it really bothers me when game directors are like "yeah I love [popular thing everyone likes] and it was a big inspiration on my game"

how many game directors are like "oh man, Tony Manero, by Pablo Larraín? fucking incredible"

I love when CERTAIN (not all!) game critics are like "violence is bad!!! where are all the nonviolent games!?" like we aren't all out here playing Sims 4 and Planet Coaster and Forza Horizon 4, but then! THEN! Those same people have the gall to suggest violence has no use.

I was introduced to Pablo Larraín through Tony Manero, a movie about a guy obsessed with becoming the John Travolta character, to the point he literally beats a projectionist and his wife to death when they stop showing Saturday Night Live.

What's that about?

The movie, I feel, was about, like... living under the threat of dictatorship; you might feel you're not _personally_ influenced by it, but it's... like, it could snap at ANY moment, things could go sideways. The movie is about creating that fear.

anyways I understood this feeling for my own reasons, and so it was always weird when people said the game I made was "lynchian" when I would have said Pablo Larraín was a bigger influence, looking back on it.

I think the critics I've met who are of the "violence should not be depicted" variety view art as primarily didactic, rather than expressionist, so "to see violence in art teaches or normalizes violence," as opposed to the artist saying "this was violence I saw, and what it did"

whereas I think many game developers go "I'm well versed in popular media, and now I would like to retell the stories I've been told to you." This is how you get Lone Wolf and Cub ripoffs, this is how you get the Aliens ripoffs, etc etc.

"this is what I have seen from the safety of my multi-billion dollar video game company," or "this is the game I played as a child, but with a twist," or "these are the movies I like."

and I'm out here like "this is what happened to me. This is how I felt. I want to give you this place to experience those same feelings, and I hope, maybe, I will be healed in the process, and I hope it gives you a place to heal as well."

art is a part of the emotional process for me. And I think that's what it is for so many of us. Why we go "I associate this song with a moment in time," or "I connect with this character's desire so much I think about them and want to write fanfic"

so when it feels like some people out there have a very limited set of interests (I watched Star Wars, and heard it was a remake of Hidden Fortress, which introduced me to Kurosawa! I'm cultured now!) it limits our ability to express ourselves. It's baby talk, right? da-da

the critics who decry violence in games while ignoring the vast ocean of nonviolent games, or who don't understand that violence can be useful, are speaking from a place of "I really only play the AAA games that get marketed directly at me."

the people making those games don't seem super interested in checking out things they've never heard of.

All of this comes down to a lack of curiosity, I feel?

thanks for letting me work out that problem.

Maybe this weekend, you could try to watch a movie from a director you've never heard of, in a language you don't speak, but in a genre you like?

In the indie space it's usually more like "yeh i really loved mario"

anyways arm yourself with the language to fully express yourself or you won't stand out from the crowd. Get literate, nerds

(I'd actually argue that one of the reasons Kojima's games are sooooo interesting is because he's INCREDIBLY literate in multiple mediums; the reason he falls flat for many people is that he often resorts to exposition)