Sundays are more Gene Wolfe. I’ve now finished Shadow Of The Torturer and I think Claw Of The Conciliator might be even better so far. Before I fall even more in love with Severian’s self-mythologizing antics, let’s read this week’s best articles about games (and gaming-related things!)
This is an older article, but relevant since the ridiculous “strong men/hard times” meme has been making the rounds again recently. Historian Bret Devereaux analyzes it for A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.
The opposite of Fremenism is almost always referred to as “decadence.” This is the reserved side of this reductionist view of history: not only that hard conditions lead to superior people, but that “soft” conditions associated with complex societies, wealth, and book-reading wimps (read: literacy) lead to morally inferior people who are consequently worse at fighting. Because we all know that moral purity makes one better fighter, right?
The relativity of “Fremenness” is actually one reason I use the term Fremen instead of tradition or more common terms you’ll see: “uncivilized people,” “barbarians,” or “savages.” Of course, it allows me to cleverly sidestep the offensive components of those terms, but more importantly, it creates a term to describe the myth without creating a term that purports to describe reality. That is, I can say that a society is perceived as Fremen without actually calling them “barbarians” or “savages,” because those terms are as intellectually useful as a raincoat in the desert. It will quickly become clear that the common notion of who is considered Fremen and who isn’t—or the opposite of that, “decadent”—is such an absurdly moving target that it’s practically meaningless (there are a few constants, but few), with some societies veering between the two so quickly that it makes me dizzy to watch it.
Mike Rose of Not Tonight and Hypnospace Outlaw publishers No More Robots spoke to Game Developer about the current issues facing indie publishers. Here are some interesting insights into Steam that I hadn’t considered. For more optimistic readers, here’s a thread from the founder of Raw Fury.
First of all, he says it’s time to admit that platform holders no longer represent the interests of smaller publishers. “The problem with the new situation is that everything I was doing when No More Robots started – you know, getting cheeky (Xbox Game Pass) deals and making it to the stream homepage – is no longer available,” he says. “None of that is available anymore. When the Steam Summer Sale happens, it’s absolutely triple-A vendors that have paid for those slots. The Summer Sale used to give us a year’s burn rate, and now it’s a nice little bump.”
Rose says indie games have fallen behind on Steam since Microsoft, Sony, EA and other major players decided to bring titles that may have once been console exclusives to PC. “Steam makes more money,” he says, “but about 50 percent of that revenue is generated by 1 percent of games.”
Aftermath gave current and former Game Informer employees a chance to pay tribute to the site – something they were denied when the magazine and website shut down last week. Firing so many people without warning is bad enough, but there’s a special ball pit in hell filled with snakes and foot Lego for the sweaty robot who decided to ruin all their work.
I received the text about Game Informer’s sudden closure on Friday morning, and it took me most of the weekend to process my thoughts on it. It ended exactly as we always expected – with a cold, impersonal, and unceremonious exit from incompetent parent company GameStop – but it’s still hard to imagine a games media landscape without Game Informer.
Last week’s Critical Distance roundup reported on the closure of Game Informer and then listed a great roundup of independent game writer websites. I’d also like to add that Critical Distance itself is an important publication run by extremely hard-working people. Like all such websites, it’s driven by a genuine interest in highlighting interesting work. As CD put it, they’re all basically passing the same $20 back and forth.
Here’s a good Half-Life meme. Read James’ foray into Asda Tech peripherals, it’s brilliant. Then read Edwin’s Crush House review, even if you’re not into Crush House. I can’t believe I get to work with such good writers. It’s weird and very special. I actually started reading Gene Wolfe because it came up in comments about FromSoft-style storytelling, and this older Waypoint article was a great addition. This week’s music is 86Sentra by NxWorries. Have a great weekend!
