Gaming journalists are a disease

[@SydneyWatson]

Go to tryfum.com/SYDNEY and use code SYDNEY to save an additional 10% off your order today. I had a lot of trouble saying "Kotaku". Don't bully me. 😂

[@arsondarksea]

God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, who is the name above all names & the only way to Heaven❤

[@fluffybunnyz285]

Oh hey Sydney dead by daylight is an asymmetrical survival game not a zombie apocalypse sim

[@darthjosh-iah-is2027]

My flavors are fire! Best line in the video LOL

[@AngryYetiTV]

I don't intend this to be derogatory towards you in any way, I thoroughly enjoy your content, and I wholey understand the realities of monetizing said content, but I know you appreciate feedback and input. That being said, I refuse to patron a company (Fum) that relies on allusion to the misinformation spread maliciously against the Vaping industry. Specifically, the assertion that vaping in general leads to EVALI, when in fact, it was determined that EVALI was caused by the use of Vitamin E Acetate in the process of extracting THC for use in THC "Juices." When atomized, Vitamin E Acetate is brok3n down into Cyanide, or a substance of similar like, which creates swelling and / or eats holes in the lungs. Standard, nicotine based, vaping has lead to one of, if not the, most successful trend of smoking cessation. I myself was a three pack a day smoker. Since starting vaping, I have quit smoking entirely, and any issues I had, as a smoker, with my lungs, have gone away.

[@wouterivens4121]

Use the more appropriate mnemonic: cucktaku

[@coraliepython1291]

I'm a Concept Artist and during my studies the typical crazy leftist teacher asked us "Why do y'all always makes pretty characters? Why not making ugly characters (start listing the cliché attributes of every crazy woke uncharismatic character)?" That ideology was everywhere and forced to us. Our response was: "Why should we making a character ugly asf on purpose? What's the interest? What would be the reason for making a character unappelling for common people? What would be the benefit? And how do you define "ugly"?". She didn't answer anything.

[@gabrielarrhenius6252]

The only place a "ugly" character is made is for narrative purposes otherwise they are good looking or average

[@Jimothy-723]

they want everything to be ugly because beauty destroys their ideology. the very existence of the concept of beauty anihilates their dogma. beauty can not be allowed to survive.

[@NetBattler]

No one is demanding ugly character hell even myself want attractive characters too.

[@RambleOn07]

​@@NetBattlerI take it that you haven't listened to the DEI types much. I envy you more than you could ever know.

[@NetBattler]

@@RambleOn07 those are ghost, they're not human being.

[@Russian_Waifu]

Game journalists don't actually like games, they just want to be 'real journalists' so they use gaming journalism as a stepping stone.

[@stevencraeynest7729]

even worse, most "game articles "are just quickly thrown together thoughts and gossip without any actual investigation/journalism being done.

[@JHRIRS2010]

Do you mean they want to be “real Propagandist” this is not “journalism”.

[@chrisschmidt2245]

Game journalists are what happened to all the people who had a blog back in the MySpace days. They can use a keyboard and mouse, no other qualifications necessary.

[@grimmes1159]

Let’s be real most the people complaining about the journalists don’t play games period

[@jackknife4547]

I would like to break into journalism, I also like playing video games and would absolutely love to be a gaming journalist. It would add validity to my consumerism and condemnation to my own mediocrity....I mean playing video games 😉

[@incurableromantic4006]

"Terrify them into doing what you want" Also "Sweet Baby Inc doesn't force anyone to do anything"

[@Nitromorph]

"We didn't force anyone to take the vaccine" Also "You can't work or feed your family or keep your house if you don't"

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

I think it was in one of EndimionTV's videos where he quoted them claiming they have no influence whatsoever on the game design or narrative. Yeah, sure, because when I need the kitchen renovated, I also make a point of not just hiring the contractors that do the actual job, but also a bunch of bystanders who waste said contractors' time, tying them up in endless meetings and workshops, while contributing absolutely nothing to the project... 🙄

[@weareharbinger914]

As we learned during covid, coercion apparently isn't forcing.

[@jazzyjswift]

@@weareharbinger914 Then coercing someone to have sex with you would logically not be considered a form of r***, but everyone is in agreeance that it is. Remember, if it benefits the agenda, it's okay. Just bend the knee, and you'll be taken care of by the government. Unless you're white, male, or straight.

[@fiveforbiting]

Maybe the real Fascists were the Sweet Baby Inc's we met along the way.

[@dtuitt79]

So let me get this straight. We have people that can't get past the tutorials, reviewing games. & people that don't play games, telling us what we need to have in games. Makes perfect sense. 🤦‍♂️

[@chubbyninjagaming]

...welcome to modern gaming! *throws confetti*

[@lamichka]

But but GAMERs ARE THE PROBLEM!!! ReeeEEEEEEE!!!

[@DROK278]

Oh brother she ain't lying about here in Canada, corrupt as the day is long. The whole industry is treated like a joke for some reason? I've been gaming for 30+ years and LOVE IT! It's money homie, lots and lots of money making this happen, games today have a quarter the effort put into them that past games did. Fuck random quality game...spyro the dragon, I still play it from time to time, quality and care show is my point. Sad future

[@Cruznik88]

"So let me get this straight." theres your problem right there nothing and no one is allowed to be straight without being made to feel guilty for being so

[@dtuitt79]

@@Cruznik88 🤣

[@AutomaticDuck300]

Gamergate proved that gaming journalists can’t be trusted.

[@mooserocka522]

Or just all the work they have done since

[@amalekedomite]

Gamergate proved that "gaming journalists" is an oxymoron.

[@Weltshmerz]

Are you saying that the harassment didn't exist? Or are you saying gaming journalists are responsible for gamergate? What the fuck are you saying

[@maddlarkin]

Anyone who'd been around for Mass Effect 3 back in 2012 already knew they couldn't be trusted...

[@amalekedomite]

@@Weltshmerz Harrassment didn't happen, but it should have, and gaming journalists were absolutely repsonsible for gamergate. Why the fuck are you such a bundle of sticks?

[@marthahoffecker5333]

I am a grey-haired female gamer who got my start with Atari's Frogger. And I don't give a flying "fig" what some progressive gaming "journalist" says about DEI. While I happened to enjoy "God of War Ragnarok" , I thoroughly understand that others may not. I also understand that every gamer has a genre of game that they find completely enjoyable and other genres they don't like so well. It seems to me that no matter what type of game you like (First person shooter, hack and slash, swords and sorcery, 2D side scroller, platformer,) , NO ONE wants to be preached at. NO ONE wants to be forced to listen to the "in your face, you must believe what i believe" diatribe. Go and enjoy your favorite game, game type or genre. Have great fun playing that particular game/games and ignore the talking heads that think they know better. I certainly plan on enjoying my favorite games, including the physiques of some well shaped leading men. ;)

[@TheRisky9]

As another gray hated female gamer who got her start playing Missle Command on the Atari, I also hate how they turn the things they dislike into some kind of moral argument. There are lots of things games do I don't like or think is immoral. But a game review is not the forum to make a moral argument.

[@lainiwakura1776]

These "journalists" don't even know the reason Ms. Pac-Man exists, they haven't done in research into the history of video games.

[@jaykhan3191]

Amazes me how the irony of being unable to relate to a character that does not match their race or sexuality is completely lost on them. Just bigots on the other side of the coin.

[@GreatFox42]

"No one wants to be preached at." This is the part that really gets me. These _psychos_ utterly despise the idea of escapism. If you're not being preached at 24/7, you're a danger to them because you might form an opinion that isn't theirs. They did this to film, comics, tv shows, just about every medium out there. They came for gaming, but both times gamers revolted because gamers have been insulted and maligned for 30 years already. Why are these psychos' complaints any more valid?

[@jaykhan3191]

@@GreatFox42 I'd argue most gamers are nerds and masochists as well. 😂 We actively seek highly stressful and difficult situations in the hopes of improving our skill level. Imagine talking to a soulsbourne player about feelings being hurt 💀

[@jurassicjaws]

ShortFatOtaku interviewed a Saints Row Reboot dev and this was said: "Lots of game developers end up making games for other developers, not gamers" and that really sums up the current industry perfectly. I rather retreat back to something like Oblivion or VtMB than dip my toes into a reboot or something for MoDeRn AuDiEnCeS.

[@petethehawk5186]

It’s no different than a lot of modern films and shows. These people have forgotten who their audiences, i.e. customers, are and then they wonder why things are failing left and right. You can’t force something to be popular because you personally think it’s great.

[@NetBattler]

That's why I'm into western games and never will.

[@RambleOn07]

I'd rather play vampire the masquerade in Skyrim than anything these people will ever make.

[@fernandofaria2872]

The heck is VtMB? 🤔

[@RambleOn07]

@@fernandofaria2872 it's from the yee old days of good games. It stands for "Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines."

[@randomthoughtinstantiator]

There’s an old story I learned as a child that goes like this: Some kids play a game every day. Another kid envies their smiles, but never gets invited. The other kid tattles on the kids. The kids get in trouble and must now include the other kid. But the other kid doesn’t know how to play, so the other kid tattles on the kids again. The kids get in trouble and are told to change the rules so it’s easier to play. The game is no longer fun, so the other kids stop smiling. The other kid sees that everyone is miserable, and becomes miserable too. Everyone stops playing, and all the smiles are gone. It’s much easier to destroy happiness than to join it.

[@xmaverickhunterkx]

Hey, that's the history of regulation for TV content and age restrictions etc

[@Handler217]

i really like this analogy

[@furlosifurfox5794]

spot on

[@TheSteinin]

I get the analogy but I do thing it needs to say why the miserable kid could not be taught how to play.

[@lilred5515]

​@@TheSteininmaybe because the kid never even thought to ask if they could join. Maybe because the kid was too fixated and in their own head about not being invited they didn't even bother to be the first one to reach out. Maybe it was pride and not being the first one to give ground from what they believed the other kids reasons for not inviting them were I dunno. not enough real info for a short story like this and any real world example is gonna be different on a case by case basis

[@slushisimcambi2521]

Men: *tries to enjoy something* Gaming journalists: 😡

[@agnesroman9326]

The same type, who are jealous when it comes to my looks and how I respect the male encounter part. And they can't get a man. 😂

[@Tiasung]

@@agnesroman9326They dont want men in the usual way. They want to suppress men and corrupt women. These "women" (I use that term loosely in this context, because they are a disgrace to everything good about women.. or even people in general) do in fact have a good amount of male-slaves that serve them, and is typically used as puppet so they dont have to expose their own involvement.

[@robertbarga3694]

SO true.

[@KabegamiTheGreat]

And they took that personally

[@acemax1124]

No safe spaces for men but they keep screaming it's a patriarchy 🤦🚩 Make it make sense 🧠💥🤯

[@mcpunchins]

You've gotten your timeline out of order, the "Sweet Baby Inc Detected" Curator was started and only had like 8000 people following it until journalists latched onto it after the Sweet Baby Inc employees tried to get the person cancelled for starting the Curator and it became subject to the Streisand Effect and blew up to having a quarter million followers.

[@sulac4ever170]

And that's why I am glad, that many people from the far left movement are somewhat dumb and short thinking, because they continuously sabotage themselves with their ill thought through rash acting 😂 And at the same time it scares me because the actual radically right-wing people (not the ones, which are actually normal people with healthy common sense and neither radically left or right = not left-wing enough for the radicals and therefore criminally right-wing in their twisted perception), which wish for the likes of Ado Hitmarker to come back ... those people certainly were very clever and effective in fooling the Germans into making them vote for them. Because of the insane antics of the lefts many people are going to vote for far left parties just put of spite, because they are sick of their lies and suppression of free speech and forced ideology ... because they are so clumsy and idiotic in pushing it, that it's blatantly obvious. That's a very dangerous dynamic. The leftist idiotic pushing could lead to far right parties getting reinstated because of people getting more and more sick of the far left. I for one don't wish it either way. Neither Fascism nor a leftist oppressive government are a healthy outcome, because both mean the death of common sense and human decency and general kindness. I wish more people would see the ongoing radicalization for what it is: "Divide and Conquer!" to keep the normal people divided and fighting among themselves instead of standing up for one another against oppressive mega cooperations and the rich top 1% which control everything and want to keep the normal people effectively as their slaves and therefore under control to keep their privileged standards.

[@goldengryphon]

Heck, now that I've heard of it I want to follow. I've been having a wonderful time by buying those "horrible" games that are so phobic and everything. Great games. Lots of fun and worth every dollar. I have several days in Palworld and I'm loving the heck out of it.

[@Ichthyodactyl]

Even less than that, according to Kabrutus. He's put the number at about 1.5k before Chris decided to direct their mob at him.

[@Thorrnn]

I heard his interview with the quartering, he had 2500 followers, when this sbi shît came down, a week later he had 250,000 🎉🎉

[@creatrixZBD]

There’s a website now too, called DEI Detected dot the usual suffix

[@Local-Democracy-Officer]

A wise man once said: "If I gotta stare at a character for 100 hours, I'd like them to be worth looking at"

[@bobbym6130]

Especially if it's from behind.

[@oldgoat142]

Makes things a little easier doesn't it? Especially when you screw up something for the thousandth time and want to throw your controller through the screen.

[@Vahlsten]

That was me! When I made my FEMALE PUBG character :D "If I'm going to be running from point a to b for few hundred hours, I might as well have something nice to look at while doing it"

[@Local-Democracy-Officer]

@@Vahlsten For some reason I prefer to change my character to female when using a wetsuit in Ghost Recon, I really don't know why.

[@Vahlsten]

@@Local-Democracy-Officer I've never played the game but somehow an image of Trinity's butt in vinyl pants in Matrix popped in my head...

[@Tigerhawk30]

Game Journo: "Cuphead is too hard" *Laughs in Super NES/Sega Genesis' "Lion King"*

[@iggtastic]

Super Ghouls and Ghosts!

[@Kiltedfirepiper]

TMNT... the water level..

[@burna2650]

The whole game lol​@@Kiltedfirepiper

[@lamichka]

.. oh god! no... please not again!

[@h3xman-314]

Lion King! That final couple levels were nuts!

[@JonDoe..]

After I heard the toxic SBI people tried to get that guy's Steam account deleted, not just the group, but his whole account, I went and joined up to show support. Game devs, entertain these toxic fringe groups as much as you want, I'll happily keep my money in my pocket.

[@pyorre2441]

The same, I had heard of SBI before but went "ah another grifter group ala Feminist Frequency" but then the whole Twitter messages started how Valve should shutdown the group and Ban the curator, I went and joined that curator group.

[@iDeLaYeD_o]

Upside is that Valve decided the curator wasn't against TOS so it stays. Now the same person who started this is still crying about the group while games that are against their ideology keep being top sellers.

[@mekingtiger9095]

@@iDeLaYeD_o AND the group is about to reach the 300k followers mark. Yaaay!

[@dragondude9637]

There is another group called "Bear knuckle" whose founder is planning some kind of tracking device to reveal every single person who joined that list and have them blacklisted from gaming.

[@simm0l]

Hahaha blacklisted from gaming? how would that happen ? It would be suiside for Valve to block your account based on things like that. And on the other hand is an argument why not ownring the games you play is a risk @@dragondude9637

[@Peter_Morris]

I love how that SweetBaby woman describes extortion and then just giggles like a little girl, and we’re all expected to swoon over her genius. These people are criminals.

[@wayneswanson3294]

Jessie Jackson / Al Sharpton / Ben Crump's shakedown scams, but now with added wokeness destroying the product, instead of just paying off the thugs for not having a demonstration in your lobby.

[@RambleOn07]

They are unironically used to being massively privileged and immune to consequences.

[@OneMeanArtist]

Blax.

[@TwinTalon01]

I’d argue we’ve allowed women to get away with far too much for far too long, and the bad ones have taken full and complete advantage of that.

[@thegreatpoo2electricboogal318]

​@@TwinTalon01 not women. Just bad people in general.

[@Just_a_turtle_chad]

Never apologize for wanting attractive female characters in your video games.

[@nobushidono9897]

Never apologize for passive eugenics.

[@mekingtiger9095]

As said before, aesthetics matter. People often don't like to admit it, but aesthetics matter.

[@scottybreuer]

The good guys should be cool, the bad guys scary, the men strong, and the women beautiful. These are the ingredients, mix and match them for different flavors, but do not change them.

[@JohnSpartan-117]

Indeed

[@ivanhorvat8403]

And don't let them shame you for it.

[@REIN474]

Im a gamer, and never i have ONCE read anything from any game journalists website. I always relies on game reviews from STEAM and actual gameplay footage for games i play.

[@PS3PCDJ]

8:50 Can't ever forget that video of a 5 yo child progressing and finishing the level, while an adult gaming journalist struggled with a simple jump.

[@riku3220]

Someone put Takahashi's gameplay next to footage of a bird needing to use a block to reach a high up object. The bird figured it out before Takahashi did.

[@DsiakMondala]

@@riku3220 Based pigeon reminder

[@YuyuHakurei]

I didn't play the game yet and I figured out what you were supposed to do in half a second. I believe a normal gamer wouldn't even fail. They would just succeed first try without thinking. xD

[@TaoScribble]

The excuse I kept hearing was "it wasn't his area of expertise, he was just the closest reporter available". I don't care that his focus is supposedly on tech hardware and not games. He's incompetent for just blatantly not giving a crap, and they're incompetent for thinking his gameplay footage was fine as-is as it showed that they ALSO just blatantly didn't give a crap.

[@SeaportOperationsRR]

I remember when gamers were the ones who did the reviews and articles. Now you have a bunch of no talent hack journalists writing opinion pieces.

[@jacovanvuuren8752]

There should be a requirement of a certain gaming skill level, variety of games played, minimum total gaming hours, and Steam profile check for anyone to be allowed to review and write articles about games.

[@heavyhebrew]

PC Accelerator was the best at this

[@sp00nf0rks]

what are some examples of gamers who wrote good reviews?

[@Ynot-ii8xt]

They have to try to find something to latch with their useless degree imo.

[@holdensachs8955]

You still basically have that. It didn't take gamers long to rebuild the enthusiast press using social media. Now people are just listening to KZbinrs, streamers, and user reviews.

[@ArthurShotgun]

If a Studio needs to hire a third party consultancy firm for something as basic as writing, narrative & character designs.... I think at that point that Studio should stop making video games altogether. Like how incompetent do you have to be to hire someone else to write/tamper with your story & game. Why can't you do all this in-house? Are you really that creatively bankrupt & untalented? Why should the consumers trust the quality of your product when you yourself have no confidence in what you have created thats why you feel the need to get it changed by a third party? These are the questions we as consumers should be asking Santa Monica, Insomniac, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Rocksteady, Valve, etc

[@BeautyMarkRush]

Up next: AI taking over the narrative industry

[@angel_of_rust]

at least Valve doesnt make the mistake of making a game post-Sweet Baby, so far

[@jaykhan3191]

That's actually a really good point. Well said

[@Edrigangr]

They do it because they need outside funding and investors. Much like "Is your employee force 50% of diverse/queer/LGBT/marginalized people? Here's a bag of money." , now it's "Does your game have enough diverse/queer/LGBT/marginalized people and stories? Here's a bag of money." And much like in the first example, it doesn't matter if that 50% of your work force is not qualified for the job or incompetent. All it matters is the boxes they tick. Much like so, in the games, it doesn't matter if the writing IS awful and the characters are bland and uninteresting.

[@Thorrnn]

Capitol venture companies, ( black rock, vanguard, state street) offer funding for fake developers, the bigger the better because they want to reach as many people as possible. With their ideological indoctrination, and say “hers $500 million to build your game, and oh btw, we have a couple of little requests…”

[@dokessezeaka5159]

When gaming companies cater to an audience that don’t actually buy their games, it makes me so confused.

[@sbsftw4232]

Well the audience they're catering to is "investors", which should mean the same thing but unfortunately there is only slight overlap now.

[@Handler217]

@@sbsftw4232correction on how to fix this? stop buying shit games

[@stephengrigg5988]

​@@Handler217not really. Rockstar makes great games like GTA and RDR, it doesn't change the fact that their parent company's main interest is monetizing online features forever. That's a perfect example of gaming right now, the literal Rockstar's of the industry are held back creatively by some suit wearing board appeasers.

[@stephengrigg5988]

​@@Handler217and actually I'm being a little overly pessimistic. Companies like Larian have been doing a good job of speaking for gamers

[@wallacesousuke1433]

@@stephengrigg5988 no they havent, BG3 sucks and it's not what real gamers like or care about

[@Netherwolf6100]

I noticed the trend back in 2016. I now use gaming journalists in the opposite way. If they tell me something is bad, exclusive or some sort of "phobic", I know it's a *GOOD* game and I should play it. If all they brag about is racial inclusion, sexual identity, and being progressive, I avoid it like the plague. I'm not gonna waste my money on being preached too by hypocritical tender adult-children. I want my media as pure as possible when I partake in it and I'll decide whether I like it or not.

[@hyosu9388]

It's like when you were a kid and the school is banning discussion about a game and parents are making a fuss about it being inappropriate for children, it was probably a pretty damn good game.

[@BlooGremlin]

I use this exact method when looking at the marketing for everything. If advertising is focused on the diversity and why if you hate it youre a bad person, i know its bad, because if it was a good story or had good gameplay, that marketing would be about that instead.

[@TheTraveler980]

"The best way to defeat an enemy is to make them a friend." I use gaming journalists the same way too; defeat their purpose by using their "ways" to my advantage.

[@YuyuHakurei]

The only time sexual identity makes a game better is in visual novels. It allows for more lesbians to kiss. xD Outside of that I do not care. It's often creepy to say someone like Dumbledore is gay when he spends 90% of the story interacting with underage boys for instance. Racial inclusion is the exact opposite of historical relevance. You can't just add a bwack character to anything and call it done. Especially in some of these military shooter games. bwack people didn't have a single living middle rank officer in the US until the 1930's. The only time they were promoted before then is when they were KIA. So it's why Samuel Jack being Nick Fury also makes no sense if you bring history into this. When you disregard these little facts it ruins immersion. Progressive. The most pointless word people use to this day. US is already Progressive. It's already the most progressive place in the world. When you go beyond what is common sense you get gaming journalists. US has been perfectly fair since the 90s. Any bad stigma since then is generally due to problems people have had with the group tanking their reputation. It's their own fault people don't like them. If they don't want people to hate them then hold your community to a higher standard. I can assure you canceling everything you don't like isn't how you get it.

[@KingSardius]

And to that I say, on behalf of the Dark Souls Community, “and let the feast begin”!

[@claytoniusdoesthings9598]

The idea of a Statsi agent running something is terrifying, because the one statement about them that always comes to mind was in an interview with a German gentleman who lived long enough to experience both the Gestapo and the Statsi. When asked which was worse, he said "Statsi" without skipping a beat. "The Gestapo wanted you to think they were everywhere. The Statsi actually were."

[@MJesDK]

Yeah I'm pretty sure the former stasi agent in question committed enough snitching to actually have two people arrested and killed. The fact that people like that are allowed into power is astounding.

[@Warhawkx]

Of course. The commies are worse than bad mustache man's party.

[@Madmax-rz5hz]

So..Sweet Baby Ink is NOT a tattoo parlour specialising in infants?

[@DragonOfTheMortalKombat]

Unfortunately not.

[@Sapphire_Jack]

Nah, just Pebos

[@mattjohnson8585]

Best pun ever

[@gagestandingready1472]

Nice!

[@NetBattler]

Nah it's pdf ring

[@ContagionV]

"I would like for this to stop" Same here, been waiting a over decade and counting.

[@AtticusKarpenter]

Liked that "sbi hArRaSsEd for practices that normal in gaming industry for years!" ...you mean for all that years since its turned into shit or what? (Also didnt "its was like this for a long time, let it stay that way" is sounds little unprogressive, conservative even? They harm their ultraleftist image by that)

[@StallionStudios1234]

Incorrect! It needs to ramp up more. Clearly the message is not being portrayed good enough, companies should invest further into inclusivity, diversity and equity. It is vital for society to function so everyone can be included. I hope further legislation is pushed through in the US, Canada, UK and Australia to make it more friendly so all audiences are comfortable playing all games. Games like GTA need to be banned and made illegal. It promotes sexism, violence, hate and transphobia. It needs to be outlawed outright and those caught playing it need to be charged for hate crimes. This goes for similar games. This is not needed in society and is offensive. People seeing a game clip of GTA could be triggered to depression and self harm. Sorry you enjoyment for such a game takes a lesser priority than peoples' well being.

[@tomfrien]

Holy shit. Didn’t expect a take on the gaming industry from you. Welcome to our current hellscape

[@JlNXED]

She’s done a few videos on problems in gaming, you should check them out, pretty good

[@mooserocka522]

She sometimes has gaming videos , like how she hated god of war 2 also worked on by sweet baby

[@Lirion]

@@mooserocka522You mean God of War Ragnarok, for us old people God of War 2 is the PS2 game. 😂

[@RambleOn07]

​​​@@LirionI still remember when the PlayStation was just the first PlayStation and NES was the Nintendo.

[@frustationoverloaded5976]

She did it so many times

[@natemarx4999]

Gaming is thriving, while gaming “journalism” is dying.

[@ashamahee]

Gaming is not exactly thriving either if you consider AAA XD

[@doodchappin]

​@@ashamaheehow isn't it? There have been amazing games, same with films, great films if you look past Marvel and the other big 3. The Indies are killing left and right. 2024 alone pal world, helldiver's 2 and frostpunk 2... Journalists everywhere are trash.

[@mekingtiger9095]

​​@@doodchappin From what I could gather, a lot of AAA games have suffered from revenue because although some of them have been good (while others not so much), they all share in common the fact that they have overbloated budgets and are thus unable to pay off with the sales.

[@JohnSpartan-117]

Eh games these days are garbage. I miss the older games that had soul, and from which entire communities and sub cultures would arise.

[@ashamahee]

@@doodchappin most AAA game these days are lazy watered down cash grabs or infinite cash cows through MTX schemes and often bloated with forced wokeness. You want good games then you need to go lower in the bracket and go for the indie, like you mention palworld and helldivers etc.

[@Ronin1071]

These people frustrate me to no end. I and not even remotely “conservative” and I still hate sweet baby inc, gaming journalism, and everything else that attempts to shoehorn their ideology into my entertainment. Political bullshit is everywhere else, does it need to be in gaming and movies too? I will no longer spend money on anything until I’ve read some reviews on it. If sweet baby is attached to anything, I won’t buy it even if it’s something I was excited for.

[@mikewright8304]

Totally agree. I just play older games mainly now for that exact same reason. I'm sick of political shit in EVERYTHING.

[@nicholasholloway8743]

agreed, we play games to escape reality, not have propaganda of ANY kind being shoved down our throats

[@mekingtiger9095]

To be fair, a game CAN have political undertones while still being entertaining. Look at Bioshock. The difference here is that the writing in that game has something that most AAA games lack, and that's called NUANCE.

[@SunMiSongEve]

@@mekingtiger9095Yup, which just goes to prove the stance that people generally don't give a shit what race, gender, or sexuality characters are, they just want well written shit. There has always and will always be programming and propaganda in almost any piece of media. The woke mob has just made it so painfully obvious with the horribly written schlock they vomit out that it's there, ever-present, and overbearing. Their counter to all our complaints about how trash media is these days is always "you're just sexist/racist/something ist or phobic" when if you watch things from the 90s/early 2000s that pretty much zero people complained about at the time, there is an absolute fuckton of random political messaging inserting into each and every show/movie. Nobody gave a shit because the "lessons" being taught were earned through well written characters and storylines and overall only made up like 1-2% of the total runtime. Now it's like 50%+ of the runtime filled with poorly written characters basically dropping what amounts to tweets into the dialogue of an already overall poorly written experience. People just wanna have fun/good shit to watch/play. Simple as.

[@bhziker]

You hit the nail on the head, if you wait for the gaming journalists reviews you can get the best games by choosing those they whine about the most.

[@StallionStudios1234]

Woke journalism is the most important thing when rating games. Its about holding creators accountable. Characters should reflect the diversity in today's world. Its important so that nobody feels left out and will generate a far more larger diverse audience. Its important and should be a top priority for all game creators. Also creators should be aware of making bad comparisons to real life history events. That is why I hate WWII games. They promote racism just like how Harry Potter should have been banned from purchasing. It promotes transphobia.

[@supergamer1388]

@@StallionStudios1234 Making a good product is the most important thing. Having the most diverse cast in the world won't matter in the slightest if the game itself isn't fun to play.

[@nortoro1]

I love that people have stopped taking articles at face value.

[@mike02454]

It's certainly taking long enough. 25 years ago I started following multiple news sources and noticed that many leave out critical information in order to maintain a narrative... some of this info left out should be considering lying, as without it you get the completely wrong info as a whole.

[@NetBattler]

Tbh I only use gaming websites just to checkout game news

[@ljmiller96]

Always find the original sources to an attribution and read what was left out.

[@Bassalicious]

@@mike02454 yup, as long as it aids sales it's a good article in their world. Screw that.

[@MennydorgesERArchive]

This has suddenly become a serious problem, the American gov itself decided to weigh in and defend a Canadian corporation. You can’t make this up!

[@mattjohnson8585]

I can hear angry letters to congress being drafted already. Probably not a bad idea, either...

[@DC4260Productions]

"They just keep Gilette-ing themselves." That's a great way to summarise this chaos, Miss Watson.

[@StallionStudios1234]

Incorrect! It needs to ramp up more. Clearly the message is not being portrayed good enough, companies should invest further into inclusivity, diversity and equity. It is vital for society to function so everyone can be included. I hope further legislation is pushed through in the US, Canada, UK and Australia to make it more friendly so all audiences are comfortable playing all games. Games like GTA need to be banned and made illegal. It promotes sexism, violence, hate and transphobia. It needs to be outlawed outright and those caught playing it need to be charged for hate crimes. This goes for similar games. This is not needed in society and is offensive. People seeing a game clip of GTA could be triggered to depression and self harm. Sorry you enjoyment for such a game takes a lesser priority than peoples' well being.

[@frbyrd-tg5co]

In the 90s, the PMRC pushed for "Explicit Content" labels be placed on records/CDs to supposedly alert adults to the listening/buying tastes of their kids. The sales of units with those stickers rose instead of dropped. Hopefully, this kind of Video Game 'shaming/warning' will have the same unintended effect and make a mockery of these 'journos'.

[@sbsftw4232]

Labeling/warning about content isn't exactly the same as subverting the media at its source before release.

[@stephengrigg5988]

The straight outta Compton movie summed that whole idea up with one line. They put the parental advisory label on their record and it shows a group of people destroying their records in protest, Easy just responds "They can do whatever they want with them really, they still bought the mothafuckers."

[@AveryHyena]

"We don't like you, so we're all going to work together to make sure we stay away and have no contact with you." "YOU'RE HARASSING AND ATTACKING US!!!! REEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

[@VinceLyle2161]

"You're showing a list of games we worked on that is available to view on our company's website! CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL!!!"

[@thorin1045]

turning of the tv was not allowed, even the volume could not be adjusted without reason.

[@JeffreyBos75]

I am almost 49 years old and basicly played games my whole life, i've witnessed the gaming industry changing from being a nerd and outcast as a gamer in the 80's/90's to the pop culture industry giant it is these days. Gaming was about escapism and fun right up to 2010-2012, since 2010-2012 the mainly progressive agenda pushing has become more and more obvious in the Western gaming industry and Western pop culture in general. On the one hand these people preach inclusivity/diversity while destroying in some cases decades of lore from an IP just because the main character isn't the right sex/gender on the other hand out of pure personal spite towards certain sex/gender or even race. These companies are ruining gaming studios with their agenda (Just look what happened to Volition after the debacle of Saints Row 2022) and yet they get accepted and hired by the same people they destroy just because of that sweet sweet ESG/DEI money...

[@ActuallyZee]

I miss Halo...

[@djmagichat1721]

One of the first video games I remember getting truly addicted to was made by Volition in the late 90s, when I was about 7 years old. Seeing what happened to them broke my heart after that...

[@peter_griffith522]

They preach inclusivity but I remember the wokies wanting segregation back😂, these companies that follow woke are racists and only in it for money but hey were bigots for telling the truth and hell am native american and creator forbid I have oppions online here in woke trash canada😂

[@tb7771]

I agree. I've been gaming since 1977.

[@Saibot79]

I am 44 and right there with you. started on the NES.

[@jacob_90s]

Ill never get over the irony of journalists trying to promote diversity while simultaneously trying to promote this monolith ic culture of theirs.

[@RogueDragon05]

You misspelt hypocrisy

[@InservioLetum]

ic is.... incel? To me it means integrated circuit, but that doesn't work in that sentence.

[@SiriusSphynx]

​@@InservioLetum I thought he meant to say "monolithic". Incel doesn't work either because that's usually a hate term they use for anyone that doesn't agree with them. Regardless if the topic is about sexual relationships or not.

[@SiriusSphynx]

When people ask "what do you mean by woke?" or "define woke" or "what does woke even mean?" This is what it means. It's the self-righteous, hypocritical, subversive hate masquerading as virtue.

[@InservioLetum]

@@SiriusSphynx I... I honestly have no excuse. That is 100% on me. Senior moment. Thanks for not laughing at me, lol.

[@crow2989]

Kratos’ decision to spare Thor absolutely makes sense for his character development. He is not the exact same man who killed all the Gods in Olympus. In the previous game, he literally tells his son “Do not be sorry, Be Better.” and Kratos lives by this idea. He has committed acts of uncontrolled anger and the journey of God of War is him trying to raise his son not to be like that. You can see his disappointment when Atreus finds out he is a God and behaves in an arrogant manner. It makes sense this would be continued on to Ragnarok where he learns he most let his children grow and make their own decisions and Kratos has to grapple with be a God worthy enough to be worshipped by others. Kratos sees Thor as another version of himself imo. Thor, manipulated and used by his own father and thrown to the side when not needed, ultimately just wants what’s best for his child and Kratos can see that and even convinces Thor they should not fight each other. Odin is the real antagonist. Kratos doesn’t want to needlessly kill those who aren’t really out for him or his child. There are better things to critique about Ragnarok but Kratos not killing Thor is not one of them.

[@mikeallan7740]

You hit the nail on the head. Imagine thinking a game depicting a positive father son relationship is woke, the woke crowd is highly misandrist so if it was truly woke the whole plot wouldn't even happen, but apparently because Angraboda is black the game is going to indoctrinate layers into communism or something.

[@Hunterese123]

It's like people skipped GOW 2018 where Kratos was already changing. smh

[@infamous635]

One thing you didn't mention about why gaming journalism is so infested with activists is because there's just no money in journalism anymore, these companies are all failing, so they can only offer their employees slave wages, and the only people who are willing to be journalists for slaves wages are people who aren't in it for the money, they're in it for access to the platform that will give their activism greater reach. This basically guarantees that journalism can never recover. They can't switch to a paid model because no one would actually pay to see this shit, and to generate money from ad revenue, they rely on people clicking their articles out of outrage, and activists write the most insane and outrageous articles. (But ad revenue has dried up massively over recent years, so it's not sustainable, which is why they are desperate to engineers gamergate 2.0 and love the presidential elections, because it gets even more clicks for them.)

[@aperfectcircle0219]

Absolutely brilliant. I cannot believe I didn't think about it like that.

[@LordDaveTheKind]

that's actually a good insight: in the 00s and the 10s, lots of publishing companies clutched to the delusion that they could make a profit just with advertisement. but this business model couldn't work for anyone at the time, and at current times it isn't working anymore. that's why lots of content creators, websites, news brands in the industry are switching to subscription plans.

[@luizmonad777]

" people clicking their articles out of outrage " eventually people are going to notice the racket and get bored . farewell, you won't be missed. also, the ESG score money is already draining as people start noticing how bad investment on anything with diversity really is , and now with the almost open commercial war, that venue will dry even faster

[@TheMokaKiller]

You're not wrong but, it goes beyond that. The real problem started when political activists started buying all the news outlets to publicize their opinions and bias. Killing journalism in the process. Long are the days gone in which presenting facts was their jobs. Now all that matters is the owner agenda. That's why people call them urinalists. They don't deserve the title they call themselves. And that's why they don't make any money. Nobody is interested in what they're selling. Anyone with 2 brain cells can figure out what kind of cesspools this places have turned into. Anyway, what matters to the topic is that this gaming urinalists are the worst of the bunch. They are the ones who couldn't even get in the cesspool. Add bitterness, unfulfillment and an unreasonable necessity to "prove them better" to the worst qualities the others already have and this is the result.

[@ANDELE3025]

Counterarguments depending on the era (or well all but one still true, RIP): Zero Punctuation, TB, Mortismal, Josh Strife Hays, etc. Its not that real journalism cant work or isnt profitable, it just wont work without the genuine effort and passion put in it in along with the format suited for the demographic.

[@marcusmcspadden9650]

Actually Hollywood also spends a good amount of time and energy attacking the people that are normally the largest buyer of tickets to movies (men).

[@soulspeaker1979]

Journalism in general is afflicted by severe rot.

[@stinkfinga4918]

No shit it's an industry of opinions.

[@mekingtiger9095]

The good news is that the journalism industry is currently in a severe decline these past few weeks. And I can only smile at that.

[@soulspeaker1979]

@@stinkfinga4918 it wasn't always that. There once was a time they actually did investigation and research. Sadly those days are long gone.

[@GreatFox42]

@@soulspeaker1979I think it died out around the late 70s or so, when sensationalism _really_ took off and became the sole form of journalism. And it only got worse from there. I'm not sure how or why that happened. Sensationalism had always been a thing of course, but somewhere around that time it took over as the only thing all major outlets did.

[@Dusty42096]

So is the movie industry

[@Ashley-li5yv]

Krakos character development was actually phenomenal story telling. My husband loved the game so much. He’s a father and he rally got it

[@StallionStudios1234]

Funny how these reviewers/critics can't even get through the tutorial. You are in the wrong career buddy if that is your problem. Time to go writing about more woke nonsense in a different industry. Nobody is going to take you seriously lol.

[@smashley4661]

Akira Toriyama, the man who created Dragon Ball has died recently and some moron from Sweet Baby Inc that it was a good idea to spit on a dead man. He claimed that Toriyama was a racist because he the most offensive black character in anime, said character is Mr. Popo. He’s actually based off of jinn 🧞‍♂️. A type of genie

[@silverstreak8958]

And he's quite the beloved character too, isn't he?

[@Ichthyodactyl]

@@silverstreak8958 Everybody loves popo except the race-brained morons who are always looking for something to be offended about (whether they have an informed perspective or not).

[@VentusLionheart]

@@silverstreak8958 He is. No DBZ fan dislikes Mr. Popo.

[@kalinora3901]

Mr. Popo is actually based off of an Indian god named Mahakala. You can easily see some similarities.

[@silverstreak8958]

@@kalinora3901 No, he's based on a 'djinn'.

[@bree101angel]

I am a female gamer. I adore the rpg games. I will be honest, it annoys me when my choice of character is someone who was beaten with an ugly stick and has a personality even worse. I also don't want the politics in the game. The game is there for the escape, not to make me want to throw a troll at my main character and rage quit.

[@sp00nf0rks]

...why would you choose a character that you think is ugly and has a bad personality?

[@bree101angel]

@@sp00nf0rks That's just it. I don't *want* a character that's ugly with a bad personality, but that seems to be what's offered more and more often for the female characters.

[@BusinessSkrub]

​@@sp00nf0rks..... Why would you bother replying to a comment you clearly either didn't take the time, or don't have the capacity, to properly read?

[@YuyuHakurei]

Ya I've been sticking with anime rpgs for a while since at least the chars are still cute over there. I'm done with western games forever if your only choice for females is william da foe.

[@nefariouspersephone9447]

you and me both. its used to be only the chicks were made ugly but its bled onto the male chars too so i cant even look at snaks anymore lol

[@voidsoulless6522]

It's not just computer games and it's not politization per se either. There has been a shift in the last 15-20 years in how writers (in broadest sense possible) are taught. I went to several creative writing classes back in the day, and our teachers - while showing us certain tricks of the trade - alwas stressed one rule: The story you are telling must make sense. There were different approaches to reach this goal, of course, and different ways to achieve that (depending on genre, style, topic...) but the main focus was always on the story. I have also seen a few more recent creative writing courses, both online and in person. And while similar technical tricks are still being taught, the main rule has changed into: The story must be satisfying. And this shift, while seemingly innocent, is actually massive. For one, it shifts the focus from the story ("What is worth telling") to the audience ("What do they want to hear."). Two, it actively encourages the use of clichés and "already succesful" approaches - because they are apparently what the audience wants to hear - and discourages innovative approaches. Three, it basically blocks you from telling a story from a different point of view and/or culture than your target audience is already familiar with, because the culture gap or cognitive dissonance can often be unpleasant and/or confusing, and neither of those emotions bring satisfaction; which severely limits your creative options. Four, since we live in an internet era, the audience that you need to target and please is the one that is the loudest on the web, so that they'll bring more exposure and good reviews - which usually means journalists, activists or both. I probably could go on, but I think you get the idea by now.

[@Ichthyodactyl]

Good perspective on that side of things. This is obviously complicated by game devs no longer knowing who their audience even is though. They claim to want to make games 'for everybody' but that's an impossibility from the outset.

[@LateNightRewrites]

Thank you, this is a well thought out explanation

[@WillFredward7167]

20 years ago, I saw that most of my high school english class, including the teacher, fundamentally did not understand what “tolerance” is. Everyone except one classmate seemed to believe that you must agree with someone and approve of them otherwise you’re intolerant. It was baffling, and abserd, because disagreement is a prerequisite of tolerance. You don’t have to “tolerate” someone who shares all of your beliefs. Just as courage isn’t needed unless you’re scared, tolerance isn’t needed unless there’s disagreement. 20 years later, it looks like the insane inversion of tolerance hasn’t gone away.

[@frishter]

I used to think that they were misguided but they seem to actively want to push division and have no problem with lying despite all of the talk about "misinformation". My hope is that society pays more attention to who only pretends to promote kindness.

[@Gaspard129]

You've made the turn; realizing these people are deceitful/evil, not misinformed. Welcome to the culture war, friend.

[@SaanMigwell]

I think it's more like 1983. Push as many games out as possible, as fast as possible, sell them before the competition can. Why? Because every game is really the same game these days. Unreal 5 anyone? In 1983 you had thousands of games to choose from, but really they were all some variation of Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Missile Command, or Breakout. People realized this, and quit buying new games, the industry crashed. Two years later we got Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, and Kung Fu master. New games, and the industry revived almost instantly.

[@mekingtiger9095]

@@SaanMigwell Now that you say it, I've just remembered that the AAA industry is also facing a severe problem of creative and technical stagnation these last years... Uh oh!

[@wayneswanson3294]

@@mekingtiger9095 How many creatives are sick of the toxic woke workplace and just 'quiet quit'?

[@mekingtiger9095]

@@wayneswanson3294 A lot, I presume. Remember that A LOT of old guard creatives have left the industry recently during this same time period the AAA industry had started to show its current problems.

[@Wr41thgu4rd]

This Overton window has moved so far left that everyone else is now far right. It will stay that way unless there is a massive course correction.

[@domm6812]

Exactly. These people don't understand that there are plenty of centre-left people who despise them. They lump those people in the the "far right" because it's 100% a case of "if you're not with us, you're against us" so they attack everyone.

[@hunterwolff-schollmeyer3902]

At least these leftist scumbags are finally in trouble, with the vast majority of people turning against them.

[@DeadlyPlatypus]

The "moderates" won't allow a course correction. They've swallowed all the Leftist Flavor Aid. They now believe Hitler was Rightwing and that ANY ostensibly Conservative government will be worse than him. Even the people fighting against the Woke/Leftists constantly concern troll about the possible "Rightwing Reactionary Backlash." The problem is never what the Left is currently doing, it's what the Right might do if anyone fights back. It shouldn't be called "Overton's window." It should be called "Overton's Ratchet."

[@jimluebke3869]

Guess what's gearing up right now. =D

[@c99kfm]

Identity politics aren't left, they're a distraction from the actual class politics. They're pushed from above, not from the left.

[@goldengryphon]

I was able to convince my neurologist that computer games were good for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. He liked it and I have a "prescription" to play regularly to deal with brain damage and the ongoing effects thereof. Cheaper and more interesting than some of the exercises the Physical Trainers were suggesting, and it gets the job done. Plus, I have a host of other side effect-ish things from various cancer treatments (yeah, I have a HUGE medical file. It sucks.) and PC gaming lets me while away hours while dealing with whatever the latest medical shenanigans are. It would have been good for chemo treatments, but they frown on bringing a gaming set - you're supposed to sit and be calm while getting poisoned.

[@MyAramil]

Online games are also good for building friendships. So helps people connect to others.

[@Alientcp]

Stay strong brother.

[@shelbyjackson6903]

As someone that grew up playing GoW 1 and 2, I personally loved seeing his character development through GoW 2018 and Ragnarock and if you actually paid attention to the story of the game you can see that Kratos always had compassion but usually forsook it for hatred of the gods and the things they did to him. Considering he burned down his entire pantheon and decided to leave, spent god knows how many years alone before finally happening upon a woman that was able to look past his rugged exterior and likely see his capacity for compassion, then having a child with her after what happened to his wife and daughter, it's not really unbelievable that he'd want to be a better father now that he feels like he has a second chance at a life he was robbed of. I think it was excellent storytelling. The Angrboda thing though, definitely influenced.

[@rachelwilson2872]

I feel like as a retro and modern gamer with no formal writing experience, even i can write a better unbiased game review than most in the industry.

[@DragonOfTheMortalKombat]

I mean people in steam reviews literally write masterpieces for free.

[@angel_of_rust]

same

[@jibberism9910]

@@DragonOfTheMortalKombat Best journalism these days is generally also made available freely.

[@DaNINJA019]

Im kind of surprised she didn’t touch on arrowhead studios basically saying there won’t be any gay or trans themed capes in their game helldivers 2 because they don’t want irl politics tainting the atmosphere. I do hear that issue was inflated by a lot, but the helldivers 2 community almost entirely (probably above 95% of them) stood by arrowhead and agreed with their stance.

[@filmandfirearms]

Yeah, people just want a game about heroically smashing bugs and bots for the sake of humanity. Funny how, despite all the attempted programming over the last 40 years or so, camaraderie, patriotism, and heroism still strike a chord with people

[@Andyisgodcky]

@@filmandfirearms Even if the 'patriotism and heroism' are OBVIOUSLY tongue-in-cheek in service to a fascist super-state. Everyone understands its just the theme of the game.

[@charmingpeasant9834]

They're more than willing to design the game around gender ideology though, hence why you cant pick a male or female Helldiver, they're just ''body types'' and numbered voices.

[@livierae95]

​@charmingpeasant9834 I'm pretty sure there is a difference in voice body types, though, even if it isn't stated outright. Only one person in our squad plays with a woman's voice, and her body has a noticeably smaller waist and bigger butt than the rest of us.

[@filmandfirearms]

@@charmingpeasant9834 When you consider that the main theme of the game is being an expendable drone, only using "body type" actually makes sense in context. You are nothing but a numbered body

[@Alaska_Mac]

Sydney barely even scratched the surface of what's going on with Sweet Baby Stink and how interconnected the web of rot is to things like Gamergate, "Felix" Kramer, Anita Sarkeesian, DHS government involvement, etc

[@deadbeef576]

And ESG, DIE, Blackrock, forcing behaviours, stakeholder capitalism (which is essentially socialism in disguise)

[@ManofHonor1012]

I agree with just about everything in this video. Except for the take on GoW: Ragnarok The modern God of War games are entirely about Kratos' redemption as a person. He killed gods out of anger and revenge, wiping out his people in the process and it continues to haunt him every single day. The first game is him going through the motions of fatherhood with Atreus until the boy is old enough to care for himself. He barely even refers to his son in a caring way until the very end. Kratos is in the throughs of depression and, I believe, fully intends to end his own life once Atreus is old enough to take care of himself. The duology, however, is the story of Kratos finding redemption through others, including his own son and the gods of a different realm. Corruption and malice are everywhere, but the games see Kratos finding redeemable qualities in some gods, so he spares and allies them in the long term rather than the short term. These allies are made through Atreus, which is a beautiful lense into fatherhood and childhood innocence, as Atreus is, unfortunately, unaware of how his father really feels about godhood. The perfect way to view Kratos' development is to look at the scenes of him with Hephaestus in God of War 3 vs. his scenes with Freya or Thor in the modern games. The boss fight scene with Thor was just a more overt attempt at what he had already done with Freya and his other allies. In fact, one could argue it was his first real attempt at it, since his other allies were developed through relations with Atreus or Mimir or some other filter. Kratos directly relating to Thor as a father and a warrior is a peak moment in the story, and seeing it as weakness or character assassination just means you didn't pay attention to the story that came before it. Kratos also comes to terms with his own godhood and that of his son's. The free DLC for Ragnarök shows him fully accepting life and taking the throne of godhood. It even hints at an alluded partnership/ relationship with Freya, or at least an avenue to pursue such a thing. His new life, however forged and warped by blood and blade, is now paved in peace and life. You don't have to enjoy the direction Kratos' story took, but denying its story because its "not the God of War you wanted" is just tone deaf.

[@finddom6393]

Thought the same thing, i am a father and i can tell you for sure that my whole attitude and outlook on life softened tremendously once i had a child to care for

[@RexKing-lc1tf]

He’s the God of War

[@davidsepulveda5812]

Agreed with your point, is also connected to how clickbait driven internet has become, for example I have played TONS of Helldivers 2 a very wholesome community mostly, and after ONE SINGLE steam post by an elitist guy trashing on people cause of their playstyle, one hour later there was TONS of videos saying the community became toxic, every single one based uniquely in that steam post, fed by controversy, trying to become viral with the new thing, videos made by IGN and many "trusted" journalists with this same attitude, sooner or later even the dev talked about it, like if it was a real problem, with only a steam post and a couple of anecdotal stories to back it up, is just insane.

[@olivermeyer2933]

True the helldivers community is the friendliest community in a while but thats just for me bc i dont play online games that much bc of said toxic behaivior tho i had some bad experiences in HD2 ill book it under idiots that dont get the game 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@davidsepulveda5812]

@@olivermeyer2933 I'm glad to read people like you exist man, I completely agree, when we find mean humans, which can always exist and are everywhere, is very different from a certain community having toxicity as a defining trait. As someone who has played videogames since I was a kid, and participated in many different multiplayers for years, I can tell you HD2 has at least top 3 most friendly community ( right beside with deep rock galactic) , yesterday I literally killed an entire team by mistake, cause one of them tackled me to say hey, and when I tackled back, his stratagem hit the floor and we all died, everyone was laughing and saying " loool we are good bro, thats how democracy goes hell yeah!" ...in any other game the response would have been way...wayyyy different 🤣

[@olivermeyer2933]

@@davidsepulveda5812 absolutly i played cs a long time and i quit bc of that toxic community HD2 is reving my enjoyment for multiplayer and im absolutly loving it havent fwlt that in ages and its good that i have that after the collosal failure of PD3 but u seem like a democracy spreading patriot would love doving with u 🫡

[@christopherkuzek9816]

as a canadian i can only say that i am becoming more and more emberassed to say i am canadian

[@billthomas478]

I don't recognize our country anymore and I am beyond enraged.

[@GreyMatterShades]

Good to know I'm not alone. Hopefully things will get better after the next election, but I'm not counting on it.

[@billthomas478]

@@GreyMatterShades I have ZERO TRUST in the legitimacy of our elections

[@owenwegner8503]

Hopefully once we get turdeau out things will go back to normal

[@ThyCorylus]

Canada, despite Britain's best efforts, is claiming first place for being the clown world representative for the English speaking peoples.

[@rezneps]

"Why does this happen?" If you hate someone you take something they enjoy and ruin it

[@darthsilversith667]

Exactly.. and they hate us because they want to be us but can’t.

[@moonie9000]

women do be like that though ☕

[@BushWhacked7]

"Eventually, start your own nuclear winter," had me 😂😂😂😂. I tend to fast forward ads, but this one is hilarious. Spot on!❤

[@rrmackay]

Its not gaming journalists, it is all journalists !

[@glennllewellyn7369]

Aye, that it is mate.

[@mekingtiger9095]

And the good news is that the journalism industry in general is going through a very severe crisis with massive layoffs right now!

[@HelloNotMe9999]

Nope. Journalists have facts and proof, not feelings.

[@skurinski]

Lol no they dont. Have you read the NYT or watched MSNBC?​@@HelloNotMe9999

[@maulressurected4405]

@@HelloNotMe9999 😉😉Real Journalists investigate would use the freedom of information act get answers. Now they just report the propaganda they are given, use circular reporting to turn the propaganda/lies to truth, and gaslight the public.

[@Gilikemail]

Somewhere along the way, someone gave in to the gaming journalists. This gave them a sense of power and control. We all know that power corrupts. It'll keep getting worse until some game development companies and readers tell them to get bent and humble them.

[@leegaul2161]

It was when corporations co-opted nerd culture as a marketing tool. The industry became over inflated with people who never had any history in gaming of any kind, whether it be table top or digital. This allowed activists to sneak into house and start changing things. They are like the aliens from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. They started replacing true gaming nerds with these con artists with their own personal agendas. And wouldn't you know it, when we call one of these people out, just like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, all they can do is point and skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[@jibberism9910]

@@leegaul2161 Don't call them out, chase them off.

[@gipgap4]

When I was young (when this was all fields), gaming journalists were gamers themselves not much older than me (teenagers). Coders we’re also teenagers and young men, so wanted to create games too. You had the perfect synergy of all three categories, gamers/journalists/coders of people loving games and gaming. This situation continued until about 2010/2012 time when I remember Eurogamer was accused of not employing any women on their review staff. Now I’m not saying women don’t like games because that’s silly but it was the slippery slope of hiring people based on innate characteristics instead of loving the media itself. Diversity suddenly became the number one priority and here we are today with people both in journalism and development who care more about “the message” instead of loving video games. Unlike gamers themselves who still love video games and don’t care about current day politics in their media.

[@edoardobrocca7985]

Alt, kratos charachter development makes perfect sense. Gow 4 and 5 are a new story about Kratos

[@doublea125]

"I like your gamers. I do not like your gaming journalists. Your gaming journalists are so unlike your gamers." - Mahatma Gahndi

[@ИмяФамилия-ю2й2ч]

A wise and great man truly, no wonder they put him into CivV.

[@DarkMatterBurrito]

@@ИмяФамилия-ю2й2чHe loves his nukes.

[@swappy2021]

Gandhi

[@DarkMatterBurrito]

@@swappy2021 Are you worried that a simple typo will confuse people?

[@swappy2021]

@@DarkMatterBurrito no i have seen it misspelled plenty of times. I mean how hard is it to spell it right, not that u guys are winning any spellbee

[@Rikika333]

Honestly I am so tired of hearing people declaring death-threats whenever they get into drama like some sort of shield or to shut down discussion, like are we talking someone posting their address and saying they are coming for them (like actual credible threats) or are we talking about twelve year old telling them to kill themselves (very much not credible threats). Like we KNOW nowadays that victimhood is some strange sort of currency for these kinds of people and the more victimized they are the more virtuous they think they are (I don't get how it works.), I mean several times I've heard about people like this being caught sending themselves threats or stirring up more drama. The only thing you should do if you are getting CREDIBLE death threats is contacting the police, not post about it online, because if you do, I'm not gonna believe you or call you a dumbass and tell you to contact the police instead of spreading your own death threat online.

[@kcisthe1st]

It is awfully convenient anytime progressive ideas are challenged. They always seem to say challenging. Their ideas leads to actual violence. Which is so crazy and creepy. It's like saying you can't disagree with someone for pouring milk before cereal because it might lead to violence. Completely asinine

[@MadsterV]

Also they have been caught sending threats to themselves in the past. One of the women that slept their way into the industry posted one of the alleged "threats" and she had forgotten to switch accounts, the image showed it originated from herself. It happened with tweets too. I don't believe a single word out of their mouths now.

[@flamebrindger3984]

I missed the "It's just phase" from the 2000s. Now it's not a phase anymore, and you have to have self-control for people who can't control themselves.

[@TheWinterfox10]

I went to school to be a journalist... this kind of thing makes me so glad I left the media. It seems like awful people are more the norm than the exception in the media.

[@OrphanHart]

Same. I couldn't stand editors completely changing everything I did only to better fit their narrative when all I wanted was a non-bias coverage.

[@sutoriimmortal2177]

Honestly God of War R didn't feel like much of an agenda thing, and I do think the purpose (NOT the wording) fit Kratos. He's a dad, he understands now that to be a good parent he can't be the same monster that he once was back in Greece. He gets that the ultimate goal of a parent should be for their children to be able to surpass them. And it's that decision to focus on their kids that ultimately frees Thor from Odin... if even only for a few seconds. I dunno, it felt right to me, but it could've been worded a bit better.

[@malvarado9912]

I think the knee jerk reaction comes from our past experiences with the words "be better". when you realize that the words do feel good. Damn that gillete commercial and everything else

[@kevinmitchell766]

I'm just going to say I hate Atreus, and they did Brok dirty.

[@RezaQin]

I'm not invested in Nordic mythology but Angrboda isn't black.

[@malvarado9912]

@kevinmitchell766 fair on atreus, teenagers be like that. I think they did Brok well, he ultimately defeated Odin. He served a great purpose

[@malvarado9912]

@RezaQin Yeah, that's about all the influence I can see from baby Inc fortunately. The angrboda segment alone (based on story pacing) dropped the game a point for me

[@leptinainccm]

DEI in the video games industry is the same problem as in other industries. You have people who get access to positions they are not qualified to do because they didn't hire based on merit

[@SunMiSongEve]

@RandomProblemGeneratorFuck I was hoping you were making shit up... Honors classes literally kept me alive as a kid. I was severely depressed with not a great home life, school and education was basically an illusion because half the classes were just kids goofing off wasting the teachers time to the point where I only got to learn by reading the book and god forbid I ask a question because the teachers were too busy trying to babysit the dickheads wasting everyone's time. Reading or being interested in anything science related was already seen as uncool and relentlessly made fun of. Honors classes were the only place I got to feel like anyone gave a flying fuck about me and my education, and even that was becoming a stretch by the end of my schooling to the point where I basically went through a breakdown after realizing even an advanced school I ended up transferring to was just more of the same jokester horse shit wasting time and preventing any real education from happening. I graduated just as no child left behind was kicking off and was incredibly angry about what that meant for kids like me in the future. I've basically stopped paying attention to anything school related as I don't have kids or anything so this came as total news to me that it had come this far. (I looked up articles to confirm it and such) FML

[@jonnyc212121]

It should be very simple, actually. Create a new studio that is made up entirely of LGBT POC and give them a AAA budget and let them make whatever type of game they want. When they're done, we'll see how good it is. That will tell the world just how valuable progressivism is in gaming

[@SuperMegaWoofer3000]

They’d have to agree with each other, which they don’t. So they won’t ship anything.

[@KentHamson]

As a person that is involved with the GLBT scene, I do understand why some would want to push an agenda. However that isn't necessary to create a good story. One of my favorite GLBT themed films is one most people haven't heard of because it is a great movie without all the bullshit agenda attached to it. If you're wondering it's 'The Sensei's.

[@VelCroweBar]

I don't know what Sydney is talking about, that was well within the character for Kratos, this is lifetimes after his god of war 3 vengeance, this and the last game showcase how much he's changed, and how he's trying to be a better father so that the cycle of sons killing fathers, aka Zeus killing chronos, and then Kratos killing Zeus, and Attreus killing Kratos, does not happen again. Heck the first god Kratos kills for vengeance (Ares) was because he was tricked into killing his wife and daughter, and in GOW 3 he even comes to consider Pandora a surrogate daughter which is why he doesn't want to sacrifice her to the flame of Olympus. It's well within his characterization at this point to want to be strong and not stir shit up with all of the nordic gods for the sake of his child... I thought the only thing sweet baby had to do with was with Angroboda being a person of color even though she's a giant from Nordic mythology...

[@danegay4327]

I will never understand the problem with giving your core audience what they want in a product... trying to please everyone almost always means you end up pleasing no one and you release a garbage product.

[@linusgustafsson2629]

It isn't even about pleasing everyone. They say "male gaze" but refuse to mention it is also "lesbian gaze" and "trans man gaze". Ignoring LGBTQ while claiming you are for inclusion is a clear sign they couldn't care less about LGBTQ people unless they were trying to virtue signal instead of hate signal.

[@thorin1045]

yup, they almost always mistake option with forced to. if i can play with five different character, that is good, if i forced to ply five different character, i need only one of them to not wanted to drop the game.

[@TimoRutanen]

The intent is NOT to give the audience what they want. The intent is to put YOUR thoughts into the minds of the audience, hopefully without them realizing it. It would help if in doing so they wouldn't always butcher the product, but that requires a lot of finesse, and some of the activists are way less patient than others. It's just trying to trumpet a message through any bullhorn available. This is just one channel.

[@differentbutsimilar7893]

Profit motive is what most fuels the lowest-common-denominator approach. Something that's mediocre/average to everyone who happens upon it sells far better than something that's amazing in a niche. Who cares if it is good art? It gets them paid. That is the mentality. The trick is to get it just mediocre and generic enough to stay above the "we all hate it" waterline. Bethesda has been walking towards that cliff for years, watering down the formula more and more to make it more inclusive, until we have Starfield, which is barely a complete game for a lot of people. They went a little too far. Now they have to walk it back a little with the next one, and all it has to do is be better than Starfield.

[@tdb7992]

Representation is not important, at all. I am a gay guy, and I cannot think of a single piece of media that I could only like because it had a gay character. I'm pretty sure most of the characters I've really liked over the years have been heterosexuals, but maybe that's because heterosexuals are awesome and don't feel the need to mention their sexuality or identity every few minutes. However, because I'm a white gay guy and from the "colonial hellscape" that is Australia, the SJW's now see me as part of the problem. I don't tick enough boxes for their liking. To any straight people reading this, you guys are awesome. These SJW's will fade into the background eventually as they get bored and grow out of this.

[@olivermeyer2933]

Thanks! i can give back the best wingman i had was a gay dude and we had so much fun getting black out drunk never will forget this night ✌🏼

[@kevinmccabe7263]

Thanks man, it's good to hear this! And for what it's worth I'm painfully straight and one of my favorite characters of all time is Captain Raymond Holt from Brooklyn Nine Nine. He likewise is absolutely awesome and it helps that, like you pointed out, he doesn't constantly discuss his sexuality as if he had nothing else going on in his life lol

[@harryhoudini714]

God I envy you! In these times I WISH gay was a "choice" as the rightwing nutjobs say! I would much rather sk D than have anything to do with the "modern western woman". Sadly its not a choice but a focking curse! Let me put it another way! if you ever looked at straight males and wondered what it would be like or wished you were straight as well...trust me, you miss nothing of any worth! maybe kids yeah but I am seriously doubting even they are worth suffering the PATHETIC so called "strong women" in western Societies. Amber Heard is NOT an exception, she is the rule!

[@HeywoodJablowme7]

I'm straight but got zero issues if gay characters exist IF IT MAKES SENSE TO THE STORY. Ellie in the last of us was perfect, the world forced her to be tougher from a young age, she grew up around only women it makes sense why she's gay. It adds to the story not detracts from it. Not that those instances have to happen just to have a gay character included but saying it all made sense, it's believable. If there's a murder mystery and it's revealed a girl couldn't be the killer of a guy because plot twist she's a lesbian...makes sense, adds to the story etc.

[@weareharbinger914]

As a fellow Aussie, I know what you mean, still waiting to see Australian representation in Spider Man shows/games. I don't actually care, but it sure as hell shows the bias that Suicide Squad has an Australian man who is an idiot, shit on constantly and his most notable feature is apparently he has a huge penis. If I recall an alternative lex luthor even comments the female version of him is much smarter.

[@MooKyTig]

2:35 Any guy who listens to Kotaku has probably had a Cockatoo.

[@Jim90117]

Diversity is one of the more ironic things I think I have ever come across. We need to hire different colour people from different groups because different races think differently, how is that not racism 101? The idea that all black people must think differently to all white people.

[@robertmarshall2502]

This video just reminded me that I used to look up a gaming website that was great. Then they replaced all the good ppl with trans ppl and women who had never played the genre they were reviewing. It went from ppl who had a thousand hours in crusader kings to ppl who had 15 hours in total in that area and spent most of it talking about DEI issues

[@GreyMatterShades]

"Canada just never sends their best, do they?" As a Canadian, I can confirm this. Our best has been deemed problematic by the Ministry of Truth, and therefore unfit for export.

[@chenilletueuse1]

Céline Dion and Jim Carrey?

[@filmandfirearms]

Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds. One of the best living drama actors and one of the best living comic actors. I think that balances the books for Justin Bieber and Justin Trudeau. I'm starting to notice a trend with these names, they come in pairs

[@OrangeLefty4]

I knew that game journalists were a scam the second I heard that a game journalist couldn’t even get past the Cuphead tutorial ☠️ That’s why they gave the game a bad rating. Because they were bad at gaming

[@filmandfirearms]

What about the journalists who, by their own admission on certain occasions, wrote reviews about games they never played solely on ideological grounds?

[@OrangeLefty4]

@@filmandfirearms That’s even worse :(

[@IIMiikexDII]

@@filmandfirearms Yeah its like the lady that said the crafting system in CP2077 is useless and then was discovered she was playing on the easiest difficulty setting

[@filmandfirearms]

@@IIMiikexDII To be fair, it is largely useless, I've played on the highest difficulty and you find more than enough good guns just through playing the game normally. Whatever gaps you end up with can be patched with cyberware easily enough

[@carriebartkowiak]

Murphy is obviously a VERY GOOD BOY who wants Mom to get happier by cuddling with her big soft cuddle buddy.

[@nkfd4688]

I hate to be the old guy here, but back in MY day, we didn't have game journalists ruining games. We just had people write up about the new games coming out and *BAM* we read about it and decided if we liked it or not -- no politics 👍

[@blunderingfool]

UK PC gaming mags were full of out there humour. :P

[@nkfd4688]

@@blunderingfoolI grew up in the Nintendo Power/IGN magazine days. That was my first experience with gaming journos. It was a simpler time back then

[@twztdned]

I used to go to the magazine section of the supermarket and read comics and gaming mags while my mom shopped. PC gamer was my favorite ❤

[@BeautyMarkRush]

Oh, that reminds me of the times of an old games magazine in my country. We didn't have Nintendo Power, but we had a Nintendo-focused one, of course, as well as another very successful magazine that covered all games, regardless of platform. They would give tips & tricks, gameshark codes and reviews, but even their reviews were like "hey, this is our score, go out there and play it for yourself"

[@jimmaloney1121]

I've been playing video games since the Atari 2600. Back in the day, journalism was Nintendo Power, EGM, Gamepro, and others. It was about previewing upcoming games, finding secret codes, tips, strategies, erc. Everything BUT politics. I just want to play games!

[@monkeybird69]

"Greta Thunberg meme here" How dare you.

[@Mary.Petrie]

Gaming is, in most parts, about fantasy, be it being a race car driver, an assassin in Renaissance Italy, or falling in love with elven egg head and saving him from himself. That being trying make thing look like creepier version of LA is not fantasy or reality for most people and breaks the illusion inturn takes fun out of it. When you take the fun out of it, you will lose money, and that is the bottom line.

[@NateWilliams-h8q]

That's the point. They're coming for EVERYTHING. Everything you love is at risk. All of it. They don't want you to be able to escape politics anywhere. That way, they can put you under pressure, and get you to snap. Then use that snap to "prove" to low information voters that those icky people over there are violent, and they shouldn't have any rights.

[@filmandfirearms]

Elven egg head? Is that a reference to Astarion? He's the only character who matches that description in any way I can think of famous enough that you could get away with being vague about, but in what way is he an egg head? The guy is a ultra horny vampire. The only thing he won't fuck is my friend who somehow sucks at romancing in games

[@BerserkPublishing]

I'm retired tech dude and a part time author. This stuff is everywhere, especially in fiction in whatever medium you look into. On the plus side, the leftist forcing this narrative focus on the big companies in each industry. The net result, it is giving a lot of independent creators an opportunity to walk through an open door with millions of consumers thirsty for good games, story telling, movies, etc. The smaller shops do not run afowl as much because they can control who they hire better since the teams are small, the companies are private, and honestly get overlooked by the very media we all agree sucks in every industry. Five years from now I think we will see a revival of story telling via books, games, movies, etc. that will rival the 70s and 80s. Companies that became household names will have disappeared or will be relegated to a minor role. If you want an example of this, look at all the industries I have mentioned. You will see most of these companies have regularly changed hands and risen and fallen with the tides. DEI and the leftist sex fetish is just the latest cause for a paradym shift that has probably been too long in coming.

[@aphrodieMonkey]

What a great positive outlook & take. I don't know about 5 years.. but here's to hoping this is in favor, and the deserving come out on top, soon ! Paradigm shift indeed please

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

Fat chance. Not with the continued demographic shift and all the money and power behind this agenda.

[@StallionStudios1234]

Incorrect! It needs to ramp up more. Clearly the message is not being portrayed good enough, companies should invest further into inclusivity, diversity and equity. It is vital for society to function so everyone can be included. I hope further legislation is pushed through in the US, Canada, UK and Australia to make it more friendly so all audiences are comfortable playing all games. Games like GTA need to be banned and made illegal. It promotes sexism, violence, hate and transphobia. It needs to be outlawed outright and those caught playing it need to be charged for hate crimes. This goes for similar games. This is not needed in society and is offensive. People seeing a game clip of GTA could be triggered to depression and self harm. Sorry you enjoyment for such a game takes a lesser priority than peoples' well being.

[@patrickcromwell7554]

As someone who played the NES Mega Man and mega man 2 I can agree that Cuphead CAN infuriate people. Cuphead is designed to be exactly like those same platformer games that MY generation played as a child on Nintendo. Back then there was NO Tutorial; no mini-maps or compasses to guide you to the next objective - you had to figure that stuff out by playing the game; there was no reset options for controls and sometimes not even control options to begin with. You had to either get used to the controls you were given or just not play. Cuphead is a perfect throwback to those games were you had to actually use your brain to finish a game. Now while there are countless videos of rage quits and Hulk-Out videos for Cuphead, it is still regarded as a fun game to play. I know that I have had many insulting and unfriendly things to say to Air Man and Quick Man in Mega Man 2 OHH those MOFO's pissed me off at times. lol. But I stuck with it and eventually finished Mega Man 2. And IT was the ONLY Mega Man I was able to finish. lol. Stupid Robot. LOL

[@LaughingMan1980]

I'm with you. I came in at Mega Man 3. It was certainly a new level of challenge compared to any other games I had experienced at the time. I felt so accomplished the first time completed Spark Man's stage...and promptly lost the paper I wrote the passcode on, lol. Some of my fondest gaming memories, even to this day.

[@patrickcromwell7554]

@@LaughingMan1980 Yeah those were platformers where, once you have the timing spotted you could almost play blindfolded. Because you knew where things would be.whem you jumped into open space and a platform would appear while you fell. Despite how the screen looks, there was always a latter to figure out.

[@filmandfirearms]

A comparison to the Cuphead failure for retro games would be if someone played Mario and repeatedly died on the first goombah every single time for 2 hours straight. Something so stupidly simple that you would expect someone would figure it out eventually just through random button mashing, and yet he failed anyway

[@SunMiSongEve]

Here's how a review from the guy could have gone instead. Title: I'm Terrible at Cuphead and That's OK The review itself could focus on the art style, animations, the control scheme seeming snappy, the music, and other non gameplay aspects that might be evident from the tutorial, and most importantly have a section that says you should check out someone better at games to see if the long term game is worth playing and give no definitive rating or even just rating the tutorial level with a big asterisk on it to add to the meme factor. They could have so easily turned that review into a massive meme that got a huge positive reception for being a refreshing take on "it's too hard" reviews, and most importantly for them, got them way more clicks than just the hate readers. Sure there would be a lot of jokes at their expense, but the vast majority of them would be tongue in cheek and meant positively as an appreciation for just being honest about their ability, rather than death threats and anger.

[@dinasilva9263]

Welcome back Sydney. The hell is a little bit better with your sense of humor😂

[@glennllewellyn7369]

Agreed.

[@ПётрНауменко-т4з]

Some fun fact. Gamers hate game-journalist. But big game companies like them. For example Sony said that they decide wage for game developers basing it on score that game journalist gives their game.

[@ПётрНауменко-т4з]

@quiet00mi At least they admit that they forgot about Days Gone and Ghost of Tsushima because some Game-jouenalist set lower score because there are not enouqh black/lgbt characters. And Sony was like - ohhh we only prioritize games that get 85+ score.

[@xamidi]

I've been a gamer for almost three decades and I stopped caring what gaming journalists write around 15 years ago. They just never really had a clue.

[@Axisjampa]

Gaming journalism is Death. Whatever video a gamer youtuber publish is way more interesting and relevant than any "journalism" about the same topic.

[@havocgr1976]

If we didnt have youtube we d be so fucked.

[@JohnSpartan-117]

@@havocgr1976Rumble exists

[@xaviergonzalez6086]

I disagree with the kratos part of it. Because it was his character arc in that game. It’s what he was trying to achieve in the game before and this game

[@mastersquirrel42]

One note on the Sweet Baby Detected curator. It did not blow up in followers until an employee of Sweet Baby tried to have his curator removed and have his account on Stream banned. This incident is what drove the initial backlash to Sweet Baby, but every single story from games journalists leaves out the attempted mass reporting.

[@richardjamesIII]

"Terrify them with the possibility of what's gonna happen if they don't do what you want." There's a word for that sort of sociopathy, lady.

[@rusgib3648]

Thank you, Sydney for the post on these guys. I was trying to explain this to some folks who can't believe that this is going on. Sharing your link.

[@_Kiin]

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Kratos' line "We must be better" the very end of a VERY long journey of his very well thought out character development? I believe FatBrett made a long video, documenting his character development. It has been a long time since I watched it, but I remember being very impressed at the end, as his character development seems to have been very well thought out until he finally changed from the extremely violent man, back to being a father again. So the line "We must be better. For our children", and him sparing Thor, makes very much sense. The video is called "Kratos: The Incredible Transformation of a Gaming Icon"

[@jakechristy3508]

As a recent father who has had anger issues in the past, I understood where Kratos was coming from and I could relate to the desire to be a better man for the sake of my kids. There's woke crap in God of war Ragnarok to be sure, but Kratos trying to be better for his son isn't a part of that.

[@Sup_Fools]

Yeah I don’t remember all the specifics but kratos was trying to change from the Fury and Violence god of war he used to be. Thor was also the father of Atreus’ crush and helped Atreus a few times. Old Kratos might flip a whole temple but he’s a dad and he remembers the people who helped Atreus as a special group it seems seeing as Freeya was making death threats in both games after Kratos saves her and he was just like Alright, do what you must as he ignored her. lol.

[@TheNlghtmare]

The good part about this is that you saw this Character in the earlier Titels aswell. Yes he was an brutal vicous Monster but when he met Pandora he was showing the Human behind the Rage and Fury. Kratos was lots of things in the past but he always been a father.

[@grizzakaful]

Yeah I can't agree with this portion. Yes, some parts of ragnarok were bad and really could have done without the woke nonsense. However, we are at a point where Kratos has grown and further evolved from his time killing his God kin. Like is it really bad that he would actually want to be better? That his redemption arc would finalize to becoming a God of hope? I really don't get people. God of war 1-3 has the storyline of why Kratos became this angry destructive person. People wouldn't have been as invested if he was just a one-dimensional character. Yet now we got ragnarok where he is making an effort to be better, it's suddenly out of character? Make it make sense people.

[@ejoman3002]

Ya his change wasn't a flip of the switch. And to add it also built how Thor switched aswell. You see how he was essentially used like a rabbis bulldog against his will by Odin and a pawn. To the point he became an alcoholic trying to deal with it, and then him trying to fight it and quit for his family, But the more Odin asserted his control over Thor, the more he turned to drinking to cope till Kratos got through to him.

[@zuzisam]

I really don't get it- Women don't want ugly male characters either. Why do you think Leon Kennedy, Geralt or Astarion are mega popular? It's not because of their big brains - they are cool and they look good. They wouldn't be nearly as popular if they were fat blobs, like... let's be honest here.

[@houndofculann1793]

Funnily enough Geralt as described in the book should actually be quite ugly or borderline ugly because of his rough looks and just having an attractive sort of charisma

[@SuperMegaWoofer3000]

Bloody Astarion… BG3 is amazing. Larian are probably immune to SBI. Let’s hope so, anyway!

[@alinclaudiu4754]

​@@SuperMegaWoofer3000 Let's be 100% honest and acknowledge the fact that Baldur's Gate 3 has EXTREMELY many woke elements, but it's true that none of them feel forced down your throat like The Last of Us 2, Forspoken, Suicide Squad, Spiderman 2023 or Saints Row Remake.

[@fishnutz5196]

Dante and Vergil in DMC too

[@RetiredRhetoricalWarhorse]

Uh scuse me... SCUSE ME! I 16:08. THAT is what people find off-putting in God of War? That he spares Thor? That is Kratos' whole healing journey to get over just killing everything that stands in his way. He is a father now and as such has more responsibilities than a rage addled revenge seeking lunatic. The whole point was he wants more for his son than he has because he is permanently miserable. Wasn't that the whole point of the modern reboot? And who do they mean by ugly women? Thrud? Because Thrud is a cute as fuck tomboy, which makes absolutely sense being effing Thor's daughter who has taken him as her role model. If you're not into tomboys, that's okay obviously, but please... a game only filled with vegan supermodels swinging Berserk like blades has gotten old for some of us... Or is it Freya people don't like? A woman who has obviusly gone through a lot not looking like a fold-out in a car mag? Perish the thought. I remember having had a moment or two that were weird in the game but this particular criticism I really can't get behind... EDIT: Okay, watched you rant on and I gotta totally disagree with you. How the fuck would Ragnarok have worked without this "loveydovey crap??? Kratos' original motivation was revenge FOR HIS FAMILY. He killed all the gods involved in that clusterfuck... And then what? What exactly did the nordic gods have to do with that? In the original games, the gods made themselves targets by interfering with his revenge or being general dicks to everybody along the lines of the gods that alreadyhad a target on them. So once he killed them all, why even leave the region? The greek region was cleansed. He was the mightiest entity around. The fuck did he leave for? Too many memories of HIS FAMILY? or what? So family is the big theme that motivates Kratos. How else would you have motivated the protagonist in future games than by giving him another family? And then what? You go typical American writer by having him learn absolutely nothing and do the same shit again? Because yes, he was backstabbed by Ares but let us remember how it all began: By him making a pact with Ares for his life. He couldn't just die like a good warrior, no, he had to survive and be the Ghost of Sparta. So either you want a dumb killing machine without a story... or you want something story driven. You can argue that you'd have preferred the former, fair enough, but this was a story driven game, more so than the old GoW games and as such, they had to come up with something. That something they came up with made sense.

[@Writing_Gamer_513]

I find it so strange that people don’t realize that this is a story about moving on from the past. 2018 and Ragnarök are about moving on from the past. Thor faces his past from being beaten by his father, Freyja faces her past with Odin, Mimir faces his past with the smoke towers and the whale, the brothers face the past of creating the hammer for the big idiot; Sindri faces the past of him telling a lie to his brother for so long that by the end of the game, he tries to move on. Angra boða faces her grandma, Gryla faces her past by taking souls of animals, Freyr faces his past by drinking (similar to Thor), Surtur faces his past as he must become Ragnarök itself by not wanting to involve Sinmara. They also have the main theme from 2018 of Identity, “Who was Kratos and who is he now?” Who was Faye exactly in this world?” “What can the boy do exactly?” In Ragnarök the main theme was Growth and Change, “What has changed since the last game?” “What has fimblewinter done to the realms?” “How have the side characters grown and changed?” “How has Kratos grown and changed?” This is a story about a changed man who has matured since the Greek era and we have no idea as to how long of a time gap it’s been since then. It could’ve been a year, five years, a hundred years, five hundred years, a thousand years, or even more than that. If we saw a static character who did not change, it would be dull and unrealistic. I love static characters in some stories, but the dynamic characters in stories where the characters change and grow will always be better than ones about static characters. I love Homer Simpson and Philip J. Fry, I loved the evil acts of Dio Brando and Mr. Perfect Cell, but just because I enjoy some characters and stories that do not change nor grow does not equate to me not wanting stories about people improving upon their selves, stories about how we as people can and likely will change, and stories about how people can relate to each other. I enjoyed the old games, I think the 2005 one had a good ending scene and story, I think GoW II had some great but frustrating puzzles with a hyped ending, I think GoW III had some of the best combat and bosses but the story was a bit meh. The new games have problems sure, but they are minute and mostly insignificant. I hated some moments from the old games, I liked design of the level where Kratos fights on those boxes in the Labyrinth but some enemies were just unfair. I hated the puzzle where you had to move a statue to get to the Phoenix and got blasted by fire and had to fight enemies (one puzzle I loved when I beat it but hated to experience it was the one where you had to stop time after you moved a bunch of spikes and had to run across the level until they activated). And don’t even get me started on the balancing sections and the entire level of the Underworld in God of War I, you had to climb up 3 pillars with rotating spikes that could kill you. Any way my favorite game series is God of War, Tetris, and Souls.

[@JoeyJ0J0]

Gaming Journos have not learned a single lesson from August 2014

[@caitothepotato.]

I love how Sydney randomly gets super Aussie when she speaks “Water” “Culture” I’m an Aussie so usually I don’t hear it, but it makes me giggle when it comes through

[@JSMan5000]

Couldn't finish the level!? Dude it's the fucking TUTORIAL 😮 Im gunna write a novel, " Once upon a time ..." Nah this is too hard 😂

[@mccoolfriend6818]

They really are a disease. a bunch of hypocrites that do not even play nor know the games they review. They are probably new because the old journalists were never like this, there were some or a lot but not at this level. Thank you Sydney for this, you're the best

[@1840437]

Thank you for approaching this topic with respect, instead of insulting your audience like Matt Walsh did.

[@matthewtalbot-paine7977]

You know what I would do if I had a fear of something that gave me anxiety? I would just avoid experiences that involve that and if I did embark on such experiences I'd consider it my own fault if I got anxiety.

[@kumbandit]

So they "naturally" terrify the marketing team into getting their way? YES, doesn't get more NATURAL than that xD