As someone who is himself quite critical of the modern games industry, I’ve consumed quite a few videos over the past few years that do exactly that. Videos that call out big companies for their anti-consumer decisions, games for pushing political messaging and even audiences for supporting such companies and products. Heck, I’ve done the same here on Virtual Bastion many times. And, while I do think it’s important to talk about these things and call out bad things wherever and whenever they crop up, there is such a thing as getting too caught up in it all and consequently putting yourself in your own bubble.

I’ve, for a good while now, found myself growing weary of the constant outrage spouting from YouTube and all the other social media drama that filters in through it. It’s all just so exhausting at the end of the day. The same companies getting called out for the same bad behavior followed by the same calls to turn your every purchase into some sort of protest or political statement.

Yes, voting with your wallet is an important part of getting large companies to take notice and listen, but do I seriously have to weigh the politics and operation decisions of every dang company I consider buying something from? You know? Sometimes you just want a hamburger and that’s that. Who gives a crap about what the guy who sold it to you thinks of [insert whatever issue here].

So yeah, I’ve been thinking about checking out from a lot of this stuff for a while now, but what finally and fully tipped the scales was the internet’s reaction to two recent games: Pragmata and Saros. Both are games that should in no way be controversial, yet both became the centers of such, each from opposite sides of the political spectrum. From one side, people were criticizing Pragmata because of Diana and her parent-child relationship with Hugh.

Basically some were saying she shouldn’t be in the game at all because pedos exist and would do what those sorts of people do with the character’s image. Basically they were trying to shame Capcom and people defending it, even though the real target should be the sort of monster that would use such a character in an evil way. Pragmata isn’t an evil game because it features a child character, the people who would use it in an evil way are. There shouldn’t be any controversy here.

Then there’s the situation around Saros. This time, the “controversy” is being raised by the other side, the claim being that it’s “woke LGBT propaganda,” and should therefore be avoided. Two things are going around to support this position. The first is a plot summary that, either accidentally or deliberately gets some details wrong about the game’s plot and its characters. Here’s a correct summary of events (Spoilers btw). The other is a fake image depicting two characters that never actually cross paths.

[minor spoilers below]

As for the story, the crux of the complaint is two-fold: a lesbian relationship and the character of Arjun Devraj. To address the first point, yes, there is such a relationship in the game. I don’t like it either and consider it unnecessary since everything would unfold the same without it. It’d be better if it wasn’t there at all, frankly.

That said, it’s treated as a past event. We never see this relationship and it’s only referred to a couple of times in the main story as means to underscore that Arjun’s ex-wife (Nitya) well and truly moved on after him. There’s no “LGBT ending” as some claim and as others are parroting. Go watch the endings for yourself if you have to. There’s nothing there. What is there is either character paralysis or character growth for Arjun depending on which ending you’re watching.

As for Arjun himself, well, to put it plainly, he’s not a great person. He has massive character flaws that reveal themselves as you play that show him to be someone who’s not as herioc as he might seem (to put it broadly in the interest of avoiding more spoilers). Some have decided to take issue with this, as they don’t want to play as a “piece of [garbage] person.” Others call it “woke misandry” and claim that it’s Housemarque saying “all men are bad.” The thing is, though, Arjun isn’t the only bad person in Saros. Far from it.

The other members of his crew exhibit traits like paranoia, murderous need for control, cowardice, and selfishness among others. Some of those crew members are women. Many who came to Carcosa before Arjun and his crew were complicit in unspeakably evil acts, Arjun’s ex-wife Nitya included. Nobody has the moral high ground in Saros. Everyone either has a terrible past or does something terrible over the course of the game, male and female characters alike. Arjun just gets the brunt of it because it’s his story.

By all means, you can decide not to play because you don’t want to play as a bad person, but lets at least recognize that he’s not being singled out as the sole evil in Saros. And, if I may continue to indulge for a bit longer, I’d like to offer that it’s not as terrible a thing as it seems, playing as a bad person, that is.

[spoilers end]

If you treat the game as Arjun’s story (not yours playing as Arjun), then it acts as a chance to explore the mind of such a person. How can they do the things they do? What kind of person are they in their own eyes? How much of “reality” do they shut out in order to maintain their delusions? It’s a fascinating idea to explore, and what better way to do so than from that kind of person’s own perspective? I mean, don’t we celebrate movies like There Will Be Blood, Joker and The Godfather for doing the same thing? So how is this any different?

Okay, that’s all I wanted to say about that. If you made it this far, thank you for bearing with me. To return to my original thought about how exhausting it is to make everything political or some sort of statement, it just really struck me to see content creators I otherwise like blindly going after this. Then I looked at their channels and realized that all their content is negative, the kind of stuff you’d only care about if you’re online too much and spend to much time wallowing in it all. Go at it for too long, and you cease simply commenting on the “culture war” to inadvertently become a warrior yourself.

It got me thinking that I too have gotten too serious and worked up about some of this stuff. Not everything warrants a big reaction. Not every purchase or decision has to be weighed and measured on the political or consumer scales. Sometimes “controversy” is just people looking for something to complain about. Sometimes a story really isn’t that deep. And yeah, sometimes you just want to buy a hamburger or coffee (or game) and enjoy it for what it is.

I originally wanted to talk about the things that make video games and being a gamer great, but I fear I’ve fallen too far in the negative weeds myself. So, here’s to returning to celebrating what’s good and leave the fighting over what’s bad to the rest of the internet, yeah?

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What’s your take on all this? How do you feel about the state of internet discourse? Let’s talk below! Oh, and I’ve finished Saros, so I’ll probably be back with my final thoughts on it next week!

Images from the Steam pages and promotional websites