archangelmorph
Gold Member
Ok hear me out...
NeoGAF of today sometimes reflects the nature of a scarred, reeling petulant child, constantly lashing out in "anti-woke" outbursts at even the slightest hint of something that looks like it might try to tread into a DEI-smelling line.
In some ways GAF can be a bit of an anti-woke echo-chamber. But with all it's cesspit tendencies at least the "mostly anything goes" flavour of moderation seems to give it some base semblance of (dysfunctional) balance.
It's nemesis however... The big Purple board. Seems to have gone the other way. Almost exclusively a "woke" echo-chamber, which in many ways is really sad.
GAF & Era are though in essence, two parts of a whole.
The UrRu and Skeksis of a real-world pantheon of a gaming theology (I'm loathe to ascribe which I think is which..) - once joined, who via almost the exact same narrative as in Jim Henson's lore; tried to purge itself of it's darker embodiments back in 2017, fucked it all up and ended up separating out into two very separate, very polarised communities.
The separation created no clear space for a moderate middle to really find it's home, and thus the self-reinforcing nature of these divergent communities, carrying bitter memories of their dividing strife, echo'ed more and more deeply into their respective community focuses; away from games at the core and deeper and deeper into identity politics.
They hate each other, and they hate anything the other doesn't; whilst consequently reinforcing affinity for the things the other hates, almost purely on the basis that they do.
So here's the meat of my hypothesis...
NeoGAF had always been a deeply influential community of both gamer and creator alike. It was not exactly clear just how much of the industry historically lurked the halls of this forum but I'd wager the penetration there pre-2017 was significant.
Post NeoGAF's "Great Conjunction", I'd wager a large part of the creator community moved away from GAF and Era thus received the majority.
What if they're still there...?
What if they have been all this time...?
What if the daily influence of these individuals being largely saturated in a Purple world-view (of gamers, of devs, of the market, of the industry at large), via a Purple echo chamber forum, has been a strongly correlating (perhaps even causing) factor in the steer many of today's studios have had in pushing woke themes, ideas, concepts and agendas in their games?
The "toxic positivity" we hear pervasive in the dev culture at studios like that of Concord or Highguard, correlates well with the same type of "toxic positivity" that underlies the moderation & participation culture of Era. What if there's a direct or indirect causal link there...?
If this hypothesis is true, then the current state of gaming might as well be potentially be the "culpa" (either in part or in full) of this very board and it's history.
Doesn't seem that far fetched to me.
In short, we need to find the proverbial last Gelfing, to take upon them the epic quest to carry the missing shard back to the crystal castle, to return it to it's whole at the next Great Conjunction, to return both communities to their rightful (UrSkek) union and return the true balance to the gaming industry and ecosystem as we know it.
It's our only hope people!
NeoGAF of today sometimes reflects the nature of a scarred, reeling petulant child, constantly lashing out in "anti-woke" outbursts at even the slightest hint of something that looks like it might try to tread into a DEI-smelling line.
In some ways GAF can be a bit of an anti-woke echo-chamber. But with all it's cesspit tendencies at least the "mostly anything goes" flavour of moderation seems to give it some base semblance of (dysfunctional) balance.
It's nemesis however... The big Purple board. Seems to have gone the other way. Almost exclusively a "woke" echo-chamber, which in many ways is really sad.
GAF & Era are though in essence, two parts of a whole.
The UrRu and Skeksis of a real-world pantheon of a gaming theology (I'm loathe to ascribe which I think is which..) - once joined, who via almost the exact same narrative as in Jim Henson's lore; tried to purge itself of it's darker embodiments back in 2017, fucked it all up and ended up separating out into two very separate, very polarised communities.
The separation created no clear space for a moderate middle to really find it's home, and thus the self-reinforcing nature of these divergent communities, carrying bitter memories of their dividing strife, echo'ed more and more deeply into their respective community focuses; away from games at the core and deeper and deeper into identity politics.
They hate each other, and they hate anything the other doesn't; whilst consequently reinforcing affinity for the things the other hates, almost purely on the basis that they do.
So here's the meat of my hypothesis...
NeoGAF had always been a deeply influential community of both gamer and creator alike. It was not exactly clear just how much of the industry historically lurked the halls of this forum but I'd wager the penetration there pre-2017 was significant.
Post NeoGAF's "Great Conjunction", I'd wager a large part of the creator community moved away from GAF and Era thus received the majority.
What if they're still there...?
What if they have been all this time...?
What if the daily influence of these individuals being largely saturated in a Purple world-view (of gamers, of devs, of the market, of the industry at large), via a Purple echo chamber forum, has been a strongly correlating (perhaps even causing) factor in the steer many of today's studios have had in pushing woke themes, ideas, concepts and agendas in their games?
The "toxic positivity" we hear pervasive in the dev culture at studios like that of Concord or Highguard, correlates well with the same type of "toxic positivity" that underlies the moderation & participation culture of Era. What if there's a direct or indirect causal link there...?
If this hypothesis is true, then the current state of gaming might as well be potentially be the "culpa" (either in part or in full) of this very board and it's history.
Doesn't seem that far fetched to me.
In short, we need to find the proverbial last Gelfing, to take upon them the epic quest to carry the missing shard back to the crystal castle, to return it to it's whole at the next Great Conjunction, to return both communities to their rightful (UrSkek) union and return the true balance to the gaming industry and ecosystem as we know it.
It's our only hope people!
