Erik DoA Lonnquist

Gaming discourse continues to be in a weird spot, and it's getting tougher and tougher to navigate it. I spend a lot of time on various social media platforms, probably more than I should. But it's how I ingest a lot of information about the industry, player perceptions of games, and what's relevant. You have to to keep up with innovations and make sure you're making resonant designs. It is what it is, and I learned over the years how to navigate it with efficiency. But more and more over time what I see is people who claim to love the space, looking desperately for reasons to be unhappy. It isn't just criticism (which is valid and should be expressed, as it helps makes games better) anymore, instead its become jumping through hoops and pulling out magnifying glasses looking for the slightest imperfection and then tunneling on that as a reason to be dissatisfied. You can see it everywhere. A game that everyone is hyped to come out and excited to play with their friends, and then 2 days later someone finds out that 50 hours in there's a bad thing in the game and now everyone should dislike the game. Rather than the reasonable take of "Man this game was good, but this one decision was bad I really think they should patch it.", we get "This game is awful and no one should play it". What? Now I know some of this is the fact that negativity generates clicks, that's just human nature. Youtube videos and X posts and what not are often driven by people looking to get revenue, and the way you do that is through negativity. This isn't new. Rodger used to help me understand that, that it's been the reality for hundreds of years. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is. So a lot of what we're seeing is this. I get it. I just miss having the spaces to have down to earth real conversations about games. Where we can be honest and say "Yeah this game sucked here's why", but also "This game was amazing except for that one part" or "I really loved this system in this otherwise mediocre game". I want to see more nuanced conversations about the medium. Because man I love games, I love making them and talking about them. I just want to see the medium improve. Cause there's still so much it can do. There's so many games worth your time right now. Anyway, that's my morning thought before I sit and finish this last piece of content for my game. Just between all the news the last week or two in gaming, just whats on my mind. Ok have a good Tuesday everyone and take it easy :)