Well, here’s my thing:
1) I can’t tell people how to spend their money, but Purity Culture is toxic as hell, so Whatever. If you don’t want to buy it, don’t buy it.
2) Christ, really? Good luck with that.
3) I think the murdercult ending should (have) stay(ed) in the game because yandere is a THING in the dating sim genre as a whole and Joseph is hands down the best choice to be that guy.
Do you have something specific you’d like to call me out over with regards to this, babe? Because I already knew these were the discords around this game and I thought they were all pretty ridiculous. Still think so, in fact.
Also: I seldom give two shits about the opinions of people who haven’t consumed a piece of indie media with regards to their comments on it. If a person hasn’t played this game in particular, I don’t care what they think of it? That’s the call I made, can’t tell anyone else how to make their choices.
In the Discourse, shorthanded expressions have taken over for proper argumentation. Expressions like “problematic” and “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” are rapidly losing meaning for me. YMMV.
So, here’s my take on this as Auntie Z: ‘problematic’ was never meant to be sufficient argument to wholly destroy or eliminate something, it was a shorthand, like ‘because reasons.’ If something is ‘problematic’ to you, and I am interested in why because I value your particular opinion, I will ask, but otherwise my attitude is that it is problematic for you, and that’s actually for your protection. You are not obligated to educate me, and if you don’t want to explain, dude, no worries- but you still have to understand that nobody gets carte blanche always to determine what is problematic for me.
I know there are people who filter their media consumption based wholly on the opinions of other people, but I am just not that guy. Especially when it comes to indie media.
I have some people in my circles who have let this trend injure them, repeatedly, and isolate them from what media’s intended to be: tools used for education, expression, escapism, and enjoyment.
Still, I am thirty-five years old and the mileage on my soul has given me a measure of toughness/rigor/rigidity to my opinions. I have chosen to only trust the opinions of certain people when it comes to my filters. This is partially in self defense as a content creator who understands that purity culture is so extreme in this era of internet reviews that witch hunts and endless callouts are straight up desensitizing me and other members of the audience.
No Ethical Consumption is becoming my response to things being problematic, which is, lol, problematic in and of itself. “I don’t like this because of who made it.” Okay. “I don’t like this because of who funded it.” Okay. “I don’t like this because of who participated in it.” Okay. “I don’t like this because of how it was executed.” That might be interesting, perhaps elaborate. “I don’t like this because of reasons.” That’s your right.
I don’t like being told what to do, though. That’s where my Murica! starts acting up.
I like making my own decisions about critical media discussion. Especially with indie material. It’s too much of a slippery slope to actual censorship, my guy. Don’t like, don’t read/play/buy/consume is the mantra I was raised with, as far as fandom’s concerned, and it’s one I advocate for those with the intestinal fortitude for independent critical thought. If you’re in a place where you need to let others determine what you consume, that’s legit, that’s your choice, but not everybody comes from that place, and that’s also okay.
It’s a spectrum, dude, not a binary. Like most things.
I’m seeing three Disk Horses emerging about this game: (1) that the game itself is irredeemable because a gaming youtuber squad that have said some dumb shit either helped make the game or were involved in raising money for it, (2) it’s okay to play but it’s only ethical for mlm to play it, and (3) the game is irredeemable because of some leftover code from a scrapped halloween DLC where Joseph starts a murder cult. I’ve seen people threaten to call each other out for playing this game.
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