Not all humor has to be cynical and dark, even after you’re 30. It’s okay to laugh at a guy slipping on a banana peel or farting in a public place. I promise your college degree won’t spontaneously turn to ash and fly out the window.

Uh, ignoring the fandom means not trying to talk to people about it online, in person, or by avoiding articles about the show.

and then it got played out by that fervent fandom

I just don’t have strong feelings about it. I mostly think it looks nice visually, a bit rough mechanically and if you’re into this brand of humor... well, it’s there.

Yes, that’s true, but at the end of the day they’re trying a new business model that they believe consumers will gravitate towards, and it’s not the job of regulators to prematurely rule on whether or not they should even be allowed to try unless the model is based on anticompetitive practices. And the point that…

I think that this passage was really put in there to try and exemplify the idea that, contrary to Sony’s claims, this acquisition will stiffen competition and potentially serve to push Sony to respond by taking an action that would improve service offerings for the consumer, i.e. exactly the opposite of what Sony is…

Then why is the author pitching it as a legit series entry in octopath traveler? The article already felt like an ad for the game but now it’s not even an actual coherent game?

“While mobile gacha games often have a bad reputation for being a cash grab, it’s clear that the developers of Champions put very careful thought into designing a turn-based RPG that feels good to play.”

Don't, they're gamers.

It’s such mild criticism; the extremely angry responses are blowing my mind. The unstoppable force of the internet’s almost performative love of cats meets the immovable object of gamers who insist that games are art but don't understand that art criticism exists. 

To all the commenters getting strangely heated over this opinion article:

Not at all what he was arguing in the article, and you know it. If you have a point, make it, but don’t be purposely disingenuous. A sudden tonal and genre shift could absolutely be disconcerting if not handled well, and he doesn't seem to think it was; and it should be obvious by this point, but not every game has to…

I mean, as someone who heard about the game when it was announced, saw the first trailer / teaser or two, and then didn’t really follow it... I expected it to basically be just a fun game about navigating interesting spaces as a cat and nothing else, and I was surprised that it veers wildly away from that.

I’m not just speaking about this game in particular, I’m talking about the notion that someone (on a blog about gaming) isn’t somehow allowed to voice displeasure about something without the response devolving into a kneejerk personal dig. “Sorry you play games professionally and get bored by them” is a pretty stupid…

OR....A game is sorta advertised as one vibe/thing and having it change into something else midway sucks if you aren’t into whatever it is....Heaven forbid someone puts it out there as a warning to potential buyers to open up a discussion. Sorry you play games and have rose tinted glasses on everything you buy. 

Shooting and killing things doesn’t have to be part of something being a video game

I’ve got Makar in the style of one of the Breath of the Wild Koroks tattooed on my leg. It’s my only gaming tattoo. I love the little fella, Wind Waker has been my favourite game in the franchise since if first played it on GameCube and I’ve spent weeks of my life playing these games. I still hear that happy little…

I think she's a neat character.

Something something “separation of editorial and marketing.” (even though this sounds a helluva lot like an ad...)

Lol.  “Snark snark, bash Amazon and capitalism [next sentence] By the way, our colleagues will be covering the event in depth at the following link.”