Non-Gaming Hot Takes

[YuriSukiSan]

This whole deconstruction/hyperanalysis tendency we see today about everything strikes me sometimes as a desperate attempt at validating particular viewpoints.

I'm not saying there isn't good faith in these kinds of mental exercises, but it is probably impossible to perform this free of bias and not entirely objective judgement.

If you take things at face value you are often branded a fool, or lacking in intellect by most, but this is becoming a sort of lost talent in our species - allowing ourselves the luxury of having a shred of innocence again.

Sometimes things are what they are, and people do mean what they mean, without subtext. I say this as someone that agonizes entirely too much squinting over this very thing, trying to find hidden meanings, to find the deep truth, but sometimes there isn't any.

The same people that said Fallout was about one form of commentary all had a meltdown when it's creator actually said it was about something else entirely, I'm not saying you can't form the opinion they did, that their views lack nuance, or even that it was done in bad faith but these people (to be purposefully vague) are very biased and it shows.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

This whole deconstruction/hyperanalysis tendency we see today about everything strikes me sometimes as a desperate attempt at validating particular viewpoints.

I'm not saying there isn't good faith in these kinds of mental exercises, but it is probably impossible to perform this free of bias and not entirely objective judgement.

If you take things at face value you are often branded a fool, or lacking in intellect by most, but this is becoming a sort of lost talent in our species - allowing ourselves the luxury of having a shred of innocence again.

Sometimes things are what they are, and people do mean what they mean, without subtext. I say this as someone that agonizes entirely too much squinting over this very thing, trying to find hidden meanings, to find the deep truth, but sometimes there isn't any.

Dude you are DEAD ON, how many essays are about stating "This piece of fiction aligns with my views so I'm right!" some people have too much time on their hands

Also

Stop armchair diagnosing cartoon and videogame characters, they're not real

 

[Taukyrie]

You're right, but I still kinda lump Utena into the whole Magical Girl Deconstruction thing too (as does TVTropes, which has a whole page about it!). Utena, apparently, wasn't even the first show to deconstruct magical girl tropes. But the guy who made it was a director on the original series of Sailor Moon and specifically said Utena was created to deconstruct the genre, so. (He's also a fucking weirdo [who of course was in his mid-30s when he made Utena] who puts on a ridiculous persona and has directed nothing but deconstructive little girl cartoons over his entire life, so I'm 100% still counting him as a creep and his dumb show that I've never seen as quite poo.)

That's fair tbh.

Honestly the fact that the director themselves said it's a deconstruction is kind of all I need to know that it's not good lmao.

I can't really say much about him only doing deconstructive little girl cartoons. I will say, though, that the only one of his works I've watched is Penguindrum and I would not subject anyone under the age of 16 to that tbh. But I will at least say you're not missing much since it definitely has the vibes of a pretentious filmmaker who wants people to think he's complex and actually genius by throwing in all this random symbolism.

 

[Somnia]

Just as an example Sony turning franchises like GoW in to what they have become is disgraceful, whether that's the general narrative we see in these games, the writers thinly veiled twitter rants, dialogue that attacks the audience and plenty of "gameplay" that amounts to being a walking sim. I hate it. And we know the Japanese side of the company doesn't think highly of it either because when they sent a senior they trust (I forgot his name) to play the initial pre-release build he thought it was awful.

The norse duology is kind of interesting as an example given much of the team at the top worked on those original games and that the games themselves are far less nihilistic than the originals tended to be. Definitely agree with the walking sim complaints and such but I wouldn't really say that the exploration and evolution of Kratos as a character is on par with any number of really disingenuous genre-subversions or overly-ironic works that I assume you're trying to critique here (if I'm wrong on that lmk). I dislike a lot about the new duology but the way they explore the themes and characters are honestly the one thing I think they do super well.

For what it's worth it never really mattered if the Japanese side of Sony liked God of War or not because it was always a western franchise. I think it's fine for western divisions and eastern divisions to produce things on their own instead of forcing each side of the company to agree on everything, if anything I think most people would agree that the creative teams in each region being able to make what they want to without needing to compromise on any level for external forces would be best more often than it wouldn't.

The exec you're thinking of that played the early build is Shuhei Yoshida, who was President of SIE for like 15 years until recently retiring. His whole thing was traveling around to various studios both first, second and third party to see how things were progressing, vet projects to see if they should be greenlit or published etc. On GoW2018 in particular, Barlog - franchise director since GoW 2 and lead animator on the OG - was the one who mentioned the story about Shuhei hating it and even Cory admitted that the game was in a shit state because it was such an early build. He was lacking in confidence/focus and part of the reason he wanted Shuhei to play it was for general feedback. Calling it a pre-release build is a bit inaccurate given it was very early into development. Balrog also mentioned in that same interview that Yoshida came back several times to play builds that were further along, and he felt far more positively as time progressed and improvements were made.

And Yoshida himself isn't exactly someone who has a perfect 1000 rating at-bat. You can look through the man's history of games or studios he has championed that didn't pan out. That isn't a diss at him because of course his job is incredibly difficult and he has far more hits than misses, just don't wanna give some impression that he always knew best.

I know it was just given as an example but I'm just not sure it's the most effective one. While Jaffe was the director of the OG and heavily involved in the creation of Kratos, Barlog has again been there since the beginning and was given the reigns of the franchise in no small part because of Jaffe himself. Jaffe is still friends with Barlog and been super supportive of where he has taken the franchise. If anyone's allowed to do what he did to God of War, it would be Cory as in many ways that's his baby and it will reflect his journey as a person over the past 20 years of working on the franhchise (he's said as much himself). Hell, if we really wanted to take a certain reading of things we could say that Sony Santa Monica going in the direction they wanted to go in despite the backlash from superiors is a good thing, though again it would be a misunderstood reading of what actually happened with the Shuhei Yoshida visit.

And we can disagree with the direction that the franchise went in for any reason we want to, I certainly don't like the new games that much. In almost every way it does seem like Cory and his team are doing what they want to do with their franchise and I struggle to think of that being a bad thing overall.

Final anecdote that is meaningless but I think is a little funny to throw in is that Cory is Gen X.

Anyways I think we'd agree on this topic broadly, I just think the example given is off.

 

[RageBurner]

Dude you are DEAD ON, how many essays are about stating "This piece of fiction aligns with my views so I'm right!" some people have too much time on their hands

Also
View attachment 15851
Stop armchair diagnosing cartoon and videogame characters, they're not real

The other half of validation would be projection, I suppose. If I analyze a character in such a way that it aligns more with my own persona, I kind of gain a strong sense of existence and identity, I suppose, when oneself should suffice.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Kinda off topic but Ichzer 1 has some gnarly gore

 

[RageBurner]

Kinda off topic but Ichzer 1 has some gnarly gore

Skin is overrated, I guess.

 

[YuriSukiSan]

The norse duology is kind of interesting as an example given much of the team at the top worked on those original games and that the games themselves are far less nihilistic than the originals tended to be. Definitely agree with the walking sim complaints and such but I wouldn't really say that the exploration and evolution of Kratos as a character is on par with any number of really disingenuous genre-subversions or overly-ironic works that I assume you're trying to critique here (if I'm wrong on that lmk). I dislike a lot about the new duology but the way they explore the themes and characters are honestly the one thing I think they do super well.

For what it's worth it never really mattered if the Japanese side of Sony liked God of War or not because it was always a western franchise. I think it's fine for western divisions and eastern divisions to produce things on their own instead of forcing each side of the company to agree on everything, if anything I think most people would agree that the creative teams in each region being able to make what they want to without needing to compromise on any level for external forces would be best more often than it wouldn't.

The exec you're thinking of that played the early build is Shuhei Yoshida, who was President of SIE for like 15 years until recently retiring. His whole thing was traveling around to various studios both first, second and third party to see how things were progressing, vet projects to see if they should be greenlit or published etc. On GoW2018 in particular, Barlog - franchise director since GoW 2 and lead animator on the OG - was the one who mentioned the story about Shuhei hating it and even Cory admitted that the game was in a shit state because it was such an early build. He was lacking in confidence/focus and part of the reason he wanted Shuhei to play it was for general feedback. Calling it a pre-release build is a bit inaccurate given it was very early into development. Balrog also mentioned in that same interview that Yoshida came back several times to play builds that were further along, and he felt far more positively as time progressed and improvements were made.

And Yoshida himself isn't exactly someone who has a perfect 1000 rating at-bat. You can look through the man's history of games or studios he has championed that didn't pan out. That isn't a diss at him because of course his job is incredibly difficult and he has far more hits than misses, just don't wanna give some impression that he always knew best.

I know it was just given as an example but I'm just not sure it's the most effective one. While Jaffe was the director of the OG and heavily involved in the creation of Kratos, Barlog has again been there since the beginning and was given the reigns of the franchise in no small part because of Jaffe himself. Jaffe is still friends with Barlog and been super supportive of where he has taken the franchise. If anyone's allowed to do what he did to God of War, it would be Cory as in many ways that's his baby and it will reflect his journey as a person over the past 20 years of working on the franhchise (he's said as much himself). Hell, if we really wanted to take a certain reading of things we could say that Sony Santa Monica going in the direction they wanted to go in despite the backlash from superiors is a good thing, though again it would be a misunderstood reading of what actually happened with the Shuhei Yoshida visit.

And we can disagree with the direction that the franchise went in for any reason we want to, I certainly don't like the new games that much. In almost every way it does seem like Cory and his team are doing what they want to do with their franchise and I struggle to think of that being a bad thing overall.

Final anecdote that is meaningless but I think is a little funny to throw in is that Cory is Gen X.

Anyways I think we'd agree on this topic broadly, I just think the example given is off.

I know millenials aren't solely to blame it's more the feeling of whats portrayed but more often the fact that in my experience my generation (I'm not sure if you're a millenial as well) are the ones zealously defending what I'm criticizing, it's not fair to solely ascribe it to us all but as a generation we're typically championing it. Even if people like Randy Pitchford and Anthony Burch are the original source with games like Borderlands.

And I'm aware too that some of the original creators are involved in the project, like I said in earlier posts it's not just one group of people. It doesn't change the fact that a lot of other people who were working on it (especially some of the newer writers) were fairly vocal about who they were, what they believed and were openly picking fights with their audience. I don't think I was trying to be hyperbolic it was more me calling out people I didn't want to name directly because I don't like to come across as harrassing people.

All I'll say is that old Kratos was a very different character and a very different person, you can argue that he's being developed, changed or has "matured" with the creators blessing but that doesn't stop him from being any less lame to me or essentially a different person. People change but this was more than that.

.. Also I edited this a few times, I'm quite tired.. Sorry!

 

[Somnia]

That's fair tbh.

Honestly the fact that the director themselves said it's a deconstruction is kind of all I need to know that it's not good lmao.

Honestly Utena is great, well deserving of its praise. Never watched it thinking it was a deconstruction because it never really does a lot to function as one despite the wishes of the director. Until now I honestly had no idea that it was even meant as one which is kinda funny to think about in hindsight. I'll have to ask my friends if they knew that anecdote before watching. Most people I know who love it so much are queer and they connect with it in that way though, so maybe my crowd is just too divorced from the creator's original intent to be able to see it in that context.

The same people that said Fallout was about one form of commentary all had a meltdown when it's creator actually said it was about something else entirely, I'm not saying you can't form the opinion they did, that their views lack nuance, or even that it was done in bad faith but these people (to be purposefully vague) are very biased and it shows.

It all depends on how someone feels about death of the author. Of course someone is going to be biased when interpreting a piece of media but they aren't suddenly less biased if they come to the conclusion that the creator intended because in many cases the creator is not spelling it out for said audience. The only time its ever really an issue is when people try to assert that their reading is the one true reading because it just requires absurd ego to think you've solved something so cleanly.

We're always asserting bias and ego when reading something, even when we think the curtains are blue simply because they are blue. Bias is there when creating, after all.

In many cases people will use a creator agreeing with them to justify their stance on one piece of media and then cry death of the author when a creator disagrees on their reading of another. It's all very inconsistent, all we can do is just come to our own conclusions and find joy in talking to others about it. That's how I view video essays that try to break down characters or themes. Just people expressing their views on something and trying to engage in discussion, nothing more.

In this specific instance I'm not sure what you're specifically referencing so I can't really comment on it, but I wanted to throw some vague thoughts out there.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I know millenials aren't solely to blame it's more the feeling of whats portrayed but more often the fact that in my experience my generation (I'm not sure you're a millenial as well) are the ones zealously defending what I'm criticizing, it's not fair to solely ascribe it to us all but as a generation we're typically championing it. Even if people like Randy Pitchford and Anthony Burch are the original source with games like Borderlands.

And I'm aware too that some of the original creators are involved in the project, like I said in an earlier post it's not just one group of people. It doesn't change the fact that a lot of other people who were working on it, especially the new writers, who were fairly vocal about who they were, what they believed and what generation they came from, were picking fights with their audience. I don't think I was trying to be hyperbolic it was me more calling out people I didn't want to name directly because I don't like to come across as harrassing people even if they're picking a fight with their audience.

All I'll say is that old Kratos was a very different character and a very different person, you can argue that he's being developed, changed or has "matured" with the writers blessing but that doesn't stop him from being any less lame to me.

I'd love to see Kratos' new son learn about what happened to her

 

[YuriSukiSan]

It all depends on how someone feels about death of the author. Of course someone is going to be biased when interpreting a piece of media but they aren't suddenly less biased if they come to the conclusion that the creator intended because in many cases the creator is not spelling it out for said audience. The only time its ever really an issue is when people try to assert that their reading is the one true reading because it just requires absurd ego to think you've solved something so cleanly.

We're always asserting bias and ego when reading something, even when we think the curtains are blue simply because they are blue. Bias is there when creating, after all.

In many cases people will use a creator agreeing with them to justify their stance on one piece of media and then cry death of the author when a creator disagrees on their reading of another. It's all very inconsistent, all we can do is just come to our own conclusions and find joy in talking to others about it. That's how I view video essays that try to break down characters or themes. Just people expressing their views on something and trying to engage in discussion, nothing more.

In this specific instance I'm not sure what you're specifically referencing so I can't really comment on it, but I wanted to throw some vague thoughts out there.

The short answer is that on certain websites, imageboards and places where people have discussed that series to death you basically had a certain political slant of people mocking the audience of these games and telling them they didn't actually truely understand what it was about. It actually was nothing but a critique of things their ideology critiqued, and when the creator said "Uh, actually.. No." they all freaked out.

I don't really want to bring up politics and I'm intentionally being vague so I don't upset anyone, this was the most prominent example I could think of off the top of my head when I was replying to RageBurner.

Also again, I'm very tired so apologies about the constant editing!

 

[Lee__Kanker]

To be more specific, Fallout 1 was a bunch of stuff a bunch of 20 year olds liked put together, everyone was free to pitch in whatever they liked and they were all friends and stayed up all night working on it willingly; Tim Cain loved making it, it was like a dream job
The 50s aesthetic thing was just one of the many things that were just thrown in because one of the developers liked it and they ran with it (and also it was way less prevalent than it ended up being in the bethesda ones)

 

[Taukyrie]

This whole deconstruction/hyperanalysis tendency we see today about everything strikes me sometimes as a desperate attempt at validating particular viewpoints.

I'm not saying there isn't good faith in these kinds of mental exercises, but it is probably impossible to perform this free of bias and with entirely objective judgement.

If you take things at face value you are often branded a fool, or lacking in intellect by most, but this is becoming a sort of lost talent in our species - allowing ourselves the luxury of having a shred of innocence again.

Sometimes things are what they are, and people do mean what they mean, without subtext. I say this as someone that agonizes entirely too much squinting over this very thing, trying to find hidden meanings, to find the deep truth, but sometimes there isn't any.

Exactly this.

Like I know it's bad to just mindlessly consume whatever media you watch, play, or read, but honestly the complete opposite can be just as bad imo.

 

[RageBurner]

Exactly this.

Like I know it's bad to just mindlessly consume whatever media you watch, play, or read, but honestly the complete opposite can be just as bad imo.

True, it can. It turns media consumption into an intellectual arms race that is tiring for all those involved and ultimately changes nothing, since it's nigh on impossible to change someone's world view - at best you might be able to garner enthusiastic agreement, to a point, or respectful disagreement at best.

 

[Somnia]

It doesn't change the fact that a lot of people working on it, especially the new writers, were fairly vocal about who they were, what they believed and what generation they came from. I don't think I was being hyperbolic it was me more calling out people I didn't want to name directly because I don't like to come across as harrassing people even if they're picking a fight with their audience.

It's just hard to really discuss things without specifics. I can appreciate not liking the direction that something has gone in but when the people at the helm are the people who were there from the beginning and want to take it there, that seems fine? Like when trying to cite an example of some overly cynical, overly ironic piece of media that refuses to be sincere, GoW just doesn't come to mind. It made me wonder if I was misunderstanding what you originally meant or if there was some layer to the story that I wasn't getting. The anecdote about Yoshida being so misused in particular was confusing because it didn't feel important to the point being made to begin with. Not trying to be rude or anything, I was just confused and wanted some clarification.

Fwiw I don't think name dropping people or citing what they said is harassment though I understand the worry. Ideally everyone here is mature enough to just be engaging in friendly discussion at worst and if someone is posting something publicly on social media then it isn't like you're leaking anything new to try and start a hate mob. You're simply adding context to what you're saying, which is worthwhile!

 

[YuriSukiSan]

It's just hard to really discuss things without specifics. I can appreciate not liking the direction that something has gone in but when the people at the helm are the people who were there from the beginning and want to take it there, that seems fine? Like when trying to cite an example of some overly cynical, overly ironic piece of media that refuses to be sincere, GoW just doesn't come to mind. It made me wonder if I was misunderstanding what you originally meant or if there was some layer to the story that I wasn't getting. The anecdote about Yoshida being so misused in particular was confusing because it didn't feel important to the point being made to begin with. Not trying to be rude or anything, I was just confused and wanted some clarification.

Fwiw I don't think name dropping people or citing what they said is harassment though I understand the worry. Ideally everyone here is mature enough to just be engaging in friendly discussion at worst and if someone is posting something publicly on social media then it isn't like you're leaking anything new to try and start a hate mob. You're simply adding context to what you're saying, which is worthwhile!

I actually went back to re-read that post because you made doubt what I had actually written.

The obsession with maturity and nihilism in any medium but especially gaming has ruined it. Far too many modern games feel like different versions of "LOOK MOMMY, LOOK I'M A BIG BOY NOW!" I'm not saying you can't have gritty, serious, stories but this isn't that. It's the obsession with trying to be an adult, to appear "mature" (which is a sign of immaturity) that just makes them appear as if they're suffering from arrested development.

Just as an example Sony turning franchises like GoW in to what they have become is disgraceful, whether that's the general narrative we see in these games, the writers thinly veiled twitter rants, dialogue that attacks the audience and plenty of "gameplay" that amounts to being a walking sim. I hate it. And we know the Japanese side of the company doesn't think highly of it either because when they sent a senior they trust (I forgot his name) to play the initial pre-release build he thought it was awful.

I call it millenial neuroticism (even if there's a very large amount of gen x involved) and it's become a term my friends have started using whenever we see modern interpretations of classic franchises. I'm sick of spiritually bankrupt people who've never read a book outside of studies in University, who have no real life experience outside of backpacking on daddies money (and don't even really understand their own dialectic) dictating what is or what the medium should be - they're philistines.

I think you're getting the post after this one confused with the one above. It was after this post I talked about post ironic humour, what I said about GoW here is something entirely different. And I stand by it, they turned a cinematic action game in to a walking sim with a focus on "maturity". They took an action game and turned it in to a full blown movie game, and when they were in the process of making this, and what much of what they said afterwards is more or less that they've "outgrown" what came before, which is where my jab at arrested development comes from. I prefer what C.S Lewis says about that specifically.

 

[Tonberry]

People are way too unhealthily obsessed with telling people they dislike stuff outside of an appropriate space, to the point that they seek out the things they dislike solely to shit on it, ruining the discussion for everyone involved. You’re not ”silenced” or ”censored” when people tell you to fuck off for doing this, and they are not making ”echo chambers” because of it, you are the one going out of your way to butt in just to be deliberately obnoxious and make others feel bad.

I do not care if you hated Rings of Power. Let me discuss the few parts of it I liked with others who did. MOVE ON.

 

[RageBurner]

People are way too unhealthily obsessed with telling people they dislike stuff outside of an appropriate space, to the point that they seek out the things they dislike solely to shit on it, ruining the discussion for everyone involved. You’re not ”silenced” or ”censored” when people tell you to fuck off for doing this, and they are not making ”echo chambers” because of it, you are the one going out of your way to butt in just to be deliberately obnoxious and make others feel bad.

I do not care if you hated Rings of Power. Let me discuss the few parts of it I liked with others who did. MOVE ON.

Some people make ruining others' fun their life's mission, sadly.

 

[Tonberry]

Some people make ruining others' fun their life's mission, sadly.

You are rightBerserk SUCKS

(jkjk i actually love it ily)

 

[Somnia]

I think you're getting the post after this one confused with the one above. It was after this post I talked about post ironic humour, what I said about GoW here is something entirely different. And I stand by it, they turned a cinematic action game in to a walking sim with a focus on "maturity". They took an action game and turned in to a full blown movie game, and when they were in the process of making this, and what much of what they said afterwards is more or less that they've "outgrown" what came before, which is what my jab at arrested development comes from. I prefer what C.S Lewis says about that specifically.

I wasn't confusing the post, that was just the kind of media I thought you were taking aim at when making the original one I responded to which is why I mentioned I could have been wrong in thinking that.

But I think the original series also thought it was mature. Jaffe has talked about how he has brought Kratos up during therapy sessions and how the character reflected certain aspects of him as a person. Cory has also stated similar sentiments. When you're creating something, your relationship to it will change overtime because you yourself are changing. It was mature for its time and in its own way and while I definitely agree that the overly-cinematic style is ass, I wouldn't degrade the original series of games by trying to imply that the creators didn't also create those games with an attempt to be mature either.

I also just kinda see it in the context of Cory growing older. It kind of makes sense that he would shift from making something like old GoW to something like new GoW as he makes the transition from his mid-20s being single to being in his 40s and being a dad. Maybe new GoW should have just been a new IP but I think GoW justifies its existence well enough thematically, though clearly you disagree and of course that's fine. From what I've played they are perfectly sincere and really what I find insufferable in the type of art you're described is the lack of sincerity, maybe that's my disconnect.

In any case I won't keep being a pedant over this, hope I wasn't too annoying with it, and I appreciate the responses c:

 

[YuriSukiSan]

I wasn't confusing the post, that was just the kind of media I thought you were taking aim at when making the original one I responded to which is why I mentioned I could have been wrong in thinking that.

But I think the original series also thought it was mature. Jaffe has talked about how he has brought Kratos up during therapy sessions and how the character reflected certain aspects of him as a person. Cory has also stated similar sentiments. When you're creating something, your relationship to it will change overtime because you yourself are changing. It was mature for its time and in its own way and while I definitely agree that the overly-cinematic style is ass, I wouldn't degrade the original series of games by trying to imply that the creators didn't also create those games with an attempt to be mature either.

I also just kinda see it in the context of Cory growing older. It kind of makes sense that he would shift from making something like old GoW to something like new GoW as he makes the transition from his mid-20s being single to being in his 40s and being a dad. Maybe new GoW should have just been a new IP but I think GoW justifies its existence well enough thematically, though clearly you disagree and of course that's fine. From what I've played they are perfectly sincere and really what I find insufferable in the type of art you're described is the lack of sincerity, maybe that's my disconnect.

In any case I won't keep being a pedant over this, hope I wasn't too annoying with it, and I appreciate the responses c:

I don't think you're being a pendant, there's a lot of context that isn't added to my post because frankly it would violate the rules. The character maturing in of itself isn't the issue, or even the creator wanting it to be mature, it's the way the 'team' went about it and vocalized it. More or less holding the old games in a negative light. Not too dissimiliar to how modern Naughty Dog rolls their eyes at people asking about whether they'll create the type of games that made the studio famous because childrens games are beneath them!

I referenced C.S Lewis precisely of his famous quote about maturity sums it up, this obsession with wanting to appear mature and grown up is the absolute opposite of maturity. And this is something a lot of modern movie games (and media) are captured by, this desire to prove how grown up the author is, how much of an adult you are for consuming their it. It comes across as a sign of arrested development. A deep insecurity, and thats how the game feels to me and how the developers came across on social media.

Maturity isn't the issue in of itself, it's the fact that they're acting in an insufferable way that makes them inexplicably believe they're incredibly mature, deep thinkers for acting that way.

Okay, sorry! I edited that like a billion times. I'm half a sleep!

 

[Prism_Red]

And for the love of all that is good and holy, please refrain from posting anything political. We already know your opinion on it, I promise you.

I'LL START!!

Being overly critical about politics is a sign that you are a boring person who got nothing better to do in life.

 

[Tonberry]

Contemporary fantasy fiction (mostly in literature) is too obsessed with worldbuilding and lore, and an author that focuses too much on it muddles their stories by not letting the world unravel organically for the reader. This is a trend currently in fantasy, because fans love dissecting the nitty-gritty, which is fine, but when it’s too much of it and too little story, the story itself takes second place and that’s just not fun.

Sword-and-Sorcery is a better fantasy genre overall because it’s (mostly) about moment-to-moment adventure, which makes for a much funner and more exciting read in general, and I wish that kind of pulpy, sincere storytelling would make a comeback. I implore anyone who is sick of high fantasy to read Conan. It really is as good as they say.

 

[medisinn]

I absolutely despise Youtube Shorts and their forced entry into my world. I don't like them, I don't want to see them, I don't want them to come up every two or three results when I search for something, I don't want them to keep spoiling shit from wrestling or sports or other Youtube videos I haven't been able to watch yet, I just want them out of my life. It's slowly becoming more and more invasive on the mobile app against my consent and the laws of decency. I get why they are there, because TikTok makes a dumbtruck load of money and it's the trend to copy for every other social media site, and I'm sure it's helped a lot of creators make some cash, I just don't care. Get it out of my faaaaccccee.

 

[Somnia]

Being overly critical about politics is a sign that you are a boring person who got nothing better to do in life.

Statements made by the boring and deranged

I absolutely despise Youtube Shorts and their forced entry into my world. I don't like them, I don't want to see them, I don't want them to come up every two or three results when I search for something, I don't want them to keep spoiling shit from wrestling or sports or other Youtube videos I haven't been able to watch yet, I just want them out of my life. It's slowly becoming more and more invasive on the mobile app against my consent and the laws of decency. I get why they are there, because TikTok makes a dumbtruck load of money and it's the trend to copy for every other social media site, and I'm sure it's helped a lot of creators make some cash, I just don't care. Get it out of my faaaaccccee.

It is truly a crime you can't just remove from the UI entirely. Hell it's sad that generally speaking this is a hot take. If only we could have known just what hell Vine had unleashed upon the world I would have hated it more than I already did when it was relevant.