The Silent Support of Awful, Awful People

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games, games industry, gaming, gaming community, hogwarts legacy, industry, red dead redemption 2, social, society

Take Two Interactive’s boss bragged about working his devs to the bone in order for Red Dead Redemption 2 to make it to market. Ubisoft has been demonstrably shown to keep miserably sexist and racist people in its upper management. J.K. Rowling has pulled off her mask to unveil a transphobic goblin beneath.

In spite of all this, I absolutely bought RDR2 day one, am interested in Riders Republic, and am at least curious about Hogwarts Legacy. All of which come with the extraordinarily complex baggage that feeling this way means I stand alongside vile humans and their even more vile opinions and behaviors.

The Acceptance of Not Understanding

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battle royale, community, fortnite, fortnite battle royale, fortnite br, gaming, gaming community, multiplayer, multiplayer gaming, pubg, video games, videogames

So there’s this rap song made by this kid who is very, very clearly a fan of Fortnite Battle Royale. It crossed my Twitter feed a week or so ago and it took me just about as long to process, as this young boy was trying to turn his ability to play a shooter well into several bars’ worth of lyrics about their own superiority.

At first blush, it sounds a lot like 2018’s answer to the Numa Numa Dance. But after some introspection, I’ve concluded that the problem isn’t him, but me. Its reinforced something of a lesson about how some games or genres are beyond my comprehension and that’s okay.

Who knew this little dude would pack so many mental exercises into two-and-a-half minutes?

The Power of Love (and Anger)

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battle for azeroth, bfa, community, games, gaming, gaming community, haters, MMO, mmorpg, rage, warcraft, world of warcraft, WoW

I’ve written before about how you should just ignore the haters and like the games you like, and by and large I still absolutely stand by that statement. That said, being someone who’s new to World of Warcraft, I’m continually reminded that I probably am not wanted and that I should stick to people I have vetted outside of the game itself.

How did I reach this conclusion? By the needless upset of those who were enraged by the whole War of Thorns thing in WoW.

Burning a world tree and bridges at the same time. Well done, Sylvanas.

On the Periphery of a Community

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community, fighting games, game community, games, gaming, gaming community, just do it, MMO, mmorpg, new things

Feeling like you’re part of a larger community is a natural human instinct. It’s the kind of thing that game devs and gaming companies make their money off of. It’s why MMO fans can be some of the best and worst at the same time. Breaking in to that community, however, feels pretty damn daunting.

“I wanna pwn teh noobzorz too…!”

This post is spawned by my own want to be a part of fighting games. So I wanted to reflect on my own sensation of feeling outside looking in, and how I’ve tried to manage the feeling of being locked out.