Patreon Letter - 12th June, 2018

Hey everyone, it’s Jackson here with this week’s patreon letter. Well, last week’s, if we’re being technical. But it’s E3 season and that meant that nobody was going to read a damn thing until the conferences are over. So I thought I’d wait til today to put up the letter, which very helpfully also gave me something to write about. So let’s do it. Let’s talk about E3.

I watch E3 every year. I have been watching it for a decade now, which by my calculations makes it an event I have followed out of inertia for more time than I have out of earnest enthusiasm. E3 is, first and foremost, a show for people who still believe the console wars are a real thing. I remember being that person. I remember when Microsoft showed the Kinect in 2009 and being sad that the only console I owned wasn’t releasing anything cool. The forums told me MGS4 was a lock! Fuck them!

In 2018, I am a much different person. For one thing, not only have I played MGS4, but I think it’s a steaming pile. For another, this year’s E3 is the one that finally broke me. I’ve been enjoying watching the conferences out of a sense of vague curiosity in the ridiculous theatre of video game advertising and because they’re incredibly good hang-out watches on skype. But this year just wasn’t fun anymore. I don’t know whether it was within the show or within me but the balance has finally tipped. 

Here's the main problem with sitting down to watch E3: every big video game is the same. There’s a post apocalypse setting which has led to a beautiful natural environment contrasted against the metallic rugged weaponry and outfits of the player. The game itself is an open-world shooter with RPG mechanics and a focus on loot and upgrades. There is multiplayer, but don’t worry, there’s still that same storytelling you've come to expect from us. Your character can jump in the air and punch the ground for an Area of Effect attack.

Not every game hits every beat, but they all hit enough that they all blend into the mush of what video games are now: Anthem. The Division 2. Gears 5. Dying Light 2. Rage 2. Just Cause 4. Fallout 76. And that's just the ones I can remember off the top of my head from this show! Millions and millions of dollars, the blood and sweat of thousands of people poured into identical pits in the ground. And each one pitched to you like it’s unique, special, and what you’ve all been waiting for.

It’s an exhausting barrage that if you stand in it too long it will absolutely make you forget that this is not all video games are.

I’m in a fairly good place with video games at the moment. We just finished up recording an episode on Tacoma, which is an utterly fantastic game that more people should play. We’re about to play FFX-2, the sequel to an RPG that I loved in a way that I didn’t expect even, somehow, while playing the game. There were even a bunch of games announced at E3 itself that made me excited about video games! Devil May Cry 5 is a real fucking thing and it has buttrock and it owns and character action games are back, baby. From Software has a new game and they took out the levelling up!!!!

DAVID HAYTER IS RECORDING NEW DIALOGUE FOR SOLID SNAKE. AHHHHHHHH.

Ahem. Given all this, it seems silly to devote much more time to turning on a stream and listening to Ubisoft pitch me on Tom Clancy’s Fascism Simulator 2 while people on twitter say “ooh, it has raids now! that’s cool!” It sucks the soul out of me, and considering it’s something I do for the communal hangout experience more than anything, me and Em will probably just watch movies together next year instead.

As much as people might think I’m curmudgeon, I don’t actually like hating all the shit that people are excited for. It’s not fun! It makes me feel bad, it makes everyone else mad at me, it’s a downer all round. And I’m going to miss the all encompassing experience of watching all the shows with everyone, but backing away, maybe watching one or two of the shows that are most likely to contain things I actually care about, is probably how we’re going to approach next year. 

Anyway, here’s to things being cool again. I keep a lot of my navelgasing and grumping about “The State Of Things” to the patreon letters because I’m really excited about the projects I’m working on at the moment. We’ve got some good video games to play, some excellent star trek to watch and I still gotta get back on with My Hero Academia. There are things to be excited about. It’s always sad to let habits go, but sometimes you need to know when to call it quits.

Here’s to my last full E3. At least until someone pays me. See you on the other side.

-Jackson