hzl

@hzl@piefed.blahaj.zone

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Total War: Warhammer 40,000 wants to be "the seminal Warhammer 40K game," says its devs, who sell me in just 8 words: "You can customize the fingers on Space Marines!" plus Gamestar article⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the issue is that 40k doesn’t get the message either at this point. It’s just straightforward glorification of the space marines. I don’t see anything in the modern iterations that feels remotely tongue in cheek. Rage Against the Machine may have fans who are chuds, but they’re extremely clear about their message. 40k’s message at this point seems to be “look how cool these fascist soldiers are” and not much else. That doesn’t just accidentally attract chuds, it’s a chud magnet that overly encourages them to become more chudish.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Total War: Warhammer 40,000 wants to be "the seminal Warhammer 40K game," says its devs, who sell me in just 8 words: "You can customize the fingers on Space Marines!" plus Gamestar article⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I know 40k fans who are certainly anti-fascist, but I’m also acquainted with 40k fans who seem to be generally pro-authoritarian and sometimes it seems like their enthusiasm is the mask slipping. These are usually the ones who are obsessed with 40k and will routinely spend entire days talking about it if no one changes the subject.

  The thing is that there aren’t a ton of franchises that lean so heavily into fascism. 40k and Helldivers are about it, and while we’re in a period where real life fascism is on the rise, it’s maybe not a great thing that these franchises are as popular as they are. If there were some sort of rebels to identify with in the setting that might at least improve the situation a bit, but there don’t really seem to be and I don’t really see any sign of 40k having any sort of actual criticism of the outlook they’re spending a lot of time and money presenting to the public. It’s just uncritical glorification at this point, and that’s really the last thing we should want people internalizing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Total War: Warhammer 40,000 wants to be "the seminal Warhammer 40K game," says its devs, who sell me in just 8 words: "You can customize the fingers on Space Marines!" plus Gamestar article⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  It seems like the parody elements of Warhammer have completely disintegrated and now we just have an extremely prolific franchise centered around glorifying authoritarianism and pushing the argument that if things get bad enough any semblance of individual autonomy becomes a “luxury” that can’t be afforded. I am fully sick of seeing gamers delight in their imaginary fascism while ignoring the proliferation of real fascism. Even with Helldivers, where there’s at least some still visible parody element, it doesn’t seem to outweigh the glorification and the full-throated glee that comes with it.

  Enough of this shit. Give me a franchise about rebellion against authority and stop lionizing bootlicking and thoughtless obedience.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The oldest Minecraft server, MinecraftOnline, is being shut down by Microsoft⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, that’s the conclusion I came to after reading their wiki. It doesn’t make me think it’s a very nice place to be. Like they explicitly only disallow Nazi symbols in the areas covered by German law.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The oldest Minecraft server, MinecraftOnline, is being shut down by Microsoft⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s become really hard to tell what something like this actually means. Does free speech mean being able to speak out against authoritarian power structures? Or does it mean throwing slurs and hatred around? Because one of those things is something worth defending, while the other is a pretty reasonable expectation for a service provider to want to limit.