Pirates vs. Aliens: Drama Warfare

It looks like the Stop Killing Games Initiative is about to reach its goal of 100,000 signatures in the EU, and has and has already passed the same goal in Britain - in fact, it’s gone from 98% to 99% in the 20 minutes since I decided to write this post. Congrats to Ross Scott, though I’m not surprised in the least. I first wrote about this initiative back in February, where I outlined my thoughts on the negative impacts this will have, but now that the various parliaments will be looking into this, the big game studios will be weighing in sooner or later.

This post isn’t really about that though. Instead, I want to vent my frustrations with mob mentality, internet echo chambers, and memetic tribalism and how it consumes you.

Viral Infection

About 10 years ago (oh Jesus, was it that long ago?) CGP Grey posted this clever video about angry ideas spreading like a virus. At the time, it was an oblique take on the upcoming 2016 American presidential elections¹, it’s still just as pertinent to today - perhaps more so, given the state of the post-pandemic world.

You’d think that, knowing about this kind of thing would make you immune to engaging in petty crap, but no - even now, I’m still commenting on the Current Internet Drama of Pirate Software’s response to Accursed Farms, and AF’s talking about PS.

Hell, I wasn’t even reading anything from them directly, I found myself commenting on a video from some creator I’d never heard of, responding to another creator I’d never heard of, talking about PS’s actions while playing World of Warcraft and how that shows what kind of person he is - and I realized, what the hell am I doing? I don’t actually give two shits about any of this! Despite explicitly saying that I hate all this drama, and that I wanted to disconnect from it, I was still actively engaging against my will.

Why do I do this? Why does anyone do this? Are we all in such a need of grass-touching that we can’t see that none of this is actually worth a damn?

Pandemic Legacy

I don’t think the world went mad in 2020, not really. Instead, I’m pretty sure the lockdowns brought the madness to the surface. In a world of fear and boredom, it became evident, but I think this has been building for a while.

Humans, thanks to our wonderfully advanced monkey brains, are predisposed to form tribes for protection and community. This is a good thing, as having strong bonds with others leads to happy and fulfilling lives. The thing is, with our interconnected world, many monkey tribes are now overlapping with and exposed to other tribes with vastly different worldviews to our own. With many conflicting ideas, it doesn’t take long before someone wants to bash someone else’s brains out of their monkey skulls².

One Flu Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Sometimes, I wonder if it’d just be easier to run away and become a carrot farmer - no games, no obscurity, no drama, just carrots. Then I remember how my potted silverbeet plant glares at me when I forget to water it - have you ever been glared at by something without a face? It’s unsettling.

Most creators use internet drama to gain clicks - they rarely if ever have a stake in the argument, and they don’t add anything other than more noise for the cacophony of crap. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one³, and yours isn’t that special, and we don’t need you to share yours, so please pull your pants up.

I don’t feel well lately. My mood has been low, and I’m worried that my mental state might be slipping back into depression. This leads to self-neglect, and a lack of progress in my games, and a feedback loop that’s very hard to break. Short of investing in farmland, I’m not sure how to even begin dealing with this, but I have a few ideas, beginning with disconnecting from the internet more, perhaps by putting more time into my physical hobbies (painting, board games, cop car joyriding, etc.)

Actually, I think it might be a good approach to allocate a specific day of the week as wholly analog - no internet, no phone, no video games of any kind. A friend of mine does something similar for the whole month each year - and I actually joined him this past February by cutting out a lot of news sources and such. While it was hard, and not totally effective, I did feel a lot better when there wasn’t negativity being pumped into my veins all day.

OK! I’ve decided - starting tomorrow (or today, as it’s now just after midnight) every Friday is gonna be as analog as possible. I’m not even gonna watch the videos in the browser tabs I have waiting, I’m just gonna close them and go to bed.

What will tomorrow bring?

When I’m not wasting money on retro emulation consoles, I can usually be found on Bluesky or Discord. If you’d like to show your support, I also have a Patreon, and I’d love a Coffee via Ko-fi.

1. I may be misremembering this, but the timeframe is about right. ↩

2. Beware the bonobos. ↩

3. This is purportedly not the case, as being born without an anus is actually a thing that happens and needs surgery soon after birth - that’s a scary thought. ↩

Games & Software

• Stepwise: Gates of Yendor (WIP)
• Toylang (v2, WIP)
• Potion School
• Egg Trainer (former owner)
• Candy Raid: The Factory
• Fiends, Foils & Fallen
• Waterlogged
• Keep It Alive
• Mementos
• MERN-template
• sineQL

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