this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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I don't even really hate video games and I'll play them for like I dunno an hour a month or something but I just don't think the world would be a worse place with out them.

I think I hate gamers though, I wish I could filter them out of my life experience

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I beg everyone that has this take, just play anything other than multiplayer slop and open-world checklist simulators and don't listen to the average slop consumer gamer. There are games that are excellent toys, games that are excellent art (typically not in the same way as a good movie or book, but interactivity can elevate even simpler stories if done properly) or even a combination of the two.

Not sure if you will even care though, I suspect you are one of those boring types who has no interests and just wants to talk about who fucked who and about the last place you traveled to on repeat.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

downbear

imagine any other art requiring an internet connection and then being unusable when the servers turned off

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

I just want more games with good writing, or games that have genuinely educational value on the level of a Ken Loach directed movie. I like silly fun shoot em up games as much as anyone else but I could probably count less than ten or twenty games I've ever played that gave me genuine emotional movement. And I have over 1200 games in my steam account.

And I don't think I'm being pompous when I say that, because I do like and respect games and think they often are masterpieces on the level of an important novel or movie or something. I think maybe a limiting factor with games is that unlike a novel or movie or painting, they don't have to say much of anything, or mean anything, and they still function as interactive little escapes (sometimes).

Maybe one of y'all can recommend something for me? For reference here's some examples of games I've played that I've felt have had genuine artistic/emotional merit:

  • Sable
  • Outer Wilds
  • Silent Hill 2
  • Some of the Suikoden games
  • Heaven's Vault
  • Disco Elysium (I know it's been said to death by now but this game is a towering achievement in terms of game writing and I really don't feel like anything else comes close)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

I agree with your points but I think the problem is even with games that have good writing (and music and art direction and all the other bits and bobs that make up a video game) they often fall flat because the interactivity is not woven into them. RDR2 is just genuinely a well written western which is even more impressive considering it has to rank up there as one of the longest western storys ever told if you exclude something like a dime store novel named "Cowboy Kidd" that has been issued weekly since 1962. RDR2 would work just as well as a book, or a TV series or a movie or three. All the interactable parts are fun, but they're also mostly separate from the writing and everything else barring some minor set dressing and the video game obligatory 2 endings depending on your ratio of puppy kicked vs. money donated

Disco Elysium for example doesn't work outside of its medium. I mean there's enough in there you could make a TV series out of it, or a book or pretty much anything and it'd still hold up but it'd lose a really core part of the experience because the interactivity is woven into the fabric. Your choices matter and the world reacts to it.

So here's my suggestions as per videogames that would not work half as good if made into another medium. I'll attach spoilers to it, but I'd recommend not clicking on them because it probably ruins a lot of what makes them good

  • Metro 2033
    spoilerMetro 2033 has a mostly hidden morality system in there that determines if you get a certain, important choice at the ending. I think the beauty of it and why it only works in a videogame is that it does not present you "Kick the puppy vs. save the puppy" choices, you get morality points for listening, being aware, perceiving the Metro and not killing people. None of which is really signposted at all and was a major criticism of the game because "How was I supposed to know I should perceive the world and try to understand it instead of killing everything I see"

CONTROL

spoilerThe Main story is whatever, but there's a lot of good writing in the lore and the setting. Also the games alludes to you, the actual, real life person, as being an unknown entity to the people within the game which is cool and doesn't really work outside of interactive mediums

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Heavens vault is amazing, especially since as you go through ng+ you begin to realise the antagonist might actually have a point. It's also maybe the only game where I've actually felt like a real archeologist/historian. Indiana/tomb raider/broken sword don't come close

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I strongly endorse both Psychonauts games. They both go on sale regularly too, and have GOG releases. Psychonauts 1 is a ps2-era game that has aged pretty well overall, and Psychonauts 2 is in my personal top 3 favorite games of all time, and one of the closest I've played to a "perfect" game.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

They already are its just the horrible slow death under capital, along with near everything else you love and hate. the-deserter

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I want the game industry to die (because it is contemptible in every way), but I love video-games themselves.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Honestly? Same.

All I care about is any possible way, no matter how small, to make chuds miserable.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

This is the best argument for abolishing video games tbh.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I haven't touched a video game in probably 2ish years so I have no idea what the gamers are whining about this time but I can only assume they're dumb and wrong

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

no investigation no right to speak. the gamers are developing anti-consumerism and anti-capitalism. everybody hates the business model everybody wants devs to be paid fairly and not have crunch. everybody agrees with me when i say people like bobby kotick and yves ubisoft should be killed or imprisoned.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I don't think it's correct to blame video games for the world being shit. The popularity of videos games is due to the world being shit, not the other way around. Video games exist as a form of escapism. If the world were less shit, people would play less video games.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

There's something about hyperconsumerist fandoms like Disney or potter adults and the way gaming developed around hyperconsumerism, starting with the arcades, to make a fandom around the entire media, not just specific franchises, but I'm tired and halfway through a joint so someone else is going to have to put together the pieces.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I'm coming out swinging here.

Movies? Right out, between the distinct fandoms of both American Sniper Part V: Killing Children, the acolytes of Marveslop and guy who's really into french indie cinema to sexually assault women there really is nothing to save there. Get rid of it, I say, what difference does it make?

Books? Pfff, there's the door. A thousand women converted into abusal BDSM play by a badly written fanfic of twilight and you want that shit to go on? You in favour of Steel Storm and My Struggle? Thought not. Fuck books.

Paintings? While Homeland Security is waxing about Kinkade? Statues, as if that's not the #1 signifier for alt right weirdos now? Away it goes!

I think you get the point. To judge a medium by it's worst fans is inane, though. Capital G gamers suck, but so do so many different flavours or fans of other mediums. The problem is not the medium.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Sturgeon's law is pretty relevant.

For those unfamiliar, it's "90% of everything is crap". For any medium, or any genre in any medium, most of it is crap. sometimes this can lead to people thinking an older medium or genre is better, but really it's just had more time to accumulate hits.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

You had me writing an angry reply to this before I finished lol

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

Not on this list:

  1. Going outside and moving your body, preferably with friends

  2. Gardening, preferably with friends

  3. Cooking, preferably with friends

  4. Learning, preferably with friends

  5. Going hiking in nature, preferably with friends

  6. Joining a leftist org and making a difference

I hope you get my point. If you read through this site and the posts and comments a deep social and political alienation is dripping but ya'all want to defend sitting inside, usually alone, staring at flashing lights. They're just treats. I'm just saying I wish they didn't exist and people found fun and meaning in physical things in the real world with real people.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

what are your feelings on the industrial revolution and it's consequences for the human race?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Moralism dressed up in marxist language. Shut up, you fraud

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Less than a month old account talking about what hobbies should people pursue.

Time for another struggle session I guess

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I sit with my friend, who is also a communist, and I either play with him or watch him play games. We talk about them, we enjoy them in the same way someone would enjoy films or books. I also garden. I also cook (like in a big way, honestly). We both organize. Honestly you can do all of these things together?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

How dare you enjoy music, novels, or board games. Go outside and appreciate a tree, nothing non physical about it, don't wax poetic or anything, just like assess the bark.

Flashing lights are no more or less stupid toys than any other pursuit. It's not like the engaging part of a poem is its ink and wood pulp

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I do not get your point at all because it turns out you can do more than one thing. You can go hiking in a day and then also play videogames, with or without friends, at night. Or read a book, or watch a movie or whatever - these thing's arent exclusive by design.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

We need to cancel hobbies until we can figure out just what is going on.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

hard agree, the most leftist position is your life should be toiling, eating nutripaste and recreating in accordance to the 5 year plan. everything else is counterrevolutionary

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

hard agree, the most leftist position is your life should be toiling, eating nutripaste and recreating in accordance to the 5 year plan. everything else is counterrevolutionary

"Hello you wonderful folks and welcome back to Rimworld. Today we will be recreating the Red Army-" speech-rsus-soviet

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Love games, hate G*mers, simple as.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (2 children)

counterpoint: games are also bad, because they are developed by, you guessed it, gamers

(don't take this too seriously, I know there are some good games out there)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

devs aren't gamers they don't have time to play games

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Good games like LoL and bad games like deltarune

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Fine, correct, even!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

When I was a kid, I didn't have meaningful connections with any other people. My family was terrible, and despite really trying to fit in at school, it wasn't ever an environment I could settle into. The friends I did make were pretty abusive, and not just verbally. It wasn't until adulthood that I found even a couple of people who I could genuinely call "good friends".

When online gaming was becoming a thing, that was the first avenue through which I was able to make genuine connections with other people. Of course there's still plenty of jerks online, but being in an environment where everyone around me automatically shared at least one interest, and because in that environment we were expected to work together to accomplish a set of goals, it made it a lot easier for me to make personal connections. To this day I have very deep relationships with some of those people.

So, for me, I can confidently say the world would be significantly worse without video games. Even aside from the general relief of escapism that they provide.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

reiterating my comment from a couple days ago:

where's the movement to save games but kills Gamers? now that's a movement i could get behind!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think games have two functions: genuine entertainment and escaping alienation. I had the realization maybe a year ago that my main motivation for playing games has been the latter, and I'd speculate that alot of other people are like that as well. I just don't find games entertaining anymore.

Our society is held together by ductape and treats (treatler )

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I had the realization maybe a year ago that my main motivation for playing games has been the latter, and I'd speculate that a lot of other people are like that as well.

People in this position are also desperate for connection, and as such are targeted for recruitment by fascist groups. Capital G Gamers aren't the cause, they're a symptom of the larger problem of alienation under capital.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

I love games and that's why I hope there's another crash

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

youre-laughing You're laughing, srubhut is openly calling for gamercide and you're laughing joker-gaming

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

First they came for gamers, and I did not speak up for I was watching anime.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

We'll come for your waifus too!