this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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I feel like I'm reasonably good at picking at a game on the gameplay level, as per what works and does not and why and surface videogame essayist stuff like ludonarrative dissonance (or the rare examples of ludonarrative harmony).

I may offer you my finest insight into video games such as "Lara Croft has some sort of father complex going on" and "Shadow of Chernobyl is unintentionally about life in the collapse of the soviet union" which even by my own admission feels shallow and trite. You watch someone like Jacob Geller or Noah Caldwell-Gervais and they have fascinating things to say even on games you wouldn't expect it, like NCG on Quake.

How do I become that knowledgeable? Interesting? Analytical? about video games?

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[–] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 8 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Reading up on a bunch of history/theory/philosophy should help you understand some of the themes that go into games. A heavy handed example is all the Randian stuff that went into Bioshock, whether as a pastiche or just as aesthetics.

Sometimes understanding the context in which a game is made can be helpful as well. Jack Saint has a two-parter on The Last Of Us and how it was written by an Israeli specifically on their perspective on the apartheid situation there. They're good videos that give insight into the making of those games, but will probably ruin them for you because it spells out what zionist dogshit they are.

[–] SmithrunHills@hexbear.net 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The amount of glaze TLOU still gets from "progressives" even after Neil's blatant Zionism was laid out in the open is maddening. I guess all JK Rowling needed to do to retain some of her progressive fanbase was to just be somewhat good about trans people and everyone would probably give her a pass for all her other gross shit

[–] Sneakytrickyyy@hexbear.net 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Game always looked boring as fuck to me since day 0, woow a 3rd person zombie shooter on the PS3?? Never been done before!

Doesn't help that it's also a weirdo Israeli fanfiction

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/video-games/news/the-last-of-us-part-2-ellie-evolution/

The formulation for Ellie’s turn toward darkness can be traced back to the year 2000. Then in his early 20s, Druckmann witnessed news footage of a crowd lynching two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. “And then they cheered afterward,” Druckmann, who grew up in Israel, recalls. “It was the cheering that was really chilling to me. … In my mind, I thought, ‘Oh, man, if I could just push a button and kill all these people that committed this horrible act, I would make them feel the same pain that they inflicted on these people.’" The feeling faded, though. Eventually, he looked back and felt “gross and guilty” for his intense feelings. With “The Last of Us Part II,” he wanted to explore that emotional tumult on a didactic level.

cringe

[–] SmithrunHills@hexbear.net 2 points 4 months ago

Legendary interview. I'm not surprised that such outright, blatant genocidal fervor was never an issue for so many. "Progressive" Zionism is such a fucking menace

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