Issue : Games : Orthography

Dawn of Man is a game about content.

Imagine Stadia as a restaurant. A bunch of rich dudes who found success in adjacent industries tells you that the Stadia restaurant is the next step in the evolution of the restaurant industry. You are like, "Dope, the restaurant industry is trash, a bunch of carpetbaggers over-promising and under-delivering. Viva revolution, tell me more."

They tell you to close your eyes and imagine a restaurant with no reservations and no wait times. You walk in and anything you ordered appears in a split second, hot and ready to eat. You are like, "Oh, so like fast food then? You sacrificed quality for speed. That ain't new." They respond, "No, you get Michelin star worthy food in a split second. We have the technology." You are like, "Well, I'm skeptical, but you do have the technology. Can I see a sample?"

In a split second a pristine looking, hot, and magical smelling chicken and mushroom risotto appear before you. You are impressed. You ask, "Who is the chef?" They respond, "We offered a couple guys from the restaurant across the street a boatload of money and freedom. They saw the light." You say, "Ok, so this risotto is good, but can I really order any food I want and it appears right before me?"

They respond, "It's possible in the future." You respond, "So, no. Ok, can I see the menu?" They respond, "No menu yet." You say, "When do you open?" They respond, "Couple weeks." You respond, "K."


A common trend in the last four years has been giving things the benefit of the doubt based on the organization's resume, popularity, or wealth when the pitch is half baked, soulless, and engineer-dumb (it's a plan that is technically salient but tone def from a marketing perspective). I don't believe Google understands the market. I don't believe they have the right people on this to help them learn, and I don't believe this is adding anything new to the conversation.

Content is king, and Stadia ain't got it.

And I know I know. The response to that statement is, "Just wait, Google has fuck you money and will make you eat your words." Maybe, but look at the state of AAA games right now. 400,000,000 dollar games are flopping.

All the king's horses and all the king's men can't buy innovation into existence and they just hired Mark, Brad, and Jennifer to make more safe and boring games that aren't selling and to partner with companies to publish safe and boring games that aren't selling and inviting embedded industries to create the same cloud product as them, fragmenting the market in to walled gardens of varying quality and turning off consumers.

I believe they won't solve the problem because their actions imply they still don't understand it. Time will tell.

Anyway, shouts to info, tight squeeze but if it fits it sits (pause). Also, rip TB rip TC rip Tall-T. Love is a person getting up for an old lady on the train. Hate is a person on the train playing music through a boombox while wearing Air-pods. Next-Level. Get out there and do great things, we believe in you. Also Jerbz.

The Protoculture Mixtape : Issue : People :  Trope

Issue : Games : Parabolic

The Caligula Effect: Overdose is a game about glory days.

My question is why the developers of "Tom Clancys: The Division 2" refuse to admit the game is political. The game is about a new American Civil War. The game is set in Washington D.C. The first base of operations in the game is the white house. The core functionality of the game is Americans shooting Americans. The game is based on the writings of Tom Clancy. I just... I can't.

How can you make a whole ass game in this tense global climate about this topic and claim it doesn't mean anything? The opening of the game alludes to the idea that the reason the survivors lived through the opening salvo of the war was that they had guns. I honestly do not mind the subject matter but I legit do not see the point of gaslighting about it.

Not taking a stance is taking a stance. Creating a simulation of not taking a stance and denying the stance is inception level.

The game is produced by three studios. Massive Entertainment, a Sweedish game developer, Red Storm Entertainment, a developer out of North Carolina, U.S.A., and Ubisoft, headquartered in France. All of this feels weird, feels... off. I dunno.


I said what I said, I don't mind the subject matter, but for the creators not to own the core conceit of the artistic work has that "Good people on both sides" feel. None of the developers are saying "We made this nightmare scenario up because it is bad. We don't want this to happen, and hope this sparks real discussions about how to not make it happen." They are saying, "We made this nightmare scenario up because we thought it would be entertaining. This is just a fun subject to explore, don't make it a big deal."

There are things happening in the world that make this issue a big deal whether the Division 2's developer want to admit it or not. Not a good look.

Anyway, The Caligula Effect: Overdose is an old Vita game that got ported around until it hit the PC. It's a mediocre copy of Persona. Not much else to say about it... Yeah. Oh and rip TB rip TC rip Tall-T. Love is walking into a gas station right as the person is making the coffee, hate is Navy coffee anywhere at any time. Get out there and do great things, we believe in you. Also Jerbz.

The Protoculture Mixtape: Issue : People: Allegorical