growing rift between the cultural values of the players and the establishment gaming media that had come to represent them.
One of the best examples of this divide was Gone Home, a small indie game that received universal and wildly over-the-top acclaim from virtually every publication and outlet. The media coverage framed Gone Home as a quasi-horror game with a twist, giving it mostly perfect scores and a spot on several game of the year lists. A lot of players were duped into buying GH based entirely on the raving reviews, nearly all of which strategically omitted the true nature of the game. Players then quickly discovered that the “twist” was “it’s not a horror game at all but rather a primitive woke walking simulator about lesbians”.
This widespread betrayal is what prompted a lot of gamers to become highly skeptical and even combative towards video game journalists. They were activists who posed as gamers so that they could manipulate us in service of their own cultural and political agendas. As a result, many of us wasted time and money on shit media products. So we loudly declared war on these leftist dipshits who brazenly attacked us and our favorite hobby, and we’ve been racist, misogynist, homophobic Nazis ever since.
I remember hearing about, and I think it was the SJW nonsense that really emphasized the cultural problems with it, but there was a lot of games like that. I think Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch were not bad games, but severly over-hyped for barely even being games. I can't remember if those were pre-GG.
Though, I think the two biggest absolute turd sandwiches in that similar era that demonstrated ridiculous corruption were Batman Arkham City and Assassin's Creed Unity where the games were so broken that even non-mainstream game journos called it out.
I think the biggest pre-GG event, however, that screamed: "The gamers are right about corruption" was the firing of Jeff Gherstman at Gamespot as a result of his 6.5/10 review of Army of Two which Gamespot was hugely hyping up at the time. I remember watching that review and looking at the vertical banner ads on the sides of my screen. He was spot on. It was enjoyable, but meh for a co-op cover shooter.
Journalists banded together because the corruption clearly bit one of them in the ass, and Jeff was honestly one of the best ones of the era, which is why he and others created Giant Bomb. I kinda think if some very specific members of that crew weren't Leftist retards Giant Bomb would probably be the biggest video game website in the industry to this day, and might have even saved the journos themselves.
That was the era of "ROGER EBERT IS WRONG GAMES ARE ART I WILL PROVE IT" so everyone was rushing to prop up the latest walking sims to try and prove gaming wasn't juvenille and could "have a message."
One of the original walking sims, Dear Esther, was so overhyped they literally gave the second Amnesia game (a huge IP at the time) to the company that made it and let them destroy that franchise dead. And they are literally doing it again by handing them Vamp Bloodlines 2 to them to "finish."
It can't be downplayed enough how important this mindset was on both this and society in general. The entire industry and a huge portion of the market were ashamed of their hobby and were desperately trying to justify it as more pompous and important than it was. Which to their sad little minds meant more Progressive Leftist Politics, like the big boys in Hollywood do and maybe they will notice them, senpai if they do it too.
That's likely where the massive shift towards Leftism in gaming got its in. There were always tendrils and pushes from various areas prior, but that Roger Ebert thing mindbroke so many people that it cannot be understated the rippling effect it had.
"Games are art" lol
I still think, "The Marriage" is art. I think games absolutely can be art, but they don't have to be.
I forgot about Dar Esther.
Fuck. You're right. That shame would absolutely have been exploited by the Left. That's definitely what happened.
I can think of plenty games that have parts that qualify as art. Entire games is a stretch because that would require it be too short to not end up a walking sim (which barely qualifies as game in exchange). I can think of a lot of examples of specific parts of a few games that I would champion.
One that I will defend and die on is the boss fight against David in the Winter section of The Last of Us. Because it perfectly integrates the game, the character and the story and fully helps express the intended emotion of palpable fear of this lone, human male on a level more than any of the giant monsters.
Which makes it an ultimate shame that TLOU2 became the woke punching bag so people now just shit on the original too to virtue signal.
I remember buying that game for a buck on a sales day. Never actually played it.