What is the Games Industry Missing?

[droqen]

I tried very hard to achieve peak relatability, to pass as just another white guy on the internet talking about games. And it worked.

[droqen]

In the games video essayist scene, one of the most common complaints you'll hear is creators saying they feel pressured to only create the same type of content lest they deviate from their channel's brand and alienate the part of their audience that wants to be fed the same type of content over and over.

[droqen]

Gamers, developers, critics, fans, creators — we're all just stuck on repeat, trapped in a rut we can't even see.

Oh no, I hope this has a good ending. But thank you for reminding me.

[droqen]

What would happen if we, collectively, refused to make or consume any more "boring art"? If we agreed to escape the ouroboros together by opening our eyes to all the things we've refused to see until now — the stories we've been robbed of, the player types we refuse to look for, the range of non-violent experiences and mechanics games could be exploring, all the new people and perspectives we could have in the hobby if we didn't put up barriers to their entry, the critical voices that could light up the landscape if we dared to stray from the predictable and the expected?

There's a whole world of possibility out there for us. What if we've only just scratched the surface?

Kat's proposed solution is collective action against boring art. It's not easy. It's not easy to call for something like that. It's not easy to have the faith to go for it, either. I am slowly understanding that my own solution, the only one that makes sense, is just to do what makes sense to me, and to in. But it can be painful, inviting others down a blind alley. What lies at the end? If I get hurt, it's just me. If you get hurt because you followed me down here, how responsible am I? What if I didn't even ask you to come along, I just said I was going to do it and you happened to come too?

I want to go beneath the surface, and I will keep going beneath the surface, and I don't want to put you at risk. But I see no other option, I guess, than to do something wrong, and to try my best not to hide it.

If I go under and never come back up, I want someone to be there at least to note my disappearance.

[droqen]

It is not enough to refuse to make or consume boring art. We must go to war with it.