Loop Hero is a game about sisyphean theme parks.
Being born and raised in California doesn't make you immune to fame but it sure as shit makes you highly fame resistant. We have a saying; "For every writer is born an editor, for every actor a producer, for every musician a roadie."
Talent are big dumb children that exist in a curated reality, and entire armies are sacrificed daily to protect this status quo. I say this as a lifelong soldier in this cause. I was born into the entertainer support caste and will serve faithfully until I pass on to the afterparty.
I do this because as shitty as these people can be, the puzzle comes together when these people take the stage and do what they were born to do, but the puzzle is configured in three stages. With stage one and stage three being the most dangerous.
Stage one is pre-event, where natural predators of fame, the wealthy and the covetous, hunt. Wealthy people are people who attained money through power or power through business/inheritance and have all of the entitlements of fame with none of the talent.
To the fan, the famous are gods, to the wealthy, the famous are trading cards, golden geese, and sometimes toys. In their world social currency means nothing and they get away with actual murder regularly and brazenly, so ending some actor or workers career over perceived disrespect is simply a light lunch. They are monsters and their children are worse. Best way to win is to not play.
The covetous are people that aspire to fame and think it a zero sum game so they reflexively attack celebrities' every action as if taking down celebs gives them power like some kind of sad highlander tournament. Back in the day they were all just annoying, but social media has crowned them all King Joffrey. Like baby turtles, most talent don't make it past stage one because they get eaten by these predators.
Stage three is post-event, where the talent has unleashed their superpower and basks in the afterglow. Fun fact, when talent are drunk on love they become radioactive, and never want to go home. Any producer worth their salt dips fast as possible because this is when the famous are at peak mania/depression and will literally entertain anything that continues to fill that quickly expanding hole inside of them. Most talent don't make it past stage three because they eat themselves.
So back to stage two, the event. The marketing worked, the venue owner isn't trippin', the talent is sober enough to perform, and the tech turns on. Backstage you watch as the talent steps on stage and changes a whole rooms vibe. And like I said, it all just comes together.
Then, a week later you are sitting in a Palo Alto Denny's listening to that talent ramble some half baked quaalude laced vanity project off a napkin and treating every word like we in this together when you ain't been paid yet and you remember, "Oh right, they a fuckin' idiot."
Anyway, I say all that to say thanks to the digital gold rush a whole new generation of kids are flooding in thinking they will change the ancient it and not vice-versa. Baby, that's not how this works. Get in, get your bag, get out. There is a good ending, and there are good people out here rooting for you. You got this.
Rip TB rip TC rip Tall-T. Love is wise, hatred is foolish. Get out there and do great things, we believe in you. Also Jobs.
