Niyeaux

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Posts posted by Niyeaux

  2. Posted

    The idea is that, by presenting only the aspects of Nazism commonly perceived as cool (that is, the uniforms, the machismo, the efficiency, and everything else that made it successful in the first place) without its ultimate outcome or any other kind of moral censure, the game could spread the ideology (or at least sympathy towards it) among those already impressed by those aspects. It happened before, it could happen again, they say. I myself have no right to decide one way or the other, but I still say it's good material for a Stephen King novella, not so much for a point of criticism. If we really believe, even a little bit, that playing a Nazi who doesn't do anything evil and doesn't get his comeuppance could make anyone want to be Nazis, how can we tolerate video games full of mass-murderers who are celebrated as heroes in and outside of their fictional context?

     

    I understand and support with all my head and heart any degree of personal or cultural discomfort from someone whose family, friends, and people suffered under the Nazis, for there were and are many, but as a general critique of the game, I still find it slightly off-base. Even among indie games, there are many more presenting a more deceptively seductive and morally reprehensible worldview than the whitewashed quasi-Nazis of Luftrausers. Often that is intentional, to cause alienation and discomfort, but I don't know if I'm equipped to argue whether or not that makes it okay.

    (emphasis mine)

    The part I've bolded is really the crux of the issue for me, and I think it's awfully fucking uncharitable to your fellow human beings to think that all it would take for them to want to slaughter millions of people is to be enticed by a sharp-looking outfit. If you can't appreciate some of the aesthetics of the Nazi regime without by extension sympathizing with their ideology, that's something that's probably more of a personal problem, rather than something a Video game developer can be held responsible for.

  3. Posted

    Since the aesthetics are so connected in the public perception to the Nazi-Party and the specific brand of german militarism at the time that the first reaction to a game that looks like it has nazis in it is going to be treating it like it is about nazis. The phrase about something looking like a duck and sounding like a duck comes to mind. If it then turns out that this game looking like it is about nazis is actually saying nothing about nazis but still invoking imagery that is connected to one of the biggest atrocities in world-history it kind of makes it look a bit like the creators are saying that the important part about the nazis and germany in World War 2 weren't the terrible things they did, but rather their shiny uniforms.

    I can't get down with that last sentence. I think all it says about the creators is that they're willing to divorce the aesthetics of the Nazi party from their actions, and I don't really have a problem with that. Like I said, the Nazis aren't evil because of their uniforms, and there's nothing inherently evil about that particular style of design. Sure, a lot of people are going to immediately associate that look with the Nazis and their actions, but I think maybe it's unfair to hold a creator accountable for the things your brain is free-associating with their imagery.

  4. Posted

    Define a few? There is one particular part at around episode 4 or 5 which is particularly enjoyable. I also liked the whole 'Humanity is totally fucked' angle. It also felt kinda fresh and new on an otherwise dull zombie-theme. Idk, each to his own I guess. I read the manga before the anime was cool, so wasn't exposed to all the hype, so I guess my view of AoT will be different from yours, as I was not expecting anything, as opposed to you expecting something, if that makes sense.

    I watched 9 episodes. When there were four consecutive episodes of Eren trying to pick up a fucking boulder, I packed it in. I haven't seen a show that had so little respect for the audience's time since I watched Dragonball Z in high school.

    Also, what is it about serialized anime that leads to everything being barely-animated? I guess it probably has something to do with the release schedule/time constraints, but holy fuck, outside of the combat scenes where they're zip-lining around all over the place, the rest of the show is practically a slideshow. Like, fully half that show is close-ups of people's faces while they talk to themselves and their eyes do that weird wiggle that apparently indicates emotion in anime, while everything else is a still frame for several seconds at a time.

  5. Posted

    LTTP as usual, but MAN does it ever seem weird to me to not be able to divorce really broad aesthetics of ship construction and uniform styling from the ideologies and atrocities of a very specific political party that used them. I don't get how borrowing aesthetics that were at one point used by someone who committed atrocities can in any way be said to be trivializing or condoning those atrocities. Their aesthetic choices are not why the Nazis were evil, so to say that those aesthetics are inherently taboo because someone bad used them once - or even invented them, which it could be argued they did - seems super odd to me.

  6. Posted

    So uh...I just watched the first few episodes of Attack on Titan, because some people recommended it to me. It's one of the worst things I've ever seen. Like, it's bad in pretty much every way an animated series can be bad. What the hell do people see in this?

  7. Posted

    Oh yeah, this sort of behavior drives me a little crazy. Oh, you haven't seen Game of Thrones/Mad Men/Breaking Bad/Girls/True Detective? It is literally the greatest television series ever, you have to watch it...

     

    Life is full of all sorts of miserable events, so I'm not going to begrudge anyone for watching something that gives them pleasure. but man I wish more people could move beyond the conversation piece where they are just talking about how good these shows are (seemingly without ever going into detail about what makes them good), and always with the implication that if you're not following this show there is something off about you.

    This is sort of a tangent, but I'm immediately skeptical when anyone tells me that something current is an absolute must-watch or the greatest thing ever or whatever. Like, there's a huge difference for me between being told Mad Men is the greatest thing ever and being told The Wire is the greatest thing ever. I'm way more inclined to believe someone saying the former is a person who's either bought into a current cultural phenomenon fairly uncritically, or is someone who is deliberately attempting to appear relevant by gushing about something the people around them are talking about a lot. (Yes, I realize how cynical that sounds.)

    I don't even trust my own opinion of things that have recently been released and are being talking about a lot. Partly because I think my initial reaction is coloured by the hype I hear around the launch of that thing, and partly because I think it just takes a long time to fully digest your experience with a creative work. Like, I didn't even like Dark Souls that much the first time I played through it, whereas I now think it's unarguably one of the most important games of the last several years.

  16. Posted

    Everything about this game appeals to me immensely, but i'm getting kind of sick of giving EA money. We'll see how much i want to play it when it comes out.

    Yeah, it's a real bummer that EA is publishing this. Particularly because I'd like to play it on PC, but there's an ice cube's chance in hell that I'm installing Origin, so I'm going to end up playing it on Xbone instead.

  18. Posted

    Are you working for Polygon on a regular basis or was this a one-off article, Niyeaux?

    Just freelancing for them, so I can pitch stuff whenever I like, and they tell me whether or not they want it/have time and money for it. I'm working on a second feature of similar length for them right now, but that's all I've got on my plate for now.

  19. Posted

    You put some masterful structure into that article, Niyeaux. So good.

    Thanks pal. That article was more work and more time than anything else I've ever written, so I'm glad it doesn't suck. ;)